I admit it.
This is my complete defeat.
I lost the battle of information.
Information is the most important thing in this kind of fight.
Yet I was pushed back at the most fundamental level.
I didn't even know Adrian's name until I sat down here.
Until Adrian spoke his own name himself,
I wandered searching for his name.
I mobilized every possible channel.
I spread money, bribed people, and dug through records.
But I ultimately couldn't find any information on the Paradox leadership.
Of course, I made mistakes too.
After receiving the call from this old man, instead of gathering information, I ended up focusing on this meeting itself.
Rather than investigating Paradox and this old man,
I placed weight on pulling something out of this meeting.
It was my complacency.
I regret it.
What more would have come out if I had squeezed Mateo harder?
If I had gouged out his eyes and cut off his fingers, would I have learned about Adrian?
I think it over.
I looked at Adrian in front of me once.
Looking at him, the answer came to me at once.
I shook my head.
Even if I had, it probably wouldn't have meant much.
Probably only a name would have come out.
The suffering would have been for nothing,
and I wouldn't have gained anything.
Judging by this old bastard's personality, he probably didn't even trust his subordinates.
He would have hidden information about himself tight.
That name, Adrian, probably isn't even his real name.
The people who know his real name are probably all dead.
Conversely.
Adrian knew everything about me.
He had accurately seen through the trajectory of my life.
Where I grew up.
How many packs of beef I stole during school.
What work I did to earn money and get to this seat right now,
who I met, what I did to live—Adrian knew it all.
On the other hand, I don't know anything about Adrian.
Of course, it's not that I didn't try.
I looked too.
I mobilized every channel.
I mobilized every resource Chen Zihao could use and attempted hacking.
The Singapore office, of course, and I searched all the servers connected to it.
I combined pieces of derived information, gathered intel, and hacked.
But the result was the same.
There wasn't even the name Adrian, let alone any data on Paradox.
Paradox didn't seem to use the internet at all.
There needs to be stored data to hack and extract information from,
but the information itself didn't exist.
So there was no target to hack.
I bowed my head briefly, then raised it again.
Let's admit it cleanly.
I lost this round.
But admitting that fact
and kneeling here are completely different things.
It means I'll acknowledge my inadequacy,
not that I'll do as this old bastard wants.
I looked at Adrian again.
He was still looking at me with a relaxed face, a smile on his lips.
With an expression as if he knew everything.
As if everything was proceeding exactly as planned.
"Impressive."
"What is?"
At my words, Adrian perks up his ears.
"I thought the only thing you old geezers knew how to do was hobble around, but I guess you're amazingly good at digging into people's pasts."
"Heh heh. It's what I was trained to do. And I know a lot of people."
"I admit it."
"Thank you."
I cleanly admitted defeat to Adrian.
Since I admitted it, Adrian should be full of himself,
but looking at his expression, he isn't.
His eyebrows furrowed and relaxed very slightly.
As if things weren't going his way.
I added one more spoonful of deviation to that.
"But you know. So what? What about it?"
"What?"
I shrugged my shoulders slightly.
"I lived like that. I was Okapi Sting, I've been called Candy Boy. So what? What's the problem with that? Just because you know my past doesn't mean you know what I'll do now, does it?"
Hearing my answer, Adrian laughed loudly.
He put his hand on his stomach and laughed out loud.
"Kwahahaha. As expected, you're an interesting one."
Adrian, who had been laughing for a while, finally stopped and began explaining again in a kind voice.
"You might not understand because you're young, but the past contains much more meaning than you think. You may want to believe you ran away from your past, but you're still living in it."
Adrian explained, even gesturing with his fingers.
His gaze dug into my eyes.
"What bullshit."
I reflexively denied it.
Because I didn't want to admit that bastard's words.
Because I didn't want to accept that I was living in the past.
Adrian still spoke in a voice like a teacher instructing a student.
"Do you know what influences people the most when they decide something?"
"..."
"It's experience. Most people usually design their future based on the experiences they've lived through. That's why life can't be a short-answer question."
"What are you talking about? Speak so I can understand."
I snapped as if annoyed.
"Let's say, for example, you want to wear luxury clothes. But your reality is a shithole. You have no luxury brands. Then can you wear them? No. You can't. In the end, you'll wear one of the clothes you have. You'll have no choice but to select one of the clothes you have, right? It can't be helped. People are all forced to act within the range of what they possess. Ideals and reality are different. That's why life isn't a short-answer question but a multiple-choice question. Even for the same problem, you can't write down the answer you want. You always have to choose from the given options."
"Who cares about those damn luxury brands."
I snorted.
