Chapter 56: Three Wishes
Chapter 56: Three Wishes
[Bella woke up today at 11 a.m. The day before, she got completely hooked on a drama called “Turns Out My Divorced Ex-Husband Is a Chaebol Heir,” and fell asleep after watching until dawn. While watching, she finished an entire tub of Together ice cream and ate one bag of popcorn, one bag of Saewookkang, and one bag of Banana Kick.
Until midnight, she watched the drama together in that big bed with Room 103 Chae Serin and Room 104 Lauren while wearing face masks, but Bella ate most of the snacks.
Around midnight, Lauren and Chae Serin returned to their own rooms, but Bella watched the drama alone until dawn and fell asleep. When she woke up in the morning, her face had a slight puffiness, but maybe because she’s naturally built to be pretty, it went down after she moved around a bit and she returned to normal.
As soon as she got up, she waddled to the front desk in a pink tracksuit, drank instant mix coffee, and sunbathed in the parking lot. I’ve told her several times not to wear that tracksuit because it doesn’t suit her at all, but she doesn’t listen to my opinion whatsoever.
Then she came to the counter and ordered five bowls of jjajangmyeon, four bowls of jjamppong, two orders of fried rice, tangsuyuk, kanpung shrimp, gochujapchae, and fried dumplings, and the four of us ate together: Room 103 Chae Serin, the brat attached to her room, Bella, and me. For reference, the fried dumplings were complimentary. Bella paid the entire bill.
After the meal, she took a walk around the neighborhood and came back, then returned to her room and has been continuing the same drama she watched yesterday, “Turns Out My Divorced Ex-Husband Is a Chaebol Heir,” up to now. Her review is that it’s the kind of drama you curse at but keep watching because it has a pull.
For reference, I watched a little too, and it’s pretty fun.
She walked around the neighborhood for about 15 minutes, and if she were a terrorist, I assume she would have done something during that time.
Dinner time is coming up soon, and I predict she will order duck meat delivery tonight. Earlier at lunch while eating Chinese food, she was searching delivery apps diligently, and I saw her carefully looking at reviews for duck restaurants, so I predict that. Since she normally eats about three times as much as an average person, she will definitely order at least twelve servings of duck meat for dinner.
That concludes today’s report.
CIA’s diligent HUMINT, Kang Chan!
PS: I’m curious how much value today’s intel fee is worth.]
In the meeting room where thirty CIA analysts had gathered, everyone went silent as they read the message floating on the screen.
The chief analyst finally spoke in a drained tone.
“Is this right? Isn’t this a waste of time?”
“Compared to Korean society where the average education level is high, the individual named Kang Chan has limited schooling. For someone like him, that level of reporting is the limit.”
“I’m asking whether it makes sense for us to hear about Bella’s eating habits and drama preferences and analyze whether there’s hidden meaning in it!”
“Bella Astarina, 23. Aside from the fact that she’s Russian, no information is known, so we once suspected she was a covert agent with Russia’s SVR. But there’s a point of doubt. If she were truly a Russian agent, she wouldn’t have erased her entire past so blatantly suspiciously. She would have forged it in a way that wouldn’t raise suspicion. Therefore, she is indeed a person of interest, and I don’t think those miscellaneous reports are completely meaningless.”
The chief analyst sighed and said,
“I understand, but isn’t that excessive? At least once, he should filter it and report only the key points.”
“Among the long-term guests at that motel, Bella and Chae Serin are persons of interest. Chae Serin has now been confirmed to be a superhuman connected to Choi Cheolmin, and Bella could also be Choi Cheolmin’s hidden helper. This is an extremely slim hypothesis, but Choi Cheolmin may simply be a martial arts master, and the true telekinetic could be Bella Astarina. Because she entered Korea and began long-term stay at the motel right before the North Korean nuclear incident, the origin of all these events. She may have come because she knew in advance North Korea would launch a nuke, and to stop it…”
After hearing that, the chief analyst fell into thought briefly, then continued.
