The Genius Actor Who Brings Misfortune

Chapter 237

※ This chapter contains some graphic depictions related to blood. Please be cautious while reading.

Agent Jang shook Horn in alarm.

[“Hey! What’s wrong with you!”]

Horn was not just bleeding from his nose but spewing blood.

Agent Jang redirected his shouting.

[“Horn is in bad shape! Open the door and bring the medical team now!”]

What were they doing until the kid got to this state?

It felt like his blood was boiling.

[“Surveillance team, can’t you hear?! Open the door now!! He’s not okay!”]

No matter how much he yelled at the CCTV, the iron door didn’t open.

He even kicked the door, but the thick door didn’t budge.

[“Cough, cough.”]

[“H! Are you okay?!”]

In the meantime, Horn regained consciousness.

Every time he coughed, dark red blood poured out.

[“Just wait a moment. It’s okay. The doctor will be here soon.”]

The amount was so massive that it soaked the mattress.

By then, Agent Jang’s shirt was also soaked with Horn’s blood.

While patting the trembling Horn, Agent Jang racked his brain.

‘There’s no way the surveillance team would let Horn die.’

That door should open any moment, and the staff should rush in.

That would be normal.

Unless there was no one outside the door….

[“…Huh?”]

A chilling sensation brushed past his back.

Agent Jang’s eyes flickered lightly.

No, that can’t be.

He swallowed hard, trying to gather his thoughts.

[“Just wait a little longer. If you wait a bit―.”]

[“No one, cough, no one is coming.”]

Horn answered, spitting blood.

Agent Jang froze at the unexpected reply, and Horn let out a groan.

[“Dying really hurts. Seok-hyung wasn’t exaggerating.”]

[“…What are you saying.”]

Agent Jang’s voice trembled.

Horn laughed, “Your face looks really stupid right now.”

Agent Jang grew even more confused at the inappropriate laugh for the situation.

[“What do you mean, no one is coming.”]

[“It really hurts…. When does this end.”]

[“What do you know? Tell me. Why are you like this? Why would you die?”]

Is this some kind of prank show?

At Agent Jang’s question, Horn burst into laughter.

[“Haha, that was a bit funny.”]

Despite the agony on his face, Horn managed a laugh.

Seeing this sudden glimmer of life, Agent Jang desperately clung on.

[“Horn. You have to tell me what you know so I can help you.”]

As Agent Jang persistently asked, Horn slowly lifted his head.

His black pupils looked like faded marbles today.

[“I killed them all.”]

[“What?”]

[“I killed them all.”]

Horn smiled softly.

It was a relieved yet somehow complicated smile.

[“Every single one of them, all of them.”]

* * *

At the same time, a call was made to 119.

[“Hurry! Please hurry!! My husband, my husband is dead!”]

[“Calm down. Who did you say is dead?”]

[“How many times do I have to say it! My husband is dead! I woke up and next to me, oh god.”]

[“The police are on their way. Please don’t hang up. Can you confirm that your husband isn’t breathing? Check if you can hear any breath sounds―.”]

[“No, no!! You don’t understand! He’s dead! He’s definitely dead!!”]

A terrified woman’s voice came through the receiver.

[“He’s all torn apart!!”]

[“What?”]

[“I don’t know! It looks like he exploded, with blood and flesh everywhere, oh god, please, please hurry!!”]

She repeated the same words as if she had lost all reason.

She had slept with her husband, and when she woke up, there was something that looked like a lump next to her. At first, she didn’t even realize it was her husband. It was only after seeing the clothes torn apart as if they had exploded together that she recognized it as her husband.

It was a ridiculous story for the paramedic to believe.

Ignoring the chilling feeling, the paramedic handed over the case to the field team with a businesslike attitude.

[“There’s all kinds of things.”]

He forced a smile toward his colleague, but soon lost it.

Calls with similar content were pouring in relentlessly.

The camera, out of the paramedic’s sight, moved around the city.

