Who Stands to Lose?
"I'm clean, I swear. I don't dabble in that stuff anymore. I got the full treatment, I really did."
Dinosaur took off his bucket hat to prove it. Perfectly bald, with a long scar carved across his scalp.
What was even stranger was the second scar, just above his forehead. The one on his head was the mark of a blunt impact. The one on his forehead was a wound of an entirely different kind.
"Yeah. Seeing the forehead, I can believe it."
"Right, Director? I took my treatment seriously, didn't I?"
"And yet that's not proof you had nothing to do with this affair."
"Why would I? I'm settled here in the Shelter, living well. Why the hell would I do something that stupid?"
"Because you've done stupid things before."
Won-goo glared down at Dinosaur, his expression like a blade.
"Not anymore. Never again."
"Dinosaur. Why do you think I called you here?"
"......"
"Far as I know, there's only one breed of lunatic that fits into the 'curse' category. The kind who believe every curse in the world has to be hurled into one giant eye and purified. That's the Cheonmok Cult. Tell me I'm wrong. Go ahead."
"Director, shouldn't this go to the Shelter administrators first—"
"That gets filed automatically as a formal complaint. But can we just sit on our hands waiting for that? The Beastfolk will negotiate it down to some comfortable middle ground and call it settled. Dinosaur. Could you live with that?"
Dinosaur shook his head side to side.
Of everyone gathered here, the man who looked the most physically intimidating by sheer appearance was the one squirming in place, unable to keep still.
"So from now on, you answer carefully. You know I don't trust bald heads. Wait, you wouldn't know that. Never mind, you know now."
"I know, sir."
"Good. That's why I'm telling you to answer carefully. Whether treatment happens or not depends entirely on what comes out of your mouth."
"Yes, sir."
"You've been living in the Shelter. There was someone you suspected of being Cheonmok, wasn't there?"
"......"
"Haah... Hyun-sung. Hold him down."
Won-goo didn't hesitate to hoist his warhammer.
"Director! Please, calm down. You know my circumstances!"
"Don't drag your personal life into this. Think carefully—whether you get a craniotomy or not depends on your answer. You think I'm asking because I'm curious? The diagnosis is already done. What I need is confirmation."
"Yes! I'll answer!"
"Here's my diagnosis: this was the work of a man who'd been hiding his Cheonmok affiliation while living here in the Shelter. He pulled this stunt because he thought it would earn him a seat in the Cheonmok hierarchy. Am I right?"
"...That does seem to be it."
"Then who? You were one of the Ten Eyes once—use those instincts of yours. Which line of business? Don't give me a name. Just the trade. How does a lone individual pull off something like this?"
"......"
Dinosaur didn't answer. He just scrunched his face as tight as it would go—looking very close to tears.
"If even the trade is hard to talk about—"
"Director! I truly don't know! I'll throw in an extra one of those adhesives I got you last time instead. I don't know anything, honestly I don't. But the adhesive I can provide. That new medicine from the Youngjae Pharmacy!"
"Fine. You've suffered enough. Let's both forget today ever happened. You can do that, can't you?"
"Of course, Director. Next time you come by, I'll have the adhesive set aside for you."
"Good."
With a firm answer secured from Dinosaur, the next people to see were Sanghae and Sapiens.
Won-goo headed for Sanghae's restaurant and waited for Sapiens to arrive.
He'd pushed two chairs together and was sprawled across them, eyes closed, brow furrowed—while Hyun-sung worked the knots out of his shoulders. Sanghae stared gravely into the kitchen, saying nothing.
Then a group walked through the door. Sapiens had arrived.
Despite hearing them come in, Won-goo didn't open his eyes.
"Sapiens here yet?"
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that."
"Did I? Should I call you Homo sapiens, then?"
"There he goes again."
Sapiens smirked, but the faces behind him were stone. Won-goo couldn't have cared less.
"Wait outside."
At Sapiens' curt command, his men hesitated a moment, then melted away. Then Sapiens pulled a stack of documents from inside his coat.
"The Youngjae Pharmacy has been around quite a while. Four years or so, I'd say."
