MAEPG: Episode 31
Episode 31 Shadows of Seoul (1)
“Hey, how about another drink? You in?”
“Anyone called a designated driver!”
“Hey, handsome~. How about a drink with me here? Hmm?”
Even though public order was a mess, the streets at night still had some vitality.
The loud voices of drunk people, those soliciting customers, and even those pickingpocketing drunkards.
The detection network using Hans’s Familiar magic was improving in range and precision over time.
As the range expanded, incidents occurred more frequently within the area, and naturally, Hans had to move more busily.
In the early stages, he dealt with all sorts of petty criminals, but these days, he prioritized and punished violent criminals.
‘But I guess word about Hans has spread a bit, so lately, criminals seem to be holding back.’
Hans had clashed with numerous criminals while maintaining public order, and among them were even gangs with some influence in the back alleys.
Of course, he didn’t indiscriminately crush all criminal organizations. He only dealt with those caught red-handed or those who crossed the line.
It wasn’t something an individual could completely eradicate, and even if he cleaned them up, new ones would just take their place.
He just identified the locations of the rest, who hadn’t crossed the line too much, and kept an eye on them.
-Deep Sea Game Land
And the place Heinz was currently at was one of the organizations he had identified back then.
An adult arcade located in a secluded alley.
Thick cigarette smoke obscured his vision as he opened the door of the arcade, which was covered in stickers, making it impossible to see inside.
The eyes of those inside focused on Heinz as he entered.
“Well, young man, what brings you here? Here to play some games?”
A bearded man approached, putting out the cigarette in his mouth.
He was pretending to be nonchalant, but he was clearly wary.
Among his group inside, some were stealthily reaching for weapons.
‘Well… I understand how you feel.’
An uninvited guest suddenly visiting a secret space where hardly anyone came.
And on top of that, with a suspicious appearance: hair slicked back, a black suit, and a black mask covering his eyes.
It would be strange if they weren’t wary.
‘I was going to wear sunglasses too, but I thought it was too much…’
His pale skin and handsome features, which had changed after becoming a vampire, were so different from his original appearance that it was unrecognizable.
But he couldn’t just show his face everywhere when he was here for illegal business.
‘But it’s not a good idea to completely cover myself up either.’
In that case, it would be better to use his changed appearance to hide his identity.
Exposing his sharp eyes, which were the biggest factor in his changed impression, to imprint an image completely different from Han Seong-hyeon.
That was the thought behind his current outfit.
And walking around with sunglasses in the middle of the night would attract more attention.
“I want to sell something.”
“Sell something? This is an arcade, are you trying to sell an arcade machine? We don’t deal with peddlers.”
I put my hand with the bracelet in my pocket, took out a piece of gold, and showed it to the bearded man.
He stared at it for a moment, then frowned at me.
“I’ve never seen you before… Who introduced you?”
“Does that matter?”
“Of course it matters. Trust is the most important thing in this business. We can’t do business with someone we don’t know.”
“Well, you’re not wrong.”
This was an organization that brokered stolen goods and all sorts of illegal trafficking.
An organization that Hans had left alone because it was a bit tricky to deal with directly.
I put my hand in my pocket again, took out a metal badge, and tossed it to him.
He caught it lightly, stared at it for a while, then sighed.
“I heard they were wiped out by some crazy guy wearing a mask.”
The badge was something given to the executives of the organization that Hans had wiped out.
They were guys who mainly dealt with human trafficking and organ trafficking.
Naturally, I rounded them all up and turned them into undead.
“Most of them died and the organization collapsed. I was lucky enough to escape. So I want to get rid of the remaining items.”
Of course, since I had thoroughly searched their brains with dark magic and eliminated those with bad records, such as the leaders and the perpetrators, there wouldn’t be anyone left unless they were low-ranking members who really managed to escape by luck.
He seemed to be thinking about something at my words, then returned the badge.
“Well, if that’s the case, you came to the right place. It’s unfortunate that Boss Park is gone, but those who are alive have to live.”
The bearded man spoke in a lighter tone.
“Anyway, you must have had a hard time coming all the way here. It’s quite a distance from Daerandong.”
“Two.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
I just stared at the bearded man, who was being evasive, without saying anything.
Our eyes met for a while.
“Ahem… This should be enough. Follow me.”
The bearded man cleared his throat and finally led me inside.
Those who were watching from the surroundings also looked away and started talking amongst themselves.
‘That guy, he’s more sly than he looks.’
The conversation we just had was a kind of password verification process.
The boss of the organization wasn’t surnamed Park, but Cho, and their base wasn’t in Daerandong, but Garaedong.