Alleys on the way to work covered in blood and flesh, luxury sedan backseats filled with bloodstains.

[“Aaaaah!!”]

What was supposed to be an ordinary morning commute had turned into pandemonium.

Screams echoed from everywhere, and people moved about in confusion.

The camera smoothly passed through the terrified crowd and entered a building.

It looked ordinary from the outside.

But the lobby was filled with blood up to the ankles.

Suits and lab coats, which people would have worn on their way to work, were torn and soaked in the blood-filled lobby.

The camera slowly showed the blood-soaked lobby and then took the elevator up.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened.

The long hallway, illuminated only by white lights, was no different from the lobby.

Flesh splattered everywhere, and it was filled with blood.

The camera entered a room.

Perhaps it was a control room; the room was filled with monitor screens.

This room was also covered in blood and flesh.

A blood-stained employee ID with the face of a young man lay on the floor.

The monitors displayed the lobby, the elevator, and CCTV footage from each floor.

They all showed scenes of bloodbaths, except for one.

The camera approached the only monitor showing any movement.

It was where Horn and Agent Jang were.

* * *

[“You said you killed them….”]

Horn smirked at the dazed Agent Jang.

[“I didn’t lie, did I? I’m not thinking of running away now either.”]

But running away and killing are completely different matters.

Horn laughed lightly.

Every time he opened his mouth, clumps of dark red blood flowed out.

[“…How did you kill them?”]

[“Yesterday, I put my blood into everyone’s bodies.”]

From investors to executives, field teams, maintenance teams, and surveillance teams.

On the day of the demonstration, Horn had injected his blood into everyone related to the ‘H Project.’

[“I’ve been practicing splitting my blood at the molecular level. So small it feels like air.”]

Compared to turning liquid into gas, inserting blood into people’s bodies was far easier.

There were many entry points: eyes, nose, mouth, ears.

After injecting his blood into every employee, he just waited.

For the optimal timing.

[“I wanted to kill them when they were completely off guard.”]

Horn could sense each person who carried his blood.

Those buying coffee leisurely before work, those getting into the back seat with a secretary’s guidance, those entering an alley to smoke.

[“I wanted them to die at a moment when they least expected it. During a perfectly peaceful moment… just like that.”]

Horn could feel them laughing.

And as he burst each speck of blood, he could also feel the chaos spreading around them.

Only after bursting all the humans did Horn realize his actions stemmed from a sense of ‘revenge.’

Upon realizing this, Horn felt both happy and unhappy.

Horn smiled at the frozen Agent Jang.

[“Ah, I misspoke. I didn’t kill everyone. I left one person out.”]

His blood-stained finger moved slowly.

The boy’s finger pointed at the man.

[“You.”]

[“….”]

[“You have it inside you too. Can you feel it?”]

Horn laughed, crinkling his nose.

At the same time, Agent Jang vividly felt something move inside his abdomen.

[“Oh, right. It’s there.”]

[“….”]

[“I put more inside you. I wanted to make sure you died more certainly than anyone else.”]

The boy’s eyes were filled with a bittersweet smile as he spoke.

[“Of all days, you had to come this early in the morning. I thought you came on purpose.”]

[“I, I….”]

[“I know. You didn’t think about anything. That’s why I didn’t kill you.”]

[“….”]

[“I’m quite foolish too. Talking with you yesterday… I liked it. So I decided not to kill you. I just felt like it.”]

Agent Jang looked at Horn, still unable to comprehend.

Horn coughed up blood he had been holding back throughout the conversation.

Blood mixed with saliva dangled under Horn’s chin.

[“What do you mean by you’re dying… How can you die? Is that even possible?”]

Horn gave a smile as if asking why he was asking something so obvious.

His blood-covered face smiling playfully looked quite eerie.

[“How many people attended the demonstration yesterday, and how many of our company’s employees are there? Of course, it’s excessive bleeding.”]

[“….”]

[“Honestly, I wasn’t sure either. I survived even when my limbs were cut off last time.”]

Horn coughed once more.

