A few minutes ago, at the cargo sorting yard of Nampo International Port.

Mo Chang-gwi was stuck close to a container, glancing furtively at something.

‘Why is that bastard who should be ripped to pieces here?’

Seeing Shin Haesu—the one responsible for mangling his hand—Mo Chang-gwi ground his teeth. A surge of fury rose up in an instant, but now was not the time.

He picked up his prepaid phone and dialed a number.

-The phone is turned off…

‘That bastard ditched me…!’

The subordinate who was supposed to bring the money and fake passport had disappeared. A betrayal. Something unimaginable before Mo Chang-gwi went to prison.

It made sense now—his subordinate had kept making excuses to delay handing over the money and passport, and in the end, he must have informed the police and sold him out.

Mo Chang-gwi’s head was in turmoil.

Still, turning back or staying idle here would get him exposed in no time.

Just then, he spotted a couple passionately making out in a quiet space between containers.

A suitcase stood in the corner. Apparently, they were waiting for their ship and had snuck off here in a hurry. Left alone, they’d probably end up stripping to their underwear.

Chang-gwi approached them and asked,

“Hey, let’s swap clothes.”

“Oh my!”

The woman recoiled in surprise, and the man frowned deeply.

“What? Are you crazy?”

“Korean bastards only understand after a beating.”

Chang-gwi shook his head and lightly threw a punch.

Thwack—

His fist landed squarely on the man’s nose.

A little while later, inside a container box.

“Take that and go. If you don’t want to see your girlfriend’s throat slit in real time, don’t get caught by anyone, got it?”

“Yes, yes, please….”

The man, now dressed in Mo Chang-gwi’s clothes, nodded while blood streamed from his nose.

Mo Chang-gwi linked the man’s and the woman’s phones via video call, ensuring her image stayed on screen.

It was a way to find out what the man said and where he went—while also threatening to kill the woman at any time.

“Go on, then.”

“O-Oppa, Oppa…”

The woman, weeping and sniffling, was held quietly by Mo Chang-gwi. His knife was pressed tightly against her white neck.

The man, after glancing back at her a few times, walked away with trembling legs.

While he was on his way to the ship Mo Chang-gwi was originally supposed to board, Chang-gwi was left alone with the woman. His expression suddenly shifted.

The woman instinctively sensed death and began to shake violently.

“Please, please spare me….”

Mo Chang-gwi muted the phone, grabbed her by the hair, and asked,

“Why should I let you live? I have no reason to. That guy’s going to that country whether you die or not.”

“Please, please… I’ll do anything.”

She begged him with her hands pressed together. Mo Chang-gwi stared at her for a moment before asking in a low tone,

“You want to live that badly?”

She nodded vigorously.

“Fine, but you better do well.”

Suddenly, he began tearing off her clothes. He stripped her down by force until she was left in only her underwear.

Shamed, she covered her chest with both arms and lowered her head. Tears dropped to the floor.

“Raise your head.”

But his icy voice wiped away such luxurious emotions in an instant. She jerked her head up.

Mo Chang-gwi wrapped an arm around her shoulder and slowly turned her body. He made her face the port entrance, not the direction her boyfriend had taken, then pointed with his index finger.

“You run that way. Toward where the port staff are, got it?”

“Yes, yes, understood.”

It seemed clear now that he wasn’t going to assault her and that she would be let go. Her voice brightened noticeably.

“If you stray, you die. Go!”

At the same time, Mo Chang-gwi slashed her wrist with his knife.

“Kyaaaah!”

Blood splattered across the container interior. Before she could even register the pain, he kicked her in the butt.

“Go!”

Hearing the Grim Reaper’s voice, she clutched her wrist and sprinted toward the port staff, driven by survival instinct. She could vividly feel the warmth of blood pouring from her wrist.

Running naked in front of a crowd of people was the least of her worries now.

“Huuuh… Please help me! Help me!”

Seeing her dashing from afar, the port staff rushed out to meet her.

“Wh-what’s going on?!”

“Are you okay?”

