Chapter 19. What Are These Contracts Worth?

"Deputy Kim. Are you actually handling that job you took last time properly?"

I was dozing off at the company, waiting for lunchtime, when Deputy Bae Jin-su came over to my desk with a disapproving look on his face.

"Of course I am."

"You're handling it, yet you're out here at the office not working and just nodding off?"

There was nothing I could do about it. I had tried not to fall asleep, but I had spent the entire night punishing one of my slaves with my cock. In the end I only made it home around dawn and managed to catch a few minutes of sleep.

Come to think of it, what had become of those two?

My original plan had been to thoroughly discipline the woman who had become my sex slave with my cock, and once my urges were fully satisfied, make her have sex with her tattooed boyfriend. Not because I wanted to watch something filthy. I would leave the house and, for the remaining time under hypnosis, force the two of them to have sex. Without a condom. That way there would be some chance of a baby forming inside the woman's body from the two of them, wouldn't there? It might not take right away, of course. But after that, once the two of them woke up in bed and checked the video, what would happen?

I changed the plan, though. First, their relationship would almost certainly fall apart. And looking at the way that tattooed guy acted, I was worried that if they checked the video while they were still together, he might kill the woman. She had been annoying, but not enough to die over. And forcing a pregnancy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that wasn't part of the plan was the same—whether it ended in abortion or the baby being born, it would be a rotten thing to do to a new life.

So I just had sex with her. Through that hypnosis-upgraded pussy I worked out my urges, and the anger and irritation that had built up in the moment all drained away, leaving me with post-nut clarity. In the end I simply made the source of my irritation—the tattooed guy—tumble down some stairs ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and spend a few months in the hospital. I was careful even while rolling him so he wouldn't die.

"Deputy Kim. Deputy Kim! How far along are you, I'm asking? Don't tell me there's no progress at all?"

While I was yawning and thinking about other things, Bae Jin-su kept pestering me from the side. Just do your own damn work. For a second the impulse to use hypnosis on him flared up. But what would I even do with it? Dig up some secret and grab a weakness? And then what? He wasn't a beauty, and extorting money from him felt weird. There was always the option of steering him carefully into quitting the company, but if he kept stressing me out I would have to think about it. Was it that having power had made me lose my patience, or that the situations where I had no choice but to endure had simply disappeared? I wasn't sure.

Speaking of secrets and beauties, the girl next door came to mind. I hadn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seen her in a while. Our schedules didn't line up. Before, I had just been killing time at the company and I didn't have hypnosis yet. These days the manager was starting to throw me better work, and I was running around everywhere building up my hypnosis proficiency. What now? She had been the first target I thought of conquering, yet it was hard to run into her. If she at least went to clubs I might run into her and that would be nice.

Ignoring Bae Jin-su still buzzing at my side, I was picturing the pretty face of the girl next door that was already growing hazy when a different voice reached my ear.

"Kim Ju-hyuk."

"Yes, Manager."

I immediately straightened up and looked at the manager. Bae Jin-su beside me looked absurdly put out, but what did I care?

"I know that job takes some time, but... has there been any progress?"

Normally he wouldn't have brought up a case that had only just been assigned like this. I knew Bae Jin-su had been aiming for this. He must have expected me either to flounder without any evidence, not even knowing what to do, or else to be out there suffering through stakeouts and tailing, burning all my time. Seeing me yawning leisurely at the company, he must have thought, perfect.

"Yes. I think I can wrap it up within this week."

"This week?"

"You're finishing it this week?"

Both Bae Jin-su and the manager looked surprised at my words. Bae Jin-su wore an expression that said it was impossible. Well. If I said it was possible, what was he going to do about it?

"As it happens, I'll be heading out on some field work for that job."

I had originally planned to leave slowly after lunch.

"Alright. I'm looking forward to it."

The manager didn't press further and simply approved the field work. He had probably built up a certain amount of trust after I brought in an unexpected ninety million won from the drone job last time. If I handled this one too, would he start giving me jobs that actually paid me something?

I shoved aside Bae Jin-su, who was still hovering by my desk, and left the office. Instead I went looking for the legal team.

"Yes. With this much material, our legal team can step in."

The evidence I showed the legal team employee consisted of two items.

Getting the photos of him coming and going from the officetel had been easy enough once I obtained the timing through hypnosis on the wife.

"We're going the fraudulent conveyance cancellation lawsuit route, right?"

"Yes. That's the way to go."

It was the most common case in bad-debt company work. When a debtor deliberately tried to shrink his assets through something like a sham divorce—in other words, when he siphoned his property over to his wife—we restored it to its original state so the debt could be collected.

"Shall we proceed?"

At the legal team employee's words I hesitated for a moment.

"No. Not right now. There's still more left, so just get ready for now."

"Yes, of course."

After finishing the conversation with the legal team I left the company. When I told them I was going out on field work for this job, it hadn't been an excuse. The time to resolve it had finally come, so I decided to start moving today.

