Head Meeting
"I'm going to stop by Sanghae's place. Hold down the fort."
"I'll escort you, Hyeong-nim."
Lee Hyun-sung stepped forward, but Won-goo waved him off.
"No need. I can go alone. Just guard this place."
"Director Gong, should I come too?"
"I said I'd go alone. Watch the place. I've got a stop to make anyway."
Won-goo slipped the words in casually and slipped out the door.
On the way to Sanghae's shop, Il-chul suddenly crossed his mind. The guy lived in the shelter plaza, so it was impossible not to have seen him around.
Tap!
Won-goo snapped his fingers, and one of the Beggar Moles scrambled over at once.
"Haven't seen Il-chul around lately. What's that bastard been up to?"
"Il-chul? He's dead, sir."
"Dead?"
"Yes, sir. Some incident blew up near Damseok Mountain."
"An incident blew up? That's news to me."
"Well, you've been so busy lately, Director……"
"Anyway. It blew up. How?"
Won-goo pulled out a cigarette and stuck it between his lips. He reached for a light before realizing that it was always Lee Hyun-sung who did that for him.
"You got a light?"
The Beggar Mole shot a signal to someone behind him, and in a flash another one hurried over with a lighter, cupping the flame for him.
Won-goo started walking, and the Mole fell in step beside him.
"The incident was resolved, supposedly, but the loot split went sideways, is what I heard."
"That happens all the time. Did someone die?"
"Looks like it. Freelancers who'd tagged along as day laborers got caught up in it too, and that's how the whole thing blew up."
Hm…… Won-goo exhaled smoke. Il-chul isn't the kind of bastard who goes down that easy……
"No body turned up, so it's not one hundred percent certain."
"But if you don't come back from the Field on time, it's nine times out of ten you're dead. You know that."
"That's true, sir."
"Any names in that incident I should know about?"
"No one worth your attention, Director. Il-chul wasn't in that league anyway."
"And the guys who ran with Il-chul?"
"They all went together."
"Hmm…… If anything new comes out about that incident, tell me immediately."
Won-goo fished a few silver coins out of his pocket and handed them over.
Fresh and Montage, who had been holding down Slow, also attended the meeting. The only difference from usual was that they'd brought the bare minimum of personnel needed to maintain order back at Slow.
This time, Dr. Woo and the other survivors holding the Arctic Giant Sector line joined them as well.
The monsters emerging from the Arctic Giant Sector kept multiplying, but a pattern existed. It wasn't as if ogres and the like were spawning around the clock.
On top of that, the sector's defensive installations had been steadily reinforced, so a brief absence wouldn't cause any problems. The timing of every monster wave was being logged too, and there was still time before the next one hit — which was why Dr. Woo and the other heads could afford to attend.
Their preparations didn't stop there. Survivors were flooding into Sabbath as word spread that good-paying work was available. In fact, they were paying hired survivors more than the going rate, and the Arctic Giant Sector now teemed with survivors — a few of them former Anglers from Bohwacheon, lending a hand with the giant-class threats.
The first order of business at the meeting was Ganjeol Point. They had attacked Slow under the pretext of striking back after being backstabbed, but the other reason was the profit that came with seizing a shelter.
In an apocalyptic world, a single shelter means far more than you'd think. Survivors still carried vivid memories of the disasters from the apocalypse's early days, and so their yearning for a shelter — a place where they could finally sleep in peace — ran bone-deep.
And now one such shelter had fallen into their hands. The reward for blood spilled and lives risked. It was true that everyone was intoxicated by that reward.
"Today's a heads-only meeting, so tell everyone to step out. I came alone too."
"Well…… whatever the man who organized this whole affair says, goes. But are you all right, Gong So-jang? I heard trouble bloomed on your way over."
"This and that happen out in the Field all the time. It's been dealt with, so don't worry yourself."
"Still, that sounds rough."
Won-goo raised a hand slightly in place of a greeting. By the time everyone had filed out, only the heads remained.
"Sanghae."
"What?"
"Clear out the kitchen staff too."
"……?"
"If I say clear them, clear them."
At the steel in Won-goo's eyes, Sanghae nodded and waved his people out.
"This business is bigger than you think."
Once the room was empty, the meeting began — and the very first words out of Gong Won-goo's mouth were a bucket of cold water thrown over everyone's giddy heads.
"All right. I'll keep it simple. We sell. Slow."
"……?!"
"……?!"
"……?!"
Every head in the room stared at him in stunned disbelief.
"What? Am I hearing things right? You said sell?"
"That's right. Sell it."
"A shelter only grows more valuable the longer you hold it…… why in the world would you sell it, Gong So-jang? This is a different animal from Buri Island."
"I'm of the same mind as this old man here. Why sell the goose that lays golden eggs? Is it because you can't be bothered to fight over the loot split, and you'd rather just cash out and divvy it up?"
"Let's hear the man out first. Gong Won-goo Hyeong-nim isn't one to sell something off for no reason."
Sapiens fired off the supporting volley, and Won-goo answered with a small nod.
"First thing you need to check: Slow is not Sabbath. This place took quite a while to grow to this size."
"But Director Gong, doesn't that depend on who's running it? We've all got the know-how for building a place like this up. Is that really such a big deal?"
Sanghae said. Won-goo shook his head.
"Which is why I said hear me out. Slow and this place are different — that's the first thing to establish. And that's not all. The administrators barely meddle with Slow, unlike here. And most important of all — there's a Tadersen in the area."
