Hotpot, Contracts, and a Cleanup
Safe.
The moment Spin finished her report, the crew gathered around Won-goo. Among them was the Lawless Mage, just back from his stroll.
“Is everything in order, I wonder?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Buri Island. It's unscathed, is it not? You can handle the fallout?”
“It's a good thing, isn't it? Abal will be pleased.”
But the crew's thoughts did not match Won-goo's. What they wanted was to avoid shouldering Abal's bitching.
Anyone who had ever gotten tangled up with Abal would feel the same.
She was obsessive, relentless, and impossible to please. And on top of that, she had real skill—exactly the kind of person you did not want as an enemy.
Which was why this made no sense to them. Until now, Won-goo had gone out of his way to avoid the woman.
“If she doesn't like it, things are going to get very exhausting for you, Director.”
Musa spoke up carefully.
“Everyone's seen Abal's temper, right? People wired that tight always have their own principles. If she comes back and this doesn't convince her, then we just call in the debt from when we cleaned out those gangs. That's all.”
"……"
"……"
"……"
“That's the last resort, but hey, the option exists. So stop worrying. Danshin!”
Danshin came running at once.
“Go see Sapiens and tell him I want Sanghae to come to his restaurant. And tell him to come alone.”
“Understood!”
“Ttugi.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Ilchul will be loitering in the plaza. If he's not there, he's either playing cards or doing one of the two.”
“Should I drag him in?”
“No. Give the guy some pocket change and have him pass a message to Dr. Woo—tell him to come alone to Sanghae's place.”
“Understood, Boss!”
Lee Hyun-sung headed out without a moment's hesitation.
“Why are you wasting money for no reason?”
“Dr. Woo and Ilchul can't stand each other, you know.”
“So you sent him on purpose?”
“I have to keep giving him work like this so everyone knows he's my errand boy. Otherwise people will keep roughing him up.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because watching him get slapped around is an eyesore. That guy is mine to beat.”
Dr. Woo, Sanghae, Sapiens, and Gong Won-goo sat eating together.
The menu was hotpot. Four of them crowded around a single table, sharing a pot that roiled and steamed between them.
“What's the occasion? You're being all cryptic. Did something else blow up?”
Sapiens, always the first to break, set down his spoon and spoke. Then he tipped a glass of soju straight into his mouth.
“This is supposed to be eaten with lamb, I'm telling you……”
Sanghae grumbled into the air, not bothering to respond to Sapiens. He could hardly help it—he hadn't been the one to arrange this little gathering.
Not his meeting, not his answer to give.
Besides, for all his grumbling, Sanghae had already polished off most of the pot. Won-goo watched him and threw in a comment.
“No lamb, so we're eating beef. If you want it that badly, put in a request at the market.”
“I put one in every time. But what am I supposed to do when nothing comes through?”
“That's what I've been telling you. Get the suppliers together and decide what to request as a group. You request things with broad uses. Mint-choco ramen—what kind of absolute lunatic requested that? If I ever find out who it was, I'll squeeze toothpaste straight onto their tongue on the spot.”
“Whoa, whoa. Enough of the lovers' quarrel, you two. You called me here to scrape fish guts off your scales, so it must be something serious and deep, no? Let's hear business first, then carry on.”
“Then everyone sign this.”
Won-goo pushed forward the contract he had prepared in advance.
“Hard to sign a thing before I know what it is. What kind of contract in this world starts with collecting the signature first?”
“He's right, Boss. Pulling this out of nowhere feels a bit much, doesn't it?”
“Read it, then talk. What is this, a gathering of the illiterate? You can't manage one page? Simple version: anything said at this table today never leaves the room. I drafted it myself, so the effect is guaranteed.”
Sapiens chimed in.
“Sanghae-hyung, do you know what's in it?”
“Wouldn't I be knowing?”
“No idea. He just showed up and told me to draw up a contract, so I did. You all know how Director Gong operates. A shyster through and—”
“Agh, shut your damn mouth!”
When Won-goo raised his hand, Sanghae flinched.
“See? You think I could refuse in this company? When the man says jump, you jump. I've got no strength left these days. This job's killing me, honestly.”
“That's the guy who made out like a bandit with the Nero Family warehouse?”