But I shouldn’t point that out and correct him.
There were many ways to find out that much information, and it was a process to filter out those who knew in the first place.
The important thing was to answer the hidden question.
Simply put, it was ‘How many of the following statements are false?’
‘It’s a good thing I read their memories after searching their brains. Actually, I came here knowing that.’
The questions and answers varied for each organization they dealt with, and they were changed periodically.
Seeing him test me with those, remembering them all, that bearded man was more intelligent than he looked.
“You can go in here. I’ll see you when you leave.”
The bearded man led me through a complicated hallway and stopped in front of a room, then disappeared.
I opened the door without hesitation and entered.
There was a hole the size of an upper body in the wall of the room, connected to a table like a bank counter.
“So, what do you want to trade?”
A masked man sitting on the other side of the wall looked at me and spoke.
“I like how straightforward you are.”
Straight to business without even a greeting.
I sat down on the chair opposite him and pushed the gold I was holding through the hole.
He took it without a word and handed it to someone next to him.
I couldn’t see it because of the wall, but I could tell there were quite a few people in the room on the other side from the presence I felt.
He must have handed the item to an appraiser.
Slide—
After a while, he received a piece of paper from someone next to him, glanced at it, and handed it to me.
A piece of paper with just a number written on it.
I frowned.
“Isn’t that too low?”
“That’s how it is when you trade things like this. Didn’t you know that?”
Of course I knew, but I didn’t expect it to be this low.
I thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
Actually, I had a lot of cash right now. Enough that I didn’t need to do this.
‘Because I cleaned out all the criminal organizations.’
Gold bars piled up in their safes, various real estate documents, and piles of cash.
Hans had diligently put them all in his subspace.
But the reason he was going through this troublesome process…
“Okay, but can I get something else instead of cash?”
“Anything is possible as long as the price is right. What do you want?”
“A winning lottery ticket.”
No matter how much cash I had, it was useless if I couldn’t use it.
There was a limit to paying with cash, and in this day and age, there were limitations to conducting all economic activities that way.
What I needed was ‘funds that Han Seong-hyeon could legally use’.
And the record of being a lottery winner would also serve as a smokescreen when I used the cash later.
“…That’ll have quite a high commission. Are you okay with that?”
“Of course. How much can you do?”
“Hmm.”
The sound of someone typing on a keyboard could be heard faintly from the room on the other side.
He must have had a monitor installed next to the hole in the counter, as he glanced to the side and read something.
“The highest amount I can get you right now is 6.1 billion won. There are four months left until the collection period.”
“What’s next?”
“4.4 billion won. Ten months.”
These guys were more competent than I thought.
“But do you even have items worth that much? This much gold isn’t enough.”
Well, it was natural for him to be suspicious since I was currently empty-handed.
I used the subspace magic tool and took out the gold bars, stacking them neatly on the table.
“…You have some valuable items.”
The man’s demeanor changed in an instant.
A greedy look in his eyes, even from behind the mask.
Magic tools themselves were valuable, let alone something that manipulated space.
No matter how rich an organization was, it was something they couldn’t obtain with money alone, so it was natural for them to covet it.
‘Yeah, I knew it.’
I looked at him.
Heinz’s eyes turned blood red, and the scent of blood spread thickly around him.
“…”
I could feel the masked man, as well as those in the same space with him, stiffen.
The scale of the transaction was significant, and the other party was a self-proclaimed remnant of a fallen organization.
If they didn’t try to swallow a sucker who walked into their mouth like this, they wouldn’t be a criminal organization.
‘This is a necessary process for a proper transaction.’
They would have tried to take advantage of me if I hadn’t shown my power.
They would have used some means, whether it was force or something else.
So I needed to show them my power to some extent.
“Let’s do business and end this amicably. We’ll be seeing each other often.”
After a short time, when I thought I had pressured them enough, I released my power and spoke to him.
“…Ahem, was it you? I made a mistake.”
Fortunately, he seemed to understand my warning and cleared his throat, taking the gold bars piled up in front of him and handing them to someone next to him.
The appraiser next to him seemed to be still nervous and fumbled for a moment, but he soon appraised the gold bars and offered a price.
‘As expected, force is the best means of communication.’
The appraised price was much better than before.
They must have taken care of the commission and given me a discount.
I nodded in satisfaction.
“For your information, we only deal with face value. Take care of the tax issues yourself.”
The exchange commission, the additional commission for receiving it as a lottery ticket, and the tax I had to pay when collecting the winnings.
