Chapter 28.
The Poison Demon and Valentine's Day (3)
I don't like the Haomun Sect.
Those guys made their living through pickpocketing, theft, prostitution, and contract killings, and on top of that they ran gambling dens and brothels, but—
Who could bla them for that?
They would cut off the wrists of debtors who couldn't repay their debts, and sotis even killed them and hung them from bridges, but—
Well, I think there are tis when that sort of thing can't be helped.
It's the ones who borrow money and then say 'screw you' who are in the wrong, after all.
Aah.
How utterly depraved I've beco—I, who once dread of being a hero in my younger days.
In any case, the Haomun Sect guys didn't stop there.
The majority of them were criminals who crossed the line.
Villains who oppressed and extorted the common people.
They'd squeeze a ten-nyang debt into a hundred, then three hundred nyang.
They even fabricated debts out of thin air and pinned them on people.
If there was no money, they'd take the ox and horse.
If there was no ox or horse, they'd drag away wives and children and sell them off.
Since those fellows had their fingers on the pulse of the Murim world's information, I made use of them myself in the early days—
But afterward, as I wandered through Murim, I simply wiped out the Haomun Sect branches that were beyond redemption, roots and all.
How many branches had fallen by my hand, I wonder.
That's why I was so greatly shocked when I first heard the story of Shennong.
My master, Shennong—who had co from the Haomun Sect.
If I had been my father.
The re fact that Shennong, a Haomun Sect mber, had scaled the wall of our Dang Family would have been enough for to kill him on the spot.
But my father was different.
Had he seen sothing in Shennong's eyes at that mont?
Or was it simply a youthful, naive notion about ‘heroism’?
In any case, thanks to my father's decision back then, I learned a great deal from Master Shennong and received much comfort from him.
That was truly……
A contradiction.
* * *
When I glared at the thug with wide eyes, the bastard trembled and bowed his head.
"S-sorry. I'm sorry."
"You're really a hopeless case."
"I'm sorry……"
I clicked my tongue and kept flipping through the ledger.
All throughout the ledger, I could see plenty of blank spaces—marks for unpaid debts and running tabs.
I asked the waitresses sitting quietly and trembling nearby.
"Do you ladies have running tabs here too?"
"……Yes."
I flipped a little further.
The bribes these guys had been handing out also appeared.
"What does the letter P stand for here?"
"P-police."
"You bribed the police? To avoid crackdowns?"
"Yes……"
Sothing even more interesting ca up.
"J? What's this one?"
"That's, that's Jeoksapa."
"Jeoksapa? Chairman Park Jeok-sa's Jeoksapa?"
"That's right."
Haah, Chairman Park.
To think I'd find traces of you in a place like this.
I'll make good use of this ledger later.
Oh, but why J, though?
If it's Jeoksapa, shouldn't it be Red, written as 'R'?
I tilted my head and asked the thug.
"You've got all this morized?"
"I don't have it morized……P-please take that out."
The thug pointed at the ballpoint pen, trembling all over.
"Should I?"
Thwuck!
I yanked it out.
"Urgh!"
The thug and his subordinate let out a sigh of relief.
I handed the blood-stained ballpoint pen to the thug.
"Draw a circle next to Jennie's na in the ledger."
[Jennie 500 / ○ ]
Hmm, the blank space has been filled. Satisfying.
I showed the circle to Min-jeong.
"Oppa……Hic hic."
【Min-jeong is happy. 2,000 Happiness Points】
Oh? This feels like sothing I've been through before.
Aah.
It was similar to when I tore up the debt certificates at the Happy Loan Office.
The thug looked up at .
Crunch.
I popped a piece of apple skewered on a toothpick into my mouth and spoke to him.
"What are you looking at? There are blank spaces left."
"Pardon?"
"The blank spaces in the ledger—you need to draw circles next to all the running tabs."
"……What?"
"You said you don't have the ledger morized."
"So, so right now you're—"
"Min-jeong, close your eyes."
Clench! Stab!
"Urrgghh!"
After sticking a toothpick into the thug's cheek, he hurriedly began drawing circles.
Scratch scratch.
As he drew the circles one by one.
【Seo-yeong (Lily) is happy. 700 Happiness Points】
【A-reum (Shani) is happy. 800 Happiness Points】
ssages popped up.
So the two won kneeling before right now are Lily and Shani.
What nas.
Trickle trickle.
I poured two glasses of water,
Made two glasses laced with Gu Poison and held them out to the won.
"Drink these."
"……"
"You have to drink them before you can leave."
They each drank a glass.
"Now, the mont you two step outside, you won't rember or Min-jeong. You've never worked here either."
I planted the commands,
"You two can go now."
"I-is it really okay?"
"You've paid everything off, haven't you?"
Tap tap.
