Chapter 138
Huff, huff!
Seong Yuchan ran desperately inside the black market, avoiding the people who were chasing him.
‘Damn it! Damn it! I left too many traces!’
Seong Yuchan was a hacker.
He made money by buying or selling information.
As a hacker, he didn’t always earn money honestly.
He often hacked into the information of criminal organizations and sold it to other groups.
Seong Yuchan was proud of himself as a genius.
He was confident that he wouldn’t get caught no matter what he did.
Being chased right now was a consequence of that.
He left too many traces and got tracked down by a hacker hired by the rival organization.
‘Huff. It’s okay. I know this area well.’
Seong Yuchan checked that the bulky men behind him were getting farther away and hid in an alley where no one was passing by.
It was unlucky that he got exposed, but that didn’t mean he would get caught.
This was the black market, where everyone hid their identities and operated.
As soon as he got out of their sight, there were plenty of places to hide.
“Damn! Where did he go?!”
“Damn it, they all look the same. I can’t tell them apart.”
“Stop talking and find him fast! He screwed over our organization! If we lose him, we’re dead by our boss’s hands!”
‘I did it!’
Seong Yuchan hid between the alleys and eavesdropped on their conversation.
The men from the organization couldn’t find him and scattered.
Seong Yuchan leaned his back against the alley wall and slid down to the ground.
The tension was released late, and his lungs demanded oxygen.
“Huff. Huff. If I knew this would happen, I would have exercised more.”
Seong Yuchan resented his poor physical condition. But he survived this time, so he decided to improve his fitness next time.
He made such an impossible promise to himself as he got up from his seat.
“There you are.”
“…!”
Seong Yuchan shivered at the sudden voice in the alley.
The owner of the voice was a young man.
Even looking at his face, it was like a foggy mist covering it, making it impossible to recognize.
At first, he thought it was someone who chased him, but it wasn’t.
He looked more dangerous than that.
‘He’s not a normal person!’
People usually wore masks in the black market, but if their faces were hidden like that, it could only be an artifact, a magical tool with mysterious power.
And those who used them were not ordinary people.
The man was with a woman who looked like his secretary. Her face was also invisible.
‘Could they be high-ranking people from the organization?’
Seong Yuchan was about to run away when the man, Yu-hyun, waved his hand at him not to be too scared.
“Don’t be like that. We have nothing to do with those guys who chased you.”
“What?”
Seong Yuchan wanted to ask what he meant by that.
“Hmm. Well, I’m interested in your ability…”
“There he is!”
Someone interrupted Yu-hyun’s words and shouted.
Looking back, he saw the bulky men who chased him earlier.
Seong Yuchan turned pale. He thought he had shaken them off, but he got exposed because of these two people.
“Oh dear. Is it because of me?”
Yu-hyun, who caused this situation, laughed exaggeratedly.
Seong Yuchan glared at him with resentment.
The bulky men approached the entrance of the alley.
“Who are you two? Are you his accomplices?”
“Not accomplices.”
“Then get out of here. Unless you want to get hurt.”
“No. I can’t do that.”
“What?”
The bulky men wondered what was going on.
They were not accomplices, but they couldn’t let him go?
Their arrows naturally pointed at Yu-hyun and Kwon Jia next to him.
“You’re not accomplices, but you can’t let him go?”
“It’s not now. I was going to recruit him.”
“…What kind of nonsense is this?”
The highest-ranking person here couldn’t hide his disbelief even with a mask on his face.
His subordinates cautiously advised him.
“Boss. Whatever happens, we have to catch that hacker bastard. Our boss is waiting for him.”
“I know.”
They had to catch the one they had to catch, but there were only two people blocking them.
On this side, there were five of them.
They had not only numerical superiority, but also only one pair on the other side.
They didn’t know who they were, but they had already become targets to eliminate since they blocked this side.
As the bulky men tried to approach them, Yu-hyun stepped back slightly.
“Secretary Kwon. Please take care of it.”
“Huh?”
Kwon Jia frowned at the sudden burden.
Yu-hyun smiled mischievously and replied.
“That’s our role, right? I’m the rich young master. Secretary Kwon is my escort. So the escort has to fight for me.”
[As expected, my contractor! His personality is amazing!]
Yu-hyun naturally ignored Baekryeon’s sarcasm.
Kwon Jia glared at him for a moment, then looked at the bulky men who were slowly approaching.
‘Is it just me, or is he using me more often lately? Is it my imagination?’
The regressor felt strangely that Yu-hyun was becoming more comfortable with her, but she didn’t bother to refuse his words.
“Can’t be helped.”
Kwon Jia quickly grabbed the neck of the one who came first and slammed him to the ground.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
An explosive strength that couldn’t come from a slender body.
The man who felt that power throughout his body foamed at the mouth and fainted.
The other members of the organization trembled as they watched.
