I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 153

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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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153 – Theft
153.
Incheon Triad Warehouse.
A large trailer loaded with a container pulled up to the front of the warehouse that the Triad Society had newly rented for Disand distribution.
The moment the vehicle stopped, Mao Qin was the first to rush forward.
Lin Jia-wei and Xu Hai-ping followed close behind.
“Open it.”
“Yes.”
Mao Qin handed over the key and spoke.
Xu Hai-ping accepted the key.
“Understood.”
Xu Hai-ping inserted the key into the lock.
But the lock wouldn’t turn.
It wouldn’t open.
“This… doesn’t seem to fit.”
“Impossible. We received it through international courier.”
“But it doesn’t fit. It won’t open.”
“That shouldn’t be possible…”
Xu Hai-ping tried inserting the key into the lock multiple times and turning it, but it wouldn’t open.
Lin Jia-wei beside him took the key and tried as well, but the result was the same.
A bad premonition flashed through Mao Qin’s mind, but he shook his head to dismiss it.
He thought it was a minor incident.
The keys could have been switched at the source, or the key might have been deformed during transport.
He thought it was entirely possible.
“Just break it open.”
“Yes.”
Lin Jia-wei brought tools and broke the lock.
The lock gave way easily.
When the door opened, the container was packed full of all sorts of goods.
It was filled with nuts imported from China, along with various candies and snacks.
Cheap electronics occupied the back section.
But none of this was necessary.
What I really needed was Disand.
Disand was all that mattered.
To be honest, I was anxious.
I was worried about getting caught by customs.
It was a route I used regularly, and they said it was safe.
But I couldn’t relax until it was in my hands.
Something could go wrong at any moment.
Especially in South Korea, where customs enforcement was particularly strict.
But…
The Disand. I can’t find the Disand.
Since Mao Qin couldn’t locate it, I had Lin Jia-wei and Xu Hai-ping search as well.
But they couldn’t find it either.
It’s gone.
The Driver watched them search through the container without unloading the cargo, his expression clearly displeased.
“Either the container got switched, or hurry up and unload the goods. I’m on a schedule.”
The Driver spoke while smoking a cigarette.
Lin Jia-wei, irritated by his words, glared at the Driver.
They were members of the Triad Society.
The Triad Society was working right now, and this man was rushing them?
That was practically a death wish.
In Southeast Asia, anyway.
But the Driver didn’t even flinch.
Instead, he took a deeper drag on his cigarette.
He was a max-level Driver who’d seen every flavor of cargo transport—bitter, sweet, and everything in between.
“Hey, stop glaring and just unload the goods already, will you?”
He actually scolded the Triad members.
Mao Qin decided to unload the cargo.
He would unload it and check again carefully.
Mao Qin hadn’t packed these items himself.
He’d only received the goods.
The Disand could be hidden deep inside these packages.
All the cargo was unloaded from the container.
The trailer left, and the goods were moved into the Warehouse.
“Unwrap them and check if the items are there.”
“Yes.”
“Check thoroughly.”
“Yes.”
At Mao Qin’s command, Lin Jia-wei and Xu Hai-ping diligently unwrapped the plastic wrapping and inspected the contents.
But the Disand was nowhere to be found.
They opened up appliances to check inside, flipped through all the food ingredients, but the Disand was nowhere to be seen.
“How… what do I do?”
I’d announced loudly that the sample was arriving, and now the sample had vanished.
It was unbelievable.
I had to check once more.
I called my uncle who had sent the goods.
“Uncle. You did ship the Disand, right?”
“Yeah. I sent a million units.”
“It’s not here.”
“What?”
“It’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone? That doesn’t make sense.”
“No matter how hard I look, the Disand is nowhere to be found.”
Mao Qin’s voice trembled.
A million units of Disand had vanished.
At the price the Triad Society distributed it, that was 1.7 billion won.
At market value, the amount was beyond calculation.
Even at cost, it was a sum that couldn’t be ignored.
And it had disappeared.
The shock was proportional to the joy I’d felt moments before.
I’d been spending every day lost in idle fantasies about occupying South Korea, imagining what I’d do.
It had all shattered in an instant.
