I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 50

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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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050-Geumho Gang
50.
The dump truck was barreling toward Yun Ki-hwan, but there was nothing he could do.
All he could manage was to wrap his hands around his head and curl his body into a ball.
In that position, I braced myself for the impact.
My face contorted as I prepared for the collision,
but the impact never came.
All I heard was the screech of brakes as the vehicle came to an abrupt stop.
I lifted my head, trying to assess the situation,
but the headlights were so blindingly bright that I couldn’t see ahead.
Then came a voice.
“It would’ve been perfect if I’d crushed you with the dump truck, but what a shame.”
A familiar voice. It was Seo Dae-hun.
“So it was you, you bastard.”
Recognizing his opponent as Seo Dae-hun, Yun Ki-hwan’s confidence surged.
He was certain he could handle someone like Seo Dae-hun.
And Yun Ki-hwan had a weapon.
He drew the pistol he’d tucked into his waistband and aimed it at Seo Dae-hun.
“Damn it, I never should’ve let you set foot in Gunsan. You should’ve died back then. Go send your regards to your father.”
Click. Click-click-click-click.
Yun Ki-hwan pulled the trigger, but all he heard was the hollow sound of an empty gun.
Confused about what went wrong, Yun Ki-hwan flipped the pistol around to inspect the chamber.
“Look at that. You can tell you never served in the military. Who checks a gun by looking down the barrel, you idiot.”
“What?”
“There’s no magazine in the gun. I came to deliver it.”
“What did you say?”
The moment the words left his mouth, Seo Dae-hun rushed at Yun Ki-hwan.
Yun Ki-hwan tried to defend himself, but he was already in his fifties.
Having spent so long in the cold seawater, Yun Ki-hwan was no match for Seo Dae-hun.
In an instant, the gun was torn from his grasp and his body slammed onto the asphalt. The impact was severe enough to draw a groan from him.
“Ugh… ah…”
Seo Dae-hun crouched down beside the groaning Yun Ki-hwan.
“Do you know why I didn’t crush you with the dump truck? Why I even hit the brakes to keep you alive?”
“…”
“Because I was afraid your suffering would be over too quickly. I felt bad about that. So I changed my mind at the last moment.”
“What the hell.”
“The weather today is really beautiful. Perfect swimming weather.”
“What kind of insane talk is that? It’s late autumn. And it’s nighttime.”
“I just enjoy swimming at night. It’s nice. When else would you get an opportunity like this?”
“Damn it, I’ll freeze to death. What swimming?”
“I’m making you swim so you freeze to death.”
“What?”
“You’re going to die from hypothermia. Shivering in the water like that.”
“You think I’m actually going in the water? Not a chance.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll put you in myself.”
“You crazy bastard.”
Yun Ki-hwan threw another punch at Seo Dae-hun,
but the punch had no force behind it.
It wouldn’t have hurt even if it landed.
Seo Dae-hun simply stood there and took the blow.
“Are you satisfied now? No regrets left?”
“Get lost. You son of a bitch.”
“Well then. Shall we go die now?”
Seo Dae-hun dragged Yun Ki-hwan to the edge of the embankment and hurled him into the seawater.
Splash.
The late autumn seawater was bitterly cold.
“Ahhhhhhhhh.”
Yun Ki-hwan’s screams pierced the night.
“You’ve been drowsy and dazed since earlier, right? That’s the early stages of hypothermia. Your face was pale.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Yun Ki-hwan kept trying to climb back onto the embankment, but Seo Dae-hun blocked him.
As long as Seo Dae-hun was blocking him, he couldn’t get back to land.
Yun Ki-hwan wanted to swim elsewhere to escape,
but Yun Ki-hwan couldn’t swim.
Whenever he tried to move sideways and climb up, Seo Dae-hun followed him.
There was the option of swimming all the way to Gunsan to prevent Seo Dae-hun from following,
but the nearest point in Gunsan from here was over 10 kilometers away.
Swimming across over 10 kilometers of sea?
Even skilled swimmers would find that nearly impossible.
And in the dark sea at that.
“Why are you doing this to me? Huh? Even when you were running wild in Gunsan, I pretended not to see it out of old loyalty. I made sure you could survive. So why are you doing this? You ungrateful bastard.”
“Hahahaha. Ungrateful? You’re the ungrateful one. I picked you up off the streets when you were just extorting people, made you into someone, and you repaid me with betrayal. Why did you do it? Why did you do that to my father? It’s not like I didn’t do anything for you.”
“Hehehehe. Why did I do it? For money, of course. If Moon Sik had just had a bit more business sense, he wouldn’t have died like that.”
“Right. My father died because he lacked business sense. And you’re dying because you have too much of it. Damn, life is hard. You die without it, and you die with it.”
“Let’s not do this. We’ve done enough already. Get me out. You need to take over the Geumho Gang now. I always thought you’d come back to the Geumho Gang. That’s why I was holding it for you temporarily. You need to take it over now.”
“Hahahaha. A guy like you pulled a knife? If I take over the Geumho Gang twice, I’ll be chopped to pieces.”
