6. Find out who it is and get it back.
A few days later.
Late night at the Incheon waterfront dock.
Amidst the torrential rain that had been falling since morning, a luxury sedan sped forward with its headlights blazing brightly and came to a halt in front of a large refrigerated warehouse. A bulky man got out of the passenger seat, opened an umbrella, and opened the rear door. The man who stepped out from the back seat wore a grey suit without a tie, had short hair, and a broad face.
The man's name was Sun Chunlan.
He was Number 3 in the Dalian triad.
He was the left-hand man of the triad boss, Wu Wulin, and had come over to Korea years ago, operating out of Incheon.
As he slowly walked toward the cold-storage warehouse, the two men guarding the entrance of the large, half-closed steel door bowed deeply.
Inside, Zhang Wangxing—his trusted aide and operations captain—rose quickly from his chair.
"You're here."
Sun Chunlan ignored the greeting and cast his gaze toward the back.
A man was tied to a chair, his face a miserable sight.
"The goods and the money?"
Zhang Wangxing answered his flat voice.
"They say they lost everything to one guy."
Sun Chunlan furrowed his brow.
"And you expect me to believe that?"
"The men who were working under him all tell the same story, so it doesn't seem to be a lie."
Sun Chunlan's eyes flashed sharply.
"It wasn't another organization?"
"Just in case, I looked into Gangnam and Mapo, but there were no unusual signs."
"So it really was all taken by one guy..."
"It seems so."
A heavy silence fell as Sun Chunlan twitched one eyebrow.
Zhang Wangxing hunched his shoulders stiffly with tension and waited until Sun Chunlan spoke.
Soon, looking at Jeong Gap-bae, who was tied to the chair with his head hanging, Sun Chunlan gave a short order.
"Wake him."
"Yes!"
A subordinate standing to one side brought a bucket of water and poured it over Jeong Gap-bae's head.
"Kgh! Cough."
Jeong Gap-bae, who had been slumped over in shambles from beatings and torture, woke up drenched by the sudden cold water.
"Huhh."
Looking around with unfocused eyes, Jeong Gap-bae discovered Sun Chunlan standing before him and made an expression of utter shock.
"Did you think you could run away from me by going into hiding like that?"
Looking like a cornered rat, Jeong Gap-bae desperately shook his head and spoke.
"R-run away! Chairman Sun, it's a misunderstanding!"
"A misunderstanding?"
"That's right."
Jeong Gap-bae continued, gauging his reaction.
"An accident happened, and I was just trying to buy time to get the money ready for you, Chairman Sun."
"Really? Then where did the money go?"
Asked in a dry voice, Jeong Gap-bae couldn't meet his gaze and stammered.
"Th-that...! Chairman Sun! Please believe me. Just give me a little more time and I'll get it somehow, okay?"
Seeing Jeong Gap-bae clinging to him almost in tears, Sun Chunlan snorted briefly.
"That's what they all say."
"It's true! I didn't embezzle the money on purpose. There was an accident, I had no choice!"
"Then you should have managed things better."
Jeong Gap-bae cried out as if screaming.
"Please! Please, just spare my life!"
"Tch."
He squeezed out tears and snot, pleading, but there was no one there who would feel sympathy for such a thing.
"If there's no money and no goods, you have to pay the price. Hey."
Sun Chunlan called a subordinate with a jerk of his chin.
Then one of the subordinates flipped a plastic sheet over Jeong Gap-bae's face and strangled his neck.
"Mmph mmph mmph!"
Thrashing madly and letting out pained groans, Jeong Gap-bae soon stopped breathing and went limp.
Sun Chunlan watched the entire scene from beginning to end with an expressionless face.
As the subordinates brought a rusty drum from the corner and put the dead Jeong Gap-bae inside, Sun Chunlan turned and walked out of the cold-storage warehouse entrance.
Deep darkness had settled, and the rain was falling even harder.
Sun Chunlan took out a cigarette pack and put one in his mouth; Zhang Wangxing quickly took out a lighter and lit it.
Inhaling the white cigarette smoke deeply and exhaling, Sun Chunlan spoke.
"Find out who took the money and goods, and bring them back."
"Understood."
Having heard the reply, Sun Chunlan gazed at the dark sea and muttered.
"It's going to pour all night. Don't just dump it roughly because the weather is bad—go out far and throw the drum away."
"Yes. Don't worry."
Sun Chunlan tossed the barely smoked cigarette to the ground, shielded himself from the rain with the umbrella a subordinate held over him, got into the waiting car, and left the dock.
