Unity Town.
The streets were packed with people.
There were still many children,
music could be heard from everywhere,
and conversations in different languages mixed together.
Unity Town was still growing.
Children who had graduated from school found jobs and left Unity Town, but
far more children entered Unity Town anew.
Unity Town’s educational methods had become so well-known that they were featured on the news.
Unity Town—a workplace others envied.
It had produced an enormous number of major corporation employees, judges, prosecutors, and doctors.
In truth, they simply regretted leaving because they couldn’t become rebels.
But because of the saying that if you studied in Unity Town, you could become a judge or prosecutor,
many people flocked to Unity Town.
So many wished to enter Unity Town that a waiting list was created,
to the point that a selection process was now needed.
Some people did not leave Unity Town even after graduating from school.
They settled down near Unity Town.
They got married and found jobs here.
They built their lives around Unity Town.
Meanwhile, the children who had been educated at Korea’s K-ORIGIN SCHOOL
returned and began opening their own stores.
Restaurants, cafes, clothing stores, and so on.
People flocked to them, and their popularity showed no signs of cooling.
K-Culture was no longer a simple passing fad,
but had established itself as a massive culture.
On top of that, the people I had called in for safety mixed in too.
People of all occupations, various races, and nationalities mixed together.
Thanks to that, Unity Town became more complex.
It was closer to chaos than organized order.
But strangely, it wasn’t unpleasant.
Rather, it created a unique atmosphere unlike anything seen anywhere else.
It was crude but vibrant,
unstable yet strangely familiar.
In that unfamiliar atmosphere, I searched for someone.
It was someone I met when I was in Congo:
Jose and Poapi.
Jose was the operator of a bar called Loa Jis in Congo,
as well as a dealer of various information and weapons.
I too, when I was in Congo,
had received much help from Jose.
And Poapi.
Poapi was the one who made me hesitate
until the very end about leaving Congo.
Poapi’s life had changed because of me.
Where he lived changed, and what he learned changed.
So I had even considered adoption.
I had wanted to take responsibility until the end.
But I was young,
and international adoption was impossible for someone who wasn’t even married.
I had continued sending living expenses since then,
but this was the first time I had seen his face since then.
In that time, Jose had aged greatly,
and Poapi had become an adult.
The moment they saw us, we embraced each other tightly.
We were truly glad.
We had missed each other.
I wondered how they were living.
.
.
.
We left the crowded streets
and moved to a quiet place.
We had much to talk about.
Jose said he still operated Loa Jis.
That Congo was still the same.
That nothing had changed.
Jose’s words were full of regret.
Although Jose was French,
he was full of affection for Congo.
He loved Congo more than the Congolese did.
He seemed to wish for Congo to develop further.
Poapi had become an adult.
He had grown much taller.
He was over 190 centimeters.
His body was muscular too.
He said he was attending university.
But he said he helped Jose with arms dealing in the evenings.
Because Jose had looked after Poapi, who had no guardian,
it was a natural thing.
One might call it the family business?
I had sent money,
but one couldn’t live on money alone.
A child needed an adult’s attention and protection.
Only with love could one grow properly.
Jose had done that in my stead.
Thanks to that, he studied during the day and dealt weapons in the evening.
But what Poapi was truly interested in was being an information broker.
Rather than directly buying and selling weapons,
Poapi liked listening to the stories that emerged from within and recombining them.
And the person Poapi had liked the most was none other than Alex.
“These days, they say the power of someone named Alex in the Philippines is no joke.”
“They say he’s seized everything—the Philippine underworld, of course, but also the political and financial worlds.”
“They say he has everyone under him—the Triad, the Yakuza, even Korean gangsters.”
“They call it the Alex Group, don’t they?”
“They say he has influence in China too.”
“They say he’s treated as a state guest?”
Poapi used to rattle off information about Alex, whose face he didn’t even know.
But then.
“So you were Alex? Kekeke.”
Jose laughed.
Poapi was so surprised he couldn’t speak.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you earlier. It just happened to turn out that way.”
“Did you need to tell me? Besides, the fewer people who know about this, the better.”
Unlike Jose, who accepted it coolly, Poapi still seemed unable to believe the situation.
“Hyung, you’re really Alex?”
Should I call it the expression of a successful fanboy?
His face was beaming with genuine happiness.
After the brief greetings,
I briefly explained the current situation.
Why I was anxious.
Why I had called them all the way here.
“We heard a brief explanation while waiting. Paradox, was it?”
“Yes.”
“If it’s Paradox, then it must be Adrian.”
“You know him?”
Jose nodded calmly.
