I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 168

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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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168 – Doksa Faction
168.
Daeyeon Development Chairman’s Office.
Dae-hun was still half-buried in the sofa, sipping coffee while browsing webtoons.
His legs propped up on the table, he chuckled softly with each swipe of the screen.
“Not working?”
The harsh words tumbled out before I could stop them.
For reasons I couldn’t explain, watching Seo Dae-hun loaf around like this twisted my insides.
I wanted nothing more than to torment him.
There was no real reason.
Dae-hun spoke without lifting his eyes from his phone.
“How many times do I have to say it? This is my job. I step back appropriately, and when someone does good work, I give them a pat on the back.”
This only irritated me further.
This bastard didn’t flinch at all.
There was no impact whatsoever.
No satisfaction.
“I must say, I’m deeply disappointed as a major shareholder.”
“Is that so? Then withdraw your investment and leave. I’ll pay you back in installments. Can we do 200,000 years of installments?”
I tried pressuring him as a major shareholder, but it didn’t land.
Geun-su entered while Dae-hun and I were exchanging meaningless banter since morning.
“Dae-hun hyung. Someone’s here to see you.”
Only then did Dae-hun tear his eyes from the webtoon.
He asked Geun-su with genuine surprise.
“Me? Who?”
“Cha Moon-seok from the Doksa Faction. He runs an organization in the Incheon area. He said he has something to discuss with you.”
“Tell him to come in.”
Dae-hun straightened up from his reclined position as he answered.
Moments later, the door opened and a middle-aged man with hints of white hair entered.
He appeared considerably older than both Dae-hun and me.
“Good morning. I’m Cha Moon-seok of the Doksa Faction. I greet you, hyung.”
He offered his greeting in a booming voice that belied his age, then bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle.
I couldn’t fathom how many people Dae-hun must have under his thumb for a man of Cha Moon-seok’s years to show such deference.
But when Cha Moon-seok noticed me standing beside Dae-hun, he visibly startled.
“I didn’t realize you were here, In-bae hyung. Please allow me to greet you properly. I’m Cha Moon-seok of the Doksa Faction.”
He bowed to me with the same ninety-degree respect he’d shown Dae-hun.
Ah… so Dae-hun doesn’t have people under his thumb.
My mistake.
“What brings you here so early? You came all this way.”
Dae-hun asked casually.
“I came because there’s something I need to discuss privately with you. It concerns In-bae hyung.”
“Me? Have you seen me before? How do you know who I am?”
“We met during the Busan campaign last time.”
“Ah. The Busan campaign.”
“Thanks to the money you gave us then, our organization was able to survive. I truly cannot thank you enough. You are the spiritual pillar of our Doksa Faction.”
“Don’t mention it. It wasn’t much—just some pocket change. Don’t worry about it.”
“No, sir. We were struggling terribly back then, and I had dark thoughts in my heart. But thanks to you, my organization and I were given a second chance at life. Of course, I’m also always grateful for how much attention Dae-hun has shown us.”
Cha Moon-seok stood up again and bowed respectfully.
“What did I help with? You all did the work. You’re keeping the drugs blocked, right?”
Dae-hun, embarrassed by the praise, changed the subject.
“Yes. We patrol once a day and send the men out to monitor the streets.”
“You’re doing well.”
“By the way, why did you come to see me? You said it was something related to me?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“What is it?”
“Yun Tae-gyeom from Taerim Group has ordered your elimination.”
“What?”
The three of us were all shocked.
But we were shocked for entirely different reasons.
Cha Moon-seok was shocked that such an order had been given,
Dae-hun was shocked that Yun Tae-gyeom would resort to such a move,
and I was.
Shocked by Yun Tae-gyeom’s pathetic intelligence network.
He still hadn’t figured out who I really was.
He’d only reached out to the Doksa Faction.
An utterly incompetent pool of resources.
“So what exactly did Yun Tae-gyeom say?”
“Just an order to kill him.”
Hearing that, I nearly laughed.
Sloppy bastard.
If you order a killing, you at least need to confirm the body.
You should demand the head be brought back.
You need to verify the corpse one way or another.
Photos won’t do.
They can be fabricated too easily.
To be absolutely certain, you drive a final blade through the heart—that’s how things worked in this world.
The man didn’t even know the basics.
Cha Moon-seok added carefully.
“From what I could sense, things seem to be going very badly within Taerim. Yun Tae-gyeom is the cause. It looks like he sees no way out for himself, so he’s desperately trying to drag others down with him.”
“Is that so?”
Listening to Cha Moon-seok’s words, I could roughly piece together what was happening.
I leaked word to the eldest son about 100 trillion won, and it seems to have spread.
