Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 150
Chapter Title: Living and Dying by Loyalty (4)
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Next up in the news. Around ten members of the Iljeong faction, who had been running an illegal private gambling site out of Bangkok, Thailand, have been nabbed by the prosecutors.
They're also facing charges for murdering three programmers after setting up the site. The prosecutors are working with local Thai police to...
Bam! A sudden, ear-shattering roar crashed in.
The old cathode-ray tube TV, which had been buzzing with static, fell silent, not even a peep left.
Joo Gwae-yul, the man who'd hurled a glass ashtray straight at the screen, sat there with his face flushed crimson, his rage unspent.
“What the hell is going on! How in God's name is this mess unfolding right now!”
Joo Gwae-yul's fists clenched tight, trembling with confusion and fear. Even his right-hand man, his brother-in-law, wore a half-dazed expression.
“The Thailand crew... looks like they've been busted.”
“So why the fuck couldn't you stop it beforehand! Police, prosecutors, tax office, even those NIS bastards. I sprinkled cash all the way up the ladder!”
“The word from our street guys is that one lone junior prosecutor went rogue on her own. And on top of that...”
Joo Gwae-yul's brother-in-law pushed up his glasses, slick with cold sweat sliding down the bridge of his nose.
Short on hard evidence, but convinced by gut alone, he slowly parted his lips.
“There's talk... that some big shot's backing that one prosecutor bitch from the shadows.”
“A backer...?”
Whoever was propping up Prosecutor Park Eun-ji.
It sure as hell wasn't someone from inside the prosecution.
Someone with enough pull to move a prosecutor from the outside—and tangled up with Joo Gwae-yul, directly or not.
“No way...”
He hadn't even noticed the approach, but a misty unease settled in as a hand rested on Joo Gwae-yul's shoulder.
That unease mirrored one man's face perfectly.
The face of the Ammunition Group chairman, who weeks ago had brazenly climbed the podium in that Bundang officetel complex and plunged a dagger in.
“That bloodsucker? But... when you crunch the numbers, he's in a real gray area...”
“Hyung-nim? Something wrong...?”
“No, forget it. First things first—let's sort out what's happened.”
Joo Gwae-yul shook his head roughly and pulled a pack of smokes from his pocket.
He chain-lit three in a row, stubbing the butts carelessly atop the shattered remnants of the glass ashtray.
After exhaling the last deep drag, a somewhat calmed Joo Gwae-yul turned to his brother-in-law.
“The money pipeline—there's no way to trace it at all?”
“As far as Thailand goes, consider it sealed off. The funds we've already brought into Korea are still safe, but they're not fully laundered yet...”
“Yeah, everything started going to shit after that goddamn construction site laundering op tanked.”
Once more, the face of the Ammunition Group chairman flickered at the edge of Joo Gwae-yul's vision.
The phantom image hung there, refusing to fade from his mind.
“My apologies, hyung-nim.”
“Enough. Not your fault. Anyway, this mess is probably that dog Nak-gu running his mouth everywhere as he bolted. So...”
Tap, tap. Joo Gwae-yul drummed the flat of his cleaver against the edge of the wooden table.
His instincts, honed from a lifetime in the blood-soaked underworld, screamed at him now. Death's shadow was closing in fast—get out while you can.
“The noose is tightening around my neck, and it won't be long now.”
“We need to wrap things up as fast as humanly possible and bail Korea. But there are two problems: super-fast money laundering, and... a believable patsy to take the fall.”
Joo Gwae-yul stabbed the cleaver's tip into the table and spun the wooden handle idly.
Money laundering and a sacrificial decoy. After mulling both deeply, he made his call with iron resolve.
“Laundering goes through Bitcoin first off. Whatever shortfall's left, we hit up old man Yoo Tae-chon holed up in Myeongdong—he'll cover it close enough.”
“He's probably already sniffed it out by now. That ruthless prick won't play ball easy.”
“Doesn't matter. I'll hand over 80, 90 percent in fees if I have to—the priority is getting out quick. As for the patsy...”
In that moment, a sly grin curled Joo Gwae-yul's lips.
He still had one card left to play. Just like always with his underlings, one he'd use at the perfect moment and discard without mercy.
“Yeah... there's just the right guy for it.”
His gaze shifted to the grandfather clock against the wall.
By the time that heavy hand ticked one notch forward, Joo Gwae-yul would be ready to play his card.
The subject was a playing card depicting a bald-headed joker with a menacing scowl.
“Hoon, that punk—looks like six years behind bars wasn't his fate after all. Might end up calling the slammer home for life.”
* * * *
Ammunition Group headquarters, chairman's office.
I stared at the remnants of a peeled chocolate bar on the desk and tossed a question at the culprit, Uncle Kim Won-cheol.
