Mercenary Black Mamba

At the words "Get him!", Kim Gi-taek flinched. At the stark energy akin to a blade striking the top of one's head, his heart dropped. The conversation lasted a few sentences but the content was outrageous.

His hunch told him that the young man in front of him could be the hidden ruler of the world of darkness. The name "Lee Su-bok" caught his attention. He could never forget that person even if he die.

"Get Lee Su-bok? Who will do that? How?"

Kim Gi-taek walked on his knees and approached the young man.

"Have a drink. The night is young and my bottle is deep."

Mu Ssang evaded Kim Gi-taek's eagerness. He raised his glass and hurled a mouthful of liquor at his uvula which flinched. He handed the glass to Kim Gi-taek. Kim Gi-taek, holding the glass, was feeling confused.

The menacing energy had disappeared without a trace. A soft ambiance like a spring breeze, similar to that between enlightened masters, replaced it. Kim Gi-taek felt as though he had hallucinated.

"Who are you?"

"Sir, don't ask me who I am. Ask me what I do. Not everyone in a monk's robe is a monk. Not everyone holding a blade is a killer."

"Ah!"

Kim Gi-taek exclaimed softly. The young man invited an impoverished no one to a meal and lent his precious time. Why did he do that? What did he have that the young man would fear?

For the past few years, he had to be wary of people and was chased by fear. This rendered him doubtful, petty, and fearful. He wanted to enter a mouse hole to evade shame and wretchedness. Kim Gi-taek emptied his glass and poured himself another, which he promptly emptied as well.

"Sir, take your time. This liquor is quite strong although it takes quite a while to come up."

"Yeah, I was being rude. Don't call me sir, please."

Kim Gi-taek insisted with a bit of indignation. The word "sir" triggered his PTSD every time.

"All right. Judging from your behavior, the loan sharks must have been harassing you a lot."

Kim Gi-taek's eyes reddened. He was so grateful for the young man for overlooking his flaw. He thought of the saying, "Age is just a number". How could this man be so insightful about the world and generous at such a young age?

"They are not people. I only borrowed 3,000,000 won. The sum total of the interest I paid them surpassed that amount in a year. I borrowed money from everywhere I could then I couldn't contact them for a few months. When I could, I already invested the amount in my factory. I had no means to pay the interest that grew to become more than the original amount borrowed. When I couldn't pay for the interest, they began threatening me in any way whatsoever. Verbal threats. They beheaded cats and dogs and threw their heads into our house. They threw balloons filled with animal blood to my wife and daughter."

Kim Gi-taek, overcome by emotion, started to take a deep breath. Their brutality still made his heart beat. Mu Ssang filled his glass without a word.

"My eldest daughter developed PTSD symptoms after being showered in animal blood. We couldn't stand their brutality. I had to give them my factory as a loan payment. I still had to sell my house to settle various accounts. This world is really a wretched place!"

Kim Gi-taek quenched his resentment and chewed an apricot as if it is the loan shark himself.

'That is like my uncle.'

Mu Ssang wanted to sigh. His uncle and aunt were now hell-bent on killing each other. His uncle was using his syndicate to undermine his wife's family's foundation. His aunt was seeking a chance to poison her husband. Neither of them would feel any qualms bullying someone else and would employ any means whatsoever to do so.

Mu Ssang now understood how his uncle's business could grow so much in such a short time. His uncle was good at numbers and quick with thoughts. Mr. Kim was only one of the many poor victims caught in the spiderweb his uncle weaved.

On the other hand, his uncle and his syndicate worked hand in hand to destroy Mr. Kim's fabric factory, ultimately, it was the government's fault for letting a backward financial system persist. Had the government provided Mr. Kim with some bond, he didn't need to resort to finding a loan shark. The police colluding with the syndicate was also guilty. The world smelled of corruption.

Mu Ssang looked at Kim Gi-taek with eyes full of pity. He was a morally upright and responsible man who sold his house to settle his debts. Mr. Kim was an archetypal example of an upright small business getting ruined by a poor financial system, an evil loan shark, and corrupt civil workers. There must be many more Mr. Kims in this country.

"What do you mean that they used some scheme?"

