I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 13

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

013-Mujin Construction
13.
A police car pulled into the underground parking lot, its emergency lights flashing.
“I can see it. I can see it. You’ve gone too far. Back up a little, it’s the black car. Let me make some noise with my head against the window.”
I struck my head against the glass window and made a sound.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
“Don’t bang your head against the window—just shout. They’ll still hear you.”
“Okay, okay, okay, okay.”
Fortunately, the call was still connected.
Our country’s system is absolutely amazing.
I called 112 to report the incident, and
when I told them I was being kidnapped and bound right now, the police who arrived at the scene kept the call connected.
The Republic of Korea’s system is incredible.
I was worried the police might miss me and just leave, so I banged my head against the window, but apparently that wasn’t necessary.
Did I really need to tap the window with my head?
They said they could hear me even if I just shouted?
“I’m here! Please help me!”
“I’m here!”
As I shouted, worried the police might still not see me,
I moved up and down, causing the car to rock back and forth.
When the parked car began to shake, the Police Officer noticed and came over.
Perhaps thinking it was a prank call or nothing serious, he was startled when he saw me bound in the vehicle.
He quickly tried to open the rear door to rescue me, but it was locked.
After trying to open all four doors one by one and realizing the doors wouldn’t open, the Police Officer
looked at the officer standing in front and spoke.
I thought he was talking to himself in mid-air, but he was speaking into his body camera.
“Pursuant to Article 7 of the Police Official Duty Execution Act, I will use a weapon to break the window and conduct a rescue operation.”
“We will break the glass window. Glass shards may scatter, so please move as far away from the window as possible.”
That must be directed at me, right?
I crawled from the back seat behind the passenger seat to the back seat behind the driver’s seat.
Confirming that I had moved, the Police Officer
pulled out a three-section baton and swung it with force.
Crash!!
The window shattered, and the Police Officer reached through the broken glass and opened the car door.
“Let me help you out.”
My hands bound behind my back,
my legs tightly bound.
Ropes connecting me to the seat to prevent escape.
All of it was clearly captured on the body camera.
The Police Officer who broke the window was concerned this might cause problems later.
Apparently feeling the body camera footage lacked sufficient evidence, the Police Officer pulled out his own phone and began snapping photographs of me and the car from every conceivable angle.
It was something I had never experienced in my life.
I felt like I had become a model.
There was something oddly thrilling about it.
The Police Officer gripped his radio and called for an ambulance.
“We need an ambulance. One kidnapping victim.”
Then he spoke while looking at me.
“We’re taking you to the Hospital first. We’ll check if you’re injured anywhere, and then we’ll conduct an investigation.”
“Yes, understood.”
Shortly after, the ambulance arrived and took me away.
The Police Officer remained behind and conducted a cursory search of the vehicle.
From the car’s glove compartment came a knife with rope, cable ties, and other items.
From the trunk emerged a sashimi knife, steel pipes, baseball bats, and more—bundled together.
From a police perspective, this situation could absolutely not be overlooked.
An investigation was absolutely necessary.
“Kim Officer, run a check on this vehicle’s registration number and contact headquarters for support.”
“Yes.”
.
.
.
“Captain, we received a call from Kim Officer at the scene—it really is a kidnapping.”
“What??”
“And when we ran a check on the vehicle that was being used for the kidnapping, it’s registered as a corporate vehicle under Mujin Construction.”
“What? Really? Did God help us? Okay, excellent. We’re taking down Mujin Construction properly this time. Mobilize every available officer. We’re moving out immediately.”
“Yes!!”
Go Captain immediately coordinated with the Police Special Forces and headed straight for Mujin Construction.
‘I will absolutely catch you today, no matter what.’
Go Captain reaffirmed his resolve once more.
Mujin Construction.
A company that had been small in scale but solid nonetheless,
swallowed up by Yang Nam-hyuk through loan sharking.
With gangsters running it, the performance and revenue should naturally have bottomed out,
yet Mujin Construction instead experienced rapid growth.
They monopolized every large and small construction project commissioned in the region.
But throughout that process, there had been far too many suspicious movements.
A competing company’s representative disappeared.
A civic organization leader who opposed the construction suffered a serious accident.
A redevelopment union representative who had opposed the project suddenly left for overseas.
