The Old Man's Hammer
Meanwhile, as the Rolls-Royce carrying Lee Shin and Choi Yeosim left Gwangyang behind, a car was flying through the air at an abandoned junkyard in Daegu.
“Fuck, get out of the way!!”
Kwa-ga-ga-gang—!!
The group of men diving desperately to avoid the crashing vehicle were members of the Suseong faction—infamous throughout Daegu’s underworld.
Right now, their headquarters was being raided by unknown assailants.
Cars from the junkyard flew like catapult stones, accompanied by bizarre laughter and endless, bone-chilling crashes.
And every time, screams inevitably followed.
“Aaaagh!”
“Save meee!!”
“My arm, my arm!!”
Then a shout rang out nearby.
“Support’s coming soon! Just hold on a little longer!!”
“Block them!”
“Let’s block them!!”
Buffed by their boss’s magic-infused encouragement, the gang members rose once more with renewed strength.
But did they know?
While they were shattering their bodies to protect their turf, their boss had already abandoned both them and the territory, fleeing with his tail between his legs to save his own skin.
“Fucking bullshit. It’s real!”
The boss knew exactly who these attackers were.
A few days earlier, unfamiliar Russians had shown up in Daegu.
With pale skin, massive builds, and ill-fitting suits, they had abruptly greeted the city’s various organizations.
— “Nice to meet. Me. Brothers Outsourcing. Looking. For item.”
A bald man with a wolf tattoo.
— “Fucking hell, move your ass, it’s stuffy. Uh, so we, fuck. Trying to talk in these shitty suits and the words won’t come out. Goddamn it.”
A woman with a mouth like a sewer.
— “Y’all shut up. Ahem, I am this kind of person. We’ll quietly take only the ‘item.’ Please do us this favor.”
And finally, the pot-bellied giant who handed over a business card reading [President of Brother Services, Jang Anton] in an absurdly thick Busan dialect—Jang Antonton.
The boss’s mistake wasn’t the name Brothers Outsourcing, nor the intimidating Russian thugs.
It was the word “item.”
He had been hooked by the thick scent of money it carried.
If it was something these people were searching for, it had to be no ordinary object. And that inevitably led to one conclusion: it was almost certainly an ‘item.’
What followed was exactly as he had predicted.
The boss used his underlings to find out what they were looking for.
It turned out to be something he had seen passing by at a pawnshop. He threatened the owner and managed to snatch it first.
And just as he was about to appraise it—to figure out exactly what this thing was, whether it really was an ‘item’ or not—
Those bastards started throwing cars.
The fleeing boss grabbed the ‘monocle’ that had caused all this trouble and practically begged.
“Goddamn it, please be worth it.”
Enough to abandon the organization he had built over nine years…!
The moment he was about to finish his ‘please’—
Kwaaaaang—!!
“Gaaahk!”
Something falling from the sky slammed directly onto the boss.
The shockwave made the ground heave, and through the rising cloud of dust, a silhouette flickered.
It was a beast. Eyes full of murderous intent gleamed through the dust.
A moment later, as the dust cleared, a pot-bellied giant stood where the shadow had been.
“As expected, greedy bastards are everywhere, yeah.”
Former Russian gang boss and current president of Brothers Outsourcing, Jang Antonton, grabbed the half-collapsed man’s head with one hand and plucked the monocle from his face.
Well, thanks to this he had saved some money and earned a nice side income. Should he be grateful?
Jang Antonton poured a potion on the fallen man’s face as thanks, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.
“Looks like we’re right on schedule.”
Daegu Suseong-gu: Monocle lens (pawnshop. Broken is fine, but recover every shard and speck of powder.)
Gangwon-do Inje-gun: Stone with butterfly pattern (weekend farm warehouse. Faint purple glow.)
Ulsan Dong-gu: Dharma painting (exact location unknown. Household with five children.)
Chungnam Daecheon Beach: ……
Daejeon: ……
……
…
.
“Why the hell does he need junk like this?”
A list of materials with suspiciously detailed descriptions of their shapes and characteristics.
If it were an actual artifact, he could understand. But these were all just random scraps.
Jang Antonton removed the lens from the monocle frame and sealed it inside a container. He suddenly recalled something Lee Shin had said and headed back to his subordinates.