"So it was operating even before the Shelter went to hell over the Cheonmok mess?"
"That's about the size of it."
"Meaning they'd been lying low, riding it out, from the very beginning."
"I doubt they were the funding pipeline. The Youngjae Pharmacy did good business, but it wasn't exactly raking in fortunes."
"Medicine's always been a fat-margin trade—before the apocalypse and after."
"Word was they skimmed less than the other pharmacies did."
"Only by comparison. Considering Cheonmok's scale, I can believe it wasn't a lucrative operation for them."
"Let's just take it one bite at a time."
Whoosh.
A massive, party-sized pizza appeared on the enormous table.
Under normal circumstances everyone would have lunged for it. Nobody moved.
They all understood how serious the situation was.
"Hyun-sung. Take that and feed the crew."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim."
Only then did the crew each pick up a slice.
"But there's one thing I genuinely don't get. Running a pharmacy in the Shelter is no small operation... and they'd throw all that away? Over a Goblin Shaman? Is it really worth that much?"
"That's been nagging at me too, Hyeong-nim."
Sapiens shrugged off his fur-lined coat as he spoke.
"Which is exactly why you think there's something they're hiding?"
"No, it's not that..."
"How much have you heard about Goblin Shamans?"
"They show up now and then?"
"Right. A monster that pops up every once in a blue moon. Higher grade than your average goblin, sure, but nothing people can't handle. Isn't that about how everyone sizes them up?"
Sanghae and Sapiens both nodded.
"Yeah. And then, with abysmal odds, a variant is born: the Hexer."
"And that's what you're saying is worth everything they did."
"No. It's insane. However rare a Goblin Hexer is, is it worth burning down a registered Shelter business over it? No, it isn't."
"Then why?"
"By market value, no. But by rarity? Extremely rare. The odds of one ever appearing are vanishingly small."
"So for Cheonmok—the collectors of curses—it's something they absolutely must get their hands on."
"Which is exactly why we figured out this case so fast. Because no matter how you slice it, it's a madman's scheme. Bribing the Beastfolk to slip away is one thing—separate problem, we'll get to that. But the reason behind the whole operation? There's no ordinary logic that makes it add up. Does the arithmetic work, in your opinion? Sapiens?"
"The numbers don't balance, no."
"That's why it cracked open this quickly."
"So what now?"
"We hunt them down."
"You know where? You know where Cheonmok is? Nobody knows that. Nobody."
"I don't know where the Cheonmok tree is, no. But do you really think the Youngjae Pharmacy bastards will march off to the main tree with their Goblin Hexer? They'll go to one of the branch chapters."
"Cheonmok... they're stubborn bastards. Even after we smoked them out, they're still rooted in here."
Sapiens said it with a long, weary sigh.
Cheonmok was a thorn in the side of every single survivor trying to carve out a life in the Shelter.
"I warned you all, didn't I? Anyone whose name starts with 'sa'—leave them alone and sooner or later they'll cause a disaster. The Trainer. Everyone remembers him. He lived honest and decent, that man. And he got sliced into three pieces. And we're all just going to keep sitting here, lukewarm about it?"
"We all know how serious it is. But the timing's bad, Hyeong-nim. Poke's crew just collapsed, and every gang around here is eyeballing each other like they're ready for war."
"So we're supposed to stay lukewarm even looking at this?"
"The timing really is—"
"I'm with Sapiens on this one, Director Gong. The Beastfolk plan to lodge a formal, forceful protest, so give it a little time. Besides, as long as Director Gong gets paid a fair price for the goblin, he's not actually out any—"
THUD!
Won-goo dropped his feet off the chair and slammed them into the floor—deliberately, hard enough to send the crack echoing through the room. Sapiens and Sanghae both flinched.
"Out any what? These people have been rolling in the Shelter's profits all this time, and this is how badly they miss a case? This is not the kind of thing you run cost-benefit math on."
"So you're planning to chase Cheonmok down yourself? The enemy here is Cheonmok. That's not something a single service outfit can take on."
