The first cut was across his chest — shallow but burning. Gin gritted his teeth. He wasn't new to pain, not after so many deaths, but this body remembered it viscerally. Every nerve lit up with fire.
"You know what hurts more than the knife?" Min-seok whispered. "Betrayal."
He pressed the blade under Gin's jaw. "You were like a son. I trained you. Bled with you." His voice broke — just for a moment — before the anger returned. "And you threw it all away for a skirt."
The gang members watching didn't speak. They didn't need to. Their silence screamed judgment.
But Gin wasn't Jae-Hwan. He wasn't loyal to these wolves. He needed to find Sori, retrieve the drive, and figure out why this life — this particular betrayal — had earned him a ticket back from death.
Later that night, when the guards shifted, Gin tested his binds. He'd been quietly sawing at the rope on a jagged nail in the wall. Minutes passed. Then hours. Finally — a snap. His right wrist fell loose.
Adrenaline surged.
He moved fast — slamming his elbow into the nearest guard's throat. The man crumpled, gasping. Gin grabbed his baton, spun, and cracked it across the second guard's skull.
Alarms didn't blare. The Crimson Fangs didn't believe in technology where pain would do.
Gin pulled the keys from the first guard's belt and unlocked the door. His legs wobbled — this body was starved, bruised — but still capable. He moved like a predator through the corridors of the compound.
Then came the second wave.
Three men. One with a machete. Two with steel pipes.
"Jae-Hwan?! He's loose!"
Too late.
Gin hurled a broken chair leg into one's gut, ducked the machete, and swept the wielder's feet. As the man fell, Gin stomped on his wrist, disarming him, then flung the blade into the nearest attacker's thigh.
Screams echoed. Blood painted the walls. Gin didn't stop. He couldn't.
Upstairs. More guards. More fists. One broke his nose. Another cracked his ribs. He spat blood, bit down on pain, and fought like the animal they once feared.
He wasn't escaping. He was surviving.
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