Chapter 45
Chapter 45 . Businessman Kang Chul-In
Lee Chae-rin decided to return to the Pangaea continent first and wait for Kang Chul-in there .
5 days later .
After making an excuse of having a vacation, Kang Chul-in spent lots of time with his mother . After that, he the met old man Kwon before deciding to meet Lee Chae-rin again . It was to discuss the trade going on between Pangaea continent and Earth .
“Soon, my territory’s economy will be able to grow . ”
While heading to Yongsan (a place in Seoul), Kang Chul-in thought of the contract he had made with Lee Chae-rin with his eyes s.h.i.+ning .
The contract was wonderful .
It was beneficial to both sides, and even Lee Chae-rin was right when she said they would both be happy with it .
It was good for her as she would gain the protection of Kang Chul-in, and it was good for him as his economic might would increase . It was time for the immense synergy of both economic and military might .
Since he was so broke, he couldn’t even use his ‘cosmic force’ ability . Instead of expanding his territory or buying units, he had to spend his precious money on hunting the Peac.o.c.k Dragons .
But by being able to solve this request well, he would be able to aim for total domination of the Eastern Plains . Dominating the Pandemonium region . This was Kang Chul-in’s number one priority right now .
“Hey, its you! Good thing you came . Kuhahaha . ”
Old man Kwon was greeting him as if they hadn’t met for 30 years .
“You disgust me . ”
He waved his hands .
“What is a dying old man like you doing . ”
He hated men who stuck close to him like that .
“It’s because I’m so happy and thankful! Because of the ring that you gave me last time, I was able to win the Seniors University Tennis compet.i.tion .
“… You go to a senior’s university?
“Since I regretted how I spent my youth, I’ve been going since year . ”
“This shouldn’t be the school term though?”
“Kuku! For old and dying people like us, there’s no such thing as a school term or a vacation . It’s just that we’re bored and that we want to go out . It’s always like that when you’re old . ”
Although it was a sad and bitter tale, it seemed as if old man Kwon seemed to be happy about going to the university .
“Let’s get to business . ”
Of course, Kang Chul-in didn’t really care what old man Kwon did in his leisure time .
“Yeah, I think that we will be able to officially become partners from today . ”
Old man Kwon’s eyes were full of hope and expectations .
The dimension travellers as well as the items from the Pangaea continent were receiving attention from all over the world . He had no choice but to put his hope onto Kang Chul-in .
“Before that…”
Before they discussed terms, Kang Chul-in decided to tell old man Kwon his requests and terms . It was like the basics of cooperation .
“Well, say it quickly . I’m getting dizzy because you aren’t saying anything . Are you going to take responsibility if I die because of that?”
“Well, that’s your fate, not mine . There are many businessmen out there . ”
Kang Chul-in responded casually .
“Hmph . Are you really going to pull that on a senior like me?”
“Well, I would be able to do much worse things to a criminal . ”
“… Okay, name your terms . ”
Old man Kwon decided to give up .
“I need a house and a car . ”
“A house and a car?”
“It would be much better if it’s a manor, but it’s not easy to get those kind of houses in Seoul . And it has to be bigger than 100 square meters . Make it in Seocho (another district in Seoul) if possible . Well, since I won’t be living there for long, it doesn’t really matter . ”
“Hmm… That’s not very hard . I have spare mansions, I’ll lend you those . But why a car? The one that you ride right now, isn’t it a Ford Mustang? It’s not a bad car . Why, did you get ignored by someone riding a Lamborghini?”
Old man kwon seemed to know some things about cars .
“Ignored? Haha . ”
Kang Chul-in burst out laughing .
“It’s a hobby . ”
“Collecting cars? Ha . That’s a very expensive hobby… you are quite extravagant . ”
“So, what car do you want then? For example, an Aston Martin?”
“Tell James Bond to ride something like that . Those cars are for gangsters, as well as psychos . ”
“Wh-What makes you think that? Aston Martin is a perfect fusion of a Sedan and a sportscar . There are no other cars that can express a young gentleman like Aston Martin! Those cars are perfect with suits . ”
“I just don’t really like them . ”
Kang Chul-in’s tastes were quite straightforward . Although he didn’t really know why, he just didn’t like Aston Martins .
“Well…Since you yourself don’t like it, there’s no choice . Just tell me what you want . ”
Old man Kwon said so with a crestfallen expression .
