Actually, Dad Was a Hero

Chapter 29: Secret

Flustered, Jin Beom-Min wiped the sweat off his forehead, his eyes darting around before he asked in a low voice,

“You know too?”

Seong-Gyun shook his head, replying in a sharp tone.

“No. Nuna is a caveman who barely uses the internet. She probably doesn’t even know this video exists.”

“. . .What about other people?”

“Normally, people wouldn’t think that an ordinary middle-aged man suddenly started slashing zombies in Europe.”

“That’s . . . . good.”

Seong-Gyun frowned, staring at Jin Beom-Min, then put his smartphone away and asked in a serious tone,

“Was it true? What Dad said?”

“What do you mean?”

“That Dad was a hero.”

“Well . . . . Dad doesn’t lie.”

“He doesn’t. He went to France, saying it was a business trip to the countryside.”

“Uh . . . . He went to the European countryside. . . .”

Seeing Seong-Gyun’s glare at the ridiculous excuse, Jin Beom-Min gave a wry smile and replied,

“I’m sorry. Because you guys didn’t believe me. . . . And it’s actually a national secret.”

“National secret? Why?”

“Uh . . . . It just happened that way.”

After rolling his eyes for a moment, Seong-Gyun grinned and asked,

“Then I should keep it a secret?”

“Right.”

“Just like that?”

“What?”

Seong-Gyun leaned back comfortably and suggested,

“A 50% increase in allowance.”

“No way.”

“Then I’ll spread the word everywhere?”

“Then the NIS will arrest you. Those guys are scary.”

“How can they arrest someone without a warrant in a country governed by law?”

“Oh dear, you little thing. . . . Do you know anything about the 80s and 90s? How scary the NIS was?”

In fact, Jin Beom-Min had moved to Earth in 1992, so he didn’t know about the 80s either.

However, after meeting his wife, who was an activist at the time, he had studied various things and knew quite a bit about the modern history of South Korea.

“And with Dad being this strong, do you think he’d just stand by and watch his son get arrested?”

“Oh dear. . . . You’re so slick. . . . I’ll raise it by 10%. No more than that.”

“30%.”

“10% and a culture voucher every month.”

“A 10,000 won one?”

“A 5,000 won one, of course.”

“Let’s make it 10,000 won.”

“. . .Alright.”

Seong-Gyun grinned and held out his hand. As Jin Beom-Min frowned and shook his hand, Seong-Gyun suddenly perked up his ears, turned his head, and said,

“Oh, Nuna is coming out.”

“Really?”

“They just announced her name. Jin Su-Yeon from Semyung High School.”

“Where, where?”

“There, the third from the right.”

Su-Yeon, dressed in a white fencing uniform, looked quite nervous. Her short hair tied tightly behind her head made her eyes look sharper.

“Ooh, she looks pretty cool.”

“She looks similar to Dad in his armor.”

“Hey, you’re supposed to keep it a secret.”

“Alright, alright.”

Jin Beom-Min took a deep breath and shouted in a booming voice,

“Jin Su-Yeon, fighting!”

“Ah, geez! My eardrums are going to burst!”

Su-Yeon, who was looking around for a moment, spotted him and Seong-Gyun and gave a small smile.

“Fighting!”

“Jin Su-Yeon, win!”

At Seong-Gyun and Jin Beom-Min’s cheers, Jin Su-Yeon nodded slightly and put on her mask.

“Hmm. . . .”

Others might not have noticed, but Jin Beom-Min could definitely feel it.

The sharp killing intent emanating from her the moment she put on the mask.

‘She really is my daughter. . . .’

The solid energy felt in her stance and even her smallest movements.

It was an aura that only someone who had honed their skills for a long time and had confidence in themselves could exude.

“Su-Yeon seems to be the best here.”

“Oh dear, you’re such a daughter-fool.”

“Hey, I know the most about swordsmanship here.”

“You’re not supposed to say that.”

“Ah, right.”

The scoreboard lit up, and Su-Yeon’s match began.

“Jin Su-Yeon, fighting!”

“Let’s go!”

The father and son, forgetting their previous conversation, started cheering at the top of their lungs.

******

Inside a dark room.

A young man with dark skin and tattoos all over his body was bobbing his head and tapping on the keyboard while wearing headphones.

The smoke rising from the cigarette butts in the ashtray swirled in the light emanating from three large monitors.

Creak―

The thick iron door opened, and a bright yellow light poured onto the young man’s back.

The young man took off his headphones and greeted in English cheerfully,

“Oh, Director.”

“Yes, Jack. How are things going?”

The man called Director was a tall man who looked to be in his 60s.

His gray hair was streaked with white, but his movements were agile, belying his age.

“Well, I still need more data.”

The young man scratched his head and clicked the mouse. The three monitors were filled with small videos.

People in black silhouettes appearing on grainy black and white screens, a black van speeding down the road while firing guns, and a man in armor swinging a sword.

The dozens of videos displayed on the screen were all combat footage of Jin Beom-Min and Ghost Squad.

Some were captured by CCTV cameras in Paris, and some were uploaded online by survivors who managed to film with their smartphones.

The footage was shaky and the quality was poor, but the figures of Jin Beom-Min and the Ghost Squad members were clearly recognizable.

“I’ve finished the gait and skeletal analysis. But the accuracy is still lacking.”

“What’s the accuracy rate?”

“About 80%.”

Gait and skeletal analysis using artificial intelligence was an important clue that could identify a person without their face.

