Jeong Taeui used his crutch to hit the head of the man reaching out to grab him. The man clutched his head in confusion and staggered back. Taeui seized the opportunity to run.

He didn’t know who they were, this had never happened before. When he was very young, because of his brother, he was often at risk of being kidnapped. But since growing up, this hasn’t happened anymore.

Jeong Taeui didn’t know what the purpose of these men chasing him was. Were they trying to kill him or just kidnap him? But with the appearance of that car, it was most likely the latter. If they wanted to kidnap him, then why? Suddenly, a thought crossed Taeui’s mind.

‘Was it Ilay?’

But then he shook his head. Ilay wasn’t the type to do something like this. If it was Ilay, he would have stepped out of the car himself.

‘So why? Who? What?’

“Wait. Maybe you’ve got the wrong person? I’m just an ordinary person! I’m dirt poor! My family doesn’t have any money!”

Damn it! Did these guys think he was related to Kyle just because they saw him leave Kyle’s mansion? They must be trying to profit from a wealthy family… But before planning a crime, they should spend some time doing their homework. What’s the likelihood that an Asian and a European are members of the same family, huh?

The possibility of it being Ilay was ruled out. So the remaining possibility was… could it be his brother?

Those thoughts crossed his mind. Although Jeong Taeui didn’t know where his brother was or what he was doing, his brother had always been tied to his life. Hadn’t he almost been kidnapped a few times because of his brother even when he was little? Now that he was grown, he thought it wouldn’t happen anymore, but maybe his brother knew something. That’s why these guys wanted to use his family as leverage to get something from him.

Jeong Taeui didn’t have time to think it through. After the man he hit with the crutch staggered, three other men immediately got out of the car behind and chased after him. Jeong Taeui looked around Kyle’s mansion, though it seemed close, it wasn’t close enough for him to escape these guys on crutches. Moreover, it wasn’t close enough for anyone to hear his screams. But he couldn’t stay calm in front of these men crazily chasing him without even knowing their identities.

“What the hell! You guys! You’ve got the wrong person! I don’t know who you’re after, but it’s definitely not me! Do you even know who I am?”

Jeong Taeui swung his crutch hard at one of the men, knocking him down. But the man he hit before immediately lunged at him, with the other two circling around behind Taeui. One of them mercilessly kicked Taeui’s cast-covered ankle.

A scream echoed in the void.

Unfortunately, having a cast on. If his leg hadn’t been in a cast, perhaps his eyes would be the ones suffering this much pain.

He desperately bit the hand of the man holding his forearm from behind. The man’s piercing scream filled one of Taeui’s ears as his teeth sank into the man’s flesh. At the same time, another man struck Taeui hard on the head. As a result, he had to release the man’s hand. His mouth and the man’s hand were covered in blood.

“What’s the matter, hey…. —buddy, you’ve got the wrong guy….——”

Jeong Taeui muttered weakly, mixed with groans as if he were about to suffocate. Just then, the first man he had hit with the crutch stepped forward.

“Right. I don’t know you. I don’t even know who you are, but it doesn’t matter to me who you are.”

The man approached with a grimace and a harsh voice. He spat blood, checking for any cuts inside his mouth, then grabbed Jeong Taeui’s chin from below. It felt like a light shock. For a moment, his vision sparked.

“I don’t know who you are, but you’re a guest of Kyle Riegrow and have been staying at his house for over ten days, right? A guest of Kyle Riegrow, he always likes all his guests.”

“So it doesn’t matter if you’re not that important, because after all, you’re not the only one.” The man whispered. But those words were fading from Jeong Taeui’s consciousness. He frowned, his eyes glittering as he tried to regain his obscured vision. A damp cloth was placed over Jeong Taeui’s nose. He frowned at the sudden medicinal smell emanating from the white cloth.

Damn it, this is the same trick he had pulled before, but compared to that monster, he couldn’t stay conscious for long.

Those were the last thoughts Jeong Taeui had before passing out. Darkness descended before his eyes.

***********************

Taeui had a headache. When he woke up, the first thing he felt was a sharp pain in his head. He opened his eyes, but before he could see anything, Taeui had to gasp and curl up, hugging himself.

His stomach churned. He felt nauseous.

Taeui groaned three or four times with nausea, but nothing came out.

The sour taste from his stomach rose to his throat, but that was it. Soon after, the nausea subsided.

“Damn….—, Luther, medicine….-.”

