Theory
“Keep it simple, and you survive longer……”
Pacific had been muttering that to himself inside the Trailer all day long.
Watching him, Won-goo finally barked at him.
“For crying out loud! Give it a rest. What, are you mentally ill or something?”
“I'm saying it in a good way, is all.”
“Good way my ass. You're just spinning your wheels, trying to attach some deep meaning to nothing.”
The Trailer's interior was now even more spacious than when Raphael had joined the crew.
After clearing the Tower, they'd invested in a massive round of upgrades, and a few of those had gone into the Trailer itself.
Thanks to that, the crew no longer had to sleep packed together like sardines. They could even sleep in separate quarters for men and women now.
That was how much the space had grown.
The exterior, on the other hand, had become sleeker and sturdier.
“It's not that…… something profound……”
“You got played, that's all. Now that I look up close, you're no ordinary fool either. Just drop it! Besides, we need to settle what you're going to do first.”
“I already told you. I think you should meet my conditions.”
“You want to operate independently?”
“Yeah, Director Gong. What's my specialty? Making money. And to do that, I need to meet people. I need to work my sales routes. Otherwise, right? My intel just dries up.”
“No. The crew moves as a unit. That's the rule, and it's the safest way too. If you're off on your own and something happens to you, it becomes a headache for everyone.”
“Then what I can actually do shrinks to nothing!”
“I'll allow you to work the immediate area. But roaming out to other regions like you used to? Not happening.”
Where firmness was required, Won-goo did not budge.
Pacific tried to talk him around a few more times, but in the end, he had no choice but to accept.
“Fine. Then I'll operate around here.”
“That much I'll allow. Though…… you're not going to share the goods you're sitting on?”
“Not a chance. That's my capital. The moment you start sticking your hands into it, I can't do my job.”
“Must be one hell of a stash you've got hidden away.”
“Don't worry. I'm crew now. All of it goes toward the crew.”
Won-goo wanted to look at the situation long-term. Sure, he could gut Pacific on the spot and squeeze the money out of him, but Pacific's salesmanship was simply too valuable for that.
Besides, most of what Pacific held would never fetch its true price if dumped in a hurry. So Won-goo decided to let Pacific grow his money properly.
“One more thing, Pacific.”
“……?”
“Don't let your merchandise overlap with Dinosaur's.”
Pacific's face scrunched up at that.
He knew Dinosaur well. The man was practically a founding fixture of Sabaoth — not knowing him was simply not an option.
“Hey! Dinosaur deals in every damn thing under the sun. How am I supposed to not overlap?”
“He still has his bread-and-butter items. Leave those alone. I don't want Dinosaur feeling slighted.”
“You got dirt hanging over you with Dinosaur or something? He's not even crew, so why do you care so much?”
“Hey! You don't go trampling on another man's rice bowl. Dinosaur's a family man trying to go straight — a man's got to get a chance, doesn't he?”
“Didn't you personally operate on him back during the Cheonmok mess? And now you're saying all this……”
“Either way, don't let any hard feelings surface.”
“Then what am I supposed to sell? You railed every one of the Fishers, so breaking into that route won't be easy either.”
“The Fishers only show up when a Large Species pops up nearby. What's there to worry about?”
“Ha……”
“Just sell sweets. Sweets. That's money.”
“Sapiens has that locked down. You sure that's fine?”
“What are you talking about?”
“……?”
“Sapiens is a buyer of sweets, not a seller. Do you not know what his main business is?”
“So he doesn't deal at all?”
“He'll sell if he's handling it, but it's not his focus.”
“So Sabaoth doesn't have a big fish in that game…… at all?”
“With the top boss stationed right here in Sabaoth, who'd be stupid enough to build a rival force in the open?”
“Baek Seol?”
“That's right.”
“So when you've been getting my medicine for me — that was all coming from Baek Seol?”
“Correct.”
“She just hands it over?”
“She does.”
“Then can you get the sweets that circulate on the general market too? At a good price.”
“That's possible.”
“Don't answer that easy. This is important business. If we can source that smoothly, everything gets ten times easier.”
“I said it's possible. Baek Seol and I have work we're doing together.”
