Never Look Down on a Professional Again

"Ah... what a pain in the ass."

There was never going to be a taxi anywhere near my house. Only after I promised three times the base fare and double the drop-off rate did I finally manage to flag one down, and now I was rattling toward Daehan Pharmaceutical Headquarters.

A car that's too big is its own kind of problem.

I still didn't know Seoul well enough to come rolling in aboard that hulking Humvee — and besides, I had a stop to make along the way.

In the back of the taxi I logged into the auction house, intending to pull the F-rank potions that had started this entire headache. The listing was buried under a mountain of reviews. Even I had to admit they looked pretty good.

"Well, of course. Look who made them."

They'd all vanish the moment I took the listing down anyway, so I scrolled through them to kill the time. Then one review snagged my eye.

"Oho..."

The corner of my mouth ticked up. How thoughtful. I saved the review on its own, then went ahead with what I'd logged in to do and wiped the listing off the auction house. I was never posting under my own name again.

"We're here, sir."

The taxi had already arrived. I tapped my watch to the payment terminal and stepped out.

"Well, damn. That is big."

I craned my neck the moment my feet hit the pavement, staring up at a tower so tall the crown of it vanished from street level. Daehan Pharmaceutical. A conglomerate's name, a conglomerate's building — overwhelming in every sense. Whatever height a mage tower could boast, it wasn't catching this.

I'd left Samsaek at home. He didn't care much for cars to begin with, and even shrunk down, a cat out for a stroll in the middle of the city drew far too many eyes.

"All right. Let's go."

"Excuse me... would you happen to be Jeong-il?"

I had just put a foot toward the entrance of Daehan Pharmaceutical when a voice caught me from the side. I stopped and turned.

Someone who knows me? Daehan people, then?

There was no reason anyone on a public sidewalk should recognize a man who'd been gone for thirty years. And sure enough, the face was a stranger's.

"Hm? Who are you?"

"It really is you! Good afternoon. I'm with Joseon Pharmaceutical — the name's Kang. Please, just call me Manager Kang. Our building is right across the street."

He pointed, and there it was: a tower smaller than Daehan's, sitting neatly on the opposite side of the road.

"Have you already signed a contract with Daehan Pharmaceutical, by any chance?"

"No. Closer to the opposite, actually."

I'm here to knock them over.

"Hah. That's a relief. So keeping an eye on Daehan's movements actually paid off."

Manager Kang wiped the sweat off his brow in the heat and let out a long breath. Unlike Daehan's upper ranks, who were already on the move, a manager's information network had barely been enough to scrape together a seller's name and face. Even that much had only been possible because Daehan's people shifting around had left a sliver of a gap — and he'd burned every connection he had and run himself ragged to pry it open. On an ordinary day, it wouldn't have been remotely possible.

"I truly never expected to run into you here by chance, Jeong-il. Here's my card. When you have a moment, would you consider paying Joseon Pharmaceutical a visit?"

"By chance, huh..."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

It didn't feel like a lie. The two companies were right next to each other, and if it had been a setup, I would have caught it in a heartbeat.

"If it's a burden, you can always come by later. I have coffee here— ah. I don't, actually. Do you drink chocolate latte, by any chance?"

Manager Kang was on his way back to the office with drinks for the team members who'd be pulling another all-nighter. Oddly enough, of the eight cups nestled in the carrier, not a single one was coffee. Chocolate, strawberry, fruit — everything low-caffeine or caffeine-free.

"Sorry. Strangely enough, nobody on my team actually likes a heavily caffeinated coffee."

He looked a little embarrassed saying it. The truth was that even he used to drink the stuff, until the unbroken stretch of overtime and stress wrecked his stomach and his body simply wouldn't take it anymore.

I snorted at that good-natured smile, plucked an iced strawberry latte out of the tray, and put the straw in my mouth.

"Oh... that's good."

First time I'd ever had one. There was nothing around my house, which meant there was no café, and you couldn't exactly have a drink this small delivered.

Maybe I should put a café up near the house. I'd need some money for that, though.

"Right? They grind fresh strawberries right into it. It's all I've been drinking lately. A little regular spot only my team knows about — I'll tell you where it is, if you want."

