After Oh Eutteum, the manager of Gogo Casino, left, I thought for a long time.
What should I do?
The employee wants the system that badly—should I get it for him?
But how do I bring the system here?
I pondered.
Actually, the site I’d asked Oh Eutteum to look into was the one that had contacted Chief Nam—the site run by the organization that had tried to steal Gogo Casino’s source code.
After a long investigation, we had been able to find the backers of the group that tried to take Gogo Casino.
To be exact, it wasn’t me, but Sandro.
I wasn’t curious about what method Sandro used to find out.
Only the fact that he found out mattered.
It took longer than I’d expected.
When we beat the guys who’d contacted Chief Nam to find the backers, that guy turned out to be a small fry.
We beat them up again and again, and one organization emerged.
The site Oh Eutteum had seen was the site run by that organization.
“They’re Chinese. They run an online casino too, but since the profits weren’t coming in, they must have tried to take our source code. Here’s the site.”
After receiving the link, I told Oh Eutteum to analyze the site and bring it to me.
But Oh Eutteum said he needed that site’s system.
His eyes darting about.
The silver lining was that the server wasn’t in China, but right here in the Philippines.
I didn’t think an answer would come from just sitting here and worrying.
I had to go take a look.
“Scott. Get ready to go out.”
“Yes.”
.
.
.
“Good grief, it’s so high up.”
“W-who’s there?”
“If you’re going to work in a building with no elevator, do it on the first floor. I’m exhausted.”
“I said who are you!!!”
“Ugh, I’m beat. Scott. Rough them up for now.”
“Yes.”
Scott rushed out with his reply,
and the organization members who had followed Scott followed right behind him.
They began indiscriminately beating the people sitting defenselessly in front of their computers.
There was no mercy in their hands.
They didn’t use tools, but their bare fists were more than enough.
“Scott. If those bastards are still holding their heads up high later, you’re dead.”
“That won’t happen. Please don’t worry.”
“Really? Got it.”
“Yes.”
Scott was composed enough to hold a conversation with me while roughing the kids up.
How much time had passed?
I’d nearly finished a glass of juice sitting on the sofa when about a dozen men, half-dead, were kneeling and sitting quietly.
I looked at them and asked a question.
“Alright! Hands up if you know why you got beaten!”
But no one raised their hand.
“See, Scott. The answer isn’t coming out right away. What’s going on?”
“I apologize. Give me five minutes and I’ll make it so you know every tedious detail of how they’ve lived their lives up to now.”
As Scott tried to move with his reply, one of the kneeling men hurriedly waved his hand and spoke.
“Ah… no. We truly didn’t know, so we couldn’t raise our hands. We have absolutely no intention of deceiving or hiding anything. It’s the truth.”
“Really? Can I trust you?”
“It’s true.”
“Then talk.”
“About what…”
“Every tedious detail.”
From that point on, the man began to speak at length.
“I was born in 2002…”
“Skip.”
“School was…”
“Skip. Tell me what you did here.”
“We are here to provide online services…”
“Isn’t this place an online casino?”
“Huh? That…”
“Scott. That bastard’s eyes are spinning. Seems like he’s cooking up some excuse?”
“My apologies. I’ll take care of it immediately.”
Five minutes later.
His already ruined face was even more ruined.
“What did you say earlier? Online services?”
“No. We are building an online casino.”
“You know Gogo Casino, right?”
“Who doesn’t know that place? Everyone knows it.”
“Then why did you need Gogo Casino’s source code?”
“Huh?”
“Scott!”
“No. No!! We really don’t know anything about that. It’s amazing that Gogo Casino does so well. Just looking at the source, there doesn’t seem to be anything that special, but we have said that there must be something we don’t know. We’ve never tried to steal Gogo Casino’s source code.”
“Then what about the guy right here who tried to recruit our manager?”
“We only write programs here. We don’t get involved in the organization’s operations. The guys who carry out actual actions are separate.”
“Oh~ good. Tell me that in tedious detail.”
The battered man began to speak.
His story was truly long and detailed, but the summary was simple.
They were a Chinese criminal organization called Zero Boundary (零界線), which meant “without borders.”
But this group was unusual.
Just as our country has “MZ,” China has a generation called “Linglinghou.”
It was a criminal organization created by this Linglinghou generation.
Those born after 2000, the Linglinghou, have several distinct characteristics.
Having grown up with smartphones, the internet, and social media from birth, they are digitally adept.
More interested in practical profit than ideology, but crazy for nationalistic highs.
Very individualistic and realistic.
They have high spending power, but spend a lot of money on nationalistic highs and trendy things.
But just as much, they have many shadow sides.
Having graduated university after surviving fierce entrance exam competition, they face a lack of proper jobs, becoming a social issue.
They believed they couldn’t make money through normal means, so they formed an organization.
That was Zero Boundary.
