Ch.567Chapter 21. Blood Pack (27)

At that moment, in Busan.

“What kind of sudden terrorist attack is this!”

Association President Jung Ki-jo rushed outside, pressing his hat down over his disheveled hair.

“Mr. President!”

“Please hurry, sir!!”

“Yes!”

Vroom.

The association employee with taxi driver experience immediately shifted the manual gear.

The speedometer climbed frantically as the president, with practiced familiarity, tapped his Taegeuk Watch to receive someone’s call.

“Yes, this is Jung Ki-jo.”

[It’s me. Choi Ho-jung.]

Even with the caller ID blocked, he was expected to recognize the caller by name alone.

But the name Choi Ho-jung, and those who could directly call the association president, were extremely limited.

“…I have an employee beside me.”

[That’s fine. I hope they know how to keep their mouth shut.]

“…….”

The speed that had reached 120 suddenly dropped to 100 as the car slowed down.

Though Haeguneul and the Association were separate organizations, the person on the other end of the line was the king of this country’s economy.

Being tense was natural.

Except for this man.

“Why are you calling? I’m busy.”

[Why are you? Don’t you mean what for?]

“Seeing that you have enough leisure to question modern slang, it seems you’re about to say something unimportant. I’m on official duty. Contact me later.”

[Hey.]

Chairman Choi Ho-jung’s sharp voice echoed in the car.

[You let those villains escape at Ganghwa Island, didn’t you? If you let them escape again, the media won’t stay quiet. They’ll start condemning the association president’s incompetence.]

“Ah, is that so? That’s quite unfortunate.”

[What?]

“It seems you’ve hidden a honey pot in the underground of Hwanghae Province. Or perhaps a blood pot? Or maybe a snake guarding a blood pot?”

[You…]

“Don’t think I don’t know anything. I am, after all, the Hero Association president.”

Jung Ki-jo also sharpened his tone, gritting his teeth.

“The association will do its best, as always. If that’s the result after doing our best, then it can’t be helped.”

[…….]

“People are running out from underground at the fire scene. They must be Haeguneul personnel. Employees hired by Haeguneul. And people who might become ‘non-existent’ if we’re even a little late.”

[Haha, that’s quite a frightening thing to say. Are you suggesting I would kill them? I’m just…]

“The Hero Association’s purpose is to save those threatened by villains. That’s all, over.”

Click.

Jung Ki-jo casually hung up.

“…Are, are you okay?”

“Probably.”

“But still, he’s the chairman of Haeguneul.”

“I don’t know. We just do our job and do our best. By the way, Mr. Lee Jung-hyun. How much is your salary?”

“…I take home 3.5 million won.”

“Monday through Friday, 9-6, and when emergencies like this happen, you jump out of bed and come to work?”

“Isn’t that the same for you, Mr. President? Is there anyone in the association who doesn’t? It’s fine. I’m not the type to betray the association even if Haeguneul offered me an annual salary of 1 billion won.”

At the employee’s words, Jung Ki-jo nodded with a grin.

“Right. But you know, humans are quite fickle…”

That smile gradually began to change into a cynical one.

“Money can make you envious of not just those who earn more than you.”

“Pardon?”

“You’ll understand later. For now, stop there. We’ve arrived.”

Screech.

As soon as the car stopped at the park plaza, Jung Ki-jo jumped out and ran.

Whirr whirr whirr.

He practically threw himself into the helicopter waiting in the park, and it immediately took off.

“Phew, everyone’s here… Huh? What’s this?”

Inside the helicopter.

“Hey, Taejo. What’s with your outfit…?”

“…….”

Armored Taejo’s outfit—with sunglasses and crossed legs—was indescribable.

“It’s fashion.”

“…….”

The association president decided not to comment on his outfit.

Though his eyes did sparkle a bit.

* * *

[I wonder if they’ve departed from Busan yet.]

A large-scale fire has broken out.

They must have seen people suddenly running out from underground via satellite, so the Hero Association will take direct action.

‘What will Haeguneul do?’

Their factory, and their most serious vulnerability, has suddenly been exposed.

The most certain method is to make it “non-existent,” and that’s exactly what they’re attempting now.

“Arghhhh!”

“Ugh, aaaaah! Save me!!”

Blood-sucking leeches throw themselves at the fleeing people.

The men run while tearing off the leeches that jump at them, twisting their bodies as they continue to flee.

“Oh? Are you just going to keep watching like that?”

Geomeunmeori, perched atop the head of a giant leech dragon that stretches dozens of meters after extracting all the colonies from the ground, points below.

“At this rate, they’ll all be eaten, you know?”

[I don’t particularly care.]

“Oh, really? You didn’t come to save them as a dark hero? Like that Taejo copycat over there?”

Crunch, crunch.

All over the ground, dogs made of magnetic iron run across the wasteland, hunting leeches.

“Aaaah, I, I… huh?”

Crunch.

