Episode 7
#5 Black Market (1)
Knock knock.
“Hey, boss, can I come in?”
“It's 'Team Leader,' not 'Boss.' And what’s the point of asking after you’ve already come in?”
“Oh, should I... should I go then?”
Choi In-hyuk frowned, looking at Kim Doo-shik, who was hanging in the doorway with a flustered expression. Seeing a guy that ugly act all cutesy was making his skin crawl.
“You’re already in, what's this about leaving?”
“Hehe.” Kim Doo-shik chuckled nervously.
A giant of a guy, close to six-three with a shaved head, smiling like that was just gross.
Choi In-hyuk didn’t particularly like guys like him who tarnished the company’s image. If he had his way, he would have kicked all those menacing faces out of this business, but it was impossible for Choi In-hyuk, who was totally under his dad's thumb.
And this is the best he could do after hand-picking the least scary-looking ones, jeez. Choi In-hyuk grumbled lightly, looking at Kim Doo-shik’s face, which looked like it'd been soaking in water for days.
“I told you to stay out of here as much as possible. You're a freakin' eyesore.”
Kim Doo-shik stuck out his lip in a pout.
That might've worked out in the field, but Choi In-hyuk wasn't buying this cutesy crap.
“Spit it out. What do you want?”
Choi In-hyuk's annoyed voice made Kim Doo-shik cut to the chase.
“I saw you greenlit a loan for that dude earlier. Was there something I missed?”
“What, you think I just hand out loans to anyone?”
“No, no, Team Leader! I trust you, it's just... he looked like a total con artist!”
He was skinny as a rail, dressed like a bum, and his beady eyes made him look like a bad guy. Kim Doo-shik had been in this game long enough to know a deadbeat when he saw one.
Lending a guy like that over a hundred million won...
Sure, 'Push and Cash' wouldn't go belly up even if they lost it all, but Kim Doo-shik was baffled. His boss was usually so good at weeding these guys out.
He knew his boss, who already hated his guts, would blow a fuse, but he had to say something.
Luckily, Choi In-hyuk just let out a short laugh instead of blowing up.
“Yeah, most people would think that. But I saw something else in him.”
Having said that, Choi In-hyuk asked Kim Doo-shik.
“Did you see what was around that guy’s neck?”
“Yes, I did.”
A restraint used on Awakeners with psychic powers. Kim Doo-shik wasn’t an Awakener, but he knew that very well. These days, those neck restraints are considered way more dangerous than ankle monitors, right?
Then it hit Kim Doo-shik.
Ah-ha!
“Are you going to sell him on the black market?”
Choi In-hyuk looked disgusted by Kim Doo-shik's surprisingly blunt question.
“Do you think I’m some kind of human trafficker?”
“Huh? But last time…”
He was sure he had told him to sell off a guy who couldn’t repay his debt.
“He's still a customer. We don't just sell off our customers.”
“Then why on earth…”
So, he wasn't expecting the guy to default?
“Most guys with those things have these dead, hopeless eyes, right? I mean, what can you even do with one of those on?”
Kim Doo-shik nodded at Choi In-hyuk’s words. Just wearing that tag brands you as a potential criminal to normal folks, so forget about getting a regular job.
“But this guy's eyes were different. So damn cocky, I almost ripped them out on impulse.”
“H-Hey, Team Leader! You can't just go around gouging people's eyes out...!”
“Relax, I don't go around ripping out eyes for no reason. Those things are valuable! Why would I just pluck them out?”
Choi In-hyuk smirked, remembering the customer's face from earlier.
Just like Kim Doo-shik, who'd led countless suckers into this hellhole, Choi In-hyuk, sitting on his throne of debt, had a knack for telling who was a payday and who was a waste of time.
And his gut was screaming...
This guy was going places.
“I had no clue what he was gonna do with the cash, but it smelled interesting.”
He was sick of regular Joes borrowing money for boring crap like hospital bills or next month's rent.
But that guy was different.
130 million won.
It was a chunk of change to blow on a gamble, but Choi In-hyuk wasn't sweating it.
“If he couldn't pay up, well, we had our ways of collecting.”
If he turned out to be a small-time loser, they could just sell him off like Kim Doo-shik suggested.
Choi In-hyuk didn’t know.
