I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 89

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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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089 – Airport Announcement
89.
[We are now beginning boarding for KA897 to Beijing. Please proceed to Gate 35.]
[Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard PJ8923 to Guangzhou. The scheduled flight time to our destination is 3 hours and 50 minutes.]
[We will be arriving at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport shortly. Please fasten your seatbelts and ensure your seat backs and tables are in their upright positions.]
[It is our honor to serve you today. The current time in Shanghai is 15:30, and the weather is clear at 24 degrees.]
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I was waiting for my flight back to South Korea at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport.
Listening to the airport announcements while waiting made me feel nauseous.
Now just the thought of airplanes, in-flight meals, and airport announcements made me want to retch.
I’d been flying far too much these past few months.
These days, I was transferring the Ascend produced in Dalapaanan to China.
I was pre-positioning the Ascend in China ahead of time.
Why?
Simple.
To survive.
To evade surveillance.
China tracks everyone’s movements through facial recognition.
When traveling from city to city, facial recognition always reveals where a person has been.
For foreigners, passports serve that purpose instead.
I have multiple passports, but I can’t evade all those CCTVs.
So I’m pre-positioning the drugs and hoping that if the drugs surface somewhere completely unrelated to me, I can avoid suspicion.
To avoid drawing suspicion, I’ve minimized my luggage as much as possible.
I either carry just a simple backpack matching my passport identity, or at most a document bag or small carry-on.
The fastest way to get the Ascend to China was by plane.
But the reason this work is so grueling is this:
First.
My inventory is not infinite.
It has clear limits.
Ten slots.
And each slot can hold ten items.
That means I can store a total of one hundred items.
I used an item called a bag to increase the number and quantity of items I could store in my inventory.
When I put something in a bag, no matter how much is inside, my inventory recognizes it as just one slot.
That’s why I store everything—guns, money, everything—in bags.
So I found the largest-sized bag that counts as one slot in my inventory.
Looking at its dimensions, it’s roughly 100 liters in capacity.
The kind of bag we’d carry around when going to play soccer.
A couple of soccer balls fit inside, along with a large bag for soccer cleats, clothes, water bottles, and such—roughly that size.
I purchased the first few bags myself,
but even after searching through every sports brand, there were only a handful of places that sold bags in that size,
so I eventually had to manufacture them myself.
Just large bags with zippers and handles—nothing fancy.
In any case, even when I fill my inventory with Asand to maximum capacity, I can only fit 100 bags.
To be precise, 90 bags.
I absolutely must reserve one slot.
That slot holds my personal items.
Guns, forged passports, cash, and an emergency survival kit for contingencies.
I couldn’t sacrifice that final slot to transport Asand.
Humiliating China isn’t worth my life.
That last slot was my lifeline.
When I pack my inventory with 90 bags, it roughly fills a 1-ton flatbed truck with a few bags left over.
It’s not a negligible amount, but it’s woefully insufficient to saturate even a single nation or city.
I did regret it slightly then.
If I’d just made it as powder, I wouldn’t be suffering like this.
The efficiency would have been far superior.
With Asand, filling a 100-liter bag yields roughly 70,000 tablets.
Conversely, with powder medication, 1 kilogram can treat over 30,000 people.
A 100-liter bag theoretically holds about 50 kilograms.
That’s an astronomical 1.5 million people who could be treated.
70,000 versus 1.5 million.
If I filled my inventory with powder medication,
each bag would hold 50 kilograms,
and with 10 bags per slot, that’s 500 kilograms.
Using 9 such slots gives me 4.5 tons.
That’s an astounding 135 million people who could be treated.
With powder, I could’ve made just a few trips.
Yet here I am, forsaking that advantage and choosing the convenient tablet form, suffering for it.
One truly must study and understand people to avoid mistakes.
Still, if I had to choose again, I’d select the tablet form.
Convenience matters.
The second reason was to preserve the passport covers.
For this operation, I’d created dozens of forged passports.
Among them was a Cambodian passport under the name “Laborabi.”