“Jaguar, F type Coupe . ”
“Hmm… Jaguar F type… You really know how to look at cars . How about the model year?
“Make it a 2013 one if possible . And then color has to be black . ”
“And of course…”
“5000 cc . ”
“Of course, if you’re a man, you need 5000 cc . ”
“The house and the car, both within 3 hours . As well as moving my baggage . For the mustang, tell one of your underlings to move it to the new house . ”
“Sigh… All within 3 hours . ”
“I don’t like rent or lease . ”
“… . ”
Kang Chul-in’s ridiculous requests made him unable to speak, but he didn’t disagree to them nonetheless .
Although it would be tiring, it wasn’t impossible . They didn’t call Old man Kwon ‘The King of the Underworld’ for nothing after all . And Kang Chul-in knew this .
“Manager Oh . ”
“Yes boss . ”
“Did you hear him? 3 hours . ”
“I’ll start immediately . ”
Manager oh started moving with his precise movements and took Kang Chul-in’s car and drove off outside .
“Now, are you satisfied?”
“Let’s begin then . ”
Kang Chul-in nodded his head and took out a huge bag and dropped in on the table with a loud BANG .
“I brought a lot of items that can be ma.s.s produced and found easily . Today we will discuss what we will use . ”
“Hmm…It really wasn’t a waste of money buying a jaguar for you . Good, let’s talk . ”
“Here . ”
After holding the bag up, he flipped it upside down, making the contents of the bag all fall down . WIth a sound making one think of a domino, a bunch of items from the Pangaea continent all fell down at once .
“Oh? Are these all items with special abilities?”
“Of course . For example… this is the ‘Blinding Ring’ .
Kang Chul-in took out a white ring from the bag .
“The ‘blinding ring’?”
“It blinds the enemy for 3 seconds perfectly . Although it isn’t of much use against monsters, I think it could be effective for self protection . ”
“How do you use it?”
“Like this . ”
Is what Kang Chul-in said before putting on his right index finger and pointed at one of old man Kwon’s underlings .
‘FLAs.h.!.+’
It seemed as if white sparks flew .
“Arghh…”
The underling of his started to grab his face and roll on the ground in pain .
“MY EYES!”
The only bad thing that the underling did was catch Kang Chul-in’s eyes . He became a lab rat because of that . No wonder why they called him a gangster .
“Y-you…”
“There are no side or after effects . Well, isn’t it best experiencing something first-hand?”
Although old man Kwon was extremely surprised, Kang Chul-in said it off-handedly . After 3 seconds, the underling seemed to regain his sight and felt confused .
“Hmm… It really is effective, but I think it’s a bit over the top . ”
“Well, I think they are better than using Gas Guns for self defense .
“You are right… But the only good thing about this country is copying and taking . Since guns, swords and other weapons are banned here, the government would try their d.a.m.nedest to take it from us . No matter whether it has any way to kill or not . ”
Although he sold guns to the Chinese and j.a.panese criminal syndicates, it was something sensibile coming from Old man Kwon .
“Well, there really was some problems that came from that in the past . ”
Kang Chul-in thought of the things that happened in his past life after Old man Kwon brought the topic of selling up .
It was too early .
He needed more time .
As the spec and power of the dimension travellers rose, the item’s ranks would go up and the government’s intervention would grow weaker as well .
Now was not the time to take the world by storm .
“Then another one . ”
He had brought a variety of items . Although some weren’t items used for attacking, there probably was something here that could be ma.s.s produced .
The conversation grew longer .
“What’s this?”
“Hmm… Not this . ”
“It’s too expensive . ”
“There would be problems if you sold this . ”
There were many discussions going on .
“What’s this? Is this for drinking or for applying on the skin?”
Old man Kwon took out a flask that contained a milkish liquid inside and shook it .
“It seems to look like ‘that’ . Are you sure this is not a drug?”
Kang Chul-in knew what old man Kwon was thinking .
Old man Kwon probably thought what was inside was something similar to propofol (a drug that you inject in your body to get high) . It was fitting of someone that was known as the King of the Underworld .
“Ha . The way you think . ”
He smirked .
“Some people can only see some things . ”
“Eh hem . Kuhum . ”
Old man Kwon started making fake coughs with an embarra.s.sed face .
“This is a liquid extracted from the Talking Tree . ”
Kang Chul-in explained .
“Talking tree? Extraction?”
