The Poison Demon and the Black Market (2)
I asked the suited boss.
"What's the address of the Black Market?"
The bastard pulled out his phone, opened a maps app, and showed me the location, then added a word.
"But not just anyone can get in. There's a membership card—once it's issued, it can't be reissued—."
"Do you have one?"
"I do."
"This?"
I held up a card I'd just pulled from the bastard's wallet.
An all-black card.
No card number, just a small QR code embedded in the center.
"Ah, yes. But why do you have that……."
"It's mine now."
"What?"
Thwack! Crack crack crack.
The suited boss didn't have many teeth left now.
Urgh.
Having his teeth knocked out one by one meant he was bleeding so heavily that his face was growing increasingly pale.
Right, then. The most important question remained.
The one his life depended on.
"Can you see me?"
I was wearing the Dark Moon Mask, so I asked how well he could see me up close—
Nod nod.
"Guess I'll have to kill you."
Shake shake! Shake shake!
Suddenly the bastard shook his head violently.
"Use your words, idiot. Can you not see well?"
"Yes! Yes!"
"What do you mean you can't see well? Explain."
"I-I can make out your form, but your face is blurry. Like there's some kind of noise over it……."
What does that even mean.
"Close your eyes."
Riiip-.
I covered the bastard's eyes again with packing tape.
Then I removed the Dark Moon Mask and put it on him.
"Ohh!"
Literally, exactly as he said.
There was something of a human shape, but the face was smeared away and invisible.
Concentrating harder, I could just barely make it out.
Of course, I also had to account for the fact that my eyes, as a master, were better than other people's.
Pretty good performance.
"Close your eyes. You know what happens if you open them?"
"Yes."
I took the Dark Moon Mask back off and put it on myself.
"You're lucky. If you'd seen my face, I would have killed you."
"Please let me live……. Please."
"I'll let you live. But."
"……."
"Drink a cup of loneliness."
I planted the Gu Poison in him.
The commands were: 'You have never seen me. You cannot remember me. You must leave Grandmother's house immediately, and you must never bring harm to Grandmother. My family is included in that, naturally.'
Honestly, I'd kept going back and forth on whether to kill him.
Normally I'd have gotten rid of him on the spot, but there was one nagging issue.
The problem of disposing of the body.
There weren't just the suited boss—there were plenty of other suited men around.
If I killed him, things would escalate.
Vroom-.
The boss immediately drove off.
His subordinates panicked.
"Boss!"
They shouted and ran after him.
I returned to Grandmother's house and escorted Mother out.
"Grandmother is a wonderful person."
"She is, right?"
"Let's visit her often."
"Yes."
After arriving home, Mother headed to the kitchen.
She was preparing the ingredients for tomorrow.
I made the excuse of being tired and said I was going to sleep early.
Then I put on the Dark Moon Mask and slipped back out.
It was a race against time now.
They must have seen me enter Grandmother's house, so they'd definitely taken photos of me and Mother.
In that case, Jeoksapa Chairman Park Jeok-sa would come after me.
I pulled out the suited boss's business card from my pocket.
The address written on it.
So this is the bastard's base of operations?
* * *
Chairman Park Jeok-sa was throwing another tantrum.
Crash!
The office furnishings were shattered by the golf club he swung.
"What do you mean he suddenly vanished!"
He demanded of his subordinates.
"Well…… We definitely saw him go in, but then Executive Manager Kang suddenly drove off, so we chased after him, and when we came back……."
"He vanished?"
"Yes."
"You lost him?"
"Yes."
Crack!
Park Jeok-sa slammed the golf club into a subordinate's head.
"And you call that an explanation!"
The subordinates clasped their hands together and averted their eyes.
On instinct, they knew that making eye contact right now meant death.
Park Jeok-sa screamed.
"Right now! Bring me that bastard! Track Executive Manager Kang's phone too! Bring me that goddamn bastard!"
