04:05 AM

The CCTV room was in chaos.

Although the job of a Public Security officer is risky, this was the first time they were all feeling the fear of death so directly.

‘Damn it! If I knew it would turn out like this. I would have left.’

‘I told them I would stay.’

Except for the detectives on duty, the others regretted not leaving the office.

What brought them out of their panic was Kyo-chung, the only unharmed member of the 5th unit.

“We will have to escape from the emergency stairs at the back of the building, not here!”

“Y-Yes, I think so too!”

Song Wei-kang, the chief, who got up, nodded his head.

In addition to the two of them, there were four detectives of the 3rd violent crimes squad on duty, and they had already pulled out their guns with scared faces.

Clap!

The team member with a machine gun next to the monitor stood and said.

“I will take the lead.”

Shh!

Kyo-chung approached the CCTV room’s door and slowly opened it. He pulled out a mirror from his waist and looked at both sides of the hallway.

As it was early morning, the light from outside was dull, but everything could be seen, and there was a green light pointing to the emergency passage.

‘He isn’t here yet.’

After confirming that there was no one there, Kyo-chung cautiously came out of the room.

The detectives, including Song Wei-kang, followed.

The emergency stairs were near the computer room, the first room in the hallway to the left of the elevator.

“Shh. We will have to hurry.”

Tatatak!

Everyone whispered. They moved as quickly as they could towards the computer room with light steps.

The hallways were so long that they began to feel resentment

towards the government building.

But eventually, they managed to reach the computer room.

With feelings of fear and impatience, the crew members hurriedly approached the door to open it.

It was then,

Ding-dong!

They heard the bell of the elevator.

‘!!!’

Everyone in front of the computer room went stiff and brought out their guns.

Click!

The elevator door opened, revealing only a shadowy figure because of the dark hallways.

Everyone’s eyes shook.

And their ears heard Chun Yeowun’s voice.

“I thought you would have run away, but you were planning on meeting me?”

Their hearts pounded loudly.

Click!

The door to the CCTV room opened, and someone walked in.

It was Chun Yeowun.

His eyes widened as he saw the monitors on the CCTV room’s wall.

He did have Nano transfer everything about the current era, but seeing it with his own eyes was different.

“Having something like this must be convenient.”

In his time, there was no other way to watch someone other than tail them.

CCTV or hidden cameras seemed very useful for monitoring someone and checking out the situation without using trusted people.

Chun Yeowun’s purpose for visiting the room was simple.

‘Nano. Did you say that everything recorded is stored here?’

[Yes.]

It was to handle the recorded CCTV videos.

Chun Yeowun approached the main PC installed in front of the monitors and put his palm on it.

Zzzz!

Nanoparticles of the Nano Machine came out of his hand and took the form of a glove.

A metal wire extended from his palm and connected to the USB-X port on the PC.

-Chuk!

Chun Yeowun’s eyes moved as he looked at the CCTV screens which were sent to the augmented reality.

The CCTV footage didn’t just show the building, but the traffic and the nearby buildings, even the buildings of the special teams.

Chun Yeowun turned to the CCTV screen showing people.

“This?”

About 40 criminals were imprisoned on the second and first basement floors.

Startled with all the gunshots, they were walking to and fro.

‘They are locked up. So this Public Security Bureau is a place that catches criminals.’

Chun Yeowun was able to identify the use of Public Security.

However, even though there was such a noisy situation, he was puzzled by the people who weren’t moving, and there was a reason for that.

‘Hmm.’

Originally, he was planning on deleting the CCTV footage.

Looking at the criminals in the prison, Chun Yeowun smiled.

04:15 AM

A dungeon of special people.

Awakened by the sound of machine guns, the members of the Fire Head gang were bewildered as they listened.

There was a reason they were listening intently.

“Brother. It seems like it has failed.”

“Damn it!”

At the words of the gang member, the bald man with a bloody face, leaning against the wall, seemed annoyed.

He was the middle boss of the Fire Head gang, Song Mang-dal.

“… the boss has failed. I wanted to get out of this damn place.”

They misunderstood the situation.

They thought the gunshots might have been the members of the Fire Head gang who came to rescue them.

Son Mang-dal is in charge of drug distribution and money management.

Since more than half of the organization’s operating funds rested in his hands, it was a fact that the Fire Head gang would come for him.

For that reason, the Fire Head gang had actually attacked the buses of the Special Mobile Strike Team.

“Wait up. Boss. Isn’t there something that the boss can do?”

“They failed twice. What more can be done! You dumbass!”

He would have beaten the gang members in a hurry if he was in perfect condition, but his arms and legs were currently cuffed, so he could only swear at them.

“I-I didn’t think it through.”

The upset members went silent at those words.

It was then,

Beep beep! Click.

“Oh?”

The doors of the locked prison opened.

The Fire Head gang members who had given up shouted.

“Woahhh!!”

They wanted to escape from the prison, and their doors were all opening!

They searched the office of the special force on the first floor to find the codes to their handcuffs and ran out of the building, becoming free.

It was half-past four in the morning, still dark outside.

