Chapter 33
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Floaties for Everyone
Swim lesson at the water park, and she's demonstrating on you
It was truly sudden when the medicine ruined his throat.
He had heard the medicine was strong, but after dozing off during the wait for a commercial shoot and waking up, his throat had suddenly been wrecked.
Awl panicked.
What was he supposed to do now?
'The carol released this time had become a hit, so he was busy with a packed schedule and
even had a year-end concert lined up.
But with his throat ruined, activities were impossible.
'I thought I was done for. Do you know how much the penalty fee is?'
Surprisingly, God was on his side.
By coincidence, lightning struck and a fire broke out in the building.
The moment he inhaled the smoke while escaping the fire, Awl had a flash of insight.
He could make a killing and retire.
“Keh-heh! Hek-!”
Panting hard, Awl rushed toward the boatman in a panic.
“Set off-! Set off now-!”
They just had to cross the Twilight River.
Once they got to Sinsundo-won, they would be completely cut off from the outside world.
'Five years there! No! At least three years! Yeah, if that much time passes, I'll be fine!'
Anyway, the public wouldn't even remember.
If his voice healed in Sinsundo-won, he'd go straight to the 6th-floor Cyber City and get plastic surgery.
Money?
He already had plenty of it.
Because he had made a pile of money short-selling the stock of his former security team, Wolfguard Tactical Solutions.
'I already talked to a foreign fund. When I get out three years from now, money will be piling up in my overseas account.'
Awl suppressed his pounding heart as much as he could and kept running and running.
'A new life starts now!'
Pretending to be a good person and building my image was disgusting too.
I hated having to smile all the time just because I was supposed to be a good person.
The fans who said they loved me but spewed criticism on the community were disgusting.
And even me, getting pushed around by those nobodies who couldn't say a word to my face.
The first time he touched the pills was under the excuse of mental health.
It didn't take long for that to deepen into an addiction.
“Stop right there!”
“Huh?!”
When he turned his head, he saw Kim Juseon already rushing over after taking down Ryu Seoram.
How in the world?
No, didn't they say he was one of the Seven Extremes? And he lost that easily?
The doubt was brief.
There was no time to dwell on it with Kim Juseon already chasing after him.
“Fuck-!”
He could only spit out curses.
God was on Awl's side again.
Kim Juseon had only just resumed training recently, and even that was only something he did in spare moments after work at Meracle, so his physical limit hit him quickly.
“Agh! Hahk! Hahk! My heart's gonna explode!”
In that gap, Awl reached the rowboat and shouted despite the pain of his throat feeling like it was splitting apart.
“Set off-! Set off-!”
Flailing his arms and crying out desperately, but the boatman didn't budge.
“No! Why? I told you to set off-!”
“…….”
The boatman in the bamboo hat stared at Kim Juseon without answering.
In his eyes were a strange regret, confusion, and longing.
“Hurry and set off-!”
“Staaahp! Wait! Leave that bastard behind-!”
“Fuck-! Hurry and set off already-!”
He hurriedly grabbed the boatman's shoulders and shook them, but the towering man, who had to be at least two meters tall, didn't budge at all even on the rocking boat.
“Mister Boatman! You remember me, right!”
“…….”
The boatman gave no answer.
Instead, he grabbed Awl by the nape and tossed him like a handful of grain toward the charging Kim Juseon.
“Aaaah?!”
Awl rolled across the ground.
He looked at the boatman in shock, but the man kept watching only Kim Juseon and finally opened his tightly shut mouth.
司靑冓參?
“Huh? I can't understand 5th-floor speech.”
It was even less understandable when it was some old saying from someone out of Sinsundo-won.
But the boatman, true to his age as an old immortal, was stubborn.
甫令𡨄青，冓朔參宗.
Then, after saying something, the boatman took a heavy money pouch from his robe and threw it.
Thud!
昜甫𠂤宗，京司靑勿.
“I'll take that to mean ‘give it to Kim Yang.’ He's doing well, so don't worry too much.”
Kim Juseon took the money pouch.
Without hesitation, the boatman steered the boat out onto the Twilight River. The thick fog quickly swallowed his back from view.
Kim Juseon shrugged at Awl, who was staring up blankly in disbelief.
“The boatman's employer—that is, the daughter of the owner of Sinsundo-won—is one of our employees.”
“W-what?!”
“So I know how much money goes into this place. It's astronomical. One look and I knew you were shorting it.”
“I-is this really okay?”
“You ask if this is okay? Why wouldn't it be? Blackline Risk was just a part-time job, wasn't it? What, did I invest in this place or something?”
Sorry, but I know Ryu Seoram's personality too well.
Until Ryu Seoram retires from Blackline Risk, I'll never buy this stock.
Because there are times like this when, in the end, a person's convictions come before the company.
“Blackline Risk's stock price will fall. That can't be helped.”
Crack! Crack!
He unclenched his fist.
Honestly.
To be completely frank.
He had wanted to do this from the very first meeting.
But he had held back because he thought Awl was the victim.
“But on the other hand, the stock price of Wolfguard Tactical Solutions, which first protected you, will rise again. Because it'll be proven that it was a victim of stock manipulation.”
“W-wait! There's no need to hit me! I'll turn myself in, so d-don't hit me!”
“No, I do need to hit you.”
Plenty.
“The Wolfguard Tactical Solutions I got in at 9,800 won dropped all the way to 1,700 because of your bastard short-selling tricks!”
This one was for the uncles and aunties who were still protesting in front of Wolfguard's headquarters.
Smack!
* * *
“Ugh, I'm exhausted.”
