Chapter 46: Kwak-jung is dead?

“Old man, I’ll give you the liquid for the Talking Tree within two months. We’ll talk in more detail later.”

Kang Chul-in stood up.

“W-where are you going?”

“I have something that I need to do.”

“Hmm.. okay. Well, I’ll start getting prepared for that.”

“I’m leaving now.”

“Wait!”

Old man kwon grabbed Kang Chul-in.

“Let me go, I’m busy.”

Kang Chul-in coldly snapped out, and pushed Old man Kwon’s arm off of him.

“Your car!”

“Ah..”

“The Jaguar you asked for is still coming here..”

“Give me a car key, anything is fine.”

“Then use this.”

Since Kang Chul-in was in a hurry, Old man Kwon handed his own car key over to him.

“A porsche?”

“Yep, the best there is.”

“.. This old guy..”

Startled, Kang Chul-in started mumbling to himself.

“Age doesn’t matter. To a man, his car, suit, and watch is key.”

“.....”

“Well then, you should get going. I will put your new house’s location on your phone, so put it there later. I’ll also put the Mustang and Jaguar. Also, is this truly enough to show my sincerity for you?”

“It’s definitely enough. Thanks, old man. “

Kang Chul-in said something that was truly rare coming from him, he thanked someone.

Old man Kwon was right, a car was really something important to a man. He knew what it meant, lending a car key over to someone else. At least, Kang Chul-in did.

“I’m leaving.”

Kang Chul-in hurriedly left Old man Kwon’s office.

And.. 1 hour later, Old man Kwon felt his strength from his prime coming back, and reminisced of his glorious past.

After eating the meat from the Peacock Dragon, he felt as if he got at least 10 years younger.

“Kukuku, I might even get another child from this. Hahahaha.”

Old man Kwon’s opinion of Kang Chul-in rose even more.

Startlingly, Old man Kwon’s car was a Porsche 911 boxster, and was even a convertible. For a man that was 80 years old, he truly had some good tastes.

‘VROOM’

Kang Chul-in immediately started heading towards Park Doo-sik’s office.

Although feeling the F6 engine was something someone wouldn’t be able to experience often, he had no time to feel the enjoyment.

“Kwak-jung.”

Kang Chul-in read the message that Doo-sik left for him. This is what it said:

Park Doo-sik: Big boss, I think I’ve found him, but something’s off. If you read the message, please contact me as soon as possible.

Although he felt anxious when it said something was off, he started off immediately when he heard that they had found a lead.

‘BOOM!’

As soon as Kang Chul-in arrived at Doo-sik’s office, he broke the door open. It wasn’t intentional, but the door broke due to his immense strenght.

“W-what?”

“Get your weapons out!”

“Big boss, big boss!”

Doo-Sik’s underlings took out their weapons and got ready to fight.

“....?”

Kang Chul-in was very fascinating to look at right now. He thought that they were overreacting for just a broken door.

“You crazy bastards! Aren’t you going to put the weapons away immediately? Huh?”

Doo-sik hurriedly came out and stopped his underlings from doing something stupid.

“Sorry, I’m truly sorry, big boss. They’re nervous recently because the situation for us isn’t very good right now. Hey, you bastards! What are you doing? Apologize quickly!”

After recognizing that it was Kang Chul-in, some of the gangster’s faces turned pale, and did a 90 degree bow.

“I’m sorry, big boss!”

“Please forgive me!”

Although Kang Chul-in face turned stiff because of the gangsters, it wasn’t really a problem. He had no time to dwell on this matter.

“I’m truly sorry.”

Doo-sik apologized again.

“Something had happened to our people in Incheon, because of a guy called Black Leopard. Ai, he really is like a ghost. We can’t catch him.”

Sighing, Kang Chul-in stated: “It truly is difficult trying to eat and stay alive now.”

Pangaea was in a war, Old man Kwon was in a war, and even these gangsters were fighting a war to feed themselves and keep themselves alive.

“Anyway, what did you mean by you think you’ve found him?”

Kang Chul-in directly asked.

“Th-The thing is... Well, I think it’s better if you sit down first..”

Doo-sik’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. It seemed like he was afraid of getting beaten up again.

“Just say it. ?Did you manage to find him?”

“The thing is...”

With his hands trembling, Doo-sik handed Kang Chul-in some documents.

“What’s this?”