Mu Ssang asked what he had already guessed. A businessperson couldn't be kind all the time. They needed to see the big picture and sometimes be heartless like his uncle. To hire someone, Mu Ssang needed to gauge his character.

"Lee Su-bok is the one who incited my workers and Jang bribed the police but the real culprit is Bak In Bo. His nickname in this industry is 'Barracuda.' He gobbled up many factories using his tremendous capital power and any means whatsoever. Bak In Bo used his syndicate members, working with the loan sharks, to take my factory. I was stupidly toyed by them."

'He has some insight.'

Kim Gi-taek's value rose in Mu Ssang's mind.

"So, is everything settled now?"

"No. That would have been great. I thought it was done but due to compound interest, the interest surpassed the original borrowed amount."

"Did you double-check the contract?"

"I did. There are my signature and stamp on it. It can't be helped. I should have been smarter."

Kim Gi-taek slammed the floor with his hand, overcome with rage.

"Oh, no!" Mu Ssang clucked his tongue. It could mean one of two things. Mr. Kim could have not read the contract properly as he said or the bastards forged a new contract.

"You said you sold your house. How are you doing now?"

"I need to feed my family so I am working as a day laborer. My wife and two daughters are hiding in an inn to avoid them."

"In this heat? Your family must be suffering quite a lot."

"It's all my fault. If the bastards catch them, they may sell their organs. They should hide."

Mr. Kim's face darkened. A dark aura emanated from him in thick waves.

"Organs?"

Mu Ssang wondered. He knew what the word meant. He didn't understand what "sell" meant. Even in the evil voodoo, they may dismember or castrate a living person but never extract their intestines.

"The liver or the kidneys. Such things. They are not humans but demons. If you don't pay the debt, they take your organs. They have a doctor who specializes in extracting such organs. They have a vendor too. Everyone around here knows of this. If you die during the extraction surgery, your body gets hurled into an ocean in a weighted coffin."

"Is that so? They forfeited their humanity long ago."

Mu Ssang's eyes took on a chilly sheen. Mr. Kim wasn't on his record of favors and grudges but he was still someone who exercised grace in his eyes. He extended a helping hand without prejudice to a criminal from prison. Return favors tenfold. Return grudges a hundredfold.

"Sir, I must ask you for a favor."

"A favor?"

Kim Gi-taek set down his glass and raised his reddened face. Once alcohol entered his starved stomach, he became quite drunk quickly.

"Haha. What favor can I render you, who has everything?"

"Even a mayfly that only lives for a day has wings. Even a flea smaller than a sesame seed can jump."

Mu Ssang grinned. Kim Gi-taek bowed without a word. Mu Ssang spoke in a roundabout way but he was still telling him off for his low self-esteem.

"I have a teacher alone in a temple. He wanders the world these days but when he is at the temple, someone needs to tend to him. I would like to hire your wife for the maintenance of the temple as well as tending to the teacher. I assure you, no loan sharks would be able to approach the temple. If you grant this favor, I will protect your two daughters."

"Are you for sure?"

Kim Gi-taek was astonished. He knew what Mu Ssang meant in the guise of asking for a favor. He meant that he will protect and feed his family for nothing in return. Mu Ssang's tone became stern.

"I don't make empty promises. I have more than 50 empty rooms at my place. You can surely use some of them. But it's not for free. Your wife must be prepared to wrestle with a TV antenna in the middle of the mountain. Your daughters will be tasked with cleaning the house."

"Thank you. I am grateful. I accept your favor, even though it is making me lose face."

Kim Gi-taek held Mu Ssang's hand tightly. His wife and two daughters were shivering in fear in a narrow, stinky inn room where they couldn't even take showers properly.

He could accept the situation as a payment for his foolishness but he couldn't accept his family's ordeal. If they could get out of that wretched inn, he had nothing else to wish for. Mu Ssang's proposition was like a spell of rain in drought and the sound of the gospel in hell. Kim Gi-taek's watery eyes glinted.

"That shall be it for your family for now. You shall resolve the loan shark issue with me. You cannot live like that, with a leech attached to the back of your head."