"I thought you were pretty smart, but you're a fool. What's important isn't luxury brands or clothes, but 'choice.' It's a matter of what choices I can make in my life. The only difference is that if you have nothing, your range of choices narrows, and if you have a lot, it widens—the point that you have to choose remains the same. It's also a matter of whether you can live for choices not given to you."
"So what."
I spoke as if the past was nothing.
Though my heart wasn't like that,
I couldn't be dragged along by this old man.
"I'm saying your choices are obvious. Since I've seen your past, I can predict how you'll act in the future. People can never deny their past. Because that is their world and their everything. Have you heard of the Flea Effect? It's similar. You can't even imagine a world you haven't experienced."
"What a load of bullshit."
At my curse, Adrian smiled rather satisfactorily.
It probably meant things were going his way.
"You do seem to have a mysterious ability, but that's where it ends. The reason I'm not killing you is because I have much to gain from you going forward."
Adrian, who was speaking, paused briefly and continued.
"One hundred million dollars and Phantom Grid. And since I gave you advice today, I'll receive 20% of your annual sales as payment for that. Ah! You can forget about the resort you offered as a gift. I can buy that much myself. Mauritius is a nice place to visit, but inconvenient to live in."
Adrian smiled with the expression of a victor.
I slowly shook my head.
I had no desire to go along with this mad tune.
Even without that, this situation was extremely uncomfortable for me.
"Where did you learn to shove a bill in someone's face unilaterally?"
"As you live, you meet bastards who don't get it even when you give them good advice. When they pay a high price, that's when they finally realize. 'That was a truly expensive lesson,' they say. Hahahaha."
Adrian laughed loudly.
I spoke as if Adrian's words didn't matter to me at all.
"But Gramps, you're not listening to me at all, are you? I told you I have no intention of paying. I can't just pay up because you shove a bill in my face. What did you learn in school?"
"You're getting stupider by the minute."
Adrian spoke with a displeased expression.
"Why do you think I brought up your past? Just as I know your past, I also know the people around you. If you don't pay, I'll kill everyone you know, one by one. And while killing them, I'll say, 'You're dying because of Alex.' Ah! But they might not know you, so I should put it like this. 'You're dying because of Gong Inbae.' How about that? Now does my advice hit home?"
I really admit it.
That bastard is definitely better at pushing people's buttons than me.
As expected, experience and years can't be ignored.
It's obvious how many people he's provoked, without even having seen it.
His skills are no joke.
But I'm not one to fall behind when it comes to needling people either.
And I'm good at lecturing too.
"You went on about being a soldier and all that, so I thought you still had some honor, but there's no soldier in front of me, just a single old street thug bastard sitting here?"
Adrian's expression, which hadn't faltered even once at my words, changed slightly.
It was a subtle change, but I could feel it.
This bastard got scratched.
"You were probably injured in the army too, weren't you? That's why you hobble around so proudly, isn't it? If you're that proud of it, did you get hurt saving a comrade? So you had no choice but to be discharged. You had to earn a living, but didn't know how to do anything, so you started taking commissions brokering weapons, realized there was money in it, and expanded your business. Meanwhile, you gradually hid yourself and put others forward. You're no different from gangsters who put up figurehead CEOs to run their operations. I misjudged you. I thought you were a man with some loyalty, but you're just a back-alley thug."
As my words continued, Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"That's enough."
Adrian spoke in a low voice.
I glared at Adrian.
No, I brought my face even closer and said.
"What do you mean, that's enough? You already crossed the line. Trying to steal the goods, trying to kidnap Dennis—that was all you. And now you demand compensation and threaten me? And then what? You tell me that's enough? Fuck off. From now on, there's no such thing as 'enough' between us. This only ends when one of us, you or me, is dead. You know what it means to delete each other?"
"What? Delete each other?"
Adrian seemed confused, as if hearing this for the first time.
Well, he doesn't even use the internet, so there's no way he'd know.
"From now on, that's what we're doing. Going all out to kill each other."
I paused briefly.
"You'll kill the people around me? Kill them. I don't care. You investigated my background, so you know well. What I have. What kind of people are around me. I don't have shit. I'm an outcast. So do whatever you want."
A slight look of perplexity seemed to flow across Adrian's face.
This must not have been Adrian's plan.
"But from now on, you too will have trouble sleeping comfortably. You said it yourself, didn't you? That I seem to have a mysterious ability."
Clack.
I pulled a gun out of my inventory and placed it on the table.
At that moment, the Paradox agents moved.
They covered and protected Adrian with transparent bulletproof shields.
