Darapañan, Philippines.
A light steel structure naturally hidden among the farms.
It was Edward’s laboratory.
Edward, who had come down to the laboratory early in the morning, checked the samples he had prepared yesterday.
He had to check the crystallization.
He needed to be diligent to meet the ridiculous demands of his strange boss.
The boss had presented absurd conditions.
A healthy drug, he said.
It had to possess powerful addictiveness, be easy to take, and have outstanding awakening effects.
But it must not damage the nervous system or the body.
These were the conditions the boss had presented.
Naturally, it was an absurd story.
Even so, he wanted to try it for no particular reason.
This boss, who said he would conquer Chinese soil, was interesting.
He also liked this boss, who pushed forward with such fiery passion.
He even felt that perhaps he could make it.
He reviewed the methods of making the drug using the countless recipes in his head.
A drug with strong addictiveness that did not harm the nervous system.
He worked hard to make a drug that was effective yet easy to administer.
In that process, he used AI as well.
If he had asked how to make drugs, it wouldn’t have told him.
But when he asked how to protect the nervous system, it told him all sorts of things.
So this was why they called it the age of AI.
It was tremendously helpful.
And so he began making the drug.
He had requested quite a large amount of materials for testing, but Mayor Patrick obtained them without a word.
At his previous workplace, if he had requested even one thing like this,
they would give him a hard time, asking why he needed something like this when he just had to make drugs. But here, it was different.
The environment was good too.
Before, he had been in the mountains or remote places and only ate strange food,
but here he could eat delicious things.
He could eat whatever he wanted.
Electricity and water worked well too.
He could even go to a convenience store nearby.
Making drugs at a place where you could use a convenience store.
It was an absurd thing,
but he liked it even more because of that.
Every day he made samples, and when they hardened, he checked the crystallization.
If the crystallization came out well, he would mix it with fentanyl components to make a new drug.
A drug with only the advantages and none of the disadvantages.
Then he would be able to make the strange drug that the strange boss wanted.
Today, very clean crystals had come out.
A strange smile hung at the corners of Edward’s mouth.
********
“What do you mean, giving 10 billion won as allowance?”
“There were circumstances that warranted it.”
As soon as he returned to the Philippines, Aena’s nagging began.
That he had spent 10 billion won.
Still, being able to easily move such a large sum as 10 billion won,
and withdraw it without being asked for the reason, was because Aena had helped.
While going to the hotel to eat, he had told Aena the situation and asked for help,
and Aena had handled it right away.
After helping him like that, now she was nagging.
“If you had told me in advance, you would have received much better terms…”
“It happened too suddenly.”
“Even chaebol chairmen don’t hand out 10 billion won in cash. It’s your money to spend as you please, but if you spend it like that, you won’t escape ruin.”
“Okay. I’ll spend sparingly.”
“No. I’m not telling you not to spend money. Documentation. Documentation. If you spend money, you need documentation.”
“How do you document an allowance?”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking why you’re giving out 10 billion won as allowance.”
“Okay. Sorry. I’ll make sure to document everything next time.”
“At least you used your card properly for the hotel.”
She scolded him for giving out 10 billion won as allowance, yet in the end, she praised him for paying the hotel bill with a card.
Which tune was he supposed to dance to?
He gave 300 million won each to twenty organizations.
He gave 500 million won to the Haeundae Faction as meal money.
He separately withdrew 3 billion won and gave it to Daehun.
When an organization was unsettled, praising with money was the fastest and most effective.
He kept 500 million won with him.
Just in case.
“Boss, by the way, the card cashing using GoGo Casino these days… it’s getting pretty bad.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Literally, they’re using GoGo Casino for card cashing. They max out their credit cards at GoGo Casino, convert it to Candy Coins, and then convert it back to cash and disappear.”
“Isn’t that money they have to pay back anyway?”
“The problem is that those cards are made using stolen identities.
“Anyway, they won’t just gamble honestly even when I leave them be.”
“What should we do? Should we limit the daily card recharge amount? That should alleviate it to some extent.”
“Leave them be. Those guys are doing it to make a living too. But do you know the locations?”
“Yes. At first it was one place, but now it has grown to several.”
“Just send the locations to me.”
“Yes.”
Just then, Edward called.
“Boss. It’s complete.”
*******
“Uwahahaha. You brat. You’re so pretty I could die. Here! This is this month’s bonus.”
“Thank you.”
A small office nestled between old buildings in Namdaemun.
On the office door was written “Smile Cash.”
At Smile Cash, laughter never ceased.
Pung Jae-hyeok, the CEO of Smile Cash, had been in the best mood lately.
After using the method a subordinate had told him about, sales had increased tremendously.
