Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Peaceful Daily Life (2)
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Kim Guk-hwan made his living by collecting protection money on the streets, calling himself a romantic knight-errant.
Guk-hwan took pride in his fists, so he didn't use them recklessly.
He had his own rules and a code of honor.
Even so, people around him just called him a thug.
Truth be told, a life of idling and eating didn't deserve any fancy title like knight-errant.
Kim Guk-hwan lived that easy life of eating with his fists until the "War on Crime" landed him in a holding cell.
When he got out of the holding cell, the big-shot boss he'd served and all his underlings had scattered to the winds.
Guk-hwan had no choice but to start doing day labor.
Fortunately, jobs were plentiful all over the Empire.
Kim Guk-hwan tasted honest sweat-earned labor for the first time, but he soon quit.
The pay was too low.
"Fuck this, who'd stick this under their nose?"
Guk-hwan started working house gambling operations through his old fist-fighting contacts.
"If anyone yells, come right in. Got it?"
"Yes, boss. Leave it to me."
Things he wouldn't have glanced at in his self-proclaimed romantic knight-errant days, but now survival came first.
"You think this is a place where you can pull that shit? Want your arm chopped off?"
Guk-hwan strutted around the house like a terrifying enforcer, crushing sharps and suckers alike.
"I'm the Twin Forks of Pyongyang's Seodong Street, you know that?"
Guk-hwan puffed up his bravado and enjoyed a second heyday.
Then the Korean Empire's merciless claws struck him again.
"Grab all these bastards."
Before the ruthless public security forces' authority, Guk-hwan was less than an insect.
He couldn't even squeak as they took him down.
Fists or whatever meant nothing against the majesty of the state.
This time, even the judge showed no mercy, and he was sent to prison.
Guk-hwan was classified as a serious offender in prison and sentenced to five years.
"Hey, 111, parole."
The warden took a liking to Guk-hwan for knowing how to restrain his strength and slashed his sentence big-time, letting him out after just two years.
One day while he was in and out of holding cells after getting out of prison, a man in a suit showed up at his place.
"Kim Guk-hwan?"
The man had a low, cold voice.
He was the type of snake that'd bite your throat if you let your guard down.
Guk-hwan had run into guys like him on the streets before.
"Y-yeah, that's me. What?"
"You've racked up quite the rap sheet, Guk-hwan. Fraud gambling, violence, extortion, organized violence, robbery. You name it, you did it."
"I never raped anyone. And I've paid for my crimes. What's that got to do with anything?"
That was the best defense romantic knight-errant Kim Guk-hwan could muster.
"Either way, those crimes messed up your life, right?"
Guk-hwan had to admit that much.
Thinking about his life now, he did regret not buckling down and studying as a kid.
"Dad went nuts on gambling, sold the cow and the house. If not for that, maybe I'd have gone straight."
*What the hell's this guy doing in my house, saying shit like that?*
Guk-hwan's tone turned surly on instinct.
"So what?"
"How about using that ruined-by-Dad life for the fatherland once?"
At those words, Kim Guk-hwan froze a bit.
"Th-the fatherland? You from Central Intelligence or something?"
"If you're interested, think it over carefully. I'll come back in three days."
The man left those words and vanished.
Kim Guk-hwan spent days at home pondering.
Who was that guy?
And what did working for the country mean?
He had no answers.
An uneducated guy like Guk-hwan couldn't wrap his head around it.
But one thing he knew.
A ruined life already—nothing to lose rolling the dice one more time.
Just as Guk-hwan finished agonizing, the man reappeared.
"If you've made up your mind, change into these clothes."
The man handed over a bag.
Inside was a fine suit and shoes Guk-hwan had never seen the likes of.
Guk-hwan changed carefully, feeling almost unworthy.
"Here, a watch too."
The man tossed him a timepiece.
Once Guk-hwan was dressed, the man said,
"Engrave this in your head. The old street-rat Kim Guk-hwan is gone from this world now."
"Yes, sir."
The man beckoned, and a car pulled up from afar.
Another top-shelf ride he'd never laid eyes on.
German make?
As Guk-hwan gawked around, the man said,
"Get in."
The car headed toward Geumsu Mountain.
It soon turned off before the mountain and drove to what looked like an ordinary house.
Even so, the air felt different somehow.
Not even an illiterate like Kim Guk-hwan could mistake it for a regular民家.
"Get out."