It wasn’t even half of the profit I could have made if I had sold the gold normally.
‘This much gold, and I can’t even reveal its origin, so it can’t be helped. But it still hurts…’
“The total appraised value is a little over 7.8 billion won. If you go with the 6.1 billion won lottery ticket, after deducting the commission, the remaining amount… will you take the rest in cash?”
“Hmm, wait a minute.”
Heinz pretended to think for a moment, buying time.
Meanwhile, the original body at home quickly searched for information on the internet.
‘Past lottery winnings, and 6.1 billion won from eight months ago… only three people? There haven’t been any similar amounts recently. This won’t do.’
I could get the money to use legally, but it would create a possibility of being tracked down by those who were determined to find me.
I didn’t know how much information they had, but there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
“Instead of the 6.1 billion won one. What’s the highest amount I can get if I want to receive the entire settlement amount in lottery tickets?”
“The entire amount? Hmm, then it would be about 6.5 billion won after deducting the commission.”
“Then half… no, let’s divide it into three. 3 billion, 2 billion, and 1.5 billion. Is that possible?”
“It’s possible if it’s roughly those amounts…”
The masked man seemed quite reluctant.
But he seemed to understand my intentions and nodded, accepting it.
“You’re quite cautious? Actually, people mainly use this for money laundering. There aren’t many people who are so obsessed with hiding their identity.”
The average lottery winnings these days were around 2 billion won.
And with dozens of winners every week, tracking was impossible.
“We’re just brokers, so we can’t match the amounts exactly. We’ll divide it roughly within that amount.”
“It doesn’t matter. But you seem very well prepared. Do you have a lot of users?”
“Not really. After all, the taxes are significant. There are more convenient and efficient ways to launder money.”
He shrugged, saying that there were still quite a few people who used it.
As I thought, there was nothing better than this for legal use in the open.
Once I received it after paying taxes, there was no basis for tracking the funds, and no one could argue if I said I was just lucky.
“I see. Then how long will it take to prepare the items?”
“Hmm… I think it’ll take about an hour to bring them here.”
It seemed like they had business agreements with those who did similar work.
Only an hour to match that amount.
‘It would be convenient if I had someone like that to use. Someone who could take care of trivial matters and run errands…’
…Right.
It wouldn’t be bad to just take over a gang in the back alleys.
I wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble, and they seemed useful in many ways.
“Hey, how about another drink? You in?”
“Anyone called a designated driver!”
“Hey, handsome~. How about a drink with me here? Hmm?”
Even though public order was a mess, the streets at night still had some vitality.
The loud voices of drunk people, those soliciting customers, and even those pickingpocketing drunkards.
The detection network using Hans’s Familiar magic was improving in range and precision over time.
As the range expanded, incidents occurred more frequently within the area, and naturally, Hans had to move more busily.
In the early stages, he dealt with all sorts of petty criminals, but these days, he prioritized and punished violent criminals.
‘But I guess word about Hans has spread a bit, so lately, criminals seem to be holding back.’
Hans had clashed with numerous criminals while maintaining public order, and among them were even gangs with some influence in the back alleys.
Of course, he didn’t indiscriminately crush all criminal organizations. He only dealt with those caught red-handed or those who crossed the line.
It wasn’t something an individual could completely eradicate, and even if he cleaned them up, new ones would just take their place.
He just identified the locations of the rest, who hadn’t crossed the line too much, and kept an eye on them.
-Deep Sea Game Land
And the place Heinz was currently at was one of the organizations he had identified back then.
An adult arcade located in a secluded alley.
Thick cigarette smoke obscured his vision as he opened the door of the arcade, which was covered in stickers, making it impossible to see inside.
The eyes of those inside focused on Heinz as he entered.
“Well, young man, what brings you here? Here to play some games?”
A bearded man approached, putting out the cigarette in his mouth.
He was pretending to be nonchalant, but he was clearly wary.
Among his group inside, some were stealthily reaching for weapons.
‘Well… I understand how you feel.’
An uninvited guest suddenly visiting a secret space where hardly anyone came.
And on top of that, with a suspicious appearance: hair slicked back, a black suit, and a black mask covering his eyes.
It would be strange if they weren’t wary.
‘I was going to wear sunglasses too, but I thought it was too much…’
His pale skin and handsome features, which had changed after becoming a vampire, were so different from his original appearance that it was unrecognizable.
But he couldn’t just show his face everywhere when he was here for illegal business.
‘But it’s not a good idea to completely cover myself up either.’
In that case, it would be better to use his changed appearance to hide his identity.
