‘Look at the Japanese lad complaining. Beer without bubbles must taste like piss. Did you expect it to taste good?’


  U Beomseok, stressed out, swore internally. He had never tasted foreign beer so he didn’t know if Korean beer tasted bad in comparison. But even if you hate your wife, you don’t take kindly to someone insulting her. He wanted to shower Murai with insults but he was his boss. When your boss complained, you needed to find a solution as a subordinate.

  “Mr. Murai. Let’s switch to Western liquors and toss the lame beer.”


  U Beomseok pressed the intercom’s button.

  “Have you called?”


  Even before the bell ringing died down, a man in his mid-20s appeared and bowed 90 degrees. “Bring us two bottles of Valentine 30.”


  “Sir, we only have one box of the 30s that is to be sent to the 13th prosecutor’s office. Can I serve you with the 20s?”


  “Bring them here!”


  U Beomseok tossed his half-drunk beer glass. The annoyance he felt at Murai found its outlet. The young man stared at the glass but didn’t evade it. The glass left a beer stain on the man’s clean jean jacket and fell. The man caught the falling glass with his foot and politely set it down on the table. He was shamed but his face didn’t flinch. It insinuated that he was no ordinary thug and he belonged to the special unit.

  “We don’t even need to bribe them anymore. If we send a gift to a battlefield, we will only get told off.”


  U Beomseok addressed him in a kinder tone. Razor was a Korean born in Japan who belonged to the Hamon clan. Even though he belonged to the special unit, U Beomseok couldn’t shame him for that reason.

  “I will be ready.”


  Razor bowed and entered the pantry.

  “This is quite unexpected. I don’t even have any idea what actually happened. I only lost some men.”


  U Beomseok held an open beer bottle and drank from it. The building was destroyed but he had taken that in stride. Being a loan shark wasn’t really the noblest job around. But it paid well. To rotting carcasses, flies were bound to be attracted. Other hungry syndicates often provoked Pungguk, asking for some profit share. Bak Gichung and Jang Yeongpal weren’t exactly pushovers, either.

  The fight that he had assumed to be quenched soon became more fierce as time passed. The Pungguk syndicate and the special unit were like teeth and lips. He intended to send backup but Murai stopped him. He had said there is a supernatural agent in the building. U Beomseok had nodded. With two such agents, one could even overthrow a nationwide syndicate.

  Then a great incident happened. Bombs exploded and the building collapsed. The Pungguk syndicate was now done for. The supernatural agent also fled. Two from the special unit sent on a scouting mission, never returned. It happened right before his nose but he had no intel whatsoever. He didn’t know who the ambushing party was. He didn’t know what happened in the building. He didn’t know how many were killed. The welfare center had some issues to be resolved as well. He had no time or attention for the neighbor.

  “Mr. Murai, are you sure about delivering the

  girl?”


  U Beomseok picked up the missing person’s ad on the table and waved it. On the ad were printed the text that read: “Child Missing” and a black-and-white photo of a cute girl wearing a onesie skirt.

  The press hadn’t yet caught a whiff of the explosion last night. But the city and its outskirts were covered with police officers and soldiers. He was not sure if he could deliver the child to Busan through the checkpoints with all these flyers spread across the city. He was feeling anxious about Murai’s promise.

  “Mr. U, if we were in Japan, things wouldn’t be handled this sloppily. The ‘Japanese Cultural Institute’ in Busan was mobilized. They bribed up every rough corner. Koreans are very efficient when they are bribed. They become like Shinkansen.”


  Murai said matter-of-factly like saying “This table has four legs.” ‘Fucker. Even your esteemed supernatural agent had his ass handed to him.’


  U Beomseok, unlike his inner monologue, heaved sighs on the outside. He had no retort to what Murai said. Almost everyone in upper positions was bribed by them. He felt a pang of uneasiness.

  “Mr. U, let the cultural institute handle these matters. We have our job at hand. Have you finished clearing the warehouse?”