The magnetic iron Jindo dogs that leaped toward the human blood bags grabbed, chewed, and spat out the leeches clinging to their backs.

Thud!

But that only killed one leech.

The leeches crawling up from the ground were more numerous than cockroaches, and their number was like witnessing an army of leeches.

‘It is an army, indeed.’

The leech colony controlled by Geomeunmeori.

Like the S-class villain Queen of Funnel-web Spiders who came from Australia before, ability users who can control entire specific species aren’t extremely rare.

Insect Mage.

And among them, a leech sorcerer.

[Is this the worst possible match-up?]

No matter how well Black Taejo uses his metal manipulation ability to deploy hundreds of magnetic iron Jindo dogs, he can’t suppress all the leeches—tens of thousands, no, more than a hundred thousand of them.

Controlling leeches is an ability, but the leeches themselves are living creatures.

‘This is when someone like Cheong Hye-seong would be perfect.’

Those commonly called naturalists.

An ability user who can sweep across a wide area could easily eliminate those leeches.

Or another method.

[Geomeunmeori. You will be executed.]

“Me? Why me?”

If you kill the sorcerer controlling the colony, naturally the organized movement of the leech army will stop.

[Being employed by Haeguneul is already grounds for execution.]

“Ha, haha. That’s funny. Did I kill anyone? I just came to Korea to study Korean medicine?”

Geomeunmeori twists the corner of his mouth, mocking me.

“Believe it or not, I’m a doctor of Korean medicine from Seoul National University’s Busan campus.”

[Without even Korean citizenship.]

“I don’t have it yet, but I will soon, right? Do you know how much I’ve contributed to this country?”

That man is a villain.

But he doesn’t think of himself as one.

“Do you know how much foreign currency I’ve earned by collecting clean blood from those men and selling it overseas?”

[I don’t care. Probably trillions of won or so.]

“You know well. Then let me ask you something.”

Geomeunmeori, with an incomprehensible expression, pointed at the human blood bags fleeing from the leeches.

“What are you going to do with those dregs of society?”

[…….]

“Besides eating and defecating, all they know how to do is complain about the world. Do you have any way to make money with those hopeless lives?”

I remained silent at Geomeunmeori’s words.

“If you try to do anything with them, they’ll just cause accidents, right? They’ll get drunk and cause trouble, smoke on the streets and litter cigarette butts everywhere, and spend whatever money they earn on gambling or extravagant entertainment. What’s wrong with isolating such people from society and making some money by extracting their blood?”

From what I’m hearing, Haeguneul, including Geomeunmeori, is making social contributions while pursuing profit.

“Are you going to take responsibility for those men? If suddenly thousands, no, tens of thousands of unemployed people emerge into society, Korea’s unemployment rate will skyrocket?”

[That’s because you’ve turned those humans into beings beyond recovery.]

The blood bags sold their bodies to make money.

Satisfied with that life, they’ve been earning money hidden under Haeguneul’s shadow.

[Since you showed them an easy way to make money without working hard, they probably won’t think about working hard for the rest of their lives.]

“Then, what will you choose?”

Geomeunmeori stretched both hands toward me.

On one hand was a red leech glowing bright red with its body full of blood, and on the other was a leech with a dark blue exterior because it hadn’t fed on blood.

“Carrying bricks at construction sites or getting beaten down by bosses in offices for 2.5 million won a month. Or doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and defecating, exercising for just one hour a day, periodically receiving cupping therapy and leech acupuncture for 1.7 million won a month.”

[…….]

The latter might be somewhat tempting.

You could publicly claim to be a factory worker, and your business card would prominently display the logo of Korea’s number one company.

“They made their choice. They chose to live in a world where they could earn money easily. The underground of that factory is the world they should live in.”

[I agree. I used to want a life where I could receive money without doing anything too.]

For instance, a life where your salary is deposited regularly even if you just read novels at home.

[But for that to work, everyone has to be like that. It doesn’t work if only you guys suck blood and reap the benefits.]

“…If you had kept it quiet, only those who knew could have enjoyed the benefits together?”

[Sorry, but the Syndicate doesn’t want blood to be sold off in the first place.]

Koreans are valuable.

Korean blood is valuable.

Therefore, Koreans become targets.

[As long as your actions pose a threat to the safety of Koreans abroad, we can’t leave you alone.]

“So? How do you plan to defeat me? You, a fake goblin?”

[I am the Goblin.]

The original.

[I know hundreds of ways to deal with villains like you. Don’t you smell something burning?]

“What? The burning anxiety of your parents?”

[You’ve learned something good to live in Korea. Unfortunately, I don’t have parents.]

“Why? Were they cremated?”

Anyway.

[Villains are determined to break mental stability and make people lose their composure.]

“…….”

[What’s burning isn’t my parents’ anxiety or corpse. It’s your assets.]

“What?”

[Your most precious assets.]

Bang!

A green wind pierced through Geomeunmeori’s cradle like a bullet.