"Lawyer, my friend is having a really tough time... They can't even report it to the police. There's no one to complain to. As an illegal immigrant, if anything goes wrong, they'll be arrested by immigration and deported..."
Ji-hoon Lee looked up after scanning the paper that was handed to him, something resembling a statement.
The brown-skinned man comforting his crying friend beside him caught his eye. Ji-hoon looked at them with pity.
The two had entered Ji-hoon's small but tidy law office. One was dressed casually, while the other wore shabby work clothes from a factory, stained with grease.
The casually dressed young man, who had just spoken, was Korean. A Vietnamese-Korean in his twenties named Woo-jin Kim. He worked for a civic organization. It had already been four years since he and Ji-hoon, who provided extensive legal counseling and assistance on labor issues and the rights of migrant workers, had formed a connection.
He often brought in foreign workers in distress, each with their own unfortunate circumstances.
"Alright. Stop crying and have a cup of coffee."
Ji-hoon quickly prepared a cup of instant coffee to comfort the crying young man, like soothing a crying child. The man seemed to calm down with the fragrant coffee, and his sobbing subsided.
"Somchai, tell him."
Woo-jin urged the young man named Somchai, who had finally stopped crying, to speak. Somchai lifted his head. His face still had tear marks, but he seemed calmer.
'Bruises?'
Ji-hoon noticed the bruises on Somchai's face, hands, and feet. They looked like he had taken quite a beating.
First, check.
Somchai began to speak, haltingly, in broken Korean.
"I, I am... Somchai. Worked in Korea for three years. Factory hard. No money... If complain, boss report... Friends gamble to earn money."
Gambling? Is it gambling?
Due to the recent trend of low birth rates and an aging population, many foreign workers had come to Korea. Naturally, with more people, crimes increased. In the past, crimes were often individual acts, but now they were organized and frequently involved serious crimes.
Many cases were even linked to Korean gangsters.
"Is it gambling?" "Yes, gambling."
Somchai nodded. His hand trembled faintly. Fear? Guilt? Ji-hoon decided to reserve judgment.
Woo-jin, sitting next to him, added more information.
"Lately, a lot of people go to that gambling den. I found out about it recently and asked around. The serious thing is, I think they also do drugs there." "Drugs?"
Ji-hoon's expression twisted. Gambling and drugs? This was getting...
"Yes. They give drugs as a reward if you win big."
"Mr. Somchai?" "Yes?"
Somchai's eyes had calmed. He looked pitiful in his shabby work clothes.
"There's a sauna just ahead. I'll call the owner so you can wash up and rest. Then you can go to work. Stay away from that gambling den. I can't help you get your money back... but I can help you get your wages from the factory. The process is complicated to get a formal job for foreign workers. I'll give you the paperwork, so prepare them... you might have to go back to Thailand temporarily."
Ji-hoon handed him the documents. Woo-jin skillfully accepted and organized them.
"You didn't do drugs, did you?" "No, no!"
Somchai shook his head, still looking timid. Poor guy, how much he must have suffered living in a foreign country.
Ji-hoon gestured to Woo-jin.
"The consultation fee is just 10,000 won. Fill out the documents and we can officially start." "Yes, thank you." "Thank you."
Woo-jin and Somchai bowed and left Ji-hoon's office. But suddenly, Ji-hoon called out.
"Ah, Somchai! Somchai!" "Yes?"
Somchai turned back, looking dejectedly at Ji-hoon.
"Give me the addresses of the factory and the gambling den. I'll look into it."
But it wasn't Somchai who answered; it was Woo-jin. He smiled meaningfully and pointed to the papers on the desk.
"It's written on those papers." "I see." "It's not the first time, you know."
He grinned and left the office with Somchai.
"Ansan, Gyeonggi Province..."
Ji-hoon drove for a while to find the 'gambling den' in the center of Ansan. Although it was September and summer had passed, the sun still blazed fiercely.
Ji-hoon parked his car in a suitable place, ate to fill his stomach, and waited for night to fall.
When the sun set, the daytime heat felt like a lie, and it became quite chilly. Ji-hoon pulled his hood low and wore a mask. He took off his glasses and put on latex gloves.
Walking through the night streets of Ansan, he turned into a secluded alley. It was narrow, dirty, and filled with trash.
Ji-hoon concealed himself in the darkness.
Squeak-!
A rat, startled by the uninvited guest, scurried away. Ji-hoon didn't mind and leaped in place.
With a single push, he easily jumped three meters. Electrical sounds crackled around him as he generated bioelectricity, transforming it into electromagnetism that made him stick to the building's exterior wall.
He was clinging to the rebar inside the building.
'If it were a prefab building, this wouldn't work.'
