Goblin Library - Chapter 176

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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 176

After clocking out, Lim Sung-un stepped into Jang Ma-ru’s Hideout. The moment he crossed the threshold, the savory aroma of fried oil greeted his senses.
“Brother, welcome!”
Jang Ma-ru waved his hand while holding a chicken leg, and Lim Sung-un approached.
“The video?”
Jang Ma-ru pointed at the monitor.
“It’s downloading. But it looks like it’ll take a while.”
“Why?”
“The download only proceeds when the phone is connected. So it keeps stopping and starting.”
“Of course you’re making sure the Establishment doesn’t find out, right?”
“Obviously. And try some of this roasted chicken. My sister bought it for me to eat.”
Lim Sung-un gazed at the old-fashioned roasted chicken bag that Jang Ma-ru pointed to with a smile.
Unlike modern chicken fried in pieces, this old-style roasted chicken was fried whole—an entire bird in one piece.
When Jang Ma-ru handed him a wet wipe, Lim Sung-un cleaned his hands and was about to tear into the chicken when he suddenly noticed the breast.
There were several chickens, yet every single breast had been stripped clean.
“What about the breast?”
“Choi Tae-sik ate it all.”
“Just the breast?”
“Choi Tae-sik likes that part.”
Jang Ma-ru spoke with a smile.
“I’m actually glad Choi Tae-sik is here.”
As Lim Sung-un watched, Jang Ma-ru picked up some cartilage and spoke.
“Neither you nor I like chicken breast, but Choi Tae-sik does. So it’s fortunate we have someone to handle the breast meat.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lim Sung-un looked at him.
“If you like chicken legs, why not just order a menu with only legs?”
“No way! You have to eat a whole chicken. Somehow it just tastes better that way.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun’s voice came from behind.
“Then just don’t eat the breast.”
Jang Ma-ru looked at her and waved his hand dismissively.
“That’s not it. The legs are the tastiest part, but the breast has flavor too. You can’t just throw it away without eating it.”
“It’s better to eat only the tastiest parts.”
Lee Hye-eun approached with a smile and sat down in a chair. Noticing her appearance, Lim Sung-un squinted slightly.
“Put some clothes on.”
At Lim Sung-un’s words, Lee Hye-eun looked down at herself.
“Did I take something off?”
Lee Hye-eun was wearing short shorts and a thin, form-fitting t-shirt that left her curves starkly exposed.
“There’s a kid around.”
At Lim Sung-un’s words, Lee Hye-eun let out a soft laugh.
“That girl had me order it online.”
Lim Sung-un narrowed his brow and looked at Jang Ma-ru.
“You had her order it?”
At his expression, Jang Ma-ru smiled.
“She said she didn’t bring any comfortable clothes to wear, so I had her order something. And what’s so strange about that? It looks good on her. It suits her.”
Lim Sung-un shook his head and tore into the roasted chicken.
“How’s the atmosphere at the establishment?”
“It’s the cleanest place I’ve ever been to. No gang members in sight.”
“Among the customers, Choi Tae-sik hyung looked the most like a gangster.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words with a laugh, Lim Sung-un nodded before asking.
“What about Tae-sik?”
“He’s working out.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun suddenly asked as if remembering something.
“Now that I think about it, Tae-sik goes out to exercise often and comes back. Is he going to a gym?”
“He goes to the boxing gym nearby.”
“So he’s going to throw punches again.”
“Boxing is a sport.”
“Have you ever tried it, Maru?”
“Tae-sik hyung took me once before, saying I’d ruin my body if I only used the computer… but it just didn’t suit me.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun nodded before suddenly looking at him.
“Let’s do yoga together.”
“Why would a man do yoga?”
“Why not? Lots of men do yoga these days. It’ll be fun if you do it with your sister.”
Lim Sung-un, watching them eat roasted chicken while having this conversation, also began eating a leg.
