Goblin Library - Chapter 143

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 143.

When Lee Gang-hyuk mentioned fire, Choi Hong-gu opened his mouth as the two exchanged puzzled glances.
“If you keep your distance from 3275 and merely bask in that warmth, it’s pleasant. You receive protection from violence and injustice. But if you draw too close, you’ll burn in that fire.”
“Burn? Does that person cause harm?”
“That’s not quite it.”
Choi Hong-gu paused thoughtfully before continuing his explanation.
“Because of 3275, the Prison has become a more comfortable place. But did everyone want that?”
“Isn’t it good if things become more comfortable?”
Even as Lee Hye-eun said this, she knew it couldn’t be that simple.
After all, a Prison was a place where only criminals with terrible natures gathered. Trouble would have erupted long ago.
As expected, Choi Hong-gu shook his head.
“Comfort is good, certainly. But there are people who despise that comfort.”
“People like that exist?”
“Wherever people live, vested interests exist. The Prison is no exception. In some ways, those interests are even greater.”
“But there’s nothing that makes money in a Prison, is there?”
“There are people who smuggle cigarettes inside. That’s where the real money is.”
“Cigarettes?”
“Cigarettes are extremely scarce in a Prison. Anyway, such vested interests exist. And because it’s a Prison, naturally those interests are obtained through violence. But since 3275 prevents that, even those with considerable power become dissatisfied when they can’t secure their interests. That’s why wars frequently break out between 3275’s faction and other factions.”
“Wars in a Prison?”
“New criminals are always entering the Prison. And those who picked fights with 3275… they left the Prison as corpses.”
“Does 3275 kill them?”
“I don’t know. What’s certain is that whenever rumors spread about someone fighting 3275 or planning to, they suddenly die of natural causes.”
Choi Hong-gu looked at Choi Tae-sik.
“Tell your brother to avoid that person if he sees him. Getting tangled up with him could twist your life in strange ways.”
“Thank you for the advice.”
Choi Hong-gu stood and added one more warning.
“And tell your brother that once he’s released, he should suppress his nature and live quietly. One mistake can be forgiven, but twice becomes a habit.”
“I understand.”
Choi Hong-gu smiled, waved his hand to Lee Hye-eun, and walked toward the Fitness Management Room.
Lee Hye-eun and Choi Tae-sik, having completed their business, left the Nursing Home.
As they did, Choi Tae-sik suddenly looked back at the Nursing Home building and spoke.
“By the way, it’s a weekday now. Doesn’t that person work?”
“Despite how he appears, Hong-gu is a legend in the pickpocketing industry. With the money he earned, he bought land in this area, farms it, and even rents out a building.”
“Really?”
“His nickname is a bit amusing… he was called the Invisible Hand.”
“The Invisible Hand?”
“It’s because his hands can’t be seen when he pickpockets.”
“So why did you quit if you were that skilled?”
“I heard this while drinking… Apparently, when he stole a wallet, he’d immediately take out the cash on the Subway and toss it in a corner.”
“Right there on the Subway?”
“If he held onto the wallet too long and got caught, it becomes evidence. But cash leaves no trace.”
“That makes sense.”
“So he’d take only the money and dump the wallet on the Subway. The faster you get rid of a stolen wallet, the better.”
“Doesn’t someone get suspicious if they see you throwing something away?”
“On a crowded Subway, he’d just drop it so casually that nobody notices. People don’t pay attention to that sort of thing.”
Lee Hye-eun made a dismissive flicking motion with her hand, and Choi Tae-sik nodded in understanding.
“Fair point. If the wallet isn’t in my hands, there’s no evidence.”
“Right. And someone like Hong-gu is skilled enough to slip something away without anyone noticing.”
“So? Why did he quit?”
“Ah!”
Lee Hye-eun nodded and continued.
“When he was sorting through the money he’d pickpocketed that day at home, he found a photograph wedged between the bills—a picture of an elderly woman, covered in fingerprints.”