“Watch your mouth! I didn't make out like a bandit. I just aimed for a little extra, a teeny-tiny little extra profit.”
“God…… someone put him in therapy. Anyway, everyone's eaten enough, so let's talk. Sign first. It's nothing.”
At that, Sapiens and Dr. Woo skimmed the contract and signed. Then they passed it to Sanghae.
“Black Shelter. Let's talk about taking it down.”
There it was—straight to the point.
Three faces hardened. Sanghae's too.
“Black Shelter is no neighborhood corner store, you know…… Can we really just decide this like flipping a pancake? This does not seem like the sort of matter to settle so easily, I'm telling you.”
“I agree with Dr. Woo this time…… but Boss, you're not the type to bring something like this up for no reason.”
“See? I knew you'd understand me.”
“We're saying hear the reason first. The reason.”
“Right. Everyone, look around this table. You don't see what we all have in common?”
“Buri Island?”
Sanghae offered.
“Tch. Buri Island is finished business. All of us have history with Black Shelter. You too, Sanghae. Dr. Woo here as well. And you too, Sapiens.”
“How many folk around these shelters are without some feeling toward the Black Shelter, I ask you? But if we went tallying every grievance, where'd any of us find room to live? Everyone sorts it out and moves on. That's how it goes.”
“Exactly, which is why I'm laying the table for you. I know what you're all worried about. You think I don't share that worry? I've got plenty of feeling toward Black Shelter myself. That's exactly why I've left them alone until now—poke them wrong and it's like kicking a hornet's nest.”
“True enough.”
“So things like Black Shelter are exactly the kind of filth that requires everyone to pile on together and put down.”
“Pile on together and put it down. Well said, that. But the question is who carries the pole, no?”
“That's what I'm getting to.”
With that, Won-goo laid out what he knew about the Seal Collectors.
And beyond that, he brought up the Ganjeolgot Coalition as well.
This was unlike him. He knew better than anyone that information could be medicine or poison depending on how it was used.
He knew better than anyone that the moment a word left your mouth, there was no such thing as a perfect secret.
And yet this time, he poured everything out clean.
Partly because of the contract. Partly because he needed to sweet-talk these three into joining no matter what it took.
By the time he finished, the faces across the table had grown considerably graver.
“So those seal-harvesting bastards have latched onto Black Shelter?”
“That's right. And a fair number of people active around here actually use seals.”
Everyone nodded along. Dr. Woo added a remark of his own.
“One of my own girls carries a seal, you know.”
“Exactly. So this isn't a choice—it's something we have to move on first. Those bastards will come hunting for seals. They're outsiders to this region, and yet they hit a seal-bearing team dead-on in the open street. That means they definitely have some way of tracking seals. So now's the time to weed them out, roots and all.”
“And you think that'll be easy? Black Shelter folk are a hardier breed than most, I'll tell you.”
“He's right, Director Gong. Black Shelter has grown too big. If the Seal Collectors have joined them on top of that, it's even more dangerous.”
Won-goo said nothing. He just stared at the three of them, hard.
With burning eyes.
"……"
"……"
"……"
“Wow. Crunching numbers even in a moment like this? There's a saying, you know. Stay silent while others get plundered, and someday your turn comes around. What are you, business partners with Black Shelter?”
Everyone shook their heads. That was impossible territory. By the old world's standards, survivors were practically criminals already.
But Black Shelter was a gathering of lunatics so deranged that even those criminal-adjacent survivors gave it a wide berth.
Collapsed world or not, there were lines—and everyone gathered here knew it.
“They got banished from the shelters in the first place because they were beyond working with. Not fit to be called human, those ones. They grew stronger, and now they've got a chance to grow even bigger. So what happens then? You think they'll let Dr. Woo's girl slide, just this once? They won't. Once the Collectors are done with their business, Black Shelter will start pressing in on us next. Guaranteed.”
“Haah……”
Dr. Woo, who had been listening, let out a long sigh. At some point a cigarette in inhaler form had found its way into his hand.
It was an asthma inhaler, modified. The effect was fast, and some survivors actually preferred it to smoking.
“And so how do you plan to untangle this affair, then?”
Dr. Woo asked.
“What I just said is the plan.”
“Whassat? That's all of it?”
