Chapter 143
Chapter 143
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: If You Cut the Power to the Washing Machine (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-Tak!
Inside the office, dozens of knives about the length of a child's forearm were embedded in a wooden partition padded with styrofoam.
Hoon, who had placed a dozen similar knives on the table to the right of his chair. Whenever he had something weighing on his mind, he would sit there and hurl knives at the partition. Just like now.
"Nak-gu hyung-nim... no, Nak-gu the Money Ghost, already trying to check me like this?"
-Tak!
With his brows furrowed in a signal, another knife flew from his hand amid his soliloquy.
The knife spun in circles as it flew, looking for all the world like it was heading straight for the center of Nak-gu's forehead.
Then, calmly reviewing what had happened earlier.
'Looks perfect, don't it? Perfect for using as a washing machine in our organization. No traces left, not complicated, no need to grease any officials.'
A casual question about whether Bitcoin was good for money laundering. But Nak-gu's reaction had been excessively prickly, like he'd been stung by a thorn.
'You punk... shut up with that nonsense! Hackers just sniff after dirty money, how long do you think this'll last!'
That voice from back then echoed vividly in his ears. And before his eyes, like a hallucination... Nak-gu's expression, filled with bewilderment and anxiety, as if looking at an enemy that needed to be eliminated.
Veins bulging on his forehead, Hoon gripped the knife with far more force than usual. He mulled over every single circumstance from that day.
"Nak-gu, you bastard... just 'cause your rice bowl's getting shaky, you roll your eyes at me like that? The ones who dragged in all the bullet sponges were all me, you little shit!"
Clang. The metallic clatter filled the room along with his rage bursting from his lips.
Had he put too much force into it?
The knife missed the wooden partition and struck the concrete pillar, clattering solidly to the hard floor.
"Hoo, hoo..."
Hoon stood to retrieve the blade. Staring at his fierce reflection on its polished surface, he made a vow to himself.
This was the underworld, where no loyalty existed between seniors and juniors anyway. If Nak-gu kept distrusting and checking him... Hoon would take action first at the first opportunity.
"Yeah, yeah. Good work."
Catching his breath, he immediately pulled out his cell phone and started a call.
"It was nothing. Just slipped you guys some pocket money. Use it without worry."
His call partner was a group of thugs in their thirties from the Busan-Gyeongnam area, college-student gangsters.
They had been running around handling the fieldwork to recruit name lenders as meat shields.
Hoon had even used his own money to buy their loyalty. For the day he would eventually clash with Nak-gu... to secure them on his side.
However.
"What? What's that supposed to mean!"
An unexpected curveball flying straight at the back of his head.
Every calculation Hoon had made was shattering into pieces from one external variable.
He couldn't even predict where those shards would fly.
"Black Dragon Construction flipped the subscription, and Ammunition Infra's taking it over!"
* * * *
Ammunition Group headquarters, top floor, chairman's office.
After finishing an external lunch schedule and entering the office, there was Uncle Kim Won-cheol, awkwardly practicing putts with a golf club in hand.
"The ball's rolling."
"Do it in your own office. We bought you a nice putting green mat, and you always come here to do this."
"Heh heh heh. The lighting here's the best. Feels just like being on a real green."
Thwack! He gave it a casual push, and the golf ball rolled along the line painted in white.
Seeing Uncle Kim Won-cheol grinning like an idiot, the ball's path looked pretty good.
Yet when you suggested hitting the actual course, he'd say why swing iron pipes on someone else's grass and refuse to go.
"Eh, nice shot."
"Anyway, sit down. You're here for the final report on the legal team, right?"
"Our chairman's got eyes like a ghost."
The Ammunition Group's legal team had networks reaching even the fringes of the judicial world.
After meeting Prosecutor Park Eun-ji, I'd actively utilized the legal team to set up a radar on internal happenings at the bottom rungs of the prosecution.
"Man, every woman who gets tangled up is so unique. That Prosecutor Park Eun-ji's a real hopeless blockhead."
"I saw with my own eyes back then that she's a blockhead. What's the specifics?"
"She didn't report up the chain, going lone wolf. Says if she has to go through approvals and all, she'll never get any work done her whole life."
I sat on the sofa and opened the report handed to me.
The source was Prosecutor Park Eun-ji's prosecutorial aide. It carried the anxious voice of a family man with four kids.
"...Ditching the assigned case, heading out alone on some errand. No wonder the guy working under her is worried."
"Once she latches on, her eyes roll back. So."
Uncle Kim Won-cheol's squinting gaze at me reflected in the mirror.
At the same time, my face in the white hard hat appeared in that square frame.
"You really going out there yourself?"
"A promise is a promise. She said she'd run on foot herself, so the Ammunition Group chairman should show sincerity by running on foot too."