As I had said before, cases like this sham divorce tended to take a long time to resolve. So if I had finished the job the moment I received it, people would have said it was less that I was capable and more that I had gotten lucky and stumbled into it by chance. Somewhere between one and two weeks—almost two full weeks—was the sweet spot that was still understandable while also earning a high evaluation of my ability. Besides, just as a person who does well nine times and fails once still draws suspicious looks, if I relied only on hypnosis and solved everything at super speed, then later when a job came up that hypnosis couldn't easily handle, people would start wondering, "He was doing so well—why is he like that now?" I had thought about all of that as I arrived at my destination.

"Welcome."

"Is the owner in?"

"I'm the owner. What can I do for you?"

The place I had come to was an imported furniture supplier—Client A, the one that was owed money by the sham-divorce debtor. At the gallery café the wife had confessed under hypnosis that there was a forty-million-won debt.

I handed over my business card and said I wanted to purchase the claim.

"Purchase it? That bastard disappeared and you can't even collect the money—why would you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠buy it?"

"That's our job. Collecting things like that is what we do."

"...Did you find him?"

"I'll have to start looking now."

I kept my expression casual. The supplier's owner hesitated.

"How much?"

"You know you can't collect the full forty million, right?"

"Yeah, well..."

The owner twisted his face as if the thought itself hurt.

"Five hundred."

"...Five hundred? You mean five million won? You're offering to buy a forty-million-won debt for a mere five million?"

The owner looked at me like I was a con artist, his expression pure disbelief. But I felt wronged. Who did he take me for, some thug?

"Owner. If people could collect everything like this, why would jeonse fraud victims suffer and kill themselves? They could just report it, sue, wait, and get their money back."

"Come on, that's not the same..."

"What's different? You yourself must have thought there was a high chance you'd never get this money back, right?"

"......"

Of course, from a certain angle I might look like a thug right now. If I didn't buy this claim and just handled the work, this supplier owner could sit still, and once our company filed the fraudulent conveyance cancellation lawsuit he would get his money back. But I still had a job to do. And do it well. Only by being recognized at the company and taking on varied, profitable work could I move into the real money-making territory where high-quality information flowed. That would help me succeed while using hypnosis going forward.

"Even so, five hundred is..."

"Hmm. Then let's make it seven hundred. Your forty million won that got stuck. We'll take the assignment right now for cash—seven million won, 17.5 percent of face value."

When I raised it by two hundred, the owner's pupils wavered. The resignation of "money I'll never get" and the temptation of "seven million in cash" were clearly fighting inside him.

"In exchange, cleanly write off the remaining thirty-three million as a bad-debt loss and at least get a tax break. You know that even if you sue you'll only rack up lawyer fees and still never get it back. You already checked with a lawyer, didn't you?"

"......"

Of course he had checked. It wasn't four hundred—it was forty million. The lawyer would have said it wouldn't be easy. Saying it was impossible would mean no retainer, so he wouldn't have said that. In reality it wasn't impossible; the odds of collecting were just extremely low.

"What do you want to do? Shall we go with seven hundred?"

"...Ah, no. No. Even so, seven hundred is still too low."

Suddenly jumping from five hundred to seven hundred must have sparked his greed. I stared at the owner for a few seconds, then nodded. Then I stood up with an air of having no regrets.

"Alright then. Looks like your heart is still set on the full forty million. But owner—how long has it been since you couldn't collect this money? A month? Two months? It's been over a year."

The owner watched me stand with an uneasy expression.

"I'll come back in three months. Just know that the amount I offer then will probably be less than five hundred."

When I actually looked ready to walk out the door—

"W-wait!"

The owner grabbed me. There it was. This wasn't money that had been ripped off a few weeks ago. He already knew the banks hadn't been able to collect either, so he couldn't have believed he would get it himself.

And so I drew up the claim assignment and assumption contract.

The next destination was another client, B. The debt had a face value of sixty million won. The business was a logistics storage warehouse company. Furniture took up a lot of volume, so of course they needed warehouses, and moving it was work too—I had to buy the unpaid logistics and storage fee claims. This one was in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do, so it was a bit of a trip. I ate lunch before setting out.

"Owner. We'll take over those uncollectible receivables of yours."

With the logistics warehouse, the work turned out easier than expected. I had been wondering whether I would have to put on another show of having no attachments, but it turned out the furniture that had been in the warehouse had been seized, and even though it was stored in his own warehouse he had been pushed to junior priority and never received the value of that furniture. Because of that he had suffered even more heartache than the furniture supplier owner before him. Well, it was like having it snatched right in front of his eyes. Thanks to that (in a manner of speaking), I was able to beat the sixty-million-won claim down to ten million won. Later this would come back as several times the profit—an enormous result.

In truth I still hadn't told the company. I hadn't mentioned that I had purchased the claims from the clients. But I wasn't worried. I wasn't an idiot, and this was money that could be collected with one hundred percent certainty. All I had to do was think about the bonus I was going to receive.