Chapter 157 – Death Row (2)
Lim Jeong-hu left his home late at night.
In a capitalist society, freedom without money is not freedom.
Since his ability his is not the kind suitable for stealing, he has no choice but to go back to bread sooner or later unless he earns money separately.
But, seeing as he sneaks out of the house at night, he doesn’t seem to be doing the very respectable kind.
After calmly following him, we knew his destination his before long.
“Are you going to the black market?”
When Lim Jung-hoo was in society, the black market would not have existed…
He seems to have completed vocational training (?) In prison.
In prisons dedicated to hunters, even single rooms were provided to prevent prisoners from sharing know-how, but…
However, as much as we basically live in a group, we couldn’t completely block communication.
Lim Jeong-hoo’s intention was obvious when he wandered around the black market for a while.
Hunters are basically people with power.
If they are determined to get their hands dirty, they can easily make money.
“Are you looking for a fixer?”
“I guess so.”
Fixers, Brokers…
Black market criminal brokers were called by quite a few different names.
Lim Jung-hoo was an A-rank hunter during his active career.
I can’t even join a guild anymore…
It would be too wasteful to quietly rot such a person’s ability.
“It’s a scenario I roughly expected.”
“Can’t I catch it soon?”
“No. Let’s wait.”
Still, Lim Jung-hoo somehow succeeded in contacting Fixer, as if he had learned quite hard in prison.
Fixer let him in at once, as if he had been notified in advance.
[Welcome. I was waiting. I heard you were Class A during your active duty?]
[Right. I heard that I have some work to do…]
[Nowadays, this is also a manpower shortage. Because of that guy’s special unit, everyone was stuck. Anyway, welcome.]
When he received a compliment from a completely unexpected place, his shoulder shrugged slightly.
Tiado sighed ahem ahem beside her, then fell silent after receiving Alice’s glare.
“Be quiet.”
“Yes, sister…”
In the meantime, Lim Jung-hoo went through a simple test.
No matter how much he received a recommendation from an acquaintance, he cannot blindly put it into practice.
Lim Jeong-hu’s ability is rock control.
It’s kind of similar to the sandking you arrested before.
A dangerous ability that can cause sandstorms at rank A and even tilt large buildings.
Of course, there are many places that can be used for crime.
Fixer had a happy face as if he had already counted money.
If you can roll Imjeonghu properly, it will be possible to receive corporate-level requests.
It is only natural that the construction industry is looking forward to it since it is a platform where large amounts of money move.
The old death row inmate nodded confidently and used his powers in front of their eyes.
[Huh!]
Bubbling…
As he exerted his power, the basement floor began to bubble.
The floor, which had been fine, turned into liquid in an instant.
However, the scale was not very great.
“What is it? Did you adjust your strength?”
“I don’t think so…”
At that level, I wonder if it would be appropriate to judge C rank, let alone A rank.
It’s not to the extent that I can’t use it at all, but it’s far short of my.
Even Lim Jeong-hu was sweating profusely.
[Now, what about it?]
[… ?]
[Wait, is it over? Is that all?]
[Okay. Isn’t this enough?]
Surprisingly, Lim Jeong-hu seemed to be quite proud of his ability.
As I was completely lost in her direction of her, Alice clicked her tongue lightly next to her.
“Ah, I see.”
“What?”
“Lim Jeong-hu, that human… It’s a case that was fortunately overrated. In technical terms, it’s a water rocket.”
“Everything in the world is a technical term.”
If you think about it now, it makes sense.
Over the past 20 years, Hunter averages have steadily improved…
Of course, the difficulty of the Hunter level test was also raised accordingly.
It is the same as the difference between the civil service exam 20 years ago and the civil service exam of today.
Besides, usually Hunters’ abilities age just like their bodies.
Lim Jeong-hu rotted in prison for 20 years…
It was unavoidable that his abilities would deteriorate, let alone improve.
Because I haven’t been able to use my abilities at all.
Lim Jung-hoo also noticed it belatedly and made an excuse.
[My… It’s been a while since I came out of bread. If you have a little more time…]
[Ah, yes. Then come at that time.]
[What? Do I need work right now?]
[That’s your situation.]
