Shadows of Seoul (1)
“Hey, one more drink~? Deal?”
“Who called for a designated driver!”
“Hey, oppa, you’re so handsome~. How about having a drink with us? Hm?”
They said public order had gone to hell, but the streets at night still had their own sort of vitality.
The loud voices of the drunk, the touts calling for customers, even the bastards picking drunkards’ pockets.
The detection network using Hans’s servant magic improved in range and precision as time passed.
As its range widened, incidents occurred more frequently within the area, and naturally Hans had to move around even more busily.
In the beginning, he had dealt with every kind of petty criminal, but these days he set priorities and mainly punished violent offenders.
‘Still, maybe rumors about Hans have spread a bit in this world. Lately, it feels like the criminals have been keeping their heads down.’
While maintaining public order, Hans had clashed with countless criminals, and among them were back-alley organizations with their own degree of influence.
Of course, he did not blindly smash every criminal organization he found; he dealt first with those caught red-handed at the scene or those who seemed to have crossed the line.
It was not a problem a single individual could completely uproot, and even if he went to the trouble of clearing them out, new ones would simply take their place.
As for the rest, who had not crossed the line too egregiously, he merely identified their locations for the time being and kept watch.
—Deep Sea Game Land
And the place where Heinz was now was one of the organizations he had identified back then.
An adult arcade located in a secluded alley.
When he opened the store door, plastered all over with opaque film so that the inside could not be seen, thick cigarette smoke obscured his vision.
The gazes of the people inside focused on Heinz as he stepped through the door.
“Now, what brings a young fellow like you here? Come for a round?”
A bearded man approached, putting out the cigarette in his mouth.
He was pretending to be calm, but his wariness was obvious.
Among the group deeper inside, there were even some who furtively moved their hands in search of weapons.
‘Mm… I understand how they feel, but still.’
An uninvited guest had suddenly appeared in a secretive space where almost no one would ordinarily come.
On top of that, his outfit was suspicious to the extreme: hair slicked all the way back, a black suit, and a black mask covering the area below his eyes.
It would be stranger if they were not wary.
‘I considered wearing sunglasses too, but that felt like going too far, so I gave up on it…’
After becoming a vampire, his pale skin and features, which had transformed into something beautiful, were different enough that no one would be able to imagine his original appearance.
But when he had come to do something illegal, he could not very well go around showing his face everywhere.
‘That said, wrapping myself up completely would be a bad move too.’
Rather than that, using his changed appearance would be more helpful in concealing his identity.
By deliberately exposing the sharp eyes that were the biggest factor in his changed impression, he would imprint an image completely different from Han Seonghyeon.
The coordination he had put together after thinking that far was his current appearance.
Besides, wandering around in sunglasses in the middle of the night seemed like it would draw even more attention.
“I want to sell some goods.”
“Goods? This is an arcade. You trying to sell us game machines? We don’t take peddlers.”
I slipped the hand wearing the bracelet into my chest pocket, took out a piece of gold jewelry, and showed it to the bearded man.
Then he stared at it for a moment before looking at me and frowning.
“Never seen you before… Who introduced you?”
“Is that important?”
“Of course it’s important. In this line of business, trust is the most important thing. We can’t trade with someone when we don’t even know who they are.”
“Well, you’re not wrong.”
This place was an organization that brokered stolen goods and all sorts of illegal contraband.
An organization Hans had left alone because it was awkward to deal with directly.
I put my hand back into my chest pocket, took out a metal badge, and tossed it to him.
He lightly caught the object, stared at it for a long while, then let out a sigh.
“I heard they were all slaughtered by some crazy bastard wearing a mask.”
That badge was an item given to the executives of the organization Hans had annihilated.
They were bastards whose main business had been human trafficking and organ trafficking.
Naturally, he had captured every last one and turned them into undead.
“Most of them died, and the organization fell apart. I was lucky enough to avoid it. So I’d like to dispose of the goods that remain.”
Of course, since he had used black magic to rummage through their brains and track down and exterminate the leadership, the perpetrators, and the worst offenders, there should be no one left unless they were truly lucky low-ranking members who had escaped.
At my words, he seemed to think something over, then soon handed the badge back.
