How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Then Let’s Try Finding Captain Hook

“Certainly.”

Just as intended, the scattered pieces of information inside Jin Geon’s head began reorganizing themselves.

Baek Ga-on, the man whose past had been obscure as though he had fallen straight from the sky. The principles behind his actions, once as hazy as thick fog, now appeared vividly clear.

Why had he been wandering through the back alleys?

Why had he reacted so furiously when suspected of being Yang Hu?

And despite that, why had he been unable to sever his ties with the Sheriff?

Right. All of it had been a journey to return to his roots.

“I suppose I should congratulate you.”

Originally, he had intended to use him as the vanguard for handling the infected, but he had no choice but to revise the plan entirely. Considering Ga-on’s origins, drawing him in as an ally was the rational choice.

As it happened, today’s visit had been an extension of that very intention, so there was nothing for him to feel guilty about.

“It’s already noon. The story was so dramatic that I completely lost track of ti while listening.”

Jin Geon joked lightly, his eyes narrowing unusually long.

“But a public servant can’t spend all working hours chatting forever.”

“So you ca with another purpose?”

“As expected of Mr. Ga-on. You understand exactly what I’m trying to say.”

He had expected as much. Hadn’t Baekdu neatly wrapped one bastard up and handed him over already?

“While investigating, so rather interesting information ca in.”

Even without hearing it, Ga-on felt like he already knew what it would be about, but he maintained an expression of curiosity.

“What is it?”

“You rember the man who infiltrated Baekdu while claiming to be the son of forr Chairman Baek Seok-do, don’t you?”

“You an Baek Gi. I rember him well enough since I was directly involved.”

“Did you know he had accomplices?”

“You an remnants or sothing?”

“Sothing a little more direct than that. Since you were the one who subdued him, Mr. Ga-on, you should know.”

“It was strange. He displayed abilities that couldn’t be explained by Slots or Units. Like that boy I encountered in the alley back then.”

He avoided making the mistake of uttering the na ‘Lucas.’ What Ga-on needed to do was guide Jin Geon into confessing it himself.

And just as expected, once he vaguely played along, the answer he wanted naturally followed.

“You must have vaguely noticed it yourself, Mr. Ga-on. There are individuals across Mars using abilities that fall outside conventional understanding.”

“Oh? You sound like you know sothing.”

Jin Geon slowly nodded before speaking in an even lower voice.

“So people refer to them as ‘special ability manifested entities,’ while others call them ‘ta-humans.’ But for us, the term ‘infected’ is more familiar.”

“Infected?”

This was a term even Ga-on had never heard before. Since they referred to them separately, it surely carried so special significance.

“Anyway, I couldn’t tell you before, but now I believe I can formally introduce myself. I’m Jin Geon, leader of Team 3 of the Ergency Disaster Response Unit, the organization that pursues such individuals.”

At last, another fragnt of truth had been uncovered. It was a monuntal mont, lifting the veil that had hidden reality for countless years.

“So when you identified as Yang Hu at Eden Park…”

“Yes. He is also an infected.”

“This is classified information, isn’t it? Sothing that absolutely can’t be exposed.”

“Now that I know about you, Mr. Ga-on, and you know about , I thought it would be alright for us to beco a little closer.”

Jin Geon raised a finger to his lips with a soft shh— before adding,

“That’s the kind of relationship a Sheriff and an advisor should have.”

***

After hearing news of his younger brother Lawian’s death, Rajinga hurriedly rushed to the funeral hall. However, he was never granted the right to witness his brother’s final monts.

Instead, what he received was a single sealed capsule.

An urn containing nothing but ashes and bone dust left after cremation.

Lawian had already been wandering the back alleys before this. The Public Enforcent Corps had likely kept him under watch, and the industry probably turned a blind eye as well. There was no kindness reserved for criminals.

Perhaps he should even consider it fortunate that Lawian hadn’t been sold off to a university hospital and dissected into pieces.

“…Fuck.”

Curses burst out at the irrational reality before him. It was an execution so rciless it bordered on cruelty.

That was why he had entered Ryungyeong in the first place. He hated these heartless streets. Rather than embracing his younger brother with warm arms overflowing with affection, he believed that if he succeeded with the two prosthetic arms forged from cold steel, he would at least be able to protect him whenever it mattered.

But now, it had beco a aningless wish.

His dead younger brother would never return again.

“You look lost.”

A rough voice suddenly reached him. Following the trail of smoke brushing against his nose, he found a man standing there with an electronic cigarette hanging from his lips. A face marked with stripes. At a glance, he appeared to have undergone high-level Cybernetics surgery.

Most striking of all was the eyepatch. This was an era that had overco even physical disabilities. So why deliberately leave behind a defect like that? Was it even truly a weakness to begin with?

Many questions surfaced in his mind, but focusing on such trivial details was not important. What mattered now was sothing more essential.

“You are……?”

“This kind of person.”

That was when the man abruptly held out a plastic business card. The mont Rajinga checked the identification tag embedded within it, his eyes widened.

The man’s na was Nick Peters. And the place he belonged to was sowhere even Rajinga had never expected. He imdiately straightened his posture and stood upright.

“My apologies. Circumstances were difficult, so I acted disrespectfully.”

“It’s fine. I already know your situation well enough.”

Co to think of it, soone had said sothing similar just monts ago.

