CH 189

Vrooooooom!

Jin Bao was currently traveling at just below a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour with all the windows rolled up. But the roar of the sportscar’s engine following behind him still registered clearly in his ears.

That... obviously couldn't be a regular vehicle. Jin Bao was traveling very quickly, so it made no sense to hear the engine roar of the car behind him, not the air rushing past his own car!

Not to forget, he was driving at a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. However, the car behind his was closing the distance in the proverbial blink of an eye.

'Just how fast is he driving?!'

The car being able to travel at two hundred kilometers per hour and the driver being gutsy enough to reach that speed were two separate matters. Humans had functioning brains, so they wouldn't be able to stop themselves from imagining what could happen if they lost control of a car traveling at that speed.

However, that insane bastard didn't seem to have any attachment to life. Or maybe, he had forgotten how to get scared, judging from how he was driving well over two hundred right now.

If this was Germany's Autobahn or Seohaean Expressway of the past when practically no one was using them, then Jin Bao wouldn't have minded going past two hundred as well. However, he was currently driving on a public highway with other cars on the road!

“Insane son of a b*tch!” An expletive jumped out of Jin Bao's mouth all on its own.

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Flash!

The high beams flashed blindingly once more before the car behind drove up to the side of Jin Bao's vehicle.

Whirrrr...

The car window was winding down. Jin Bao's expression hardened, and he also lowered the passenger side window. “...Kang Jin-Ho.”

Jin Bao's voice sounded pained, a hushed whisper. The driver of the other car was undoubtedly Kang Jin-Ho. And he was smiling eerily while waving one hand at Jin Bao.

'How did he find me?'

Jin Bao confirmed that he had successfully left Kang Jin-Ho behind at the department store. So, how did this brat manage to catch up to him this quickly? Didn't he also avoid the CCTV cameras? This unexplainable situation left Jin Bao in a panicked state.

***

“Mister Jin-Ho, have you found him?” Jo Gyu-Min asked in an expectant voice.

- Yes, I have. Good work, Mister Gyu-Min.

“Thank you! However, please make sure you don't cause a traffic accident. At the speed you're traveling, it'll cause a massive accident, and such a thing will be difficult for even Jaegyeong to sweep under the carpet, you see.”

- Understood. I'll do my best.

The phone call from Kang Jin-Ho came to an end there. Jo Gyu-Min sighed in relief as a look of fulfillment bloomed on his face. “Niiiice!”

For now, he had decisively dealt with one of the things Kang Jin-Ho had ordered him to do. The truth was, Jo Gyu-Min had been wallowing in despair after failing to discover the trace of the assailant. He had even gone to great lengths to find something, anything, but he failed in the end. And his despair only got worse after realizing that if the assailant was capable of being this stealthy, he would also leave behind no traces the next time.

So, Jo Gyu-Min thought about what to do and arrived at an inspired idea of using a subminiature GPS transmitter. Since the assailant was after Kang Jin-Ho's life—there was no doubt he would try again, this time closing the distance to finish the job properly. There wouldn't be another chance to try his luck from a distance like the last time, after all!

If Kang Jin-Ho could deal with the assailant at that time, good. If not, then attaching a GPS and figuring out where the assailant had run off to would be the next best thing.

When Kang Jin-Ho reached behind to grab the dagger, he was deliberately doing that to attach the GPS transmitter, just as Jo Gyu-Min had instructed. Thankfully, the transmitter remained attached to the weapon and did its job faithfully by accurately transmitting the position of the assailant.

Jo Gyu-Min stared at the computer monitor showing the assailant's current position, a faint grin creeping up on his face. He then picked up his phone to call someone.

“...Hi, Mom! It's me. Looks like I won't have to quit after all! Yeah, I'll come to see you during my next vacation.”

***

Vroooom!

“You insane motherfu...!” Jin Bao freaked out and urgently yanked at the steering wheel. That was because Kang Jin-Ho's Lamborghini bellowed like a dragon before shoving its snout straight into Jin Bao's car.

Colliding at this speed would definitely cause the vehicles to fly up like pieces of paper. Even if Jin Bao was a martial artist boasting durability incomparably higher than regular people, walking away unscathed from a car accident at this speed would be asking for a miracle.

Actually, his high durability would mean he would gradually bleed to death under agonizing pain instead of dying on the spot.