***
After the tedious, endless rain of the past few days finally stopped and the weather cleared up splendidly for the first time in a while, Minseong had been sweating in the hotel gym since the morning. As befitting a four-star hotel, the auxiliary facilities were quite well-equipped, and especially the gym was spacious with plenty of exercise equipment—perfect for Minseong, who needed to build his body.
"Huhh, huhh."
Wearing workout clothes, Minseong sat at the pec-deck fly machine, spreading his arms wide and moving them back and forth, training his chest muscles. With each movement of his arms matched to his breathing, his muscles twitched.
Whether Minseong's body was a constitution that built muscle easily, even though it hadn't been long since he started exercising, he could already feel his stamina improving considerably. Of course, it was still nothing more than building up the basics, but achieving this much in a short time could be called tremendous progress.
Minseong lowered his eyes slightly and glanced at his side.
The stab wound he had received on the day he wrecked the moneylending office hadn't fully healed, so until now he had moved with some care.
But since he had the steel pin removed yesterday, he planned to start building his body in earnest now.
"Alright. One more time!"
After stubbornly doing one more set, Minseong finally finished his workout, wiped his sweat with a towel, showered, and walked out of the gym.
"That's him."
At the words of I Chun-gil, a Joseonjok, Zhang Wangxing—who had been sitting on a sofa in one corner of the hotel lobby—raised his head and looked forward.
Where their gazes were directed.
Dressed in workout clothes, Minseong was walking across the lobby toward the elevator, carrying a small bag.
"Are you sure?"
Zhang Wangxing asked doubtfully, as Minseong's appearance was surprisingly ordinary.
He had heard the guy wrecked the office alone, so he expected someone bulky, but he just looked like an ordinary college student passing by.
"There's no mistake."
I Chun-gil nodded.
Having received orders from Sun Chunlan to recover the money and goods, Zhang Wangxing had found out information about Minseong through Jeong Gap-bae's subordinates. Apparently, after seeing the president being put into a drum and dumped in the distant West Sea, he had babbled on with information no one even asked for.
Zhang Wangxing immediately sent his men to find where Minseong was, but by then he had already left the gosiwon.
If they hadn't bribed a telecom employee to trace his number and find out that Minseong was staying at this hotel, it would have taken quite a long time to find him.
Zhang Wangxing followed Minseong's retreating figure with his eyes as he took the elevator up to his room, and asked:
"Does he stay inside the hotel all the time?"
It was a four-star hotel located downtown, with many people coming and going and too many eyes around, making it difficult to take care of business. Of course, it wasn't impossible, but it was better to handle things quietly in a secluded place if possible.
"I've been watching him these past few days, and every dawn he takes his car to the Han River riverside park to jog before returning. Whether it's a set routine or not, he comes out at a fixed time each day."
"Then we just need to aim for that time."
***
The next day.
Having woken up early from bed according to his usual routine, Minseong threw the window curtains wide open.
Even though it was dawn, perhaps because the season was summer, the outside had already become brightly lit.
After a quick shower and changing into comfortable workout clothes, Minseong left his room as always to run at the Han River riverside park.
He could run on the treadmill at the gym, but treading actual ground was definitely better for training his body.
Running along the riverside park in the river breeze not only felt refreshing but was effective at increasing lung capacity, so at least for the morning run, he went outside every day.
When the elevator arrived at basement level 3 and the doors opened, Minseong stepped out.
Perhaps because it was a weekday dawn and the lowest floor, there weren't many cars parked in the lot.
Minseong slowly walked toward his parked X6 SUV a short distance away.
"He showed up."
Inside a black Starex parked in one corner, Zhang Wangxing raised his head and looked forward.
Seeing Minseong, wearing a white cap, walking slowly toward them, his eyes flashed as he spoke.
"Don't let him get away."
"Yes."
"Finish it quietly without any trouble."
"Yes, boss."
At Zhang Wangxing's chin gesture, I Chun-gil and three subordinates riding in the back opened the side door and got out.
The three subordinates each held aluminum baseball bats and wooden clubs, while I Chun-gil also had a sharp jackknife in his hand.
"Hey!"
Minseong turned his gaze toward the voice coming from the side and furrowed his brows.
It was because men with clearly ill intentions were approaching with an intimidating aura.
"You're Choe Minseong, right?"
"So what?"
I Chun-gil, meeting his gaze, shook the jackknife in his hand and spoke threateningly.
"You're gonna have to come with us."