"All right. Then I owe you for the tip. I'll stop by Joseon Pharmaceutical. Not like I was planning to keep selling these myself anyway."

"Do you mean that? Thank you! If you just give me a call, I'll come out to meet you anytime."

Manager Kang bowed, beaming. Whether or not the man in front of him was truly the one who'd crafted those potions, Daehan had already decided he was worth moving for — and that was confirmation enough. A thread like this was worth tying off.

"We'll go today. Drop the Jeong-il. Call me Karen. What's your name?"

"Kang Ji-yu. Manager Kang is fine. But... today? I'm grateful, of course, but..."

The man looked far younger than he was — Kang himself was pushing forty — but what did that matter in this world? Skill and money on the table, and a little informal speech was supposed to be a problem? Besides, whatever the face said, the air around him felt oddly like being addressed by an elder. It wasn't unpleasant.

"I'm Karen. One stop first, then we go."

"Then I'll have things ready."

"No. I need you right now, Manager Kang. I need a witness, and I need evidence."

"Pardon?"

"You know. The thing. You can record video, right?"

"I can."

The days of shoving a camera in someone's face were long gone. Now you just switched on the camera in a smartwatch, and it recorded in every direction from the wrist it sat on.

"Good. Turn it on. Let's go."

The moment I finished speaking I started walking, unhurried, straight toward the Daehan Pharmaceutical building. Manager Kang, still trying to figure out what any of this was, flicked the camera on and hurried after me.

Geniuses. Always a little strange. He's got something in mind, I'm sure.

Manager Kang decided not to overthink it and simply followed. People like this lived in a different world from ordinary men like him. Eccentric geniuses were nothing new.

What he had failed to account for was that the man walking ahead of him sat at a height the eccentrics themselves couldn't even see.

"Stop right there. Unauthorized personnel are not permitted past this point."

A security guard in a black suit stepped into our path. No employee badge at the throat, and not a face he knew. An uninvited guest.

"Move. I'm not going to kill you."

"Security, I need a check."

This was hardly the guard's first time. He called it in with the ease of routine, and the camera over the entrance swung around, locked onto a face, and threw a name up on the screen.

Information on the potion-maker had been kept secret. The only person who actually knew the man's identity was the head of security.

"That's our person of interest. Code One."

The security chief took one look at the name, flipped up the protective glass over the Code One alert button, and slammed it without a flicker of hesitation.

"Thanks for clearing the place out."

Between Gate drills and the kind of relentless everyday training only a conglomerate could afford, the ordinary employees vanished in moments. Before long the lobby held nothing but the security teams that had come pouring down — and Manager Kang, hovering behind me with no idea what to do with himself.

"He's here?"

The alarm had gone off without warning. High in the building, inside the security room where he'd taken shelter, the president of Daehan Pharmaceutical snapped the words at the deputy security chief reporting in front of him.

"Yes, sir. Security is holding him at—"

The words died. On the CCTV hologram that bloomed in the air, the entire team was already on the floor, and the security chief himself was thrashing at the end of a fistful of his own collar. The deputy bit down on his lip. He had seen the footage of this man killing everyone they'd sent. He had not expected it to be this one-sided.

The ones lying there were the highest D-rank Awakened the company could legally put on payroll. They'd even pulled a few B-rank and C-rank hunters over from the Daehan Guild on a quiet, not-entirely-legal loan, just in case.

No other choice.

"We need to evac—"

The rest of it never made it out. The heavy door blew in with a crash, and the security chief came with it.

"Going somewhere?"

Anyone A-rank or below had been a gift, really. They'd been kind enough to send over the right test subjects, so getting a feel for how much force to use had been quick work. Putting them under was fast. Easy.

If we'd had just one more day. We could have mobilized an S-rank and killed him.

The president closed his eyes and let out a long, thin breath at the uninvited guests in his doorway. They had sent a serious force. And in a single day the man had walked back in looking completely untouched. He didn't even appear to be injured.

"Who's the president of Daehan Pharmaceutical?"

