Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 75

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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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75.
“I’ll give it my best.”
Hee-ju nodded and rose to her feet. She paused at the door, glancing back over her shoulder.
Roji read her book with the serene expression of someone inhabiting an entirely different world. It struck Hee-ju that perhaps she had known all along how this would end.
“Is it possible…”
Hee-ju asked, her voice tinged with suspicion.
“That message you had me send—you knew it wasn’t going to my parents, and you sent it anyway on purpose?”
“Who knows. Believe whatever you like.”
Roji kept her gaze on the page, answering with deliberate indifference.
Had she wanted Sergei dead? Was that why she’d helped?
Regardless of her reasons, one fact remained unchanged: Roji had helped her. And Hee-ju owed her a debt.
“Thank you, Roji.”
……
“I’ll kill Sergei. For myself, and for you.”
“Good luck.”
Hee-ju eased the door open quietly. Bodies lay scattered across the floor—all of them Russian Mafia.
She listened carefully, but heard no sound of CIA or police rushing through the halls. No more gunfire echoed anywhere.
‘There must be an intruder.’
Roji’s words circled in her mind. Judging by her tone, this intruder was someone Hee-ju knew well.
There was only one madman she knew who would have the audacity to walk straight into the Russian Mafia’s den.
Her heart began to pound—thump-thump.
The corridor remained silent until she heard footsteps—three or four people ascending the stairs in quick succession.
She eased the door shut. Three armed men filed into the Study Room. Only after they disappeared did she follow.
***
Liam held Sergei’s neck in the crook of his left arm, the muzzle of his gun pressed firmly against the man’s temple.
Liam’s voice came cold and flat.
“Bring her.”
The men kept their eyes locked on Liam, teeth grinding, unable to move—knowing he could pull the trigger at any instant.
Sergei thrashed against the agony. The charred skin contracted, and waves of unimaginable pain flooded through him.
A groan tore from his throat.
He clenched his teeth, but a damned whimper kept escaping. His breathing grew shallow and rapid.
He couldn’t fathom this. A single man had breached his Mansion and now held a gun to his head.
‘Where’s Andrei?’
Sergei snapped irritably at the gunfire echoing down the corridor. The subordinate firing from the doorway turned to face him.
‘He’s at the Front Gate Post because of the explosion.’
‘Call him here now!’
‘The Handphone isn’t working. I’ll go fetch him my—’
Before he could finish, his head exploded. Primal terror cascaded down Sergei’s spine.
Tap-tap. Footsteps sounded. Neither hurried nor slow—they possessed the leisurely ease of a man taking an evening stroll through a garden.
The cold dread came before the burning of charred flesh. Sergei whirled and lunged toward the desk.
My gun. Where the hell is my gun…
Click. Cold metal kissed the back of his skull. Sergei swallowed hard and slowly turned around.
The man’s expressionless face drew close, his voice a whisper.
‘Where is it?’
He didn’t need to clarify what. Sergei recognized the face—the one he’d seen on the Restaurant CCTV feed.
Who the hell was this man?
Dozens of armed Mafia soldiers filled his Mansion.
Yet this one had cut through them all to reach him here. It was impossible—he would never have believed it if he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes.
At that moment, footsteps thundered down the corridor. In the flicker of recognition across Sergei’s eyes, Liam pivoted behind him in a blur.
!
He wrapped an arm around Sergei’s neck and pressed the gun to his temple. The subordinates who burst into the Study Room froze in shock at the sight.
Liam’s eyes alone moved, sweeping the scorched carpet and furniture, the water-soaked floor, the acrid smoke. And the burned Sergei.
“Go get her.”
At Liam’s command, sparks of fury ignited in Sergei’s eyes. As he opened his mouth to shout, Liam pressed down hard on his burned skin.
“Aaaagh!”
Sergei screamed. The pain of the burns, briefly forgotten, pierced his nerves with renewed ferocity.
The men flinched, but when Liam tightened his grip on the trigger, they remained motionless.
Sergei’s cheeks trembled—whether from rage or agony, it was impossible to tell. In the end, he surrendered to Liam.
He barked at his men with bitter urgency.