Revenue had increased, and costs had decreased.
There was no money leaking out.
Pung Jae-hyeok found it amazing how the employee had come up with such a method.
First, access the GoGo Casino site.
Then, use the maximum limit on the card to buy points.
Next, link the points to Candy Coin and exchange them.
At TrustBit, exchange them for other coins or cash.
At first glance it looked complicated, but in the money laundering field, this was almost like taking a direct flight.
Money laundering essentially involves several rounds, after all.
Moreover, this place had far too many advantages.
For starters, first: there were no fees.
What exchange has no fees?
It was amazing.
Anyway, there were no fees.
So no matter how much you exchanged, no money leaked out.
Fees were a waste regardless of whether the amount was large or small.
But there were none.
It was practically divine grace.
Second, paying for points with a card at GoGo Casino was quite free.
Other sites made you install security programs, authenticate, so many things.
Here, you could pay immediately just by entering the card number.
There was also no limit per transaction.
So you could pay several times on the same site and prevent the card company from calling.
And decisively, the breadth of customers had widened.
Previously, it had been a method of lending money from Smile Cash and collecting fees and interest,
but now, using the customer’s card to max out at GoGo Casino, taking a fee, and giving them the remaining money.
Commonly called card cashing.
Pung Jae-hyeok didn’t pay a single penny in fees, yet collected fees from the customers.
A whole 30% at that.
You had to do at least this much to be a loan shark, didn’t you?
A loan shark had to suck the marrow out of the bones.
Thinking of circulating money today too, he was happy.
While lost in happy imaginings, the door opened and men in suits began to enter.
“Hey~~ Pung Jae-hyeok~~”
Turning his head, it was Gwon Hyeong-won, the gangster who had once ruled this area.
There had been a time when he paid tribute under the name of protection fees, but after the “War of Seoul” ended, the protection fees had disappeared.
He had inwardly thought it was a good thing, but it seemed they had finally come to collect.
Usually they would only send underlings, and never came directly.
Seeing him come directly, it seemed he had come to settle something quite firmly.
He was not in a good mood, but he could not show his displeasure.
He had to match the mood.
The loan shark business was crazy, but compared to gangsters, they were babies.
Gangsters were truly the worst of the worst.
“It’s been a while since you came, hyung-nim. Here is this month’s protection fee~”
Pung Jae-hyeok smoothly pulled out an envelope.
“And this is our hyung-nim’s dignity maintenance fee.”
Pung Jae-hyeok pulled out another envelope and placed it on top of the first.
Seeing this, Gwon Hyeong-won laughed loudly, and Pung Jae-hyeok followed suit.
“Kwahaha. As expected. Pung Jae-hyeok. You’re fun.”
“I am your laughter bell, after all. Hahaha.”
“I heard business was good these days; seems it’s true? You knew to prepare two envelopes?”
“No. I am barely scraping by.”
“Why are you like this~ We know everything. They say you’ve been laundering money like that these days?”
“It’s not money laundering. There are just people who have trouble with that part, so I help them a bit.”
“Right~ it’s good for people in difficulty to help each other.”
“That’s right, hyung-nim.”
“By the way, that site you mess around with. GoGo Casino. That’s our business…”
“Excuse me?”
“Would it be okay for you to make a mess at a site we made for gambling? You spread know-how here and there and caused us a lot of trouble.”
“Ah. Is that so? I really didn’t know. If I had known it was your site, hyung-nim, I would never have done it. I’m sorry, hyung-nim. I absolutely didn’t know, I truly didn’t. It just had interesting functions, so I used it a little. I won’t do it anymore.”
“Good. Admirable.”
“Thank you, hyung-nim.”
“Then shall we settle the accounts now?”
“Huh? Accounts?”
“Since you said you won’t do it anymore, I won’t hold you responsible for that part. But shouldn’t you take some responsibility for past actions?”
“That is…”
“Do you want punishment? Or compensation? I rarely give choices, but I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll give you a choice.”
“C… compensation.”
“Good choice. Hey~ do we have that fee calculation? Bring it here.”
At Gwon Hyeong-won’s words, the subordinate standing behind pulled out a meticulously calculated paper and held it out.
“Let’s see… oh my, this isn’t the level of helping people in difficulty? It’s corporate. Corporate.”
The document the gangster brought clearly showed when and how much money Pung Jae-hyeok had bought in points and exchanged for cash.
“You take 30% in fees, right? We’re not evil loan sharks like you, so we’ll go with 20%. We have a thorough law-abiding spirit. The legal maximum interest is 20%, so we take 20%.”
Then the subordinate behind whispered something to Gwon Hyeong-won.
