“So what? What did you say?”
The moment the blindfold came off and the gag was removed, all the irritation I’d been holding back surged up at once.
These bastards were treating me way too roughly.
Sure, since it was a kidnapping, I could understand them making sure I couldn’t run away to some extent,
but did they really have to be rough after bringing me all the way here?
If I’d planned to run, I wouldn’t have come along in the first place.
I’d gone out of my way to cooperate with their kidnapping, and all I got in return were rough hands.
Rude bastards.
Hanlin had been continuously providing information,
and Sandro had been updating me on the situation, so I had a general idea of what was going on.
At the very least, these guys didn’t seem to intend to kill or injure me.
If that were the case, they would’ve sent hitmen, not an operations team.
And yet they were treating me like this?
After I’d helped with the operation this much?
And most importantly, I needed to change the atmosphere.
If we started talking like this, I’d be dragged along completely.
So, partly to get rid of the surveillance, I shot the guys beside me.
On the other hand, Zhou Qiming felt chills run down his spine as he looked at the man asking back in an innocent voice while holding a gun in one hand.
In an instant, three agents had collapsed.
They were among the finest agents in the MSS.
They had gone down without a single act of resistance, without even properly drawing their guns.
It was the work of an expert.
Not someone who’d only trained, but someone who’d rolled around in the field.
There weren’t many people who could shoot another person so unhesitatingly.
It meant this wasn’t his first time.
But he couldn’t show that he was flustered.
If he did, everything he had prepared would go to waste.
The operation to abduct him, instill fear, and then extract what they wanted had failed.
That plan had completely gone off the rails.
On the contrary, the positions of power had been reversed.
But he had to get a hold of himself even now.
He had to act calmly, as if something like this was nothing at all.
He hadn’t earned the title of MSS Director for nothing.
Stay calm. Stay calm.
From the field to desk work, he had worked at the MSS for over thirty years. How many things had he seen?
This was nothing.
As Zhou Qiming controlled his own mind, he spoke in an even voice.
“I did call you because there was something to discuss… but I suppose this is useless now.”
Zhou Qiming tossed down the thick bundle of documents in his hand.
“What is that?”
“Should I call it the manual we prepared to use when negotiating with you? Or a personal dossier?”
“You prepared a lot. So why can’t you use it?”
“Because this was basically a negotiation strategy for when you were dragged here and shaking in fear before death, begging us to spare your life. But look at the situation now. Do you think that’ll work?”
“That’s true too. Wow, I feel bad about that.”
“Ha. But aren’t you afraid of this place?”
“Why would I be afraid? Aren’t you the one who should be scared?”
“Huh?”
“I’m holding a gun in my hand. If I just pull the trigger, you die right away. So you should be the one scared.”
“Haha. But you won’t make it out alive either. Do you know how many men are guarding outside?”
“Will I? I don’t think so. Well, even if today’s my last day, I won’t be too disappointed.”
That was the truth.
I wouldn’t be disappointed.
Of course, a few faces did come to mind.
I did regret not being able to say goodbye to them, but I had no lingering attachment to life.
It wasn’t just today.
I had always been like that.
I had always thought it was enough for me to live only for today.
The special ability called Inventory had only made me stand out more than a person like me deserved; in reality, I was just a loser bastard.
“Anyway, if you’ve got something to say, hurry up and say it. These bastards didn’t even give me an in-flight meal while bringing me here, so I’m really hungry.”
“Hahaha. You’re entertaining. I didn’t think I’d feel this way again after leaving the field.”
“Save your reminiscing for your subordinates at company dinners, old man, and hurry up with your business. I told you I’m hungry. Your hospitality here really is terrible.”
“Fine, let’s talk business first. You can eat later.”
Zhou Qiming paused for a moment before speaking.
“We went through quite a bit of trouble trying to find you.”
“Wow… there you go again. So what? You want travel expenses or something?”
“How about you listen until the end? It won’t be a bad story for you either.”
“Fine, go on. I’ll listen.”
“You don’t seem slow on the uptake, so I’ll get to the point. We’re thinking of officially distributing Ascend. That’s why we brought you here.”
“What are the conditions?”