"How will you ever be able to handle those vicious thugs? They are like evil spirits."

"Have you ever given up on an order just because you had a stack of orders to handle?"

"Never. We pulled all-nighters. We relayed some work to other factories. We bought more machines. We fulfilled every order no matter what."

Kim Gi-taek's face took on pride and longing.

"That's it. It depends on your mindset whether there is a means or not. Where is their office?"

Kim Gi-taek's face was awestruck. It was so. The means was something found, not given. He only thought of avoiding them up until now. He still feared them, though.

"What are you going to do? They wield wrenches when they get upset. They have a prosecutor bribed to the brim. Even the police cannot touch them."

Kim Gi-taek freaked out. If Mu Ssang provoked them in his youthful vigor, it could prove quite disastrous. He did not want to see a young man get hurt because of him. He didn't think he would be able to bear the burden of guilt.

"I am not some random person. I am not the police. You can just give me your word."

"I don't know the location of the office. It is registered under 'Pungguk Capital.'"

Kim Gi-taek was resigned to fate now.

The phone rang.

- Mu Ssang, Nupchi must be at the front gate now.

It was Sam Shik.

"You did great."

Mu Ssang responded tersely and put down the receiver.

"Eh. I shouldn't have sent Old Man Ali."

Mu Ssang complained as he rose. To open the front gate, he must go down to the biggest outhouse. He had sent Old Man Ali back to Novatopia because he pitied him working for so many years, separate from his family. His absence was palpably felt, which Mu Ssang didn't expect when he was around.

When the front gate opened, a Pony entered, shining its headlights.

"I got him!"

Nupchi, from the passenger seat, reported.

"You did a good job. Get him out."

"Aye! Dolbbak, get him out!"

The driver's seat door opened abruptly. A bald giant came out of it, bowed 90-degrees toward Mu Ssang, and unloaded the "cargo" in the back seats.

The giant's shield-like hands pulled out a scrawny man from the car. He was in his mid-40s, blindfolded, and had his hands bound together behind his back. His cheeks were swollen red, suggesting a few slaps were received.

"Spare my life!"

The man bowed like a grasshopper.

"Silence! Before I take out some teeth."

Dolbbak slapped the man without any restraint whatsoever. The man's impatience hinted that he was a low-rank nobody. The man clenched his lips shut and shivered like a tree branch in the winter wind. The smell of ammonia filled the air.

"Filthy bastard! He is leaking."

Nupchi frowned deeply. The man's crotch darkened with urine.

"Look at you, Lee Su-bok!"

Kim Gi-taek growled like a wounded animal.

"Sir, please wait in the study."

"No. I must see him suffer."

Kim Gi-taek glared his eyes and shook his head. Feeling his insistence, Mu Ssang turned his back without a word.

"Drag him after me!"

Mu Ssang went around the main house and headed for the back garden. To interrogate a low-level nobody, the basement was the place of choice but there were many devices that must be kept hidden from the outside world, and also, Kamdoong was living there. This kind of nobody was not worth opening the basement door. Nupchi and Dolbbak each held Lee Su-bok's shoulder and dragged him after Mu Ssang.

The back garden with the lamps off was dark without any glimmer of light. The two flashlights Nupchi and Dolbbak held were the only source of light.

"Take off his blindfold and unbind his hands too."

"Aye!"

Lee Su-bok squinted at the intense flashlight. Dolbbak was the lowest rank in the Sam Shik syndicate. A mafia member and a con artist both lived off darkness but they held vastly different amounts of dignity.

The mafia considered con artists and pickpockets as vermin. Dolbbak still had to prove his worth in his syndicate but he still looked down on a con artist like Lee Su-bok.

Judging from Dolbbak's attitude, Lee Su-bok guessed that someone important was present. Why did the Sam Shik syndicate kidnap a no-name nobody like him? He was but a minor con artist. He felt himself tense up. The important figure of the kidnapping syndicate revealed his face. That means they had a surefire way to silence him for good.

This very day could be the day he entered the afterlife. To escape a tiger's den, he must give it a satisfying feed. The problem was that he didn't know what that was. Lee Su-bok's brain scanned his memory at the speed of light.