Chapter 131.1

Chapter 131.1

The vast ocean stretched endlessly, with nothing but the faint hum of the engine breaking the silence.

After standing on deck for more than half a day during shift duty, the sun inevitably scorched the skin. Even after washing in the cramped shower room, sweat and salt clung stubbornly to Seoryeong’s body by the next day.

Seoryeong placed a damp handkerchief on her stinging forehead.

The route to Equatorial Guinea across the Atlantic on a small cargo ship was treacherous—brutally so.

Inside the old vessel, disguised as carrying fertilizer, lay over $16 million in cash, luxury watches, and extravagant goods, all wrapped in plastic and hidden beneath the cabin floor.

The Beta Team was led by a veteran commander with thirty years of experience, a former naval major. He had six seasoned subordinates who had been with him for years.

Alongside them, a Korean-Chinese interpreter from Manchuria and Seoryeong, a rookie in the special security team, joined to form a temporary task force (TF).

Equatorial Guinea, one of the worst long-term dictatorships, had even received an International Kim Jong-Il Prize from North Korea. From the moment she boarded, Seoryeong clung to the railing, vomiting all day.

Eventually, with nothing left in her stomach, she heaved up only sour, transparent liquid, and a deep sense of self-loathing washed over her.

What the hell was she doing in a country that had nothing to do with her? During those moments, she couldn’t shake the image of a wheelchair’s spinning wheels from her mind.

Perhaps it felt even worse because she had never been separated from Lee Wooshin since joining Blast Agency.

She had boarded this ship to provoke the NIS, yet she felt utterly isolated. The absence of the man who had scolded her harshly yet made sure she had meals and blankets felt unbearably large.

On her first night in the cabin, she deliberately left the door unlocked, recalling the warning she had heard countless times.

Looking back, Lee Wooshin had been ruthless with her in training. He had threatened, coaxed, and ultimately criticized her fiercely to drill into her mind the dangers a female agent would face in the field.

Just then, the sound of wet boots dragging across the floor reached her ears. The ship rocked unpredictably, making her stomach churn once more.

“Even your precious determination can’t get you out of situations like this.”

Filthy footsteps stopped in front of her cabin door. The doorknob turned.

“I know you’re trying your best, but this is the real world. Completing training doesn’t mean the danger ends. If a female agent gets caught overseas—”

Creak. The door swung open. The moment a man stepped inside and reached for the sleeping Seoryeong, she drove her knee straight into his groin.

“Ugh! Fuck!”

In a flash, her fists struck his eye socket, nose bridge, jaw, throat, and solar plexus in rapid succession, ending with two brutal stomps between his legs.

Every time she crushed a pressure point Lee Wooshin had emphasized, she oddly felt his presence beside her. The rush of adrenaline heated her body and hidden beneath his brutal training, his protection tasted bitter yet sweet.

In the blink of an eye, she had reduced her attacker to a crumpled heap. She grabbed his unconscious body and dragged him to the center of the cabin, dumping him there unceremoniously.

The team leader, his forehead deeply furrowed, looked at his knocked-out subordinate and Seoryeong’s cold, expressionless face—but said nothing.

From that moment on, no one dared to mess with her.

She wasn’t sure whether they had learned their lesson or if she was being ostracized, but either way, things were much quieter—and she preferred it that way.

“Hey, don’t leave anything. Eat everything.”

The only problem was the food.

The team hoarded the best ingredients for themselves and tossed the leftovers to her like scraps for a dog.

It happened more than once. But the interpreter was different. It was almost as if he was looking after her.

Every time, he silently watched her before swapping his meal with hers, but Seoryeong refused.

After all, she had originally worked kitchen duty. Even if the ingredients were garbage, she could always make something out of them.

This wasn’t even real bullying, in her opinion.

Still, the rough-looking interpreter would sometimes harden his expression, as if displeased.

Once she finally overcame her relentless seasickness, a brutal storm rolled in.

Raging winds and torrential rain swelled the waves into towering beasts, battering the ship mercilessly.

Cargo bundles skidded across the deck, crew members slammed into the railings while trying to secure ropes, and fuel drums clattered loudly before plunging into the sea. The deafening rain and thunder drowned out all other sounds as the crew screamed at the top of their lungs.

“Fuck! What the hell are you doing?! Wake up every last bastard still sleeping—!”

Emergency lights flickered on in the control room, and the ship lurched violently.

“Han Seoryeong, if you don’t want to be called a freeloader, get out there and do something!”

One of the crew members shouted irritably.