Guk-hwan followed the man into the building.
In the spacious living room sat several guys in suits like his.
Obvious kin at a glance.
Guk-hwan took a seat where it felt right.
Soon the man clapped to get attention, then addressed the suited group.
"You've come this far clueless—good work. Don't worry, not for anything bad. You heard you'd be doing national service? From today, you're working for the National Security Bureau. Naturally, you're wondering what this National Security Bureau does, since you've never heard of it. It's a secret agency that stays under the radar. Just think of it as very secretive."
The man explained what they'd be doing at the National Security Bureau going forward.
The National Security Bureau's mission was infiltrating companies and factories for the nation, stealing accounting records and such.
The goal was monitoring whether those people were deceiving the state.
Kim Guk-hwan nodded.
No wonder the country stayed so peaceful with the state watching every crack.
Joining a group of such patriots.
Kim Guk-hwan felt his heart pounding.
From today, he wasn't some street punk—he was civil servant Kim Guk-hwan.
"Now, time to assign missions."
Guk-hwan drew infiltrating Taeseong to check the Nampo Arsenal's logistics warehouse.
He got plenty of time.
With operational funds for recruiting people, Guk-hwan could enjoy a leisurely life for once while working.
Exactly ten days later, detectives showed up.
"Kim Guk-hwan?"
"Y-yeah, that's me. What's up?"
"That's him. Grab him."
Kim Guk-hwan sensed something was wrong.
"W-wait a sec."
"Gag this bastard first."
The detectives overpowered him, bound him with ropes.
And so Kim Guk-hwan was hauled to the police station.
He honestly couldn't figure out why.
Doing national service, and detectives?
All he could think was how unfair it was.
The station was swarming with reporters.
"Hey, snap him."
Blinding flashes made it hard for Guk-hwan to even open his eyes.
"What the hell is this?"
As Guk-hwan yelled shielding his eyes, one reporter shot back incredulously.
"You're a fifth columnist."
Fifth column?
Guk-hwan was too lowbrow to know what that meant.
"What's that supposed to be?"
"You're a spy, aren't you!"
"Me?"
Guk-hwan was dumbfounded.
If he had the chops to be a spy, would he have wasted time playing knight-errant on the streets?
Total nonsense.
"No, I'm not."
"Why would I be a spy? I was just doing national—"
Guk-hwan caught himself.
"Never reveal you're with the National Security Bureau."
That's what the man had said.
But as the interrogation dragged on, Guk-hwan spilled in desperation.
"I'm with the National Security Bureau. Talk to my superiors and they'll confirm. Just pass the word."
The detectives looked at him like he was nuts.
"National Security Bureau. Like there's any such agency in the Korean Empire."
"It's a secret agency, so it's not public knowledge."
"Yeah, right. If it existed, student activists would've known first. Then we'd know too. But we don't? Means it doesn't exist."
Guk-hwan felt like he'd been smashed with a hammer.
Then what the hell was the National Security Bureau?
"Anyway, impersonating a national agency and running a full-on fifth-column op? That's one hell of a spy ring, huh?"
"You bet. Never seen scum like this before."
Guk-hwan bit his nails.
Something was seriously off.
The vibe was they had him pegged as a spy.
Guk-hwan pleaded desperately with the detective.
"No, the guy who made the National Security Bureau is a real government guy. How else would he recruit trash like me?"
Even an uneducated Guk-hwan could argue that much circumstantial evidence.
But no hard proof.
No proof, no convincing the detectives.
Or rather, they had no intention of believing him.
The detectives snickered.
Then one approached pityingly.
"Listen, buddy. Shouting here won't help."
"Huh?"
"Even if you're telling the truth, no one's gonna buy it."
"Why not?"
"If you're right, it's a Security Command or Central Intelligence op. Us grunts can't touch that."
Guk-hwan felt bottomless despair.
This couldn't be happening.
He'd been so full of new hope for serving the nation.
That day, Korea uncovered the largest spy ring since Dangun.
The massive fifth-column bust silenced protests across Korea overnight.
With suspicions that fifth columnists lurked everywhere sabotaging the nation, everyone grew paranoid and distrustful.
The fear of being branded one by mistake sealed people's lips and tamed their actions.
"Commander, National Security Bureau op complete. Things'll stay quiet for a while."
"Good work. Here's expense money for your team's celebration."
The Security Command's scheme succeeded quietly, just like that.