I drumd the ledger and gestured for them to leave.
"Th-thank you!"
"Be happy."
And please don't set foot near this side of things ever again.
Lily and Shani disappeared.
As they left, they quietly exchanged words.
—Where should we move to next?
—Dong-gu oppa said we could co to his place.
—Really? Let's go together.
……Haah, unbelievable.
I just gave them a proper chance to live their lives, and they're going to work at yet another entertainnt establishnt?
My conviction that people are difficult to change was solidified once again.
I couldn't help but sigh, but……
Well, it doesn't matter……. It's their choice in the end.
I'm satisfied with today's happiness.
I turned my head toward Min-jeong.
"Aren't you leaving?"
"?"
"Go. The date's over."
"O…… Oppa."
"Go. Get so rest. Take all the shopping bags with you."
Min-jeong didn't leave.
"I told you to go. I still have things left to do."
"Even so……"
"Get out!"
When I raised my voice, she stepped outside.
The reason I sent Min-jeong away?
From here on out.
……It's not suitable for minors.
* * *
A short while later.
I stepped out of the building.
I walked out wearing my Dark Moon Mask without a care.
CCTV no longer worried .
After walking a short distance, I spotted Min-jeong in an alley, both hands full of shopping bags.
After confirming it was a spot out of the CCTV's view, I pulled the mask down slightly.
"What are you doing? Why haven't you gone ho?"
"Oppa? Are you okay?"
"I told you to go ho—you really don't listen, do you?"
"Oppa!"
"It's all over. Let's go."
"Oppa……Hic hic.…… Oppaaa……"
She burst into tears.
Good grief.
Min-jeong sobbed and sobbed, checking over for any injuries.
"Did sothing happen?"
"Nothing happened."
"Those thugs aren't going to leave us alone."
"They've all repented. They say they'll live good lives now."
I pulled the ledger from inside my clothes and showed her.
"Ah, the ledger……. Since you have a hold on their weakness, they'll keep quiet."
"Exactly."
"But Oppa, what's that dirt on your hands?"
Aah, Master Shennong.
I have returned good fertilizer to the earth.
I took Min-jeong ho.
That hostess bar was cleaned up neatly.
The thug and his subordinate.
I had been about to get rid of both of them but changed my mind.
I fed Gu Poison to the subordinate so he wouldn't rember or Min-jeong.
And I made him believe that he himself had killed the thug and buried him sowhere in the hills.
So even if the police ca looking for the missing thug, the one who'd get caught would be the subordinate.
The subordinate wouldn't rember .
Ta-da! Perfect.
, cleaning up the world once again today.
This too shall serve as a foundation for Happiness Points to pour in.
Because the world becos a happier place when those who ought to die, die.
* * *
Around noon the following day.
Ding dong!
A ssage had co in. It was from Min-jeong.
I opened it to find a video.
"Oppa, it's a chocolate recipe. I was going to write it out and send it as a ssage, but I figured a video would be better."
She smiled shyly.
"First you need to lt the chocolate—by breaking it into small pieces—"
She looked adorable, rattling away with an apron tied on.
She finally looks like a 19-year-old.
……Jennie doesn't suit you.
"This way, cover it with plastic wrap and let it cool for about two hours. To check if it's fully cooled, poke it with a toothpick. Then last of all, here's the secret……"
She made a heart shape with both hands, then—
"Yoisiku nare, yoisiku nare! Beco delicious, hup!"
……Wh-what was that.
"Simple, right? Min-jeong-style chocolate, complete!"
She smiled brightly on the screen.
I couldn't believe it.
I was about to close the video when there were still 19 seconds remaining.
What's this?
"Oppa……"
Min-jeong fidgeted and opened her mouth.
I have a baaaad feeling about this!
Please just don't confess. Please!
"You told , didn't you. To do what I want to do."
Gulp……. Please.
"Um, can I work at Oppa's Bungeoppang stand starting tomorrow?"
Hm?
"I'm graduating soon. Once the March graduation ceremony is done, that's it. What do you think? Is it okay if I co? I'll start tomorrow. I'm embarrassed so I'm hanging up!"
Aah……
She's a pretty-looking girl.
For starters, she does fit the concept of 'Handso Bungeoppang'.
It was also about ti to expand the Happiness Ambassador business into chocolate.
I also needed a helper for my mother.
Co to think of it, the Choi brothers' Baekgyeong Group had a confectionery business, didn't they?
Chocolate artist—
What was it called again? A chocolatier?
Should I ask them to open a training program for her, and pour in a scholarship as well?
Min-jeong has good hands, so she'll definitely pick it up quickly.
But sothing still nags at ……
She used to be a school bully.
Whatever the circumstances, she had tornted students weaker than herself and hung around with rotten guys.
Of course, Min-jeong said she wasn't a bully herself.
