Chapter 62. Bella’s Real Job
Chapter 62. Bella’s Real Job
A reply came from Sam right away.
[Of course, Mr. Kang Chan. You can make any such small request as much as you like. In return, if you come across any important information, please share even the smallest details. Mr. Kang Chan’s actions could save many people’s lives.]
And Cheolmin hyung immediately transferred the huge sum of 15 billion won into my bank account.
A cool transaction.
No matter how I looked at it, Cheolmin hyung was my benefactor.
He was smiling happily as he looked at his handsome gangster underlings with their shining faces, and it didn’t seem like spending 15 billion won bothered him at all.
And Bella, who was next to me right now complaining that her palm strike wouldn’t come out and asking if I gave her broken internal power, was a bad match in my life.
The next morning when I came in for work, the Manager and the Owner were sitting in the office.
Cheolmin hyung and Lauren’s rooms were marked as out.
When I checked the POS, both of them left at 8 a.m. The Owner and the Manager showed up at the motel like ghosts whenever Cheolmin hyung went out.
The two of them were seriously debating yesterday’s sales.
“So you’re saying we should increase long-term guests and cut back on hourly rentals?”
“Brother-in-law! Foreign tourists are increasing in Korea right now, and the whole country’s in an uproar because there aren’t enough rooms. So I’m telling you, it’s much better to focus on staying guests like our long-term guests on the first-floor line! If we convert the entire property to a hotel system and raise prices, revenue will more than double.”
“Donggeun. People like us who do business have to look far ahead. How long do you think this situation will last? Something will definitely blow up again, and there will definitely be a moment when we’re swatting flies. Then we lose the investment money as-is and only take losses. On top of that, if we operate as a hotel, all kinds of fixed expenses will skyrocket. But hourly rentals don’t have recessions. You know why? Because even during a war, people still have to eat, sleep, and make babies.”
At the Owner’s words, the Manager’s face filled with dissatisfaction, but he didn’t seem able to find a rebuttal. The Manager wanted to spend big money to remodel our motel-optimized setup into a hotel, but even to me, the Owner’s thinking sounded wiser.
There were many parts I didn’t like, but there were still points in the Owner’s words worth listening to carefully.
“Hyungnim! How long are you going to let people look down on you for being a motel owner. My sister complains every time, saying our nephews are embarrassed that their dad is a motel owner! The kids will have to get married before long, and you should be called a proper hotel owner too!”
At the Manager’s emotional appeal, the Owner snorted.
“How is this embarrassing! This fed them all, put a roof over their heads, and taught them. They should be grateful!”
“Ah. Hyungnim, don’t do that—think seriously about it. The world is changing. You need to do app sales and modernize a bit. At this rate, you might get left behind and go under in an instant!”
At that, even the Owner shut his mouth and sank into deep thought.
“Then how much is our motel?”
At my question, the Owner lifted his head and looked at me.
“Why? Since last time you’ve been so interested in our motel’s price. You buying it?”
He said it laughing, but I was serious.
“If the price is right, it’s not like I can’t buy it. What, you said 20 billion won last time? If I buy it, do you discount it a bit?”
“What kind of old talk is that! Right now it’s 25 billion—no, even if someone offers 30 billion, I’m not selling!”
The back of my head throbbed.
I figured this would happen.
He estimated 20 billion earlier, and in just a few days, the price rose again.
25 billion? 30 billion?
My budget of 22.58 billion won exceeded.
“Who buys something for that kind of money! A few hundred million isn’t anybody’s kid’s name.”
At my words, the Owner looked at me like I was pathetic.
“Aigo. Chan. I told you to watch the news and read the business papers. You don’t know how the world’s turning like this. Asset prices are exploding right now! This is when you have to grip your assets tight. Converting to cash is a loss!”
“You said before there’s nothing in the world you can’t sell. You said as long as the price is right, anything can be bought and sold. So this motel has a price too!”
