Chapter 61. A Handsome Bald Man
Chapter 61. A Handsome Bald Man
“This is the place.”
The place Cheolmin hyung guided me to was a gym on the third floor of a building located five minutes on foot from the motel.
The entire third floor of the building was in use as a gym, and since it was an exclusive space for the Isu Gang, there wasn’t even a signboard.
“Hello! Master!”
Inside the gym, fifteen Isu Gang underlings were already waiting with their shirts off, wearing solemn expressions.
As if to prove they were gangsters, most of them had tattoos all over their bodies, ranging from irezumi to modern styles. They all looked between their early and late thirties, mostly muscular, with vicious scars scattered across their upper bodies.
“Hello, everyone!”
They were so lovable to me, the people who let me get closer to my big dream of becoming a motel owner.
“The course you’ll receive today is incomparably more dangerous and difficult than Stage 1. The most important thing is that you don’t get shaken mentally or fall into distracting thoughts and stay focused, so keep that in mind!”
In truth, there was no such thing.
Thanks to the test subject called Cheolmin hyung, today didn’t seem particularly dangerous, but since Lauren, the CIA agent, was watching today’s lesson with her eyes wide open, I needed some degree of exaggeration.
If things went too easily, clients might try to haggle the price down.
“Today, all of you will shed your old bodies and be reborn. This is originally a Stage 3 course, but considering our relationship so far, I’ll give it to you at the Stage 2 price.”
At the word “price,” Lauren and a few Isu Gang underlings tilted their heads, but I didn’t care. I placed my hands on the backs of the two men sitting in front and closed my eyes, pretending to concentrate.
“When your internal power starts moving naturally, focus on maintaining that movement. Even if you feel pain or discomfort, you must not move or speak.”
At my warning, the two receiving treatment for the first time tensed and shut their eyes.
There was already some clumped internal power in their dantian. I kneaded my internal power there like clay, piling it on, then dragged it upward to the solar plexus. If I just left a large amount inside like with Bella and something strange happened, that would be troublesome, so I decided to clear the pathways first.
When something like a hot lump of fire surged to their solar plexus, their bodies flinched.
I didn’t know for sure, but it looked quite painful.
But I still had a long way to go, so I drove the internal power forward like a runaway locomotive along the Ren and Du meridians.
I forcefully smashed through and widened the blocked meridians and energy points, completing one full circuit.
The two men under my hands bit their lips and endured the pain, breaking into cold sweat.
That sight gave me inspiration.
If I looked like I was struggling too, they would accept a huge fee more easily, so I stimulated my sweat glands and poured sweat like rain.
My face quickly became soaked, and my tracksuit top was drenched.
I frowned and bit my lip, making a pained expression.
“Hng…”
One of them let out a groan through tightly shut lips.
I groaned along with him.
When I slightly opened my eyes, I saw Lauren filming the scene with a tiny camera attached to her headband. Her pupils looked enlarged in shock.
Cheolmin hyung watched us with a worried expression, and only Bella looked on indifferently.
After one circuit and then two, I slowly removed my hands.
Since they still couldn’t circulate the Great Circulation on their own, I kept guiding their internal power through the life-and-death gate while placing my hands on the backs of the next pair.
They also suffered intense pain when their internal power first carved pathways.
“Ahk!”
One of them made a strange groan. I almost copied it out of reflex but stopped, feeling it wasn’t right.
By the third round, when six people had entered the Great Circulation, the first two looked more comfortable as their pain subsided and sank into a trance-like state.
I quickly finished guiding all fifteen and, at the end, lightly burst a vessel in my lip to let a thin line of blood flow as I spoke.
“Whew… that was dangerous.”
As I clutched my chest and said that, Cheolmin hyung teared up and bowed.
“Thank you, Master. You even risked your life for my unreasonable request… I don’t know how to repay a grace as vast as the sea.”
But I continued with a benevolent smile.
“When walking the path of chivalry and righteousness, what does danger matter? Hyungnim, please rise.”
“You’re all playing around.”
Before I even finished, Bella sneered.
What did she think she knew?
The two who received treatment first were now circulating their internal power automatically without my help, stabilizing.
Then the energy radiating from their internal power spread through their blood vessels and meridians, and the changes began.
Slightly twisted and misaligned bones corrected themselves with cracking sounds, and from their pores, black mist-like impurities vaporized and flowed out. It was the impurities dissolved in their blood and cells being expelled.
“Ah! Septic tank smell!”
Bella pinched her nose, and Lauren’s mouth fell open as she watched the Isu Gang members’ skin crack and peel, revealing baby-like skin underneath.
As the second and third groups also began their rebirth, a stench worse than feces filled the gym. Bella covered her nose and left, but Cheolmin hyung looked at his men with a face full of joy, ignoring the smell. Lauren, dizzy from the odor, clutched her headband and endured.
I lightly numbed my olfactory nerves to block the smell.
Then I texted Sam.
[Hello, Sam. My diligent friend in the CIA. This is Kang Chan. I’m contacting you outside the usual reporting time because I have a favor to ask. I unexpectedly came into a large sum of money today, and I’d like to request tax exemption benefits for it as well. Please think of it as helping a colleague working toward the same mission at the same workplace. I would really appreciate it.]
15 billion won.
It was 100 million more than what Bella got from the lottery.
She gave me 100 million from it.
I felt a strange sense of victory toward Bella, who ran away because she couldn’t stand the smell.
I thought my dream of becoming a motel owner would take at least thirty years, but now it looked achievable in just five.
I usually didn’t feel joy easily due to weak empathy and a narrow emotional range, but right now I was genuinely happy.
Now I could let the motel run automatically and run toward my next goal.
I once watched a YouTube lecture saying modern people go beyond two jobs and treat three as standard.
Motel owner.
CIA information agent.
And maybe the third could be a delivery rider. All three were perfectly compatible side jobs.
Now all fifteen Isu Gang underlings finished their rebirth safely and were waking from their blank state, covered in sticky impurities.
But even the tattoos and scars on their upper bodies had disappeared, and all of them became uniquely handsome men.
Even the two in their thirties with hair loss didn’t regrow hair, but they turned into handsome bald men.
No matter how I looked at it, women would like this course more than men.
If marketed well, it was a highly commercial item.
I even considered going into this line instead of delivery riding.