Ch8
“Thank you for your hard work. Seok-min.”
The way Ah-young called him changed from Choi Seok-min to Seok-min, but he answered by nodding his head without paying much attention to it.
Behind her stood a man with a bag. The man was the second lieutenant whom they met last time.
He held out his bag to Seok-min.
“It is 26 million won including the success money and monthly salary.”
“I look forward to your continued support.”
“Me too.”
Seok-min received the bag, and Ah-young reached out her hand.
“I’ll get back to you soon.”
Seok-min faltered for a moment, but soon after took her hand.
Although it was only once, he was a little more confident than the first time, perhaps because of the fact that they had worked together.
Ah-young left and the second lieutenant took out his notebook.
“Can you give me your bank account number? I thought this would be better than delivering cash through such a cumbersome process in the future.”
Seok-min gave his account number. Even after finishing his business, the lieutenant did not leave and hesitated in front of Seok-minas if he had something more to say.
Before Seok-min opened his mouth, he opened his mouth first.
“Well, it’s no different. The mission included almost all the money, so I gave you a lot of money, but the reward will probably not be as large as this time from now on.”
He hesitated a little to see his reaction to this, but Seok-min nodded as if he understood.
“All right.”
He is also well aware that the Government does not have much money.
Moreover, he is now the person the government needs, but when the money starts to rise, the government will question his existence.
‘Where is your regular income coming from?’
Rather than being greedy, Seok-min decided to take care of his stability and settle for a regular income.
He left them behind and moved on to ‘The Road’. When he opened the door and went inside, Choi Yong-min was sitting in the bartender seat like last time.
More than half of the tables were filled with people, so it was a little noisy in the store.
“Are you here?”
“Yes, brother.”
He took a bundle of cash worth 3 million won out of his bag.
Some customers who saw it gave envious eyes, but they did not seek the money because they knew who Yong-min was.
“The fee.”
Yongmin put it inside his jacket pocket.
“Should I call you if I have another job?”
“No, thank you. I’m going to take a break for a while. I need to repair our guns.”
He didn’t dare say he was hired by the government.
“I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.”
The deposit is 10 million won and the success fee is 20 million won, minus the fee of 3 million won, and 27 million won in total.
Since it was usually not an amount he could ever touch, he made a lot of money, but he was not in a situation where he had too much money as he was going to spend again soon.
He had to find 9x39mm ammunition and a rifle to replace the M16A1, which he often used.
He had decided to go to a Gunsmith using the card given to him by the deceased Sang-deok.
‘Can I get it for about 6 million won?’
Guns purchased from authorized institutions could be purchased at a very low price of 1 million won, but most of them were semi-automatic weapons, so Seok-min could not use them.
He obviously had special powers in himself.
It shows his abilities numerically like a game, but unlike an RPG game, there was no skill or level system. Well, until he met Ah-young yesterday and ‘Level’ appeared.
To him, this ability showed an augmented reality-like screen just like an FPS game. As the crosshairs in his field of vision indicate the aiming point of his weapon, like a laser sight.
After his special powers awakened, he no longer had to wear glasses, and even his night vision improved, allowing him to aim at the scope in the middle of the night without any equipment.
Also, when he touched any weapon, the name of the weapon, the type of ammunition it could use, and a brief description of the gun came to mind.
Endurance enabled him not to get tired easily, and physical strength improved his strength and agility.
He was able to run 100 meters in nine seconds and could lift a 100-kilogram barbell with one hand casually. Also, his vitality quickly restored his exhausted body, and even minor wounds healed the very next day.
[Choi Seok-min, the chosen one]
Level: 11
Endurance: 7
Physical strength: 5
Vitality: 7
Sight: 6
His physical rating was not rising at the moment. But he thought there was still room for further growth. Even now, he was in a great state in many ways, but he could not predict what would happen if he leveled up and became stronger.
He’s embarrassed to call himself that, but he felt like he was the super-soldier of American comics. But the weakness was very clear.
It was the essence of being human. If he is shot, he is wounded, and if he is fatally wounded, he dies.
So Seok-min wanted a better weapon.
With a lot of money coming in this time, Seok-min was determined to buy the best weapon. He thought for a moment about buying a bulletproof suit to protect himself, but soon gave up because he knew well enough he wouldn’t use it.
Seok-min took his gun and rode his motorcycle toward Seongnam. It was because the address Sang-deok was talking about was in Seongnam.
He recalled what Sang-deok said before he died.
‘It’s a place where the guests are being screened, and it’s an illegal place.’
Sang-deok was the most vulgar and lewd of all the vulgar men he knew, and he had spent much of his money on his lovers.
