Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Tiger's Den (4)
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“One day, the chairman suddenly vanished, and Jeokdu went berserk over it, right? How did they even find out?”
It was the most perfectly timed coincidence. They must have treated Cheongho's disappearance as top secret, yet it leaked out like information had sprung a gasket. I glanced at Gu Jin-cheol again before continuing.
“And right in the middle of that mess, some weirdo solver shows up spouting strange nonsense.”
That would be me.
“I have no idea what that guy was rambling about, but in their desperation, they decided, ‘Let’s use him anyway,’ and called me in.”
That’s the polite version. The reality was way more complicated.
If it had really just been a straightforward ‘let’s use him’ or ‘let’s not’ discussion, none of this chaotic fiasco would have happened.
Take that absurd situation where Jeong Hyeon-a was proxying for Cheongho’s position, for starters.
It was all because Gu Jin-cheol had tried to seize real power while Cheongho was gone.
Of course, after getting humiliated like that, Gu Jin-cheol wouldn’t be able to pull the same stunt again.
“Isn’t that right, Branch Chief? Oh, there are too many branch chiefs here. Branch Chief Chae Tae-won.”
“Exactly.”
“I get that you were in a tough spot, but you should have said something at least.”
“I’m sorry. It was a decision made in the meeting, so I couldn’t go against it.”
Man, this guy’s so rigid it’s a problem. Even if the majority vote went against his opinion, he stuck to carrying out the assigned mission to the end.
Fine, whatever.
I’d originally come to pick up the grimoire.
But not only did I not get the book, I didn’t even get to meet Cheongho.
‘And on top of that, I had to listen to a bunch of irrelevant crap.’
According to my initial plan, I should just leave.
Plus, judging by the mood, before I go looking for Cheongho, I might need to throw down with Jeokdu first. Should I help this old man out, taking that into account?
I glanced at Jeong Hyeon-a, who stood in the center of the old men with a desperate look on her face.
Ugh, thinking about it, Cheongho’s disappearance might actually be my fault.
Ugh, don’t look at me like that.
Well, if his vanishing might be my fault, ignoring it completely feels a bit off.
And if I leave now?
I won’t know how this once-in-a-lifetime event plays out.
‘I did chase after Jang Hyeon-deok with similar thinking once before and suffered like hell for it.’
In the end, though, that suffering turned into a gain for me. Wait, did it really? No, not the time to think about that.
My agonizing lasted a while, but what finally decided it wasn’t wizard Kim Shin-hwa or solver Kim Shin-hwa—it was gamer Kim Shin-hwa.
‘Yeah, I’m just too curious how this event unfolds.’
“Anyway, I’ll find the chairman for you. That should tidy up all the troubles in this house.”
“You know the chairman’s location?”
“No way! He really is no ordinary solver!”
“That’s why I said from the start we should just tell him straight up! Why beat around the bush and make this mess!”
Hey, hold on. Calm down! Why are you jumping ahead like this?
The executives’ faces changed dramatically. Most lit up with relief, but some who’d backed the wrong horse turned ashen.
Gu Jin-cheol’s expression was especially priceless—he looked like I’d just fed him a worm.
‘What should I do with Gu Jin-cheol?’
In the Samduhoe routes, there’s always an option where Gu Jin-cheol betrays you.
Funny to think about it now, but in the game, when you had to deal with Cheongho, using Gu Jin-cheol to dismantle his faction was practically standard play.
‘Maybe I should leave him be a bit longer?’
Normally, when playing on Cheongho’s side, he’d handle it himself as soon as you tipped him off. But in this Cheongho-less Cheongho team, what’s the best move?
Ah, but first things first—calm down these executives who are acting like they’ve already beaten the game and seen the ending.
“Hold on, everyone. I didn’t say I know his location.”
Even so, once the mood got excited, it didn’t settle down easily.
Well, I do have a hunch.
Cheongho sometimes said he was going back to the main house for something and vanished, but he actually had a secret stash hidden somewhere totally unrelated.
High chance he’s there.
It was a secret spot unknown even to his underlings, let alone family. Not just the location—the fact it existed was secret too.
Only one person besides Cheongho knew where it was.
And the place itself was completely random. Unless I ask that person, even I don’t know.
‘Well, I can ask slowly later.’
Gu Jin-cheol, off in the corner watching me, had a nasty look in his eyes.
Wearing the mask, he probably didn’t realize I was looking at him.
‘Judging by that old man’s face, he’s gonna cause another incident tonight.’
Fine. If you’re gonna stir trouble, make it big. I’ll specially beat you down three times extra slow.
I turned to Jeong Hyeon-a, whose face had brightened considerably.
“Separately from me helping out, please make the request official through Vasilisa. As I said earlier, my job is finding the missing chairman. Don’t expect anything more.”
“Thank you, Wizard!”
“And one more thing.”
This was really important.
“Keep this in mind. The chairman—no, your father—might not be in the state you’re imagining at all.”
Jeong Hyeon-a’s face went pale. Was she thinking of his death?
Unfortunately, she needed to worry about something even worse.
“For now, you should clean things up here. Nothing happens until the Vasilisa procedures are done. Please handle that first.”