It seed like, as a result of the thug tornting her, Min-jeong had been looking for a white knight on horseback to rescue her in her own way.
It appears the pig I beat up earlier had been that knight.
Apparently the pig had said he'd resolve things through 'a hyung who knows a noona who knows a hyung'.
On that condition, he told Min-jeong to date him, and Min-jeong had gritted her teeth and gone along with it—that was the full story.
"……Is that really how it was?"
The fact that she went to a hostess bar under the pretext of a birthday party, the existence of a so-called senior who had sold her out—
The circumstances of how she ca to owe a debt, and her excuse that she wasn't a bully—I don't take all of it at face value.
But.
[Give them a chance, won't you. Let's see if these yellowed sprouts turn green.]
……Why does Master Shennong's voice keep coming to mind?
Kim Tae-yang.
What do you think?
Is it okay to give a school bully a chance? Speak your mind as a representative victim.
"……"
There was no answer at all.
After deliberating for a long ti—
I sent her a reply.
"It's minimum wage."
* * *
After finishing training in the herb field and coming out, I turned on the news.
[The Golden Tower has gone still again. Based on our analysis, it's been on a one-month cycle, and last month it was at the fifteen-day mark. What will happen this month? A full thirty days have passed, yet the tower still shows no change. Will it shift again this ti? We have Chief Han of the Gukmubon with us to hear his thoughts.]
This ti, I delayed the tower conquest by a little more.
Expectations must have been building up.
I should enter the tower soti tomorrow.
My plan is to keep shifting the timing back and forth so people don't grow used to it.
Conquering just one floor at a ti and then going back in a few days later would also be good.
Maybe the psychology book I borrowed from the library helped a little?
Right! Anyway, it's ti to start a refreshing new day.
Economy Poison Demon mode.
Check the stocks first. What are the results of my two-billion investnt?
Red candlestick again today.
"Good."
Chairman Choi's Baekgyeong stocks were still climbing.
And there'd be news coming out about Baekgyeong being awarded the new city developnt project. Continue holding.
The upward trend wasn't limited to Baekgyeong alone.
South Korea's economy, which had been tunneling through the floor beneath the basent, was coming back to life.
All because of—
My Golden Tower.
South Korea, where a rush of people had been fleeing abroad certain the country was about to collapse.
But before anyone knew it, it had beco a country the whole world was watching.
Capital that had been flowing out was coming back in.
Even famous overseas sects—what they call 'guilds' over there—were reaching out to Korean sects, eager to learn from them.
At this point, my Happiness Points should be going up!
"……"
Silence.
Does this not apply?
999,999,999 points. When on earth am I supposed to fill all of that?
Perhaps soday it would co ti to reveal my identity.
That way the Happiness Points would really start pouring in.
"It's frustrating."
When my chest feels heavy, I have to deal with the problem right in front of first.
Bubble bubble.
I checked the red bean paste simring away and stirred it with a ladle in circular motions.
By now I could tell just from the sll.
"Perfect."
The cold snap was lingering on.
My plan was to keep selling Bungeoppang through at least the end of this month.
After that, I planned to try making chocolate.
Unlike Bungeoppang, it's not a seasonal item,
And if done right, it could go beyond the dostic market and enter overseas as well.
My Happiness Points would pour in generously too.
Right, so there's still sothing left to do for that.
Tring tring.
"Ah, senior. What brings you to call?"
I called the Choi brothers.
"Jae-jun. It's nothing much—Baekgyeong has chocolatiers, right?"
"Chocolate artists? We do. Why do you ask?"
"Would it be alright to ask one of them to teach soone I know?"
Would it be okay? They're apparently a renowned artist.
Contrary to my worry, he agreed readily.
"Of course! I'll set up an appointnt. She must be soone close to you, Sunbae."
"Well……She's my part-tir."
"Your part-tir? Are you perhaps planning to go into the chocolate business?"
"It's in the planning stages."
"My goodness, business isn't easy, you know. With all the money you earn from tower climbing, there's no need to walk such a difficult path."
A worried Choi Jae-jun.
Well, he'd know more about money than , I suppose.
"I'd like to give it a try."
But money alone isn't enough for .
Because I can't fill all 999,999,999 Happiness Points with Murim Tower climbing alone.
Choi Jae-jun poured out advice for .
"But the chocolate business is even harder. Major brands have a stranglehold on the market. Without a mass-production factory, it's difficult to even match the prices."
"I'm thinking of starting small. Handmade chocolate, priced a bit higher."
"Ahh……. That'll be tough. Unless there's sothing special—a unique item to offer."
Choi Jae-jun seed to think for a mont, then spoke again.
"Ah! I recently heard sothing interesting."
"What is it?"
"They say Bungeoppang is all the rage these days."
……Co again?
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