“Good. Then the business item is settled.”
“Right. Sell sweets. That'll make money too.”
“That alone won't rake in much.”
“……?”
“Gotta throw in moneylending as well.”
“Loan sharking?”
“Assign two crew members to me. I'll have stable profits flowing in no time.”
“You think you can handle that? We're a service outfit. We have to be ready to mobilize at a moment's notice.”
“I know. That's exactly why it has to be a business. So the income keeps coming in even when I'm away.”
“You little…… I don't know about this……”
“I'm Pacific. If you don't trust me, come along and watch. If problems come up, you can pull the plug then, can't you?”
Pacific sounded so confident that Won-goo felt uneasy. And yet, the amount Pacific had saved up working alone was by no means small.
Going by the results he'd shown so far, Won-goo had no choice but to acknowledge it.
Pacific had a talent for making money.
“You all heard that? Who's willing to shadow Pacific?”
Jeon Hye-ji raised her hand.
“You up for it, Hye-ji?”
“Yes, sir. I'm very interested in how he makes money.”
“Good. Anyone else?”
No one else raised a hand.
“Chul-soo.”
“Yes! Director!”
“You don't want to tag along? Building experience following Pacific around wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?”
“I'll go!”
“Right. Now that the interview with our new crew member is done — team dinner the moment we hit the Shelter. Shame we couldn't finish the Ganjeol Point bastards off for good, but there was nothing to be done this time. Let's go rest up.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Hyung-nim. You made it?”
Sapiens and a group of survivors were waiting at the entrance to the Shelter.
“Yeah. So you got out in one piece yourself.”
“No. Two of my men died.”
“I see. You've been through hell.”
Won-goo clapped Sapiens once on the shoulder and moved past him.
Ah-bal was approaching, gnawing away at a chicken skewer.
“…….”
“Why do you have nothing to say to me?”
“Oh. Right. That chicken skewer looks good.”
“I almost died too, you know. Ttaeng-gu.”
Won-goo snorted.
“If anyone else, maybe. But you? Dying to an earthquake of all things? You can clear thirty meters in a single bound when you put your mind to it.”
Won-goo's point was dead-on. Ah-bal was exceptionally resilient to this kind of seismic chaos.
Superb balance.
Devastating leg strength.
Even if the ground suddenly yawned open beneath her, Ah-bal could scale her way out along any wall without breaking a sweat.
“You could let it slide just this once…… Just go eat your skewers, Ttaeng-gu-ssi.”
“Weren't you just in the middle of a tantrum?”
“All the more reason to eat well. Go on. I already paid for it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Paid for the whole crew's share, even. Go eat.”
“Which skewer stand?”
Ah-bal made a face at that.
“Tori's, obviously. You know chicken skewers in Sabaoth means Tori's. Who else?”
“Good choice. Anyway, we'll dig in.”
“Right. I ordered plenty. Just give my name.”
But Won-goo didn't head straight for the skewer stand.
One team still hadn't arrived.
Most notably Yeongyeong and Fresh.
That question was resolved when Dr. Woo came through the gates.
“They sent word ahead on the way, so no need to fret, noo?”
“Everyone's all right?”
“O' course. If one o' yours had gotten hurt, your face would look different, noo wouldn't it?”
“Thank you for the good news.”
Only after hearing that did Won-goo lead the crew toward the skewer stand.
“Director Gong himself! Welcome!”
“I heard Ah-bal placed an order here?”
“Ah. That one. Go ahead and take it, sir.”
A towering pile of wrapped skewers.
The crew hurried over and gathered up the chicken skewers.
“Well then, good business to you.”
“Director! Director!”
“What is it?”
“You still have to pay, sir.”
“……?”
“Ah-bal said Director Gong would be covering the bill.”
Pzzt!
A vein bulged out on Won-goo's forehead.
“Kyak-kyak-kyak! At this point, you and Ah-bal must've been husband and wife in a past life — something like that, no?”
Pacific doubled over, clutching his stomach.
“Don't you dare say husband and wife. I will actually kill you.”
“Okay, okay. Sowwy.”