"You bastard! Do you have any idea where you—"

The deputy lunged. I brushed him aside the way you'd swat a fly and put him halfway into the wall, then asked again.

"The president. Who is it."

"I am."

"Oho. A president really is different. You've got guts, I'll give you that."

Naked violence had just kicked in his door, and he still wasn't groveling. Credit where it was due. A conglomerate president after all.

"I didn't kill the ones downstairs. They didn't even know what they were walking into. But it's always the ones at the top, wherever I go. You people have to die."

"You think you walk away from this? You make an enemy of Daehan and you think you get to live?"

"Yeah. I can live."

"You idiot. You can be an S-rank who walks on water — they'll still hunt you down and kill you. You kill me, you die too."

"Ah! You're not dying. Not yet."

"What?"

I took a small glass vial from inside my coat and tossed it at him. The president had no combat ability at all. He didn't even flinch before the glass burst against him and a brown liquid ran down his clothes.

"What is this?"

"Did nobody brief you on me? I'm an alchemist."

"Hah. You lie well. We have our own information. An alchemist doesn't get to have this kind of force."

"Believe it or don't. It's the truth. And do you know what an alchemist's real specialty is? Discovery."

"Discovery?"

"That's right. A new potion, usually. Or... a plague. I believe the word you people prefer is epidemic."

"An... epidemic?"

For the first time, the composure on the president's face cracked.

"Th-this is...?"

He lifted a finger to the wetness under his nose. It came away red.

"Funny thing. In all this time, not a single epidemic has ever crossed over from the other world. Whatever a Gate actually does, it seems to stop that. But on my way here I picked up something interesting at the market. They sell edible monsters, you know that? Same-day slaughter, for the freshest meat."

The president made a wet, choking sound. The nosebleed that had started with him jumped to the executives, and then they were coughing blood.

Everyone in the room except Manager Kang broke out in hives. Their eyes flooded so red the whites disappeared, and they went down on the floor.

"I did a little work with the animals, and with some plants that came through from the other world."

"Y-you lunatic... after doing something like this—"

The president flopped on the floor like a landed fish, grinding his teeth at me through the pain. Guts. He really did have guts.

"I told you I'm not killing you yet. Your body will just... fall apart. Slowly. Over the course of a year, give or take?"

I gave him a pleasant little smile, walked over at an easy stroll, and set an antidote down in front of him. The footsteps ringing through the conference room could have been any other walk I took for the air.

The president wrenched the vial open and drank. The antidote did exactly what it was supposed to. Every symptom on him vanished in an instant.

"P-please... us too..."

The other executives saw it and begged. The answer they got was cold.

"You have to die. That one I'm keeping alive ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for a bit because I don't feel like making more work for myself. He's a witness. And a warning."

One by one the executives gave out, vomiting blood, and died. When it was over, the only people left breathing in the room were the president, me, and Manager Kang — who was half out of his mind in the corner.

"There are a lot of you Daehan people, aren't there? Manager Kang."

"Y-yes! Just the ones with Daehan in the name — Daehan Electronics, Daehan Electric, Daehan Insurance, Daehan Heavy Industries, Daehan Shipping, Daehan Trading — it's a long list. If you count the affiliates and subsidiaries most people have never even heard of, you'd lose count."

"See? That many. Smashing all of them myself would be a chore. You're the witness, so make sure you explain this carefully to your family. I'll send you the video Manager Kang is shooting, too."

"Don't make me laugh. You're going to die miserably under Daehan's name."

"Haa... and here I thought you were supposed to be smart. Does the president of a pharmaceutical company not have a working brain? What if I just walk around and toss one of those vials at every company and factory you've got?"

"We'll make a vaccine—"

"Pff. A vaccine? Before I got here, something called COVID was going around, wasn't it? These days you've got shots for it and a single pill knocks it down worse than a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cold — but how many years did the vaccine take? And the clinical trials on top of that? Have you ever even seen an epidemic from another world? What makes you think I can only make one?"

"...."

"There we go. Looks like the gears are turning now."

I gave the president's shaking shoulder a couple of light pats, walked back toward the door I'd come through, and left him with one last thing as I stepped out of the conference room.