  “Don’t worry. We only spared conventional medical equipment and swept up the rest and tossed them in the basement. We welded shut the entrance door and built a wall behind it. No one would be able to infiltrate it.”


  U Beomseok assured him. The police came for a look around a while ago. They were bribed, of course. Gim Dalsu would handle Prosecutor Bak Byeonggyu and Detective “Bulldog” Chu Busik but he was not to be completely trusted.

  “What about the feed crusher?”


  “It is quite a big piece of equipment. We buried it in the backyard and planted a tree on top of

  it.”


  “Did you handle the waiting participants?” “We ‘told’ them to keep their mouths shut.”


  “Told?”


  Murai’s eyes shot up.

  “The ones who signed the contract of renouncement of bodily rights are locked up in the basement. The participants in the clinical trials are in the living quarters.”


  “No. They must be locked up in the basement too.”


  Murai glared at U Beomseok.

  “They have no evidence. Do we really need to do that? If there are no one around, that will rouse suspicion more.”


  nit

  U Beomseok looked at Murai with incredulous eyes. Excessive politeness was rude. Murai only had to run his mouth but he had to run around.

  “Their mouths will be the evidence. Follow my order, Mr. U.”


  “Phew!”


  U Beomseok sighed. He had to endure Murai since last night. He cleared the medical equipment and had the flooring reinstalled and the walls repainted. He had the quarters sprayed with ammonia to mask the smell of blood.

  “Quick!”


  Murai slammed the table. Murai had his reasons to feel anxious. The ANSP, being a Korean government organization, couldn’t be controlled by his connections with the prosecutors. The lack of preparation was often the problem, not the other way around. U Beomseok didn’t understand that Murai wasn’t taking any overt action himself considering he is in a foreign country, thus honoring its hierarchical structure. ‘My fists are trembling!’


  U Beomseok’s heartfelt hot with rage. He wanted to smack the Japanese man’s rat-like face but he didn’t have the status or power to do so. He pressed on the intercom and called Razor in.

  “Mobilize everyone in the unit. Send the participants in the living quarters to the basement too. Get them sufficient food and water and weld the door shut. Don’t forget to splash the welded area with sulfuric acid and graphite.”


  U Beomseok was quite meticulous. When the welded area met sulfuric acid and graphite, it rapidly became rusty and looked old and colors fade as if it was welded years ago.

  “I see.”


  Razor strode out of the office with deft steps. But when he was out of the office, his steps slowed down. He had answered clearly but he didn’t feel so.

  “Until when do I need to work as a butcher?”


  Razor muttered. He had entered the syndicate to make the ends meet in Japan. But it was not a job any normal human could do for a prolonged period of time.

  “The granddaughter of the chairman of the Japan Business Federation is proving to be quite some trouble.”


  Murai heaved a deep sigh. All the policies and rules in the world didn’t stem from good and evil nor do they differentiate the two. They were made to serve the greed of the one with power and used so.

  He could almost see the angry old man who would be waiting for the donor dearly. He didn’t care if some Koreans were killed in the process. But Oku Hitoshi was a big figure. If their Korean branch shut down, which was their most lucrative branch, he wouldn’t be able to restore the clan’s face even if he committed seppuku.

  “Great. It’s either do or die!”


  Murai gritted his teeth and tamed his anxiety. Only time would tell if it was able to be done.

  A ghost landed on the riverbank. It was Mussang, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses.

  “What are they doing? They can’t be serious!”


  Mussang beheld the giant concrete rubble incredulously. The authorities were supposed to look for any buried survivors through the night. But no one was on site. Not even a single officer to preserve the scene.

  A day had passed since the explosion but they hadn’t even touched the rubble. Only some police line roughly surrounded the site and three lonesome excavators stood. Most of the police force was used to subdue protests and spy on universities. The lack of manpower was a matter of course.

  He wanted to open the skull of the responsible authorities and examined their brains. They at least had to look for survivors. Maybe they were conferring about the aftermath instead of saving the survivors. Thus worked Korean society for decades-long at a stretch.

