I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 53
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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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053-Warehouse
53.
I am not a good person.
No one needs to tell me that.
I know it well enough myself.
I have killed people and stolen things.
I am absolutely not a good person.
And I have no desire to become one.
I simply live as a villain.
Yet I still make an effort to keep my promises.
Promises are not something forced upon you.
They are mutual agreements.
Want to meet at 7 today?
Then you just show up at the meeting place by 7.
If 7 won’t work, you change the time to 8.
If 8 doesn’t work either, you reschedule or meet another day.
It’s always something that can be discussed between both parties.
Once you’ve set a promise like that, you keep it.
Because you negotiated in order to keep it.
Yet sometimes there are people who make promises and don’t keep them.
I find such people extremely rude.
I don’t understand why they make promises they won’t keep.
Well… greed can take hold.
They might want to pocket the money without providing the bullets.
I understand that.
Greed is instinct.
It’s difficult for reason to overcome instinct.
The more foolish someone is—too foolish to even keep a promise—the harder it is for them to resist their instincts.
That’s why I understand.
If he had simply taken the money and disappeared, I might have just cursed him once and moved on.
The 50 million won I gave him for the bullets would have been a loss, but I could have let it go.
Greed is instinct, after all.
That’s the limit of that fool’s nature.
But he took his greed far too far.
A kidnapping?
That crossed the line.
Was it because of the older men?
I despise it when my people are hurt or attacked.
No matter how much of a nuisance someone is,
no matter how inexperienced they still are.
If we eat together and hang out together, aren’t they my people?
And my people got kidnapped.
The guy who promised to deal with me didn’t keep his word, and he kidnapped my people.
He didn’t give me the bullets, and he kidnapped Scott too.
I have no intention of tolerating such disrespect.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I fired first before Scott could take another hit.
Three men dropped to the ground,
and the enemies scattered in an instant.
I changed positions.
Bullets came flying at the spot where I’d just been standing.
As expected of black market weapons dealers, they seemed to be carrying arms on them.
I repeated the pattern of moving, firing, and moving again.
Three more fell in the process, and Scott, who seemed a bit outmatched, took down two on his own.
They say Scott fights well, and it wasn’t a lie.
Even the blow to the back of his head seemed fine.
That’s a relief.
The enemies stayed hidden, but I kept moving and firing.
Apparently startled by the unexpected turn of events, the enemy Boss called out to me.
“Who are you? Who the hell are you?”
“What’s the point of knowing a name when you’re about to die anyway?”
“Why would I die?”
Did you kidnap someone without even the courage to face the consequences? That’s reckless.”
“Wait… you misunderstood this as a kidnapping?”
“A misunderstanding?”
Bang.
The Boss lifted his head slightly, so I fired a shot near him.
“I surrender. Don’t shoot. Everyone, put your hands up.”
The Boss ordered his men, and they all came out with their hands raised.
Only three of them could walk out properly.
The Boss spoke while keeping his hands up.
“It’s a misunderstanding, I tell you.”
“Then explain.”
“We couldn’t bring the bullets, so we brought him here to give them to you.”
“You hit your customer on the back of the head and brought him here? Is that your style? Quite violent, isn’t it?”
Meanwhile, Scott went to the men, searched their bodies, and bound them with cable ties.
Whatever this place was, it was stacked with cable ties, chains, and plastic sheets.
Scott carefully collected the weapons, wallets, and phones from their bodies.
He forced them to their knees.
Watching Scott work so competently filled me with satisfaction.
It was worth teaching him after all.
“I’m serious! The bullets were too heavy to carry, so I told them to bring them respectfully. It seems the guys misunderstood and made a mistake. I’m sorry.”
Bang.
A bullet grazed the Boss’s thigh.
I heard the Boss scream.
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
“That was cowardly. Mistakes happen, but you’re blaming your subordinates for it? That’s pathetic.”
“It hurts!!!”
“You’re not dying. It just grazed you. And Scott, once you’ve tied up those guys, stop the bleeding on the ones who got shot. We need to keep them alive.”
“Yes, Young Boss.”
“So let’s talk again. You were going to bring them here to give them bullets? Where are the bullets?”
“That… that is…”
“This is much messier than I thought. What do I do about this?”
