I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 238

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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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238 – Enough?
238.
On the outskirts of Zurich.
Eduardo returned to the Winery and
cautiously made his way to the basement.
As he opened the heavy iron door and stepped inside,
Rodrigo was sitting on the sofa.
A cigar in one hand,
he appeared to be lost in deep thought.
The moment I saw Rodrigo,
my breath caught, but I composed myself and entered naturally as if nothing were amiss.
“Did the meeting go well?”
Rodrigo asked lightly, observing Eduardo.
“Yes? ···Yes. Yes, yes. It went well.”
A brief silence.
Rodrigo’s brow furrowed.
Something was off.
Given Eduardo’s nature,
if the negotiation had gone smoothly, he would have been chattering away by now.
Smiling,
gesturing animatedly,
boasting as if he’d accomplished something remarkable.
But now···
he was quiet.
And he was hiding something.
Rodrigo slowly straightened his back against the sofa.
“Come here. Sit down.”
His voice was low.
Eduardo sat in the seat across from him.
Rodrigo tapped ash into the ashtray as he spoke.
“Tell me everything that happened there, every expression you made—don’t leave out a single detail.”
Under Rodrigo’s piercing gaze,
Eduardo swallowed hard.
“Nothing much happened. First… he had terrible manners.”
Eduardo spoke while avoiding eye contact.
Rodrigo simply stared at Eduardo without saying a word.
That silence pressed down on Eduardo even harder.
Unable to bear that gaze any longer, Eduardo continued.
“Ahem. As soon as I arrived, he asked why I was called, said if I had nothing to say he’d go home. Then he said we’d be working together, so I suggested we grab a meal to get closer. But he shot back—why would we need a personal relationship to work? He was really cutting.”
“And then?”
“I handled it appropriately. Friendship isn’t necessary for business. Instead, I told him the food here was excellent and suggested he stay for a meal, then casually brought up the new venture.”
“What was the reaction?”
“Cautious, but he showed interest.”
“And then?”
“I kept pushing. Working with us would be far faster and more stable than working with Mateo. I also told him I’d personally compensate the representative and fulfill any requests he might have.”
“Hmm···”
Rodrigo nodded after hearing this much.
It wasn’t as bad as expected.
In fact, it had gone rather well.
The representative had no choice but to react sharply,
and Eduardo had handled it adequately.
If he’d shown interest,
then a favorable impression had been planted.
That was excellent.
“Is there anything else?”
I asked, just in case.
At that moment.
Eduardo’s gaze wavered.
“He asked several things.”
“What did he ask?”
“Numbers. He said he needed to know how many of our people are inside before he could report to his superiors. He kept asking for that number.”
Silence.
“So what did you tell him?”
Rodrigo’s voice dropped.
“I said roughly ten executives are on our side. We’re currently recruiting, so we should reach fifteen···. The security team, operations team, logistics, and intelligence team are with us, so the operation should···proceed···without···any···problems···”
Eduardo’s words grew slower and more indistinct.
Thud.
Rodrigo crushed the cigar he’d been holding in the ashtray.
Rodrigo’s hand stopped.
Only then did Rodrigo understand exactly what that nagging discomfort had been.
‘We were played.’
It wasn’t a negotiation—it was an interrogation.
Eduardo, unprepared,
had spilled everything without any resistance.
Eduardo couldn’t lift his head.
He knew it himself.
That he’d crossed the line.
But Rodrigo didn’t lose his temper.
Fury burned within him, but he barely contained it.
For Eduardo, there was no helping it.
It was Eduardo who suggested meeting first and set up the arrangement.
He would never have imagined that the other party had turned the tables on him.
Eduardo had been caught completely off guard.
My mind raced rapidly.
‘There’s nothing to gain by pressing Eduardo here and now.’
Eduardo was a colleague I had worked with for a long time.
And he was one of Parallax’s executives.
There was no benefit in destabilizing someone on my own side.
This was a situation where I needed every hand I could get.
We needed one more person on our side.
There was no reason to anger him and drive him away.
Cutting ties would only hurt us more.
It was frustrating, but there was no choice.
I had to accept it.
I asked, just in case something had been left out.
“Is that all? Did you happen to mention the executives’ names?”
“No, I didn’t mention any names. That’s everything I told them.”
At least that was a relief.
I couldn’t be sure how the Alex Group would use this information,
whether they were truly asking to gauge Rodrigo’s position,
or if they were trying to pass it on to Mateo,
or if they were simply probing for intelligence.
But if names hadn’t come up,
there was still room to maneuver.
What was already exposed was exposed.
There was no point dwelling on it.
What mattered was what came next.
“Is there anything else unusual?”
“No, there isn’t.”
Eduardo answered briefly.
Eduardo didn’t mention that Alex’s representative had instructed him to call himself ‘Alex’.
It wasn’t that he was trying to hide it.
He simply thought it was irrelevant information.
He had dismissed it as a joke and moved on.
After a moment of reflection, Rodrigo issued an order.
“We accelerate the timeline.”
“Sir?”
“They might catch on. We don’t have time to hesitate. Call Carlos. And get the South American operatives ready.”
Caught off guard by the sudden shift,
Eduardo simply stared at Rodrigo.
But Rodrigo seemed to have already made his decision.
“The one who strikes first wins now.”
*******
Zamboanga.
Unity Town.
It was already night when we arrived.
It was so late that I intended to head straight to my lodging,
but on the way, I noticed that the lights in Shin Jung-gi’s Research Laboratory were still on.
I hesitated for a moment, then turned my steps toward it.
At the very least, I felt I should tell Shin Jung-gi about the situation directly.
Knock, knock.
I knocked and opened the door.
Shin Jung-gi was sitting in his usual spot, as always.
