“Siyeon-ah! Siyeon-ah!!”
Jiye rushed into the police station, out of breath.
“Jiye-ssi…”
There, Hye-won and Siyeon’s kindergarten teacher had already arrived.
“Hye-won-ssi. What in the world is going on right now?”
Hye-won and Ji-hye had been in touch with each other continuously.
Siyeon had said she would no longer stand in front of the camera.
Hye-won believed that Siyeon would eventually become a star.
She wanted to bring her into TM Entertainment as a child actress or a trainee for a girl group someday.
Since they had been close, Hye-won had invited Siyeon over to her house this time as well.
“I heard that Siyeon and Cha-yeong were playing at your house today…”
She had allowed Cha-yeong to invite Siyeon to her house.
Ji-hye, who had been spending time alone, had been contacted by Hye-won and rushed to the police station without even putting on her shoes properly.
“I was a bit late because of my schedule.”
“But how could you leave her with the teacher like that…”
“I… I was going to call Cha-yeong’s mom, so I went inside to get my phone for a moment. And in that time… H-huh… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, ma’am. Really…”
Thud-
Ji-hye collapsed to the floor.
The kindergarten teacher bowed her head, crying from guilt.
Hye-won was holding back tears, but they were clearly welling up.
“Please, sit here, ma’am. It’ll be alright.”
The police officer helped Jiye sit down in a chair.
Thankfully, Hye-won was able to use her connections to mobilize an excellent police force.
With the agency’s support, the operation could begin immediately.
“Earlier, we received a call from the kidnappers on Hye-won-ssi’s phone. They demanded 10 billion won and said they would call again later to tell us to prepare the money.”
One of the detectives in charge of the case explained the situation to Jiye.
Before Jiye arrived at the station, Hye-won had already received the kidnapper’s call.
“10 billion… that kind of money…”
“It’s alright. Of course, we won’t give those criminals 10 billion. We’re currently tracking the call to trace their location. Once we pinpoint it, we’ll deploy officers right away.”
“Detective… Do you think our child will be okay? If anything happens to Siyeon… I… Huh…”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. Their primary goal is money. They won’t harm the kids immediately. And Siyeon seems to be holding up well. When the kidnappers asked for the parents’ phone numbers, Siyeon stayed quiet and didn’t say a word.”
“Really…?”
“The child on the call earlier is Hye-won-ssi’s, right? Was it Cha-yeong? She gave the number, and only Hye-won-ssi received a call from the kidnappers. During the call, we could hear the children’s voices… Actually, I’ll let you listen to the recording of the call.”
Thankfully, Hye-won had quickly acted, so the police were able to record the conversation with the kidnappers.
The detective played the recording for Jiye.
“So, our great actress isn’t it? You should be able to prepare about 10 billion, right? We’ll call again later, so have the money ready!”
“What about my child? Is my Cha-yeong safe? If you touch her even a little…”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s fine. But if you don’t hurry up and prepare, she might not be. Want me to let you hear their voices? Here, kids. Mommy’s here.”
“Mom! Mommaaaahhhhhh!!”
After the kidnapper’s voice, Cha-yeong’s crying could be heard.
A little while later, Siyeon’s voice followed.
“Cha-yeong’s mom, don’t worry. Hey. Quiet down.”
“Ha. You little… Are you not crying because she’s not your mom? You didn’t even answer when I asked for your mom’s number. Is your mom even there?”
“Whether I have a mom or not is none of your business. Go ahead, kill me. Even if I die, I won’t open my mouth.”
“…?”
The voice of a 7-year-old girl rang out with a fierce tone.
Hearing her child’s voice, Jiye was momentarily stunned.
“…Did our Siyeon really say that?”
“Surprisingly, yes. Anyway, that’s how the call went to Hye-won-ssi. We are tracking it now. The kids seem safe for now, so please trust us and wait.”
“But… What if they really do kill her, detective?”