A few years ago, the Owner and I talked like that.
That conversation left a strong impression on me: the problem was price, but there was nothing you couldn’t trade with money.
“Heh heh heh… you remember that. Right. There’s nothing without a price tag. Let’s see. If we sold our motel right now, I guess we could sell it for about 30 billion won. Anything under that is absolutely impossible!”
The Owner spoke with a grin, like something put him in a good mood.
He looked like he was imagining 30 billion won rolling into his hands.
But my head started aching.
The shortfall was 7.62 billion won.
Wasn’t there anyone blind to things like internal power…
Yesterday, Lauren’s eyes looked crazed—did I need to market aggressively?
Just then, Bella came out of her room wearing a businesslike suit, a laptop in hand, and rimless glasses on her face.
She sat down next to me and said to the Manager,
“Manager-nim. One coffee, please. A mix.”
When Bella came out and sat at the counter, the Owner and the Manager looked visibly uncomfortable.
The Owner started gathering his things to leave.
I noticed they were uncomfortable around Cheolmin hyung, but I didn’t expect them to watch Bella’s mood too.
Bella pulled up a round plastic chair without a backrest beside me, sat, and turned on her laptop.
“Guest, it’s difficult if you do this here.”
I spoke to Bella politely, but Bella sipped the coffee the Manager mixed for her and didn’t even pretend to listen.
A strong urge rose in me to revise one of my principles—never using force on a guest.
“Don’t just stand there making it chaotic. Sit down and do your thing. I rested plenty in the meantime, so I’m going to do my real job for once.”
What job could a pig who watched dramas all day and only cared about food possibly do?
I stared at her laptop screen in disbelief.
Bella skillfully accessed a coin trading site and pulled up various charts.
Coin?
Unbelievable.
I never saw anyone who was into that and still in their right mind.
Stocks were at least better.
But coin addicts were hopeless.
They talked about hitting the jackpot every day, and in the end they became beggars.
Among the four employees who worked here before Chanhyeok, all of them were coin addicts. They all showed off until later, when they ended up begging me to lend them money.
But without noticing that I was looking at her like she was pathetic, Bella took another sip of coffee and deposited 100 million won into the exchange.
100 million?
A pathetic woman who didn’t know the value of money.
Then Bella skillfully manipulated the program and turned 100 million into 300 million.
It happened in the short moment it took to drink a few sips of coffee.
My mouth, usually not easily shaken, fell open differently than usual.
Bella stretched briefly, tilted her head once, then bought and sold a few more times and turned 300 million into 730 million won.
What was this?
I rubbed my eyes at the unbelievable sight, and in that time the Owner and the Manager fled the office and ran off.
I was so shocked I didn’t even greet them.
“Miss Bella! Did you just turn 100 million won into 730 million?”
Bella, who was looking at the screen, startled and shouted at me.
“Why are you freaking out watching someone work in secret! Mind your own business, you scammer!”
As she spoke, she covered the screen with her hand so I couldn’t see and clicked the mouse again.
But through the gaps between her fingers, I saw 700 million turn into 900 million.
Heh…
This wasn’t real.
It was a scam.
Bella was definitely running a scam with some finely manipulated program just to mess with me.
I lifted my phone and searched coin prices.
And each time Bella bought and sold, I checked whether it was manipulation or real.
Bella targeted highly volatile picks every few seconds, buying when they dropped and selling when they rose, making profits of at least 5% and as much as over 50% per trade.
This was only possible if you knew the future…
“How are you doing that?”
Bella didn’t even look at me as she answered.
“You need to be smart. And you need to study economics and finance for a long time, and your mathematical analysis of volatility needs to happen instinctively. Don’t try to understand it, you stupid idiot like Kang Chan. Just accept that there’s a world like this out there.”
Stupid idiot.
This was the first time I felt humiliation like this.
It was the first time in my life I heard someone call me stupid.
My chest felt tight, and my mood sank.