“Ha…… And it's not even something I can turn into a proper incident. This is driving me insane. Boss. How many skewers did Ah-bal stuff down?”
“A hundred…… I thought the Director had ordered them……”
Anyone running a shop in this Shelter understood the way things worked here all too well. Doing business in Sabaoth and not knowing Gong Won-goo was simply unthinkable.
Which was probably why the shop owner's voice shrank rapidly with every word.
“It's not your fault, so don't worry about it. Hyun-sung.”
“Yes, hyung-nim.”
“Pay the man.”
“Yes.”
“Let's go. Tonight's team dinner is chicken skewers.”
The survivors gathered at Sanghae's restaurant.
Everyone who had played a key role in the battle against Ganjeol Point was in attendance.
The only people absent were Ah-bal.
And Oh Gu-sik.
“Anyway, good to see your faces again. Normally I'd go over the results, but…… there's not much to report. Oh Gu-sik taking down two executives is the sum of it. And even those were the bottom-tier ones — Army and Sonjabi. The one mercy is that we took Sonjabi alive.”
“Was the intel out of Sonjabi any good?”
The one who raised her hand and asked was Yeongyeong.
She was wrapped head to toe like a mummy, with nothing but her eyes showing.
“Unfortunately, most of it was stuff we already knew. All Kind had tipped us off to more than we realized.”
“We mobilized on that grand a scale and came away with nothing to show for it.”
That was Sanghae. Won-goo nodded.
“True. No gains. But no one's mistake, and no one's fault either. Not the fault of any team's weather-readers either. Not a single soul saw it coming. Honestly, an earthquake like that is nearly impossible to read.”
“So what's the next step, then? We've come this far — surely we've got to finish things with them Ganjeol bastards……”
“Dr. Woo, normally I'd agree, but this incident had parts we simply couldn't control. Let's think of it as a short breather. We'll absolutely have to clash with Ganjeol again. But whether it's them or us, neither side is in any shape to move right now. Everyone made it back alive by pure luck, and Sapiens lost two of his own. Let's respect that. Montage hyung-nim over there has a badly wounded crew member too.”
At that, everyone turned to Sapiens and offered a brief, silent bow of respect. The same went for Montage.
There was nothing concrete any of them could do for him. They hadn't even signed an alliance pact.
But these were people who had been human before they were survivors.
They knew the bare minimum of decency. And they knew full well that holding onto that decency was what let you survive.
“One more thing. You all know Pacific, right? As of today, he's part of our service outfit. Give him a warm welcome and look out for him.”
“……?”
“……?”
“……?”
Everyone looked visibly stunned.
Pacific and Gong Won-goo.
People knew they were friendly, but it was a pairing nobody dared poke at.
“Well now, that's a strange turn o' words. What in the world do ya mean?”
“Nothing dramatic. The guy nearly died this time and I saved him. He said if I saved him, he'd work hard under me, so I took him in.”
“Hmm……”
“Pacific's got the knack, as you know. While he's here in Sabaoth he'll be selling a bit of sweets and running a moneylending operation, so treat him well. That bastard can't go anywhere else until we settle things with Ganjeol anyway.”
“Pleased to be working with you all. Pacific of Won-goo's Services.”
“Shouldn't ya be sittin' over there with the others, then? This here's a seat only bosses can sit at.”
Pacific broke into a beaming smile.
“Master Woo. You looking to get cursed out?”
“……”
Pacific was a man who traveled every region doing deals. He wasn't the type to bare his teeth at every opportunity — but he wasn't the type to swallow an attack either.
“I only teased ya a wee bit and ya go callin' me Master Woo already. Director Gong picked a good one. A good one, I tell ya.”
“Why'd you have to poke him for no reason, anyway? The man just came back from the dead — his heart's probably still hammering.”
Won-goo chimed in with a jab of his own.
Pacific grinned and shot him a thumbs-up.
“But Pacific, let's move your seat over there for now. The good doctor's not entirely wrong……”
“Oh, you son of a——”
The thumbs-up flipped straight into a thumbs-down as Pacific threw his little tantrum.
At the sight of it, the whole room of survivors burst out laughing.