They underestimated her because she was a woman, but she was not an ordinary person.
“Wait, was she a collector?”
They recognized Kwon Jia’s power, but it was too late to run away.
Kwon Jia had already approached them.
“What is this…”
Seong Yuchan couldn’t take his eyes off the sight of a slender woman single-handedly subduing five bulky men in an instant.
As the situation was naturally resolved, Seong Yuchan asked Yu-hyun, who was standing in front of him with his arms crossed.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who wants to recruit you.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“I know very well. Seong Yuchan. A hacker. You’re called Black Mamba in this underworld, right? You have a name like a special force.”
“Crazy.”
Seong Yuchan felt a chill down his spine as his personal information flowed out of Yu-hyun’s mouth.
Seong Yuchan had never been exposed like this before, no matter how much he left traces.
But when his personal details came out of the mouth of a stranger he didn’t know, he was not surprised, but terrified.
“Don’t be too scared. I didn’t call you to do anything to you. I told you. I want to recruit you.”
“Who, who are you exactly?”
Seong Yuchan’s voice became more polite.
Hackers were basically people who harassed others unilaterally without revealing their identities. But a hacker who was exposed could no longer do that.
Seong Yuchan didn’t act arrogant.
He just realized that Yu-hyun was in a superior position and complied with him.
“Indeed. You’re very quick-witted.”
Yu-hyun praised his attitude.
Seong Yuchan didn’t know, but Yu-hyun had met him in the future.
Even after the apocalypse, Seong Yuchan survived as an information dealer for a long time, and he was someone who had a good relationship with Yu-hyun.
From Seong Yuchan’s perspective, who didn’t know that fact, it was only scary.
Yu-hyun spoke as if he knew him.
‘He knows everything about me!’
The awe towards him made him bow his head even more.
Yu-hyun didn’t intend it, but Seong Yuchan completely gave up on resisting him.
“Shall we move to a quiet place then?”
Kwon Jia, who had resolved the situation by now, came closer.
Seong Yuchan nodded his head. He had nothing else to do.
***
“Wow.”
A cafe in Seoul where people came and went.
Seong Yuchan looked at the two men and women sitting in front of him and couldn’t help but exclaim again.
“Kang Yu-hyun… You’re a teller. And next to you is Kwon Jia, a collector.”
“You know them well.”
“Well, I hear all kinds of things doing this kind of work.”
Seong Yuchan said in a crawling voice. He was even a unique figure in the same hacker field.
He was chased because he was careless and unlucky, but that didn’t mean his skills were dimmed.
He knew almost everything.
Yu-hyun found him because of that.
“You said you wanted to recruit me, but what exactly do you want from me?”
“I know that you’re good at programming. More than that, you collect various information that others don’t know, right?”
“That’s true.”
“We needed someone like that.”
Seong Yuchan didn’t understand for a moment.
If they were looking for him, they must have had a great source of information. Why did they choose him?
“Do you think it’s strange?”
“Yes, yes? No, no.”
“No. I understand. Well, let’s just say that the types of information are different. I’m a teller, so naturally the information I get is related to collectors. But lately, there have been a lot of other things happening. You know what I mean, right?”
“…Yes.”
The incident of Congressman Kwon Dongjin visiting White Flower Management’s office was quite famous in this underworld.
There was also a rumor that Yu-hyun joined hands with another party. Seong Yuchan realized what he wanted from him.
“Your ability to get information, I want that.”
“That’s…”
Seong Yuchan hesitated a bit.
He felt a slight aversion to becoming part of White Flower Management.
He was always a free person.
He hated being tied to somewhere.
But he couldn’t say that honestly, since Yu-hyun already had his neck twisted.
He had to do anything to survive, but he still had human feelings.
“I won’t force you. Even if you refuse, I won’t retaliate by spreading your personal information or anything like that. It’s all up to you. I’m just making an offer.”
And when he saw his generous attitude in front of him, Seong Yuchan felt himself drawn to him.
Awe that was not caused by coercion, but by voluntary acceptance.
Maybe this man could help him achieve his goal.
Seong Yuchan thought so.
“Seong Yuchan. What will you do?”
“…I’ll do it. Just leave it to me.”
Seong Yuchan took Yu-hyun’s hand.
It was logical and emotional to say that this was right.
There was no reason not to take his hand.
“I’m glad.”
Yu-hyun smiled at Seong Yuchan.
“I’m glad the devices I ordered didn’t go to waste.”
“What?!”
Seong Yuchan was shocked.
This man, did he already expect him to come here and buy things for him?
“You have the devices you used before, right? In addition to that, I’ll provide you with some more support. Just use them as you wish.”
“Th-thank you.”
Was this what it felt like to be on Buddha’s palm?
Seong Yuchan felt nervous as if he was dreaming, but he made a firm promise to himself.
Never mess with this man.
That’s how a new employee in charge of information gathering was added to White Flower Management.