I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 60

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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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060-Simon
60.
Preparations for the competition progressed at a rapid pace.
All resources from the Center for Culture and Arts Development (CCAD), the organization overseeing the competition, were mobilized.
CCAD was a subsidiary of the Bohol Provincial Government, tasked with preserving and advancing the culture and arts of Bohol.
Two months.
In two months, competition submissions would begin.
Until then, participants simply needed to create and submit their works.
They could search for new tourist destinations and photograph them, or
reinterpret existing tourist sites through their own unique style.
We don’t necessarily want new locations.
Even if it’s just the everyday streetscapes we see constantly, if it carries the artist’s reinterpretation, that’s enough.
What we’re looking for is a perspective different from what already exists.
Did Bohol lack merchandise? No, it was overflowing with it.
Yet it failed to gain popularity because it couldn’t express Bohol’s unique identity.
People don’t seek it out because there’s only generic merchandise like “I♥BOHOL” that you can find anywhere.
Through this competition, we’re trying to find that identity.
We’re searching for works that will remind people of Bohol’s charm once more.
We’ll create merchandise from those works and establish various merchandise shops.
Not the Bohol of the past, but a slightly different Bohol.
In that sense, we decided not to select award winners ourselves.
There was no need to deliberate between awards and merchandise.
We would separately select which submitted works to produce as merchandise, and
told the organizers to handle the award selections on their own.
Our sole purpose was finding new ideas that could be produced as merchandise.
When the Provincial Governor heard that we wouldn’t be involved in selecting award winners, his mind seemed to spin rapidly.
He appeared to be calculating who should receive awards,
who to give awards to, and what he could gain in return.
Easy to read, as always.
Put money and power in front of him, and he’d walk into hell itself on his own two feet.
********
“To the successful launch of Candy Coin and TrustBit!!”
“To success!!!!!”
Clink.
The sound of glasses clinking rang out crisp and clear.
“Everyone worked hard. Thanks to you all, we barely made it. Today, let’s eat our fill, and tomorrow we’ll rest well.”
“You’ve worked hard as well, sir.”
“Ana worked hard too. And the coin team and exchange team did great work—eat plenty.”
Employees from GoGo Casino, Candy Coin, and TrustBit.
The so-called online team was having a company dinner at the Hotel.
I’d launched the coin and exchange not long ago.
Worried something might go wrong, I couldn’t even leave the office properly—I’d been living there for over two weeks.
And those two weeks felt like a war.
“Director, traffic is skyrocketing. At this rate, the servers will crash.”
“You didn’t prepare servers? How are we supposed to handle this if it starts like this?”
“We prepared with plenty of buffer, but this exceeds it. It’s traffic we never anticipated.”
“Get more servers right now. Immediately.”
“We’d need to use cloud servers, but that would cost—”
“Don’t worry about the cost. Just get them here. That’s the priority right now.”
“Yes, sir.”
“DDoS attack incoming!”
“Server capacity insufficient!”
“Hackers continue their assault!”
“Raise the WAF! Block all bypass traffic. Max out CDN distribution.”
“Applying now. Things are stabilizing slightly.”
“Server status?”
“There’s some latency, but it’s manageable.”
“Traffic has stabilized.”
Every day, every hour felt like warfare.
Everyone remained glued to their monitors,
replenishing themselves with coffee and pizza, catching brief naps at their desks, and enduring.
After desperately holding the line for two weeks, we finally had some breathing room.
In the meantime, I continued addressing issues and refining the system.
Now I could finally rest.
I arranged a company dinner for the exhausted staff.
It was the first celebration since the launch.
Their faces were etched with fatigue, yet a sense of accomplishment shone through.
GoGo Casino, Candy Coin, and TrustBit were all operating stably,
and user numbers had grown significantly.
We’d passed the initial chaos and entered normal operations.
The system had found its rhythm.
The service had entered a stable phase.
*********
Dennis, who was guarding the armory in Zamboanga, contacted me.
“Director. The Rebel Forces have placed a weapons purchase order.”
“The rebels?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“MP5s, AK-47s, M4s—roughly 200 units mixed together.”
“That’s something you can handle yourself, Dennis.”
“I was planning to do that too, but the Rebel Forces representative really wants to meet you.”
“Then don’t sell to them.”
“Pardon?”