“Well.. 35 years old right now, the man called Kwak-jung who lives in Seoul..”

Listening to Doo-sik talking with his year, he skimmed through the documents with his eyes. And while reading, his eyes suddenly widened. These documents..

“He died last summer from a car crash.”

It was his birth certificate, as well his details of death.

....!

What kind of bullshi* was this?

Kwak-jung was dead?

Last summer, before Kang Chul-in had even come back with the Soul Backup (reviving)?

No, everything that Doo-sik brought to him was not facts, but utter nonsense. This nonsense truly incurred Kang Chul-in’s temper, as he fought to calm himself down.

“No.”

He threw away the documents that Doo-sik had handed him earlier.

“N-no?”

“Long story short, this isn’t him.”

The Kwak-jung that Kang Chul-in knew worked under a Lord that was part of the Gulveig alliance until he died of lung cancer at the age of 38.

But it was currently 2021, and Kwak-jung was only 35. He should still be working as an adventurer. He should be roaming around some dungeons at this point.

“Look again.”

Kang Chul-in shook his head.

“T-The thing is..”

“Do you have more things to say?”

“Big boss..”

“Just say it.”

“Every policeman, government working. They helped us. Not only Seoul, we searched other areas too.”

“Not only that, we looked at criminals with the name of Kwak-jung. There was one living in prison, as well as a maths teacher named Kwak-jung. But there was none that was 35 years old this year, who smokes.”

“Go on.”

“Yes, boss.”

After drinking some coffee, Kang Chul-in signaled with his hands to continue.

“Although I’m not very smart, I’m not too stupid either. I used my brain too. If what big boss said was right, and that there was a Kwak-jung that smoked, we found him.”

“Yeah? Continue.”

“So we hurried to a non-smoking clinic to find him, and found a dead Kwak-jung.”

....!

“The dead Kwak-jung had gotten nicotine patches to stop his addiction. It seemed like he was a serious smoker after looking through his details.”

“Still no.”

When he said no, it truly was not.

“Although it makes sense why you think it is this Kwak-jung, the Kwak-jung I’m looking for is alive, not dead.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m certain.”

“Sigh, I’m sorry then. There was too little information..”

“No, well done. At least you got something.”

Listening to Doo-sik’s story, he could truly feel that Doo-sik had worked hard in order to locate Kwak-jung, so he consoled him.

“You there.”

Kang Chul-in pointed at one of Doo-sik’s underlings, and handed a card to him.

“Take out 3000 (equivalent to 30,000 dollars).”

“Th-Thank you!”

“A-are you continuing?”

“Of course.”

“If he’s not in Seoul or anywhere near Seoul, try looking anywhere in Korea. The price doesn’t matter to me. “

“Y-yes sir. I will try calling as much centres as possible.”

“I like your attitude. Oh, I have one more piece of information.”

“I-information? Wow, that would really be helpful.”

“It seems like Kwak-jung has become an adventurer in the Pangaea continent.”

....!

“It looks like the search will become much easier now! Thank you, sir.”

Doo-sik’s face countenance brightened, it truly would be much easier to find an adventurer. Since there wasn’t that much adventurers, he could look through communities and look for them more easily.

Lucia, Old man Kwon, and even Doo-sik now. Kang Chul-in felt like he didn’t need to do that much work nowadays, and felt a little bit uncomfortable.

“Big boss, it seems like you need to leave soon. Black Leopard, we don’t know when that guy will strike.”

“Is that so?”

“Although Black Leopard isn’t worth anything to Big Boss, doesn’t Big Boss dislike a commotion?”

“Don’t you think it’d be better if I was here though?”

“Ahh, what do you mean? How could we ask for Big Boss’s help? We aren’t that kind of gangsters. Not even close.”

Kang Chul-in thought that what Doo-sik said was honorable, and was impressed.

“If you have any thoughts, you can quit this job and do something else. I’ll introduce you.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Old man Kwon Hyung-woo. Do you know him?”

“W-WHAT?!”

Which gangster wouldn’t know the true boss and holder of power over all of Seoul?

Old man Kwon was truly a giant in the underworld business. Someone like Doo-sik wouldn’t have a chance to even see his face one.

“I have a business relationship with that old man. There will be a period in time where he will need some manpower. At that time, I’ll introduce you to him. How long are you going to be able to feed yourself fistfighting?”

“T-Thank you sir!”