Someone was squeezing their brain trying to earn the missing 7 billion, while someone else sat there clicking and making money.
From what Bella said, she sounded like a professional in the finance field.
Did she even hit the lottery through mathematical analysis?
Until just a moment ago, I thought all coin people were idiots, but after seeing Bella today, my thinking started to shift.
As if she read that thought, Bella said,
“Don’t even think about trying this, Kang Chan. You’ll lose it all one hundred percent and end up like a beggar!”
Then she dumped the entire 900 million she earned today into a single pick and exited the program.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah, today’s work is done. I took profit by targeting the mathematically most volatile moment. Now it’s hard to profit from scalping, so I have to lock it up for about two days as a swing!”
Bella, whom I thought was a stupid pig, looked different.
She was a smart, intellectual professional woman.
But I cut off my interest.
I tried to erase what I just saw from my mind.
The world she lived in and the world I lived in were different.
When a sparrow tries to chase a stork, it tears its legs apart.
That wasn’t my domain to get involved in.
Still, I kept the current price of the pick she bought last in my head. Being curious about what happened to it was within acceptable limits.
2 a.m.
Cheolmin returned to the motel after turning three Blood Fiends that caused trouble again today into ash.
Judging by the sign being off, the motel seemed fully booked.
The world that didn’t make the news was a hellscape every day, but the world looked peaceful.
That gap felt bitter.
After his younger brothers’ force improved by leaps and bounds, dealing with monsters became easier, but fighting things that charged in every day to drink human blood still seemed to wear down both body and mind.
That feeling grew especially strong whenever he saw innocent people dying every day.
This wasn’t the time for TV to laugh, chatter, sing about love, and film mukbangs. The nation should declare an emergency and purge the monsters with state power…
How did it become a world where a gangster like him had to keep the peace?
Through the police he met today, Cheolmin learned that even frontline police were under a gag order not to leak information about monsters to ordinary civilians.
He also learned the government strongly controlled each media outlet so stories about monsters couldn’t get out.
The reason was absurd.
The economy was finally active again, tourism was booming, the real estate market was lively, and the working-class economy was reviving, and they couldn’t kill that.
Making a living mattered, but as the price, countless people were dying every single day.
Cheolmin found it hard to judge what was right.
Sighing, he entered the motel and saw Chanhyeok dozing in the counter chair.
Today was the Master’s day off.
Cheolmin quieted his footsteps so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping Chanhyeok and approached Room 105.
But then the door to Room 103 across the way opened, and Chaerin came out.
Inside the open Room 103, the child she brought some time ago was playing a game intensely.
“I’m back, Master!”
Cheolmin nodded in greeting to Chaerin.
Chaerin stared at him for a moment, then tilted her head once and closed the door.
Through thought-tracking, Chaerin knew Cheolmin came back from fighting Blood Fiends.
When she dug deeper and traced several days of memories, he was in the middle of a bloody battle every single day with Blood Fiends rampaging around the capital region.
Blood Fiends…
With the restraints of the clan’s rules gone, the Republic of Korea was now a paradise for Blood Fiends.
Every day many people lost their lives to Blood Fiends, and an exponentially growing number of Blood Fiends were being born.
Soon they would make this land their paradise.
Chaerin looked at Dowon, who was playing hard.
Ten years old.
Dowon, a third-grade elementary schooler, wore a headset and kept cursing as he played hard.
She wanted to tell him to sleep early so he wouldn’t doze off at school tomorrow, but Dowon, a Blood Fiend, had no issues even if he stayed up all night.
But if things continued like this, within a year, Korea would clearly no longer have something called school.
Young Blood Fiends were manageable at Cheolmin’s level, but if third-generation or elder-class ones came to Korea, Cheolmin’s skill would be insufficient.
Normally this wasn’t something Chaerin would care about much, but now she felt she needed to prevent schools—where elementary school children were supposed to go—from disappearing.
She liked her life now.