There was an enormous amount of work to do, but… everything had its order.
Once proper footage began appearing on that monitor, the team would begin working in earnest.
For now, they were in the information-gathering phase.
Lee Hye-eun, holding a chicken leg as she ate, suddenly asked Lim Sung-un.
“I heard you worked on the Daelyeong Group’s third-generation operation. How did that turn out?”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Lim Sung-un looked at Jang Ma-ru as if asking his opinion. At that gaze, Jang Ma-ru smiled and spoke.
“You’re part of our team now anyway.”
Lim Sung-un nodded and spoke.
“It’s currently in trial.”
“From what I found out, it seems like quite some time has passed since he went to prison, but it’s still in trial?”
“The lawyers there are skilled. They’re just dragging it out as long as possible.”
“They’re hoping people will forget about it.”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Lim Sung-un nodded.
“Actually, people have forgotten quite a bit.”
“Right. When I searched, the news doesn’t show up much on the internet. It’s only on YouTube a little.”
Lee Hye-eun asked.
“So what happens now?”
“Do you know him?”
“I haven’t met him in person, but I’ve heard plenty of rumors. He’s notorious on our end for being ruthless.”
“Does the Daelyeong Group become a target of the Flower Snake too?”
“No… we’re the ones who become targets.”
“You all?”
“Some of our people who happened to go out to clubs and places like that have gotten burned by him quite a few times.”
Jang Ma-ru nodded at Lee Hye-eun’s words.
“Well, the Flower Snake members are pretty and all, so I suppose he’d fall for them since he likes women.”
Jang Ma-ru, nodding as if it made sense, asked a question.
“But aren’t third-generation chaebol heirs the Flower Snake’s best targets?”
Lee Hye-eun shook her head at Jang Ma-ru’s question.
“They’re too big. And all those places have separate VIP secretariat offices.”
“VIP secretariat offices?”
“You could say it’s a secretariat that manages the direct bloodline of the chairman’s family. Their job is to prevent scandals and, if one has already happened, to cover it up. But if a woman approaches, they immediately run a background check.”
Lee Hye-eun, having spoken, let out a sigh.
“That’s why the operation doesn’t work.”
“True, if they already know she’s with the Flower Snake, the operation won’t work.”
“So chaebol heirs aren’t particularly attractive targets for us. And… those guys have bad habits too.”
Watching Lee Hye-eun shake her head repeatedly, Jang Ma-ru squinted his eyes.
“Bastards!”
Lee Hye-eun laughed at Jang Ma-ru’s words.
“Right. They’re bastards. So let’s make sure we punish them plenty from now on.”
“Yes. We’ll punish them all.”
After answering, Jang Ma-ru set down the chicken leg he’d been eating and wiped his fingers with a tissue.
Then he began tapping rapidly on the keyboard.
“You done eating?”
“I’m finished.”
Tap tap tap!
Lim Sung-un asked Jang Ma-ru, whose fingers didn’t stop even as he spoke.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I’m going to try hacking The One International.”
“Didn’t you say it was difficult?”
Before, Jang Ma-ru had attempted to hack Lee Gang-hyuk’s The One International.
But he’d given up midway. The firewall had been stronger than expected.
He could break through if he tried, but there was a possibility of leaving traces.
“I’m going to try again.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lim Sung-un didn’t ask further. If Jang Ma-ru said he’d do it, he’d do it.
And if a problem arose, Lim Sung-un and Choi Tae-sik would cover for him.
As English letters and numbers began scrolling rapidly across the monitor, Jang Ma-ru’s fingers flew across the keyboard with increasing speed.
Lim Sung-un, who had been watching for a moment, pulled documents from the bag he’d brought and began reviewing them.
When the two men suddenly shifted into work mode, Lee Hye-eun, finding herself bored, rose from her seat.
“I should get some sleep while watching a TV series for once.”
Muttering to herself, Lee Hye-eun grabbed the laptop on one side and made her way toward the bed area.

