The Place Where Evil Vanished (3)
With the Cheonyang-ji affair finally wrapped up, my days turned busy again.
First, construction at Eunchong Orphanage got underway in earnest. The main building and dining hall were being rebuilt from the ground up, and the boiler system was being replaced as part of a massive renovation. Whenever I stopped by to check on the progress, I also made time to see Ji-ye now and then.
"Yongki Uncle!"
"You used to call me Brother. Now I'm Uncle?"
"Doesn't the sound feel cuter? Uncle!"
"Do whatever you want."
Ji-ye's face grew brighter by the day. Someone had once said that most problems in the world could be solved with money.
They were right.
Jo Jeong-hwan grinned as he said, "Ms. Simon. Why don't we get married and adopt Ji-ye while we're at it?"
"Marry you? I'll cut you to pieces."
"......H-hiiik!"
"......Adopting her is fine."
Once Jeong Myeong-su disappeared, the world became a good deal more peaceful.
Maybe that was a self-centered way of looking at it, but at least to me, it felt that way.
I no longer went to the one and only holy temple for work. I went back to the factory instead.
The moment I clocked in, eyes turned toward me all at once.
"Oh! Look who it is!"
"Isn't this our boss?"
"We were starting to forget that face, maing!"
The factory workers welcomed me warmly. But there was one among them who was especially enthusiastic.
"Boss!"
Someone who looked like they might have a tail wagging behind them came running over. We greeted each other with a light fist bump.
"Karki. You've been well?"
"Yup! Boss!"
Once we got into the office, Karki rattled off the factory's recent developments one after another.
"Those foreign-worker punks didn't listen worth a damn at first, but now they at least know how to understand words."
It was hard not to laugh at the irony of a foreign worker, Karki, putting down foreign workers.
Still, I let it slide as a joke.
He also brought up the serious business side of things.
"These ones, these ones, and this one too—please approve them. I handled everything else, but this I think I need your okay on."
"Got it. Give me a pen."
By the time we were done running around, morning had long since slipped by.
"Hoo. Done already?"
"Yup. Boss, let's go eat!"
As the factory cafeteria had been upgraded, the staff now waited eagerly for mealtime.
"Sure. Let's all eat together."
We headed to the dining hall together and took our trays through the line. Once everyone was seated, Karki rose from his chair.
"Today, too, let us bow our heads to the great leader who has provided us with our daily bread—our boss—and offer our loyalty......"
It wasn't all that different from one of those sermons praising the Cheonyang-ji cult leader.
And yet nobody looked uncomfortable.
If anything, the mood was full of laughter and amusement.
Karki barked, "You foreign-worker bastards. You eat because of this man. Quit slacking off so damn much. You people disappear the second you get a free minute. Tch—worthless paycheck-guzzling bastards."
When his grand speech finally ended, everyone called out in unison, "Then, we'll eat well!"
"Please enjoy your meal!"
I picked up my spoon.
Today's menu was stir-fried pork belly and webfoot octopus. On the side, there was japchae and soy-marinated crab. Even the beef bone soup, loaded with scallions, had a rich, deep flavor to it.
"Damn! This is the life!" Karki exclaimed, raising a thumbs-up again and again.
I distributed some of the black money that had once been hidden under the cult leader's floor.
Simon and Jo Jeong-hwan each received one billion won as operating funds, and I made it clear that if I ever needed anything in the future, I would be dipping into the underground slush fund myself.
If I wanted to, I could buy expensive meals as often as I liked.
But.
What you eat matters, yes.
Who you eat with matters just as much.
Sitting at a generous table with old comrades made my heart feel warm.
In my previous life, the factory had been the site of my penance.
Like Jesus bearing the heavy cross and walking the road of suffering, like Prometheus chained to the rock while the eagle tore at his liver, I had driven myself mercilessly and lived a life of pain.
In that hell, the factory had been a refuge that let me forget all those useless thoughts.
As long as I kept my head down and did my job, I could forget the weight of life, if only for a little while.