“Ah! Fees and interest are different? Then can we take more? Then since I’m in a good mood, I’ll specially take a little more. 25%? Fair, right?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m telling you to pay the fee for the money you’ve laundered so far. 25%. Is that hard?”
“….”
“Oh my, the money is 989,239,800 won. Then the fee is 247,309,950 won. Since we have a connection, let’s round up the last digits and just pay 248 million won.”
Don’t they usually cut the last digits off?
No, what kind of calculation method rounds up like that?
“What kind of calculation is that…”
“If you don’t like this, should I change it to punishment right now? It would be quite tough to take a beating worth 200,004,800 won. If one hit is 100 won, how many hits would that be? Still, prices really have risen. In our time it was 10 won per hit. A tenfold increase. You can really feel the inflation.”
Pung Jae-hyeok immediately realized Gwon Hyeong-won was not joking.
“No. I will give it to you right away.”
Pung Jae-hyeok opened the safe, took out the money, and respectfully held it out to Gwon Hyeong-won.
“Our Pung Jae-hyeok is so good at communication, that’s why I like him. There are people who hold out until the end even though they’re going to pay, get beaten, and hand over money with ugly faces. Then it’s awkward for both sides, and feelings turn sour too. But CEO Pung has none of that; your traffic control is really clean. I like it.”
“No. It is thanks to your generous understanding, hyung-nim.”
“Alright. Then our deal is done, so we’re leaving.”
“Yes. Please go safely, hyung-nim.”
“Ah~ right. I almost forgot. Go to GoGo Casino.”
At Gwon Hyeong-won’s words, Pung Jae-hyeok logged into GoGo Casino using the PC in front of him.
When he logged into GoGo Casino, a popup appeared and a gift box opened.
“Now. Look there. What is it?”
“There are gratitude points.”
“Now~ you use all those points.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t you know? This is a casino site. At a casino site, you should gamble honestly; how could you launder money? You try it too, while you have the chance.”
“What??”
“You don’t know how? Want me to teach you?”
“...I know how...”
“Then do it.”
And so the casino began, half-forced.
“That’s it. You’re good.”
“Hey, look at this bastard. He’s already won money.”
“Ohhh—he’s got talent.”
“You’ve already won this much?”
“Your win rate’s pretty good.”
“This bastard’s a born gambler. He’s got that one big move when it counts. Damn strategic.”
“Wow, this bastard’s got crazy feel in his hands.”
“His timing’s good. It’s all about timing.”
“You’ve got to keep pushing. You can’t fold here.”
With the gangsters cheering him on, Pung Jaehyeok began gambling at the casino.
He did not particularly want to, but when they said they would keep watching until he used up all those complimentary points, he started with the intention of losing them quickly.
But why did he keep winning?
Why did his win rate keep going up?
Why was their cheering actually giving him strength?
He did not know how many hours he had been sitting there.
The bright world outside had already been stained with darkness.
The gangsters who had been cheering beside him had disappeared at some point.
Pung Jaehyeok did not even notice, absorbed only in gambling.
After more than six long hours of effort, he was finally able to lose the one million points.
At one point, those points had exceeded 1,000.
It had been so hard to lose them.
Now he just had to close the site and return to his actual work.
Then there would be no problem at all.
But why did he feel so regretful?
Because of that regret, he could not close the site window.
He had tried to lose the money, yet when he actually lost it, he felt disappointed.
Thinking about it again, this seemed like a good opportunity.
He had played in order to lose money, yet he had still won money.
Then if he played in order to win money, how much could he earn? The thought suddenly excited him, and blood began to surge through his entire body.
For now, he would just lightly charge one million won.
He entered his card number and started the game.
Until the dark sky brightened completely, Pung Jaehyeok did not get up from his seat even once as he played.
During that time, he charged his card five times.
But there were no points left.
He had lost them all.
No matter how he thought about it, he had simply lacked money at the decisive moment.
He had been crushed on the big table.
It was unfair.
So unbearably unfair.
If he had only won that round, his whole life would have turned around.
No matter how he thought about it, it was because of money.
With bloodshot eyes, Pung Jaehyeok picked up his phone.
“Yeah. It’s me. Lend me some money. I need it urgently. Fees? Interest? How many years do you think I’ve been in this business? Keep it reasonable and send it to my account.”
“It’s me. How much can I pull on my credit? Yeah. Send it right away. You’re taking the interest up front? Do you really have to be this tight?”
“It’s me. How much can I borrow from your place? That’s all? Whatever, just send it right away.”
Pung Jaehyeok borrowed money from colleagues in the same line of work.
He was possessed by the thought that as long as he had money, he could definitely win big, and he could not think properly.
Without even imagining how he would repay the money he had borrowed.