Exposing his sharp eyes, which were the biggest factor in his changed impression, to imprint an image completely different from Han Seong-hyeon.
That was the thought behind his current outfit.
And walking around with sunglasses in the middle of the night would attract more attention.
“I want to sell something.”
“Sell something? This is an arcade, are you trying to sell an arcade machine? We don’t deal with peddlers.”
I put my hand with the bracelet in my pocket, took out a piece of gold, and showed it to the bearded man.
He stared at it for a moment, then frowned at me.
“I’ve never seen you before… Who introduced you?”
“Does that matter?”
“Of course it matters. Trust is the most important thing in this business. We can’t do business with someone we don’t know.”
“Well, you’re not wrong.”
This was an organization that brokered stolen goods and all sorts of illegal trafficking.
An organization that Hans had left alone because it was a bit tricky to deal with directly.
I put my hand in my pocket again, took out a metal badge, and tossed it to him.
He caught it lightly, stared at it for a while, then sighed.
“I heard they were wiped out by some crazy guy wearing a mask.”
The badge was something given to the executives of the organization that Hans had wiped out.
They were guys who mainly dealt with human trafficking and organ trafficking.
Naturally, I rounded them all up and turned them into undead.
“Most of them died and the organization collapsed. I was lucky enough to escape. So I want to get rid of the remaining items.”
Of course, since I had thoroughly searched their brains with dark magic and eliminated those with bad records, such as the leaders and the perpetrators, there wouldn’t be anyone left unless they were low-ranking members who really managed to escape by luck.
He seemed to be thinking about something at my words, then returned the badge.
“Well, if that’s the case, you came to the right place. It’s unfortunate that Boss Park is gone, but those who are alive have to live.”
The bearded man spoke in a lighter tone.
“Anyway, you must have had a hard time coming all the way here. It’s quite a distance from Daerandong.”
“Two.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
I just stared at the bearded man, who was being evasive, without saying anything.
Our eyes met for a while.
“Ahem… This should be enough. Follow me.”
The bearded man cleared his throat and finally led me inside.
Those who were watching from the surroundings also looked away and started talking amongst themselves.
‘That guy, he’s more sly than he looks.’
The conversation we just had was a kind of password verification process.
The boss of the organization wasn’t surnamed Park, but Cho, and their base wasn’t in Daerandong, but Garaedong.
But I shouldn’t point that out and correct him.
There were many ways to find out that much information, and it was a process to filter out those who knew in the first place.
The important thing was to answer the hidden question.
Simply put, it was ‘How many of the following statements are false?’
‘It’s a good thing I read their memories after searching their brains. Actually, I came here knowing that.’
The questions and answers varied for each organization they dealt with, and they were changed periodically.
Seeing him test me with those, remembering them all, that bearded man was more intelligent than he looked.
“You can go in here. I’ll see you when you leave.”
The bearded man led me through a complicated hallway and stopped in front of a room, then disappeared.
I opened the door without hesitation and entered.
There was a hole the size of an upper body in the wall of the room, connected to a table like a bank counter.
“So, what do you want to trade?”
A masked man sitting on the other side of the wall looked at me and spoke.
“I like how straightforward you are.”
Straight to business without even a greeting.
I sat down on the chair opposite him and pushed the gold I was holding through the hole.
He took it without a word and handed it to someone next to him.
I couldn’t see it because of the wall, but I could tell there were quite a few people in the room on the other side from the presence I felt.
He must have handed the item to an appraiser.
Slide—
After a while, he received a piece of paper from someone next to him, glanced at it, and handed it to me.
A piece of paper with just a number written on it.
I frowned.
“Isn’t that too low?”
“That’s how it is when you trade things like this. Didn’t you know that?”
Of course I knew, but I didn’t expect it to be this low.
I thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
Actually, I had a lot of cash right now. Enough that I didn’t need to do this.
‘Because I cleaned out all the criminal organizations.’
Gold bars piled up in their safes, various real estate documents, and piles of cash.
Hans had diligently put them all in his subspace.
But the reason he was going through this troublesome process…
“Okay, but can I get something else instead of cash?”
“Anything is possible as long as the price is right. What do you want?”
“A winning lottery ticket.”
No matter how much cash I had, it was useless if I couldn’t use it.
There was a limit to paying with cash, and in this day and age, there were limitations to conducting all economic activities that way.
What I needed was ‘funds that Han Seong-hyeon could legally use’.
And the record of being a lottery winner would also serve as a smokescreen when I used the cash later.
“…That’ll have quite a high commission. Are you okay with that?”
“Of course. How much can you do?”
“Hmm.”