“What’s so great about what they’re buying that they’re pulling this ‘I must see the CEO’ act? Just don’t sell. Tell them to go somewhere else.”
“But… still.”
“If we distribute weapons this cheaply, they should just be grateful, buy them, and fight among themselves. Why are we worrying about meeting face-to-face? I don’t care if we don’t make 600 million won. So don’t sell.”
“That’s… the thing is…”
“What?”
“That faction is very powerful here in Zamboanga. If we make enemies with them, our business here could suffer.”
“Even if it does, I don’t care. I’ll still pay your salaries without any problem.”
“CEO, you can’t just refuse them so bluntly like that.”
“Yeah? Then you go. Go tell them you’re the representative.”
“Since I’ve already done business with them several times, they won’t believe me even if I say that.”
“Then tell them to come here. To Bohol. A thirsty man digs his own well.”
.
.
.
“You? You’re the bastard who called me all the way here?”
“You actually came?”
“What?”
“I thought you’d be too scared to show up.”
“Ha. Look at this guy. Hilarious.”
“Sit down. Are we going to talk standing up?”
The Rebel Forces representative slouched into a chair.
“Food? Alcohol? Coffee? You came all this way—I can at least offer you that much.”
“Can you even eat?”
“We do this to make a living, so we might as well eat while we’re at it. They make excellent sisig here. You don’t want any?”
I asked as I ate the sisig.
“Aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Why would I be afraid of you?”
“One gesture from me and you’re dead. I could tear you to shreds and leave no trace.”
“Go ahead.”
“What?”
“Guys who bare their teeth on first meeting aren’t scary at all. You’re no different from a dog barking about how terrifying you are.”
“What? You bastard?”
The moment the Rebel Forces representative’s hand went to his waist to draw a gun.
I already had a gun in my hand, pulled from my inventory.
“So? Shoot? Or not?”
“…”
The Rebel Forces representative, seeing the gun aimed at him, stopped his hand from reaching his waist.
“Answer me.”
Instead of responding, the Rebel Forces leader raised both hands to signal he had no intention of fighting.
“Take out whatever you’re carrying at your waist and then we’ll talk.”
At my words, the Rebel Forces leader carefully drew his gun and placed it on the table.
I picked up the gun, removed the bullets from the magazine and chamber, disassembled it, and laid the pieces back on the table.
“If you came to work, then let’s work. If you came to eat, then eat. I’ll even buy you a meal. Have some food and then just leave. Go buy a gun somewhere else.”
The Rebel Forces leader couldn’t say anything.
“I’m already finished eating, so if you have nothing more to say, get up.”
“It’s just…”
“Don’t beat around the bush. Speak plainly.”
“We… we need a partner.”
“What kind of partner? A graduation party date? If you’re looking for a female partner, you’ve come to the wrong place. You’re way off track.”
“Not that kind of partner. A strategic partnership, you could say? We want to become comrades who share the same vision.”
“Hmm… do you and I have enough emotional rapport to have that kind of conversation?”
“We can build that starting now.”
“Oh~ is this some kind of ‘first come, first served’ arrangement? What benefit would I get from becoming partners with you?”
“For one, we’d purchase weapons from you.”
“I don’t need that kind of business. So exclude that.”
“If we take power, we can help your business.”
“Pfft! Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh, but this is just too ridiculous. Sorry. So you’re going to take power? And once you do, you’ll help us?”
“Yes.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“We’d like you to provide us with some weapons.”
“Ha ha ha! I’ve never seen such an idiot.”
“What? Watch your mouth.”
“You watch yourself. Going around with that kind of mindset, you’ll get shot dead. This isn’t Mindanao where you were hiding. This isn’t your home where you could do whatever you pleased.”
“If you had even a shred of sense, you’d never say something like that out loud. Because it’s impossible. You couldn’t even control Mindanao, let alone Zamboanga, and you’re talking about taking power? Ha ha ha ha. This is seriously the funniest thing I’ve heard all year.”
As I laughed mockingly, the Rebel Forces leader’s expression twisted.
Whether offended or not, his voice changed.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t test my patience.”
“Heh heh heh. It’s entertaining. Laugh along with me. Wasn’t that supposed to be funny?”
