Chapter 93
Chapter 93
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: Shared Enemies
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Ryu O-chang's eyes twitched at Lee Dae-hyuk's relaxed, confident smile.
'He's smiling?'
He surely wasn't someone incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.
That meant he had anticipated Ryu O-chang would feel displeased by that smile.
"Did my words... really sound like praise to you?"
Ryu O-chang suppressed his irritation and asked indirectly.
Lee Dae-hyuk nodded.
"Any words from the Chairman are like praise to me."
"...Hah."
Ryu O-chang let out a hollow laugh at Lee Dae-hyuk's flattery that wasn't quite flattery.
For a moment, it felt like the man was toying with him.
But rather than displeasure, curiosity welled up instead.
"You're definitely no ordinary man."
"I'm ordinary. Just the useful kind to you, Chairman."
Ryu O-chang couldn't hold back his bewilderment at Lee Dae-hyuk's words.
"Usefulness is something others decide for you, not yourself."
"But we're a little different, aren't we?"
"...We?"
Ryu O-chang furrowed his brow at the question.
Lee Dae-hyuk's words carried a meaning he hadn't anticipated.
"I have no idea what you mean."
"The Chairman and I were already comrades before we met today."
"Comrades?"
"We share the same enemy, don't we?"
Ryu O-chang's mouth fell slightly open at the words 'same enemy.'
From what Lee Dae-hyuk was saying, it seemed his suspicions had been correct.
"You don't mean... Yoo Jae-man, do you?"
Lee Dae-hyuk nodded.
"Yes. I have a debt to pay him as well."
"Hah, hahaha, hahahaha."
At that one remark, Ryu O-chang burst into rough laughter.
"Hahaha, so that's how it was."
"......"
Surprisingly, Ryu O-chang accepted it immediately.
Lee Dae-hyuk, on the other hand, was the one puzzled.
"You're not surprised."
"I'd already suspected as much."
"You suspected?"
Lee Dae-hyuk's eyes gleamed with interest.
Ryu O-chang provided the answer to his questioning gaze.
"I deal in artwork too. Of course, illegally. Ah, I buy it as well. Personally, I'm more of a collector than a mere merchant."
'No way?'
Lee Dae-hyuk was startled.
He could guess what Ryu O-chang was about to reveal.
"I dislike Yoo Jae-man, but he's also my client. Yet his goods were flowing into the smuggling market through Yurin Capital."
"......"
Ryu O-chang was piecing it together now.
And it was a very logical deduction.
"I simply thought about it: what are the odds that the one who stole Yoo Jae-man's goods and the one who squeezed 100 billion out of Seo-jin are the same person?"
"......"
"Ah, it wasn't a deduction I made when I first heard your name. It flashed through my mind like lightning right before Shen Wu brought you in."
Ryu O-chang's reasoning was straightforward.
Yoo Jae-man's items had flowed into the black market via Jeong Hee-ju.
Lee Dae-hyuk was Jeong Hee-ju's colleague and backer.
Moreover, the one who dismantled Park Jung-gi's organization and extorted 100 billion from Yoo Jae-man was this formidable Lee Dae-hyuk.
"It was just a hunch, but your expression tells me I'm right."
Even as he spoke, Ryu O-chang keenly observed Lee Dae-hyuk's face.
"By the way, you manage your expressions well. I almost fell for it."
Lee Dae-hyuk gave a wry smile at Ryu O-chang's praise that wasn't quite praise.
"I've... practiced a lot."
"I don't keep mysterious types around me. Especially those who try to manage their expressions in front of me."
"Do you want a dumb dog?"
Ryu O-chang's eyes flashed at Lee Dae-hyuk's preemptive strike.
"Having a common enemy doesn't make us equals."
Ryu O-chang's point was simple.
He was talking about hierarchy.
But Lee Dae-hyuk had no intention of engaging in a power struggle with Ryu O-chang right then.
Not yet, anyway.
"I'm not a dog. I'm a tiger."
"A tiger? Meaning you might bite your master."
"Tigers have no masters."
"Why so confident? Because you trust Chairman Lee Myung-guk?"
In their verbal sparring, Lee Dae-hyuk remained utterly unshaken.
If anything, he sneered inwardly.
'You won't have a choice but to need me soon enough.'
He couldn't win Ryu O-chang's favor right now.
But soon, an incident would arise where Ryu O-chang would desperately need allies.
A certain event that would unfold shortly.
It would turn Yoo Jae-man and Ryu O-chang into mortal enemies.
Not a mere turf war driven by greed, but a blood feud for family vengeance.
'It happens about two years from now.'
Not just the woman he loved.
The real reason Ryu O-chang came to Korea was his hidden son.
As a Triad executive leading the Black Darkness Society, Ryu O-chang had countless enemies.
But he was human, after all.
Even this giant dominating Asia's underworld needed respite.
He found that respite in an ordinary Korean woman working at a Hong Kong tour company.
A chance meal, a chance date, inevitable love...
And their only son.
Ryu O-chang's wife had raised their son with strict lessons in justice and conviction, hoping he wouldn't follow in his father's footsteps.
Remarkably, the son of an underworld kingpin became a prosecutor in South Korea.
'...What was his name again?'
Unlike Kim Il-jung, he couldn't recall it, so he must have been one of the many erased by Yoo Jae-man.
'But he's probably still alive now.'
The son, unaware of his father, died in vain.
The surviving father wages a true war for his son.
'...It'd be good if I could uncover his identity.'
He might become an ally to the outcast prosecutor Kim Il-jung.
'I'll take my time with that side.'
As long as the son was still alive.