— “Recruiting isn’t the only way to strengthen our forces. Don’t forget about item power!”
This was Pohang.
A world-renowned steel city that had actively supported blacksmiths for generations, proudly upholding its title as the ‘Blast Furnace of Asia.’
“I’m late!”
A young man burst out running in a panic.
The surrounding merchants immediately recognized him as an apprentice.
Pohang had the highest number of private workshops in the country, and aspiring future masters usually entered the forges of renowned blacksmiths to learn metallurgy.
“What do I do…”
The apprentice who had missed his shift stood fidgeting anxiously in front of the forge. He knew exactly what kind of hell his eccentric master would unleash.
At that moment, a voice came from beside him.
“It’s alright, young man. The master stayed up drinking with a friend until dawn and only fell asleep a little while ago.”
“Really?!? Ha… Thank goodness.”
It was the old man from the ironware shop next door.
He had been supplying tools to the nearby forges long before this young man became an apprentice.
“Have you eaten yet?”
“Ahaha, not yet.”
“Tsk tsk… Smithing runs on a full stomach. Wait a moment. Here.”
What the old man pulled from his pocket was a Choco Pie.
“Take this with you.”
“Th-thank you.”
The young man’s hands were filthy with grime, which made him hesitate slightly, but the old man’s kind smile—wrinkled with age spots—made him accept the snack with both hands and bow politely before heading inside.
The old man’s claim that there had been a drinking party was true.
The moment he stepped in, the stench of alcohol stung his nose.
The workshop was a mess—empty bottles rolling everywhere and a pot of cold oden soup.
He quickly grabbed a broom and dustpan and began cleaning. Seeing this kind of scene first thing in the morning would normally be irritating, but the young man’s expression didn’t change at all. He cleaned without a single complaint.
In fact, he even considered himself lucky. At least it wasn’t jjambbong broth.
“Ugh… You’re here.”
“Good morning, Master.”
“Yeah, yeah. Make me some honey water. Ugh, maybe I really am getting old. How much did I even drink…”
“Looks like you drank quite a lot. There are an awful lot of soju bottles today…”
“Hey, my head hurts, so shut up and just bring the honey water.”
“Yes! I’ll make it right away.”
It was a domineering attitude, but honestly, this was considered mild.
In the blacksmithing industry, being called an apprentice was basically synonymous with being a slave.
With fire, iron, and harsh working conditions, hierarchy was ironclad in this field.
Respect for seniors, treating the master like a god.
Skills, knowledge, even profits—everything flowed from top to bottom. The phrase “being bestowed” hadn’t come from nowhere.
That was why, despite the harsh treatment, the young man considered himself fortunate. His master’s foul temper aside, the man’s skills were the real deal.
After drinking the honey water, the master’s previously hazy eyes finally cleared a little.
And then he immediately shouted.
“What are you standing around for? Pick up the hammer.”
“Yes!”
In the end, only skill remained in this industry.
Even the legendary masters had been the same.
A blacksmith speaks through iron.
While the young man was hammering away at the iron on the anvil for a long time, his master—who had gone upstairs for a smoke—suddenly roared. The young man hurriedly wiped away his sweat and rushed up.
“Hey, old man. Why can’t you understand plain words? The contract is over. I’m not using your nails in my workshop anymore.”
“I’m sorry, Master. I forgot.”
“Forgetting doesn’t fix anything. You left them at the entrance and that’s why I tripped over them.”
His master was arguing with the old man from the ironware shop next door.
More like one-sided harassment. His master, who had quite the artistic temperament, treated people according to his mood. The ones who suffered the most were this young man and the old man from the ironware shop.
The skinny old man standing next to his robust, well-built master looked utterly pitiful.
‘Judging by his expression, this is going to take at least an hour.’
The young man suddenly remembered the Choco Pie he had eaten that morning. He squeezed his eyes shut and stepped forward.
“Master.”
“…Hey, why are you here? Did you already finish a thousand strikes?”
“Well, I heard the noise…”
“Have you lost your mind? Hey. Are my words funny to you now?”
A slap flew at him.
He had known this would happen, but the young man offered his head anyway, thinking it was better for him to take the beating than let someone even older suffer. As usual, he subtly scraped his foot against the ground, signaling the old man to leave.