“Well, if that’s the case, you came to the right place. It’s a shame Boss Park went out like that, but the living have to go on living.”
The bearded man continued in a much lighter tone.
“Anyway, you must’ve had a hard time coming all the way here. It must’ve been quite a distance from Daeran-dong.”
“Two.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
I only watched the bearded man play dumb in silence and did not say anything else.
For a short while, our gazes met.
“Ahem… That should be enough. Follow me.”
After clearing his throat, the bearded man finally guided me inside.
The others who had been watching from nearby also turned their gazes away one by one and began chatting among themselves.
‘That man is sly, contrary to how he looks.’
The exchange just now had been a sort of password confirmation process.
The boss of the organization had not been Mr. Park but Mr. Jo, and their base had not been Daeran-dong but Garae-dong.
But that did not mean one should step in and correct him to show off that one knew.
In truth, there were plenty of ways to find out that level of information, and the process existed in the first place to filter out people like that.
What mattered was answering the hidden question.
To put it simply, it was “How many mistakes are there in the following conversation?”
‘Good thing I dug through the executives’ brains and read their memories. Though I came here because I knew that, anyway.’
The prepared questions and answers differed for every group they traded with, and they were changed periodically as well.
Seeing how he remembered all of them and tested the other party accordingly, that bearded man was probably more of an intellectual talent than he looked.
“Go in here. Then I’ll see you again when you leave.”
After passing through a complicated corridor and arriving in front of a door, the bearded man said that and disappeared.
Without hesitation, I opened the door and stepped inside.
On the inner wall of the room, there was a hole large enough for an upper body to pass through, connected to a table like a bank teller’s window.
“So, what do you want to trade?”
A masked man sitting on the other side of the wall looked this way and spoke.
“I like that you’re getting straight to the point.”
Right to business without even a greeting.
I sat in the chair across from him and pushed the gold jewelry in my hand through the hole.
Then he, too, accepted the item without saying much and held it out to his side.
The wall hid them from view, but from the presences I felt, I could tell that quite a few people were together in the room on the other side.
For now, he had probably handed the item over to an appraiser.
Sssk—
A short while later, he received a piece of paper from the side, glanced at it, and held it out to me.
A piece of paper with only a simple number written on it.
I frowned.
“Aren’t you lowballing me a little too hard?”
“That’s how everything traded in places like this is. Didn’t you know that when you came?”
Of course I knew, but I had not expected it to be to this extent.
After thinking for a moment, I soon nodded.
In truth, I had plenty of cash itself right now. Enough that I did not have to go out of my way to use this method.
‘Because I cleaned out those criminal organizations completely.’
The piles of cash, including gold bars and various real estate documents, that had been stacked in their safes.
Hans had diligently tucked all of them into his subspace.
And yet the reason he was putting up with this bothersome process was…
“Fine. But instead of cash, can I receive something else?”
“As long as the unit price matches, anything is possible. What do you want?”
“A first-place lottery ticket.”
No matter how much cash one had, it was useless if one could not use it.
There were limits even to paying in cash; in this day and age, there were limits to conducting all economic activity that way.
What I needed was “funds I could legally use” as Han Seonghyeon.
And the record of being a first-prize lottery winner would also serve as a certain smokescreen when I spent cash later on.
“…That’ll come with quite a large fee. Is that all right?”
“Of course. How much is possible?”
“Hmm.”
From the room on the other side, the faint sound of keys tapping rang out.
As if there were a monitor installed beside the window hole on that side, he slightly turned his gaze and read something.
“The highest amount we can get you immediately is 6.1 billion. There are four months left in the collection period.”
“And the next?”
“4.4 billion. Ten months.”
These bastards were more capable than I had thought.
“But do you have goods worth that much? With that much gold jewelry, you won’t even come close.”
Well, since I was empty-handed right now, it was understandable that he would be suspicious.
I used the subspace magic tool to take out gold bars on the spot and neatly stack them on the table.
“…You have quite a precious item.”
In that instant, the man’s air changed completely.
A gaze full of greed, visible even beyond the mask.
Magic tools themselves were precious to begin with; how much more so an item that dealt with space?