“Between the bills?”
“Usually people keep photos in the ID slot of their wallet, but this person had put the photo where the cash goes. When he pulled out just the bills, the photo came with it.”
“And then?”
“At first he thought, ‘What’s this?’ and flipped it over. On the back it said: ‘Dear Mother, I love you today as always.'”
Choi Tae-sik tilted his head at Lee Hye-eun’s words.
“Sounds like he loved his mother.”
Lee Hye-eun sighed and looked at Choi Tae-sik before speaking.
“Who carries photos in their wallet anymore? Everyone just looks at them on their phones.”
“Well… you have a point.”
“If someone keeps a photo in their wallet like that, there’s a story behind it. And who writes something like that on a photo of their living mother?”
“Ah…”
Choi Tae-sik’s eyes narrowed, and Lee Hye-eun nodded.
“It was a photo of his deceased mother. And seeing how many fingerprints covered it, he must have taken it out and touched it often.”
“He washed his hands after seeing that photo?”
“The moment he saw it, he remembered his own mother visiting him in Prison. His mother who came to see her worthless criminal son, a pickpocket. That’s when he decided to quit.”
“Did he try to return the photo to its owner?”
“How could he? He didn’t even know which wallet it came from.”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Jang Ma-ru’s voice reached her ears.
[Couldn’t he have turned it in to a Subway station employee? The owner might have found it. Lost photos like that aren’t that common, are they?]
At Jang Ma-ru’s suggestion, Lee Hye-eun glanced at the Nursing Home and shook her head.
“That was so long ago. If he’d done that back then, the person might have found it. But now it’s too late.”
[True, they probably haven’t been looking for the photo all these years.]
“Exactly.”
[But… Lee Gang-hyuk was quite a frightening person, wasn’t he?]
When Jang Ma-ru mentioned Lee Gang-hyuk, Lee Hye-eun nodded.
“That’s true. Even in a Prison, it’s not easy to kill people carelessly.”
“It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either.”
Choi Tae-sik paused in thought before speaking.
“But Lee Gang-hyuk must have done that difficult thing multiple times. He seems to be a bigger player than I thought.”
Then Choi Tae-sik gazed into the distance and continued.
“If someone died in the Prison, there would be an incident report. Whether it’s natural death or accidental death, the Prison has to file a report whenever someone dies. Find that.”
“Oh! Smart thinking!”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Choi Tae-sik clicked his tongue softly and moved forward.
[Just a moment. I have a backdoor I hacked into the Ministry of Justice before, so I should find it quickly. Let me see….]
Then the sound of keyboard typing came through the earphone. After a moment, Jang Ma-ru spoke.
[There are quite a few people who died in ** Prison from 12 years ago until now.]
“How many?”
[62 people.]
Choi Tae-sik drew in a sharp breath, startled.
“That many?”
[Looking at it, 15 of them are elderly people over 70, so it seems like natural death or illness… The remaining 47 are young men. The causes of death vary—heart attacks, falls, and such—but there’s nothing problematic about them.]
“47 people in 12 years….”
Of course, some of them might have actually died from falls or heart attacks.
But even so, it was clear that far more people died here compared to other prisons—suspiciously more.
[But recently, seven people have died.]
“Recently?”
[Precisely, seven people died within two weeks after Lee Gang-hyuk was released.]
“Seven within two weeks of Lee Gang-hyuk’s release… He must have nipped the problem in the bud.”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Jang Ma-ru asked.
[Nipped in the bud?]
Lee Hye-eun explained.
“Remember what Choi Hong-gu said earlier? That the Prison seemed quiet because of Lee Gang-hyuk, but there were people targeting him.”
[Ah! So after he was released… wait? After he gets out, why would it matter who controls the Prison?]
“It matters. ** Prison is Lee Gang-hyuk’s foundation. He’ll need to recruit talented people from there in the future… If someone else takes over that foundation? That can’t happen.”