You could call it a hometown made of mixed love and hate. The people here were full of warmth, and they gave everything they had to the work in front of them. Watching them, there was plenty I could learn.
And above all else—this was my factory now, too.
Now that I'd taken over Factory 4, I had to shoulder the responsibility for the workers there.
"Yongki, there's something...... Lately, the false defect rate has gone up a little. Nothing major, mind you."
The foreman who was eating beside us brought it up.
False defects meant that the product wasn't actually defective, but the machinery in the process had made a measurement error and flagged it as bad. In those cases, a worker had to judge everything by eye one by one, which meant a lot more labor.
The higher the false defect rate climbed, the more brutal the work became for the people on the floor. After long hours, your eyes would start to blur too.
"Any way to fix it?"
"Aigoo. Brother, why are you talking work during lunch?"
"Our young boss is going to get an upset stomach. He'll be sick."
As the others tried to stop him, the foreman clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Yeah. Sorry. I said something I shouldn't have."
"No, it's an important issue. What do you think, Foreman?"
As soon as I set down my spoon and spoke seriously, the foreman's face brightened.
"Well...... if we brought in FutureMind, things would definitely get better."
FutureMind was a cutting-edge technology built on AI. By introducing big data into artificial intelligence, it dramatically reduced the false defect rate.
What a person could do in a minute, the machine could do in a second—and it could do the work of a hundred people while it was at it. Naturally, productivity shot up as well.
But there was a catch.
"It's so expensive, though. I shouldn't have said anything. Just pretend you didn't hear it."
When I didn't answer, the foreman let his shoulders sag and picked up his chopsticks again.
One of the good things about knowing the future was that, as a hunter, I could prepare for events before they happened. Just as I had predicted the Gangnam Station multi-gate and crushed it at the start, having the year's timeline mapped out let me move faster than anyone else.
And that helped with running the factory, too.
"Let's do it. Start with ten units."
"What? Ten of them?"
"I'll cover the cost. Get them in as soon as possible. And make sure the staff gets trained on how to use FutureMind."
"Heh. Our boss really does have absurd momentum."
The foreman let out a dry laugh. He must have expected me to brush off the suggestion, not approve it on the spot.
Of course, if I hadn't known the future, I probably wouldn't have made such a bold decision either.
Small and mid-sized companies always faced the same dilemma. If they stuck to the existing system, they could maintain stable sales, but there would be no long-term growth. Bold investments opened up possibilities, but reckless expansion could create irreversible consequences.
Walking that line properly was the fate, and the duty, of anyone in charge.
"Damn. Our young boss is a big spender."
"But if we bring in ten of them, won't we have less work to do?"
The mood sank in an instant.
I said calmly, "That's right. Which means I'll be reducing manpower."
As technology advanced, AI replacing humans was an unavoidable trend.
At my words, the workers' faces darkened all at once.
"Don't worry. I'm planning to buy out Factories 1, 2, and 3 next, too. In fact, we'll be short on hands, so I want all of you to give it your best at your newly assigned sites."
"Huh? Seriously?"
Ilsan Hunter Complex was made up of nine factories in total, and I intended to swallow up half of them.
I had enough capital.
"You've got that much money?"
"I received an investment proposal."
"From where?"
"Cheonyang-ji."
"Cheonyang-ji? That name sounds familiar."
"You know, that cult."
Under the pretense of an investment, I would use Cheonyang-ji's money to buy the factories.
With Jo Jeong-hwan standing there as a puppet figurehead, Cheonyang-ji was already in my hands.
In the end, the money would keep circling back to me.
In my previous life, I had worked brutally hard for thirty full years.
What I'd honestly earned amounted to about one billion won.
When I was reborn, I realized something. Hard labor alone had barely gotten me out of poverty. If I wanted to become truly rich, I'd need to choose another path.
"This is only the beginning. My goal is to take over every remaining factory as well."
The workers gaped at me.
"All of them?"
"Whoa. That's enough to wake a man right up."
"......And what exactly are you planning to do after you buy them all?"
