He Who Became Fate
Thinking back on it, Lee Shin had changed the fates of countless people.
He had instilled courage in the former sunfish Park Su-bin and turned him into the next world champion. He had pulled Yu Ri-ra, who lived trapped inside her dreams, out into reality.
To the villain prospect Baek Yeon-woo he had given the sky itself, forging him into a treasure of the hunter world. And it was he who had anchored Kim Yu-shin, a man fated to leave for foreign lands, firmly to Korea.
Finally, there was the gift of youth he had bestowed upon Kim Jong-phil.
In a world where the System made Story and Ending tangible realities, Lee Shin had become fate itself.
And the same held true for Jang Antonton and his brothers here.
Bang! Bang!
“Fuck! They’re shooting?”
“You bastards are dead.”
“S-stop them!”
“Kill them!! Uaaaagh!!”
An abandoned factory in the slums.
This dreary space was packed with people for the first time in a while. They had stepped inside expecting a light conversation, only to be greeted with bullets. It really was America, the land of the free.
So he would teach these freedom-obsessed Western bastards a lesson: the truth that freedom is always accompanied by blood.
“Hey boys, don’t kill them. It’s a pain to clean up afterward.”
Jang Antonton chuckled as he watched his brothers’ antics, then stuck a cigar from the table between his lips and sank deep into the sofa.
‘Thinking about it, a lot has happened.’
As he reminisced, his eyes slowly closed.
A small commotion was breaking out behind him, but the Cuban cigar he had lit for the first time in ages carried him back into the past.
‘It was a damp, stinking place. I fought so many childish little wars with those Chinese bastards.’
From soldier to mercenary, from mercenary to illegal immigrant.
After drifting like a rudderless ship, the place where he had finally dropped anchor was Busan, South Korea—specifically, Chinatown right in front of Busan Station.
‘I needed money, and the only trade I knew was thieving, so I drifted into the underworld. I survived by taking requests from rich punks. Looking back now, it’s embarrassing.’
The life of a foreigner who could never be properly acknowledged was a miserable thing by nature.
On top of that, Anton and his brothers could not reveal themselves. The moment it was discovered that they were still ‘alive,’ the last precious things they had left would be placed in danger.
That was why they had paid a fortune in blood money to a dark mage and layered multiple ‘recognition disruption spell circles’ around themselves.
Then.
‘I met that guy.’
The strange fool whose eyes had sparkled at the sight of an AK rifle, exclaiming, ‘Wow, this is an AK!’ The bizarre idiot who had neutralized Anton’s blood-soaked killing intent with nothing but a single smile. Lee Shin.
Jang Antonton let out a soft chuckle as the man’s screw-loose face floated through his mind.
Bang bang, aagh my arm! The gunshots and screams coming from behind only made his laugh sound strangely affectionate.
‘It was a real headache, seriously.’
Ever since the day he had decided to ride the typhoon called Lee Shin, Anton and his brothers had been running without rest.
Locating items by place and characteristic was the basics. They investigated people, occasionally spied on clients, and even infiltrated other guilds.
‘When I took arrows in North Korea, that was something else.’
Now the entire country rested in the palm of Anton’s hand.
He could distinguish cities by scent alone, and if he knew a name and a few rough details, he could locate anything—be it an object or a human being.
The national gourmet map was a bonus, of course.
The ox bone soup had been better than expected. For a man who had believed Busan pork soup was supreme, it was a small pleasure.
Still, if one considered Anton’s skill and reputation, the situation could easily have wounded his pride.
In fact, some of his subordinates had voiced their discontent. It was called a request, but they were little more than hunting dogs on a money leash.
They had lived as hunting dogs their entire lives—did they really need to wear a collar here too?
But after speaking with Lee Shin, Anton had not seen it that way at all.
‘Do as much as you’re paid. Nothing more, nothing less than the money’s worth… That employer of ours sure is an arrogant bastard.’
He did not demand loyalty. He did not expect devotion.
Simply move in the shadows on my behalf. In return, I will be your fence and lead you into the sunlight.
In fact, the first gift Lee Shin had given them was identification papers. He had turned Anton and his subordinates—illegal immigrants without a home or a country—into Korean citizens.
Not content with that, he had even established a corporation named ‘Brothers Outsourcing.’ He had grumbled that it was simply because he hated delays, but.
‘At the very least, he wanted us to live ordinary lives under the sun. That guy’s got quite the sense of loyalty.’
Thanks to him, money management had become far easier, and now Anton could afford to buy each of his brothers a fine house of their own.
Just as the man had said—loyalty comes from money—once they received houses registered in their own names, the brothers began working even harder.
And after grinding like that for several years and firmly establishing their position.
‘We finally did it.’
A family photograph showing two sons, a daughter, and the most lovely woman in the world.
It was the family he had finally managed to reach.
A task that had seemed impossible without revealing his identity, yet Lee Shin had accomplished that very difficulty.
‘To think he would mobilize the Ido Group.’
The Ido Group had approached Russia under the pretext of constructing a factory. Russia, starving for even a single job, had no choice but to accommodate them. Through that channel, the letters from Anton and his brothers had safely reached their families.
Anton gently stroked the woman’s face as though it were a priceless treasure, then slipped the photo back into his pocket.