Search warrants were requested on the grounds that investigation was necessary, but all were rejected.
And the Police Officer who had requested the warrants was transferred elsewhere.
No matter how much I thought about it, something felt off.
Whenever you got entangled with Mujin Construction, things never ended well.
It left a bad taste in my mouth.
Then a report came in that a fight had broken out at a Mujin Construction site, and a fellow officer responded to the call.
But that officer was found dead at the Mujin Construction site.
The cause of death was a fall.
The conclusion was that he had mistepped while inspecting the site on a dark night.
He was a junior officer that Go Captain had taken under his wing.
This wasn’t right.
No matter how much I thought about it, this had to be connected to Mujin Construction.
But the higher-ups refused to authorize an investigation.
Instead, they kept piling other tasks on Go Captain.
Even while handling those other duties, Go Captain and his team continued collecting evidence to take down Mujin Construction.
So they could strike whenever the moment came.
Then a kidnapping report came in, and the vehicle used in the kidnapping belonged to Mujin Construction.
God had helped us.
We could raid them using the kidnapping as justification.
This wasn’t suspicion—it was a flagrant crime.
We could just bring them all in and make arrests right away.
Once we searched them, something would definitely turn up.
Kidnapping alone would lock them up for at least three years, you bastards.
.
.
.
Smack! Smack!
The sound of harsh slaps echoed clearly outside the chairman’s office.
But the employees outside the office remained focused on their work as if they couldn’t hear a thing.
Chairman Yang Nam-hyuk was personally beating Jin Beom-gyu and Heo Young-gi over the loss of a delivery bag.
He cracked the joints of the men standing there like stone statues and threw slaps before finally running out of energy, returning to the sofa to sit down.
Yang Nam-hyuk pulled out a cigarette and lit it, then asked in a weary voice.
“Beom-gyu.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“You expect me to believe that? Could you believe it if you were in my position?”
“Of course I couldn’t believe it, Chairman. I don’t believe it myself, so how could you possibly believe it? But Chairman, if I had really pocketed that bag, would I have come back here? Wouldn’t I have run far away? The moment I realized something was wrong, I came running straight to you. I don’t know what was in the bag, but I’ll recover it no matter what. So please don’t doubt my loyalty, Chairman.”
Yang Nam-hyuk seemed to waver slightly at Jin Beom-gyu’s straightforward and honest answer.
He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
“Haaah… Beom-gyu. How long has it been for us?”
“Twenty-five years, Chairman.”
“That’s a long time. But Beom-gyu, if you were the type to run off with something in the middle, would I have entrusted you with the delivery job?”
…
“At least I know you won’t betray me, which is why I entrusted you with the delivery. If you’d swallowed it, I wouldn’t have just slapped your face—I’d have cut your Achilles tendon. I know that. But I can’t just overlook a mistake like this.”
“Yes, Chairman. I’ll accept whatever punishment you give me.”
“Do you know what you were delivering?”
“I didn’t check the contents.”
“I figured. With your personality, you’d just do what you were told. That package contained 100 million won in cash. It was a bribe for Kim Councilman to look favorably on this bidding. No matter how times change, nothing beats handing over cold cash. Even setting aside the mistake with Kim Councilman, that’s 100 million won. What are you going to do about it?”
“… I’ll sell my organs if I have to and raise the money.”
“What are you going to get from selling those rotten organs? Don’t do that. Instead, this time with Kim Councilman, you’re going to…”
Yang Nam-hyuk was about to give a covert instruction when the office door suddenly burst open and the Police Special Forces along with several officers stormed in.
“We’re arresting Yang Nam-hyuk, Jin Beom-gyu, and Heo Young-gi as perpetrators of kidnapping under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. You have the right to remain silent…”
Yang Nam-hyuk was bewildered, not understanding what was happening.
Jin Beom-gyu and Heo Young-gi exchanged looks of disbelief.
But that moment was brief.
Handcuffs were immediately placed on their wrists, and they were loaded into police cars and transported to the Police Station.
********
Once I was transported to the Hospital, I underwent several examinations.
This level of injury was something I dealt with regularly, so there was no real need for tests.
But they insisted it was necessary and ran them anyway.
They ran all sorts of tests without even offering to cover the hospital bills.