'However, wouldn't that be the same story for that guy, too?!'

Jin Bao slammed on the brake pedal, causing his car to suddenly slow down. However, the Lamborghini seemed to pause for a moment or two before its brake lights also came on. The white wedge-shaped supercar slowed down instantly to catch up to Jin Bao.

“He's utterly crazy!”

Jin Bao had no choice but to completely revise his opinion of Kang Jin-Ho. A brat, a small fry? A martial artist-wannabe dulled by peace? All those things were utter nonsense. Kang Jin-Ho was—a wack job—a completely insane bastard! Such was Kang Jin-Ho's insanity and viciousness that Jin Bao couldn't understand how that crazy bastard managed to hide it for so long!

Jin Bao's assessment was backed up by Kang Jin-Ho's expression visible through the open window every now and then. That expression was one of sheer enjoyment. How could he smile so blissfully in a situation where even his own life was on the line?!

'He's insane!'

The reckless insanity could also be felt gushing out from the way Kang Jin-Ho drove his car.

“Uwa-aaaaah!” Jin Bao slammed on the brakes.

Screeeeeech!

The tires howled in pain from the harsh friction against the asphalt. Almost at the same time, Jin Bao's car nearly escaped his control, then began fishtailing left and right.

“Uwaaaht?!”

The vehicle wildly slid about, and Jin-Bao tightly held on to the steering wheel to regain control. Thankfully, the car didn't spin out of control.

“Fuu-woo...”

As proof of how fast he was driving, the speedometer still read around a hundred, despite how hard he had braked earlier.

'...Where did he go?!'

Jin Bao realized that Kang Jin-Ho's vehicle was no longer in his view. Considering the speed, he could have gone far, far ahead if he chose not to apply the brakes on his car. However, Kang Jin-Ho was crazily pursuing Jin Bao until now, so would someone that insane not slam on the brakes to keep up with his prey? That wouldn't make any sense.

“W-where is he?!”

Other people might be satisfied with this level of intimidation and drive away. However, the 'Kang Jin-Ho' Jin Bao had seen just now was definitely not the type to be satisfied by this much and go on his merry way.

A part of Jin Bao's job was investigating his targets. That made him a pretty good judge of character. And his judgment said that Kang Jin-Ho's type was like a runaway train with malfunctioning brakes. Kang Jin-Ho would be calm and docile when he wasn’t doing anything, but once he got going, he would stop at nothing until his opponent was completely—utterly obliterated.

In other words... Someone like that would not stop here!

“Where are you?!” Jin Bao cried out, his body shuddering from anxiety.

What a funny thing this was. When Kang Jin-Ho was going crazy next to him, expletives automatically jumped out of Jin Bao's mouth. Now that the crazy bastard was nowhere to be found, anxiety had taken over the anger to torment Jin Bao.

'I shouldn't have provoked him!'

Jin Bao should have suspected something was fishy when he was offered a higher commission fee than usual. No, before that... He should have thought about how dangerous the target had to be to force the Martial Union to start investigating a foreigner!

Jin Bao was merely an expendable pawn for those Martial Union bastards. They would be happy enough for Jin Bao to do thorough investigative work or even kill Kang Jin-Ho. On the other hand, they wouldn't lose anything if Kang Jin-Ho held Jin Bao's fate in his hands. That would be enough to estimate Kang Jin-Ho's skill level, after all.

“Cai... Kechang!” Jin Bao gnashed his teeth.

Without a doubt, Cai Kechang knew how dangerous this commission was. Even then, he didn't provide any prior warning before sending Jin Bao on his way.

'No... wait.' 

Jin Bao hurriedly shook his head.

By bringing up the Crimson King's name, Cai Kechang probably assumed he had said everything necessary.

“...Damn it!” Jin Bao clenched his teeth. He struggled to regain control of his chaotic mind. What did it matter now whether Cai Kechang knew about the commission’s danger or not?

He could regret himself to death after getting out of here first. Indeed, he should prioritize escaping from the grasp of that beast-like bastard!

'Just how insane is he, really?!'

Back in the elevator when Kang Jin-Ho grabbed the dagger bare-handed, Jin Bao began thinking that his target wasn't as simple as he looked. But this kind of response was completely beyond his expectation. But as long as he could escape from this danger...