And someone, please get rid of Shim Yeong-hwan, who’s still sitting there.
* * *
I sat alone in the quiet reception room that Cheongho’s crew had set aside for me and wrapped up the procedures with Tudor.
-See? What’d I tell you? Those guys were up to no good!
“Still, we got it connected as an official request, so it worked out, right?”
-Aww, love you, my pretty baby! But why are you still there?
“If the guy paying the money disappears while I’m off finding Cheongho, that’d be a problem.”
-Makes sense why you loaded that request with all those weird clauses. You’re planning to throw down with Jeokdu too, huh?
“Well… I just got a legal reason to beat up an old man.”
-Huh? Who do you wanna beat? Jeokdu?
“Nah, not Jeokdu. Someone else. I’m pretty sure I’ll get a chance to rough him up again tonight. And there’ll be side stuff to clean up along with it.”
-Ugh, no clue what you’re talking about. Anyway, don’t work for free! Tell me every time they ask for something! I’ll recover it all in cash!
“Got it. I’ll leave the related procedures to you. Handle the compensation at market rates too.”
At this point, the negotiated pay wasn’t a big deal. If my guess was right, we’d need to renegotiate before sunrise.
After finishing the call with Tudor, I sank into thought for a moment.
‘So it really is my fault, huh?’
Cheongho’s disappearance.
Someone goes missing.
Turns out, someone had brought up a ‘certain grimoire’ to that person.
In [Cthulhu World], that setup leads to one obvious conclusion.
Grimoire plus missing person.
‘Yeah, he must’ve been possessed by the grimoire.’
I didn’t know exactly what grimoire Cheongho was giving me, but the info inside it, or some spell or trap on the book itself, must’ve been the issue.
I’d never seen an event where Cheongho got possessed by a grimoire during gameplay, but this random disappearance couldn’t be explained any other way.
If I hadn’t asked for the grimoire, Cheongho never would’ve deviated from his game-set fate and gone missing.
There was more to think about, but a message window suddenly popped up, blocking my view.
[Quest accepted!
??? /Null? ???
Remaining objectives: 0/1
Rewards: ????????? XP + ????????? won
On failure: Cheongho will ????]
What the hell is this?
That bastard’s really half-assing it. Looks like it really is a quest that doesn’t exist in the game.
I’d never seen an event where Cheongho actually goes missing and you have to find him. They must’ve forced it into quest form, and it bugged out.
“Hey, Nyarla, you bastard! I don’t care about the rest—give me a proper quest window at least!”
So I can check rewards and status. What happens to Cheongho on failure?
[Not Nyarla.]
“...?”
Huh? Wait, didn’t that jerk do this last time too?
He’d ignored everything else I said, but he reacts to this?
I jumped up from the reception room sofa, threw a punch at the message window, and yelled.
“Hey! Nyarla! Nyarla! Nyarlathotep, you bastard!”
“Mr. Kim Shin-hwa?”
Crap, it’s Chae Tae-won. He must’ve seen me looking like I was having a seizure.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Even so, Chae Tae-won kept his strict, solemn, serious expression. Impressive. Yeah, I’m not crazy. There’s a totally unavoidable reason for this.
Chae Tae-won was giving me a strange look. Definitely not the ‘crazy person’ stare, though.
“Uh, what’s up?”
“About what happened earlier—”
His gaze was almost too earnest, a bit burdensome.
“—it was all my fault. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand.”
“Oh. Yeah. It’s fine.”
Honestly, I wasn’t dwelling on it anymore, so I was a little thrown off. I decided to change the subject quick. Good thing I had something to do.
“Oh, Branch Chief. Perfect timing. Mind if I ask a favor?”
“Yes? What is it?”
A little later, Chae Tae-won led me down to the first floor.
Inside the estate’s wide walls, Cheongho faction grunts were gathered.
They wore suits, but they were musclebound tanks who looked ready to rip them off, and reliable thugs who’d turn into killers the second someone yelled ‘now!’...
“Why so few?”
The numbers had dropped even more from before.
There were barely around 30 here now.
Including those who couldn’t leave their posts and the executives, maybe 50 total?
“...Some directors and branch chiefs went back to guard their businesses.”
“Ah, got it.”
And took a bunch of manpower with them, apparently. Gu Jin-cheol must’ve deliberately siphoned off a good number too.
“I urgently called in the men from my branch. They’ll finish securing the area soon and arrive within three hours.”
“No need to go that far.”
“No need?”
“I was thinking of trying something else with more people, but if it’s just this many, I should change plans.”
Chae Tae-won seemed to pick up on the implication in my words.
“Something’s happening tonight, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“I’ll summon everyone immediately. If we move fast, we can assemble in 30 minutes.”
“No, no. Don’t do that.”
At this point, the headcount didn’t matter. I gave Chae Tae-won a rough rundown of what I planned, and he nodded, half-doubting, half-accepting.
Good. Sorry, guys gathered here, but disband, disband. I addressed the thugs.
“Everyone, sorry, but the favor’s canceled. Head back to your posts.”
They’d be happy not to do pointless work, right?
But contrary to my expectation, a protest came from an unexpected direction.
“What? You messing with us?”
Huh?