These digitally skilled individuals mainly used online casinos, phishing, ransomware, money laundering, and so on as their main sources of income, hiring technicians or collaborating with them.
These Linglinghou hadn’t gathered through words like shared goals, loyalty, brotherhood, or family.
They gathered and dispersed according to profit.
They were a kind of laborers gathered for a project,
and there were separate people who planned and executed it.
“They’ll probably arrive about now.”
As if his words were a signal, the door opened and four Chinese men appeared.
The four Chinese men seemed surprised by the office scenery, which was different from usual.
The laborers should have been sitting at their desks working,
but those laborers were kneeling in a battered state, and people they’d never seen before were surrounding them.
The surprised Chinese men tried to leave, but Scott was already blocking the door.
Ah. I told you he’s sharp.
The Chinese men’s hands went to their waists.
“You pull that knife, you die.”
I said it, but the Chinese man didn’t listen.
There’s always some bastard hell-bent on taking his punishment.
One of them charged at me with a knife,
but none of us moved.
But the Chinese man collapsed before he could take three steps,
and a second later, a *bang* rang out.
The man lay collapsed, bleeding with a hole in his head.
Everyone there was bewildered, not knowing how this had happened.
The man who’d charged with a knife bounced back as if he’d hit a wall and collapsed, bleeding.
And yet no one there had moved.
“Ah!! Didn’t I tell you I have a sniper? Sorry. One life flew away for nothing. But I warned you in advance. Pull a knife, you die. I’m not a bluffer. And if you lie, you guys will die too. Okay? Now then, shall we talk in detail again?”
I straightened my back from where I’d been leaning on the sofa and began talking with them.
*******
“Alright! Let’s go in.”
As Geunsu, the action captain of the Daehun Faction, shouted,
dozens of sturdy men entered the club in Gangnam.
The inside of the club was already filled with the stench of blood.
With every step, the puddles of blood on the floor stuck to their feet with wet, squelching sounds.
The stench of blood was overwhelming.
Corpses mutilated by blades were strewn about here and there,
and people barely clinging to life pleaded for help, but there was no one who could help them.
“You got the photo earlier, right?”
“Yes.”
“We only cut down the heads of the organization. Everyone else moves out. Got it?”
“Yes.”
The organization members answered Geunsu’s command.
The members began cleaning up the club.
The Daehun Faction had stormed in just as the fight between large organizations was ending.
They easily finished off those who were already exhausted and drenched in blood.
A major fight had broken out, but not a single line was reported in the media.
Because the police, who should have been the source for the media, were silent.
The police had responded to the scene, but they wrapped it up as just a minor verbal dispute and left.
It wasn’t even a lie because, by the time the police actually arrived,
the Daehun Faction had already finished cleaning up.
Since the police didn’t do anything, the reporters couldn’t get any information about the fight.
Not a single article about the organizations’ fight came out in the newspapers or the news.
It had become a fight exclusively their own.
.
.
.
The fight among Seoul’s gangsters was growing rougher and rougher.
It was no longer a fight to become the partner of the Philippines godfather.
They had long forgotten about the 50 billion won.
Everyone was unable to stop fighting for various reasons.
Afraid they’d be devoured if they stayed still, they attacked first.
Afraid they’d be backstabbed if they trusted, they betrayed.
The revenge of organization members who’d lost comrades followed one after another.
It was a fight not for profit, but thoroughly driven by emotion and instinct.
It was a fight for survival.
Internal strife. Alliance, betrayal, attack, traps.
All those things intertwined, plunging Seoul deeper into chaos.
Now there was neither an absolute strong nor an absolute weak.
The strong had weakened, and the weak had joined forces.
But even within the gatherings of the weak who’d combined their strength, betrayal, secret dealings, and other collusions were rampant.
Seoul was now chaos within chaos.
By the time the sun rose, the inside of the club was cleaned up so thoroughly it was as if a fight had never happened.
Neither bodies nor bloodstains were visible.
The people who had been collapsed inside the club had vanished without a trace.
*******
Cheongkangpa.
They were one of Seoul’s top organizations operating in the Cheongdam-dong and Gangnam areas.
No, they were an organization boasting such tremendous power and capital that they ranked in the top three.
When word of the Philippines godfather’s entry spread, many had said Cheongkangpa was the most likely choice, wasn’t it?
In terms of funds, scale, and political connections, Cheongkangpa was the most likely.
Was that why?
They were the first to be attacked.
At some point, attacks began pouring into their establishments tremendously.
The atmosphere in Cheongkangpa was the worst.
Every day was war.
Already half of the organization members had vanished.
Cheongkangpa wanted to stop fighting.
If things continued this way, total annihilation was all that awaited.
They wanted to stop fighting,
but no matter how much they said to stop,
crazy bastards kept attacking.
Since they kept attacking, they had no choice but to defend.
They said they didn’t want to fight. They didn’t say they were going to die.
Cheongkangpa, after fighting for so long, contacted other organizations.