He probably went around bragging about it.
After all, his younger brother’s mistake becomes his own trophy.
“By the way, hyung, what happened between you and Taerim Group?”
Cha Moon-seok asked with curiosity, but his tone was carefully measured.
“Huh? It’s nothing special.”
I tried to brush it off, but Dae-hun wasn’t the type to let things slide like that.
“Keke, nothing special my ass. In-bae has a woman he’s interested in. But Taerim Group marked her as a marriage candidate. So In-bae said, ‘Back off from that woman, and I’ll invest 100 trillion won.’ Hehehehe, but that bastard Yun Tae-gyeom refused. So we’re taking down Taerim Group. To stop the marriage.”
“Huh?”
Cha Moon-seok’s eyes widened in shock.
He was left speechless by the unexpected situation and its sheer scale.
100 trillion won. Taerim Group.
It was a combination difficult to fathom.
Investing 100 trillion won to stop a marriage,
and when that doesn’t work, destroying Taerim Group?
It made no sense.
But none of that mattered much.
There was a world Cha Moon-seok couldn’t understand—and it was vast.
Only one thought occupied Cha Moon-seok’s mind.
He’d made the right call coming here.
The people in front of him weren’t just ordinary gangsters.
They weren’t just slightly successful gangsters.
They possessed something far greater and more immense.
He had to pledge absolute loyalty.
“Why are you so shocked?”
“Ah… yes… I was shocked.”
When Dae-hun asked, Cha Moon-seok replied, his eyes still wide with astonishment.
“So from now on, treat In-bae well. If you’re loyal, you’ll live comfortably for life. Actually, you don’t even need to be loyal. Just do your job. But if you betray us… I think it’s better not to imagine that, don’t you?”
“Of course. That will never happen.”
Cha Moon-seok spoke with conviction.
Why are these bastards spouting useless nonsense?
They’re not asking what matters.
So I asked instead.
“But how do you know Taerim Group? Why did that order come to you?”
“We helped with Taerim jobs a few times back when we were doing contract work. Someone told us to go intimidate a few people, so we did. At some point, they started thinking of us like killers. Inside Taerim, they call us the ‘Emergency Response Team.’ But what does it matter what they call us? They give us rice cakes on holidays and spending money from time to time, so we didn’t bother correcting them.”
“I see. So what are you going to do about In-bae? Are you going to kill him?”
“What kind of thing is that to say? No. Absolutely not. This order came in, so I came straight here from morning to report it to you. Please don’t misunderstand.”
Cha Moon-seok was startled by Dae-hun’s playful question and quickly explained himself.
“Hmm… then should we say In-bae is dead? And later, if In-bae suddenly shows up, that would be hilarious.”
Dae-hun said.
This guy watches webtoons so much that his imagination has gotten better.
Webtoons really are the key to creativity.
But I hate it.
Rejected.
“I hate it. I hate that bastard being happy for even 1 second.”
At my words, Dae-hun looked at me with surprise.
“Then?”
Dae-hun asked back.
“The Doksa Faction all dies today.”
“Pardon?”
Cha Moon-seok suddenly went pale with fear.
“Scott.”
“Yes, sir.”
The moment Scott appeared, Cha Moon-seok’s face turned ashen.
“Please spare me just this once. I will be absolutely loyal.”
Cha Moon-seok pleaded desperately.
“You and the Doksa Faction—get them on the private jet and send them to the Philippines. Ten days? Let’s be generous—take twenty days and come back. When you return, everything will be taken care of.”
After a moment of thought, Cha Moon-seok finally understood the situation.
“You tried to kill me, and this is what you got for it. So starting today, you can’t be in contact. Leave your phone behind. Just go to the Philippines, have a blast, and come back.”
“Thank you, hyung.”
Cha Moon-seok, who had just been dead in his imagination but was now alive, offered his gratitude.
“Scott. Make sure you take good care of them.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they have a good time.”
After hearing Scott’s words, I looked at Cha Moon-seok and spoke.
“Have fun out there. Let’s see each other’s faces when you get back.”
“Thank you, hyung.”
Cha Moon-seok bowed at a ninety-degree angle just as he had when he arrived, then departed for Gimpo.
*********
“Vice Chairman, something terrible has happened.”
The door opened and the secretary entered, speaking urgently.
The moment Yun Tae-gyeom heard those words, his heart sank.
It felt as though his heart had plummeted to the depths.
What now?
An incident erupts every single day.
That guy’s “damn mess” happens constantly, without warning, without context, catching me off guard.
No announcement, no explanation.
They’re not trivial either.
Each one is a major incident.
Major incidents that would be difficult to handle if just one occurred in a year keep erupting these past few days.