“What else do we need? Detailed plans are for stirring up petty trouble. This one's just a contest of force. A war. And what matters most in a war? Sapiens, what matters most in a war?”
“War? The first punch, obviously. I mean……”
“See that? The first strike. The one who prepares first and hits hard and bold wins, nine times out of ten.”
“Everything you say is right, Boss.”
“Of course it's right. So why are you all hesitating?”
“You have to think about where we stand, is all. If we were just smacking around some bottom-tier gang, I wouldn't think twice. But even you said it, Boss. A war. Which means blood gets spilled somehow—and some of that blood is going to come flowing from our own heads too. So worrying from the 'oh-crap' position? That's just natural, you know? We have to weigh whether it can even be done.”
Won-goo shook his head and scowled.
“You keep swallowing this without any sense of urgency. How many times do I have to say it—this isn't a can-we, can't-we decision. If they get bigger, we die. You've all been living cozy inside your shelters and lost your survival instinct or what? How long do you think that lasts? What if Black Shelter swallows this entire region? What if they make travel through here flat-out impossible? This is our own karma. The nearest Black Shelter to Sabbath is right here in this region—so whether we like it or not, we're the ones who have to take the lead.”
“It's not that we don't know that.”
“Have I ever once talked about Black Shelter this seriously before? Never. So why do you think I'm talking about it now? Hm?”
"……"
"……"
"……"
“Because the chance finally came. The Ganjeolgot Coalition laid the groundwork for us. That alone would be reason enough to move—but on top of that, the insect summoner who pulled that senseless stunt at Damseok Mountain has entered Black Shelter. Now we can bind them together by grudge, too. And I've got one more card to add.”
"……?"
"……?"
“There's more to add?”
“Not around here, but I've got a recent connection, don't I?”
“Ark? Montage?”
“That's right. And that shelter has its own resident with a very, very ripe grudge.”
“You mean those lunatics who cooked and ate people? Weren't they all dealt with?”
“One of them—a second-head-level officer—slipped away. We're going to make it look like that bastard crawled into Black Shelter.”
“Did he actually go in?”
“For god's sake…… Sapiens, isn't there too much grease building up around your gut? You never heard of the three-monkey oath? In a world where lies can conjure tigers out of thin air, you can't manufacture one story? Is this table that lightweight? Are we a gateball club now? We're the ones who move Sabbath. And you're telling me we can't spin one little tale?”
The three of them understood, once again, exactly why Won-goo had collected the signatures before saying a word.
“The people at this table, plus whoever joins from the nearby shelters. And Montage on top.”
“Throw Abal in too.”
“Abal? You think that's possible?”
“I'll handle her. Put her in.”
“That's quite a lineup.”
“That's just the baseline. On top of that, all the sharks around here who chase every money-making job in range will join. Everyone knows looting Black Shelter pays.”
“Good. And have you actually confirmed the location of Black Shelter?”
“You think I'd try to run an op without that?”
“Boss. How hard are you planning to hit them?”
“How hard? Extermination, obviously.”
Sanghae cut in from the side.
“Extermination won't be easy, though.”
Sanghae's and Dr. Woo's eyebrows twitched at the same moment.
“What kind of talk is that? You blew an affair up this big, shouldn't you see it through to the end?”
“End, my ass. Everyone keeps saying 'shelter, shelter'—you're all acting like it's some officially licensed facility. It's just a place imitating a shelter. Wipe this one out and another one like it will spring up. They'll name themselves whatever they please. But we'll go on calling them Black Shelter. Some things can't be helped.”
“Still, going to all this trouble just to deal a blow and leave it at that—that doesn't sit right, does it?”
“The same blow lands very differently on a shelter and on a Black Shelter. That place holds itself together by pooling a pile of Gifts to play pretend-shelter. Nudge the system even slightly and the whole thing is built to collapse. You want to go further and root out every last one of them personally? That's something each of you can arrange on your own time.”
“So make sure the fake shelter can never properly run again?”
“That's exactly it. And this attack comes with a bonus effect on top. Which means we choke off their growth naturally.”
“What's the bonus?”
“We make them lose credibility. The whole world learning that Black Shelter isn't nearly as safe as a real shelter. Carve that one fact into everyone's skull, and that alone is a massive win.”