Sang-deok, who likes beautiful women so much, it was clear that she was very pretty too.
Gunsmith’s job requires cutting wood or steel, welding, and plating. It is a very unpleasant job and requires delicate hand skills. But to have a pretty face? I couldn’t imagine it.
‘Even if it’s like that, there’s no way a pretty person shouldn’t do it.’
He thought at least it’d be better than that red-light district.
He squinted and looked there. Even in the middle of the day, it was already open there, and the streets were full of women in sexy clothes.
In the past, all schools in this area were converted to barracks, and so-called ‘base villages’ that dealt with such soldiers were created around the area. In the suburbs of Seoul, multinational troops were stationed in addition to the South Korean military, and the base village was a place to attract dollars, euros, rubles, and yuan that those soldiers used.
It was hard to live without earning that much.
The 4.5 million people who quickly became refugees spread across the country, including Gyeonggi Province.
They were able to solve the housing problem to some extent by eating at a relative’s house or living in a building designated by the government.
But the problem didn’t end there. They had left almost everything and came empty-handed, so there was nothing they had nor did they have a job. Being able to get a job by making use of one’s skills was almost like a privilege, and there were plenty of intelligent people who didn’t mind hard work, and thanks to that, the labor cost was relatively low. On the other hand, despite the government’s maximum restraint, prices soared without end.
Therefore, there were more businesses targeting foreigners, and they received more stable foreign currency than Korean currency, which had ups and downs.
Passing through that street, he arrived in front of the Geumgwang 1-dong Community Service Center.
He took off his helmet and looked around, but not a single person came into the street.
Sang-deok said it was a white building, but there were no white buildings nearby.
All he could see was a building with a bare gray face. Seok-min walked toward the building. It was hard to distinguish even the paint, which was mostly fallen, but he identified it because of his excellent eyesight.
It was a two-story building. The interior was quite spacious, so there were hardware stores, convenience stores, and Chinese restaurants on the first floor, and the outer stairs leading up to the second floor were visible.
He parked his motorcycle, grabbed his bag, and headed up the stairs. The railings made of steel pipes were so rusted that he was reluctant to touch them.
‘There’s a Gunsmith in such a place?’
The surrounding areas were all commercial houses or multi-family houses. Moreover, it was clear that such a sloppy building had not been properly insulated, let alone soundproofing.
‘It looks like a building from the ’70s.’
He went up the stairs and tried to open the door to the second floor, but the door wouldn’t open. At that moment, Seok-min noticed that a surveillance camera had been installed on the steel door.
When he turned his head, he saw a card-swiping reader on the wall next to the door.
He took out the card and swiped it.
There was the sound of metal clicking along with a small electronic beep. He grabbed the handle and opened the door.
The door, which was well over 10 centimeters thick, opened, and when he went inside, he saw 10 locks on the door.
The inside was full of paper boxes. It was dark inside, and there was a strong smell of old dust, thanks to a bunch of black film on the windows to prevent others from seeing from the outside.
While he looked at the interior view for a while, the doors automatically closed and the locks were back on and locked.
Seok-min looked at it for a while and passed the boxes and went forward.
Approximately 10 meters ahead of the detour, there was a door made of white painted wooden panels. The gunsmith was clearly in there.
Light was seeping through the cracks. Seok-min, thinking that there must be someone inside, approached the door and tried to open it. At that moment, a familiar metallic sound was heard along with a person.
Seok-min threw himself to the left.
Light came out as the panel was punctured with loud gunfire. He unpacked his luggage, pulled out his pistol, and shot three times over the panel.
But it didn’t work. Rather, he only gave out his location, and bullets flew in.
Seok-minhad to dodge again. But it was undesirable.
As he threw himself to the side, the sound rang again, followed by a bullet hole in the panels.
Bullets hit near him and bounced off, and eventually, some of the shrapnel struck his ankle.
“Damn it!”
In sudden pain, he stood up and fell. Fortunately, the shards did not penetrate the shoe. If one or two more bullets were fired in the current situation, Seok-min would probably be dead.
The other side had run out of bullets, and no more gunshots could be heard. Instead, only the metal sound of an empty magazine was heard.
“Fuck!”
A woman’s voice filled with anger was heard.
Seok-min collapsed and threw himself inside, destroying the door.
There was a woman behind some shelves and a glass partition wall.
She was a very thin woman, wearing a coverall with camouflage patterns that the tankers usually wear. With a nylon military belt around the waist.
The woman had fired her gun through the only hole in the wall.
The woman was dropping a bullet-free Glock 18 gun and pulling out a new Glock. When Seok-min came inside, she quickly hid under the shelves.
It looked like the shelves were loaded with guns of all kinds.