Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 123

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Chaebols’ Son (2)
Inside the cabinet, I spotted a briefcase.
The one I’d given to So Sang-woo—a total of 800 million won.
‘Good, it’s still here.’
In this world, you have to look after your own interests.
800 million won—it would be strange to leave it behind.
After retrieving the briefcase from the cabinet, I opened the desk drawer.
The first drawer held cigarettes, and next to it, a lighter.
When I opened the last drawer, roughly twenty mobile phones came into view.
‘Thank you for that too.’
I swept all of So Sang-woo’s phones into the bag.
There might be a connection to his financial backers hidden somewhere in here.
Just then, my phone rang—Jo Woo-jae calling.
“Yes, Chief Prosecutor.”
-We’ve just dispatched the search and seizure team. They’ll be there in twenty minutes.
Jo Woo-jae’s backing really does make a difference.
From the search warrant to the investigators—everything moves like clockwork.
“Thank you.”
I ended the call with satisfaction.
‘Twenty minutes…’
That was more than enough time.
I began methodically gathering what I needed.
*
*
*
Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Interrogation Room.
The door creaked open and I entered.
So Sang-woo sat at the table, his face twisted in a scowl.
“Well, well, thug. You look far more at home sitting there than strutting around an office.”
He let out a sigh in response to my words.
“Emergency detention is forty-eight hours, right?”
So Sang-woo came from a gangster background.
Having been dragged to the Prosecutor’s Office so many times, he knew the crude laws well enough.
I sat across from him and spoke.
“Sorry to disappoint, but don’t count on forty-eight hours. You’re going to be detained anyway. That team leader of yours? He’s been singing like a bird. Says you ordered the violence.”
So Sang-woo bit his lip.
He couldn’t believe the team leader would have talked.
But this was the Prosecutor’s Office.
A place where even blood brothers betray each other—and they hadn’t coordinated their stories beforehand.
So Sang-woo had no idea what the team leader was doing.
‘Damn it.’
While So Sang-woo was deliberating over the Team Leader’s actions.
I leaned forward and began whispering.
“Let’s go with just the stock price manipulation.”
“…!”
“In exchange, lower the interest rates to the legal limit. If you’ve collected anything above that, deduct it from the principal. And make sure you provide proper compensation to anyone who suffered from violence. I’ll be watching. Can you promise that?”
So Sang-woo’s eyes narrowed.
“…What exactly do you want from me?”
“I like how quick you catch on. Who’s your money lender?”
“Pardon?”
“I said, who’s your money lender?”
So Sang-woo finally met my gaze.
It was blazing.
As if I would incinerate everything standing before me.
“Is this… because of pushing the prosecutor?”
“Yeah. So stop overthinking and answer. And decide. Seven years in prison for stock price manipulation, or twelve years taking everything on yourself. The choice is yours.”
I was certain.
So Sang-woo would talk.
Because their relationship was bound by money.
But then.
“I… I’d also prefer just seven years, but it’s probably already over.”
“What?”
“Strictly speaking, our company operates on a network structure.”
The biggest player distributes the money.
Those below receive it and lend it further down.
And it continues on and on, layer after layer.
A pyramid scheme structure.
“News of my arrest at the Prosecutor’s Office has already spread.”
“And?”
“They’ve hidden everything. The burner phones are probably dumped in the ocean and the dummy accounts are being liquidated. Even if you start now, all you’ll catch are small fry like me. You know how it is, right? The police and prosecutors always arrive after everything’s already wrapped up.”
I quietly observed So Sang-woo.
The corners of his mouth were moving.
A sign he knew something.
“Your expression tells me you have a way to catch them. What do you want?”
“Seven years in prison at my age is quite long. Could you reduce it to three years?”
“Fine.”
“Really?”
So Sang-woo’s eyes gleamed.
I smiled slightly and opened my mouth.
“But testify that the Shin Ma Group Youngest Son was involved in the stock price manipulation.”
“Pardon? Shinma Group?”
So Sang-woo blinked, wondering if he’d misheard.
Then he began to chuckle.