No matter how much money an organization had, that was not something they could obtain with money alone, so it was only natural for him to covet it.
‘Yes, I knew this would happen.’
I looked straight at him.
Heinz’s two eyes were dyed blood-red, and the scent of blood spread thickly through the surroundings.
“…!”
I could feel not only the masked man, but also the people in the same space as him stiffen rigidly.
If it had been a moderate amount of money, that would be one thing, but the scale of the transaction was what it was, and the other party was a self-proclaimed remnant of a fallen organization.
If a sucker crawled defenselessly into its jaws and they did not swallow him whole, they would not be a criminal organization.
‘This is a necessary process to make a proper deal.’
If I had not shown my strength, they would have tried to devour me somehow.
Whether with force or something else, they would have made a move.
So it was necessary to display this side’s power to some extent.
“Let’s make a cool-headed deal and end things amicably. We’ll be seeing each other often from now on.”
A brief moment passed, and when I thought I had pressured him enough, I withdrew my power and spoke to him.
“…Ahem. So you were from that side? That was my mistake.”
Fortunately, he seemed to have understood my warning; he cleared his throat and took the gold bars piled in front of him, then held them out to his side.
The appraiser seated beside him still seemed unable to relax and fumbled for a moment, but soon appraised the gold bars and presented a price.
‘As expected, force really is the best means of conversation.’
The appraisal amount was clearly better than before.
They must have been considerate in various ways and given me favorable treatment on the fees.
I nodded in satisfaction.
“For reference, we only trade at face value. Handle the tax issue on your own.”
The exchange fee, the additional fee for receiving it as lottery winnings, and the taxes paid when claiming the prize money.
It would not even be a quarter of what I would have earned by selling the gold normally.
‘Since it’s this much gold, and goods whose source I can’t reveal at that, it can’t be helped. But it still hurts…’
“The total appraised value is a little over 7.8 billion. If we do it with the 6.1-billion lottery ticket, after subtracting the fee, the remaining amount is… Will you be taking the rest in cash?”
“Hmm, hold on.”
Heinz stalled for time, pretending to think.
Meanwhile, the main body at home quickly searched the internet for information.
‘Past lottery winnings, and among them, 6.1 billion from eight months ago… Only three people? There hasn’t even been a similar amount recently. This won’t do.’
I could secure money to use legally, but it would create room for those who were determined to find me to track me down.
I did not know how good those bastards’ intelligence network was, but there was no need to take an unnecessary risk.
“Not the 6.1-billion one. If I want to receive the entire settled amount in lottery tickets, how much is possible?”
“All of it? Hm, then after fees, it would come to about 6.5 billion.”
“Then split it in half… no, split it into three, appropriately. Three billion, two billion, and 1.5 billion. Is that possible?”
“It’s possible if it’s roughly similar, but…”
The masked man looked quite reluctant.
However, as if he had understood my intention, he soon nodded in agreement.
“You’re extremely cautious, aren’t you? In truth, people on our side mainly use it for money laundering. There aren’t many who try to hide their identities so obsessively.”
The average recent lottery jackpot was around two billion.
And since more than ten winners appeared every week, tracking would be absolutely impossible.
“We’re also in the position of brokering, so we can’t match it exactly. We’ll divide it up roughly within the amount.”
“That’s fine. But you’re quite well prepared. I suppose many people use this?”
“Not that many. After all, what goes out in taxes is large. There are also many easier and more efficient methods of laundering money.”
He shrugged, saying there were still a fair number of people who sought it out.
Well, as I had thought, there was nothing quite like this for legally using money in the open.
Once one paid taxes and received the prize money, there was no basis for tracking the funds, and if one insisted it was good luck, no one could argue.
“I see. Then how long will it take for the goods to be ready?”
“Hmm… Including bringing them here, about an hour.”
It seemed those who did similar work had made some sort of business agreement among themselves.
To match that amount of money in only an hour.
‘It would be convenient if I had some hands and feet I could use for this kind of thing. Ones who could handle minor problems on their own and run errands too…’
…Right.
It might not be bad to simply swallow up a back-alley organization.
Then I would not have to put up with this kind of hassle, and it seemed like it would be useful in many ways.
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