A simulation was running on the monitor,
and blueprints, shell casings, and disassembled components lay scattered haphazardly across the desk.
His hands moved with restless energy.
Shin Jung-gi turned his head slowly, his eyes unfocused, to acknowledge me.
“You’ve come?”
“Yeah. How have you been?”
An awkward, stilted greeting passed between us.
I took a breath to compose myself and spoke to Shin Jung-gi.
“Adrian is dead. Somewhere underground in Luxembourg.”
Shin Jung-gi’s hands, which had been moving ceaselessly, stopped.
The room fell silent.
Only the sound of a fan—whether from the refrigerator or the computer, I couldn’t tell—filled the air.
Shin Jung-gi said nothing,
but his mind seemed to be processing the information he had just received.
And soon, his hands began to move again.
“…And so?”
“It’s over. You can let go now.”
I spoke as gently as I could.
As if to comfort Shin Jung-gi.
But.
Shin Jung-gi’s thoughts seemed to differ.
“Was your revenge complete just by killing Adrian?”
His voice was low.
My attempt at comfort seemed to have done little to help Shin Jung-gi.
“Isn’t that enough? At least we found and killed the one who gave the order. And we’ll be taking over Parallax as well. There’s nothing left for Parallax.”
Shin Jung-gi looked at me once.
His gaze was far too sharp.
“I see things quite differently. That’s not what I think at all.”
“What?”
“I don’t think Dennis will be able to rest easy with just that.”
“What are you talking about?”
My voice rose.
Honestly, it was a reaction I hadn’t anticipated at all.
“Exactly what I said. Adrian’s death alone won’t complete Dennis’s revenge.”
“Adrian is dead, and we’ve taken Parallax into our own hands—what more perfect revenge could there be?”
I pressed him, my tone sharp.
This was enough.
“······”
But Shin Jung-gi said nothing.
“Let’s end this here. It feels right to finish it this way.”
A brief silence stretched on.
I thought the conversation was over.
I thought Shin Jung-gi had accepted it.
So I turned to leave, but Shin Jung-gi’s voice cut through.
“End it? Like this? Just like this? As if it’s nothing?”
Shin Jung-gi, who had been sitting, rose to his feet.
The chair scraped against the floor with an irritating screech.
Shin Jung-gi walked toward me.
He looked directly into my eyes and spoke.
“Was Dennis… was Dennis so insignificant to you that killing Adrian alone would be enough?”
Shin Jung-gi growled near my ear.
It wasn’t anger.
It was longing.
I pretended not to notice Shin Jung-gi’s pain.
I forced out an excuse.
“Revenge is sufficient with this. If we continue, there will only be greater losses. So it’s right that we stop here.”
“Sufficient? Who says it’s sufficient?”
Shin Jung-gi shouted.
I thought Shin Jung-gi was too agitated.
I called his name to calm him down.
“Shin Jung-gi!!”
But it didn’t calm him at all.
“They all have to die. Every bastard under him. Those beside him, behind him, even those who’ve crossed his path once—they all have to be erased. Not a trace should remain where they stood. That’s revenge. Killing Adrian and calling it done? Does that make sense? If we end it like this, I won’t even be able to face Dennis in death.”
Shin Jung-gi cried out.
He was venting years of pent-up emotion.
Shin Jung-gi wasn’t wrong.
Our paths simply diverged in direction.
Shin Jung-gi wanted to erase everything about Parallax.
Not a name, not a trace, not even a scent—he wanted nothing left behind.
For Shin Jung-gi, that was revenge.
But I disagreed with him.
If we continued seeking revenge, casualties were inevitable,
and every plan we’d constructed to swallow Parallax would crumble to dust.
We didn’t have to consume Parallax.
But our desire to swallow Parallax wasn’t about needing their funds or influence.
It was about eliminating a potential threat.
If Parallax remained, they would threaten us again someday.
They would attack us to covet the Fandom Grid and seize the Asian Market.
I wanted to avoid pointless conflict,
and I was taking over Parallax to prevent risk.
Once we became a single company, at least we wouldn’t point guns at each other.
But Shin Jung-gi didn’t seem to like that.
He seemed to think that revenge meant erasing everything bearing the Parallax name.
“We need to take Parallax. That’s the only way to prevent greater damage. That’s all.”
“So we’re making money, not preventing damage.”
Shin Jung-gi spoke mockingly.
“That’s not it. If Parallax survives, they’ll attack us again someday. I just want to stop that.”
“That’s revenge? ··· That’s not revenge. That’s business.”
I couldn’t deny Shin Jung-gi’s words.
Whether I wanted it or not,
this was becoming business.
“It may have become business, but it’s not about making money. What Dennis wanted was for us to survive. Not war.”
Shin Jung-gi glares at me.
His gaze is too sharp.
His eyes cut like blades, carving through me.
“How would you know what Dennis wanted?”
I couldn’t answer.
Shin Jung-gi roughly pulled the USB from the computer.
And in that state, he spoke.
“What Dennis wants is for Parallax to disappear.”
“··· Then it never ends. The war will continue.”
“Then we keep going.”
“If we keep going··· more people will die.”
“I don’t care.”
“I just want to prevent greater damage.”
“I just want to avenge Dennis, that’s all.”
Our conversation had no end.
We were simply running endlessly in opposite directions.
“Please… don’t do this.”
“… Is that an order?”
I didn’t answer.
Or rather, I couldn’t answer.
“I’ll handle Dennis’s revenge myself. Don’t worry about it. This is my war.”
Shin Jung-gi gripped the USB drive tightly in his hand.
Shin Jung-gi walked toward the door.
He paused before opening it.
“Thank you for everything. I mean it sincerely.”
Shin Jung-gi spoke without turning back.
Bang.
Then he opened the door and left.

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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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