“No, they’re really there. Not here, but in the real warehouse.”
“Tell me honestly. What were you trying to do here?”
“Just give them the bullets…”
Bang.
A bullet grazed the other thigh and passed through.
“Ahhh!!”
“I do enjoy conversation, but I absolutely hate excuses. You know that. If you’re honest, I might just let you live.”
“Really? You’ll let me live?”
“That depends on how you answer.”
“I just wanted to scare him a bit and squeeze out some ransom. That’s all. But you ambushed him from behind like a coward and it failed.”
It’s a lie.
It just seems like a lie.
There’s some other purpose, but he won’t say it.
He keeps making nonsensical excuses.
Well, it’s not bad to play along.
“Are the bullets really there?”
“They are.”
“Lead the way. Let’s go.”
At my words, the Boss’s expression turns arrogant.
“I don’t see why I should tell you where that is.”
“Fine. Then you die. You’re not the only one who knows the warehouse location anyway. I’ll kill you and take one of these guys who knows. Who here knows where the warehouse is?”
“I know the location.”
“I know as well. I will guide you.”
Yet the Boss’s expression remained composed.
“I’m the only one who can open the door. It requires iris recognition to open. That place is made of special steel, so it’s absolutely impossible to open it.”
“Doesn’t matter. I can just pry out your eyes.”
“What?”
“You didn’t even think that far ahead before setting up biometric security? If it’s fingerprint recognition, I can cut off fingers. If it’s iris recognition, I can gouge out eyes. So don’t worry about that. Now you’ve got nothing left to say, right? Well then, goodbye.”
“Wait, hold on. Why did the conversation turn out like this? I made a mistake. I’ll apologize. Just give me the bullets. Then it’s over, right?”
“That’s not how it works.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t work?”
“I tried to kill you. You didn’t die? Then we’re even. This is exactly the same. The math doesn’t add up.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“Let’s go to the warehouse and talk about it. Figure out how to make the math work.”
Now it was my turn to smile wickedly.
.
.
.
The warehouse wasn’t far away.
After driving for about five minutes, the warehouse came into view.
I left those guys bound up,
and moved forward with Scott.
I was anxious about leaving them alone—they might call the police.
I was planning to leave Scott behind and go alone.
But Scott said it was fine and that he could come along.
He said they absolutely couldn’t call anyone.
When I asked why, he told me not to worry.
Scott had put their cell phones, wallets, and weapons all in a bag.
So they had no way to contact anyone.
And if the police showed up, he’d assume they were the ones who called and would hunt down and kill everyone listed on their IDs.
He’d kill everyone living in those houses.
That must have been what he said in Tagalog earlier.
He learns quickly.
Now he even knows how to threaten people properly.
I was slightly terrified myself.
We arrived at the warehouse and opened the door.
There was no iris recognition or anything like that.
Just a cheap lock you’d see anywhere.
I wondered if it was all a bluff.
But when we stepped inside, a massive silver door appeared.
Special steel, no doubt.
Next to the door was a keypad for iris recognition and password entry.
The Boss entered the password, underwent iris recognition, and spoke.
“Jericho Padilla”
Damn bastard.
So there was voice recognition too.
Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie.
I can’t believe this.
Clunk.
The red light above the door shifted to green, and the door swung open.
“There we go. Head inside.”
The man gestured for me to enter.
But what is this?
This ominous feeling.
A guy who lies through his teeth at every turn, constantly deceiving me—and now he’s telling me to go in first?
Something’s definitely wrong.
I grabbed the Boss beside me and pulled him slightly toward myself, feeling him resist with all his strength.
This is 100% certain.
I yanked the Boss forward and shoved him directly into the Warehouse.
The Boss hadn’t anticipated my move,
and he tumbled into the Warehouse without resistance.
Then came the gunfire.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-bang.
What?
Why is there gunfire?
Startled, I looked into the Warehouse.
The floor was drenched in blood, and the Boss lay collapsed in the center of it.
The Warehouse’s security system had activated.
That bastard only opened the door without disabling the security system.
I had a bad feeling about why he insisted we go in first, and now it all made sense.
But guns? For a security system?
I expected something like a net to shoot out—this is shocking.
Isn’t this going too far?
The Boss lay there bleeding profusely.