[So he eliminated anyone who might rebel after he got out?]
“That seems to be the right interpretation, doesn’t it? What do you think?”
When Lee Hye-eun looked at Choi Tae-sik, he nodded as well.
“Even when a Gang boss retires, he gives his territory to his successor. That way, he gets respect and living expenses after retirement.”
Then Choi Tae-sik gazed into the distance and continued.
“He doesn’t give it to a different organization.”
[So he killed seven more people thinking about what would happen after his release?]
“That’s right.”
[Ah… this… he’s really not an ordinary person, is he? Even a serial killer couldn’t hold a candle to this guy.]
“He was an extremely dangerous man.”
At Choi Tae-sik’s murmur, Lee Hye-eun also smacked her lips. Having been a criminal for a long time, she had seen people who killed in the Prison before.
But even so, they’ve only killed one person.
I’d never seen someone kill so many people before. Of course, he probably didn’t get his own hands bloody… but ordering their deaths is still killing.
『You said you were in the Organization before, right?』
Choi Tae-sik nodded at Lee Hye-eun’s words.
『Did you ever see someone who killed people there?』
『Why don’t you ask me if I’ve killed someone?』
At Choi Tae-sik’s counter-question, Lee Hye-eun let out a soft laugh.
『You’re not that kind of person.』
『….』
When Choi Tae-sik looked confused, Lee Hye-eun met his gaze and spoke.
『You could beat someone to death. But you couldn’t pull that final trigger.』
『Why do you see it that way?』
『Because you see people as people.』
Lee Hye-eun made a gesture of poking Choi Tae-sik’s chest with her finger as she spoke.
『You only become a murderer when you stop seeing people as people. Someone who sees people as people can never become a murderer.』
[But there are people who kill others accidentally, aren’t there?]
『That’s just what the word “accidental” means. It’s different from premeditated killing.』
Lee Hye-eun continued while maintaining eye contact with Choi Tae-sik.
『The moment a person sees others as money, honor, or power, they can kill premeditated rather than accidentally. Lee Gang-hyuk sees people as money, so he can plan and kill people.』
[People appearing as money, honor, and power… that’s quite philosophical.]
『Philosophical nonsense. And it also means Lee Gang-hyuk is dangerous.』
[Because he sees people as money?]
『Exactly. People like that are cruel and dangerous. They don’t see people as people. They feel no compassion. They only see them as obstacles in the way of their money-making.』
[….]
After a moment of silence, Jang Ma-ru asked.
[I’ll protect you, noona.]
『You?』
[I can’t throw punches like Tae-sik hyung, but with computers, I never lose to anyone. If it seems like you’re in danger, I’ll definitely… tell Tae-sik hyung your location.]
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Choi Tae-sik let out a soft laugh.
『So in the end, I’m the one who has to move?』
[It’s more useful for protecting noona if you fight with your bare fists than if I swing a keyboard at the enemy.]
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun imagined him swinging a keyboard at someone’s head and let out a soft laugh.
『Right, make sure to tell Tae-sik quickly and accurately. I don’t want noona to get hurt.』
[Yes!]
As Jang Ma-ru responded, Lee Hye-eun climbed into the car and asked.
『Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll buy it on the way in.』
[Oh! Now that you mention it, I saw a bakery nearby. I’ll send you the address.]
Along with his words, a text came to Lee Hye-eun’s phone. Looking at the message, it was the address of a small bakery on the way out of the Nursing Home.

“Get me a sausage bread. Add a cabbage salad too.”

At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun murmured with a smile on her face.
‘This is delicious.’
It was a sausage bread made with old-fashioned salad, and it tasted so good that Lee Hye-eun used to buy it often in the past.
‘Let’s go get a snack for our youngest.’
Watching Lee Hye-eun enter an address into the navigation, Choi Tae-sik started the car.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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