***

Lee Hye-eun, who had fallen asleep after watching TV series all night, rubbed her eyes as she woke.
“Mmph!”
She sat there dazed for a moment before catching the scent of food—something that stirred her appetite.
At that, Lee Hye-eun rose from the narrow cot and drew back the curtain.
Whoosh!
As the curtain pulled back, the interior of the hideout came into view. Originally, the hideout had no separate bedroom.
There were several beds in the large open space, with a bathroom and shower room attached to one side.
However, since Lee Hye-eun was the only woman among men, she found it uncomfortable to sleep in such an open space. Not that Lee Hye-eun particularly minded such things, but Choi Tae-sik had felt awkward about it, so he’d installed this partition-cum-curtain.
When she opened the curtain, she could see three men gathered around the table in the hideout.
“When did Tae-sik get here?”
“While you were sleeping?”
At Choi Tae-sik’s words, Lee Hye-eun scratched her head as she emerged, and then she saw the food spread out on the table.
“Oh! Hangover soup!”
Hangover soup was being set up on the table.
“Would you like to wash up first and then eat, or eat and then wash up?”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun nodded, then suddenly looked at him.
“Did you not sleep?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Your face is full of exhaustion.”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Jang Ma-ru laughed and replied.
“I couldn’t sleep much because I was hacking all night.”
“Still, you need to sleep. Eat and then get some rest.”
At that, Jang Ma-ru looked at her and spoke.
“Aren’t you going to ask if the hacking succeeded?”
“Even if it didn’t work out, if you spent all night on it, you did your best.”
Lee Hye-eun, speaking with a smile, placed the hangover soup and rice in front of Jang Ma-ru.
“Go ahead and eat.”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Jang Ma-ru smiled and replied.
“Well, I succeeded halfway through.”
“Halfway?”
“I found out who set up the firewall there.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Lee Hye-eun tilted her head curiously.
“Is the computer field really that narrow?”
“It’s not narrow in general… but if you’re talking about truly skilled people, then yes, it’s quite narrow. Especially if someone like me is having trouble with them, it’s even narrower.”
“So who is it?”
“The guy who hacked that Japanese coin exchange two years ago.”
“That Japanese exchange hacker?”
“That’s right.”
“Then… how much money are we talking about?”
Cryptocurrency was difficult to trace. Back then, hundreds of billions had vanished from that Japanese exchange in a single hack.
Hye-eun swallowed hard, her eyes gleaming as Jang Ma-ru smiled and spoke.
“From what I know, he couldn’t liquidate all of it himself.”
“Why not?”
“Because the amount was too massive.”
“Isn’t a large amount a good thing?”
At Hye-eun’s question, Jang Ma-ru shook his head.
“Sister, we’re not talking about pocket change—we’re talking about hundreds of billions. If someone loses that much money, what do you think they’ll do?”
“They’d try to find it, obviously.”
“Exactly. And they’d stop at nothing to track it down.”
“But it’s cryptocurrency, not cash. How would they even find it?”
“Cryptocurrency doesn’t disappear without a trace. It’s just harder to find. But if you really try, you can find it. And when hundreds of billions are at stake, they absolutely won’t give up.”
Jang Ma-ru continued.
“After that incident, skilled hackers received a lot of requests. The bounty was substantial, so most competent hackers moved to catch him. That’s how his identity became known. And once it’s known, he gets caught.”
“Did you try too?”
“I didn’t. Big operations like that are risky, and back then I was working with my older brother, so I wasn’t taking on personal jobs like that. Anyway, after that incident, he disappeared without a trace, so I figured he was buried somewhere. But here he is.”
At Jang Ma-ru’s words, Hye-eun asked.
“But if you know who did it, does that make breaking through the firewall easier?”
“It’s not easy. But I studied his hacking methods out of curiosity during the coin incident. So I’m familiar with his style. Even if it’s difficult, familiarity gives you a way forward.”
Jang Ma-ru smiled as he looked at the people around him.
“After we eat and get some rest… I’ll strip that server clean.”

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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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