SYNO Chapter 3

“What… are you talking about?”

Malcolm, oblivious, asked in confusion. But the client, his gaze fixated on Ssangryeong, didn’t answer.

Malcolm belatedly noticed the man’s persistent stare. He raised an eyebrow.

‘Why… is he looking at Ssangryeong?’

He had accompanied Ssangryeong to countless transactions. However, not a single client had ever shown interest in his disguised appearance.

The most puzzling thing was Ssangryeong’s behavior.

Ssangryeong, who would usually memorized Name Objects the moment they appeared and then spaced out…He was now frozen like a statue, staring at the floor, his face pale. As if he had swallowed poison.

“Aaron.”

Malcolm called out to Ssangryeong.

He didn’t move.

Just as Malcolm was about to call Ssangryeong again to break the tense atmosphere,

“Malcolm.”

Ssangryeong, who had been staring at the floor, spoke.

“Yes.”

Even as he answered, Malcolm kept his eyes on Ssangryeong’s stiff expression.

‘What’s going on?’

Just as Malcolm was about to shift his gaze towards the client,

“Lend me a cigarette. A Red.”

“…….”

Ssangryeong said, looking at him. Malcolm froze.

Within the organization, “lend me a Red” was a code word, a signal to escape immediately.

Malcolm’s eyes wavered.

Escape immediately. No one used this code word even as a joke. Moreover, there was no reason for Ssangryeong, who wasn’t even a member of the organization, to utter those words at this particular moment.

‘Does this mean…it’s a trap?’

Malcolm swallowed silently. The atmosphere had been strangely tense, now that he thought about it. Whether or not to escape as Ssangryeong said was a dilemma.

If the code word “Red” was indeed given, it was safe to assume the drug deal had already gone south. So, there was no reason to stay here any longer.

However, with the bag of drugs, an item more important than life itself, what were the chances of escaping safely from this place?

‘It might be possible.’

There were only three of them on the other side. By now, the organization members who understood Ssangryeong’s code word would also be assessing the situation, gauging the right moment to draw their guns.

Just as Malcolm’s rough hand slowly crept towards his waist,

The client, who had been leisurely crossing his legs, drew his gun without hesitation.

Bang! 

With a deafening gunshot, Malcolm screamed.

“Aaargh! Ugh!”

The back of his hand, reaching for his own gun, had been pierced by a bullet. Simultaneously, everyone present drew their guns.

Or rather, they tried to.

“Put your guns down, you idiots!”

A voice loud enough to reverberate through the building roared. The speaker was none other than Ssangryeong.

He was pointing the gun at his own temple.

The organization members hesitated. Ssangryeongwas aiming at himself, and they remembered their boss’s order to prioritize Ssangryeong’s life above all else.

“Uuugh…! Gah!”

Meanwhile, Malcolm, rolling on the floor in a pool of blood, came into view. The organization members, frowning, reached for their guns again.

After all, there were only three of them on the other side.

“Fuck, I clearly said put your guns down.”

Ssangryeong threatened them.

“Why don’t you just hold a memorial service instead? You all want to die here, don’t you?”

Ssangryeong’s characteristic sarcasm followed.

He didn’t care about the organization members’ struggles as they faced a life-or-death decision.

He was sighing.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

Through countless experiences, Ssangryeong had already figured out the other party’s identity.

The client’s several actions and the words “There you are” were enough confirmation.

That he was someone from the Home Nation, here to arrest him.

‘How did he know I’m Ssangryeong?’

There was no way they wouldn’t know about the existence of fake skins in the Home Nation.

But the man had been observing him intently from the beginning. It was unusual for someone who came to buy drugs to keep their eyes on an insignificant person like himself.

‘This is the first time I’ve used this disguise.’

How he had been identified as Ssangryeong was still a mystery.

‘For now, I’ll let the organization members live.’

He didn’t have any particular obligation to them, but there was no reason to let them die here.

It seemed the client’s objective wasn’t the drugs, but him. Now that he was face to face with someone from the Home Nation, the chances of escaping immediately were extremely low.

If these people died because of him, he would surely lose sleep for several nights.

And Malcolm would no longer be able to send his daughter on a plane with both hands.

This implies supporting his daughter financially and ensuring her safety.)

‘It’s easier for me if they’re not here.’

If he was going to escape later, it was better to be alone.

“Let these idiots go. You came here to catch me, didn’t you?”

Ssangryeong, pointing the gun at himself, said brazenly, pushing forward his disguised face.

It would be alright. After all, he was a criminal, a target for capture. The client from the Home Nation would try to take him alive, no matter what.

Furthermore, the organization members hadn’t yet pointed their guns at the man from the Home Nation. The moment someone from the Dependent Nation pointed a gun at someone from the Home Nation, they became a death row inmate.

Then the client chuckled lowly.

“You’re definitely Ssangryeong.”

Saying so, the man raised his gun again. His fingers, clad in black leather gloves, showed no hesitation.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! …

Ten gunshots rang out in succession. Crimson blood splattered across Ssangryeong’s face. His eyes widened in shock as he froze.