“I see. From the reports alone, there’s nothing suspicious at all, but the fact that she’s suspicious is obvious. If anything, that’s why this kind of ordinariness is even stranger. Still, we don’t need to pour manpower in like today just to hear the motel employee’s useless reports. Implement a measure so it gets filtered first and only the key points are reported.”
“Yes, understood, Chief Analyst. Then how much should we pay the motel employee as an intel fee?”
“Fifty thousand won… no, send only fifty thousand won. He looked like the type who’s crazy for money. If he gets greedy, he’ll push himself and somehow find real information.”
The analyst quickly calculated the exchange rate and checked what fifty thousand Korean won was worth. It was the lowest intel-fee amount ever paid in CIA history. But considering the value of the information, even fifty thousand won felt like a waste.
Ding.
About ten minutes after I sent the carefully written report on my phone, a notification popped up saying the bank deposit had been made.
Fifty thousand won.
Jackpot.
It’s twice what I expected.
America really was generous.
If I send this every day, that’s an extra one-point-five million won a month.
No—
They said they’d also pay a monthly salary of ten million, so that’s an extra eleven-point-five million won per month.
If I add that to what I earn from my main job, it’s pay that even a big corporation employee wouldn’t envy.
I felt satisfied.
Snitching on a motel guest’s movements did bother me from a professional ethics standpoint. So I only sent information anyone could easily see.
If I really wanted to, I could know how many times Bella drinks water in a day, how many times she uses the bathroom, even whether she snores when she sleeps, but I didn’t send that kind of information.
A razor-thin balance between professional ethics and extra income.
Is this what an agent’s life is like?
Just then, the door to Room 102 flew open and Bella came out.
From her expression, it looked like she wasn’t in a good mood.
“Kang Chan! You bastard!”
For a second I thought Bella had found out about me teaming up with the CIA, so I just blinked and put on the most innocent face I could.
Is Bella really from somewhere like the KGB? How did I get caught right after the first report? Is there a spy inside the CIA?
“You scammer! You took my money and why aren’t you keeping your promise? Refund me!”
Ah… that.
The thing about taking payment up front while promising to boost her beauty.
Hearing Bella, I let out a sigh of relief.
If it had been yesterday, since the tax problem still wasn’t clearly resolved, I would’ve made excuses and pushed it back again. But today was different.
Somehow, the CIA made it happen—today the National Tax Service contacted me saying the previously assessed gift tax was an administrative mistake, so I didn’t need to pay it. Also, CIA Sam messaged that if I deposit the cash I hold into the bank within this week, no matter how big the amount is, it won’t be a problem.
If that’s the case, I guess I can finally deliver the “reborn transformation” I promised.
Now that I had no qualms, I spoke to Bella in a dignified tone.
“Miss Bella! I was going to bring up that issue around today. I will absolutely keep my promise to make you shine-shine like Mr. Choi Cheolmin in Room 105.”
I erased the smile I always wore and spoke seriously.
I saw on YouTube that when you say heavy things, you shouldn’t smile—it makes you more trustworthy.
Bella listened, then said with a puzzled look,
“What? You’ve been whining every day, saying you’ll get your taxes withheld like some penny-pincher, and kept postponing it!”
“What are you talking about? Paying taxes is the natural duty of a citizen—how could that be ‘whining’? Don’t worry about that issue anymore. I’ll handle it.”
But Bella still inspected my face from every angle with suspicious eyes.
“There’s definitely something. You’re not that kind of guy!”
“‘Guy’? Miss Bella, that’s not something you say to someone’s face.”
“Bella doesn’t know Korean well. Isn’t it ‘guy’ for men and ‘bitch’ for women?”
“.........”
That foreigner ‘I don’t know Korean’ skill that bursts out anytime. Now I don’t even care whether it’s real or fake.