Once his subordinates had gone, Park Jeok-sa sank into the sofa and buried his face in his hands.
"Aigoo, what a life."
Why has everything been going wrong lately.
He was grumbling to himself when he stopped short.
'Ah. I told the guys to track Executive Manager Kang's phone.'
His subordinates would definitely contact the police officers they'd bribed to run a search.
But hadn't Red Dragon Gate's Lee Won-ryong given a very firm warning?
[Don't do it if I tell you not to!]
"Damn. Rude little bastard."
His face flushed red, he deliberated for a moment before pulling a phone out of his pocket.
"Let me try calling Executive Manager Kang first."
That bastard wouldn't pick up, obviously, but there was nothing to lose by trying.
Beep beep-.
A dial tone rang out.
Ring ring. Ding dong dang dong.
A garbled ringtone chimed.
Right here.
In his own chairman's office!
"Wh-what, what?"
"Caught."
Swish.
A shadow rose from one corner of the chairman's office.
* * *
I removed the Dark Moon Mask.
"Chairman Park Jeok-sa."
"You! Who are you?"
"The person you've been looking for."
Step. Step.
I walked toward him.
"H-how did you get in here?"
"You should be asking how long I've been here."
"……!"
I smiled.
"Quite a spacious office. Incomparable to the Happy Loan Office."
"You! It's you!"
"Just figured it out?"
Park Jeok-sa swore.
"You crazy bastard! Your liver must have swollen to bursting!"
"Crazy is right, swollen it is not."
Thud.
I sat down on the sofa across from him.
It was soft, and for once the sensation was genuinely to my liking.
A luxury brand?
Whoosh!
The bastard had somehow grabbed a golf club and pointed it at me.
"Looks like you want to die!"
Hummm-.
His Artificial Dantian activated, and energy began flowing through his entire body.
The slightly alien sensation made it instantly identifiable.
Oh, so that's an Artificial Dantian.
Let me test it then.
How strong it is.
"Come at me."
"How dare you, you little—!"
The bastard swung the golf club down as if to cave in my skull, but his technique was pathetic.
Not even a proper overhead strike.
Snatch!
I caught the descending golf club, yanked him toward me, and twisted his arm.
Cr-crack!
"Aaaaagh!"
Park Jeok-sa, his right arm bent the wrong way, dropped to his knees.
"Didn't even need to stand up."
So this is the level of the notorious Park Jeok-sa of Jeoksapa.
Far worse than the Nallyu Gang Leader or the Dark Moon Pavilion Master.
Is this the reality of Korea's climbers?
……Disappointing.
I pulled the golf club from his hand and stood up.
A solid chunk of iron. A deliberately skewed center of gravity.
‘This I like.’
I swung it as is.
Crack!
A sound burst out like several of Park Jeok-sa's ribs had shattered.
"Gugh!"
"One's not enough!"
The golf club completed its arc and slammed into the other side of his ribcage.
Cr-crack!
In that instant, Park Jeok-sa's eyes rolled back as if he'd experienced a pain that stopped his heart.
"No passing out."
Prick!
I drove a Pear Blossom Needle into the Hundred Convergences Point on his head. His eyes snapped wide open.
I held the golf club in front of the fallen Park Jeok-sa's eyes.
He trembled violently as he looked up at me.
"How about that? Does it hurt when I hit you with this? Or does it not hurt?"
"I-it hurts!"
"Then why did you try to hit me with it?"
If Mother had been dragged here too, this bastard would have beaten her with it.
‘Son of a bitch!’
Rage surged up and I nearly killed him on the spot.
The Black Market suddenly flashed through my mind, and I barely held myself back, then pointed at the sofa.
"Sit."
"……."
"Sit!"
I released a burst of energy.
Rumble!
Every window in the office shook violently, as if struck head-on by a typhoon.
Park Jeok-sa, without knowing why, jolted to his feet and collapsed into the sofa.