“Wow, Prosecutor. I’ve sensed it since last time, but you’re really not ordinary, are you? You’re thinking of touching Shinma Group? Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Just pick one—either the Big Hand or Shinma Group. Otherwise, it’s genuinely dangerous.”
“Enough. So what’ll it be? Three years? Or seven? If you don’t like that either, how about twelve?”
So Sang-woo shook his head.
“Shinma is off the table. Their youngest son is still young. And you know how those people are—if they think someone like me did this to them, they’ll torment me until the day I die. I don’t want to live that exhausted.”
So Sang-woo spoke calmly, but his eyes told the truth.
He was genuinely terrified of Shinma Group.
“Fine. Then just talk about the Big Hand.”
“Three years.”
“Want to go for twelve?”
“Ugh… you’re tough. Three years.”
With that, So Sang-woo clamped his mouth shut.
He was making it clear he wouldn’t say another word unless it was three years.
I shook my head and opened my mouth.
“That’s it. I’m recommending fifteen years.”
“What?”
“Fifteen years. That’s my recommendation.”
“Stock manipulation usually carries five years or less! There are guys who’ve done two or three years and walked!”
He let out an aggrieved cry.
Then I spoke to him coldly.
“There was a case like this a few years back. Someone secured usurious loans to buy stocks at inflated prices and recruited investors through false statements. Sound familiar? Similar to you, right? But that person got twelve years. And your crimes are far more malicious. You have additional charges that compound the sentence. This isn’t the time for you to be coy.”
“…!”
“That’s it. Negotiation’s over.”
I stood up. Without looking back, I headed for the door.
So Sang-woo watched my retreating figure anxiously.
‘It’s a bluff, a bluff. He’ll definitely turn around again… I can’t let this slide. Prosecutors always…’
With a ‘thud,’ the door closed.
One minute, two minutes, ten minutes passed, and I didn’t return.
Before long, So Sang-woo found himself unconsciously calculating how old he’d be in fifteen years.
He was terrified thinking about what kind of life he’d be living then.
And after twenty minutes, So Sang-woo finally shouted.
“Damn it! Fine! I agree! Call that prosecutor back!”
At the same moment, the door swung open.
And I walked in with a broad smile.
“Seven years?”
“Ugh…”
So Sang-woo exhaled a long sigh and fell silent.
It was an affirmation.
Seo Jin re-entered the interrogation room and spoke.
“Shall we begin then?”
So Sang-woo found Seo Jin’s smile irritating.
But there was nothing he could do.
Seo Jin held all the cards.
So Sang-woo frowned and opened his mouth.
“One final warning. This is dangerous.”
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about the celebrities instead.”
“Ugh… fine. You mentioned a network, right? I don’t know who’s above me. I only take calls when needed and receive money through shell accounts.”
“And?”
“What happens when field operatives like me disappear?”
A franchise company needs storefronts to make money.
Without storefronts, there’s no revenue.
These bastards operate the same way.
“So if you prosecutors keep watching us operatives and arrest anyone who violates interest rates even slightly, sure, they could run things legally. But that’s impossible.”
Anyone resourceful enough to find these operations is on their last breath.
That’s why so many borrowers either disappear after taking loans or report them for excessive interest rates.
“So how do they maintain legal interest rates? Half of them just take the money and run.”
“So if I keep disrupting their money-lending operations and that disruption lasts long enough, eventually they’ll try to kill me?”
“Yes. You’ll force them into a situation where they have no choice but to confront you directly.”
“I like it. This appeals to me.”
So Sang-woo licked his dry lips and spoke again.
“Then I’ll tell you the locations of our company’s franchises that I know about.”
South Korea has approximately eight thousand illegal lending operations.
With roughly two million users.
Obviously, I couldn’t investigate all of them.
I had to use So Sang-woo’s information to target and strategically dismantle specific operations.
I pulled out a notebook and handed it to So Sang-woo.
“Write.”
“…Then my sentence would be three years.”
“Shut up and write.”
So Sang-woo began writing down the offices he knew about.