When I undressed for the examinations, my entire body was covered in wounds.
The traces of the gangster’s relentless beating in that car were etched all over me.
He should’ve been more careful with his strikes.
I could tell from the moment he started swinging with crude force.
That first punch that dropped me was quite impressive, but everything after that was disappointing.
The marks from the bindings on my wrists and ankles were vivid.
My body was covered in bruises.
“Goodness, this looks like it’ll warrant at least eight weeks of medical leave.”
.
.
.
After undergoing several tests, there were no serious issues beyond the external injuries.
Still, they said I needed to be admitted for observation, so I was admitted.
Not that they were going to pay for it.
Hospital overtreatment is more serious than people think.
Shortly after, police officers came to visit.
“Can you tell us what happened?”
“Of course. Should I tell you about what happened that day?”
“Yeah. I’d appreciate it if you could be as detailed as possible.”
“Sure. I’ll be as detailed as I can. It was an ordinary day like any other. The sunlight was beautiful, the air was crisp. It was the kind of weather perfect for spreading a mat in some quiet park, lying down, and watching the sky. It would’ve been even better with some instrumental music playing. My last class that day was English. After classes ended at School, I was riding my motorcycle back Home. I’d recently bought a motorcycle, you see. A Honda, and I fell for it the moment I saw the design. So I bought it without any hesitation. And of course I got my license. I got it from an Academy, and the tuition was a million won. Motorcycle licenses are so expensive. So while riding that motorcycle from School to Home, I got into an accident. Suddenly I was hit from behind. I lost my balance and fell. It happened at that Intersection you know? The one where you turn into the Hospital. There’s a place there that makes really delicious kimbap…”
I explained the situation in as much detail as I could, since they’d asked for details.
I hoped my statement would be helpful.
But why is the Police Officer’s expression rotting in real time?
Is something bothering him?
*******
I left school again,
but Yang Jung-won did not.
From what I heard, his father was arrested.
Murder, kidnapping, extortion—the charges were quite elaborate.
There was a very high possibility he’d receive over twenty years in prison.
And with the murder charge against a Police Officer on top of that, there was zero chance of a reduced sentence.
Once Yang Jung-won’s father was taken away, creditors came flooding in from everywhere,
and I heard Yang Jung-won had no choice but to flee his home.
I feel oddly sorry about it.
If I’d known it would come to this, I would’ve at least returned the gold necklace.
The reason Gangsters wear gold necklaces
is because they never know when or how they’ll have to run.
I heard they wear necklaces instead of carrying cash.
It was escape funds worn around their necks.
And I didn’t even know that—
I just threw that precious escape fund into my inventory.
He should’ve sold it to at least buy himself a meal.
I felt sorry for making that impossible for him.
There’s also something I regret a little.
I should’ve taught him more about boxing.
I should’ve corrected how he throws punches, opening from the shoulders first.
That way, he could’ve made his mark as a delinquent once he got out into society. That’s what I regret.
Is this how a master feels watching his disciple leave?
But who am I to worry about right now?
My own worries are a mountain.
Graduation is coming soon—how am I supposed to live now?
What should I do to survive?
That’s what worries me.
I’d like to go to university, but my grades are terrible.
They say there are places that’ll admit you just for submitting an application,
but I have no desire to waste money going somewhere strange.
Otherwise, I’d have to keep doing the Delivery Part-time Job like I am now,
but life is too long to live off just delivery work.
I don’t have to do the Delivery Part-time Job anymore.
That’s both the advantage and disadvantage of delivery work.
Whether your experience is one hour or thirty years, the pay per delivery is the same.
There’s no need to spend years becoming a delivery master.
There’s no reason to stick with just one path.
I can do delivery part-time work whenever I need to.
When that time comes, I’ll earn the same delivery fees as a thirty-year veteran.
I’d considered taking a trip like last time.
I have a motorcycle, after all.
And I still have money left over.
But that would be winter,
freezing cold,
and riding a motorcycle would make it even worse.
Traveling on a motorcycle down icy roads?
That’s absolutely not happening.
I’ll save the motorcycle trip for summer.
During class, I began mapping out my future plans.
After days of deliberation, I reached a decision.
“I’ll just enlist in the military.”

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