Zhang Tian heard his cousin’s trembling voice and felt deeply uneasy.
“Let me look into this further.”
Zhang Tian hung up the phone.
Mao Qin sat in the warehouse, utterly dazed.
Shortly after, a photograph was sent to Mao Qin.
It appeared to be a photo taken after the container had been fully loaded.
Every item in the photograph was here in the warehouse.
Except for the Disand.
The photograph clearly showed the Disand.
But it wasn’t here.
I wondered if perhaps the container had been switched, but that wasn’t it.
The number matched, and the goods matched.
The container was intact, but only the Disand was missing.
It was enough to make even ghosts weep.
There was no way to know where it had disappeared.
I couldn’t even confront the port authority or the shipping company.
The candy wasn’t listed on the manifest.
It was literally contraband.
Overwhelmed with frustration, I heaved a sigh so deep it felt like the ground might collapse beneath me.
Watching Mao Qin like this, Xu Hai-ping spoke up.
“Team Leader, the lock didn’t fit earlier. Could it have been stolen? What if someone took it out along the way?”
Mao Qin was genuinely startled by those words.
I’d been so anxious about the Disand that I hadn’t checked that detail.
There should have been a seal thread, but I’d already torn it open, making it impossible to verify now.
But if someone had deliberately targeted the Disand and taken it somewhere along the route, then that would make sense.
But who could it be?
And why?
My head grew muddled.
Then Mao Qin’s phone rang.
It was Alex.
I didn’t want to answer.
But I had to.
“Yes, this is Mao Qin.”
“This is Alex.”
“Yes. What can I do for you?”
“We’d like to change the delivery location. Is that possible?”
“Pardon?”
“On second thought, there’s no need to receive it in Incheon. Please send it directly to Seoul instead.”
“Well…”
“If the shipping cost is a burden, we’ll cover it ourselves.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then I’ll assume we’re receiving it in Seoul. I appreciate your help. What time should we expect it tomorrow?”
Mao Qin hesitated.
What should I do?
I searched for an excuse.
But no suitable excuse came to mind.
I needed to deliver it by tomorrow, but even if the factory remade it and sent it, it would take at least twenty days.
A sigh escaped me.
I decided to be honest.
“I… I’m terribly sorry, but… the goods appear to have been… stolen.”
“Pardon? What did you say?”
Shock rang clearly through the receiver.
“St… stolen?”
“I sincerely apologize. I’ll make arrangements to obtain replacement samples as quickly as possible.”
“Sigh… We’ve planned all our events around that date.”
“I’m truly sorry.”
Alex’s voice on the other end softened slightly.
“Where was it stolen from? We can help you find it. If we set our minds to it, we’ll locate it quickly.”
“That’s… that’s the problem. I haven’t been able to determine where the theft occurred.”
“So you can’t find it at all?”
“That appears to be the case.”
“This is quite troublesome. What are we supposed to do? When can we receive the goods again?”
“I… I need to review the timeline again.”
“Understood for now. Let me know once you’ve decided on anything.”
“Yes.”
“But I must say, I’m deeply disappointed.”
“···..”
“The incident itself is troubling, but what’s truly disappointing is Zhong Lian Tong Da Trading’s attitude after the fact. If something was stolen, the proper procedure is to contact us immediately and say so—explain that you won’t make the scheduled delivery date, and tell us when you can resend it. Isn’t that the bare minimum?”
“I… I’m terribly sorry. We only just learned about this ourselves, so we were in complete disarray. My apologies.”
“Sigh… this is off to a rough start. Just contact me once everything is settled.”
“Yes…”
The moment the call ended, Mao Qin slumped down once more.
.
.
.
Zhang Tian, the chairman of the Triad Society, received Mao Qin’s call and felt deeply displeased.
Seeing his beloved nephew struggling like this stirred his pity.
But first, I needed to understand the situation.
Upon investigation, the lock hadn’t matched—apparently.
It seemed the goods had been stolen.
One million Disands.
Honestly, one million units wasn’t the real problem.
I could have them reproduced easily enough.
The raw materials and shipping costs would be substantial, but manageable.