“There aren’t any conditions, really. You people just make it and sell it. We’ll help Ascend circulate smoothly. That’s all.”
“I don’t think that’s all.”
“It is. That’s really all. Though there are a few very minor subsidiary conditions. Shouldn’t you at least share the recipe, in preparation for any unforeseen situations? And it would be good if the price were a little lower than it is now. For smooth sales.”
“Aren’t you asking for too much on our first meeting? This goes beyond shameless, doesn’t it? Those bastards’ rudeness earlier doesn’t even count compared to this.”
“Is that so? From our perspective, we’re showing you the utmost generosity.”
“Don’t. Keep it to yourself.”
“I think you’re not understanding the situation because I’m speaking nicely. If I press a single button, dozens of people will come through that door. Then you’ll be flayed alive. We could also execute you as a drug trafficker.”
“So you do know this is a drug?”
“That’s ambiguous. Names are what people make of them, aren’t they? It’s just a matter of whether it’s in the control regulations or not. For example, cannabis is legal in some countries and illegal in others. Honestly, everyone knows cigarettes are worse than cannabis, but cigarettes are legal. To be honest, Ascend doesn’t damage the central nervous system, and compared to that, it provides incredible inspiration. If you cooperate, we intend to distribute it officially.”
“I appreciate the kindness, but my answer is ‘NO.’”
“That’s unexpected. I thought this was a good opportunity. May I hear the reason?”
“Because I’m not hungry enough to stick my head into your wide-open mouth. Just looking at today, who’s in the position of asking for a favor right now? Isn’t it you? Then you should’ve brought me a long-term plan utilizing Ascend, a distribution process, and a marketing strategy to persuade me. Not kidnapped me and threatened me. But what is this? Thanks to your botched operation, three innocent agents died.”
“This, too, was a negotiation strategy—”
“I’m saying that method was wrong. We haven’t even signed a contract, and you’re already this stiff-necked. Imagine if we did sign one. How much power-tripping would you do? Make more quantity. Build more factories. Bring more product. Is candy flavor all you have? Add lychee flavor. Add pineapple flavor. Add durian flavor. Add Peking duck flavor. Add stinky tofu flavor. Isn’t that the shit you’d pull? Ugh, just thinking about it makes the back of my head throb.”
“Isn’t that much something you could do?”
“Forget it. We don’t do business that way. I’ll be going with that understanding.”
“I’m not finished talking yet.”
As the pointless conversation dragged on, I got irritated.
“Hey, old man. I’m showing you as much courtesy as I can because you look like you’re someone fairly high up. Otherwise, you’d be lying on the floor like these old men.”
I pointed at the agents who had been shot and collapsed.
“I think I can roughly guess who you are, old man. Even though you didn’t have the manners to introduce yourself. How many people in China can send a plane into another country and mobilize this many agents? As far as I can see, not many. But I’ve never seen your face on TV. So you’re not the Chairman or someone in the administration. You’d be military or public security. But the way these guys move, they’re not public security. That means black ops. Then you must be something like the MSS Director. Am I right?”
For an instant, Zhou Qiming felt a chill down his back.
Because he had thought the man wouldn’t know who he was.
He hadn’t expected him to deduce it so accurately.
“Why would someone like the MSS Director be obsessed with distributing Ascend? You’re someone who should be cracking down on distribution, not distributing it. If you think about it, isn’t it too simple? It means you’re a junkie. The fact that you can act this high and mighty means there are quite a few people who share your intentions too.”
“……”
Zhou Qiming’s expression became unreadable.
“You probably intended to drag me here, threaten to kill me, and then coax me by saying you’d spare me and let me make money as long as I distributed Ascend. Then you were going to steal the recipe and know-how to produce it yourselves, and use that to prepare for retirement? Whew. How old-fashioned is that method, and you’re still using it? That’s not how you negotiate.”
“Then?”
Pretending to take it out of my pocket, I pulled the newly made Ascend from my Inventory.
“Do you know what this is? You know very well, don’t you? That’s right. Ascend. But this isn’t just Ascend. Ascend Mark.2! A newly improved Ascend. Longer duration, a stronger awakening effect. And with added vitamins, it’s the greatest drug of this era, even considering your health.”