“As I said, it’s a liquid taken from the Talking Tree . ”
“What is the Talking Tree?”
“It’s literally a tree that talks . ”
“… Unbelievable . ”
“It’s not that it talks because they have thoughts . Just that they read the brain waves of the nearby humans . After that, they can talk so people decided to call it the Talking Tree . ”
“Ooh . The pangaea continent truly has many things . Fascinating… What does this liquid do then?”
“You can learn languages . ”
“What?!”
Old man Kwon’s body shaked .
“A-are you serious? Talk about in more detail . ”
“After you drink this liquid and you think of a language, it’s like data about that language coming into your body . If you drink one every day, you would be able to learn one language within a week . If it’s something many people speak, like Chinese or English, it would only take around 3-4 days . ”
“This is it! It’s this!”
“…… . . ?”
“Let’s do it with this!”
“Is this really that good?”
“Of course! Korea is the haven of academy as well as education . Things like TOEIC (english test for international countries) cause people to spend a bunch of money on it . With this, we would be able to earn a bunch of money!”
“…… . . !”
From the talking of Old man Kwon, Kang Chul-in seems to understand something too .
Yes .
South Korea really was the haven of education . It was a country where people went into serious debt and risked the future to let their children get better education . By selling the liquid in a country like this, they would be able to dominate the education market in not just Korea, but other countries to .
“And there are no need to worry about the regulations either . If it’s good for their children’s education, Korean parents would make their children eat whatever . If the government try to regulate this, they would taste some of their own medicine . Kukuku . ”
Old man Kwon spoke as if he had already achieved his dream .
“I will create an academy . I will allow the students to drink this liquid and make a curriculum for them!”
“As well as a business for adventurers . ”
“Yes, that’s right! Now I understand what you are truly talking about . This business is truly one that will let the goose lay the gold egg! There are infinite possibilities that can branch out from this! By using this extracted liquid as a signal flare in order to gain the people’s trust, it would be easier when selling new items . ”
“This is just the beginning . Old man, you don’t need to try and rush . ”
“There will be regulations . Although the plan of the academy is great, there will be regulations and rules made against it . ”
Yes, he was right .
It would be a fight . A tough and long fight .
But that was obvious . Living light itself was like partic.i.p.ating in a cruel battlefield .
It was a society of infinite battles .
The second you were out of your mother’s womb, it was a compet.i.tion, a compet.i.tion against all odds .
Starting from primary school was a fight of grades, until fighting for salary when they were adults, a fight to gain a job after college . Especially Korea in the 2020s was an era where the compet.i.tion was very ruthless .
In an era like this, they had to wage war in anyway possible .
“I will help you . ” Kang Chul-in said .
“However, I won’t do absolutely everything . This is not my fight, but yours . The one controlling this business will be you, not me . ”
Kang Chul-in’s fight was in the pangaea continent . He had no time waging war against the civilians of earth .
“Your words, I understand them well . ”
Old man Kwon took his wrinkled fists and gripped them hard .
“Just leave it to me . I will succeed . ”
“Of course you will . If you fail…”
“You will immediately switch partners . ”
“You know me well . ”
“Looking at you, I think of my elder brother of yesteryear, when he had yet to pa.s.s . ”
“……?’
Old man Kwon started talking about the past .
“He was not just a businessman, but an emperor . He had more charisma than anyone, and was absolutely strict in management . I know what you are going to do to me if I fail . But I also know how you will treat me if we succeed . ”
Talking about it, old man Kwon said .
“Thank you . ”
“…… . ?”
“From this conversation, I can tell how our future business relations.h.i.+p and business will be like . With this, I truly will be able to leave the underworld and clean up . My dream will finally come true . For letting me escape my fate of being a criminal, thank you . ”
Kang Chul-in didn’t respond . He didn’t know much about these kind of conversations after all .
“Eat this meat later . ”
He handed some of the peac.o.c.k dragon’s meat to old man Kwon .
“What is this? Is it steak? Are you trying to revitalize this old man?”
“It’s dragon meat . ”
“……!”
“It’s good for your health . Don’t eat things like Ginseng or v.i.a.g.r.a, and eat this instead . ”
“I don’t eat v.i.a.g.r.a… . Yet…”
Old man Kwon tried to make an excuse, when Kang Chul-in’s phone started ringing and saw that there was a message from Park Doo-sik .
“…… . !”
But the face of Kang Chul-in’s face turned stiff when he saw the message .