[“But this ability, cough, I don’t know. Every time I use it, my healing power seems to diminish. The more I burst people, ha, the weaker my body gets.”]

I guess I wasn’t a perfect immortal either.

Horn smiled playfully, his eyes crinkling.

His breathing became increasingly labored.

Agent Jang held onto the dying boy’s torso.

It felt unreal. His mind was hazy as if in a dream.

He did everything he could.

He charged at the iron door.

He kept pushing with his body, kicking repeatedly.

He thought he heard the sound of his foot breaking, but he had no time to care.

But the solid iron door wouldn’t open no matter what.

‘Helplessness.’

That’s how Agent Jang perfectly understood the emotion Horn had felt for five years.

Finally, more vividly than anyone else.

The end was crying.

Agent Jang held Horn and cried, saying he was sorry.

Horn, barely breathing, managed to speak.

[“Hyung….”]

[“What?”]

[“…Seok-hyung.”]

[“….”]

The boy’s young voice was desperate.

Agent Jang gritted his teeth, holding back his tears.

[“I’m sorry….”]

[“……”]

[“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…. I’m not Seok-hyung.”]

He whispered endlessly into the boy’s ear.

At that moment, he faintly heard the other party laugh.

When he looked up, he saw Horn faintly smiling.

[“What are you, talking about. I meant, Yoseok-hyung….”]

[“……”]

[“You said… I could… call you hyung.”]

Agent Jang, or rather Jang Yoseok, slowly lifted the corners of his mouth.

Despite his rising lips, his eyes were filled with tears as he looked at the boy.

Jang Yoseok’s tears fell onto Horn’s cheek, and the flowing tears gathered in the hollow of his ear.

[“Yeah. Call me hyung… however you want.”]

Horn stared blankly at Jang Yoseok’s forced smile.

He wanted to smile with him.

Strangely, his face wouldn’t listen.

After a long while, there was the sound of a hand falling onto the mattress.

[“…Hhng.”]

At the same time, the man’s sobs grew louder.

The camera, which had been capturing the two, gradually pulled away.

In the room were a mattress, a corpse, and a man holding a boy.

Soon, the words ‘Killing Horn’ appeared in the center of the screen.

It was the title that appeared at the beginning of every episode.

The red letters slowly dripped downward like blood droplets and disappeared, leaving only the letter ‘H,’ as always.

The sole remaining ‘H’ vanished only after the camera turned 180 degrees to show the firmly closed iron door.

Then the screen went black.

“……”

The viewers stared at the ending credits in silence.

Even as the names of the director, actors, and production crew scrolled by, no one spoke.

As the two-minute ending credits finished, the viewers were just beginning to emerge from their complex feelings.

Suddenly, the screen brightened.

“…?”

Some viewers who were about to go to the bathroom quickly sat back down.

The screen still showed the thick iron door.

Then, with a mechanical buzzing sound, there was a noise like something was drilling through the door from outside.

After a long time, the iron door broke, and people in white coats entered.

The camera turned 180 degrees to follow them.

They found two corpses and an unconscious man.

One doctor drew blood from the unconscious man and ran it through a small machine.

Everyone’s eyes were on the small machine.

As soon as the word ‘Match’ appeared on the machine, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

[“Phew, thank goodness.”]

[“That’s strange. I heard the ‘H Project’ subject was in the form of a boy….”]

[“Must have gotten the information wrong. It’s hard to get accurate details on another company’s projects.”]

The woman asserted that since the man passed the blood test, he must be the right one.

[“Alright, let’s move before another company catches wind of this. We’re out in 30 seconds, go.”]

[“What about the bodies?”]

[“Leave them. Just take the man.”]

People moved busily.

The man who put Jang Yoseok on the stretcher asked.

[“Doctor, where should we take this?”]

The woman smiled brightly.

[“To our company lab.”]

The camera captured Jang Yoseok’s unconscious face one last time.

Above his face, the letter ‘H’ reappeared.

Thus ended ‘Killing Horn.’