The real issue was that Mao Qin appeared incompetent.
I had declared the occupation of South Korea and departed, yet achieved nothing of substance.
All I’d managed was a verbal agreement with the Dae-hoon Faction.
But even that had failed.
Because the Disands had vanished.
No matter how I thought about it, only the old foxes within the Triad Society would orchestrate something like this.
Those bastards had deliberately sabotaged Mao Qin’s mission.
I’d have to settle accounts with them.
I wouldn’t let this slide.
First, though, I needed to resume production of the Disands to send to Mao Qin.
We were already producing them, but I’d have to run the factories at full capacity around the clock to increase output.
Once I secured the Disands,
I’d figure out how to deal with those old foxes.
Zhang Tian’s mind was heavy with calculation.
*******
“This is the man.”
Scott handed over the tablet.
A resume was displayed on the screen.
A face I’d seen somewhere before.
“Hwang On-yu… wait? I know this bastard. Isn’t he from Hae-gwang Industrial?”
Looking at the photo on the tablet, I was certain now.
The guy who came all the way to the Philippines looking for Shin Jung-gi.
Wasn’t there also a Team Leader with him?
“But why the hell were these bastards marking me?”
“I’m not entirely certain about that. However, when Tian Zihao hacked into their system, he found they’d collected data on you, and there were records of them running your entry logs and facial recognition.”
Park Do-jin had run facial recognition across every airport but failed to locate Alex.
There was only one place.
The Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center—they hadn’t checked it.
They hadn’t anticipated he would arrive by private jet.
“They ran both entry logs and facial recognition? That’s pretty serious.”
Only then did I realize this wasn’t something to laugh off.
“Should we bring him in?”
“Who? Hwang On-yu?”
Scott’s words made me chuckle.
As long as he doesn’t get caught, we’re fine.
“Yes.”
“This bastard’s a National Intelligence Service black operative.”
“Is that a problem?”
But I remained confident nonetheless.
These guys ignored formal training.
No matter how much you learn through shortcuts, you can’t ignore proper methodology.
“If you all came at me trying to kill me, sure, I could manage that. But capturing? That’s different. You’d struggle to subdue me.”
“You fight that well?”
Scott asked in surprise.
“Not really—I’m just exceptionally good at running away. Protecting myself is absolutely flawless.”
Scott laughed in disbelief.
I’m serious though.
“We’ll bring him in no matter what.”
“Forget it. I’ll go myself. The thirsty man should dig the well.”
.
.
.
Hwang On-yu had just returned home after work.
He was exhausted.
He had no idea how severely the Team Leader had chewed him out for losing Gong In-bae.
The man had torn into him relentlessly.
Saying he couldn’t even capture a single person.
Questioning if he was even from the National Intelligence Service.
Normally, when a subordinate gets into a car accident, shouldn’t the first thing be to ask if they’re okay?
He hadn’t even been able to stop by the hospital before heading straight there.
All he’d received upon returning was criticism and contempt.
Honestly, he couldn’t understand it.
Why they were so obsessed with Gong In-bae.
As Gong In-bae, I’d done everything I could at that time.
I’d secured a hotel for us when we couldn’t book one, and I’d even found Shin Jung-gi.
How could I ask Gong In-bae for the ten million dollars that even the government had abandoned?
It’s frustrating.
I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.
The refrigerator’s light briefly illuminated the pitch-black home before fading away.
Pop—hisss.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
Ahhhhh.
I drained the entire 500ml can of beer in one go.
The cold beer going down seemed to improve my mood a bit.
“If there’s beer, why don’t you give me one too?”
Hearing a voice in his empty home, Hwang On-yu was startled and drew a knife from the kitchen.
“Who is it!”
“What’s all the fuss? Sit down. And bring the beer.”
“Who are you?”
“You’ve been following me around so much, and you don’t even recognize my voice?”
“Huh? Gong In-bae?”
“Yeah. I said sit down. And bring the beer.”
Hwang On-yu looked at Gong In-bae.
He considered subduing him right then and there.
But if he’d come this far, this man didn’t seem ordinary.
A coward wouldn’t have made it here.
And looking more closely, he was holding a gun in his hand.