“Mr. Jang! Mr. Jang! Call 119, now!”

Just then, plainclothes police officers rushed in.

Oh Gaeng squeezed through the port staff. Though they tried to stop him, the team leader behind him urgently flashed a police badge.

While directly applying pressure to her wound, Oh Gaeng asked,

“We’re police. Who did this to you? Was it this man?”

Oh Gaeng held up a photo of Mo Chang-gwi. But she didn’t even glance at it, trembling in fear.

Now that she felt she was in a safe place, all her tension melted away, and nothing registered.

Frustrated, the team leader shouted at her,

“What clothes was he wearing? Just tell us what kind of clothes!”

Her quivering pupils turned toward the team leader. She heard the voice and understood the question—but she kept her lips sealed for fear that she or her boyfriend might be harmed.

Her phone was still with that devil.

“Ha… damn.”

Oh Gaeng and the team leader sighed deeply, immediately grasping her state of mind.

Meanwhile, Haesu, the youngest, and the Special Tactical Unit were scouring the area the woman had come from.

“Over here!”

At the unit's shout, Haesu rushed over. Inside the half-open container, blood was splattered everywhere, and the woman’s torn clothes were strewn on the floor.

But no one was inside.

The unit commander furrowed his brow and shouted,

“Spread out! Teams 1 and 2, follow me! We’re heading to the harbor!”

Haesu watched the unit disperse, then turned back to the scene and fell into thought.

‘Mo Chang-gwi, Mo Chang-gwi, where did you go…?’

The coast guard was on standby—if they could identify the ship, they could intercept it. But it wasn’t feasible to stop all ships and search for hours.

There was also a chance he hadn’t boarded a ship.

He tried to imagine what he would do in Mo Chang-gwi’s shoes—but that lunatic could go anywhere, and it was impossible to predict. Reading the mind of someone that unhinged was the hardest thing of all.

“Sunbae-nim, where should we go…?”

“Damn it….”

To the youngest member’s eyes, Haesu looked lost. It was the first time he had seen him like this.

It wasn’t just that the culprit had fled — Haesu was too fixated on the specific person, Mo Chang-gwi, to think clearly.

While the Violent Crimes Special Investigation Unit and the Special Mobile Unit were busy combing the area, a small boat in the distance was quietly on the move.

Mo Chang-gwi used the commotion caused by the woman to slip away and board another small fishing boat.

One look at the crew and the vessel screamed smuggling operation.

When a crew member approached him after seeing him sneak on board, Mo Chang-gwi grinned and formed a circle with his thumb and index finger.

“I’ve got money, so let me on.”

The crewman hesitated slightly, then waved his hand in a gesture to follow.

It didn’t matter if he had money or not — they could confirm that later. If he didn’t, they’d rob him; if he did, they’d still rob him and sell him off.

Whatever happened on the boat would simply sink into the sea.

Following the crewman led to a dark lower deck. When a door was opened there, a foul stench rushed out. In a space barely four pyeong in size, people were packed tightly.

Everyone looked disheveled and filthy.

“You want me to go in there?”

“If you don’t like it, get out.”

Mo Chang-gwi scowled deeply as he stepped inside, and the crewman slammed the door shut behind him.

He scanned the cramped area, looking down on the people like they were insects, but found no place to sit.

Not along the walls, not even the spot where he was standing offered any space to sit. Just as he was considering beating someone up for a seat, he felt a slight tug on his pants and looked down.

A boy, around ten years old, looked up at him silently and then wriggled his hips to make a little room. An invitation to sit.

He let out a dry chuckle and sat next to the boy.

“Hey, where’s this boat headed?”

“I don’t know.”

“You got on without even knowing where it’s going?”

“I was dragged here.”

Either kidnapped or sold off by some organization.

Mo Chang-gwi thought this was great. If it was human trafficking rather than mere smuggling, they’d be even more thorough in hiding the boat. That much less chance of the cops finding them.

“Mister, give me your hand.”

“What?”