"Heh heh. Don't be surprised. If I was going to kill him, I'd have shot right away. I wouldn't have placed it on the table."
I spoke, laughing mockingly at Adrian and Paradox.
Spinning the gun round and round.
"I was under the impression you'd done a thorough body search. Quite the skill. How did you do it?"
Adrian spoke from within the bulletproof shield.
"Don't you know magic? Magic?"
I moved my hands holding the gun like a magician.
The gun I was holding in my hand disappeared.
I flipped my hand over and the gun that had disappeared came out.
I repeated that several times.
The Paradox agents' eyes widened.
Adrian too revealed his confusion overtly for the first time.
I was simply repeating putting it into and taking it out of my inventory,
but to those watching, it must not have seemed that way.
I showed my empty hands back and forth like a magician again and asked.
"How is it? Pretty good? Want me to teach you?"
"I'm interested."
After a brief moment of thought, Adrian answered with an expression full of curiosity.
I looked at Adrian and spoke.
"I'll take Paradox as tuition. Your life too, as a bonus. How about it? Still interested? Didn't you say tuition has to be expensive to hit home?"
"You..."
Adrian's body trembled subtly.
Needle him bit by bit, and Adrian reacts too, huh?
I learned something else.
So there was a way to put the squeeze on someone like this.
I’m learning a lot from Adrian today.
He really hasn’t lived all those years for nothing.
There’s a lot to learn from him.
“You said the past determines the future, right? That’s true enough. History is the mirror that reflects the future, or whatever they say. But does that apply to individuals too? Is everyone the same?”
“They are the same. The past is a person’s everything. No one can live free from their past.”
I nodded.
“Right. Everyone is influenced by their past. Everyone lives that way. They choose from the clothes they already own, and make decisions within the scope of what they know. That’s how the world works. I admit that.”
I paused for a moment.
“But you see, every so often, there are ‘madmen’ who don’t live like that. If they don’t like the clothes, they’d rather go around naked than wear something they hate. There are guys who don’t conform to life, but drag life in the direction they want. Even if others point fingers, curse them, and laugh at them, there are guys who don’t care about any of that. People call those guys madmen. And that madman is me.”
I looked at Adrian and grinned.
“What?”
“Life is multiple choice? There are options? Instead of choosing from the options, I’m the type to rip up the exam paper. If I can’t write the answer I want, then I just won’t take that stupid test. Is that why my grades were such a mess?”
The conference room fell silent.
Adrian’s expression changed.
It went completely rigid.
He looked as if he had truly never seen a madman like me before.
“Okapi Sting, Candyboy. Alex, Gong In-bae. Yeah, that was me. Things I once was. But they’re names I’ve already thrown away. Names you can only find in memories now. Those memories are precious, but they don’t have the power to move the me of today. The me of today is moved by the name ‘Dennis.’ But you’re clinging to my useless past and calculating my future from it. That’s why your calculations don’t add up, and your invoice is a mess too.”
Just then, Allen quietly whispered from behind me.
“The evacuation is complete.”
At those words, the corners of my mouth lifted.
I looked at Adrian again.
“And those people you were threatening. The people you said you’d kill. Preparations are already finished. Every single one of them has been evacuated. If you dug through my past, you should have known. How I think of my people. And how I act.”
I slowly rose from my chair.
I could feel Parallax, Adrian, and even the Obsidian Unit tense up.
I placed my hand on the table and spoke to Adrian.
“Now then, this time it’s my turn. Look forward to it. Imagine what will happen to the future of you, now that you’ve shown your face in front of me. Try to predict how my Magic will torment you. From now on, we’re going to play hide-and-seek. Hide-and-seek where you die the moment you’re found. I’ll give you twenty-four hours starting now, so hide well. The time I can give you is exactly one day. Twenty-four hours, that’s all.”
For the first time, I saw Adrian look flustered.
“Here’s one tip: avoid CCTV from now on. If you get caught on CCTV even once, I can find out where you are immediately. So avoid it. You’d better hide really well. Now there are twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty-eight seconds left. Tick-tock, tick-tock. Time is passing. Hurry up and hide.”
I looked at Adrian and grinned.
Adrian said nothing.
He merely glared at me from behind the bulletproof shield.
“Ah! Sorry. Hide-and-seek starts when the seeker turns around and counts, right? Sorry, sorry. I’ve never done stuff like this because I didn’t have any friends. Then I’ll head out first. Hide well. If I see so much as a hair, you’re dead.”
Leaving those words behind, I exited the conference room.
The Obsidian Unit followed me out carefully, as if protecting me.
And so, my first meeting with Adrian came to an end.
The game of hide-and-seek had begun.