How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Shut up and say you understand

***

***

It had beco clear that this was not a simple kidnapping case, but my pursuit did not stop. It was just that one more special condition had been added. There was no reason to halt midway.

Moreover, there was only one step left before all my efforts bore fruit.

The asures the kidnappers had taken to conceal their cri had instead beco signposts.

Tap tap.

After confirming that there were no longer any malfunctioning CCTVs, I recorded the path I had passed through so far.

The destination was a point in District 39.

The blind spot soone had created drew a perfectly circular shape, as if they wanted to shake off outside attention.

The missing people were probably sowhere inside this area.

What I could not understand was the motive. In an era where devices were comrcialized, kidnapping others had a low success rate and required a great deal of preparation in advance.

And yet the kidnappers did not demand a ransom and remained silent. Right up until the situation beca serious enough to surface.

Thinking about it, it was not that strange. They had selected only vulnerable people who stayed out of the public eye and taken them away. From the beginning, money had not mattered to them.

That ant they had already achieved their objective at the mont of kidnapping.

What on earth could the kidnappers have wanted from ordinary people with no special abilities?

As I wandered about, deep in thought, a man caught my eye.

“Ghk.”

It seed the man had spotted too, as he took a step back. But I was not the kind of person who would just stand by until the other party ran away.

I slung an arm around the man’s shoulders. Tug, and I smiled sourly.

“Thanks for yesterday. Because of you, I found a nice place. It was perfect to make into a regular spot. But why are you here?”

“Even if I tell you why, this is our turf……”

“You’re speaking too casually?”

“……Yes.”

“Anyway, you’re saying this is an area under the Pier Gang’s jurisdiction?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Co to think of it, the unlicensed clinic I had visited last night did not seem to be that far away. That ant there was no contradiction in what Tug had said.

Gesto, who extorted tributes indiscriminately. And the vulnerable people who had gone missing in the area where the Pier Gang had settled in, followed by Fernandez appearing as if on cue.

It felt like sothing stank sowhere.

***

There were many forms of criminal organizations.

From mafias that valued discipline, to triads and yakuza with rigid hierarchies, syndicates ford for specific purposes, and even simple gangs of thugs, each pursued a different path.

Among them, what represented street gangs best was, as expected, their lawless spirit.

Their way of life, burning through today as if they had no tomorrow, was recklessness beyond compare. Of course, they were the type that could not rise far due to their inherently poor foundations, but even that was an outdated notion.

They had begun to rapidly expand their influence ever since the basic inco system that guaranteed minimum subsistence was implented. Now they no longer had to worry about three als a day and could go around causing riots.

There was no need to say that they had risen as a great evil of society.

Unlike other criminal organizations, their defining trait was that no matter how much you pulled them out, they grew back like weeds.

The Pier Gang, which had recently made a na for itself, was also one of those typical street gangs.

Anyone could join, and even if mbers ford other crews separately, there was no interference.

The Pier Gang wanted just one thing from its mbers.

When it ca to power struggles with other organizations, they were to participate without exception.

That simple yet powerful guideline was the reason they had been able to put down even a small root in District 39—

“That’s about all I know.”

After hearing the series of explanations from Tug, I let out a low hum. I persistently pressed him, wondering if there was anything he was deliberately hiding, but the answers that ca back were always the sa.

Tug also looked like he did not know the detailed circumstances. Since he said it had not even been three months since he joined, he must have been the lowest of the low within the Pier Gang.

For , everything on Mars was a first-ti experience. I had mountains of things to learn, from what kinds of organizations existed in the underworld to which areas they controlled.

Still, it was clear that the growth of the Pier Gang was abnormal. There were too many dubious points to simply dismiss it as success born from good unity.

If they made such a noisy show of expanding their size, it would have been natural for suppression to co in, yet they were always the ones on the offensive.

As if soone were feeding them information.

From my standpoint, having discovered signs that the Public Enforcent Corps had intervened, it was not a difficult conclusion to reach.

“Then, is it okay if I go?”

“I’m saying this out of concern, but it’d be better if you don’t go around blabbing about . If rumors spread, they’ll assu it was you no matter what and co looking for you.”

“That’s unfair…….”

“Shut up and say you understand.”

“I understand.”

***

After parting ways with Tug, I headed straight up to a building overlooking the intersection. Then, pressed flat against the rooftop, I prepared to lie in wait.

From here on out, it was a battle against ti.

If a disappearance had happened once, it could happen twice, and if it was sothing being carried out repeatedly and systematically, it was obvious that it would continue until it was exposed.

Now that I knew what route they used to co and go, all that remained was verification.

It was right around the point when one Sol had passed since the missing person report had been filed.

If the Pier Gang was indeed carrying out the kidnappings, there should be signs of movent soon.

That was when snow began to fall from the sky.

My black coat had been dyed pure white, but I did not budge and only stared at the street.