However, as always, theory and reality were different.

If they had clear, high-definition footage taken from various angles, it would be a different story. But with the poor quality CCTV footage and shaky smartphone videos, it wasn’t enough to obtain the necessary data.

Still, they had gathered quite a substantial amount of data, so they could improve the accuracy based on the data collected from each source. But that was the limit.

“80%. . . Then it’s almost meaningless.”

“Well . . . it could be used to narrow down the candidates once we have a smaller pool.”

“Would other clues help?”

“Anything would.”

The man called Director closed his eyes for a moment and then slowly spoke,

“You already know he’s Korean. He’s probably in his 40s.”

“Oh? How do you know? He was wearing a mask.”

“Hmm, there’s a reason I climbed to this position so quickly.”

“Haha, well . . . I understand.”

“Does that help?”

The young man tapped on the keyboard for a moment and then shrugged,

“Well, I’ve narrowed down the candidates from roughly 400,000 to 20,000.”

“Are you sure he’s among them?”

The dark-skinned young man grinned and gestured around with his hand,

“According to our database, yes.”

The walls of the dark room were lined with server racks filled with computers.

If it weren’t for the large air conditioners placed throughout the room blowing cool air, the two men would have been half-cooked by the heat emanating from the numerous computers.

“Besides, Korea is a country with a ton of CCTV cameras. You can practically say they have data on almost the entire population.”

“I see. . . . How much more information do you need to confirm?”

The young man pondered for a moment, then replied in an uncertain tone,

“A high-definition video taken from the front. . . . Or a video of him performing everyday actions for more than two hours would do.”

“Everyday actions?”

“Not sword fighting. Those movements are difficult to compare with CCTV data.”

“. . .I understand. I’ll look into it.”

“Yes, sir.”

The old man, called Director, paced around the room for a moment and then spoke again in a low voice,

“This is a very important matter. Please do your best.”

“Heh heh, I know. The bounty on this man’s identity on the dark web is 30 million dollars.”

The old man chuckled and slowly approached the young man from behind. He placed his hands on the young man’s shoulders and applied pressure as if giving a massage.

“Ouch, ugh!”

“I know you’re skilled, Jack. . . .”

The young man twisted his body and groaned in pain. The old man’s hands were digging deep into his shoulders like steel hooks.

“But you’d better not even think about selling this information on the side. . . .”

“Ugh, I, I won’t. . .! I wouldn’t do that. . .!”

“You know I didn’t get to this position just with my brains, right?”

“I, I know. . .! Ah, it hurts. . .! Ugh!”

The old man released his grip and quickly took two steps back, as if preparing for a counterattack.

However, the tattooed young man only clutched his shoulders and groaned in pain, showing no signs of defiance.

“We know everything, Jack. Your face, address, lifestyle, even your sleeping habits.”

The old man pointed to the rows of computers and continued,

“Don’t forget that your information is also included in the 3 billion pieces of information stored in here.”

“Gasp. . . Gasp. . . . Yes. . . .”

The old man stared at the young man writhing in pain and then turned around.

******

“Oh dear. . . .”

Jin Beom-Min wiped the black grease off his hands with a dry rag and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Please, just start. . . Please. . . .”

He muttered to himself like a prayer and carefully turned the key.

Grumble, clang, clang, clang―

But the old 1.5-ton truck only made a rattling sound, the engine refusing to start.

“Ugh, this damn truck!”

Jin Beom-Min instinctively tried to slam the steering wheel but stopped himself. He might break the steering wheel if he hit it too hard.

In fact, a few years ago, on a cold winter day, the engine suddenly wouldn’t start, and he had carelessly slammed the steering wheel.

As a result, he had to spend quite a bit of money replacing not only the battery but also the steering wheel.

The battery was a consumable, but the steering wheel wasn’t.

There was no need to make an already unhealthy child even worse.

He sighed, carefully lowered his hand, and turned the key again without thinking.

Vroom!

This time, the engine started without any problems.

“Oh, it works!”

Jin Beom-Min cheered, closed the half-open car door, and released the parking brake.

And just as he was about to step on the pedal and leave, a question popped into his head.

“. . .But why am I doing this. . .?”

It had already been an hour since he left the house to work out at headquarters. He had wasted a precious hour because of this 10-year-old junk truck.

Fortunately, nothing special happened today, but if a monster had appeared, innocent people could have lost their lives because of this clunker.

Even in monetary terms, it was the same. For him, who earned a daily wage of 100 million won, an hour’s delay due to a car breakdown was worth at least 10 million won.

Of course, today was a day off.

“. . .Well, whatever. I can buy a car, can’t I?”

He had enough money. He hadn’t yet received the payment for the incident in France, but the money he had received so far was more than enough to buy a car.

In fact, he could have bought not just one car but several luxury imported cars.

It was just that he had lived a frugal life all his life, so he hadn’t thought about where to spend his money.

“Hmm. . . .”

Come to think of it, there were many reasons why he should change his car.

The old 1.5-ton truck, with its mileage approaching 150,000 km, was meticulously maintained, but it was nearing the end of its lifespan.

Besides, now that he had quit tiling, there was no reason to stick with a truck that had a poor ride and no airbags.

It was time to buy a safer and more comfortable car.

Especially if he considered his children.

No matter how much they didn’t care, a father driving a luxury car would be a bit more impressive than a father driving an old cargo truck.

Jin Beom-Min, his mind made up, stepped on the pedal with a satisfied smile.