Chapter 98
Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 98
But the two of them didn’t react. They had been firmly instructed not to respond to anything Kyung-wan said.
Kyung-wan kept provoking them.
“Did you shove a dick in your earholes? Whose dick is it to fit in such a tiny hole? Your big bro’s dick, maybe?”
“..That fucking bastard.”
Provoked, the blond spat out a curse.
That’s right! Goo~od job!
Cheering the agitated blond on in his head, Kyung-wan kept running his mouth.
“So if you rank brothers by dick size, the guy who should be the youngest is playing big brother, huh? Must feel pretty damn awkward, right? Doesn’t that hurt your pride as a man? Oh~ it doesn’t? Why not? Ah! Because you’re secretly fucking your sister-in-law?”
“You motherfucking bastard. Shut your mouth.”
“Aigooo~~. Your dear mom gave birth to you with such a big thing, and here you are playing errand boy under some pencil-dick, what must she be thinking~~~?”
The blond finally snapped and approached with a club in hand. Hey! Hey! I’m praising you for your big thing here, you know?
Anyway, just as the blond took the bait and moved to create the variable Kyung-wan wanted, the portly man beside him grabbed him.
“Hold it.”
“But are we supposed to take that kind of shit?”
“Don’t fall for the provocation. That bastard is scary as hell. Haven’t you seen him being a super-strength esper? He’s doing this on purpose.”
Because they stayed so calm and didn’t take the bait, Kyung-wan smacked his lips in disappointment.
Yeah! This is why being famous sucks. People don’t let their guard down.
Giving up on provoking them, Kyung-wan asked,
“Let me ask you something. How much are you getting paid for this?”
“...Why do you ask?”
“To see if I can pay my own ransom.”
At that, the portly man gave a bitter smile.
“Heh heh. We’re getting paid more than you could ever imagine.”
“About ten billion?”
“A little more than that?”
“Come on~. Looks like you’re not the one getting paid anyway. Honestly, only your boss knows the exact amount. You guys don’t really know how much it is, do you?”
“...Don’t try to sow discord.”
At the heavily guarded response, Kyung-wan shrugged.
“If you think it’s sowing discord, then let me see your boss. For you guys, this is all just business, right? If I can pay more, wouldn’t that be better for you?”
“What money do you even have?”
“I may not look it, but I’m a hero who stopped an airplane hijacking. Add the reward money, what I got helping U.S. law enforcement, and the appearance fee from that documentary that hit big this time, it’s no joke.”
After thinking for a moment, the portly man said to the blond,
“I’ll go call the boss. You stay here and watch that bastard.”
“You’re really going to do what he says?”
“Having more options isn’t a bad thing.”
At the senior thug’s words, the blond managed his expression and said he understood. Already in a foul mood from Kyung-wan’s filthy provocations, he wasn’t thrilled about going along with him.
Kyung-wan and the blond locked eyes. The blond stared him down without blinking, like a staring contest.
Bored, Kyung-wan yawned.
Just as he let out a big yawn, expelling the carbon dioxide built up in his lungs, a portly man in a suit with a shaved head and a thick gold necklace entered along with the portly man who had just gone out.
The suited thug asked Kyung-wan,
“So. You’re saying you’ll pay the ransom?”
“I can’t hear you well from here. Could you come a bit closer?”
At Kyung-wan’s words, the suited thug walked toward him with a curious expression.
He didn’t come too close, though, stopping about five steps away.
“Can you hear me well from there?”
“Hey. I’m not an idiot.”
The suited man jerked his chin back. A man who had followed him in carrying a pole nodded and walked around behind Kyung-wan. He poked at Kyung-wan’s restraints with the tip of the pole, checking their condition.
“No issues.”
They treated Kyung-wan like a wild beast.
“Aren’t you thugs a bit too jumpy?”
“I may be a thug, but I know better than to stand next to a crazy bastard.”
“You know not to stand next to a crazy bastard, but you don’t know not to mess with one?”
“There was just too much money.”
“How much is ‘too much’?”
“Heh heh heh.”
The suited thug laughed cheerfully. It meant he couldn’t tell him.
Who could it be? Someone who wanted to use him as material for superpower research?
No, that made too little sense. Kidnapping a superpowered individual monitored by the U.S. and managed by Korea, creating unnecessary diplomatic fallout? No matter how valuable Kyung-wan was, approaching diplomatically would be far more efficient than pulling a stunt like this.
Then there was only one possibility left.
“So they want me dead or something?”
“I may be a guy who skirts the line the law draws, but I don’t kill people lightly. I just hand them over. Ah! Though I doubt the client plans to keep you alive.”
From the sound of it, this was clearly driven by a grudge. Someone had put them up to it. And when he thought about people who hated him enough to want him dead, quite a few came to mind.
“Then how long do I have to wait to see that gentleman?”
“..Why do you ask?”
“So I can negotiate and make a quick escape before that.”
“Bwahahaha!”
At Kyung-wan’s words, the suited thug burst out laughing.
Then he asked,
“So how much can you pay?”
“Make an offer first.”
“Heh. You must have a lot of money.”
“Do you know what a buyout is?”
“A buyout?”
The out-of-the-blue term made the suited thug tilt his head.
“It’s when a deal closes immediately without all the back-and-forth negotiations. That’s why buyout prices are always higher than negotiated ones.”