Consider entering China with Laborabi’s passport.
That passport should first be stamped in Cambodia, not the Philippines.
It’s common sense that you need a passport to travel abroad,
and the first stamp in that passport should be from your home country.
But a Cambodian using a passport for the first time, and that passport is a ticket from the Philippines to China?
Sure, it might work initially, but there’s a high probability something will go wrong.
I didn’t want to waste the hard-earned passport on a single use.
So I went to Cambodia with my Philippine passport,
then entered China with my Cambodian passport and stored the drugs in a warehouse,
then returned to Cambodia, and finally came back to the Philippines.
I was literally choosing the hard way on purpose.
That’s how I traveled relentlessly between the Philippines and neighboring countries.
Why couldn’t I just return to Cambodia, go to Thailand or Vietnam nearby, come back, and then use the route to China?
Obviously, I couldn’t.
I wasn’t sightseeing.
I was transporting the drug.
So I had no choice but to go back to the Philippines, store the drug in my inventory, travel to another country, and then use the route into China.
That’s why the mere sight of an airplane made me nauseous.
It was so exhausting that I looked for any possible smuggling methods.
There weren’t any.
Drugs are inspected more strictly than I expected.
Due to the nature of the substance, it’s difficult to cross borders.
I was so desperate that I tried it anyway.
I sent it through international mail.
I sent it to eight countries, and every single shipment was caught.
The drug, the whole operation—I’m dying here.
And now another boarding announcement is playing.
My stomach is already churning.
*******
Emerald Resort.
Park Do-jin and Hwang On-yu, the National Intelligence Service’s Overseas Team 2 Leader and agent, sat in the lobby, having come to the Philippines to capture Shin Jung-gi, who had gone into hiding here.
“What about the person being dispatched from the Foreign Ministry?”
“They should arrive soon.”
“Sigh. This is frustrating. The Foreign Ministry sending someone won’t change anything, headquarters is breathing down our necks to catch him quickly and recover the blueprints, and this bastard Shin Jung-gi has vanished without a trace. Is there any new lead?”
“No. It’s clean. He only uses cash—no card transactions. No withdrawals either.”
“Any tips?”
“A few, but none of them are credible.”
“Where the hell is this bastard hiding?”
The two of them had flown to Bohol with only a single lead—someone claiming to have seen him there.
But they were at a loss.
Then a man in a suit approached them.
“Are you from the company?”
“Ah! The Foreign Ministry?”
“Yes. I’m Secretary Sung Jun-hee.”
“Park Do-jin.”
“Hwang On-yu.”
The three of us settled back into our seats, exchanged brief pleasantries, and continued our conversation.
“So you’re saying the Foreign Ministry hasn’t uncovered any leads either?”
“That’s right. We can’t track every illegal entrant, and we have to rely heavily on the Philippine police. But those people will turn a blind eye the moment you slip them money.”
As I sat there sighing in frustration,
“Huh? Secretary Sung Jun-hee?”
******
Today, like always, I’d stashed Edward in China, passed through Hong Kong, and returned to the Philippines.
Tomorrow I’d cross over to Mindanao again, pick up Edward, head to Vietnam, then fly to Xi’an in China to drop him off, and return to the Philippines via Vietnam.
The mere thought of it made me want to retch.
Still, the knowledge that I could sleep at home tonight lifted my spirits somewhat.
After a light dinner, I passed through the lobby heading to my room when I spotted a familiar face.
Who is that? Who is that? Who is that?
After thinking hard, it came to me.
Secretary Sung Jun-hee, whom I’d met back in Congo.
He was here.
Though he had companions, I figured a simple greeting wouldn’t hurt, so I approached him.
“Huh? Secretary Sung Jun-hee?”
“Who… Oh! Gong In-bae?”
“Yes, it’s been quite a while.”
“Indeed. This is the first time we’ve met since Congo, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But have you left Congo now?”
“We rotate assignments, so I’m in the Philippines at the moment. What about you, Gong In-bae?”
“I work here as a guide.”