The entire Public Security Bureau was quiet.

“Why is it this quiet?”

The gang couldn’t hide their curiosity.

If something like gunshots were heard, then there should be signs of movement.

But there was no such thing.

“Something feels off.”

Son Mang-dal, who was released from the cuffs, tried to concentrate, but he couldn’t feel a single strand of energy.

That was when a member said,

“It seems like the boss has called for professional help this time. It’s great… cleaning up the problem.”

Son Mang-dal nodded his head as if it could be true.

They didn’t know who handled the task of getting them out.

That was when Son Mang-dal heard something.

Tak!

‘Energy!’

When he turned his head, he looked at the entrance of the building.

As if someone was there.

He wasn’t sure if they were friend or foe, but if it was a Public Security officer, he had to deal with them before they called for backup.

“Follow me. Someone seems to be alive.”

Phat!

Son Mang-dal took the lead and moved to the entrance of the building.

Like those who learned martial arts, he was good at killing.

Sh!

He pushed through the glass doors but couldn’t hide his shock.

The smell of blood hit his nose.

“Isn’t this the smell of blood?”

“Didn’t they clean up?”

The entire lobby seemed to be covered with the smell of blood, despite the traces being erased.

Something was really off.

At this time, everything felt ominous.

Tak!

Again, the sound of footsteps.

[Over there.]

[Yep.]

At the sound, Son Mang-dal and the other six approached the place.

It was dark as the lights were off, but the green light from the emergency exit sign at the end of the hallway helped them.

Passing the lobby, they reached the hallway near the elevator.

Shhh!

Something strange seemed to have touched the soles of their feet.

Those members, who thought it was odd, touched the floor and then smelled it.

“Blood?”

It was blood.

They thought it was odd and looked down.

“Shit!”

For a moment, they ended up screaming.

In front of the elevator were ten mobile striker corpses.

It was as if they were baptized by bullets.

They thought the boss would have planned to clean up the bodies, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

[Well, it’s strange. Let’s just leave the building…]

It was then.

Papapaang!

“Kuak!”

Something suddenly flew through the body of a member.

One of them screamed in pain, which seemed to end his life.

“T-Trap! Run away…”

‘!?’

Son Mang-dal and the members who were near the hallway were startled by the shouts.

Pak! Tatatak!

‘Damn it! We’ve been played!’

Right, things couldn’t have been so easy.

Son Mang-dal and the others rushed out of the office, thinking they shouldn’t be caught up in what was happening to those near the exit sign.

From the glass at the building’s entrance, a black shadow with long flowing hair seemed to be watching them.

As the people disappeared, so did the black shadow.

Ding-dong!

The LED light with the floor number the elevator was on stopped at five.

06:10 AM

Early morning when there are few vehicles on the road.

A black sedan was moving fast.

A man in his mid-thirties wearing a neat suit and sitting in the back of the car talking into his smartphone, he was Jo Yu-seong.

“Yes. Yes. Director. Thank you for taking care of my request at such an unreasonable time. See you in the office by 10.”

Beep!

When the call disconnected, Jo Yu-seong wrapped the phone around his wrist with a satisfied expression.

He was tired because he couldn’t sleep a wink last night, yet, the results were satisfactory.

‘Now, we need to bring him out.’

All the preparations were done.

From documentation to identity preparation.

Just the thought of getting it done within 12 hours was amazing.

‘What time is it?’

Jo Yu-seong turned to the monitor on the headrest of the car’s driver seat.

As the TV screen had something playing, the time was shown on the upper right corner.

06:12 AM

‘I managed to make it on time.’

He told Chun Yeowun he would be there at 6.

By the time he arrived at the Public Security building, he thought it would be around 6:30 or so.

He thought Chun Yeowun would be understanding.

-Breaking News.

That was when a male newsreader on the TV screen was talking about Breaking News.

The channel was in Shenyang City.

There was no time for news, but he decided to see what happened since it was emergency news.

The man delivered the news with a stiff face.

-We have unfortunate news. Around dawn, the authorities announced that Son Mang-dal and the other members of the Fire Head organization who were arrested for drug sales escaped from the Public Safety Bureau.

“Huh?”

Jo Yu-seong frowned.

It had to be a coincidence that such news came out at a time like this.

However,

-In the process of escaping, the Fire Head organization ended up killing around 30 Mobile Strikers and detectives of the Violent Crimes Squad…

Along with those words, the CCTV footage was shown on the screen.

It was the scene where the Fire Head gang members entered the building.

Along with that, it seemed like gunshots followed.

“Huh…”

That was what the CCTV footage showed.

The screen switched, and the scene of the emergency conference was shown.

In front of the podium, a man with sparse grey hair, who looked like the director of the Public Security Bureau, was giving a report with a stiff face.

-After escaping, Son Mang-dal and the others destroyed the data in the CCTV room. The violent crimes chief, Song Wei-kang, was killed as he was fleeing with the video copy of the crimes. The Public Security Bureau will not ignore this…

“Ugh, what is this…”

Jo Yu-seong, who was watching the news, was stunned.

Just what happened at the Bureau in 12 hours?