“Ohh~!”
“Go on, name it. How much would it take for you to tear up the existing contract without a second thought?”
After thinking for a moment, the suited thug spoke.
“Thirty billion.”
“Wow~. That’s a jackpot, a jackpot.”
“So can you pay it or not?”
“Aren’t you being a bit shameless?”
At Kyung-wan’s protest, he snorted and said,
“I’ve got five little brothers. In an era where retirement pay is five billion, shouldn’t I get at least that much for me and my brothers to wash our hands clean?”
What kind of bullshit is that? Kyung-wan was dumbfounded.
“No! Who gets five billion in retirement pay? Are they some conglomerate chairman?”
“No. Apparently some unheard-of company’s assistant manager.”
“Some chairman’s bloodline?”
“No.”
“Illegitimate child, maybe?”
“Not that either.”
“Wow~. The world really is something...”
Strange things really do happen in this world.
Shaking his head, Kyung-wan said,
“No way. Even if I empty my account, I don’t have that much.”
That honest answer piqued the suited thug’s curiosity.
“Then how much can you pay?”
“About three hundred million?”
Three hundred million wasn’t a small amount. In a world where even living diligently makes it hard to save a hundred million, hearing that a guy like Kyung-wan had made three hundred million was surprising.
“How’d a criminal like you make that much? From the news, it doesn’t look like you’ve got many ways to earn.”
“I skimmed some bribes from the NIS, got paid a bit every time the U.S. put me to work. Oh! And I was in a documentary too.”
In truth, he’d donated almost all of that money to a victim protection foundation run by Kang Woobin, but even if he hadn’t, thirty billion was impossible.
Honestly, he didn’t even have three hundred million. With one hundred million, you could eat chicken and beer worth twenty thousand every week for a hundred years, why would he stash that much pointless money in an account? Money has to circulate for ordinary people to live, for the national economy to survive, for prisons to get budgets, and for meals to end up in Kyung-wan’s mouth.
But the suited thug didn’t even suspect Kyung-wan’s soul-infused lie(?) and just clicked his tongue.
What? He skimmed bribes from the NIS? That wasn’t even in the news. At this point, even a thug couldn’t help but be impressed.
“You’re something else.”
Admiration was admiration, but business was business.
“Anyway, since you can’t pay the ransom, it’s over.”
“Seems so.”
“But aren’t you scared?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. You don’t look scared at all, not even now.”
Kyung-wan replied,
“There is something I’m afraid of.”
“What is it?”
“Going crazy.”
“...”
The suited thug tilted his head, not understanding.
Looking at him, Kyung-wan grinned and continued.
“Do you know what it feels like when, as time passes and you go through all kinds of things, the values and convictions that keep you sane gradually wear away?”
“..Uh.. Have you ever been to a mental hospital?”
“A mental hospital can’t solve this. To put it simply, it’s like an innocent boy seeing and experiencing all the filth of the world and becoming a cynical person.”
“Isn’t that everyone?”
“But what happens when you become so cynical about everything that you’re even cynical about yourself?”
“..No idea.”
“You end up living because you can’t die. Is that any different from hell?”
“...”
The suited thug looked at Kyung-wan with a complicated expression. Then it dawned on him that there was absolutely no reason for him to be having a conversation like this with a crazy bastard.
“Anyway, if you wait a bit, they’ll arrive.”
He didn’t want to think too deeply. A knife-edge life, always on the brink. You only live once anyway, sharing Kyung-wan’s worries wouldn’t help him.
“Boss! They’re here!”
“Oh! Yeah?”
When a subordinate opened the warehouse door and poked his head in to announce the client’s arrival, the suited thug straightened his clothes and headed outside.
For him, this too was business.
‘Welcome, Attorney Lee.’
‘Where’s the guy?’
‘We’ve got him secured.’
While muffled conversation went on outside, the thugs began spreading plastic sheets around Kyung-wan. Just plastic? No. They brought in a metal table nearby and laid out various tools on top.
A hammer, clubs, knives, a saw, nails.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Kyung-wan asked,
“Opening a hardware store?”
But the men didn’t react, silently continuing their work. Only the blond, who’d gotten angry at Kyung-wan’s provocation, sneered.
“Scared?”
That really gets on my nerves.
Just as Kyung-wan was about to snap back at the blond, others entered. Recognizing them, Kyung-wan greeted them cheerfully.
“Wow~! Long time no see? How’ve you been?”
They were none other than the parents of the victims from the six-man assault-attempt case.
At Kyung-wan’s greeting, the people in front of him hurled curses.
“How’ve we been?! How’ve we been?!”
Looking at the middle-aged woman raising her voice, Kyung-wan asked,
“Ma’am, long time no see too. It’s been a while since we met in court, hasn’t it? You passed out back then so I couldn’t ask, was my booger salty?”
“Aaaah!”
The woman tried to rush at him like a madwoman, but the man beside her grabbed her around the waist.
“Honey! Calm down! Calm down!”
“I can’t calm down! I’ll grind that bastard up right now!”
“It’d be pretty fishy..”
He said it in a tone of genuine concern, like it was someone else’s problem.
Then a bespectacled man stepped forward, and the woman calmed down as the commotion died out.
Kyung-wan knew that man’s face very well.