He had given them names, found them homes, looked after their livelihoods. And finally, he had protected the family they had longed for so desperately.
‘With this much, I ought to repay the favor even if it means becoming a hunting dog.’
That was what Anton believed.
Therefore…
The brothers who arrived at his side at the perfect moment.
“Ah, fuck. Those pathetic pieces of shit shooting guns like cowards. Ptui!”
“It’s done. Stop hitting them.”
The blood-drenched brothers roughly tossed a group of men aside. A Russian gangster with his legs bent at grotesque angles stared up at them, his face drenched in terror.
Immediately afterward, Jang Antonton’s massive hand seized their heads.
Seeing the name ‘President Jang’ on the screen, Lee Shin cheerfully tapped the call button.
“Hey, President Jang. Have you eaten?”
— “I wolfed it down. What about you, Representative Lee?”
— “Yeah, all because of you, Representative. I’m over here drinking American water that doesn’t suit me at all. The blood of these big-nosed bastards tastes pretty bitter, don’t it?”
— “We’ve found most of the stuff. But let me ask you one thing. Why do you always give information in such tiny drips and make people suffer?”
— “Well, anyway, if that’s not it then fine. The kids contacted me yesterday saying they got all the simple items. The ones you starred are a bit tougher.”
— “That’s why it feels good to meet some compatriots after so long.”
— “I know, I know. Don’t worry.”
— “What? Ah, that nonsense those kids pulled? That’s nothing. It’s right here. Want me to verify it for you?”
— “Someone’s listening, huh? OK.”
— “Let’s see. Louis Hamilton, seventeen years old. Male. Hometown Washington DC. The first recorded footage shows him drinking and smoking while…”
— “…Hey, I don’t know who’s listening with Representative Lee, but it looks like it’s someone connected to the boy, so I’ll explain. This is a method these gangs use a lot.”
— “What you need to remember is that this kind of work is usually aimed at the people above the target, not the target himself. This case in particular got messed up bad. These guys were commissioned too. Hey, say it with your own mouth. Huh? Not snapping out of it yet?”
— “S-someone commissioned us. Told us to work on Hamilton our way.”
— “Cash, thrown at us. Contact was through a burner phone.”
— “You heard the gist, right?”
Lee Shin placed the phone—now on speaker—in the center of the table. From it flowed Jang Antonton’s unfamiliar English.
To summarize, the USB contained records of an immature boy’s weaknesses.
Drinking, smoking, somewhat violent speech and behavior. The kinds of deviations that boys that age dream about but should never act on—some of which could become genuinely serious.
Once the story ended, the atmosphere in the room turned icy. Had Anton’s timely explanation not followed, the mood would have plunged straight into hell.
The conclusion was that someone wanted Louis Hamilton to fall, and the gang had faithfully carried out the order.
Then who was the real target? The moment that thought landed, every gaze in the room turned to one place as if by magic.
And the woman sitting at the receiving end of those stares finally spoke.
“Mr. Jang.”
“Can you completely erase the evidence?”
The curly-haired Hispanic woman was clenching her fists so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Her bloodshot eyes made her fury plain.
“I see… Then will you hand everything over?”
Lee Shin, completely misreading the room, raised a thumbs-up.
“Fast delivery, trusted transactions. The best.”
The shyly raised thumb quickly folded under the barrage of cold stares.
“Anyway, I broke all their legs, so they won’t be running. Contact me when the talk is over. I need some rest. Representative Lee, I’m hanging up.”
“Take care, President Jang.”
With the call ended, a chilly silence settled over the room.
“……”
“……”
There is a Korean saying that when a woman harbors a grudge, frost falls even in the middle of summer. Right now, with a mother whose cub had been attacked seething with rage, it felt as though heaven and earth themselves were trembling.
It was no joke. The teacups on the table were rattling violently. The magic power reacting to her fury was making the entire space shudder.
At last the woman, who had barely collected herself from the emotional storm, spoke in a low voice.
“From now on I will ask the questions. Answer only with yes or no. Just so you know, as you can see, I am extremely angry. So please do not lie. I don’t know what I might do if you do.”
“Um, yes.”
“So what you’re saying is that all of this was planned.”
“Yes.”
“That childish schemes were used to ruin my son’s present and shackle his future, and that it was all done because of me. That I was the target.”
“Yes.”
“And that the ones who did it…”
The woman paused to catch her breath, as if she could not believe her own words.
“…were the guild I currently belong to and the manager who has protected me?”
That was correct.
Shockingly, behind all these schemes stood the woman’s own guild and manager.
The guild she had devoted eight long years to, and the manager who had meticulously cared for her ever since her major-league debut, had been trying to bind her in the shadows.
The reason was simple.
“All of this… just for one contract extension?!”
“No. No. You cannot call it ‘just.’”
Even if the reason itself was simple, the target was anything but.
Lee Shin waved his hand, pointed at her, and drove the final nail in.
“It is none other than your final prime, Catherine Hamilton. Wouldn’t that be more than enough reason to pull strings behind the scenes?”
The owner of the SSS-rank trait Destruction, which destroyed everything her hands touched. When it came to pure destructive output, she ranked among the top three.
Destroyer.
The ranker sitting at eighth in the East was none other than her.