“They won’t. Their goal is money. I guess it’s a bit fortunate, but Siyeon seems to be holding up well.”
Is it right to say it’s fortunate?
Jiye, whose tears had stopped, was overwhelmed with thoughts.
She had always known her child was unusual, but to speak like that even in a kidnapping situation… Maybe it was because her father had shown her too many spy movies.
“But she should’ve said her mom’s phone number, then I could go save her, Siyeon…”
What if Cha-yeong wasn’t there with her?
Maybe she would have stayed quiet and Siyeon would’ve died.
Thinking that made Jiye dizzy and tears began to well up again.
“I’m sorry, Jiye-ssi. It’s because of me…”
“…It’s not your fault. Hye-won-ssi, you must be going through a tough time too, but let’s get through this together.”
“Jiye-ssi…”
Hye-won, who had been holding back her tears, now cried uncontrollably.
Since she had just heard her daughter’s voice, Jiye didn’t cry as much as Hye-won did.
Maybe it was because her daughter’s unexpected response had made her lose her sense of reality.
“Siyeon-ah…”
Even so, it was natural to worry about Siyeon.
While waiting, various thoughts came to her mind.
There were stories that children involved in kidnapping cases rarely return alive.
Some had paid the ransom and still couldn’t get their children back.
As she thought about these things, tears started flowing again.
“Looks like they’ve already tipped off the police, what do we do, bro?”
“Hey, are you stupid? Just keep running around, take the money and leave. We’ll bury them properly. The kids are in our hands, what can they do?”
“True, but is the kid’s mom really that actress, Joo Hye-won?”
“Yeah, that’s her. Lucky for us, huh? Hehehe.”
In some unknown abandoned building, Cha-yeong and I were tied up side by side, thrown onto the dusty floor.
“Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
“Shut up, you asshole!”
‘…! Hmph, hmph, hmph… Hmph…’
As Chae-young cried loudly, the man threw a rock at us.
Startled, Chae-young hiccups.
She didn’t stop crying, but she tried to muffle it.
Pathetic. You’re crying over nothing.
You’re not good enough for my team.
He also dialed his mum’s number in a panic.
Of course, I was undeterred and kept my mouth shut.
Not divulging information is one of the basics.
When the situation is urgent, I will take my own life.
But this wasn’t a situation where I was ready to give up and take my own life.
From a cursory glance, their combat capabilities are poor.
My current body is too small to cope with their surprise.
It’s a shame, because if I were a little bigger, I wouldn’t have fallen for their tricks.
But that didn’t stop me from escaping.
I am Nameless. I am the one who ruled the darkness of the continent.
Even in my seven-year-old body, I could have run through any number of them.
In my heart, I wanted to kill them all, but it was difficult in this world.
The laws of this world are different from my previous life.
There is a system of self-defence, but even in this situation, it would be troublesome if I killed them.
Is it a characteristic of a world with more sunshine?
I don’t know what the underworld is doing in this world.
I’m getting used to it, but there’s a lot I don’t like about it.
‘…Chae-young. Stop it.’
‘Whoa, whoa… Ung…?’
‘We will begin our escape in exactly three minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Can you run?’
I’m on a mission.
And it would take a lot of concentration to do it in this body.
I couldn’t play a child in this situation.
What I need now is a high level of concentration.
I don’t want to lose my cool and lose my conviction.
‘Ha, but mum’s waiting for you……’
Chae-young whispered after me in a low voice.
She’s not the kind of person I’d want in my crew.
Chae-young’s mum is a well-known clown in this world.
And from what I’ve seen, she’s no good as an assassin.
I didn’t think a mere clown would save us.
And even if someone did come to our rescue, it would be faster for me, Nameless, to escape on my own.
‘Then you stay here. I’ll escape.’
‘…! Shi, no! Don’t leave me!’
‘Then follow me carefully. You have two minutes and 54 seconds.’