The moment I took out the Ascend, Zhou Qiming’s eyes changed.
His gaze fixed completely on the Ascend.
“Gulp.”
The sound of Zhou Qiming swallowing was loud.
I could feel that he wanted to put the Ascend in his mouth right away.
I could see him craving Ascend.
“I’m willing to distribute this. But it’ll be difficult under the same conditions as now.”
“What are the conditions?”
“If you investigated me, you should already know, but I do a little small-time arms smuggling. But lately, my arms smuggling routes keep getting twisted up, so I’m in a bit of trouble. I’d like us to become good partners. Would that be all right?”
“How?”
“We exchange Ascend, and you give us weapons. Barter. Well, if there’s a difference in value, we can settle it in money. We can excuse that much.”
Zhou Qiming’s head nodded rapidly.
******
Construction of the town was proceeding smoothly, step by step.
The first thing we did was build factories.
We needed jobs.
Not just any jobs, but jobs women could work.
That was because most of the households were single-mother families.
The factory we chose was a coconut processing factory.
We built mango and dried fruit factories as well.
There were many farms here that had been operated by the rebels, so coconuts, mangoes, pineapples, and other fruits were produced in abundance, but there were no factories to process them, so they were being exported as raw products.
Exporting them that way didn’t cause problems, but it was hard to get a high price.
The prices of coconuts and coconut oil are completely different.
Coconut oil costs twenty to thirty times as much as coconuts.
I had been thinking about it for a long time, but we were short on people,
and I hadn’t wanted to create more work unnecessarily, so I hadn’t done it. Now it had become a good opportunity.
The same went for mangoes and pineapples.
We could prevent the foolishness of selling them at bargain prices out of fear the fruit would spoil.
All we had to do was dry them and store them properly.
Once processed, they could be sold for a much higher price.
We built those factories near Zamboanga.
Since only a few machines needed to be brought in, it didn’t take very long.
Now all we needed was for people to come.
But would people move here?
.
.
.
Ramil lived in a slum on the outskirts of Manila.
Today, too, he was searching the garbage dump for trash that could be sold.
Usually, he looked for glass bottles or scrap metal, but on lucky days, he sometimes found copper or broken appliances.
But today was not such a lucky day.
He rummaged through the trash, but gained nothing.
On his way home, trudging along in dejection,
someone was standing in front of his house.
At a glance, they did not look like good people.
Had they come to collect money from his mother?
He had planned to stay somewhere other than home and go back after those people left, but one of them approached Ramil.
“Ramil?”
Inside, he thought, I must absolutely not answer…
He tried to run away.
But they were holding a photo of Ramil in their hands.
Before he knew it, the men had surrounded him.
It seemed running or lying would be useless.
“Yes…”
The moment he answered, countless thoughts flooded his mind.
Had they come to take me instead of my mother’s debt?
Will I be sold somewhere and forced to live like a slave?
As he imagined an anxious future, unexpected words came out.
“You must have had a hard time all this while.”
Ramil raised his head and looked at the man.
The man looked at Ramil with a smile and said,
“It’s time to start a new life now.”
.
.
.
He came to Mindanao with his mother.
It had not been an easy decision, but they did not agonize over it for long.
There was no longer any hope in the place where they had lived.
They had been struggling just to keep living.
His mother could no longer find work there.
Ramil, too, could not make a living by picking through trash.
They were poor, but they were becoming even poorer.
But they said that here, they would give his mother a job, and though it was rented, they would provide a house as well.
They said they would let Ramil attend school too.
Could that really be true?
He couldn’t believe it.
In his life, no one had ever shown Ramil such kindness.
But Ramil’s worries scattered like smoke the moment he arrived here.
A clean house unlike any he had ever lived in before.
Clean clothes and clean food welcomed Ramil.
They said all of it was Ramil’s.
They said children did not have to work here.
They said children had to go to school.
They said that if he didn’t want that, he could learn a trade or something else.
They said everything depended on Ramil’s choice.
At the very least, they said, he would not need to pick up trash.
For some reason, tears came.
That alone made him think he had done well to come here.
They called this place Unity Town.