War. 1
War. 1
The door closes.
I see one guy grabbing a beer bottle.
No need to wait for him.
Trash is just trash.
I grab one side of the table and flip it over.
Kung-kwang.
Chaeng-chaeng-chaeng.
Leftover beer and shrimp crackers go flying.
"Uh. Ugh!"
One guy gets pinned under the flipping table and collapses.
Another guy rushes in through the empty space.
I use the force of the guy rushing at me to throw him backward.
Kung. The guy flies, hits the wall, and drops to the floor.
Then the last guy pulls a knife from his waist.
It's a sashimi knife.
But the way he holds it is on a different level than the punks I've seen so far.
These bastards are real Gangsters.
The guy who isn't stabbing but slowly waiting for an opening asks.
"You fucking bastard. Where the hell did you come from!"
"You're noisy."
I close the distance.
The guy stabs threateningly.
Hwik-hwik-hwik.
The motion of stabbing and retracting.
I instantly close the gap he created and grab his wrist.
Then I pull with brute force and trip him.
I launch him into the air with a grappling technique.
And slam him straight into the floor.
Kung.
The guy who landed on his back groans in pain.
After that, I deliver a soccer kick to the face of the guy pushing the table aside and the one trying to get up from the floor, knocking them both out.
Then I went outside. I called a taxi, had Curvy Girl send them to the hospital, and slipped the part-timer some money.
And after deleting the CCTV footage, I grabbed the guy who had collapsed in front of the room and went back inside.
Kitchen of a semi-basement house.
Danbal-i is sitting at the table in front of me, holding a cigarette in one hand.
And she explained the situation currently unfolding.
"It seems the rumor that the punks managing the Gachulpam got completely smashed has reached the ears of the Gangsters. So now, they're trying to snatch up the girls who were making good money at the Bodobang and karaoke rooms for themselves. Since there are ownerless pigs rolling around, everyone is going crazy trying to eat them first. The Gangsters who called Mi-young-eonni are one of them, called the Bupyeong Samgeori-pa. Assholes."
I have a feeling this is getting big.
Iljin. Gachulpam. And now, Gangsters?
It really went all the way to Gangsters.
"So. What are you going to do now?"
At my question, Danbal-i takes a drag of her cigarette and exhales. She seems troubled.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
"Because it depends on you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You."
"Why me?"
"If you say you're backing out now, we have no choice. What else can we do but bow our heads, spread our legs like pigs again, hand over the money we earn, and live while being chased by debts that exist and debts that don't?"
What if I do other work?
I'm not some high school kid who doesn't know how the world works, so there's no need to ask that.
If you do this job well, you can easily make 500,000 to 1,000,000 won in one night.
But what was the minimum wage again?
Once you get a taste of it, you can't escape.
That's the nightlife industry for you.
"What do you want from me?"
Again, Danbal-i takes a drag of her cigarette and pauses.
"Well. It's hard to ask for anything this time. You know how it is. The situation. I can't ask you to die for us. That's just how we are."
She smiles pitifully.
Ah, damn it.
If she had just demanded something or grabbed my pant leg and begged, I think I could have just turned away saying it had nothing to do with me.
Seeing her speak with such resignation makes me feel even more uncomfortable.
With my current stats, Gangsters? They aren't a big problem.
It's not like Korean Gangsters fight with guns.
Of course, I'd get hurt if I got stabbed, but I can definitely handle ten or twenty of them.
Of course, since they're Gangsters, they wouldn't care about means or methods, so it could definitely get dangerous.
And the bigger problem lies elsewhere.
Yesterday, I clearly experienced the difference between Gangsters and punks.
I beat the four of them to death, but I couldn't make a single one of them submit.
Is this the difference between a pro and an amateur?
If I can't make them submit, then Charisma and everything else is useless.
If it comes to this, I might really end up killing someone.
Even though I said I'd live recklessly, I didn't mean to the point of murder. My worries pile up.
Danbal-i said.
"Just come by to eat ramen sometimes. You're always welcome. Ah. Maybe we might move somewhere else. If it's possible, I'll send you a text."
Rationally, I should have backed out at this point.
I've already gotten everything I could from this neighborhood.
I could just move to another neighborhood and continue the hunt.
But the words don't come out easily.
Damn it.
Even living a second life, a corner of my heart still isn't ruthless enough.
When they come at me weakly, I get dulled like this.
In the end, I came back home without saying much.
Even after entering my room, my thoughts are still complicated.
I took out my notebook and opened it.
Make money.
Try not to cause any major trouble.
Don't go easy on anyone who messes with me.