At the word Tadersen, some of them wore expressions of how did I miss that?
But others frowned as if to say, so what?
"Ah, right. That thing."
"Exactly. That thing. Tadersen is one of the biggest reasons I want to sell Slow."
"The Large Species that keeps resurrecting, you mean?"
Sapiens asked.
"A Large Species plus an evolved variant. Resurrects on a cycle, and its adaptation to whatever killed it gets sharper every time. The bastard was born with every bullshit option stacked on it. When it first emerged on Mt. Yuhyang — brand new, first life — the damage was still massive. Now imagine that thing resurrecting every time you kill it. Stronger each time, and expanding its territory while it's at it. If you know all that and still want to hold on to the place, be my guest. But I'm not doing it. If people are going to die, I'll dump it immediately."
"Tadersen…… I'll admit that's a blind spot I missed…… but if we don't buy it, who's going to move into that Slow?"
"That's why we have to spin the story properly. So, Dr. Woo — would you move in there yourself?"
"Not a chance."
"Which is exactly my point. If there were a way to deal with Tadersen, I wouldn't sell either."
"But if there ain't, that's no fun at all now, is it?"
"Correct."
"Then who do we sell it to? We can't exactly let it go for a song, you know. Director Gong."
Sanghae said.
"Of course we can't sell it like that. If we did, it wouldn't sell — people would sense something's off. Secrecy is everything here. Anything about Tadersen. The moment it leaks, or anyone catches a whiff of it, the whole deal collapses."
"Haah…… this is giving me a headache."
"But it's not as if there's no one who'll buy."
"There is?"
"Who?"
"The shop owners here in the shelter."
"……?"
"……?"
"……?"
"The businesses here have made good money lately, haven't they? And among them, you'll find plenty of folks who sat out the whole fight with Ganjeol Point start to finish."
"You're telling me to make the rounds, then?"
Sanghae said.
"Yes. You're closer to them than anyone. So feel them out — subtly. Nothing too obvious."
"Hm…… So there'll be empty space left over after the split anyway, and you want me to dangle the cost of moving in while manufacturing a little event of my own?"
"Can you handle it?"
"Eh…… I'm a fixture around here. Guess that's my lot in life."
"Everyone heard that, right? Sanghae will handle this, so from here on, assume we're selling. Once Slow sells, we just divide the proceeds into exact Nths."
Everyone nodded.
"One more thing. Ganjeol — that bastard is excluded from the split. I said so from the moment this whole affair started, so I trust you all remember."
"I wasn't planning to touch that anyway. You hired the man and caught him yourself, didn't you?"
"That's right. If anyone tried to claim a cut of him, I'd say they left their conscience in their mother's womb."
"Good, then. Don't be too disappointed, everyone. We've dealt with our biggest headache, Ganjeol Point — and there's still work left for us to do together, isn't there? Let's go strike it rich in the Arctic Giant Sector."
As the meeting broke up, Sapiens hurried out after him.
"Hyeong-nim."
"Yeah? Something to say?"
"You remember Il-chul, right?"
"I do. You said he died."
"Oh — you heard."
"I did."
"Are you all right? He was someone you kept an eye on, after all."
"Death's common as dirt in this business, isn't it?"
"Well…… that's part of it."
"Then what? Spit out what you actually want to say."
"It might be a difficult ask."
"……?"
Won-goo fixed him with a level stare.
"Last I checked, asking for favors was usually my department."
"It is. But it seems the day has finally come for me to ask you for one."
"Fair enough…… I have made some pretty unreasonable asks of you."
"You never asked anything unreasonable. It's thanks to you that I got established in the first place."
"Is this serious enough to warrant moving offices?"
"That would be ideal. My office, please."
Sapiens was one of the most influential forces in Shelter Sabbath. Sanghae handled the complex commissions and contracts; Sapiens handled a large share of maintaining the shelter's order itself.
His role was, in essence, to resolve the kinds of problems the administrators would otherwise have to step in for — but only up to the line where they never actually had to. That inevitably meant he kept a great many people under him.
Counting both the men Sanghae commanded directly and the ones he subcontracted to, his numbers were considerable — but Sapiens kept several times that many.
Most of them were rank-and-file grunts managing the shelter's businesses, but a good number were something more.
Like the men standing before Won-goo right now.
Won-goo and Sapiens sat facing each other, and beside them stood survivors whose faces were every bit as rough as Sapiens's own, all at rigid attention.
"I don't see that one fellow."
"Who?"
"You know. That guy with the dialect — Yanbian or North Korean or whatever."
"Ah. Jin-hyeok?"
"Yeah, him."
"He's gone. Left a while back now."
"Far away?"
"Yes. He was the type who always bit off more than he could chew."
"Bet that cost you some money."
"Well…… things like that happen all the time. Which is exactly why I'm asking. I went out into the Field this time and felt it for myself."
"And that's why I told you to quit playing with money and work on your body in your spare time. I said that, didn't I?"
"You did. And I am working on it, but what good is building just myself? I've got nobody worth a damn underneath me."
"Haah…… So what you're saying is you want me to take on trainees."
"That's it. We can handle the coin enhancements ourselves when the time comes. What we need is Field experience."
"Think hard about this one. Out in the Field, anything can happen."
"I know. That's why, Hyeong-nim, if you just——"
"No. You don't get it. Those guys of yours could go out with my crew and end up dead, every last one of them. That. Can you actually shoulder that?"