Once the old man slipped away and he endured about thirty minutes of abuse, the anger should subside—that was the young man’s plan.
But then something unexpected happened.
The old man, who should have already disappeared by now, was still standing there today.
And what he did next made the young man’s eyes fly wide open.
“Listen here, blacksmith sir.”
“??!!”
The master, who had been hitting the young man, suddenly froze.
“Sir? Are you talking to me?”
“That’s right. I’m talking to you.”
“Hah, has this old fart gone senile? Sir? You? Hey, am I your friend now?”
“I know very well how rough the people who eat the same iron rice bowl can be. That’s why I’ve stayed quiet and never interfered in another’s master-disciple relationship. But you’ve gone way too far.”
“What… what did you say?”
“It’s not normal to change apprentices every two years, is it?”
“You—!”
When his master raised that massive arm, the young man threw himself in the way.
“Master, Master!”
“Hey, let go! Let go!”
“Please leave! Old sir!!”
“It’s fine, young man. This is a conversation between old men.”
“What conversation? You son of a bitch. Running a damn corner store and you want to sit at the same table as me? Fine, I’ll pay for your funeral. Let’s do this.”
“Please just go!!”
“Let go, you bastard.”
By now a crowd had gathered from the commotion.
Everyone in the neighborhood knew how rude and violent the young man’s master was.
They assumed he was the cause of this disturbance too, but no one stepped in. There was no reason to pick a fight with a blacksmith who held influence in the area just for the sake of some ironware shop owner.
As no one tried to stop them, the situation grew more heated…
Then it happened.
Something struck the head of the master, who had been yelling at the top of his lungs.
Thud.
???
??
?
A moment of silence.
Everyone’s eyes turned downward.
What rolled across the ground was an empty can.
Then a voice rang out, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Huh? Yeosim, I’m sure I threw the trash into the bin. Why did it bounce back out?”
“Because the trash is human. Not the bin.”
“Ah, ah…!”
Two people were watching with ice-cold eyes.
Choi Yeosim, draped in a traditional robe, and Lee Shin in a sharp suit.
“Isn’t that… Lee Shin?”
“The representative of Mir Guild?!”
Perhaps because such a colossal figure had appeared? Everyone in the area was rendered speechless.
It was only natural.
Who was Lee Shin? Setting aside Mir Guild, he was the eldest grandson of the Lee Do Group—the country’s top chaebol. In the world of blacksmithing, he was quite literally the highest-level big shot imaginable.
“Ahem, ahem.”
Only then did the young man’s master suppress his rage and turn toward Lee Shin.
He was annoyed by the current situation, but if the other party was Lee Shin, it was a different story.
He had always been famous for being a troublemaker. How many times had he beaten and overturned luxury store employees just because they displeased him? Compared to that, this was nothing… and these days, wasn’t he doing incredibly well?
His team had just been promoted to the 2nd Division. If he could just secure a contract to supply their weapons and armor, he could live comfortably for years.
With that expectation, he strode forward confidently.
He was certain they had come looking for him.
There was no blacksmith in this area with better skills than him. Thinking this was a good opportunity for himself as well, he extended his hand in greeting.
“Nice to meet you. I am the…”
But Lee Shin and Choi Yeosim lightly ignored the outstretched hand and walked right past him. Immediately after, Choi Yeosim bowed deeply and respectfully before the old man from the ironware shop.
“It’s been a long time, Elder Workshop Master. Have you been well?”
The old man’s eyes widened, then curved into gentle arcs.
“It’s been a while for you too, Miss Choi. I’ve been doing fine.”
“You didn’t have a phone, so I had to come without warning. Please forgive my rudeness.”
“Not at all. This old man must have caused you trouble. By the way, it seems you’ve learned roughly who I am?”
“Yes…”
“Hmm. The innocent Miss Choi wouldn’t have come looking for me on her own. So the culprit must be the young man behind you?”
The old man shifted his gaze from Choi Yeosim and stared directly at Lee Shin.
“How are you related to the Lee Do Group?”
“I am the chairman’s eldest grandson.”
“Chairman… you mean Sang-byeok?”
“That’s correct.”
“Heh heh, now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance. That reckless rascal is in there.”
One of the very few people in the country who could call Chairman Lee Sang-byuk a rascal.
“Follow me.”
He was the greatest elder in the country.