“I know. Adrian was the one distributing weapons in Congo. The sniper rifle you requested back in Congo was distributed by Adrian too.”
“What?”
The gun I used was obtained by Adrian?
I hadn’t known.
“They even say Adrian was the one who fanned the flames of the civil war in Congo.”
“Really?”
Is this what they call a nightmare that never ends?
No matter how much I dig, only horror stories come out.
I couldn’t find a single good story.
Anyway, I had gained one more reason I had to take care of Adrian.
If it hadn’t been for Adrian, my brothers wouldn’t have died, and Dennis wouldn’t have died.
As long as Adrian was alive, there was no telling who else might die.
For the sake of the future, Adrian had to be eliminated without fail.
But.
“We want to take care of Adrian too, but we can’t find where he is.”
“Really? You just need to find the guys who were with him. He’s probably nearby, right?”
“Of course we looked for them first. We found all the guys who were guarding the perimeter, but we can’t find Adrian. It’s clean.”
“I see.”
Jose seemed to be thinking about something.
“Well… since Zurich is where Paradox first started, why don’t you dig around there? That’d be where he feels most comfortable and safe, wouldn’t it?”
“Hm… knowing Adrian’s personality, would he have gone back to his home base?”
Jose, who had been thinking for a moment, shook his head.
“That doesn’t seem likely. Then again, the story is he went to a branch or a safe house, but there are so many of those that even organizing them would be difficult.”
Our conversation was heading down a dead end.
There was no answer.
At that moment, Poapi spoke cautiously.
“It’s something I heard a while back.”
Our gazes turned to Poapi.
Feeling our eyes on him, Poapi was slightly flustered.
“I… I’m not certain. It’s just something I overheard, but I thought it might help.”
“It’s fine. Say whatever comfortably. At times like this, those things can be even more useful.”
I set the stage so Poapi could talk comfortably.
“When I was delivering goods a while back, I overheard someone sitting next to me saying that these days, they don’t hide like they used to.”
“They don’t hide?”
I had trouble understanding Poapi’s words.
We couldn’t find Adrian, yet Adrian wasn’t hiding?
“Um… so I mean, should I say they don’t hide their bodies in a location?”
“Explain in more detail.”
“In the past, they used to create safe houses and hold out there. But these days, they say that’s more dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Because patterns form.”
“Patterns?”
“When people stay somewhere, they leave traces. When those traces accumulate, their location is eventually identified.”
“Ah…”
I felt like I’d been hit in the back of the head.
Until now, I had only thought that Adrian was ‘staying’ somewhere.
“Then? Where is he hiding?”
“He goes to places with lots of people instead. When there are many people, he actually can’t be seen.”
“I see. A place with many people, somewhere people constantly come and go. But a place too crowded to check, where people keep changing and records overflow. Right?”
“That’s right.”
Poapi answered with a smile.
“If it’s such a place, an airport? A port?”
Poapi shook his head.
“There’s actually more surveillance there. You can’t stay long, and it’s not comfortable.”
“Then where?”
At my question, Poapi hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“I don’t know either.”
“What?”
“I don’t know where Adrian is hiding either. But I know what we need to find.”
“What do we need to find?”
“…Where money moves.”
“Money? You mean places like banks and securities firms? He’s hiding there?”
“No. Those aren’t good places to hide. From now on, Adrian will thoroughly hide himself.”
“That’s why we hacked the CCTV to…”
“That won’t work.”
“That’s because you don’t know our TraceNet. You have no idea how good TraceNet is.”
“No matter how outstanding it is, it can’t find him. Because he’s covering his face.”
“Hehe, we know that much. That’s why we calculate other things comprehensively, not just the face…”
“He can fix his height with elevator shoes, fix his build by putting a few pads on his shoulders, and if he puts mismatched insoles in his shoes, his gait becomes unnatural. So how can you be sure you’ll find him through gait analysis?”
“…”
“The better TraceNet is, the harder it is to find him. Such systems are more sensitive to small changes.”
At some point, Poapi had taken control of this table.
We were all listening intently to Poapi’s words.
“To find Adrian, we have to throw away everything we know about him. Adrian will conceal his appearance and hide his name. He’ll move under corporations or investment companies instead of his name.”
“Moving under a corporation. I see…”
“You have to find Adrian’s money, not Adrian.”
The conference room fell silent for a moment.
Poapi continued speaking.
“Adrian, who is in hiding, will need money.”
“Would he need money if he’s just hiding and barely breathing?”
Poapi shook his head.
“He needs it even more. Until now, there would’ve been a department in the organization handling funds, but would he try to contact them dangerously while in hiding? And you said quite a few Paradox members died last time. Can you be sure there wasn’t someone managing money among them? Adrian’s connections have been severed now.”