[You bastard, don’t you have a mother and father? Where is the blue-eyed bastard… Even if I look like this, I am a man of national merit! I fought a monster!]
In an instant, the nutmeg started to run rampant in case someone wasn’t a criminal.
He cursed so much that it was uncomfortable to overhear.
In fact, Lim Jeong-hu’s participation in combat operations was less than three times, and even that was a relatively safe type.
He had committed murder before he even participated in a large-scale raid.
In the end, Lim Jeong-hoo was kicked out after being beaten up by the security guards at the black market.
It was the price to pay for shouting and shouting that I would report it.
“…”
“That’s why I need to watch it first.”
I can’t believe I couldn’t commit a crime because of my lack of ability.
In any case, Lim Jeong-hoo did not commit a crime tonight after all.
Seo Ji-yu looked very uncomfortable at not being able to arrest him.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before that person commits another crime…”
“Maybe. But you can’t arrest him for a crime he didn’t commit.”
I responded as calmly as possible, but on the other hand, I sympathized with Seo Ji-yu.
From the point of view of ordinary citizens living a good life, it would be unsettling to see such an ex-convict walking around in society.
It is a law to restrict the freedom of the people under the pretext of running the state, but it is only after the victim has occurred that the law actually works.
Even relapse prevention is not working properly.
It is practically impossible to monitor all criminals who have come out into society.
In most cases, once a criminal has served his sentence, there is no way around it.
Innocent citizens are left defenseless until they commit another crime.
From this point of view, it is not at all incomprehensible that talk of the resurrection of the death penalty is frequent.
I also want to put him back in jail as soon as possible.
But… No matter what anyone says.
The future is unknown.
There is no guarantee that a fluke like today will not happen again to Lim Jeong-hoo.
There is also no guarantee that he won’t change his mind.
Human beings can only observe what has already happened.
“That’s something you don’t know.”
“…”
“Everyone did a good job. Let’s withdraw today. Leave a minimum number of people and rest.”
[Yes, chief.]
Ultimately, the investigation collapsed without much success.
It’s nice to see that his abilities were much weaker than expected.
Unlucky or fortunate
It wasn’t long after that that we saw him again.
Lim Jeong-hu was arrested while doing ramblings at a bank in broad daylight.
According to his own testimony his, he tried to rob a bank …
No one, including the police, thought so.
He yelled at me to put him back in jail.
Kim Jeong-tae and his teammates threw him into a confinement room.
“Good job Jeongtae. What did he say?”
“This time, I want you to arrest me for murder, not bank robbery.
“It sucks.”
Even as I snorted a little, I started thinking about it again.
“Seeing that bastard do that, I think the treatment in the hunter-only prison is too good?”
“Well… The facility itself is state-of-the-art. He’s spent half his life in prison.”
If you’ve been around that long, prison will feel more like home than society.
At least there you won’t have to worry about getting a place to sleep and food.
“If this was the case, it might have been better for the death row sentence to be upheld. It seems that death row prisoners are treated well in prison.”
“What does he do?”
“It’s kind of a pity to waste tax money on that guy… But let’s waste our tax money at this point. He’s a guy who would do anything if released to society anyway. Can we prosecute this as a banky?”
“He went in without a weapon, so… I’m going to weave it for violating the Hunter Act.”
“Okay.”
It ended up being very strange and bittersweet.
As always, Tia didn’t get tired of eating while I was working.
This time he waits, not knowing where he got it.
“Have you ever been a cheap snack? The range of defense is really wide.”
“I like anything delicious!”
“But isn’t this junk food?”
Alice seemed a bit uneasy, but I shook my head.
“Not everything that is cheap and colorful is bad. If you get to know them, they are also victims of false news.”
“Oh yeah?”
Alice, who was relieved only then, quickly stole Tia’s snack and ate it.
Tia became really happy with this one snack.
“Perhaps Tia might be strong as a creature.”
“Me, me?”
“Yes. Feeling great pleasure in such trivial things is a kind of strength. Should I say that I have a high resistance to stress…”
“Whoops. It’s nice to be praised by the master for the first time in a while.”
“I wouldn’t have been so stingy with praise?”
“Whoa!”
“Oh, yes. You eat too.”
We chatted for a while and had a snack time.