Jeong Taeui mumbled, hugging his head. Then he weakly thought: ‘Ah, I need to go to the clinic to find Luther.’ Luther would probably freak out if he demanded both a stomach pill and a headache pill at the same time.

“Do you want some water?”

It was an unfamiliar voice. Along with that voice, something soft touched his lips, and water flowed from it. Jeong Taeui’s mouth filled with the water being slowly poured in, and he hazily opened his eyes.

Was the ceiling spinning? His head was spinning, with the ceiling coming closer and then moving further away.

Jeong Taeui closed his eyes again, waited a moment, then opened them again. The ceiling was still spinning, but it seemed better than before. He closed his eyes again and opened them. It seemed better. He was still dizzy. But he had regained his composure. Jeong Taeui shook his head and held it, his head throbbing. The smell of the medicine still lingered in his throat.

“Are you calm now?”

Another voice spoke. Jeong Taeui finally gathered his senses and sat up. With a throbbing head and blurry vision, he saw four unfamiliar faces standing before him. Jeong Taeui blinked a few times and tilted his head, not only because they were strangers but also because he didn’t understand the situation.

This was a room. An empty room. There was a window, but someone had nailed it shut from the outside, blocking it so he couldn’t see out. The room was spacious, surrounded by wooden walls, floors, and ceilings, but apart from people, there was nothing in it. There were 5 people in total, all of whom Taeui had never seen before. They seemed to be of the same age, race, or even nationality. All were sitting down, leaning back, and looking at Jeong Taeui as he woke up.

“This place…”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head slightly and asked. He didn’t know what had happened. Just a blink of an eye, and it seemed like he had fallen into a new world.

Wait, what happened? So…. Luther? He woke up and wanted to find Luther. Was it Luther from UNHRDO? From that place, he went to Southeast Asia, traveled by land to Central Asia, then from Tashkent to Europe, and then….. Jeong Taeui ran his hand through his messy hair, frowning, trying to trace his memories. He remembered meeting Kyle and, unfortunately, bumping into Morer. So he tried to leave that mansion… Why hadn’t he left sooner?

‘Oh, my leg was hurt, so I went to the hospital.’

Jeong Taeui followed his memory to that moment, until the moment appeared in his mind. “Oh” – He whispered and nodded.

He had gone to the hospital, got a cast, and was on his way home. On the way, he met some suspicious people…. right, his memory had been interrupted by inhaling some sedative, and now… Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and tapped his head. Damn it. What the hell had they given him? It made his mind foggy and made him feel like he wanted to die from a headache if he used the wrong amount or inhaled it for the wrong duration. Above all, his mind was dizzy, and he couldn’t think clearly about anything, like a fool.

Perhaps it was just the lingering effects of the drug, making his head unable to function properly, but Jeong Taeui hated this feeling. The sensation of his body not feeling like his own was unbearable.

Even though his intellect might have been a bit lower compared to the average in his family, it seemed to deteriorate further in this situation. Jeong Taeui mumbled to himself and looked around at the people in the room.

‘Oh, excuse me. Everyone here was almost naked.’

Jeong Taeui thought without a hint of embarrassment, and when he looked at himself, he told himself again. Aww, I should be feeling embarrassed. Everyone was indeed naked, including himself.

Once again, there was not a trace of embarrassment on his face.

And guess what?

Those guys must have taken all his belongings, including his clothes, thinking that anything could be a threat in any other situation.

Jeong Taeui looked at the locked door and thought about the men guarding it outside, possibly including the one he had hit earlier.

“I don’t know what those guys are doing, but don’t they have any sense of aesthetics putting 5 nearly naked men in the same room….”

Jeong Taeui muttered, clicking his tongue in disapproval. The man next to him chuckled at that. Turning around, Jeong Taeui saw a leather water bottle that had been closed; it must have been the person who had given him water earlier.

“I don’t know who you are, but you stayed at Kyle Riegrow’s house for over ten days. A guest of Kyle Riegrow, he always loves all his guests.”

“So, it doesn’t matter if you’re not that important because you’re not the only one.”

Jeong Taeui sat up with a dizzy head, leaned against the wall, and quietly looked up at the ceiling, reflecting on what the man had said earlier. It didn’t take long for him to find an answer to this. The reason Jeong Taeui was brought here wasn’t because of something about him. He was just one of the targets.

…..If he wasn’t that important and he wasn’t the only one, then maybe they could overlook someone like him.

Jeong Taeui felt a bit petty and selfish as he looked back at the other naked people in the room.