  Mussang immediately turned his gaze elsewhere. He had no remaining business with Pungguk Capital. The authorities were to handle the rest. Now he had to check up on the barracks. He couldn’t handle all the injustice in the world but at least he could handle the one before his eyes.

  “A welfare center?”


  Mussang wondered in front of the black steel gate. He hadn’t noticed the gate yesterday. The Japanese expression bothered him.

  “We will see what kind of welfare you are handing out.”


  A whiff of wind jumped over the tall wall. He landed right in front of the guard dogs. The two dogs, startled by the shadow, ran out of their kennels. Before they had time to bark, Mussang’s hand caressed their heads and they fell to the ground.

  “Sleep tight for one hour. I will spare your lives. You are just dogs.”


  Dimensional Sight spread like a traditional handheld fan.

  ‘One, two, three, four. Why are there so many people here?’


  Mussang wondered. His mind’s eye had seen at least 70 people. According to Jang Yeongpal, there were 20 live-in guards in the building. If he were to trust him, the remaining 50 had to be from the outside. The ghost leaped again.

  Mussang used Camouflage and pushed open the door to the first building. The moldy smell of sweat and feet overwhelmed his faculty of smell. Jang Yeongpal was right about there being living quarters. With a living room in the middle, four rooms surrounded it.

  There were 19 asleep humans. One was missing. Mussang was going to enter when he listened attentively. Someone was talking on the other side. Considering the size of the barracks, there had to be some separate space. He soundlessly got out of the living quarters and snuck up to the other side.

  “Mr. Murai, Prosecutor Gim Dalsu called. They excluded Bangol and Bulldog from this investigation.”


  Mussang heard a low voice.

  “Great. The ANSP is the problem. Did Oyeol contact you?”


  “I cannot reach Jang Palsu. He always shows up when there is food. Fuck!”


  U Beomseok ground his teeth. No amount of rage was going to make the vegetable in the second basement of Eungsimje respond. ‘Bingo!’


  Mussang smirked. He hung upside-down from the window and snooped on the inside. No light escaped, blocked by the thick curtains. Mussang waved a bit then one of the curtains was lifted. Telekinesis was quite a useful ability.

  Two men, who seemed to be living off the dark at a first glance, were drinking. One looked Japanese. The other seemed to be a martial arts master.

  “What does the cultural institute say?”


  “The head of the Daegu branch has quite a foul personality. He cannot be bribed. Even Mr. Shirai gave up.”


  Murai shook his head. Their organization had several connections across Korean society. Mr. Shirai had tried to contact the branch head through several routes but Daedeok didn’t budge.

  “If even Mr. Shirai gave up, we will need to fold our business temporarily and lie low. How will you ever deliver the donor?”


  “It is indeed possible to hide the needle in the haystack. We can use the prosecutor’s car.”


  “Will Gim Dalsu agree to that? That undermines his security.”


  U Beomseok had doubts. Even though Gim Dalsu loved money dearly, surely even he was not going to let a criminal organization use his

  car.

  “Will he give up his own virility?”


  “Aha! You mean blood transfusion.”


  U Beomseok slapped his thigh. Gim Dalsu had his blood change with a healthy teenager’s every quarter. He was close to his 60s but was staying quite virile. For him to enjoy such a perk, he had no choice but to cooperate.

  ‘I smell corruption, Gim Dalsu, haha!’


  Mussang smirked coldly. He was not planning to spare Gim Dalsu’s life anyway but he was still unforgivable in his mind for one particular reason. The name Murai didn’t sound unfamiliar either. Murai Yuso was one of the commanders who slaughtered the guards and infiltrated the Korean Royal Palace. U Beomseok’s ancestors also cooperated with him to betray his own homeland nation.

  A hundred years had elapsed since then. A Japanese man with the corrupt name of “Murai” frequented Korea, a Korean man was working with him, and the Korean authorities protected them. The dark history was still ongoing

  “You do not deserve an easy end.”


  A beast’s eye, shining blue, rose above the rooftops of the barracks.