No wonder people develop nervous breakdowns.
I’m going to lose my mind.
“What now?!”
Yun Tae-gyeom snapped irritably.
“The Emergency Response Team isn’t answering.”
“What?”
A foreboding sense of dread flooded Yun Tae-gyeom’s mind.
“They sent a message yesterday saying they were heading out to work, but since then—no calls, no responses.”
“Work takes time sometimes. It’s not unusual for them to be out of touch.”
Yun Tae-gyeom tried desperately to convince himself.
But the secretary shook his head.
“D-did you try tracking their location?”
“The last signal was from the Incheon Waterfront.”
Yun Tae-gyeom squeezed his eyes shut.
Something had definitely gone wrong.
Taerim Group’s vice president had vanished.
His position as successor was already ruined.
Even if Taerim Group survived, he would be completely cast out.
He’d already become “the idiot who threw away 100 trillion won.”
With good spin, he might pass for a romantic, but he’d never be seen as a capable executive.
That’s why.
Even if expelled from the group, he wanted to kill that bastard.
He wanted to eliminate him, but even that had fallen apart.
But there was something more important than that.
First, he had to solve this problem.
“Enough. Don’t say anything. Stay quiet. I never did this, never said this. Understood?”
“······.”
The secretary was confused by Yun Tae-gyeom’s cryptic words.
What was he talking about?
“I know nothing. It was all your doing out of loyalty. Got it?”
“Sir?”
Only then did the secretary grasp the situation.
Yun Tae-gyeom was dumping all responsibility onto him.
Suddenly, Yun Tae-gyeom’s expression shifted.
The performance had begun.
“Secretary Kim, I never took you for a violent man. And to think you’d order someone killed? I never wanted anything like that. How could you do such a thing…”
“Vice President!!!”
The secretary’s face went pale.
“That’s enough. I appreciate your loyalty, but wrong is wrong. Get out.”
Yun Tae-gyeom shook his head.
The secretary was led out by security personnel.
.
.
.
That evening, Yun Tae-gyeom headed to the wine bar instead of home.
Without alcohol, he couldn’t endure.
A private room at the far end of the wine bar.
As soon as I sat down, they brought in the drinks.
Once the alcohol was set up and the strong liquor entered his body, only then did it feel like blood was circulating again.
Knock, knock, knock.
“That’s enough. Don’t let anyone in today.”
Yun Tae-gyeom spoke with irritation.
Despite his command to keep people out, the door opened without permission.
The person who entered was neither the madam nor a waiter.
“You… who are you?”
Yun Tae-gyeom looked at me and jumped back as if he’d seen a ghost.
“What’s wrong? You’re making a face like someone you tried to kill has come back alive. Don’t make that expression. I’ll get the wrong idea.”
“···.”
Yun Tae-gyeom quickly regained his composure and asked, hiding his true feelings.
“What brings you here?”
“Oh! Now that I think about it, I’m not someone who drinks on credit, but I did last time. So I came to repay you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just think of it as hospitality. I do that for everyone. It’s nothing.”
Uncomfortable with my presence, Yun Tae-gyeom was eager to push me away.
But I couldn’t just leave like this.
“That’s your thinking, but I have my own philosophy about life. I don’t drink on credit.”
“Really, it’s fine.”
“I said I don’t like it. I’m going to repay you.”
I slowly poured alcohol into a glass as I spoke.
“So you’re buying me a drink?”
“Of course. Some idiot didn’t take 100 trillion, so I have plenty of money left over. Hehehehe.”
“Ugh”
“Drink plenty. Finish all the alcohol here. It might be your last drink.”
I pushed the glass toward Yun Tae-gyeom.
“What?”
“Why are you so surprised? Shouldn’t you have expected this much?”
Yun Tae-gyeom flinches slightly at my composure.
He seems to have just realized that I know everything.
“Hic”
Startled, Yun Tae-gyeom hiccupped.
“Because of you, the unit price didn’t work out. Several people who didn’t need to die are dead. Was it 12?”
“Thirteen, sir.”
Scott corrected me from the side.
“Thirteen innocent lives were taken, so we need thirteen from you to make it fair. Fourteen with interest. That’s how the math works out. You like calculations, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean.”
Yun Tae-gyeom spoke in a trembling voice.
“You need to take acting classes at an academy. Or develop some guts. Your face is so transparent—how are you pretending not to understand?”
“···.”
“Want me to explain something?”
“W-what is it?”
“You’re not included in the fourteen I’m taking.”
“What?”