"……Huh?"
His bewildered expression.
He had no way of knowing. The efficacy of Ten Thousand Streams Return to Origin Divine Art.
Releasing energy to issue an Absolute Command.
It lacks the power of Gu Poison, but for short-term, one-time commands, nothing is more convenient.
At my current level it doesn't work on peak masters or above, but—
This bastard Park Jeok-sa has internal energy at the level of a first-rate master.
It was only natural he couldn't resist my command.
Gulp. Park Jeok-sa's expression visibly shifted.
It seemed he'd realized I was no ordinary person.
His shattered ribs must have been stabbing at his organs, but he forced himself to endure the pain and held an upright posture.
I held my hand out to him.
"Phone."
He flinched.
"Hand it over!"
Rumble.
Park Jeok-sa immediately extended his phone.
Tsk, this bastard. Making things tiring.
"One more time you drag your feet, I won't say it with words."
Cr-crack crack crack!
The golf club bent like taffy in my hands.
Clatter.
His jaw fell open and he began trembling uncontrollably.
"Let me ask you something. I get that you're chasing me over the Happy Loan Office thing, but I only took exactly 100 million won?"
Tremble tremble.
"For a rich man like you, 100 million is nothing. So why were you after me?"
"……."
Grab! Crack!
I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face straight into the table.
The solid table cracked and splintered.
"Ggh-ugh!"
"I told you not to drag your feet. Answer."
His face now a bloody mess, he opened his mouth.
"I-I just…… Got angry……."
"What made you angry."
"The men kept not listening to me, kept saying they couldn't answer……."
Because of the Gu Poison, his men couldn't answer him, so Park Jeok-sa had assumed they were disobeying his orders.
He must have found it hard to accept that there was something out there more terrifying than himself.
I understand.
I've met more than enough of this type.
"Is that all?"
"I-I'm sorry."
Crack!
I slammed his head back into the table.
"And you loiter around Grandmother's house for that?"
"……."
"How frightened must she have been? With gang members wandering the neighborhood."
"I was wrong!"
"I heard everything from Kang I-deuk. You said to bring in everyone connected, not just me?"
"I'm sorry……."
I lost my words for a moment.
The part about hearing it from Kang I-deuk was a lie.
I'd been leading him on, and the terror-stricken Park Jeok-sa had been spilling everything.
Swish.
I grabbed him by the hair and hauled him up.
I looked into his face, nose completely shattered and ruined.
"How did you obtain the street CCTV footage?"
"I got it from the police."
"They wouldn't hand it over just because you asked. You bribed them?"
"Y-yes."
I held my hand out to him.
"The ledger."
Park Jeok-sa crawled over and brought a ledger along with a list of the corrupt officers he'd been funneling bribes to.
Skimming through it, interesting things caught my eye.
An inspector and a superintendent from Samil Police Station.
……That's the police station I went to on the day I reincarnated.
The one where Sergeant Lee Cheol-jung is.
That'll come in handy someday.
I asked him again.
"You're deeply involved with the Black Market, aren't you?"
"……Yes."
"Tell me the Black Market's structure, how it operates, and how money flows through it."
A moment later.
"Hmm, fairly complicated."
I sorted through the information Park Jeok-sa had spilled.
And confirmed the part I'd found most baffling.
How the Black Market was operating with Gukmubon watching with both eyes wide open.
The party running the Black Market was none other than an alliance of sects.
And Gukmubon was turning a blind eye to it.
Just as light requires darkness—
Gukmubon couldn't manage everything through the exchange it operated.
Items coming out of the Tower aroused the desire of all kinds of collectors beyond just climbers.
Trading was happening quietly, outside the government's sight.
So rather than pretending it didn't exist, they'd essentially permitted Black Market trading—on the condition that only items from floors 20 and below could be traded there.
That was how Gukmubon had allowed the Three Great Sects to open the Black Market.
