18-326

EP.326 Torture 

Torturer A used pliers to pull out all ten of Yuna’s fingernails. 

“Ten come out quickly, right? What a shame...” 

He sighed, then picked up a red-hot soldering iron and cauterized the wounds where the nails had been pulled. 

“Ggggh...!” 

With this, new nails would never grow again. 

He didn’t stop there—using a small knife, he dug into the nail beds to completely remove the roots. 

He repeated this process ten times. Yuna foamed at the mouth, trying to faint, but the stimulant’s effect made it impossible to lose consciousness. 

“Kkhaha... aaah...” 

“Don’t close your eyes. You have to see this, right?” 

A lightly slapped Yuna’s cheek as she kept trying to close her eyes. 

Deciding that wasn’t enough, he took a stainless steel eyelid retractor and forced her eyelids open. 

“Uaah...” 

Now unable to close her eyes, she stared wide-eyed at her own tortured reflection in the mirror. 

“Kkeuk... ugh...” 

Even after a short time, her eyes dried out and the blood vessels stood out sharply. 

Prolonged use of the retractor could lead to blindness, but A dismissed this as nothing and prepared the next torture. 

This time, he picked up a thick, long needle. 

“Now that the fingernails are done, let’s move on to toenails.” 

“P-please... I’ll tell you everything! I’ll talk!!” 

“What?” 

Exactly 36 minutes and 11 seconds after the torture began, 

Yuna broke down and declared her surrender, trembling all over. 

“Hmm...” 

Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, A stabbed the thick needle deep into Yuna’s thigh. 

“Kyaaaaaaaaaa!!” 

Not stopping there, he grabbed the end of the needle and twisted it clockwise, 

causing the wound to open and blood to gush out. 

“Kkaaa... aaaugh...!” 

“That was fast. How can you give up in less than a day?” 

“Hhuuuk...!” 

Who could endure such torture—flesh torn, blood spurting, wounds burned—while fully conscious? 

“Didn’t you get torture training? Are you really a spy?” 

“S-spy...?” 

“Hm?” 

It occurred to Yuna that she didn’t even know why she was being tortured. 

Her sister’s death was already public knowledge, 

and stabbing someone with a knife didn’t warrant this kind of interrogation. 

“Are you pretending not to know? You’re the spy who stole confidential data from the communal facility.” 

“I—I don’t know anything about that...” 

Yuna, forced to take the fall for Min-jung’s crime, was tortured for something she knew nothing about. 

“Do you really not know?” 

“I don’t know..! I don’t! I know nothing!!” 

“Hooh...” 

No matter how brutal the torture, you can’t confess to what you don’t know. 

A, watching Yuna stubbornly insist, stroked his chin with a chilling smile. 

“So you’re a real spy, keeping your mouth shut to the end. I’m impressed.” 

“N-no... I really don’t know anything...” 

“Your surrender was just a trick, huh? That’s why spies need real pain.” 

“N-no... I really don’t know... I don’t!!” 

“Everyone says that at first, but they all confess in the end.” 

A mercilessly yanked the needle out of Yuna’s thigh. 

“Kyaaaaaaaaaa!!” 

Blood streamed from the gaping wound. 

“This kind of pain is nothing... don’t be so dramatic.” 

Wiping the blood off the needle, A walked to the shelf, 

humming as if he were enjoying himself, picking up various metal torture tools. 

Their shapes were so bizarre, their use was impossible to guess. 

“Now... before we start the next round of torture, I’ll give you one last chance. What confidential data did you steal from the communal facility?” 

“Kkhuk... It really wasn’t me... I’m innocent... It was all Kim Min-jung... she’s the real culprit...” 

“Is that so? So what.” 

A snorted derisively, tapping Yuna’s cheek. 

“Hey, you dumb cunt. You’re the one being tortured and interrogated, not Kim Min-jung.” 

“Hhuuk...” 

“Stop trying to drag others down with you—think for yourself and answer. If you want to live, that’s what you should do, right?” 

A never cared about the confidential data. 

He was just following orders, 

but he wasn’t especially loyal, and even if Yuna confessed, he didn’t believe it would have any real effect. 

He just wanted to torture women as much as he pleased. 

“Hey, do you know why I’m doing this job?” 

“Uh...?” 

He had become the underground facility’s torturer because he was a natural-born psychopath with a talent for tormenting women. 

“When I was a manager, plenty of livestock ended up disabled or dead because of me. I lost count after ten.” 

A boasted about his brutality, twitching his lips in a twisted smile. 

If there was a devil hiding among humans, it would be him. 

“I heard you did all this because your sister became female livestock?” 

“Hhuuk...” 

Her sister had become livestock, was murdered in a public toilet. 

If not for that, Yuna would never have gone to the protest group, 

never listened to Min-jung’s request, 

never written posts against the communal facility, 

never stabbed anyone in a rage, 

never been falsely accused as a spy and tortured like this. 

Recalling the chain of events, Yuna felt a trauma she could never forget. 

“You should’ve just accepted the conscription notice. Why make such a fuss over something you brought on yourself?” 

“No... that’s not true...” 

Her sister, Seo Yujin, became livestock because a communal facility staffer covered up a mistake. 

They never even received a conscription notice. 

“My sister died unjustly..!” 

Yujin’s life was worth only a pork belly and soju dinner. 

She’d been a troublemaker, but was a beloved sister. 

That her sister’s value was just 20,000 won for a meal— 

it was as infuriating as her death itself. 

Yuna, hating the communal facility, wept tears of blood and gritted her teeth. 

“Honestly, isn’t it ridiculous? Why make such a fuss over one dead cunt?” 

“W-what..?” 

“You women were born to be baby-making slaves. That’s the policy of the communal system—how dare you bear a grudge and commit a crime?” 

In this twisted world, the life of female livestock was worth less than an insect. 

From birth, women had to accept their inescapable fate. 

“All this trouble because you made a fuss over one dead pussy.” 

Enraged at her sister’s death being mocked, Yuna rattled her bound body. 

“I’ll kill you... I’ll kill you!!” 

“Go ahead. But if you don’t do it now, you’ll never get another chance.” 

Deciding any further talk was pointless, A picked up a small mallet and resumed the torture. 

“Struggle all you want.” 

Kaang— 

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” 

He smashed the mallet down on Yuna’s foot. 

Her resolve crumbled, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. 

10 hours into the torture. 

“Kill me... please...” 

Yuna’s pleas for mercy faded. 

Her limbs were so mangled that further restraint was pointless; she just lay limp, breathing faintly. 

She even wished she could die and see her sister again, 

but unlike Yujin, who was in heaven, Yuna felt she’d go to hell for her crimes. 

“Enough... just kill me...” 

The psychological trauma was as great as the physical pain. 

A explained each new torture device as he used it, forcing Yuna to watch in the mirror and scream. 

She couldn’t close her eyes, couldn’t escape. 

She had once thought she could resist, but now she only howled in madness. 

“Kill me... stop...!!” 

“Sigh, this is boring.” 

A life where she could choose neither life nor death. 

“Should I stop now?” 

Losing interest, A gazed at her blood-soaked body. 

Her limbs were so destroyed they hung like a marionette’s. 

With her bones and joints shattered and muscles severed, she couldn’t move a finger. 

Without proper treatment, she’d be disabled for life— 

but A didn’t care about such things.