The weight of it felt real—definitely not a toy.
While worrying about when South Korea had become a country where firearms could be brought in so easily, he went to Gong In-bae with the beer.
The two sat facing each other in the dark home.
Only moonlight streaming through the window illuminated them both.
As Hwang On-yu set down the beer, Gong In-bae naturally poured himself a drink and took a sip.
“Korean beer is a bit bland, but it has its own peculiar blandness to it.”
“…Why did you come?”
Hwang On-yu asked sharply.
But Gong In-bae remained unflappable.
“I was curious why you came.”
“Why what?”
“You’ve been following me around so much. I thought you were a stalker fan. I came to give you an autograph.”
“Pfft. You’ve got a good sense of humor.”
Hwang On-yu let out a slight laugh, exasperated.
“So why are you following me? Will you really give me an autograph?”
“What power do I have? I’m just doing what I’m told.”
Hwang On-yu was exhausted lately.
I hated doing things I didn’t want to do, and now being scolded for it only made me despise it even more.
So I just muttered to myself under my breath.
“Look, even if I speak tersely, I’d appreciate it if you could package my words nicely and explain them clearly according to the five W’s and one H, so I can actually understand what you’re saying.”
“Why should I?”
I wasn’t sure who I was angry at, but Hwang On-yu, dissatisfied with the situation, spoke with irritation.
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. The beer was good though.”
I stood up.
“Where are you going?”
Hwang On-yu asked, taken aback.
“Home. I don’t want to sleep here.”
“You came all this way just to say that?”
Hwang On-yu’s expression showed disappointment.
“No, the words don’t matter. You know better than anyone what it means that I came here today. Black’s cover is blown, my identity is exposed, my home is public knowledge. What else do you need?”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“It’s not a threat—it’s just informing you of the facts. Anyway, since someone from above ordered it, I’ll come out once someone takes care of things. It’s getting late. I’m leaving.”
My confidence infuriated Hwang On-yu.
He was furious that the National Intelligence Service seemed to be disrespected.
“Do we really seem that easy to you?”
Hwang On-yu shouted.
But I didn’t care at all.
I spoke with the same smooth tone.
“Be grateful to me. You’re going to get promoted.”
“What?”
“All your superiors are going to die.”
“What are you talking about?”
Hwang On-yu’s expression hardened at my words.
It was an expression of disbelief.
“For someone called Black, you’re really slow on the uptake. I’m glad I didn’t join Black. If I had, I’d probably be making that same stupid expression right now.”
“···..”
“Then I’ll see you when you get promoted. I’ll send flowers.”
As I stood up, Hwang On-yu grabbed me urgently.
“What do you want to know? Just tell me why you were chasing me.”
“For now?”
“I’ll tell you. Everything. But spare the people. They made mistakes this time, but they’re not bad people.”
“That’s where we differ. They abuse state authority on a whim and you say they’re not bad people? Are you stupid? Or do you think the National Intelligence Service is some neighborhood convenience store you can do whatever you want with?”
“That’s··· that’s···”
“Never mind. Just tell me why you were chasing me.”
Hwang On-yu took a sip of beer and slowly began his story.
Starting from when they saw us at Geun-su’s wedding.
They had tried to frame me over a grudge that started in the Philippines.
But then a forged passport surfaced, and they wanted to make things even worse for me with that.
“Sigh… why do you people always make things so complicated?”
Hearing that, I was genuinely speechless.
They were causing all this trouble over something so trivial.
“Exactly. I don’t understand it either, but what can I do? I’m just following orders.”
Hwang On-yu spoke as if he’d given up on everything.
He drained the last of his beer.
“I’m going to make you a Team Leader.”
“What do you mean?”
Hwang On-yu asked, taken aback.
“Exactly what I said. I’m going to promote you to Team Leader.”
“How?”
“I’m going to try doing the same thing.”
“The same thing as what?”
“I’m going to give that bastard a taste of his own medicine. If he’s done something wrong, something will come out. Heh heh.”
“…What are you trying to do?”
“You just stay put. I’ll handle the rest.”
Through my inventory, I had become a magnate of the black market.
153 – Theft
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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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