At the heavily North Korean-accented tone, Minseong looked over I Chun-gil and the men.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then we drag you by force."
Minseong set down the bag he was carrying and said:
"If you can, go ahead and try."
"This bastard's got no eyes after wrecking President Jeong's guys. We're different from them."
"Hmm, from where I'm standing, you look exactly the same."
"Tch. Boys."
At I Chun-gil's signal, the men behind him raised their baseball bats and wooden clubs and charged.
Minseong avoided the club swung at him by a man rushing fiercely forward, then struck the man's chest with his fist.
Thud!
Hit squarely in a vital spot, the opponent made a choking sound before taking a follow-up punch to the face and tumbling to the side.
"You son of a bitch!"
I Chun-gil, face contorted, cursed and charged, trying to stab with the jackknife.
Once again, time began to flow slowly, as if by magic.
'There it is!'
The moment his ability activated, Minseong quickly began counting numbers in his head.
He had let the first two times pass in the confusion, but he needed to figure out how long the ability lasted.
'5, 6, 7...'
A time in which only Minseong could move.
Counting seconds, Minseong twisted his body and knocked over the man holding the baseball bat to his left with his shoulder.
Then he struck the jaw of the bulky man on the opposite side with an uppercut.
With a loud crack of dislocation, the bulky man's head snapped back and he collapsed backward.
At the same time, he felt time returning to normal.
"What...?"
Why were his two perfectly fine subordinates rolling on the ground?
While I Chun-gil couldn't hide his flustered eyes even as he stabbed with the knife, Minseong twisted his body to avoid the jackknife and kicked upward with his right foot with all his strength between the legs of I Chun-gil, whose body was leaning forward.
"Kuaaagh!"
Ah. They broke.
Eyes rolling back, I Chun-gil dropped the jackknife and collapsed to the floor as if crumbling, clutching his groin with both hands.
Even in a situation where an ordinary person would express deep condolences, Minseong's expression didn't change in the slightest.
Whether the balls of the guy who attacked first were broken or not had nothing to do with Minseong.
Crack!
Minseong cleanly finished him with a spinning hook kick to the face.
"Pathetic bastards."
Having watched his four subordinates fail to handle Minseong and get beaten one-sidedly from the Starex, Zhang Wangxing cursed and roughly opened the car door to get out.
At that moment, Minseong had just smashed the nose bone of a man who had picked up the baseball bat again and tried to charge, driving his knee into the man's face.
"You little shit!"
Striding over, Zhang Wangxing swung his fist at Minseong without warning.
He alternated both fists and threw in kicks as well—unbecoming of his size, quite fierce and fast.
But Minseong used his hands and legs to parry the attacks outward, so he couldn't land a single hit.
Instead, Minseong didn't miss the slight opening he showed, slipped inside, and landed a proper punch to his face.
"Ugh."
Staggering back two or three steps, Zhang Wangxing wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
Seeing crimson blood smeared there, fire erupted from Zhang Wangxing's eyes.
"Ptoo!"
Zhang Wangxing spat out bloody phlegm onto the floor.
"You're dead, you bastard."
He had only received orders to bring him back alive; there was no law saying his limbs had to be intact.
With a face filled with killing intent, Zhang Wangxing drew a gleaming, sharp sickle knife from inside his clothes.
"Do you think holding a knife will change anything?"
Weaklings always wave tools around.
"You're the third guy I've seen waving a knife at me lately. Come at me."
At the sight of him not flinching in the slightest even when looking at the gleaming blade, Zhang Wangxing grew even more enraged and shouted.
"Die!!"
Minseong twisted his body to avoid the stabbing blade and once again drove his fist into Zhang Wangxing's face.
Thwack!
With a dull thud, as Zhang Wangxing faltered, Minseong grabbed his right arm holding the sickle knife and bent it straight back.
"Aagh!"
A scream burst from Zhang Wangxing's mouth at the excruciating pain of his bone breaking.
The sickle knife that had escaped his grip clattered as it rolled across the floor.
Minseong grabbed the opponent's head with one hand and smashed his face with his forehead.
From the violent impact, his nose bridge and teeth smashed, and Zhang Wangxing's face became covered in blood.
He didn't stop there; Minseong slammed Zhang Wangxing's head against a concrete pillar in the parking garage.
"Kughh..."
When Minseong let go, the unconscious Zhang Wangxing collapsed to the floor weakly, foam bubbling from his mouth.
Having smashed five triad members in an instant, Minseong stood tall among the groaning men sprawled out on the ground, catching his ragged breath.