Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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17.
“A rat in a cage is better off than this. At least I won’t have to face four of them at once.”
“They might have a gun. Remember last night—when they followed our car and pointed it at you?”
“But they didn’t shoot.”
Liam answered without concern, turning his body slowly to study the door on the verge of collapse.
“Whatever they want, one thing’s clear—they intend to take you alive. So they won’t be firing recklessly.”
…….
“I’m betting on the assumption that they’re intelligent enough not to discharge weapons inside a care facility. That’s the gamble.”
Hee-ju nodded. Medical care goes to the doctor, medication to the pharmacist. She respected expert opinion, and when it came to hand-to-hand combat, Liam was the expert, not her.
She moved behind Liam and began yanking open drawers at random.
“I saw a cart stationed out front when they brought me in. It’s probably used to transport people to the Main Building. Let’s find its key.”
Liam let out a soft laugh. He’d assumed she’d surrendered to the situation. Or that despair had consumed her. Or that helplessness would drive her to depend entirely on him.
But she hadn’t. She knew precisely what she could and couldn’t do, and she was doing exactly what lay within her power.
That was no simple feat. Especially not now. Which meant.
“That’s just who she is.”
“Pardon?”
The moment Hee-ju opened her mouth to ask, the door gave way with a splintering crack. Liam shook his head side to side and let his arms dangle at his sides.
The Gate House door was too narrow for three people to enter simultaneously. In other words: one-on-one.
For Liam, that was decidedly favorable.
“Aaaah!”
A man with brown hair let out a savage battle cry as he stormed in. Liam drove his foot straight into the man’s abdomen.
With a thud, the man staggered backward.
The second attacker was familiar too. Liam recognized him now as the man in the Hotel uniform who’d rung the bell.
The man wore Knuckles on his fingers. With a menacing expression, he threw a punch at Liam’s face.
“Too clumsy.”
Liam ducked beneath the punch and dove straight into the man’s space, driving his fist up into the man’s jaw like a boxer executing the perfect timing.
A Counter Punch.
The impact was tremendous. It sounded like bone fracturing.
“Ack.”
The man’s eyes went wide, and he dropped to his knees with a grunt.
Before Liam could even reset his stance, a third man charged forward—someone who looked as though he lived in the gym, his muscles rippling across his frame.
He stood well over six and a half feet tall and easily weighed over two hundred pounds. When he entered the Gate House, the narrow space became cramped.
The man swung a leg like a tree trunk. Liam raised his arms to block, but the impact was severe. His body slid backward.
Hee-ju, still searching through the drawers, shot him a worried glance.
“Are you alright?”
Liam turned back to her with a slight smile.
“Who exactly are you worried about? Me? Or him?”
“The situation certainly looks like I should be worried about you.”
“You’re mistaken.”
Liam kept his eyes on the man while shaking his head.
“They wouldn’t keep the key to a frequently used cart in a desk drawer.”
……. “Fair point.”
“Open your eyes and look carefully. See who you should really be worried about.”
Liam clenched his fist tightly and stepped forward. The sharp crack of impact rang out.
His punch connected cleanly. The man’s face snapped to the side.
But the man came right back at him as if nothing had happened. The two of them grappled, each fighting for dominance.
Liam pressed his forearm against the man’s throat and drove him backward. The man’s body was forced against the wall, step by step.
“Uggh.”
The man’s face flushed as his air was cut off. Liam increased the pressure in his arm.
As the man choked out a sound, he grabbed the Flashlight that hung on the wall.
“Found it—!”
Just as Hee-ju spun around with the key in her hand, the Flashlight came flying at her head.
It whistled through the air.
“Ah!”
She instinctively closed her eyes and ducked, her upper body folding forward. The Flashlight sailed overhead and smashed against the wall.
“Hee-ju!”
Liam turned his head urgently.
In that moment, the man wrenched free from his grip. He grabbed a Chair and brought it down on Liam with brutal force. The wooden Chair shattered.
…….
The impact jarred Liam’s body. He glanced back at Hee-ju.
“Are you hurt?”
“Behind—!”
Before she could finish, the man lunged again. The two of them crashed to the floor with a thunderous sound. They rolled across the narrow space.
The man gained the upper position first, pinning Liam down and raining punches. Liam raised both arms in defense.
Each of the man’s fists felt like a club. Soon Liam’s lip split open and his cheek swelled.
Liam struck back. Crack.
That one landed clean.