The sound of someone typing on a keyboard could be heard faintly from the room on the other side.
He must have had a monitor installed next to the hole in the counter, as he glanced to the side and read something.
“The highest amount I can get you right now is 6.1 billion won. There are four months left until the collection period.”
“What’s next?”
“4.4 billion won. Ten months.”
These guys were more competent than I thought.
“But do you even have items worth that much? This much gold isn’t enough.”
Well, it was natural for him to be suspicious since I was currently empty-handed.
I used the subspace magic tool and took out the gold bars, stacking them neatly on the table.
“…You have some valuable items.”
The man’s demeanor changed in an instant.
A greedy look in his eyes, even from behind the mask.
Magic tools themselves were valuable, let alone something that manipulated space.
No matter how rich an organization was, it was something they couldn’t obtain with money alone, so it was natural for them to covet it.
‘Yeah, I knew it.’
I looked at him.
Heinz’s eyes turned blood red, and the scent of blood spread thickly around him.
“…”
I could feel the masked man, as well as those in the same space with him, stiffen.
The scale of the transaction was significant, and the other party was a self-proclaimed remnant of a fallen organization.
If they didn’t try to swallow a sucker who walked into their mouth like this, they wouldn’t be a criminal organization.
‘This is a necessary process for a proper transaction.’
They would have tried to take advantage of me if I hadn’t shown my power.
They would have used some means, whether it was force or something else.
So I needed to show them my power to some extent.
“Let’s do business and end this amicably. We’ll be seeing each other often.”
After a short time, when I thought I had pressured them enough, I released my power and spoke to him.
“…Ahem, was it you? I made a mistake.”
Fortunately, he seemed to understand my warning and cleared his throat, taking the gold bars piled up in front of him and handing them to someone next to him.
The appraiser next to him seemed to be still nervous and fumbled for a moment, but he soon appraised the gold bars and offered a price.
‘As expected, force is the best means of communication.’
The appraised price was much better than before.
They must have taken care of the commission and given me a discount.
I nodded in satisfaction.
“For your information, we only deal with face value. Take care of the tax issues yourself.”
The exchange commission, the additional commission for receiving it as a lottery ticket, and the tax I had to pay when collecting the winnings.
It wasn’t even half of the profit I could have made if I had sold the gold normally.
‘This much gold, and I can’t even reveal its origin, so it can’t be helped. But it still hurts…’
“The total appraised value is a little over 7.8 billion won. If you go with the 6.1 billion won lottery ticket, after deducting the commission, the remaining amount… will you take the rest in cash?”
“Hmm, wait a minute.”
Heinz pretended to think for a moment, buying time.
Meanwhile, the original body at home quickly searched for information on the internet.
‘Past lottery winnings, and 6.1 billion won from eight months ago… only three people? There haven’t been any similar amounts recently. This won’t do.’
I could get the money to use legally, but it would create a possibility of being tracked down by those who were determined to find me.
I didn’t know how much information they had, but there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
“Instead of the 6.1 billion won one. What’s the highest amount I can get if I want to receive the entire settlement amount in lottery tickets?”
“The entire amount? Hmm, then it would be about 6.5 billion won after deducting the commission.”
“Then half… no, let’s divide it into three. 3 billion, 2 billion, and 1.5 billion. Is that possible?”
“It’s possible if it’s roughly those amounts…”
The masked man seemed quite reluctant.
But he seemed to understand my intentions and nodded, accepting it.
“You’re quite cautious? Actually, people mainly use this for money laundering. There aren’t many people who are so obsessed with hiding their identity.”
The average lottery winnings these days were around 2 billion won.
And with dozens of winners every week, tracking was impossible.
“We’re just brokers, so we can’t match the amounts exactly. We’ll divide it roughly within that amount.”
“It doesn’t matter. But you seem very well prepared. Do you have a lot of users?”
“Not really. After all, the taxes are significant. There are more convenient and efficient ways to launder money.”
He shrugged, saying that there were still quite a few people who used it.
As I thought, there was nothing better than this for legal use in the open.
Once I received it after paying taxes, there was no basis for tracking the funds, and no one could argue if I said I was just lucky.
“I see. Then how long will it take to prepare the items?”
“Hmm… I think it’ll take about an hour to bring them here.”
It seemed like they had business agreements with those who did similar work.
Only an hour to match that amount.
‘It would be convenient if I had someone like that to use. Someone who could take care of trivial matters and run errands…’
…Right.
It wouldn’t be bad to just take over a gang in the back alleys.
I wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble, and they seemed useful in many ways.
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