“I see. It’s wonderful to see you again. You look much more impressive than when you were in Congo. That shirt suits you perfectly.”
“Not at all. But you look just the same, Secretary.”
“I’ve aged considerably. Comes with dealing with incidents and accidents. Ha ha.”
Park Do-jin and Hwang On-yu, who’d been listening to our exchange, were startled.
Gong In-bae, the very person they’d been considering asking for help, had appeared right before them.
Could their luck be this good?
There was no need to deliberate.
Team Leader Park Do-jin gave Secretary Sung Jun-hee a signal.
Secretary Sung Jun-hee understood the signal immediately.
“If you have time, would you mind sitting with us for a moment?”
“I’m free, but wouldn’t I be intruding?”
“Not at all. I’m curious to hear how you’ve been.”
“Then I’ll sit for a bit.”
I naturally took a seat.
Secretary Sung Jun-hee, for my benefit, introduced the people sitting across from us.
“This is Park Do-jin, our Team Leader. And this is Hwang On-yu, our Deputy Manager.”
“Hello, I’m Park Do-jin.”
“I’m Hwang On-yu.”
“Nice to meet you both. I’m Gong In-bae.”
“Yes, we’re pleased to meet you as well.”
“Are you two also working for the Foreign Ministry?”
“Ah… no, not the Foreign Ministry. We’re just company employees.”
Park Do-jin answered on behalf of the group and handed over his business card.
“We primarily handle dried fruits and rubber from Southeast Asia, and we also transport Korean goods to the Philippines. If you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll offer you excellent terms.”
“Ah, thank you.”
But I knew the truth.
These men were from the National Intelligence Service.
The business card they’d handed me read “Park Do-jin, Division Chief, Hae-gwang Industrial.”
I’d received this card before.
Just before my military discharge, someone carrying this card had approached me with a recruitment offer.
“Actually, I’ve seen this card before…”
“Pardon?”
“When I was discharged from the military, someone with this card came to find me. Something about becoming a nameless star, or whatever. I turned them down, but now I’m seeing this company’s card here.”
I could see Park Do-jin’s expression shift to one of surprise.
“Well, that’s just how it is. I’ve received this card before.”
“I apologize for the deception.”
“That’s standard practice for your organization anyway. I understand completely.”
“Since we’re on the subject, would you mind if I asked for a favor? It’s rather presumptuous of me.”
“What kind of favor?”
Park Do-jin glanced around cautiously.
His expression was guarded.
I raised my hand and signaled for a staff member.
“Set up an empty conference room for us.”
“Understood.”
“Shall we move to the conference room?”
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“So I need to find someone named Shin Jung-gi, but I can’t find any trace of him. Can you help? Is that it?”
“Precisely.”
“Do you have any information on how he entered the country?”
“We haven’t even been able to determine that much yet.”
“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack in Seoul. Do you have a photograph?”
“Yes, here’s a photo.”
The man showed me a single photograph.
A face that looked like a model student, yet carried an unsettling, damp aura about it.
“This photo alone might not be enough, but let me show it to my friends first and see if anyone recognizes him.”
“I’m already grateful for that much.”
I uploaded the photo the men had given me to our group chat.
[Has anyone seen this person? Let me know if you have.]
– Never seen him before.
– First time seeing him too. I’ll look into it.
– I’ll check with my people and confirm.
The messages kept coming—”never seen him,” “I’ll look into it”—when Simon’s message suddenly arrived.
– This bastard, right?
【Photo of a man covered in blood】
His face was so mangled it was hard to be certain, but it certainly looked like the same man.
[What the hell? Why does his face look like that? Did you guys do that?]
– Don’t get the wrong idea. We just brought back someone who nearly died.
[Nearly died?]
– He was captured by the New People’s Army (NPA) and nearly killed. You told me to check whether he was alive or dead last time, remember? But if he was dead, it would’ve felt unsatisfying, so I brought him back alive instead.
[Good work. Keep him safe for now. I’ll come pick him up soon.]
– Okay
I spoke while looking at them.
“We found him.”

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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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