The mansion was too quiet.
Min-Jae pulled the mask over his face and moved toward the main gate.
The two guards there were mid-conversation. One leaned against the gate post, arms crossed, his back half-turned. The other faced him, laughing, attention fixed on whatever story he was telling.
Min-Jae came from the side.
The first guard never heard him. A clean strike to the back of the neck and his legs gave out instantly. Min-Jae caught him before he hit the ground and lowered him without a sound.
The second guard's laugh died in his throat. He turned, mouth already opening—
Min-Jae's hand shot to his throat first. One hit. The guard choked and bent forward. Min-Jae brought his elbow down hard across the back of his head and the man went down without another sound.
He dropped.
Silence settled again.
Three minutes passed
Min-Jae found a side entrance and went inside.
The guard near the front inside the mansion was different from the ones outside. Bigger. Standing properly. His eyes were actually moving around the space rather than staring at nothing. He clocked Min-Jae the moment he stepped into the corridor and didn't hesitate — he came forward fast with his fist already raised.
The punch came hard and wide. Min-Jae rolled under it, came up on the inside and drove his elbow into the guard's ribs with everything behind it. The guard grunted and his body turned with the impact. Min-Jae was already behind him — one arm across his throat, the other pressing at the side of his neck, holding it there steady and tight.
The guard grabbed at his arms. Pulled hard. His feet scraped against the floor.
Four seconds.
His hands dropped. His body went heavy.
Min-Jae lowered him carefully against the wall and straightened up.
Five.
He went up the stairs.
The last guard was outside the main bedroom door. He was pacing slowly — short steps back and forth, the kind a person falls into when they have been standing in one spot for too long. He heard Min-Jae reach the top of the stairs and stopped immediately. Turned. His hand came up.
Min-Jae moved first.
One hit to the stomach. The guard folded forward, all the air leaving him at once.
Min-Jae brought his knee up into his face as he doubled over.
The man's head snapped back. He hit the doorframe on the way down and dropped to the floor and didn't move again.
Min-Jae stepped over him.
He opened the bedroom door and walked in.
The room was dark except for the light coming from under the bathroom door.
The shower was running.
Min-Jae sat down on the edge of the bed and waited.
The shower ran for another twenty minutes. Then it stopped.
He listened. Water draining. Movement. Someone was taking their time because they had no reason not to.
The bathroom door opened.
Shin Tae-Oh walked out in a long towel robe, reaching up to dry his hair. He took three steps, and something made him stop. He lowered the towel slowly and looked at the masked figure sitting on his bed.
"Who are you?" Shin Tae-Oh said.
Min-Jae said nothing.
Shin Tae-Oh looked around the room. Then back at him.
"What happened to my guards?" Shin Tae-Oh said.
Silence.
"GUARDS." He turned toward the door and raised his voice. "GUARDS GET IN HERE NOW—"
"They have been taken care of," Min-Jae said.
Shin Tae-Oh turned back slowly. Something moved across his face. Then his jaw set, and a wide smile spread across it. He looked the masked figure up and down slowly, the way someone looks at something they find interesting rather than threatening.
"You know," Shin Tae-Oh said. His voice dropped into something almost appreciative. "You're a predator. Just like me."
Min-Jae looked at him for a moment.
Then he stood up from the bed.
Shin Tae-Oh swung.
His fist cut through empty air. Min-Jae tilted his head to the right — just slightly, just enough — and before Shin Tae-Oh could pull his arm back Min-Jae's hand shot forward and grabbed him by the face. Not the collar. Not the shirt. The face. His fingers spread wide across the jaw and cheekbone, his palm pressing hard over nose and mouth, gripping with enough force to lift Shin Tae-Oh slightly off balance.
Min-Jae held him there with one arm fully extended. Just looked at him.
"Pathetic," Min-Jae said quietly. "You have no right to say that."
He swung.
Shin Tae-Oh's body left the ground. It crossed the room and hit the wall beside the bathroom door with a force that dented the plaster and sent a crack running up toward the ceiling. He slid down it and crumpled to the floor in a heap.
The room went quiet.
Then from the floor, raw and furious —
"You— you bastard—"
Min-Jae looked at him from across the room. Something settled in his eyes. Not anger, but amusement.
"Still talking after that," he said. Almost to himself. It didn't interest him.
He walked over slowly.
Shin Tae-Oh looked up. His vision swam, the room tilting in and out of focus. The masked figure stood over him. Closer now. Then a fist filled his entire view. His mouth opened, but the last word never fully formed—
"Wait—"
The hit was clean. Shin Tae-Oh's body gave out and collapsed on the floor.
Min-Jae stood over him for a moment. He looked down at the unconscious man and said nothing.
Sometime later.
Dark Web:
The stream went live.
A chair sat in the center of a cold, dark room under one hard light. Shin Tae-Oh was strapped into it, still unconscious, his towel robe hanging loose around him.
The vote counter appeared on screen.
SPARE — 0 PUNISH — 0
The numbers started moving. Slowly at first. One. Then five. Then twenty. Then more as viewers found the stream, and word spread fast through the dark corners of the internet.
user_4821: what is this
user_1937: wait I know that face
user_5502: is that shin tae-oh??
user_0084: THE shin tae-oh??
user_7720: no way
user_1149: NO WAY
user_3910: someone call the police
user_6673: no let it happen
user_9021: he killed three people and walked out after five years
user_1204: this is insane
user_4448: punish him
user_3310: spare?? are you serious??
user_7781: This is actually happening
Punish climbed past a thousand. Then two thousand. Then five.
Spare sat at eleven.
The masked figure stood to the side of the frame and waited.
Then Shin Tae-Oh stirred in the chair.
His head came up slowly. He blinked. He looked at his hands strapped to the arms of the chair. He looked at the cold light above him. He looked at the masked figure standing beside him and at the screen in the corner showing numbers climbing fast with two words above them.
He looked at Punish sitting at six thousand and still going up.
He looked at spare and it was sitting at Thirty-four.
Something crossed his face that hadn't been there before. Real. Smaller. Stripped of the smile and confidence he'd worn all night.
Before he could speak, a voice came from the direction of the masked figure. Not a normal voice. Something robotic and flat and mechanical.
"So," the voice said slowly. "You are awake."
Shin Tae-Oh's eyes moved around the room one more time. Taking in everything.
The masked figure turned toward the camera. Toward the viewers watching from their screens across the dark web.
"Welcome," the voice said, "to stage two of the game."
A pause.
The figure tilted its head slightly to one side.
"Shall we get—"
"—STARTED."