The man… had shot all the organization members.

“Ssangryeong surely is someone who values his own life.”

“…….”

The man’s words carried a single meaning. That no matter how much Ssangryeong held his own life hostage, he would never die in their place.

The man, who had been sitting the entire time, finally stood up. A large shadow fell over Ssangryeong’s face.

“Care to refute that?”

Tap, tap, the man’s fingertips tapped Ssangryeong’s gun. The gun, which had been pointed at Ssangryeong’s temple, fell to the floor.

Ssangryeong’s face was pale. He kept opening and closing his mouth. His heart was beating so fast that words wouldn’t come out.

‘He… really killed them?’

The faces of the men he had been working with just moments ago flashed through his mind. Ssangryeon gsqueezed his eyes shut.

“Drug trafficking is an act punishable by death.”

His dry voice sounded like he was reciting the reason after an execution.

Ssangryeong opened his bloodshot eyes and said,

“Don’t bullshit! No law in the Dependent Nation states that drug trafficking is punishable by death. 50 years in prison at most.”

The man gave a short laugh.

“Ah, I changed the law.”

“….What?”

“I overhauled it completely.”

The man said, pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket. He then began meticulously wiping the blood off his black gloves.

“Confiscate the drugs.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the two men who had been guarding the back grabbed the drug bag.

Ssangryeong mulled over what he’d just heard.

‘Changed’ the law of the Dependent Nation?

That meant he was someone in a position to change the law. As far as he knew, there was only one person dispatched from the Home Nation with such authority.

Pienne de Laviste.

The man who had been turning the Dependent Nation upside down looking for him.

Ssangryeong stared at the man’s handsome face with a look of disbelief.

‘You’re… the ruler…? This young guy?’

It was then.

Bang! Bang!

Two gunshots rang out from the side. The bullets grazed Pienne’s head and hit the ceiling.

More accurately, the man tilted his head to dodge the bullets.

“Ugh!”

Ssangryeong turned his head sharply towards the source of the groan. It was Robert, the organization member, who had been shot in the side but had survived. He had attempted to shoot Pienne and failed.

“Hey, you…!”

Ssangryeong rushed towards Robert. He seemed to have miraculously survived, though he appeared to be dying.

“Hey, are you okay? Are you conscious?”

Robert’s eyes rolled back. He had already lost consciousness.

Ssangryeong looked anxiously at Pienne, fearing he might shoot the barely alive man again.

But the man was already heading elsewhere.

Towards Malcolm, who was lying facedown, seemingly dead, with a bullet wound in his hand.

He kicked Malcolm in the side with his polished shoe.

“Get up.”

“…….”

“You were only shot in the hand.”

Thud! Thwack! 

As the kicks grew stronger, Malcolm, unable to bear it any longer, groaned.

“Ugh!”

Ssangryeong’s eyes wavered.

‘He’s alive too?’

The man from the Home Nation calmly continued kicking Malcolm in the side.

“Two are still alive.”

“Aaargh! Ugh!”

“Take them out.”

It was a tone of command that seemed ingrained in him.

Malcolm, who was kicked a few more times in the side, scrambled to his feet. He moved incredibly fast, as if driven by the force of the blows. He didn’t even seem to notice his pierced hand.

As ordered, Malcolm grabbed the unconscious Robert. Just before he escaped, he looked at Ssangryeong with pained eyes.

As if apologizing for running away alone.

Ssangryeong avoided his gaze.

‘Yeah… you need to live too. You have a precious daughter waiting for you.’

Even as he thought this, he sighed anxiously.

‘Lucky bastards.’

You guys aren’t targets of the Home Nation, I guess.

Ssangryeong recalled the gunshots he’d heard earlier.

‘He probably didn’t shoot me because I’m supposed to be taken alive.’

Excluding himself, there were eleven organization members.

But just now, Pienne had fired ten shots in a row. This meant he hadn’t shot Malcolm, who had been shot in the hand earlier, a second time.

‘Was he short on bullets?’

Ssangryeong glanced at Pienne’s pistol.

The pistol he held, as far as Ssangryeong knew, was the newly developed TF-001 model from the Home Nation. It was incredibly expensive and as hard to find as a star in the sky.

The TF-001 model held thirteen bullets.

Including the first shot that pierced Malcolm’s hand and the subsequent ten shots, Pienne had fired eleven bullets so far.

‘There should be two bullets left. Does that mean he intentionally spared Malcolm?’

It was also strange that Robert had survived by avoiding a fatal wound. Glancing around, the other organization members seemed to have all been killed instantly from precise shots to vital points.

‘He’s got a better shot than a sniper.’

It was even stranger that someone with such accuracy would miss with Robert.

As his doubts about why he had spared two lives grew, a low voice quietly reached him.

“You’ve been through a lot. Finding you took quite some time.”

Pienne was slowly walking towards him.

“Location unknown, affiliation unknown, appearance unknown, family unknown.”

“…….”

“All the information we had was that you had an abnormal memory and were an uneducated, rude bastard.”