Protect myself and my family.
Do whatever I feel like.
Let's go to the end and see what's there.
Money is coming in well.
I didn't go easy on those who messed with me and smashed them all. I protected my family, and I was careful not to get into any trouble.
And I did whatever I felt like.
If I do that, I'll end up causing big trouble, right?
Then my family might be in danger too.
Yeah, if I step up to protect one thing, two things might get ruined.
This is rational. Step back one, protect two.
Just as I reached that conclusion for myself, a text arrived.
Tiring-tiring.
I opened my phone and saw a text sent by Yuna, Danbal-i.
You were the first person to help me without wanting anything in return. It was short, but it was nice. And don't come around here for a while, there's a rumor that the Samgeori-pa guys are looking for you because of what happened last time. I'll contact you when things quiet down. Thanks for everything. Take care.
Ah, fuck.
It's not even my first life, I'm living a second one, so why do I have so many thoughts!
Fuck. Let's smash them all.
If it's ten guys, I'll smash all ten. If it's a hundred, I'll smash all hundred.
If my stats go up more, I might become invulnerable.
Then I won't be afraid of knives or guns.
If worst comes to worst, I can just hide for a few years, sell my stocks, and fly off to the countryside or overseas.
Fuck, I'll do whatever I feel like. Let's go to the end. You bastards.
My resolve hardened. And could it be that I was waiting for this?
A notification window popped up.
[Class Change Mission: Black Business]
Dark businesses always have uninvited guests. Smash the rival organization interfering with the business and protect your interests.
I don't know who it is, but this really makes it impossible to back down.
I press the call button.
A moment later, Danbal-i answers the phone.
"Yeah. Get a read on the movements of the Samgeori-pa guys. Why? Why do you think? I need to teach them what happens when you carelessly put your spoon on someone else's dinner table."
Summer is in full swing.
I want to go into some cafe and slam an iced americano, but it's still hard to even find such cafes.
Even things that were so taken for granted, when you think about it, haven't been around that long.
There weren't many cool places for high school students to kill time.
It's not for nothing that I waited at a burger joint.
When I arrived at the meeting place, Kang Ho-cheol, who was waiting in a seat where he could see the entrance, stood up and waved.
Seeing that his cast is off, it looks like it's healed enough to be useful.
"You here?"
"Yeah. Sit down first."
I sit down, and he sits too.
I speak straight to the point.
"I have a job to do. How many kids can you gather?"
Since the decisive battle with the Gyeonggi Alliance, Kang Ho-cheol and the Suwon Delinquents have been worshipping me as if I were a god.
Well, a hot-blooded high school Iljin saw a real-life Lu Bu, so they probably think they're dreaming.
Regardless, it's not bad for me since I've gained a good card to use.
They're just punks who live by picking other people's pockets anyway.
"Huh? What kind of job?"
"What do you think? If I'm asking you to gather kids, what else could it be but a fight?"
"Ah!"
"But this time, it's a bit dangerous. If you're unlucky, you could get stabbed and die."
"What? A knife? What kind of guys are they?"
"They're Gangsters. Not regular punks, but official Gangsters."
"What? You're going to fight Gangsters this time?"
"Yeah. Are Gangsters a big deal? Tell the scared ones not to come. They'll just be in the way."
"U-uh. Okay."
"Then contact me when you've gathered the kids. I'll let you know the place and time separately."
After contacting Danbal-i, I realized this matter is bigger than I thought.
In Bupyeong, not only the Samgeori-pa but a total of 3 organizations are targeting the Gachulpam in the Bupyeong Station area.
Before that, they were scattered, and each one was a group of psychos, so no one thought to mess with them, but one day, suddenly, the punk bastards who were supposed to manage the Gachulpam all ended up in the hospital.
It was an ownerless mountain, and plump pigs were playing innocently, so local Gangsters drooled and rushed in, and in the process, they decided to divide the territory appropriately and tear up the runaway girls to prevent a war among themselves.
And the side that got into a fight with me in that process is the Samgeori-pa.
Gangsters are so much like cockroaches that it's impossible to exterminate them by just beating them up a little.
So, I needed to show maximum power when I showed them once.
To show an overwhelming difference in power so they wouldn't even dare to challenge me.
Looking back, the battle with the Gyeonggi Alliance was a good experience in that regard.
I'll handle the cleanup anyway, and Kang Ho-cheol just needs to bring the numbers.
If I can gather about 50-60 people, I'll clean up Bupyeong.
What's next? I don't know.
I don't know what's at the end, but I'm going to go to the end.