I slipped on the blue Ammunition Infra jacket I wore at site map briefings.
I handed a similar-sized jacket to Uncle Kim Won-cheol and spoke reminiscently.
"That was Prosecutor Park Eun-ji's demand."
Click. I adjusted the chin strap under the hard hat with the plastic buckle.
Hearing that click... I recalled Prosecutor Park Eun-ji from that day, habitually flicking open and shut her metal Zippo lighter, igniting faint flames.
'Ammunition Group's cases? Out of the question! Ha! Does this lady think investigations are a buffet? Pick only what you want to eat?'
At first, I'd proposed not publicizing the suspicions tied to Ammunition Infra's construction division.
Prosecutor Park Eun-ji seemed to understand the circumstances, but her words firmly expressed refusal.
A strong signal not to touch the prosecutorial authority she wielded.
That's why... the light gambit I could throw, had to throw.
'Just prove it actively. That we're not involved, and we struggled as much as possible to avoid it.'
A solution that let the tough prosecutor keep her identity while keeping Ammunition Group's name below the surface.
Like before, it meant stepping to the front lines myself to unravel it.
At the officetel construction site cloaked in the Ammunition Group brand.
'I'll show you on-site. At least... we'll fire the first signal shot of this big picture from our side.'
Zzzip. I pulled the blue Ammunition Infra jacket zipper up to my neck.
Kicking off my cowhide shoes and changing into sturdy safety boots, I looked at Uncle Kim Won-cheol beside me and opened my mouth.
"Alright, let's head out. First time with hair on my head seeing what gangsters look like."
* * * *
-[Ammunition Infra Construction Division] Flame Suite Home Officetel New Construction Site.
Clang! Clang!
The distinctive construction noise reverberated through the air at the officetel site on the outskirts of Bundang.
Scattered lumber and steel pipes, rebar rusted redder than spec limits, half-set concrete marred with footprints.
The site wasn't well-managed, and the workers' attitudes matched the building—sloppy.
"Hey, Kim. Let's eat lunch."
"Yes, foreman."
Kim, doing welding inside Building A. Checking his wristwatch, it was just time for afternoon lunch.
Expecting something like bread and strawberry milk, but seeing what's on the makeshift table from a cardboard box, Kim's eyes widened as he spoke.
"Whoa, soju for lunch? You sure, foreman?"
"Drink up. It's fine."
"Haha... haven't had a drink mid-day on a big site like this in years."
"The supervisor's a mess anyway. Slacking a bit doesn't matter."
A brief pause from grueling physical labor, soju sliding down his throat.
Kim wiped his mouth roughly with his work towel and voiced what was on his mind to the foreman.
"Kuh, exactly. Even with a big corp label, nowhere's this messed up."
"It's got the Ammunition label, but Black Dragon Construction's actually running it. Heard earlier... all the subscription folks collapsed."
"Collapsed?"
The foreman didn't answer right away, opening the soju bottle instead.
Ignoring the paper cups like mere decorations, he chugged half straight from the bottle, let out a long breath, and spoke.
"Ah, hits good. About a thousand buyers all bailed en masse. No money for mid-payments."
"Wow... even in a bad economy? Won't the developer go bankrupt?"
"That's why Black Dragon Construction's buying up all the rights. This site's... weird. Something fishy that just doesn't sit right."
The foreman, close as brothers with the site manager, seemed to know the rundown.
Way too young—no, kid-level subscribers. And Black Dragon Construction reps in black suits with fierce faces.
Everything signaled to his gut: finish up here fast and get out.
"Anyway, I'm out on B Building work, so Kim, you should look for another site too if you can..."
"Whoa! Finally found you! You guys aren't drinking soju here right now!"
"Brother?"
Panting heavily, the site manager climbed the stairs, breathing ragged.
He hurriedly stuffed the soju bottle into a black plastic bag. Like the grim reaper was chasing him from behind.
"No, brother. Just the other day you said slack on construction... why now?"
"That was then! Audit team's here—from HQ!"
"HQ audit? Pfft, those Black Dragon guys last time were just going through the motions."
The Black Dragon reps who'd come days ago, armbands on right arms, looked like gangsters clueless about construction at a glance.
So the foreman looked nonchalant, figuring it was nothing.
But.
"No, not Black Dragon...! Ammunition, Ammunition Group HQ! And you know who's leading it?"
"W-what? Ammunition Group? Those ghosts who never showed? Who's coming that you're freaking out?"
An utterly unforeseen variable appeared.
The site manager peered out the unfinished window frame, pointed down from behind the wall, and spoke.
"The chairman! Han Seo-jun or whatever, the chairman himself showed up in hi-vis gear!