“No, I’m only doing this because I was impressed by you. Keep up the hard work.”

“Thank you, thank you, big boss!”

“I’m leaving now. I’ll be back in a month.”

“Yes, sir! Have a safe..”

It was at this moment.

When Doo-sik was about to do another 90 degree bow to Kang Chul-in, a man suddenly appeared in the office.

“AH!”

“Black Leopard, you bastard!”

As luck would have it, Black Leopard came in coincidentally at this moment.

“Where the hell do you think you are?” is what one of Doo-sik’s underlings said before..

‘POW!’

.. and he fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

“Oh?”

Looking at this, Kang Chul-in’s eyes gleamed with interest. This Black Leopard truly had some skill. Although it was just one punch, Kang Chul-in’s eyes were sharp.

“You’re Park Doo-sik?”

Black Leopard, who seemed around 30, looked at Doo-sik, smirking and smoking his cigar.

How could he look so annoying, although it was a handsome looking face, anyone looking at him would want to beat him up. He truly was not a normal type of human.

“And who the hell are you?”

Black Leopard looked at Kang Chul-in and said.

“Hey Black Leopard. If you touch him, you might as well prepare your funeral. We should talk amongst ourselves.” Doo-sik stated.

“Oh, so this guy’s the boss of the gang? I thought that the boss of Isu (area name) was you, Park Doo-sik.”

“Shut the hell up, you bastard!”

Doo-sik went back to looking intimidating like a gangster, and ran towards Black Leopard with a sinister expression on his face.

“Hmm, that won’t work.”

Kang Chul-in predicted the outcome of this battle.

“Argh!!!”

As expected, Doo-sik clutched his face in pain from the punch of Black Leopard.

“B-boss!”

“You want a taste of this too?”

“You crazy bastard!”

Looking at their fallen boss, the gangsters of Isu started piling on Black Leopard, wanting to beat him up.

“Still not enough.”

Kang Chul-in predicted that this still wouldn’t be enough to defeat him.

Fighting a battle with multiple members in a small area wouldn’t benefit the gangsters. Not only that, Black Leopard was not a normal fighter.

Footwork, smoothly flowing martial arts, as well as a kick at a decisive moment. Instead of a gangster, Black Leopard resembled a boxing, judo, kickboxing MMA player.

“You f*cker!”

Finally, one of Doo-sik’s underlings took out a knife, no longer able to handle the humiliation.

“Hey, hey.”

Even though there was a sharp knife in front of him, Black Leopard didn’t lose his calm and confidence.

“Using a weapon?”

Out of Black Leopard’s hands came out a blackish mist. Surprisingly, Black Leopard wasn’t a normal civilian, but someone who knew how to use mana.

“Hmm, an adventurer.”

Kang Chul-in looked at this scene in interest.

“You’re so f*cked now.”

Using mana, Black Leopard started beat up the gangster who took out the knife. It seemed like his specialty was Muay-Thai (a type of martial art).

POW!

PAPOW!

With some satisfying noises..

“ARGH!!!”

“WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME! ARGHHH!!”

“M-MY ARM!!!”

Like leaves, Doo-sik’s underlings fell down. It wasn’t even 5 minutes. This was the difference between a civilian and a mana user.

“Huuu..”

Smoke filled the office. Black Leopard didn’t even stop smoking in the midst of the fight.

“After fighting the guys at Isu, should I take Gangnam (another area), or hmm.. Yeongdeungpo

doesn’t seem bad either..” Black Leopard mumbled to himself.

It was as if he thought it was a game of hopscotch, where he could take the territory of opponents for fun.

“Oi.”

Walking in front of Kang Chul-in now, Black Leopard started staring at him, and spoke.

“Who the hell are you to stand in front of me so arrogantly?”

With a ‘Tshhh’, the cigar smeared all over the table that Kang Chul-in was sitting in front of.

“Did you say it was Black Leopard? You’re not bad.”

Smirking, Kang Chul-in complimented him.

“Black Leopard? Sigh. Who the hell gave me this kind of stupid nickname? I have a proper name that’s the letters long too (Korean names are typically 3 letters long. Mine is Cho Young-woo.) Oh wait, it’s actually two letters.”

Saying this, Black Leopard took out a new cigarette and lit it up.

“Huuu, my name is Kwak-jung, not some cheesy and childish name like ‘Black Leopard.’”