‘Ugh, yeah!’
Chae-young’s face was covered in tears and snot.
But she calmed down and didn’t cry.
I’ll settle for this, at least I can still run.
‘Hey, I’m going to smoke a cigarette, so keep an eye out.’
‘What? You’re going to go out and smoke?’
‘I gotta take a shit, man. And if you smoke in a place like this, it’ll catch fire. Can’t you see the dust flying?’
‘You’ve smoked in a construction site before. Eek.’
‘Yeah. I see.’
Six enemies in total. Two of them just left.
This should make things easier. I can take out four of them single-handedly.
The two that just left were the higher ranking ones.
That’s it.
I succeeded in untying the knot in my hand.
Undoing rope bondage without tools is a basic of basics.
So, when restraining an expert assassin like me, it’s normal to use magic or metal. They’re quite careless.
Of course, if it were me, I would’ve untied those things too.
I quietly untied Chae-young’s restraints while keeping my position hidden.
“…Oh!”
“Be quiet. We have one minute and fifty-nine seconds left.”
If it’s just dealing with four of them, I could do it in even less time.
So, according to the calculations, I’ll start acting in one minute and nineteen seconds.
Forty seconds. That’s how long it would take to neutralize the four of them.
If it were my original body, it wouldn’t take even ten seconds.
But with the burden of Chae-young and my current seven-year-old body…
And adding in some extra time for any possible situations, that’s the time I calculated.
Forty seconds is embarrassing for me.
The body of a child is incredibly inconvenient.
I thought to myself that I needed to drink more milk and then wrapped the rope around one arm.
‘3.2.1.
Swoosh—
And when the time came,
I swiftly jumped up from my position with the rope in my hand.
“…What, what’s going on?”
“How?!”
“Hey, grab him!”
The idiots who had been laughing were startled when I untied myself and scrambled to move.
Completely untrained, pathetic movements.
They were nothing but a disorganized mess. If this had been my previous life, they wouldn’t even dare to look me in the eye.
Swoosh—
I threw the rope that had been tying me under the legs of one of them.
I had tied it in a way that would form a knot with a hole big enough for an adult male’s foot, so I could trip them.
“Whoa~!”
“What the hell?!”
“Ahh!”
“Ah, damn it!”
Crash!
The guys caught in the rope fell to the ground all at once.
It was quite a ridiculous sight, seeing four grown men tumble to the floor.
Swish—
I quickly used the remaining rope to entangle them.
I didn’t tie it neatly.
I just made sure to tangle the rope and them together, blocking their movement for a while.
I didn’t need to waste time and energy tying them up completely, since I could escape during this time.
“What, what the hell! My body…!”
“Hey, damn it! Just cut it!”
One of them pulled out a knife from his pocket and started cutting through the tangled rope.
But I had already accounted for that.
At that speed, they couldn’t beat me.
If they had guns, it would have been a more complicated operation, but…
• I confirmed in the car earlier that they didn’t have firearms.
And the forty seconds passed.
That meant it was time to escape.
As I thought, I immediately started running, but
“…What are you doing?!”
Chae-young was sitting blankly on the floor.
When I saw that and shouted, only then did Chae-young sluggishly get up.
How could she not even calculate the time? I never expected her to be this incompetent.
I had timed it to be exactly forty seconds, not a millisecond more or less.
“770F!”
She even stumbled and fell back to the floor, her knees scraped and tears welling up.
In that time, about 4.9 seconds were delayed.
If it had been my previous self, I would’ve had enough time to kill seventeen enemies.
“Ugh… so pathetic…”
That meant the operation was off-track.
I didn’t think she’d be unable to run on time.
“Damn it. What the hell is this kid?”
“Hah, this is so ridiculous.”
“Hey! Grab him! That kid was acting weird earlier.”
And by then, they had already cut through all the ropes.
“Hu, hu-uh… Huaaahhh—!”
They began to move again.