I want to save him, but if I go in to rescue him and get shot?
That’s even worse.
“Hey! How do I disable this? Huh? You need to tell me how to disable it if you want me to save you.”
“54…3…9…8…7.”
I immediately entered 543987 into the keypad.
The screen flickered once, but nothing seemed to change.
This makes me even more anxious.
I entered the password, but I couldn’t muster the courage to step inside.
That bastard lies way too much.
I worried this might be a lie too.
I was terrified that the moment I entered the Warehouse, gunfire would rain down on me.
But I can’t just leave it like this either.
And I’m far too curious about what’s inside the Warehouse.
“Hey, I pressed the button, but there’s no response. Is he okay?”
“Hey. Say something.”
“Hey!!! Hey!!!!”
But silence emanated from within the warehouse.
Was he dead?
I couldn’t go inside to check anything.
I didn’t have enough lives to gamble with mine here.
As a last resort, I found a stick-like object outside, removed my clothes, hung them on it, and waved it around.
No response.
It seemed to be a motion sensor,
and since the clothes didn’t trigger it, the security system appeared to be down, but I was still uneasy.
As I continued waving the stick, Scott stepped forward.
“I’ll go check inside.”
“Why would you go in?”
“Shouldn’t someone go in and confirm what’s happened?”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking why it has to be you.”
“There’s only the Young Boss and me here. And you saved me earlier, didn’t you?”
“I hired you to work, not to risk your life. And a proper boss is supposed to protect his employees anyway. That way I can squeeze more work out of them. So don’t interfere and get out of the way.”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell Scott to go in.
My heart was grateful, but I couldn’t push Scott forward.
I tossed the stick aside and waved my hand sharply toward the warehouse interior.
Faster than anyone else, differently than others, I swept it through the air.
No response.
Had the security system really shut down?
I was afraid to go in.
I spotted a steel plate left over from construction outside the warehouse,
so I flipped it over myself and carefully, slowly entered the warehouse.
The steel plate was heavy and cumbersome, but I couldn’t put it down.
If a bullet were fired, it would certainly pierce through a plate like this, but the impact would be greatly reduced.
I moved cautiously, keeping my body hidden behind the steel plate.
The security system appeared to be off.
I’d made it halfway through the warehouse, and no shots had been fired.
Still, I couldn’t lower the steel plate.
I approached the Boss, but he was already dead.
He was no longer breathing.
I’d suspected it when he didn’t respond earlier, but confirming it left a bitter taste.
I’d tried to save him.
Honestly, I hadn’t meant to kill him.
Why did I have to be so greedy?
Greed is instinct.
Instinct triumphs over reason.
That’s what I find regrettable.
When the gun failed to fire despite my repeated attempts to move it, the security system deactivated, and I hurled the heavy iron plate away.
And then I saw what lay before me.
“Holy shit. What is all this?”
The warehouse was packed to the brim with weapons.
As I lowered the iron plate and Scott entered the warehouse alongside me, he gasped in equal shock.
Handguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles—even mortars.
C4 explosives, grenades, mines, and ammunition boxes.
Suppressors, scopes, dot sights, night vision goggles, thermal equipment, body armor, tactical vests.
I served in the military myself, but this arsenal surpassed anything the military possessed—far more diverse too.
Everything from cutting-edge drones to antiquated weaponry.
Any true weapons enthusiast who saw this would lose their mind.
Staring at this staggering quantity of arms, a question suddenly surfaced.
But what should I do now?
Taking only twenty thousand rounds as promised and leaving wasn’t an option.
No matter how much I pride myself on keeping my word, this was different.
We’d nearly died. We deserved compensation for that ordeal.
The situation had changed, so the terms had to change as well.
I deliberated over which weapons to take from this vast collection.
My inventory couldn’t hold everything anyway.
I had to choose carefully and take only what I needed, but leaving anything behind felt like such a waste.
I wanted to take it all.
Then an idea struck me.
“Scott, go back to that warehouse and bring the three who surrendered at the end.”
“Yes.”
Scott grabbed a handgun and headed toward the Abandoned Factory.
I remained in the warehouse, surveying the immense arsenal spread before me, rapidly calculating my options.
But why couldn’t I stop smiling?
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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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