“The accounts are alive, but there are no hands to move the money?”
“That’s right. He has money, but he can’t use it. He probably split it into dozens of accounts too.”
“He needs money, but since he’s hiding, he can’t contact the organization. It must be frustrating?”
“If he can’t contact the organization and can’t trust his subordinates, he ultimately has only one option.”
“He’ll do it himself.”
“That’s right.”
Poapi’s voice hardened.
“He’ll try to gather the scattered money. He probably doesn’t have any money he can use right now, and he’ll need it to prepare his next plan too. So he’ll collect money. In cash.”
“In cash?”
“Because it’s convenient to use now, and hard to trace.”
“That sounds dangerous? Would Adrian take such a risk to gather money?”
“He has to, even if it’s dangerous. Otherwise, he’ll be caught quickly.”
Poapi spoke with certainty.
Only then did I understand the situation thanks to Poapi’s words.
Adrian was feeling severe anxiety.
He had completely hidden himself.
But hiding costs more money than one would think.
That was the part I had been missing until now.
We were now playing a hide-and-seek with our lives on the line.
If caught, you die.
Then would you wait quietly in one place until the seeker comes to find you?
No.
You keep moving, keep relocating.
Leaving no traces,
moving continuously while avoiding CCTV.
Changing locations,
changing vehicles as you move.
Changing clothes every time,
disguising yourself,
altering your build.
Especially since Adrian isn’t alone.
He’ll have at least a few attendants.
The attendants must disguise themselves too.
They’ll need fake identities too.
They have to erase records every time they move,
If you use people, you need even more money to keep their mouths shut.
The fewer trustworthy people you have around you,
the more you have no choice but to solve everything with money.
Right now, Adrian is alone.
He has no organization,
his connections have been severed,
and he has no reliable hands and feet to move in his stead.
That is why he needs money.
He had to gather the money scattered about.
So I had to pursue the flow, not Adrian.
The flow of money.
I urgently called Anna and Chen Zhihao.
******
Somewhere in Europe.
Adrian was looking out the window at the falling rain.
He no longer even knew which hotel this was.
He changed hotels several times a day.
He never stayed in the same place for long.
He always booked several accommodations at the same time.
Under the names of several people.
But he used only one of them.
The rest he left empty, or deliberately left traces behind to create confusion.
He even installed cameras in the lodgings he had reserved.
In case anyone was following him.
Every time he moved, he disguised himself,
changed clothes, and altered his build.
It was uncomfortable, but there was no choice.
He did not use a cell phone.
When he had to, he used a disposable one,
used it briefly, and threw it away immediately.
He never used cards.
Only cash.
He did not keep his routes simple either.
He transferred several times along the way,
or changed cars.
He deliberately tangled his movements.
To be honest, he had not intended to go this far.
At first, he had only meant to hide for a little while.
He had left Mauritius and acted separately from the main force.
Because Alex’s gaze had bothered him.
He had thought he should just be a little careful.
He had also calculated that it would sow confusion.
After leaving Mauritius,
Adrian had vanished completely.
A day?
Two at most?
He thought that would be enough.
Then Alex would be wandering around searching for the vanished Adrian.
He intended to watch Alex panic and then launch a counterattack.
But in the meantime, Teams 2 and 3 were annihilated.
They were wiped out as soon as twenty-four hours had passed.
That meant they had been tracking them.
They had been waiting, and killed them the moment twenty-four hours were up.
A chill ran down his spine.
He had to be careful.
If he acted rashly now, he would be discovered immediately.
No, even the smallest mistake could give away his location.
A single connection,
a single movement,
a single choice.
Any one of those could reveal where he was.
So for now, he had to stay hidden.
Only then could he survive.
Only by surviving could he take revenge.
But right now, there was nothing he could do.
He could not contact anyone, trust anyone, or move.
To disappear completely,
he had separated from the main force and used the men at the branch as his attendants.
It had been a miscalculation to think two days would be enough.
Adrian slowly closed his eyes.
He needed money.
There was no helping it if he wanted to hide.
Identity, travel, lodging, meals, information.
Every little thing cost money.
And since he was acting while in hiding, everything came with a premium.
It became more expensive than usual.
He had plenty of money.
His accounts were overflowing with it.
But right now, there was no one to bring him that money.
After agonizing over it, he opened his eyes.
He made a decision.
He would go to the bank himself.
There was an account he had created under a corporate name.
An account anyone could withdraw from as long as they had the account number and password.
He disguised himself and went to the bank.
He opened the corporation’s secret account.