“Anyway, I’ll proceed in three stages. First is the stage of settling qi in the dantian. Just that alone is a 100-million-won course. Second is Small Heavenly Circulation. That’s a 1-billion-won course. And the grand Big Heavenly Circulation is 3 billion.”
“What are you talking about! You said you gave Cheolmin Big Heavenly Circulation for 1 billion! Why are you ripping me off? Are you looking down on me because I’m a foreigner?”
Damn.
I underestimated Bella.
“With Mr. Cheolmin, it was actually the first time I’d ever done that process, so I gave him a special price. For you, Miss Bella, it’s the regular price. Even then, since you’re a long-term guest, it’s a special price. For other people, I’m planning to do it for fifty billion or more.”
The words just poured out.
I think my mouth really opens up in a crisis.
“No! Too expensive. If you’re taking three billion, then give me more service!”
Bella pushed like she was bargaining for mackerel at a market.
“Service… what exactly?”
Then Bella’s eyes sparkled.
“Give me Kang Chan 3-use wish coupons!”
“Excuse me? What—”
“Up to three times, whenever I want, you grant any wish!”
Three wishes…
Well, wouldn’t it be fine to throw in that much as service? She’s a VIP customer paying a huge three billion, after all.
But if I agree too quickly, I’ll look cheap, so I should play hard to get a little.
“That’s really difficult, ma’am. I’m already giving you a special price. If I give you more than this, there’s nothing left for me!”
“Then refu—”
Before the word “refund” could come out of Bella’s mouth, I hurriedly continued,
“Yes! But today, I’ll make a big decision. I’ll give you the 3-use wish coupons!”
Bella brightened and told me to swear.
“Swear it. I, Kang Chan, will give Miss Bella a 3-use wish coupon that grants any wish.”
“Then I’ll say my first wish. Buy me dinner tomorrow! At the fine dining place that was on Chef Hong Cheong! I already made the reservation!”
“.........”
Ah. I didn’t think of that.
A wish that costs money.
I know that restaurant too—it shows up on YouTube a lot. They say it’s insanely hard to get a reservation despite the evil prices, so how did Bella even reserve it?
I did a rough estimate of the price for a two-person meal in my head, and it felt like about a month’s worth of intel fees from providing CIA info would go out.
Burning a month of work for one meal.
But I did feel a bit sorry toward Bella too, so I guess I’ll call it even with this.
“My second wish I’ll say tomorrow! Now do that 100-million-won procedure!”
“Are you sure you want to burn money like that? You have to be frugal to live well. I cherish you, Miss Bella, so let me say one thing: if you spend everything you have, you won’t escape ending up a beggar.”
But Bella didn’t listen at all. She casually yanked off the top of her pink tracksuit. She was only wearing a bra underneath, and I was so startled by how boldly she stripped that I stumbled backward.
“Why are you taking clothes off?”
“Don’t you have to touch my back?”
Bella looked more puzzled when she saw me flustered.
“Stage one doesn’t require touching. Put your clothes on! I’m scared guests might walk by and see.”
It was already uncomfortable when Bella camped at the front desk because guests kept sneaking glances. If she’s flashing her upper body like this, what will they think?
“Sit down, close your eyes, and quietly focus your awareness on your dantian.”
I roughly gathered the energy floating in the air around the motel lobby, compressed it, and inserted it into Bella’s dantian.
Maybe she had more talent than Cheolmin hyung—even when about twice as much gathered, it didn’t strain her at all.
Does it vary by person?
Before, if you forcibly shoved more than a certain amount of qi into a body, the person would basically burst, but Bella didn’t even flinch even with enough qi inside her to make an enhanced human explode.
Seems there really is such a thing as an “inner power constitution.”
When she had absorbed about 3.5 times what Cheolmin hyung took, I could feel Bella’s dantian filling.
I pressed the condensed qi down with telekinesis, packing it tight so it wouldn’t disperse.
Stage one complete!
Making 100 million is easy—should I try earning money with this?
They say for modern people, going beyond a second job to a third job is the norm. I should think about different career paths for retirement.