How much this 130 million won debt would come back to bite him in the ass.
I grinned, looking at the bag in my hands. Finally, I had the cash to get this show on the road. But I wasn't totally relaxed.
There's nothing good about getting involved with loan sharks. Especially for a deadbeat like me, planning to stiff them.
These guys are like bloodhounds. They don't give up. It wasn't just the money; it was the principle. Letting someone get away with it was a death sentence in this business. One slip-up and they'd be sharks smelling blood in the water, desperate to get their money back.
They'd chase you to hell and back for a measly million won, so with 130 million on the line, I'd probably be dodging these guys in the afterlife.
But I had it all figured out.
Cash in hand, I didn't waste any time.
The abandoned subway station was a creepy, deserted place. Among the rusty pillars, cracked tiles, and piles of trash, I found the way down.
Subways had mostly been closed down since the appearance of Gates.
There were a bunch of reasons. First, a Gate popping up underground was a nightmare scenario. Second, no one wanted to waste resources fixing lines that monsters kept wrecking. There were probably other reasons too, but basically, it was all because of the Gates.
So, subways and tunnels became a thing of the past.
But not everyone forgot about the subways. Officially, they were closed, but plenty of people still used them.
Everyone from homeless folks who'd lost everything to teenage runaways.
Even people who just wanted to disappear.
But the real kings of the underground were the criminals.
It made sense that a black market would sprout up in this maze-like underground – a perfect place to hide.
The black market moved around the subway lines to avoid getting busted. But there was always a main hub.
The trail to the black market started at Gasan Digital Complex Station, where I was.
The Daerim Station Gate Break was the deadliest disaster in Korean history.
The Gate spawned underground, went unnoticed, and then boom – out came a swarm of poisonous bug-type monsters.
Those bugs burrowed through the underground, multiplied like crazy, and then swarmed the surface.
The queen ant-like monsters wiped out the area in a massive swarm. The ground was so unstable that the area around Daerim Station sank over six feet, causing billions in damage.
Luckily, Awakeners managed to kill the monsters, but the poison from their bodies was a whole other problem. Even now, more than ten years after that incident, Daerim Station was still a restricted area.
Of course, some people didn't give a damn about the contamination and went in anyway.
After the place was wrecked, all sorts of criminals started crawling in. The official 'no entry' signs because of the toxins basically meant it was a free-for-all.
Naturally, the area around Daerim got a bad rep, which was enough to scare off regular folks. Gasan Digital Complex Station, where I was walking now, was similar.
The unmaintained subway was pitch black inside.
I pulled my baseball cap down low and switched on the flashlight clipped to my vest.
You couldn't see jack in that darkness, so a flashlight was a must.
The outside was somewhat okay, but inside, it was a total disaster zone. Mudslides from the rain, along with smashed-up junk, were strewn everywhere.
I hopped down onto the tracks where the platforms used to be and started walking.
My footsteps echoed down the tunnel with every step. I kept shining the flashlight on the walls to check. The walls were covered with all sorts of graffiti.
Between the usual 'Government sucks!' and 'Awakeners go home!' crap, and some amateur graffiti, I spotted an arrow. This arrow pointed the way to the black market.
The arrows, drawn with disappearing ink, showed the black market's current location.
To be precise, the entrance to it.
The arrow pointed to a blank, dead-end wall.
The black market was right behind this wall.
The way to enter was simple.
I knocked on the wall, and it started glowing blue.
This was magic-tech, a new thing since the Gates appeared. First-timers would freak out at this entrance (not that I did, of course).
It was a way of saying, 'This black market is run by someone who can use this tech like it's nothing.'
The wall glowed, and the hidden entrance opened up.
I slipped inside.
The wall sealed shut behind me.
I followed the passage. Unlike the pitch-black tunnel, this place was brightly lit.
I turned off the flashlight.
The muffled sounds of people were getting closer.
The place was buzzing with activity.
It was a market, after all. Even a black market is still a market, and markets are noisy.
I followed the noise.
And there it was – the black market.
It wasn't much to look at, even for a black market. It closely resembled a night market in Southeast Asia.
Things like the lights hanging here and there and the stalls lined up in rows.
But the stuff they were selling was a whole different story.
The place was packed with criminals from all over and hunters looking to buy.
Alright.
Time to get to work.