“No. It’s a misunderstanding. So get me out.”
“Let’s see our values from now on.”
“I’m… s-so… c-cold.”
His speech was becoming slurred.
It’s one of the symptoms caused by hypothermia.
This is the intermediate stage.
The symptoms will only worsen from here.
The cold sea rapidly strips away body heat.
And so Seo Dae-hun stood in the biting wind, watching Yun Ki-hwan die from hypothermia.
How long had he been like this?
His pupils dilated, his face turning ashen.
“Please… boss. You can do this.”
“I’ll hold on… I promise.”
He seemed to be seeing things that weren’t there.
Was he mistaking Seo Dae-hun for Seo Moon-sik?
His movements grew weaker by the moment.
He no longer even tried to swim back to shore.
He lost consciousness.
No breath.
No movement.
Seo Dae-hun kicked the motionless body of Yun Ki-hwan with all his strength.
Yun Ki-hwan couldn’t resist the force and was pushed away.
Slowly, gradually, he drifted farther from the embankment.
And so he was carried toward the West Sea.
*******
This is the next news.
Last evening, the Geumho Gang, a violent criminal organization that has been operating in the Gunsan area of Jeollabuk Province, was arrested by police on charges of drug trafficking.
The Jeollabuk Provincial Police Wide Investigation Unit conducted raids on Gunsan Port and Yami Island Dock, among other locations, arresting twelve Geumho Gang members on the spot and seizing three kilograms of methamphetamine. The seized drugs have an estimated street value of approximately ten billion won.
Additionally, illegal firearms were discovered at the scene, leading police to believe the Geumho Gang was also involved in weapons trafficking, and they have expanded their investigation accordingly.
However, Yun Ki-hwan, the boss of the Geumho Gang, fled the scene just before his arrest, and his whereabouts remain unknown. Police are focusing their search on airports and ports, suspecting he may have attempted to flee overseas.
The Geumho Gang is a violent criminal organization that has expanded its influence centered around Gunsan’s ports and entertainment districts. Police have launched a large-scale investigation into the organization’s funding sources and related crimes in light of this incident.”
.
.
The Geumho Gang, which had been the absolute power in Gunsan, collapsed overnight.
Was it because they had held the throne too long without any challengers?
Was it because Yun Ki-hwan’s influence had been so overwhelming?
With their captain gone, the Geumho Gang rapidly fractured from within.
Internal power struggles erupted throughout the organization.
Because Yun Ki-hwan had held all the organization’s power in his hands,
the moment he disappeared, hyenas came swarming from every direction, desperate to seize that power for themselves.
In an instant, the age of warring states had begun.
At first, they hesitated, wondering if Yun Ki-hwan might return.
But when days passed with no word from him, they quietly drew their blades.
Perhaps this time I could be the one to take over the organization, they fantasized.
I entered the conflict with barely a handful of forces, hoping to seize the throne.
A bloody struggle erupted within the Criminal Organization.
As a result.
No one managed to claim the throne properly—only blood spilled endlessly.
When everyone grew exhausted from the endless fighting, the Dae-hoon Faction made their move.
A house robbery.
The Geumho Gang couldn’t mount any real resistance and was simply absorbed into the Dae-hoon Faction.
.
.
Gunsan Night Club.
A nightclub operated by Jo Dong-jin.
Jo Dong-jin had also participated in this great conflict and suffered severe losses.
He’d hoped to seize just two small bars modestly, but Jo Dong-jin wasn’t the only one eyeing them.
Locusts from all directions swarmed in,
and he barely escaped with his life, unable to secure even the bars.
Several of his subordinates sustained serious injuries.
He’d barely managed to flee to the nightclub,
when Seo Dae-hun came demanding the nightclub for himself.
From Jo Dong-jin’s perspective, it was honestly overwhelming.
Truthfully, he still didn’t know much about Seo Dae-hun’s abilities,
and Jo Dong-jin’s own physical condition wasn’t in good shape either.
It was a fight he didn’t want.
“You came all the way here? Were you just going to walk past and pretend not to notice?”
“I was thinking about it, but the stench of garbage here was so strong I couldn’t just ignore it.”
“You still talk like shit, I see. Should I have beaten you more back then?”
“I think I already got beaten enough back then. You just got tired and stopped hitting me.”
“Did I? It’s been so long, my memory’s a bit fuzzy.”
“Let me ask you one thing. But why did you beat me like that back then?”
“Are you fucking stupid? Or just dull? You didn’t know? Yun Ki-hwan told me to do it. He handed out money to the guys and told them to keep your head down. I didn’t have any particular feelings toward you.”
“I see. Now I understand. I guess I was being pretty stupid.”
“So what now? Should I just hand over the business?”
“Well, that’s obvious, but I’d like to collect some interest on the money you received for beating me back then.”
“Isn’t handing over the nightclub’s operating rights enough as interest?”
“Why are you like this? You got it taken from you, so why are you acting like you’re the one giving it? Damn, I almost tripled it.”
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’, you bastard. This operating right isn’t something you’re giving me—it’s something I earned. So you can’t put it on the scale. Put something else on there.”