“You won’t be among the fourteen I’m collecting. You’ll live. As a cripple. Tongue cut out, eyes gouged, arms severed—a useless wreck. Watch carefully as your precious Taerim Group crumbles while you can do nothing. Witness the consequences of your arrogance firsthand. Oh, but you won’t have eyes, will you? Then you’ll have to listen carefully instead.”
I explained it to him gently and clearly.
Exactly what would become of Yun Tae-gyeom.
Hearing my words, Yun Tae-gyeom trembled violently.
He immediately dropped to his knees.
“Don’t do this. Please forgive me just this once. I was wrong.”
He’d wanted to kill me rather than kneel before me.
But as death drew near, Yun Tae-gyeom’s knees buckled without anyone forcing him.
He began begging desperately.
“I’m begging you like this. Please spare my life just once.”
“Why would I? You’re not dying. Instead, we’ll kill those you wanted dead so badly—your brother, your father, and whoever else. It doesn’t matter who. We’ll handle it for you. We just need our fourteen. Remember that.”
I patted his shoulder.
“Please. I’m begging you. Please spare my life. I’m begging you.”
Yun Tae-gyeom was on his knees, hands and feet moving as he pleaded.
His head pressed to the ground.
“Hey, why aren’t you asking about Kwon Ju-ah?”
“Huh?”
Was my question strange?
Yun Tae-gyeom made a deflated sound.
“Isn’t she the woman you gave up 100 trillion won to protect? The woman you were willing to abandon Taerim Group for? Don’t you think you should at least ask where she is?”
“······”
“Have you lost interest already? Your heart cools so quickly. I’m glad I didn’t send her to you.”
“···..”
“So for the rest of your life, stop playing games with people. Don’t test anyone. Live with integrity. Scott, let’s start the procedure.”
“Here? It’s too dark here—I might make mistakes.”
Scott glanced around as he spoke.
“What, should I find you an operating room?”
“That would be appreciated.”
The cheeky bastard.
“A ‘professional’ complaining about the location. Why are you being so picky?”
“I’m being thorough about it. That’s what true professionals do.”
“Fine. Just do it.”
“Shall we take him to the workshop?”
On second thought, the workshop seemed like the better option.
“Should we? That would be better, wouldn’t it? For cleanup too?”
“Exactly.”
“Then let’s go.”
We knocked Yun Tae-gyeom unconscious and transferred him to the car.
.
.
.
Yun Tae-gyeom regained consciousness.
He’d had a nightmare.
In the dream, his hand was severed without anesthesia.
Blood sprayed everywhere, and he screamed.
He lost count of how many times he blacked out and came to from the pain.
Thank God it was just a dream.
In the dream, he tried to move his severed hand, but the sensation felt wrong.
Unfamiliar.
Something that should be there was missing.
His eyes snapped open and he looked at his hand.
Only then did he realize the world was dark.
Everything was pitch black.
He couldn’t see anything.
Could last night’s nightmare not have been a nightmare?
Was it real?
He wanted to scream, but his speech was slurred.
He tried to say something, but his words kept getting garbled.
He couldn’t feel his tongue.
He couldn’t even speak.
Then a radio broadcast came on.
“We have news that the Taerim Group family has died in a traffic accident. Early this morning near the Gyeongbu Expressway Chilgok Logistics Interchange, a 24-ton cargo truck, a trailer, and a sedan collided while heading toward Seoul. All members of the Taerim Group family in the sedan died at the scene.”
Yun Tae-gyeom’s body collapsed upon hearing the news.
Tears streamed from his sightless eyes.
He wailed from his voiceless mouth.
He thrashed about, but no one responded.
.
.
.
“Is this how I should read it?”
“Yes. Well done. Very good.”
“But is this real?”
“What do you mean?”
“The traffic accident involving Taerim Group people.”
“No. I recorded it for a project I’m working on.”
“Right? You gave me quite a scare.”
“Here’s your payment.”
As I handed over the money, the part-time worker accepted it with genuine delight.
“Thank you so much. If you need this kind of work again, please call me.”
“Sure. Go on inside.”
The Aspiring Announcer left.
In the place where he’d been sitting lay the script for the Taerim Group traffic accident.
No one from Taerim Group had actually died.
It was merely a performance to deceive Yun Tae-gyeom.
Live the rest of your life in atonement and remorse.
Live with the anguish that your entire family perished because of you.
That is the punishment you will receive.
Without seeing or speaking,
live knowing only the stories we tell you, understanding only what we reveal to you.
Think only of what we permit.
That is the true punishment I give you.
I became a black market magnate through my inventory.
168 – Doksa Faction
E-book Publication
/ January 9, 2026
Author
/ Black Card
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/ Son Je-ho
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/ Munpia
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/ 100 Won
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© Black Card, 2026
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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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