“What's got you pondering so hard this time?”
“Hmm, never seen anything like this. This Bitcoin or whatever the hell it is.”
Rustle. Uncle Kim Won-cheol flipped through the docs Nak-gu and the prosecutor investigators had jointly swiped from the safe, scratching his head.
At this point in time, the whole virtual currency concept didn't click yet. So naturally, he was skeptical of the unfamiliar thing—leaning negative, even.
“This thing really worth anything? Even giving it the best spin, it's just a clump of data bits... I ran the numbers every which way, and it just doesn't add up.”
“Think of it like game money for now, since it's virtual currency. Not a perfect analogy, but close enough.”
“I get what you're saying, but it still doesn't click for me. Value's low, trading volume's tiny...”
Bitcoin had been around less than two years at this stage.
Truth be told... seeing this in Joo Gwae-yul's safe floored me.
I'd known from before the rewind that they ballooned their power with Bitcoin, but reaching for it this early? Total curveball.
‘No way... the future's changed? Blocking the officetel laundering threw off a butterfly effect or something...’
High likelihood of that.
Without my meddling pre-rewind, Nak-gu's laundering would've dragged on forever. And it'd probably taken ages for Hoon's Bitcoin idea to get adopted.
As I mulled hypotheses, Uncle Kim Won-cheol spoke up.
“What're you thinking so hard about?”
“Oh, you know. Anyway, I'm sold on this Bitcoin data clump. Love at first sight, like a first crush.”
Bitcoin, future gold basically.
In just 5-6 years, it'd rocket through insane bull runs into an asset of unimaginable value.
More than enough to catapult Ammunition Group—the company, its scale, its guts—to real heights.
“You sure latch onto the weirdest stuff, Chairman.”
“Thinking of running a dedicated Bitcoin mining op too. Separate from the group, out of my own pocket.”
“Better than your age-group chaebol heirs blowing cash on random whims, I guess. Do what you want with that later—priority now is...”
Rustle. Uncle Kim Won-cheol closed the file and fixed his eyes on me.
The top page bore Joo Gwae-yul's creepy glare, staring right at me.
“So, you wanna scoop up these bastards' coins into your own pocket, Chairman?”
“Seizing crime proceeds means the state's auctioning it off, right? Another reason to uproot Joo Gwae-yul and the Iljeong faction completely.”
Bitcoin's value—unknown to any domestic company. No one but me would bid at that auction.
They couldn't even guess what it'd turn into down the line.
“But tying it to Joo Gwae-yul looks like a real bitch. Charges won't stick easy, from what I see.”
My happy daydreams crashed into a blunt reality check.
Joo Gwae-yul. Iljeong faction boss and shadowy owner of Black Dragon Construction.
But like always, he'd buried his tracks deep. No evidence anywhere, his name on nothing.
“That's why we need to fish for him. Not fish—people.”
Slippery as a loach in the mudflats. And the way to hook a loach... a specially baited line right through the lip.
“What, you Jesus now? Preaching to Peter or some shit?”
“Close. 'Cause Ammunition Group's next Peter... looks like it'll be Aide Yoo Se-na.”
Twitch. A ripple of movement caught my eye beyond the partition.
Moments later, Aide Yoo Se-na peeked out like a meerkat on the savanna.
“Me... you mean?”
“Oh, you're here? Thought you'd stepped out.”
“Hah, been back a bit. Anyway, what fresh hell are you assigning me now, Chairman?”
She stood, hands on hips, glaring at me.
For a split second, her outfit oddly overlapped with her casino getup from Gwangju.
Probably 'cause the job ahead for Aide Yoo Se-na looked a lot like that one.
“We'll talk on the way. Perfect timing, actually.”
“Chairman...?”
“First time this blew up, I didn't meet your dad for no reason, Aide Yoo Se-na.”
* * * *
Myeongdong, Yoo Tae-chon's residence.
Yoo Tae-chon cut a figure like an old gray wolf. Despite the chill late-winter air, he stood on the veranda, lost in thought gazing at the outside view—until a servant approached and bowed.
“The guest you mentioned will arrive shortly. Shall I prepare a meal as well?”
“No need. Light snacks to go with tea will do. The talk won't drag on.”
White snow began to fall lightly. Yoo Tae-chon crushed a snowflake melting in his palm and pondered.
The man about to visit his home. The fate awaiting him might flow downward like that melted snow, to the dregs.
“Han Seo-jun was spot on. That bastard Joo Gwae-yul must be desperate.”
Days ago, the Ammunition Group chairman had shown up here again.
Late at night, with Yoo Tae-chon's own daughter in tow, he'd skipped the chit-chat and dropped this bomb right off.
‘You’ll probably be reminiscing about the old hometown soon.’