"The intention is fine, but—"
Could it actually work?
Impossible.
Korea is currently challenging the 37th floor.
Items from 30th floor and above are definitely being traded too.
You only have to look at how Artificial Dantians are being traded under the table to understand the situation.
The major sects growing more powerful and slipping out of control.
"Well, not my problem."
Tap.
I pulled out the Black Market membership card.
"Park Jeok-sa, is any kind of trade possible with this?"
Park Jeok-sa shook his head.
"This one is low-rank……. Only items from Floor 20 and below can be traded."
"Are there higher-ranked ones?"
Park Jeok-sa produced his own.
A slightly different Black Card.
It had some kind of crest on it. The material was far more premium.
"And this one?"
"Up to 33rd floor is possible."
"Above that?"
"I-I don't have one of those. It would take someone at the level of an Elder from the Three Great Sects."
I asked a different question.
"If you trade using these, does the trader's identity get exposed?"
"It does not. Everything is confidential."
Heh.
That can't be right.
"Who do you think you're calling an idiot!"
Thwack! Crack crack crack!
I kicked the table.
The table skidded over and shattered both of his knees.
"Gugh-!"
"Tell me the truth."
Writhing in pain, he answered with difficulty.
"P-people with higher ranks can know. The ones with the top-tier cards……!"
Of course.
"Someone like Red Dragon Gate Sect Leader Lee Won-ryong?"
"Yes……. Even in all of Korea, there are only exactly five of them."
He spread his palm open.
So at this bastard's level, he can't conceal a trader's identity, is what it comes down to.
For me, needing to protect my family, that's a critical point.
I told him.
"You're deeply embedded in the Black Market, aren't you?"
"Yes……."
"Then you must have more than one card?"
Nod nod.
"Bring them. All of them."
Swish.
I eased up the force of my foot pinning the table down.
Thud.
He crawled like a worm, opened his safe, and produced 6 cards.
5 lower-rank cards like the suited boss's, and 1 more at Park Jeok-sa's level.
Including the suited boss's and Park Jeok-sa's, a total of 8 cards.
Time to wrap things up.
I asked him.
"Park Jeok-sa. Who in this world do you want to kill most right now? Me excluded, obviously."
"Pardon? Agh!"
Park Jeok-sa jolted in alarm at having dragged his feet—and stared back at me, trembling.
"What's with you? I'm not going to hit you. Just tell me—the person you want to kill right now, whoever pops into your head."
Park Jeok-sa answered immediately.
"Lee Won-ryong! Lee Won-ryong."
"Red Dragon Gate Sect Leader?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Noted."
As I nodded, a look of hope began to dawn in Park Jeok-sa's eyes.
He seemed to think I was going to do something to Lee Won-ryong.
Pfft.
I picked up his phone and tapped messages.
"Group send works like this, right?"
I touched the group icon and composed a message to go out to every saved contact.
"I, Park Jeok-sa, can no longer live this miserable life and am heading deep into the mountains to train. The position of Jeoksapa Chairman goes to Executive Manager—."
Ah. Delete four characters.
"The position of Jeoksapa Chairman goes to Executive Manager Kang I-deuk, and all Jeoksapa members are to follow Kang I-deuk's orders. That is all. P.S., Lee Won-ryong you son of a bitch. I will personally kill you."
Tap.
Message sent successfully.
Swish.
"Easy, wasn't it?"
Tremble tremble tremble tremble tremble.
Park Jeok-sa's jaw chattered as he shook.
The meaning of the message I'd sent.
It meant I had no intention of letting Park Jeok-sa live.
Crack crack crack.
I rolled my shoulders out lightly.
Park Jeok-sa, seeing that, frantically asked.
"W-wait!"
"What?"
"Earlier you clearly said you weren't going to hit me……."
"Right."
I shrugged and picked up an industrial box cutter from his desk.
Click-.
"I'm going to slice you."