Kang Jin-Ho wasn’t the type of individual Jin Bao wanted to get tangled with, the commission be damned! He should catch the earliest flight out of Korea and run as far away as he could. Jin Bao's experience taught him that the scariest kind of folks in this world was the 'crazies'. Being strong or weak was secondary to one’s insanity! No one was scarier than those who didn't care about themselves!

'But... just where is he?' 

Jin Bao worriedly looked around. It had been some time since he had slowed down to around a hundred kilometers per hour, yet Kang Jin-Ho was still nowhere to be found.

'Maybe... he's given up?'

That didn't sound right, though. It was just impossible to predict Kang Jin-Ho’s behavioral pattern. While keeping his eyes on the road, Jin Bao hurriedly yanked out his phone, found one of the stored numbers, and urgently rang it up. Once the call went through, he yelled loud enough to shake the car. “Wei Fong! Find me a flight out of here, now! I need to leave this country as soon as possible!”

- Slow down, man! What's gotten into you?!

“He’s a crazy one! Completely batsh*t insane! It's dangerous to get involved with that bastard!”

- Was he strong?

“Dammit, man! This isn't a matter of whether he's strong or not! That insane bastard doesn't care about himself. And people like that are the absolute worst; we shouldn't get involved with them!”

- Listen, Jin Bao! You know as well as I do that you cannot walk away from the Martial Union's commission!

“It doesn't matter!”

- Don't forget that they have paid us a ton of money.

“Nothing is more important than keeping my life! Dammit, man!”

- Sounds like the situation is a lot more urgent than I thought. Fine, we'll walk away from this commission. I'll find the earliest flight out of the country.

“Hurry. I'm currently being...” Jin Bao suddenly stopped talking and stared at the road ahead in a daze.

'No... It can't be, right?'

It couldn't be...!

“T-t-that insane motherf*cker...!”

- Jin Bao! What's going on?!

Wei Fong heard Jin Bao's trembling voice over the phone and urgently asked, but it was too late by then.

“Y-you son of a b*tch! Insane motherfu—Uwaaaaah?!” Jin Bao freaked out and screamed.

A pair of high beams were flashing brightly before his eyes as if they were greeting him. The thing was, though... he was staring at the road ahead. Logically speaking, he shouldn't be seeing high beams in front of him like this.

A deathly chill ran down Jin Bao's entire body. That insane bastard—Kang Jin-Ho—had turned his car around and now, he was counterflowing down a national highway—toward Jin Bao! Was he trying to play a game of chicken with Jin Bao on this road?!

That was pure insanity. That bastard was definitely insane! And unfortunately, that insane bastard was targeting Jin Bao's life! Jin Bao's hair suddenly went gray from fear.

Meanwhile, Kang Jin-Ho's Lamborghini sped up even more as if he wanted to blow up his engine.

“Uwaaaaah!” Jin Bao screamed while urgently yanking at the steering wheel. At this rate, their cars would end up colliding head-first in a couple of seconds! However, Kang Jin-Ho's car also swerved at the same time to enter the same lane as Jin Bao as if Kang Jin-Ho could see the future.

“Uwaaaah?! Y-you crazy son of a...!”

The distance between them narrowed until the Lamborghini's outline could finally be seen. Its size seemed to get exponentially larger in Jin Bao's eyes. He screamed again and yanked the steering wheel in the opposite direction.

Screeeeeech!

Jin Bao's car left trails of lengthy skid marks before hitting the guard rail at the edge of the road. Then it broke through and leaped into the hill below. In other words, his car was falling off a cliff.

Bang! Tumble! Crash!

Jin Bao's car flew about five meters in the air before landing on the side of the hill. It didn't stop there and continued to violently roll down the slope.

“Uwaaaaahk?!” Jin Bao hurriedly shielded his head as he got thrown around the interior like a block of ice trapped in a shaker.

Boom!

The car bounced angrily for one last time before finally coming to a stop below the hill.

“Kkeuh... urhk...”

Jin Bao barely managed to raise his hand to wipe away the stream of blood on his face. It felt like his whole body was in pieces. However, the pain itself wasn't as severe as he feared. But perhaps his mind wasn't sober enough to sense all the pain from his body.

When his mind regained some clarity, though, only one thought flooded into his head.

'I... I need to escape!'

But right at this moment—