Ji-hoon climbed the wall like a spider. With his heightened senses from bioelectric activation, he could already hear the loud noises from above and below. Everywhere.
Below, there was only noisy chatter, but from above, he heard faint cries. From the outside, it looked like a regular Thai restaurant, but inside, it was utterly corrupt.
Were they also engaging in prostitution? Well, with gambling and drugs, that wouldn't be surprising.
Clicking his tongue, Ji-hoon climbed to the rooftop. It was a five-story building, so it didn't take long. Though there were tough-looking guys at the entrance, they hadn't secured the rooftop.
Time to begin.
Ji-hoon clenched his fists, steeling himself. He approached the door in the middle of the rooftop. He was expressionless. He raised his fist and smashed the tightly locked rooftop door handle.
Bang!
Thud-
The door handle fell off absurdly easily. Pain shot through his fist. The injury seemed severe, but with bioelectric activation, the pain subsided, and he felt the wound healing. He didn't even frown anymore.
He opened the door and descended the dark stairs.
As expected.
They hadn't considered anyone entering from above. No guards were posted. Ji-hoon opened the door on the fifth floor and walked leisurely.
He heightened his senses. The fifth floor was sparsely populated. He heard a man groaning and a woman moaning occasionally.
Hmm...
Ji-hoon entered an empty room.
The dark room looked like an office. There were several desks, monitors, and even a sofa. For gangsters, this looked like a legitimate business place. He scanned the room. There was no safe. Ji-hoon rummaged through the desks.
He found various documents written in Korean and Thai. It was too dark to read clearly, but it wasn't what he was looking for. Maybe this wasn't the place.
Ji-hoon approached the light switch. He raised his fist.
The most important thing in this line of work, he thought, was to plunge your enemies into confusion and fear. Confusion and fear stem from the 'unknown.' And 'unknown' comes from darkness.
Long story short, he turned off the lights. How? Like this.
Crash-
Ji-hoon's fist shattered the switch, causing an electric surge. A powerful current surged through the building's wiring, overloading the system.
The lights went out. Murmuring voices reached his ears. The men and women on the fifth floor, who had been engrossed, let out surprised and irritated sounds.
Ji-hoon left the room. He headed towards the room where the startled couple was.
Click-
The sound of the door opening seemed to alert them. In the faint light from outside, the half-dressed couple hastily began to dress and turned towards the entrance. By the bedside where they had been having a good time, a tall, slender shadow stood silently like the Grim Reaper.
"Wh-who...?"
It was Thai. He didn't understand anyway.
Ji-hoon walked over and grabbed the woman's neck. Half-naked, she gasped in shock. Ji-hoon delivered a strong electric shock, knocking her out.
Thud-
The collapsed woman lay motionless on the bed. The Thai man, shocked, screamed and swung his fist.
Ji-hoon skillfully dodged the punch. After a few dodges, the man's punches noticeably slowed as he grew tired. Ji-hoon's fist found its mark in his abdomen.
Wham-
"Gah-!"
It was a liver shot, also known as a 'liver blow.'
The Thai man, exhausted and gasping for breath, received a perfectly timed liver shot, sending a wave of dizziness and pain through him. His legs gave out, and he collapsed. Ji-hoon looked down at him, a shadow of disaster.
"Where is it?"
Ji-hoon asked in Korean. The man finally realized he was Korean.
"What?" "The documents. The records you kept while running the gambling den." "What?"
Damn... making this harder than it needs to be, huh.
Ji-hoon didn't want to waste more time. He struck the man in the head with his fist. Electrical energy surged, delivering a powerful shock.
He continued, now more aggressively.
"Where is it?"
The electric surge. The man's eyes widened in terror. Ji-hoon's eyes flashed.
"Oh!"
The man screamed and collapsed. Then he pleaded in Thai.
"Don't kill me, please! Stop! Don't kill me!"
No one else on this floor seemed to care. Ji-hoon nodded, understanding.
Alright then.
With that, Ji-hoon turned and left the room. The Thai man lay on the floor, looking at Ji-hoon's back in despair.
Ji-hoon went to the room next door.
There, he found Somchai's gambling records.
"Good."
Ji-hoon flipped through the pages. The documents were written in a mix of Korean and Thai. Ji-hoon gathered them, walked outside, and saw the scene below.
Men and women were panicking. Ji-hoon grinned.
"Goodbye, gentlemen."
He hurled the documents down, scattering them like confetti. Some of the men below noticed.
"Hey, what's this?" "What's falling from above?" "Catch it!"
Shouts echoed from below, but Ji-hoon was already gone. He climbed the wall of the opposite building and leaped over the narrow alley, escaping into the night.