Seo Jung-woo sensed that there were several men with guns on the third floor.

‘I thought this world and that world were very different, but this underworld isn’t much different at all.’

Seo Jung-woo threw a question toward the corner.

“Hey. Wasn’t South Korea supposed to be a gun-free country?”

According to the data he had gathered from the internet, South Korea was definitely a country where firearms were prohibited.

“Why do you guys have so many guns?”

One of the men on the third floor shouted furiously.

“You son of a bitch! There’s nothing you can’t get in Korea if you have the money!”

“They don’t sell guns at the mart, though?”

In the other world, stores stocked up on all kinds of guns and sold them openly.

The man kept yelling.

“You crazy bastard! You probably got yours from some foreigner who smuggled them in, too!”

“Oh, so that’s how you get guns here.”

“We’ve got plenty of guns! If you wanna live, get lost, you bastard!”

Seo Jung-woo assessed the enemy’s psychological state.

‘They’re scared.’

In the other world, when a one-versus-many battle breaks out, the side with more people usually takes the offensive. Some provide covering fire while others advance, making it difficult for the lone fighter to even poke their head out.

But here, despite having more guns, none of them were making a move.

Seo Jung-woo asked,

“Hey. Is Jeon Chang-su there?”

“Why are you looking for me, you bastard?!”

In the other world, Jeon Chang-su awakened his detection and shooting skills, took out his boss, and took over the organization. He even renamed it the White Shark Clan.

‘Since he couldn’t awaken his skills here, he probably couldn’t pull off a coup either.’

Seo Jung-woo took out a small mirror. It was an anti-glare coated mirror used to check around corners for monsters.

He subtly extended the mirror beyond the corner and retracted it before the enemy could react. He had exposed it for less than a second, but he had gathered all the necessary information.

‘Five with handguns, two with shotguns. And one down.’

The one on the ground was bleeding.

‘When Jeon Chang-su spoke, I also heard the sound of a gun being held close to a body. His weapon is a shotgun.’

Seo Jung-woo switched his pistol to full-auto mode and spoke.

“Hey. Jeon Chang-su!”

“Why are you calling…?”

The moment the others turned their attention to Jeon Chang-su’s words, Seo Jung-woo sprang out from the corner, cutting across in front of them while firing his pistol in a rapid burst.

His shooting lasted only a brief moment before he vanished behind the next corner.

For an ordinary person, firing a handgun on full-auto would significantly reduce accuracy. Firing wildly while moving quickly to the side makes it nearly impossible to hit a target.

However, Seo Jung-woo had high-level shooting skills and experience.

It took him less than a second to dash between corners, yet in that short moment, three men with handguns were hit and went down.

By the time he disappeared behind cover, the remaining four belatedly fired their weapons.

“Aaargh!”

The deafening gunfire echoed through the building as bullets thudded into the hallway walls.

Seo Jung-woo counted the shotgun impact marks on the walls.

‘Two double-barrel shotguns. Four spread marks. Four shotgun blasts heard.’

Shotguns are effective at hitting targets even with less precise aiming, but they have the drawback of limited ammo capacity. The ones these gangsters were using were double-barrel shotguns.

On the other hand, handguns hold more rounds but require precise aiming.

Seo Jung-woo suddenly leaped from the corner again. The two men with shotguns were frantically trying to reload, breaking open their guns.

Meanwhile, two handguns swung toward him in panic.

Seo Jung-woo noted the direction of the enemy’s gun barrels and fired at the one who aimed at him first. In full-auto mode, he lightly squeezed the trigger, releasing two bullets almost simultaneously.

“Gah!”

The other gun was aimed in the wrong direction. Seo Jung-woo planted two bullets in that man as well.

“Aaargh!”

Both gunmen collapsed.

Seo Jung-woo walked forward and shot each fallen man twice more.

Now, only the two with shotguns and the one lying on the ground remained.

The men who had been trying to reload were trembling in fear, their hands shaking so badly that they dropped their bullets onto the floor.

“Ugh, ugh…”

“P-please, spare us!”

The dropped bullets rolled across the floor and touched the blood of the man who had already been down.

Seo Jung-woo pointed at him.

“You guys were already in the middle of killing him, weren’t you? And now you’re begging for your lives?”

One of them hurriedly tried to explain.

“That bastard messed everything up! We were just punishing him!”