The list poured out so extensively that it seemed impossible for one person to operate so many illegal lending businesses.
After writing for a while, So Sang-woo looked up at me.
“You mentioned you confiscated my phone, right? There’s one with a red case—their phone numbers are all stored in there.”
“Thanks.”
So Sang-woo resumed writing company names while I watched him intently.
So Sang-woo and I were now entangled in two ways.
The youngest son of Shinma Group and a major player in the private lending market.
They share something in common.
They don’t see humans as human beings.
Just money.
Slaves living in utter desperation.
An invisible class.
Dogs wagging their tails for scattered coins.
I will tear those bastards apart.
*
*
*
Several days later, it was night.
People were attending year-end parties and waiting for the new year.
And in the hotel penthouse.
Shin Il-seung, the youngest son of Shinma Group, was laughing while holding his stomach.
“What an idiot.”
Lee Du-jin’s face appeared on the television.
-President Shin Il-seung manipulated the stock price of ENS, a KOSDAQ-listed company!
Shin Il-seung’s laughter grew louder.
“Catch me? No wonder comedy shows are failing. That nonsense is more entertaining. Hahaha!”
Shin Il-seung believed it was impossible for Lee Du-jin to catch him.
He thought it would be faster for an ant to bite an elephant to death.
It was that absurd.
The laws of this country weren’t made for people like them—they were made for people like himself.
After all, the strong created the law.
The law wasn’t for the weak.
It was for the strong.
That’s when it happened.
Shin Il-seung’s phone rang.
Shin Il-seung brought the phone to his ear.
“Yeah, speak.”
-There’s word that So Sang-woo is spreading information about you, sir.
“What? Who? So Sang-woo?”
-Yes, Prosecutor Seo Jin is….
Shin Il-seung’s brow furrowed.
Seo Jin—I’ve heard that name somewhere before.
“Seo Jin, Seo Jin….”
So Sang-woo, who had been muttering, simply pressed the call end button.
Then he found the contacts and pressed the call button again.
“Hey, it’s me. Seo Jin—that guy joined our circle this time, right?”
—What? Yeah.
So Sang-woo let out a short laugh.
“Let’s get together after all this time. I feel like I need to teach you some manners.”
*
*
*
At that moment, Seo Jin was riding an elevator up to the top floor of a hotel.
The elevator came to a stop, and Seo Jin stepped out.
I walked down the hallway with measured steps.
Men in black suits lined both sides of the long corridor.
“They’re waiting for you.”
At the heavy voice, I smiled quietly to myself.
‘It’s not like we’re filming a mafia movie.’
The atmosphere in the hallway was so ominous that the mere presence of dozens of men standing in formation felt like a scene straight out of a gangster film.
One of the men opened the door for me.
I stepped inside.
A VIP Room.
A woman in her early fifties, draped in a white fur coat, stood gazing out the window.
She turned as she sensed my entrance.
“Prosecutor Seo Jin?”
“Yes.”
She slowly turned her body toward me.
And she smiled faintly as she looked at me.
Shin Ji-yeon, the eldest daughter of Shinma Group—a woman who always carried the title of next-generation female leader.
Shin Ji-yeon set down the wine glass she’d been holding and regarded me.
“You’re as handsome as I heard.”
“Thank you. You’re as beautiful as the rumors suggested, ma’am.”
“When someone young says things like that, it doesn’t work. It makes an older woman’s heart flutter.”
“Well, it’s the truth.”
“Anyway, I’m in a good mood. But what brings you to ask an older woman out on a date?”
I had contacted her.
To meet once.
And Shin Ji-yeon had accepted.
A daughter of a conglomerate doesn’t simply agree to meet with a mere prosecutor.
She would think a prosecutor wasn’t worth her time.
But Shin Ji-yeon had agreed to see me anyway.
There was only one reason—she anticipated my intentions.
So I didn’t beat around the bush and spoke directly.
“I’m going to pull out your problem tooth.”
“My goodness, how did you know I’ve been going to the dentist lately? So, which tooth are you planning to extract?”
“Shin Il-seung.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————