The organizations commonly called the Top Ten.
They had to ally with one another to stop the fighting.
Further damage had to be reduced.
The 50 billion won was tempting, but this couldn’t go on.
It wasn’t about the 50 billion won anymore; the survival of the organization was at stake.
.
.
.
A tenpro bar located in the basement of a business hotel in Seoul.
Here, the heads of Seoul’s ten major organizations had all gathered.
But there was neither alcohol nor music.
Only silence filled the establishment.
Because these were people gathered for peace, not war.
They had been asked to come as quietly as possible.
If organization members were spread out here during this sensitive time, no one would be pleased.
One boss and one accompanying person.
That was today’s rule.
“Thank you so much for attending despite this chaotic situation. Normally I would have treated you to delicious food and alcohol, but given the circumstances, please understand.”
“By the way, why did you call us?”
At the words of Cheongnam Faction boss Seo Byeong-mo, Yeongdeungpo Faction’s Lee Gyeong-su answered snidely.
The two had never gotten along well.
Despite Lee Gyeong-su’s prickly reaction, Seo Byeong-mo endured and led the conversation.
“Everyone must be busy, so I’ll get straight to the point. We propose a truce for peace.”
At Seo Byeong-mo’s words, some nodded, while some seemed to be deep in thought.
“I’m in favor.”
“I agree too.”
“It’s best to avoid war.”
The atmosphere seemed to easily flow toward a truce.
But then Lee Gyeong-su broke the mood.
“Truce? Will that work? We don’t know who might push in right now?”
Seo Byeongmo’s voice, which he had been holding back, grew louder.
“So I’m saying we should call a truce. If we at least agree not to fight among ourselves, won’t things stabilize a little? We have to calm Seoul down somehow.”
“Euhuhuhu. I’ve seen too many bastards stab people in the back after saying that. You’re good at that sort of thing, aren’t you?”
Lee Gyeongsu dug up Seo Byeongmo’s painful past and tore into it.
“Should I write up a pledge and have it notarized for you?”
“What use is a notarization after I’m dead?”
“Then the Yeongdeungpo faction can get lost. Don’t muddy the waters here. Instead, if war breaks out, we’ll attack Yeongdeungpo first.”
“What? You said a truce, but now you want to fight?”
“I said we should call a truce. I didn’t say I’d sit around like an idiot.”
At Seo Byeongmo’s heated reaction, the other bosses urged Lee Gyeongsu to accept the truce.
“Gyeongsu, take it easy and let’s call a truce this time.”
“Gyeongsu. Right now, I really think calming things down comes first.”
“That’s right, Gyeongsu. Let’s get them to acknowledge it for now, then think about what comes next.”
“Tch. I don’t like it, but since you hyungnims are saying so, I’ll accept it for now. Then we’re in favor too.”
“Then I’ll take it that everyone accepts the truce proposal, and proceed accordingly…”
It was then.
“Hyungnims, stop.”
Seo Daehoon appeared and cut into their conversation.
“No, do you have any idea what it took to set up this board? You think you can just gather in some back room and call a truce with a few words? What does that make all my hard work?”
“You… you’re Seo Daehoon, aren’t you?”
“Oh my, the old fixture of Seoul even remembers my face. Thank you.”
“I don’t know what kind of scheme you pulled, but take your hands off this right now and go back down to Jeolla-do. Then I’ll spare your life.”
“Our hyungnim sure makes old-fashioned threats. If I go down there, will you fund my farming too? I spent quite a lot of money this time, you know?”
“You really have no manners, maybe because you’re a provincial bastard.”
“I did lose my parents young, so I did grow up without much in the way of manners. Kehkehkehkeh. Still, I’m being polite and calling you hyungnim every time. Guess you don’t like it?”
“Guess I don’t like it? Guess I don’t like it? Do you even know where you are right now? If I so much as twitch a finger, I can have someone like you killed in no time.”
“What’s this idiot saying? You just twitched your finger four times, but I’m still the same. I’m not dead.”
“You little bastard. Seriously…”
It was then.
A man who served as the Cheonggang faction boss’s attendant spoke to the Cheonggang faction boss.
“Hyungnim, I’ll deal with that bastard. Give me the chance.”
When Seo Byeongmo nodded, the man drew a knife and charged toward Seo Daehoon.
“Die, you bastard.”
But Seo Daehoon was perfectly relaxed.
When the man got close, he pulled a gun from his pocket and fired it at him.
It was the gun Inbae had left with him.
Bang.
The man had collapsed, bleeding.
“Wh… what?”
“Was… was that just a gun?”
“A gun?”
The people there couldn’t believe what had just happened.
They had never imagined a gun would appear in Gangnam, Seoul.
Since it was a Tenpro that paid attention to soundproofing, the gunshot didn’t carry outside either.
The faces of the bosses of the ten organizations were stained with shock and horror.
They were utterly flustered.
“Do you still agree to the truce?”