The voice was familiar. It was the same one that had responded earlier when Seo Jung-woo called out.

“Jeon Chang-su?”

“Y-you know me?”

“Not really.”

“T-then how do you know my name?”

“I’ve heard some rumors.”

In the other world, he had heard about the White Shark Clan’s leader.

‘They said he was a piece of shit.’

Seo Jung-woo asked,

“Let me ask properly this time. You kidnapped a detective last night, didn’t you?”

Jeon Chang-su’s face twisted.

“W-wait… Don’t tell me… Are you a detective?”

“Do I look like a detective to you?”

From what Jeon Chang-su knew, no detective in South Korea would storm in and start shooting like this.

Jeon Chang-su’s mind raced, but he couldn’t figure out who this man was. However, he was certain why he was here and firing his gun.

He quickly pointed at the man on the ground.

“That bastard is the culprit! He’s the one who kidnapped the detective, and because of him, we’re in a huge mess! We were just punishing him ourselves! If you want, take him! We won’t chase you, I swear!”

Seo Jung-woo checked the man’s face. It matched the one he had seen in the documents.

“This guy… He’s the boss of the Sagori Gang.”

“That’s right! That bastard handled things stupidly and—”

“And his stupidity got caught by that detective, so you kidnapped the detective to shut him up, right?”

“It was all his doing, I swear!”

“And what exactly was the Sagori Gang doing to get caught?”

“T-that’s…”

“The missing persons case that detective was investigating, right? But tell me, why did this guy come here and end up getting stabbed? Things must have escalated, so he probably came to you for help, asking you to clean up the mess. And now, you’re trying to cut him off to save yourselves.”

Seo Jung-woo asked Jeon Chang-su, the operations leader of the Knife Gang,

“Hey. What were you planning to do with those kidnapped people? Were you going to sell their organs?”

In the other world, there were people who kidnapped others and sold their organs for transplants. Of course, if caught, they were sentenced to death.

Jeon Chang-su quickly waved his hands in denial, his tone changing to formal speech.

“N-no, sir! We don’t have the facilities for that!”

“If you had the facilities for transplant surgery, you would’ve done it, wouldn’t you? So, where is that detective now?”

Jeon Chang-su pointed to the floor.

“That bastard did it, so only he knows.”

“Ah, only this bastard knows.”

Seo Jung-woo looked at the Sagori Gang boss, who had been stabbed and collapsed, and asked,

“Hey. Where’s that detective now?”

The Sagori Gang boss spoke in a dying voice.

“If I tell you… will you let me live?”

“You’re going to die anyway. You got stabbed properly in the stomach. Just by looking at it, the knife hit your liver. And judging by the multiple stab wounds, your other organs must be severely damaged too. Even if I call 119 now, they won’t get here in time. You’ll be dead before then.”

In that other world, a red potion could save someone even in this state. But those were in short supply, even for hunters.

“Shit. Then why the hell should I even answer…”

Seo Jung-woo sensed a killing intent behind him. The culprit was obvious.

He didn’t even turn around. He simply adjusted his gun’s direction backward and pulled the trigger.

He fired in full-auto mode until the magazine was empty.

Jeon Chang-su, who was about to throw a dagger at Seo Jung-woo’s neck, was hit by the bullets and thrown backward.

“Gaaah!”

There was another one besides Jeon Chang-su who had revealed his killing intent. But it didn’t matter. The barrage of bullets was overwhelming. The man beside Jeon Chang-su, who was about to draw his knife, was also struck by bullets and collapsed.

The reason he had fired so many bullets at just two people was to show the scene to the Sagori Gang boss.

Seo Jung-woo swapped in a fresh magazine and crouched down in front of the Sagori Gang boss.

“Shouldn’t you get revenge on the bastards who killed you? You saw me shooting those guys, right? If you tell me the truth, I’ll kill every last one of the Knife Gang members in this building. Take them with you to the afterlife.”

All the Knife Gang members in this building were already dead.

The Sagori Gang boss asked,

“Shit. You got a cigarette?”

Seo Jung-woo searched the body of a dead gangster and pulled out a cigarette. He placed it in the Sagori Gang boss’s mouth and even lit it for him.

The Sagori Gang boss explained,

“The Knife Gang bastards ordered all of this. I was just following their boss’s orders, but that bastard Detective Kim caught on, so I had no choice but to kidnap him. Then these bastards tried to kill me to cut off loose ends.”