It was about two more days later when he came down from the 5th floor to the 3rd.
It wasn't intentional; Baek Yeonhwa kept holding him up, so it took a bit of time to get out.
The way she brought out chains at the very end looked ominous, so he had no choice but to use his acceleration ability.
'What's the time now...'
When he checked his phone, it was 3 p.m.
He considered just going home, but decided he should at least stop by for Kim Yang, who had probably been guarding Meracle alone for the five days the boss was away.
'Well, there wasn't anything particularly important to do anyway.'
I'd already handled the important matchmaking myself, and complaints would sort themselves out.
It was all simple stuff, like just writing down a visitor's personal details.
When he arrived in front of the Meracle building after so long, he couldn't help but admire it.
“Ha... it's really been a while.”
It had only been five days, but it was a long business trip all the way to the 5th floor and back.
Just then, the auntie who owned the building and the gukbap restaurant came out to throw away food waste and ran into me.
“Oh? Second-floor young man! You haven't been around lately. Where did you go?”
“I was away on a short business trip.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought you'd run off without paying the rent.”
“...I'll pay it.”
“Right? Oh! I made some side dishes with leftover seasoning. Want some?”
“Yep!”
What a jackpot.
He immediately went into the gukbap restaurant.
It was an odd hour, so the restaurant was quiet.
The always-on TV was on the news channel. The anchor was reading the article calmly.
- A famous singer who became hugely popular with a year-end carol is under investigation by the authorities on suspicion of violating the Narcotics Control Act and the Capital Markets Act.
- Right after Mr. A declared a hiatus due to worsening throat condition, there are signs of his involvement in large-scale short-selling trades during a stock decline in a listed company related to a certain security firm....
“Second-floor young man! Here! I put in some fresh kimchi and stir-fried fish cake too.”
“Wow, thank you. I'll enjoy it.”
After getting the tasty side dishes, he headed straight up the stairs and into Meracle.
The moment he opened the door, a familiar air freshener scent hit him at the same time-.
“I'm back-.”
“…….”
“…….”
He met the eyes of two people standing in front of a Christmas tree he'd never seen before.
One was Kim Yang.
With an elephant horn in his mouth, Christmas sunglasses, and even Rudolph antlers on his head.
He was going all out on the Christmas vibe.
The other was Renea.
She was dressed as Santa, with a fluffy white mustache.
Even this side was wearing sunglasses-.
“Ah, I'm dizzy.”
Within five seconds of coming back, he already wanted to go back outside.
Looking around, the place had been completely decked out with year-end Christmas decorations.
“There's no way my Meracle would be like this.”
Even if Christmas was just around the corner, this was a bit much, wasn't it?
“Boss! You're back!”
Pwooo!
Santa Grandma and the elephant horn welcomed my return with a long, drawn-out blast.
* * *
A quiet café on the 3rd floor.
Among the people trying to get into the Christmas mood, a man and woman sat demurely.
The man was named Namgung Yeon.
He was the young master of the Namgung Clan, one of the prestigious families widely known even in the old martial world of the 5th floor.
Today, he was on a date with the woman sitting across from him.
The woman's name was Jessica.
She came from the 6th-floor Cyber City and was the eldest daughter of the chairman of the conglomerate called Helight.
The reason the two met like this was through a matchmaking agency.
To be blunt, it was definitely not a relationship born of love.
For the Namgung Clan, it was an arranged marriage meant to restore their standing, which had begun to slip because they clung only to tradition.
For Jessica, it was an arranged marriage meant to combine Helight's core prosthetics business with the Namgung Clan's tradition-built martial arts, while also accounting for armed clashes with rival companies.
In the end, it was a marriage for mutual gain for both of them.
“The 3rd floor really has a stylish atmosphere.”
Namgung Yeon looked around and let out a low sigh of admiration.
Coffee, lighting, plush sofas, and so on.
Everything was new to him.
“Yeah. The analog feel isn't bad. I can sort of see why older people come here chasing nostalgia.”
Jessica shrugged, saying that the human atmosphere—something you can't feel in Cyber City—wasn't bad.
“…….”
“…….”
They admired it together, but their impressions were complete opposites.
Feeling awkward, Jessica changed the subject.
“Oh right, that thing you gave me last time. The Seowol Sword.”
“It's an important sword in our tradition. It contains the spirit of shingeomhapil, where sword and person become one, which is the Namgung Clan's guiding principle.”
“Yes, I found it very interesting too.”
“I'm glad you think so highly of it.”
Still, the two were trying to understand each other.
Even if it was an arranged marriage, they were still going to become husband and wife.
Even if they didn't love each other, wasn't it enough if they just didn't rub each other the wrong way?
“So I tried interpreting it in my own way.”
“Pardon?”
Jessica proudly extended her right hand. Her model-like slender arm turned silver and-.
Soon, it softly spilled moonlight as beautiful as a painted canvas.
It had become a sword by itself.
“This is Helight's latest 5.0 model, the Seowol Sword version. We melted down the Seowol Sword and reassembled it into a right-arm prosthetic, which is how it became this beautiful-.”
“M-melted? The Seowol Sword?”
“Yes, thanks to that, it fits the Namgung Clan's sword-human unity principle perfectly-.”
Boom-!
One punch split the table in half.
People around them screamed and stared, but Namgung Yeon's rampage couldn't be stopped.
His face was flushed red with rage, almost turning purple.
Namgung Yeon, veins popping on his forehead, glared at Jessica and shouted.
“You can't even respect tradition and culture-!”
The Namgung Clan of the 5th floor and Helight of the 6th floor.
It was the starting point of the clash between the two factions.