Ilsan Hunter Complex worked as a subcontractor under the giant conglomerate Seosan. Under such a massive behemoth, unfair practices happened all the time.
They'd delay payments.
They'd steal new technology.
And if you raised a complaint, they'd just tell you to take it to court.
Then and now alike, it was the same old fight between David and Goliath, where Goliath never stopped throwing his weight around.
Some of the smaller factories that got pushed around went bankrupt a few years later, and the laborers who lost their jobs ended up addicted to the drugs sold by gangsters, becoming drifters on the street.
I rose quietly from my seat.
"We'll become a company that won't lose to Seosan—no, bigger than Seosan itself. And so."
Under everyone's eyes, I straightened my back and said it plainly.
"We'll become a world-class company."
A true leader doesn't whip the people who follow him like slaves. He gives them a goal, gives them direction, and moves forward together with them.
"Boss! That's friggin' awesome!!!"
Karki shot to his feet, veins standing out in his neck.
The rest of them, as if they had rehearsed it, erupted into cheers like fanatics.
"So? Do you like the new space?"
It was a temporary structure built on an empty lot beside the factory. Inside, it was packed with robot arms equipped with AI, laser cutters, and the latest high-end tools needed for suit production.
The place had basically become Karki's private lab.
"I love it. Sooooo much, Boss."
Karki darted around the spacious room.
"Shouldn't we start looking for an assistant soon? Isn't it rough doing everything alone?"
"Nope! This is a secret just between you and me, Boss."
He lowered his voice and pressed one finger to his lips.
Not exactly.
The more I went out wearing the purple mask, the more people learned about the Purple Devil's identity.
Simon and Jo Jeong-hwan know who I am, too.
For now, it was only a small number of people. But someday, the Purple Devil might become widely known to the public in earnest.
When that happens...... I'll have to make another decision.
Karki stopped in his tracks.
"By the way, how was the P4?"
"It was the best."
The model I had worn when I fought Jeong Myeong-su at Daegu Stadium was the P4. Since it had been made with Silver Knight I brought back from the dungeon, it was light and highly durable.
"The mask did tear, though."
"Huh. Really?"
"It wasn't because I got hit. I was moving so violently during the fight that the fibers came apart."
"Aha."
Karki sat down at the computer and began tapping away at the keyboard.
"Then I need to pay more attention to the sewing. Since it's all handwork, there must've been a mistake somewhere. Sorry, Boss."
"It's fine. More importantly—"
I set down the art tube I'd been carrying on my shoulder.
It was the kind of container an art student would use. Normally, it would have held rolled-up drawings, but when I opened the lid and pulled out what was inside, silky fabric spilled across the table.
"Oh? This is......"
Karki's curiosity flared, then his face went blank as he blinked at it.
"What is it, Boss?"
It made sense that he didn't know. It was a treasure that hadn't yet been revealed to the public.
"I know it's Knight-class material, but why is it blue? Is this some fake painted over with color?"
Karki rubbed the unfamiliar raw material between his fingers.
"It's the real thing. Leather from a dragon that lives in the sea."
"Whoa. That kind of thing exists? What's it called?"
"Blue Knight."
Karki's eyes sparkled.
"Blue Knight, huh. Now that I look at it, the weave is weirdly different from Silver Knight. It's super thin, almost like vinyl."
Blue Knight didn't just resist fire; it didn't get soaked in water either. No matter how much you crumpled it, not even oil could seep through.
It also had thermal insulation, so it helped maintain body temperature while you wore it.
It was, quite literally, a miraculous material that rewrote the rules.
"Can you make a P5 out of this?"
"Of course I can! Leave it to me. This is exciting! I'll start by drawing up the design!"
Karki flung both hands through the air in a frenzy and got started on the 3D draft.
"Boss. After you wear this, what are you going to do next?"
I had already decided on the next move.
I picked up the desk calendar on the table and flipped back a few pages.
Three months from now, a monster unprecedented in history—one comparable to a catastrophe-level threat—would appear.
It was a horrific disaster that would blow an entire city off the map and leave tens of thousands dead.
"I'm going to do what a hero has to do."