“Do you know who killed my younger brother?”

“Yes. That’s why I ca here.”

No favor is ever given without reason. Especially not from soone standing in a higher position.

Rajinga was poorly educated, but the lessons he had learned through his harsh life were enough to fill an entire cart.

Perhaps that was why. Though few words were exchanged, he instinctively realized the truth. He had been selected as a tool to deal with sothing.

“May I ask why you chose ?”

“There’s one thing I can answer, but you asked two questions.”

Right. This was precisely the chanism that blatantly exposed the hierarchy between them. The one seeking answers could never dare resist the one who already knew them. It would not be an exaggeration to say Rajinga’s future had been decided the mont he t Nick.

“Who killed Lawian… my younger brother?”

If that was the case, then all he could do was follow the predetermined tracks.

***

District 39, where the darkness of the Seed Colony was fully reflected, was a notorious cri-ridden area known to everyone. A place where two entered and only one ca out. Though it was closer to lawlessness than illegality, even within that chaos there existed its own rules and codes.

It was a truth reached only after ages of mutual slaughter. Sotis it was called territory, other tis business ethics.

A collective unspoken agreent everyone had co to share through countless trials and errors. However, those rules only applied when forces of equal standing collided.

At the very bottom, the law of the jungle still prevailed.

—Just like the scene unfolding right before their eyes.

“Kikiki, look at his head falling off.”

“Did you stuff cotton into your fists? Want to wait until you pull out a gun instead?”

The sight of two gangsters crushing dozens of thugs looked no different from a horror movie. The bastards seed to enjoy themselves imnsely as they dissected each collapsed corpse one by one.

Like children tearing the legs off ants or ripping the wings off dragonflies.

It was less about enjoying the victims’ suffering and more like they were simply playing with toys.

“They look like roiders or cyborgs to . Though ntally, they’re definitely beyond human.”

“Strictly speaking, those two are victims as well.”

“Victims?”

Could there possibly be a more absurd statent than that?

When Ga-on raised one eyebrow in skepticism, Jin Geon demonstratively called the two over.

“You two over there, co here. This is a random inspection.”

Ga-on clicked his tongue as if to say, As if they’d actually co— but his prediction was completely betrayed. Apparently tired of their little bloodbath ga, the two imdiately turned and walked toward Jin Geon.

It was not a reaction born from law-abiding awareness.

What moved them was joy. Pure joy from discovering new prey.

“From this point onward, I suppose this falls under the advisor’s domain.”

The mont Jin Geon stepped back and a shadow fell overhead happened almost simultaneously.

“You called?”

“You wanna fight, right?”

They were so enormous that Ga-on had to tilt his head far back just to glimpse the bridge of their noses.

The difference in physique was overwhelming, yet Ga-on was the one who closed the distance first.

They were the kind of bastards who had recklessly enhanced themselves solely in pursuit of violence. Their exterior might have appeared complete, but internally they looked no different from mayflies.

“Your lower guard’s open.”

Just as he said.

The instant he kicked into the opening, their knees folded like brittle reeds. The other bastard suffered the sa fate. The two toppled backward together before curling up like pill bugs. For people who had growled so ferociously monts ago, they proved surprisingly vulnerable to pain.

The atmosphere that had been stretched taut like a rubber band suddenly beca awkwardly deflated. And the reversal was not limited to the situation alone.

“Hweong, heongheoheong.”

“Keuheung, keuheoeong.”

To make matters worse, they cried miserably in the most unfitting way possible. They might have been considered strong around these parts, but perhaps they were nothing more than frogs in a well after all.

“Their nas are Pat and Matt. Together, they’ve committed over eight major cris. And that’s only outside District 39.”

Arson, assault, looting… their criminal records were severe enough that even a combined sentence nearing fifty years would not have seed excessive. Yet despite all that, the current judicial system still granted them a chance at redemption.

“What……?”

Ga-on thought he had misheard and asked again, but Jin Geon’s answer did not change. Instead, he added one detail.

“It’s because the two of them are minors below the age of criminal responsibility.”

Under current law, children under the age of twelve could not be charged with cris. In other words, the two capable of casually looking down on fully grown n were juvenile offenders protected by law. It was yet another side effect of Cybernetics.

“Pat is eight years old, and Matt is nine.”

“Ha.”

No wonder they had acted like premature children. It wasn’t that they rely seed that way—they actually were.

This was a world where lives had stabilized through universal basic inco, and where technological advancent had enriched daily existence.

Conditions had been created for people to enjoy happiness from birth until death, yet for so reason humanity only drifted further away from the concept of perfection.

Perhaps it could be called poverty amidst abundance.

Even when possibilities expanded and choices increased, that did not always lead to positive outcos.

This case was no different.

The desire to beco an adult was a childish impulse unique to children.

In the past, the passage of ti had been the only answer. But now things were different. With enough money and determination, one could replace their body with sothing stronger.

“If I were to compare them to sothing, they’d be Peter Pan cast out of Neverland.”

“That’s one hell of a cruel fairy tale.”

“But not everyone remains Peter Pan.”

That much was true. Children wanted to beco adults, not gangsters. Which ant there had to be soone sowhere who had implanted those twisted ideals into them.

Most likely, that was exactly the person Jin Geon had been tracking using the information obtained from Baek Gi.

“Then let’s try finding Captain Hook.”