Chapter 266.2

Chapter 266.2

Seoryeong swallowed quietly, overwhelmed by the force pouring out of him. Then suddenly, as if responding to him in resonance, she began kicking the cracked bathtub with all her strength.

‘I trust you. Of course I do. If not me, then who would trust an instructor with so many faces?’

Her kicks to survive together grew stronger.

‘I cannot stop you from wearing masks. But I can strip them all off.’

Pain shot back into her knees with every kick, but she did not stop. Because compared to her, bound here, her husband looked far, far more terrified.

Meanwhile, Lee Wooshin pulled out the zinc coated ballistic plates from the mercenaries’ vests. He dragged over industrial packing materials and de-icing powder abandoned in the corner of the warehouse and dumped everything into the bathtub. At once, a sharp hiss erupted and foul bubbles surged upward.

“What… what is all this?”

Seoryeong asked, tense. Lee Wooshin stepped close and wiped the bead of blood from her cheek.

“One second.”

He pressed his lips briefly to her wet hair and whispered low.

“What?”

Even when she asked again, he kept his mouth shut.

He covered the rim of the bathtub with the leather jackets he had stripped from the mercenaries and jammed an old pipe into the floor drain. Then his hardened gaze shifted to the timer, which showed less than two minutes remaining.

“There is no other way. At this rate, you will be electrocuted.”

He lowered his voice as if sharing a secret. But the man bracing himself against the tub and meeting her eyes calmly did not look like someone who had given up. His pupils had drawn tight, gleaming like hard diamonds.

“I will reroute some of the current and force the generator into overload. It will shut down automatically. That is why I deliberately increased the risk of electrocution.”

Silence fell. Like her, he finally released the breath he had been holding. Then he wrapped the strips of fabric he had torn apart with his teeth around her skin and continued.

“The ballistic plates will act as artificial grounding rods. The moment the current flows, they will absorb about forty percent. And this is a PSV material vest the mercenaries often wear. It is polyvinyl chloride, resistant to fire and electricity.”

“.…”

“And… your belly. This silicone I wanted to rip apart.”

Without warning, Lee Wooshin plunged his hand into the tub and sliced through the silicone with his knife. Then he began stuffing it obsessively between the chains and Seoryeong’s skin.

Less than a minute remained on the timer.

“The last gamble is on me. I will take about thirty percent of the current into my own body. You break the chain and get out. You do not have to go far. Just get out of the water.”

“Instructor…!”

Even as Seoryeong’s eyes flew wide, Lee Wooshin kept feeling along her chains and continued speaking.

“No matter how strong the chain is, it has worn weak points. I will concentrate the blows with the iron pipe. Even then, if you want to snap it, it will hurt like hell.”

His busy hands suddenly stopped. He fixated on one particular link, tracing it persistently.

All at once, he lowered his head. His voice trembled in a way that did not suit him.

“I promise. I will break it within ten strikes.”

Seoryeong met his bloodshot eyes. Lee Wooshin did not waste another second.

He clenched his molars hard, grabbed the iron pipe rolling on the floor, and laid Seoryeong’s arm across the edge of the bathtub, like placing it on a guillotine.

The timer crossed the one minute mark and now showed fifty seconds remaining. Seoryeong looked up at him, her mind blank. She did not feel fear, but her chest tightened.

“….”

The iron pipe trembled in his hands. No, Lee Wooshin himself trembled as he turned his back to her. Even though he knew she did not scare easily at mere pain, he broke into a cold sweat and suffered in silence.

“Do whatever you want. Eleven times is fine too.”

“Eight. I will not hold back.”

He spoke through clenched teeth, then pulled her lips into a deep kiss before letting go. The moment he raised the iron pipe, Asha, who had been lying there watching this entire scene in mounting panic, could not endure it any longer and squeezed her eyes shut.

Slash. The sound of air splitting as the pipe came down hard against the joint of the chain.

The clash of iron against iron rang out like a vicious bell, yet Seoryeong did not let out even the faintest scream. Bang, bang. The brutal blows continued, and only Asha covered her ears.

But someone…

Someone let out a groan—thick and raw, like limbs being torn apart, like blood spilling heavy into the air.

Even without opening her eyes, she knew who it was.