Jo Dong-jin let out a soft laugh, then pulled out his wallet and tossed it over.
“I’m a spendthrift, so I don’t have much. Take this if you want.”
“Kekeke. Am I a beggar? You’re giving me scraps to pick up. Haha. If I’d known you were this entertaining, I should’ve gotten close to you earlier. What a shame.”
“So what do you actually want?”
“An arm. A leg.”
“What? This crazy bastard won’t shut his damn mouth?”
“I’ll let you choose which one.”
“You think I’ll just take this lying down? I’m Jo Dong-jin. The mad dog of Gunsan.”
“Mad dogs need discipline. A beating is the cure. Pick one, or I’ll choose for you.”
“Damn it.”
Jo Dong-jin rushed forward, throwing a punch.
A raw, untrained fist—pure instinct.
A crude punch born of nothing but athletic ability hurtled toward Seo Dae-hun.
Seo Dae-hun slipped it effortlessly, threw a left jab, then opened his hand at the last moment to deliver a slap across the face.
Crack! Crack!
Jo Dong-jin raged at being slapped instead of punched, but he couldn’t defend against it.
The slaps came from impossible angles.
He couldn’t predict their trajectory.
At first, the slaps stung his pride, but as they kept coming, the cumulative impact was devastating.
Not punches—slaps.
His mouth was bleeding, his cheeks burning.
Jo Dong-jin barely landed a single strike.
Now he realized the problem: distance.
He couldn’t give Seo Dae-hun space—not with that speed.
By keeping distance, he was just feeding himself to Seo Dae-hun’s superior velocity.
He needed to close the gap.
Jo Dong-jin drove into Seo Dae-hun’s embrace.
Seo Dae-hun watched him charge and smiled slightly.
He drew a blade from behind his back.
Wait—
Jo Dong-jin tried to stop, but he’d already committed too much momentum.
The cold edge of the blade slid deep beneath his right armpit.
“Aaaahhhhh!!!”
“Guess you’ll need to practice using chopsticks with your left hand. If you want to eat and survive, that is.”
“Aaaahhhhh.”
“And to use a crutch properly with your left hand, you’ll need to lose the left leg, right?”
“Don’t you dare! Let go! You bastard!”
Despite Jo Dong-jin’s screams, Seo Dae-hun swept his leg and sent him crashing to the ground.
Pinning the fallen Jo Dong-jin beneath him, Seo Dae-hun grabbed his left leg.
“You had fun beating and hitting me, didn’t you? This is payback for what you did. Take it well, you dog.”
Seo Dae-hun slashed Jo Dong-jin’s Achilles tendon with the blade.
“Aaaahhhhh.”
Jo Dong-jin’s screams continued, but no one stepped in.
No one could.
My body was already worn down from fights elsewhere, and that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Seo Dae-hun’s subordinates were being held back from intervening.
Seo Dae-hun got to his feet.
He spoke to Jo Dong-jin’s men, who were merely watching the situation unfold.
“Anyone who wants to fight, step forward. Loyalty, honor, revenge—whatever your reason, I don’t care. I’ll take you on. But if you don’t want to fight and you want to join me instead, then kneel.”
Every single one of Jo Dong-jin’s subordinates dropped to their knees.
*******
“Do you feel relieved?”
On the waters off Gunsan, where the sound of waves echoed,
Dae-hun and I clinked our soju glasses together.
A month had passed since the Geumho Gang was arrested.
In that remarkably short span of time, the Dae-hoon Faction had swiftly taken control of the Gunsan region.
We absorbed the Geumho Gang and transformed them into the Dae-hoon Faction.
There would certainly be more problems—large and small—ahead, but those were issues Dae-hun would have to handle.
I arranged the drug trades,
I hijacked the narcotics and delivered them by boat—my role was complete.
The rest fell to Dae-hun.
Dae-hun had completed his revenge and expanded the organization significantly, yet
his expression didn’t seem particularly bright.
His mind must have been complicated.
Mine was the same.
The moment I killed Derek Meyer remains vivid, but it’s not a pleasant memory.
Unless my brothers came back alive, what good would killing someone like Derek Meyer do?
But I couldn’t let that bastard live either.
That’s what revenge is.
Dae-hun might be feeling the same way I am.
“I don’t feel relieved at all. I don’t know what it is. Everything went according to plan, but it feels hollow inside. It’s like eating without actually tasting the food.”
“That’s because you’ve been eating nothing but chicken breast.”
Dae-hun laughed.
“Hehehehe. Really?”
“Yeah. You need some salt and seasoning in your food to actually feel like you’ve eaten something.”
“So that’s why I feel so empty inside?”
“Probably.”
“Then should we eat properly tonight?”
“Sounds good.”
We ate our fill of the lavish spread before us.
The entire Dae-hoon Faction gathered for a celebration dinner.
I don’t know if the food we ate tonight could truly fill the hollow ache in Dae-hun’s heart.
But at least it would give him the strength to take another step forward.
Tonight, we could shift the mood, if only for a moment.
That’s sufficient.

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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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