Having finished his calculations, Lee Dae-hyuk stated firmly.
"I trust in my skills and track record."
"It's a bit early to be saying words like that."
To Ryu O-chang's remark, Lee Dae-hyuk declared confidently.
"You'll be surprised by me a lot from now on."
"I hope those aren't empty words."
Ryu O-chang didn't particularly like Lee Dae-hyuk.
His attitude had been arrogantly consistent throughout.
But his instincts were telling him something.
Don't judge Lee Dae-hyuk hastily.
'Better to watch him a bit longer.'
Putting off judgment, Ryu O-chang extended his right hand to Lee Dae-hyuk.
"Let's end today's meeting here."
"Thank you."
Lee Dae-hyuk smiled brightly as he took Ryu O-chang's right hand.
The long-awaited chance to use psychometry had arrived.
Flash-!!!
With a burst of light, a flood of Ryu O-chang's information poured into Lee Dae-hyuk's mind.
Amid the torrent of data.
Lee Dae-hyuk 'found' the Korean son he was seeking.
Kim Min-woo, who took his mother's surname.
'Prosecutor Kim Min-woo... No memory of him. It'd be good to get close to Prosecutor Kim Il-jung.'
Going forward, Kim Il-jung alone wouldn't be enough to counter the legal figures under Yoo Jae-man.
This was a useful addition to his forces.
And there was one fortunate point.
Ryu O-chang was a man who knew boundaries.
He didn't use violence against civilians or sell drugs to them.
He employed organization killers for assassinations and didn't kill ordinary people.
'He really knows how to last.'
Underworld villains weren't saints.
But he knew you had to maintain some lines to sustain power.
He understood that indiscriminately killing like Park Cheon-ho and selling organs would lead to collapse eventually.
'I can trust him to a degree and walk together.'
Unlike his inner thoughts, Lee Dae-hyuk maintained his expression as he released Ryu O-chang's hand.
At the same time, he posed a question.
"May I ask one more thing?"
"Go ahead."
As Ryu O-chang nodded, Lee Dae-hyuk brought up Kim Hyun-seung.
"What about Kim Hyun-seung? What will you do with him?"
Ryu O-chang replied without hesitation to Lee Dae-hyuk's question.
"I was going to remove him from that position anyway. He's disobeyed my orders subtly and crossed lines too many times. But since he was once loyal to me, I owe him the bare minimum of propriety."
It meant hiring a lawyer at least.
Fully grasping his intent, Lee Dae-hyuk nodded.
"Understood."
But one concern lingered.
Kim Hyun-seung's USB.
The fact that the USB containing 'Lee Dae-hwan's entertainment footage' was in Ryu O-chang's hands.
'What a shame. If I'd known earlier, I could've destroyed or stolen it somehow.'
With this USB, Ryu O-chang might control Lee Dae-hwan.
Not an enemy to him personally, but potentially to the Daehan Group.
However, Lee Dae-hyuk had no intention of revealing his true feelings.
'If he becomes an enemy of Daehan Group, I can strike then.'
For now, he needed to maintain friendly ties with Ryu O-chang.
Lee Dae-hyuk smiled softly as he mentioned his schedule.
"I'll be in the US for a few months on investment matters. If anything urgent comes up, call my cell phone."
"Oh? So you're saying I should contact you first?"
Ryu O-chang chuckled at Lee Dae-hyuk's words.
In the past few decades, no one had ever phrased it this way.
Perhaps that's why Lee Dae-hyuk lingered deeply in his mind.
"Someday, I'll fix that arrogant personality of yours."
Lee Dae-hyuk replied to his playful threat with a smile.
"I'll look forward to it."
***
The day after meeting Ryu O-chang.
December 26th.
Lee Dae-hyuk's daily life was busier than ever.
He needed to meet Kim Il-jung first, but the prosecutor said he couldn't make time.
Because of the Kim Hyun-seung incident.
With Gold Moon shut down and Kim Hyun-seung's atrocities exposed.
Newspapers and broadcasts were plastered with Gold Moon news.
"Kim Hyun-seung shock, Kim Hyun-seung terror, Kim Hyun-seung astonishment... The bastard set a record, at least."
At a kimchi stew restaurant near the Prosecutors' Office.
Kim Il-jung, who had barely slipped out to meet Lee Dae-hyuk, scooped a spoonful of stew and grumbled.
But Lee Dae-hyuk just smiled warmly.
"Your face is all over the news too, bro. You're a star prosecutor now?"
"Star my ass. It's just the start of the grind. But don't we meet too often?"
"Isn't frequent better?"
"Not for me..."
Kim Il-jung muttered.
Lee Dae-hyuk was like a Santa Claus bringing him gifts.
But the more they met, the more it felt like his energy was being drained(?).
'It feels like I've really become his lackey.'
Still, instead of snapping as usual, Kim Il-jung quietly ate his kimchi stew.
He had to head back right after talking.
Better to stick to business than nitpick.
"Kim Hyun-seung's mostly wrapped up. He was all bluster at first, but suddenly deflated and clammed up. Probably his backers ditched him."
"Seems like it."
"You?"
"Yes?"
Midway through talking about Kim Hyun-seung, Kim Il-jung asked a strange question.
But Lee Dae-hyuk just innocently tilted his head.
"What do you mean...?"
"CCTV. The Gold Moon Club CCTV footage is completely gone. Not formatted, just vanished."
"That must be Kim Hyun-seung's crew erasing evidence. Or the clients who didn't want their weaknesses exposed..."
Lee Dae-hyuk's response was perfectly natural.
But Kim Il-jung shook his head.
"...Then why do I keep thinking of you, weirdly?"