Chapter 8
"Manager Park."
"What?"
Manager Park looked like he was thinking, What crazy thing is it this time?
His eyes already showed that he expected another ridiculous idea.
"Private lending offices and gambling houses are naturally connected, right?"
Most excellent customers for loan sharks were gamblers.
Usually, lenders handed out gambling loans directly inside illegal gambling houses, or manager-level brokers connected the two sides.
There was demand.
Money moved.
And interest followed.
"You know more than I expected. So what?"
"I'm thinking of opening a temporary gambling house and selling some Bacchus drinks."
Manager Park's eyes narrowed.
His expression changed.
Now he was interested.
A "house" meant an illegal gambling den.
And Bacchus was an energy drink often sold almost by force to gamblers inside.
A bottle that normally cost five hundred won might be sold for ten thousand.
Sometimes even twenty thousand.
Thirst was only the excuse.
The real price depended on the atmosphere.
"You really think differently from normal people."
"I'm not exactly ordinary. Do you know any gambling houses?"
"You want to recruit cardsharps from them?"
"If we're going to do this, we should make money. Introduce me to a gambling house owner you know."
Manager Park crossed his arms and stared at me for a long time.
His face said the idea sounded ridiculous.
But also profitable enough that he couldn't ignore it.
He was clearly calculating.
"You just need an introduction?"
"Yes. I'll handle everything after that."
"But neighborhood gambling houses don't have cardsharps like the ones you see in movies."
"That's fine. We don't need to interfere with the actual gambling. Cardsharps usually bring a few suckers with them when they move around. And if people call them cardsharps at all, they can't be completely useless."
The logic was simple.
But it made sense.
I wasn't planning to create a real gambling house.
I only needed to provide a place and run the side businesses.
Manager Park slowly nodded.
The idea was beginning to sound reasonable.
"Let's rent them a place for a few days. There's hardly a better place to play hwatu than a funeral hall."
"How much are you going to charge?"
"A little seat fee, then we'll lend out some gambling money for three days."
"Gambling loans?"
A gambling loan was money lent directly inside the gambling house.
For example, you lent someone one million won.
When the gambling session ended, they owed you 1.5 million.
That was usually just one day's interest.
If they failed to repay it, a week later it could become 2.5 million.
"Then who's taking responsibility for those gambling loans?"
"I am. You only need to make the introductions."
"You'll take responsibility?"
"Yes. I'll run it my way."
The entire structure was already complete in my head.
One thousand bottles of Bacchus over three days.
Thirty million won circulated as gambling loans.
Three million won in seat fees.
At that level of turnover, clearing Kim Dong-su's debt wouldn't be a problem.
Anything beyond that would be mine.
"And Manager Park, you're running around with me right now. You should at least get compensated for your trouble."
"Compensated? Hahaha!"
"We split the profit fifty-fifty."
"Your way of thinking really is completely different from ordinary people, isn't it?"
It was phrased like a question.
But his tone sounded more like an exclamation.
Manager Park was genuinely impressed.
Of course I'm different.
There was an obvious reason.
I had regressed.
"Make your decision."
This wasn't merely a one-time scheme.
It was also an expansion of our private lending business.
We would charge the cardsharps a seat fee.
Then we would lend gambling money to the gamblers who lost to them.
Of course, the condition was that the cardsharps had to bring those gamblers with them.
"But why would gamblers come here when they already have proper gambling houses?"
"We'll make them come."
"How?"
"We make the gambling houses close for a few days."
For the first time, Manager Park's expression hardened.
The corners of his mouth lowered.
Wariness entered his eyes.
"Kang Taesan, if you mess with another man's livelihood, trouble starts."
Trouble starts.
In gangster slang, it meant things could turn violent.
It wasn't an official term.
It was language born from experience.
The fact that he uses it so naturally...
Manager Park was probably a former gangster.
He might manage a private lending office now, but the streets were still alive inside him.
A word.
A glance.
Traces of that past remained in everything.
"I know."
"Don't even think about reporting them to the police. You'll lose more than you gain."
"I know reporting them directly would cause problems. But do you think the police leave those gambling houses alone because they don't know about them? They don't touch them because everyone helps each other out. Still, once in a while they raid them as an annual event. They need to show they're doing something."
"So?"
"Let's move this year's annual event forward a little. Please talk to someone."
Manager Park sighed.
"Seriously..."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm doing almost all the work, but the profit is still fifty-fifty?"
"Without me, you never would've thought of this in the first place. My idea is worth fifty percent."
Manager Park fell silent.
He stared straight at me for a while.
Then he smirked.
"When you put it like that, I suppose you're right."
"Then let's go."
"Where?"
"First, we need to meet someone who can spread the word to the police. We need to let them know their annual raid is coming."
"Your mind really does work differently. I guess blood really does tell. Fine. Let's go."
Manager Park finally nodded.
It wasn't as though my logic had completely convinced him.
There was still calculation in his eyes.
The reason he was following my plan wasn't just because he understood it.
There was also the possibility that I really was Jo Sun-ja's grandson.
Even if that possibility was small, it mattered.
He wasn't certain yet.
But he wasn't dismissing it either.
And I knew that.
Which meant I could move more carefully...