“If you die, they can hide the fact that the Knife Gang was behind it.”

The police hadn’t yet figured out that the Knife Gang was the force behind the Sagori Gang. They only suspected three possible groups. If the Sagori Gang boss died like this, the case would go cold.

“Where is Detective Kim Jung-ho being held?”

“A warehouse.”

Instead of saying he was already dead, the boss answered with “a warehouse.”

‘That’s a relief.’

“What’s the warehouse’s address?”

The boss recited the address.

Seo Jung-woo asked,

“Is that warehouse yours?”

“It’s mine, but I had a woman I know buy it under her name. That way, it wouldn’t be easily found.”

“What’s her name?”

“Seon-mi. Kim Seon-mi.”

Seo Jung-woo asked something else.

“Why did you kidnap the others?”

“I don’t know. Only the boss knew the real reason, and you just shot him to death. That bastard. Good riddance.”

“Was the Knife Gang planning to release those people later?”

“Shit. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have kidnapped them in the first place.”

“Just as I thought.”

The trail for gathering information about the case was now cut off.

Seo Jung-woo decided to ask one last thing he was curious about.

“How did you know the detective caught on?”

“That’s…”

The Sagori Gang boss took a deep drag from his cigarette and then spoke.

“Damn, this cigarette tastes disgustingly good. Ah, shit. I wanted to live in style…”

Those were his last words. His head drooped to the side. The half-smoked cigarette was extinguished as it soaked in his blood.

Seo Jung-woo stood up.

“You kidnapped and tried to kill others just because you wanted to live in style, and that’s why you’re dying so miserably now. And even as you die, you’re putting on airs? You should’ve used that time to tell me how the detective caught on.”

Seo Jung-woo pulled a thermite grenade from inside his coat.

“Still, since you answered the other questions properly, I’ll cremate you.”

The grenade was small enough that only its two ends were visible when gripped in one hand.

The thermite mixture inside contained an extract from a fire lizard’s bodily fluids. Thanks to that extract, this small grenade could unleash incredibly intense flames.

Seo Jung-woo pulled the safety pin and tossed it onto the third floor. As soon as he started descending the stairs, flames erupted from the third floor.

He threw another grenade onto the second floor. In the second-floor CCTV room, he made sure to toss in an extra one. The recording device storing the CCTV footage was engulfed in flames.

Finally, he threw one onto the first floor to wrap things up.

The moment he stepped out of the building, the first-floor grenade ignited.

The entire building was swallowed by flames.

A fire truck was dispatched after a local resident reported the blaze.

However, the firefighters were taken aback upon arriving at the scene.

The entire three-story building was engulfed in flames—not just burning, but raging violently.

The fire chief made a quick decision upon seeing the situation.

“Forget about going inside.”

“Are you sure?”

“Entering that building is basically a death sentence. No matter what gear you wear, you’d die for sure. We have to contain the fire from the outside.”

“Understood. But how did this fire even start to burn like this?”

“No idea. With it burning like this, figuring out the cause will be tough.”

After distancing himself from the scene, Seo Jung-woo put his coat into his bag. He also packed away his gun. His appearance was now completely different from before.

He put on a white face mask. Since many people wore masks due to fine dust, he didn’t stand out.

He then took a bus toward the warehouse address given by the Sagori Gang boss.

While heading there, he calculated the travel time.

‘From the police station to the now-incinerated Knife Gang hideout, the bus ride takes an hour. Even by taxi, it’s at least over thirty minutes.’

Earlier, he had used his Parallel Dimension Teleportation skill to move from the police station to the Knife Gang’s hideout. If he used the skill like that again, he could travel long distances without wasting time.

Just ten minutes after he left the police station, the Knife Gang’s building was burning. The gunfight had happened even earlier. He had used a silenced pistol, but the Knife Gang had fired regular handguns and even hunting shotguns wildly. There was no way people hadn’t heard it.

‘By now, my alibi should be solid. The real question is whether the missing people are actually in that warehouse.’

This time, the boss was dying, so there was no chance to ask again and verify the address.

‘I’ll have to check for myself.’

That was the best option now.

‘If they aren’t there, I’ll find any surviving Sagori Gang members and feed them a few bullets. At least one of them will talk.’