Sure enough, the man’s nose bridge warped and his septum swelled. Liam planted his knee and drove upward off the man’s chest. The man’s eyebrow twitched.
He tried to roll away, but he was trapped—flattened like something crushed under a dump truck.
Damn it. A curse slipped between Liam’s teeth. He needed to reverse this situation somehow. Then, in a flash—
Crack!
A Baseball Bat struck the man’s back. His massive frame shuddered.
…….
Liam’s eyes went wide. Hee-ju stood there, Baseball Bat in hand, breathing hard—though where she’d found it was anyone’s guess.
Her gaze locked onto Liam’s.
“You alright?”
His eyes narrowed with amusement. There it was again—that unpredictability that kept surprising him.
“Didn’t I tell you? You had the wrong person to worry about.”
Liam rolled free of the man in one fluid motion, gripped his right wrist with his left hand, and drove his right elbow down hard onto the man’s temple.
“Hack!”
The man gasped, his body convulsed, and he toppled forward with a heavy thud against the floor.
Liam looked back at Hee-ju. She was trying to keep her expression composed—her, who’d probably never struck another person in her life until today.
Though her face was the color of someone about to be sick.
Hee-ju was the first to break the silence. She gripped the Baseball Bat firmly and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
Then, at that moment.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. Liam instinctively wrapped his arms around Hee-ju and dropped low.
The man who’d been driving the vehicle walked through the door, one hand holding a gun.
Hee-ju whispered softly against Liam’s ear.
“You shouldn’t be gambling.”
‘I’m betting on the assumption that they won’t discharge weapons inside a care facility. That’s the gamble.’
As Liam recalled his own words, a dry chuckle escaped him. He laughed even though the moment was all wrong for it.
“Don’t move.”
The gunman surveyed his colleagues scattered across the floor, his expression darkening. Then he pointed the gun back at Liam.
Liam raised both hands to shoulder height in surrender, but the man clearly had no intention of letting him leave peacefully.
“Get up.”
Liam rose slowly to his feet as ordered, deliberately moving with caution to avoid provocation.
As Liam watched the man’s trigger finger tense slightly, he spoke in an even tone.
“Remember that this place is quite narrow.”
The man scowled as if Liam had just spoken nonsense.
“You’ll live longer if you shut your mouth.”
“If you fire in this confined space, a ricochet could hit the woman. Are you prepared for that?”
The man flinched. Recognizing that his instinct had been correct, Liam pressed on with deliberate composure.
“You were ordered to bring her in alive, weren’t you?”
…….
“If she gets caught by a stray bullet, well—your boss will be disappointed.”
…….
“Might even mark you as incompetent.”
The man’s eyes swept across the cramped Gate House. Finding merit in Liam’s words, he lowered the gun slightly and stepped back.
“Outside. Slowly.”
Liam nodded lightly and took a step forward.
Then Hee-ju grabbed his arm.
“I’ll go first.”
Liam’s brow furrowed. Hee-ju spoke in a steady voice.
“You said I was to be brought in alive, right? So I’ll go first. You follow behind me.”
“Wait—are you suggesting I should use you as a human shield?”
Liam asked skeptically. Hee-ju nodded firmly.
“Yes.”
“Ha.”
An incomprehensible laugh spilled from between Liam’s teeth. He scratched his chin with one finger.
“Use you as a shield and hide behind you. Well, that’s amusing.”
Many had tried to use him as a shield before, but never the reverse. His eyes curved with genuine amusement.
“What are you waiting for? Come out now! Want a bullet in your skull?”
“But let’s save that opportunity for next time.”
Liam took her wrist and maneuvered her behind him.
“Stay close behind me. The moment I step out the door, hide behind the wall. You have the Cart Key, right?”
Hee-ju nodded, her expression tense. Liam, by contrast, never lost his smile.
“Good. I’ll remember everything I said.”
Hee-ju nodded again.
“Come on!”
“Impatient, aren’t you?”
Liam began walking slowly forward.
“Hands up!”
Liam complied without hesitation, raising his hands. Hee-ju followed close behind him at a measured pace.
“Ugh.”
The brown-haired man who’d been kicked in the abdomen finally stirred. He was still bent half-double, one hand pressing against his aching solar plexus.
Liam glanced at him sideways. As Liam stepped outside the Gate House, he suddenly ducked and seized the brown-haired man by the nape of his neck, hauling him upright.
Bang.
The gun fired.
Liam crouched behind the brown-haired man’s body. The man let out a choked cry as his frame jerked with the impact.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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