How much ti had passed?

Suddenly, three pairs of headlights appeared on the darkened street.

The cluster of lights swam through the thickly piled snow, passing exclusively through routes where the CCTVs were broken.

‘They’re here.’

I rose from my spot and rapidly chased after them, leaping between buildings. Perhaps because of the heavy snowfall, even the vans did not recklessly increase their speed.

The strange standoff ended after they passed five blocks.

The three vans abruptly changed direction and entered a parking lot in a line. I pressed my back against a nearby wall to observe the situation and slowly peeked my head out.

At that mont, a figure stepped out of the van that had stopped in front.

No, it would be more accurate to say he was dragged out.

Attached to the back of the bound man’s neck was a hexagonal device shaped like a nut.

‘Lockdown?’

It was a device that restricted most of a device’s functions.

Equipnt used by public or enforcent agencies for restraining individuals. There was no way such a tool should have ended up in civilian hands, yet it seed the residents of the underworld had crossed even the final line.

“Don’t wanna… don’t wanna go.”

As if he had been injected with a muscle relaxant, the man only muttered incoherently.

Apparently even that was irritating, because the bulky figure who approached him struck his head rcilessly.

“Shut up.”

A sawed-off shotgun swaying like an accessory. A unit mounted around the trapezius. And a hook-shaped tattoo running across his entire cheek.

He was soone I knew well.

The man Fernandez had called Gesto.

The action leader of the Pier Gang.

***

After Gesto disappeared along with the other gangsters, I revealed myself and recalled the scene I had just witnessed.

The total number of people the Pier Gang had kidnapped was five.

Depending on how you looked at it, it could be few or many. What mattered was that the gangsters’ movents looked practiced. They had probably committed acts like this more than once or twice.

Since it was obvious that this had to be dealt with swiftly, I jumped over the fence and surveyed the building.

Peeling paint and shoddy exterior materials.

At a glance, it looked unimpressive, whether it was repurposed from an abandoned site or simply old, but the land itself was as spacious as any mansion.

I did not let my guard down, wondering if there might be a group standing watch against intruders, but before even making a full round, I realized it had been a pointless concern.

True to a gang with no foundation, there was not even a hint of presence, as if they were telling basics to go to hell.

Of course, there were booby traps scattered throughout the building. It was unclear whether they had purchased the parts themselves to assemble them, but the crude workmanship stood out everywhere.

After cutting the wire with a folding knife, I calmly headed upstairs.

But nowhere could I find any trace of the gangsters. There was no wallpaper, no ho appliances either.

That made no sense.

I had seen the Pier Gang swarm inside with my own eyes.

‘No way.’

I went back down to the first floor and hurriedly scanned the ground. They would have pushed through the snow to get in, so there had to be tracks left behind.

Sure enough, the snow that had fallen off them pointed toward a first-floor storage room.

There was nothing inside, but I did not panic. If it was not above, then it had to be below.

When I pressed a button I barely found by feeling along the wall, the ground split open as if to prove my thought correct, revealing stairs leading underground.

I flipped open the holster cover so I could fire at any mont and disengaged the safety on my pistol.

At the very bottom lay the mastermind behind all of this.

As I descended calmly and entered the passageway, my body shuddered. The basent felt even colder than the blizzard raging outside. Proof that cooling was actively running.

What stopped my wandering steps was a sign labeled Storage Room.

A chilling sensation flashed through my mind in an instant.

As if possessed by sothing, I flung the door open and stepped inside. What illuminated the interior was bluish light. Even though there was light, I could not shake the impression that it was dark, as if I had entered the deep sea.

Pa-bat.

The mont I took a step forward, the interior lights intensified, as if they had detected soone’s presence.

Because of that, the glass cylinders lined up all the way beyond ca into view at once.

It was a truly overwhelming sight. Each and every glass cylinder installed in the storage room was a life-support device.

Roughly a hundred of them, perhaps.

It was equipnt far beyond what a re gang should have been able to possess.

“Ha.”

Now that I saw it, it seed they were even regulating the underground temperature to dissipate the heat generated by running these things.

At this point, questions could not help but arise.

What on earth had driven them to create such an environnt?

When I wiped away the moisture beaded on the surface of a glass cylinder, its contents were revealed.

Inside was a flat, round device like a button. The pseudo-neural network connected to it writhed continuously, like the tentacles of a jellyfish.

“……”

Seeing the Pier Gang’s behavior, which treated human life as weightless, I had suspected that the missing people might already be dead. But I had never imagined an ending like this.

At that mont, perhaps from an electrical stimulus, the device—no, the device—began to emit a faint glow.

I had observed countless facets of humanity over the past several hundred years, but this was the first ti I had witnessed a scene where the concept of evil was laid bare so explicitly.

The business the Pier Gang was running was device extraction.

An unforgivable serious cri, with no room for excuses.