“…”
“Do you know why the UN Peacekeeping Force doesn’t come to the Philippines? Have you ever thought about it? There’s only one answer. Because the Rebel Forces are worthless. They think you’ll just destroy yourselves anyway. Or they think the Philippine Military alone is more than enough to handle you. That’s why the UN doesn’t bother sending peacekeeping forces. Because there’s absolutely zero chance you’ll succeed.”
“Did you think I looked easy because the weapons dealer’s owner changed to some kid? Did you think if you came here and made some noise, I’d tremble and form a partnership with you and open up the armory? Did the world seem that simple to you? Did you grow up comfortably without hardship? Are you some rich kid?”
Trembling.
The Rebel Forces leader’s body shook with humiliation.
If he still had the gun, he would have shot immediately, but it had been taken from him.
The stolen gun lay disassembled on the table, and the bullets rolled across the floor.
It was a mistake to leave the bodyguards outside the restaurant for security reasons.
If I’d known it would come to this, I should have kept them right by my side.
The Rebel Forces leader regretted it, but it was already too late.
Thinking it was all over, strength drained from his body.
Coming all the way to Bohol had become meaningless.
To be honest, that young man’s words were right.
The Criminal Organization had no money.
That’s why I tried to manipulate the young arms dealer.
I thought he’d waver at the promise that I’d help him once he seized power.
I figured he’d at least show some interest.
So I was going to receive weapons as a sponsor, and
if things went well, take credit; if not, claim it was unavoidable.
But I failed completely.
There’s no way to make this work.
It doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to get anything out of this.
The Rebel Forces leader stood up.
“Leave?”
“Yeah. You’re not getting any weapons.”
“Are you always this quick to give up? Is that your style—not even trying to talk properly before you tuck tail and run the moment things look bad?”
Hearing those words, the Rebel Forces leader could no longer contain his anger and threw a punch at me.
But I’m not the type to take a hit like that.
I dodged his wild, reckless punches a few times, then struck his abdomen hard and dropped him.
The Rebel Forces leader who took the blow to his stomach immediately vomited.
“Ugh!! Ack!!”
“Damn it! You can’t even throw a proper punch, so why are you swinging at me like that? Now I feel bad for you.”
“Kahahaha. Kahahahahaha.”
The Rebel Forces leader who was retching started laughing.
Is this guy insane?
There’s not a single decent person in the Philippines.
They all seem to be crazy.
I handed him a bottle of water.
“You’ll need it. At least rinse out your mouth.”
The Rebel Forces leader looked at me strangely.
Is it odd to give water to someone who just threw up?
Doesn’t your mouth taste bitter after vomiting?
That’s why rinsing with water is the right thing to do.
“Look, you could’ve just talked about it, but instead you pull out guns and fists and make the cleaning staff’s job harder. You’re paying for the cleanup here before you go.”
Even at my words, the Rebel Forces leader kept his head down and didn’t respond.
“What’s your name?”
“Simon.”
“Simon. I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully. Simon. I absolutely despise the Rebel Forces. I lost my family to them.”
Only then did Simon lift his head and look at me.
“I’d like to grind down and drink all of it if I could. But I leave it alone because I know that even if I grind and drink it, it’ll just appear somewhere else again. Like how cockroaches keep coming back no matter how many you catch in your home. So what should I do in a situation like this?”
“What?”
“How do I eliminate the Rebel Forces I hate? What should I do?”
“…”
“You create one incredibly strong Rebel Force. You create a Rebel Force so damn powerful that it can devour all the other Rebel Forces.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“You seem stupid, but not inherently vicious. So I’m giving you a chance. A chance to become an incredibly strong Rebel Force.”
“What?”
“How long would it take to compile and bring me information on all the Rebel Forces in the Philippines? Everything—their leaders, numbers, power, bases, and so on?”
“A… a month? Two months?”
“Too long. You’ve got ten days. Bring me the information. And a plan to deal with those Rebel Forces. If I like it, I’ll sponsor you. Or rather, I’ll buy you.”
“What…”
I pulled 20,000 dollars from my inventory.
“Think of it as a sponsorship fee, not a deposit. You’ll need money to investigate, right? You’ll need to hire people too. Take it easy and don’t strain yourself. Just bring it within ten days. That’s enough, right? Make it look clean and neat on a PowerPoint presentation. If you scribble it by hand, I’ll be angry.”
“Y-yes… yes…”
“Then go. I’ll see you in ten days.”

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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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