Despite the dried blood caked all over him, the boy didn’t seem scared. He grabbed Mo Chang-gwi’s hand and pulled it toward him. Then he fished something out of his inner pocket.

It was a small, worn plastic pouch filled with various types of bandages, clearly scavenged from different places.

“I ran out of medicine, so this is all I have.”

He stuck a bandage on a scratch on Mo Chang-gwi’s forearm. Mo Chang-gwi stared at it silently before speaking.

“I’ll let you live.”

“Huh?”

Mo Chang-gwi didn’t bother explaining. He simply looked up at the iron door.

A moment later—

Screech—

The iron door creaked open and two thuggish crewmen appeared. One was the crewman who had brought him here, and the other had a bushy beard like a mountain bandit.

The bandit-like crewman scanned the people slowly and pointed to the boy next to Mo Chang-gwi.

“Hey, you. Come out.”

“M-Me?”

He only asked once. The answer came not from words, but from a foot.

Wham!

The boy collapsed under a heavy kick, then received several more to the stomach.

The bandit-like crewman grabbed the boy by the collar and hauled him up, panting as he glared around the room.

“Don’t make me say it twice. Unless you want to be fish food.”

The boy was dragged off. Not long after, the narrow-eyed crewman who had brought Mo Chang-gwi in returned.

“Hey, you. Come out.”

“Alright.”

Mo Chang-gwi followed him willingly. The surroundings were dark and deserted.

“Why’d you take the kid earlier?”

“Why? You wanna get beat too?”

It had been a while since he’d been treated this way. It was so novel it made him laugh. The crewman scowled at him.

“If you don’t want your guts spilled, wipe that look off your face. Now, your money. Hand it over.”

Mo Chang-gwi shrugged.

“I’ll give it to you once we reach land. But where are we going?”

To this, the crewman pulled out a rusty knife from his jacket and sneered, clearly used to intimidation.

“Ask too many questions and you’ll die. Let’s start with one of your fingers.”

“Alright.”

Mo Chang-gwi nodded, pulled a small knife from his own pocket, and without changing his expression, stabbed the crewman twice in the side and then drove the knife through the back of his hand against the wall.

It happened in an instant.

Stab. Stab. Crack!

“Guhhhh!!”

Before the scream could escape, Mo Chang-gwi clamped his hand over the man’s mouth and whispered in his ear.

“Where should I start? The pinky? Nah, too boring. Gotta start big. Let’s go with the thumb….”

Then he dragged the blade across the back of the hand and sliced off the crewman’s thumb.

“GUUURGH!!!”

The crewman groaned in pain, but Mo Chang-gwi’s grip was too strong for him to resist.

“Now you look ready to answer my questions. Or maybe not?”

The crewman nodded rapidly, five or six times in a single second. Tears filled his trembling eyes. Only then did Mo Chang-gwi remove his hand from the man's mouth.

“Where are we headed?”

“Sh-Shanghai.”

Mo Chang-gwi’s face twisted. He would’ve been fine with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan — anywhere but China.

His face was already too well-known there. Too many people wanted him caught.

“How many people are on the upper deck?”

“S-Seven….”

“Yeah? Got it.”

Mo Chang-gwi pulled out the knife and stabbed the crewman in the neck twice, then calmly walked past him.

The crewman slumped to the floor, blood spurting like a fountain along the hallway walls.

Upstairs, in the captain’s cabin on the deck—

Thud!

The boy, his face swollen, was thrown to the ground. The bandit-like crewman planted his foot on the boy’s head and jeered.

“Don’t understand what I’m saying? Don’t know Korean? Want me to say it in Chinese?”

“I-I’m sorry….”

Step. Step. Step.

Then came the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs, and a man slowly appeared, twirling a knife. A streak of blood — clearly someone else’s — stained his face.

Not just the bandit-like crewman, but the others behind him all frowned at the unfamiliar man.

“Who the hell are you?”

Mo Chang-gwi looked at the boy lying bloody on the floor, then turned his gaze to the bandit crewman.

“Turn the boat around. Head to Nagasaki.”

“What the hell are you babbling about, you crazy bastard?”