But he placed his hand on his conscience and thought again. Kyle liked everyone. There should be a difference between treating close guests or less familiar ones, but it seemed like Kyle didn’t particularly care about any guest more than others. So, if it was just because he was staying in that house, he’d be fine if he wasn’t Jeong Taeui.

He hadn’t seen the other four before at that house. They might have stayed there when he wasn’t around, or they became acquainted with Kyle in a different way from Jeong Taeui. They might even be more important to Kyle than Jeong Taeui.

“Damn…. I wanted to enjoy my life, having fun without doing anything in that house, but it turned out like this.”

Nothing had been too terrible or uncomfortable since he left UNHRDO.

He had a superstitious thought that the feng shui of UNHRDO didn’t suit him, or the relationships there brought him bad luck, and that misfortune was over. But it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“Have we… been kidnapped?”

Jeong Taeui whispered to the man sitting next to him. Although soft, everyone could hear everything because the room was too quiet. Once again, all eyes gathered. The man Jeong Taeui questioned frowned, looked a bit worried, then shrugged.

“I guess so.”

“Um… I was caught by some guys who got out of a car while I was on the road. How about you?”

“Same here, got nabbed while jogging in the morning.”

Looking at the man speaking with a nonchalant expression as if it wasn’t a big deal, Jeong Taeui thought this man must also be someone important. Now he saw they were all the same. He rarely worried or feared the future. Everyone would feel a bit uncomfortable or worried, but it seemed they had no intention of escaping in fear of being kidnapped like this.

Jeong Taeui looked at them for a while, then up at the ceiling.

Sure enough, he didn’t know who this man was, but it seemed he had also stayed at Kyle’s house for a long time. They were just guests, but it seemed more than that. This was the attitude of people used to such situations, or those who believed they wouldn’t face any misfortune.

In other words, they were people at the top of society.

Whether it was a friend of Kyle or a business guest of his, Jeong Taeui scratched his head and thought: ‘I really am pitiful, still having to earn a living and stick with it.’ Then, he looked down at his feet. Since waking up, he has had a headache, so he didn’t think about it until now when he saw his cast-covered leg. His ankle started to throb from then.

Yeah, he had put all his body weight on his injured leg while running. If that’s the case, don’t think about overexerting this crippled leg anymore, and he’ll be fine. The leg seemed to have gone through quite a lot of pressure. If he could survive safely, the first thing he’d do was go to the hospital immediately.

“Damn, with a cracked ankle like this, it seems like I’ll have to go often….”

Taeui grumbled while touching the bandage on his ankle, even though he couldn’t feel anything. The man next to him clicked his tongue.

He said sadly.

“It doesn’t look comfortable; you seem to be in pain.”

“So what… I’m not the only one. Everyone got dragged into this mess by these unknown guys.”

Jeong Taeui looked at him and slightly smirked. Then, the man said: “That’s right”, and gave a vague smile. Seeing that smile, Jeong Taeui tilted his head. He didn’t know how to respond, so after thinking for a while, he asked directly.

“Do you know who those people are?”

The man frowned with a worried expression and thought for a moment, then said: “What?”

“Isn’t there something they want from Kyle’s company?”

He shrugged and bit his lip. He said he didn’t want to discuss uncertain things. The others also said a few words or something when both sides helped each other.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head again, recalling what Kyle had said before.

“A company that manufactures and trades weapons sounds grand, but simply put, we’re an arms dealer. So, of course, the company gets attacked a lot. Not to mention human rights organizations and religious groups, even rebels somewhere often attack us, and sometimes we’re also threatened by armed terrorist groups. In such cases, we’re not just trading weapons but have to arm our own side.”

“…..”

Jeong Taeui slowly shook his head. He couldn’t be sure, but he could vaguely guess what was happening. So from now on, the problem was…… how would Kyle handle this? This has happened a couple of times, so there must be a way. Jeong Taeui sighed in frustration. He also needed to find his brother first. He didn’t know how, but he had to find him first, and even if he escaped, he had to leave with him. So, based on past incidents, he had never encountered a situation like this, and even if he had, he didn’t need to worry or fret. Just wait for the house walls to collapse due to poor construction or for a police officer to receive a divine signal and find this room, and it would be resolved.

…..Those really are useless ideas.

Taeui closed his eyes. Now that the headache had subsided a bit, when he woke up after a sigh, the dizziness and headache seemed to have improved significantly.

And what will happen now.