“Go get her!”
Meanwhile, one man crept silently toward the Study Room door, lowering himself flat on the floor to draw a bead on Liam.
A glance. His colleague caught the movement and tried to distract Liam.
“She ran away. Nobody knows where she is.”
“Find her and bring her. Don’t lay a finger on her. Do otherwise, and your boss’s face will be the last thing you ever see.”
“Where the hell are we supposed to look for this woman?”
“Do I have to think for you as well? What are those things sitting on top of your necks—just decorations? They don’t look pretty enough to be ornamental.”
The man pressed flat against the floor waited for his moment. His colleague’s body blocked Liam from view. The man chatting with Liam slowly shifted to the side.
At last Liam came into sight. Bingo. The sniper’s lips curled as he tightened his index finger.
Bang. The shot exploded.
“Ha ha ha. Got him!”
The colleague grinned with satisfaction, watching Liam—then his expression twisted. The man stood unharmed.
What the hell?
Slowly, he turned his head in confusion. There, cradling his shoulder, rolling across the floor in agony, was his partner.
A guttural cry.
Liam’s gaze drifted slowly toward the doorway, where he too stared at the fallen man.
Then came lighter footsteps. The man’s blue-gray eyes flickered with subtle interest.
Hee-ju emerged through the open doorway. Bending down, she scooped up the gun the fallen man had dropped and shrugged.
“I was aiming for the head, but it hit the shoulder instead. Guess I need more target practice.”
Liam’s eyes closed slowly, then opened. A heavy breath escaped through his teeth.
She was alive. Perfectly alive.
……
He’d believed she would be. And now she truly was. Standing right before him.
Yes. That was enough. Everything else could burn to ash. So long as she lived, that was all that mattered.
Hee-ju slowly raised her eyes. As if he’d been watching her the entire time, their gazes met instantly.
Liam never looked away from her, and Hee-ju held his stare. Her eyes, which had trembled as if on the verge of tears, gradually curved upward into a smile.
“It’s been a long time, Liam.”
……
“I missed you.”
Liam wanted to say something—anything. But his voice wouldn’t come.
It felt as though someone had seized his throat. His breath caught, and only a thin, whistling sound escaped.
So he simply nodded. Hee-ju’s lips curved faintly upward.
Just then, one of the men—seizing his chance—drew a gun from his waist. Bang. His head snapped back.
Bang-bang. Liam fired methodically into the skulls and hearts of the others. It happened in an instant. The blink of an eye.
So Sergei never found the will to resist, even as the gun barrel vanished from his temple.
He understood now that Liam had spared his men’s lives only to find the woman. With their usefulness exhausted, they fell in a single stroke before they could even raise a hand.
Only Liam, Hee-ju, Sergei, and corpses remained in the Study Room.
Liam’s lips parted lightly.
“The person I was looking for just walked right in.”
Terror flooded Sergei’s eyes. It was a fear he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
He forced his lips upward, feigning composure.
“Let me live and I’ll give you anything. What do you want? Money? Name your price, friend.”
“Friend.”
Liam chuckled softly. Sergei, who had reigned at the apex of power for so long, probably couldn’t remember the last time he’d begged anyone.
“I don’t have friends.”
With those words, Liam pulled the trigger. As Sergei’s eyes went wide, the bullet pierced his temple.
Blood sprayed. It streaked across Liam’s cheek and neck.
He wiped the blood from his face with the back of his gloved hand. The smearing only made the crimson more sinister, more grotesque.
Liam released his arm from around Sergei’s neck. The body went limp and fell with a dull thud.
Liam rubbed his neck clean, then lifted only his eyes to look at Hee-ju. His smile was sweet, his gaze tender.
……
Hee-ju stared at him in a daze. Perhaps this was what the primordial devil looked like—a face beautiful enough to seduce mankind.
Liam extended one hand. His voice emerged between his teeth, painfully gentle.
“Come here.”
Which was precisely why it all felt so unreal.
Drip. A dark liquid fell from his black Gloves. Drip, drip.
For some reason, her feet wouldn’t move.
The moment she crossed this line, she knew with terrible certainty, she would never return to her old world again.

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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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