"Unlike some people, we make our living off brand reputation. Word gets around that a client's job got sabotaged and the goods stolen out from under us—who's ever going to hire us again?"
"That's a stretch. You think there's an idiot in this business who doesn't know what Director Gong can do?"
"That's right. Everyone knows what you're capable of, Hyeong-nim."
"And who said anything about holding back? This is anything but a simple matter. That's why I'm saying we approach it carefully. How exactly do you plan to write a contract for a job this messy? Work it without one?"
Pff.
Then Won-goo rose from his seat, laughing.
"Working a job without a contract? And who do you suppose ends up on the losing end of that?"
"......?"
"......?"
"I was the one who started the whole business of greasing Beastfolk palms. You two think I called you here to help you?"
With that, Won-goo strode out the door.
The crew fell in behind him without a word.
Sanghae and Sapiens watched them go and let out long, heavy sighs.
"Sanghae-hyeong. Got a cigarette?"
"Here."
Sanghae pulled a pack from a drawer and lit one up.
"I thought he was all bark and poison... Turns out he wasn't."
"People don't change that easily."
"What do we do?"
"What are you planning to do?"
"Honestly? I'm a little scared of him."
Sapiens said it with a bright, easy smile. But there was genuine fear sitting in his eyes.
"Can't blame you for that one."
"The situation..."
"Shut down operations for a while and lie low. That's the answer, isn't it? And from the look of it, Director Gong's cleared a full surgical schedule. Judging by his reaction, that thing he's planning is a major operation."
"Haah..."
"He called us here so we'd keep our heads down, that's all."
"I'd better start making calls."
"Do that. The man looks like his eyes have gone full crazy."
"Was... was it always this kind of business?"
"He's always been razor-sensitive about anything involving his own people. And on top of that, there was the whole Poke affair recently."
"Haah... I thought things were finally going smoothly."
"Calls first. Everything else after."
"Right."
Sapiens nodded, and the two of them snatched up their phones at once.
"Hey."
As they stepped outside, one of Sapiens' men came sidling up, brow pinched tight.
Lee Hyun-sung started to step forward, but Won-goo held him back.
"Didn't I warn you before? That next time I wouldn't just let it slide? Why do you behave like that toward my boss, huh?"
The man shoved his face in close, practically spoiling for a swing. Won-goo didn't budge an inch.
If anything, he was smiling.
"What was your name again?"
"Jo Jin-hyuk."
"Right. Perfect name for wrecking a life with."
"What? I warned you. Next time, no matter what my boss says, I wasn't going to just take it."
"So what mistake did I make, exactly?"
"Your attitude toward my boss—"
Jo Jin-hyuk's voice trailed off. Because the sloppy, easygoing face Won-goo had been wearing had transformed into something else entirely.
An aura wrapped around Jo Jin-hyuk's whole body. A deeply unpleasant one.
"Attitude, what about it?"
"That it's... not exactly pleasant to look at—"
"I let it slide all this time because watching you strain yourself to get liked was kind of cute... but you really should've learned to read the room."
Snap.
Won-goo seized Jo Jin-hyuk by the face.
"What the f—"
Jo Jin-hyuk grabbed Won-goo's arm with both hands and tried to wrench it off. It didn't move a millimeter.
Won-goo casually took a drag on his cigarette while lifting Jo Jin-hyuk's face higher.
"One, two, three, four... eighteen? 18 coins? You've eaten well. Then let me ask you just one question. How many coins do you figure I've swallowed?"
CRUNCH!
Force flooded into Won-goo's grip, and a scream tore out of Jo Jin-hyuk's mouth.
"Quiet down, you're hurting my ears. Unless you really want your life ruined. All of this is a disease of the head, you see? The kind that makes you strut around with no sense of what's what. I'll cure that disease for free, so spend the rest of your life being grateful."
Gong Won-goo brought the warhammer down without mercy, still smiling.
Jo Jin-hyuk didn't resist. Not even a little.
THWACK! THWACK! CRACK!
The sound of the hammer beating against a skull rang out, bright and clear as a chime.