“Ugh…”

Kwak-jung moaned and woke up from his deep sleep.

“God dammit.”

He had no idea what the hell was going on right now.

Around 5 weeks ago, he had gone into Park Doo-sik’s office and fought a stranger, before being absolutely pummeled by him.

Until then, that was the life of an average gangster.

It was normal for people like them to go single-handedly against an enemy, before being beaten up by them.

It even came out in a lot of movies.

The main character, or the villain beat the enemy organization up while relaxedly smoking.

But that was not all.

When he woke up, what waited for him was a hospital room guarded by metal bars, like prison.

He was wearing titanium handcuffs and clothes that limited his movement.

And he also had a mouthpiece that stopped him from biting his tongue or talking.

“Oop… OOP OOP!! OOOOOOOOOOOP! (You crazy bastards! What the hell did you do to me?)”

Although he tried to conjure up his mana, he was still unable to break through the titanium handcuffs that bound him up.

And that was not the only problem.

Outside were around 20 special force guards that were armed with USP auto pistols, guarding him 24/7.

And even when he had to take care of his natural needs, he needed to show off his private parts. His freedom had been absolutely taken away.

And after 3 days of the constant humiliation, an old man came to visit him.

“Kuku… It seems like you aren’t having a good time.”

Although this old man seemed well in his seventies or sixties, he still looked very healthy, and tall.

‘Who is this guy? I feel like I’ve seen him before…’

He thought that he had seen this old man somewhere before.

This old man quite seemed like Chairman Kwon, an absolutely big shot in not just the Korean underworld, but the entire world too.

“N-No way… Chairman Kwon?”

Black Leopard looked at Old man Kwon, his eyes round with surprise, while Old man Kwon looked at Black Leopard as if he knew everything that he was thinking.

“Seems like you know me.” 

“…..”

“You’re an adventurer?”

Because Black Leopard had his mouthpiece on and he couldn’t speak, the only one talking here was Old man Kwon.

“Since you’re an adventurer, I couldn’t leave you in a nice, comfortable room. Who knows if you would rampage here and destroy everything.”

And Black Leopard raged inside, at Old man Kwon’s reasoning.

‘This god damned crazy old man! Does he think I’m Hannibal Lector or something? (A crazy psychopath in a novel. The one in silence of the lambs.) Huh?”

“Do not hate me. The one that wanted you here wasn’t me.”

“…..?”

“My very important business partner so desperately wanted you to work for him after all.” 

Black Leopard couldn’t understand what Old man Kwon was talking about.

Who the hell would want a gangster to work for them?

He wasn’t a big shot that was known across the country yet. He only had a few bases around Incheon and Yeungdungpo. He couldn’t understand why someone wanted him.

“Kuku… I’d bet your curious. But too bad. I don’t know too much about my partner either. He is a very mysterious man, after all. I have no idea where he came from. I’ve never seen a man like him before.”

“Why he wants you, what he wants you for, I have absolutely no idea. The only thing I can do is make your life here a little bit more comfortable.”

“But… If you do something foolish…”

Old man Kwon pointed at the 20 guards that were standing behind him.

“Getting shot by a gun might be a new experience for you. You know what I’m trying to say, right?”

Black Leopard nodded his head at Old man Kwon’s words.

“Haa… Haa…”

And as soon as the mouthpiece was removed, Black Leopard started breathing deeply, to get rid of the frustration he had, combined with the fact that he couldn’t breathe very comfortably earlier.

“Stay put. As you may know, even an adventurer like you won’t be able to run from my fingertips.”

“…Of course, sir.”

Black Leopard spoke, trying to sound as polite as possible.

‘God damned old man, just you wait… When I get stronger…”

He inwardly clenched his teeth. He would definitely avenge this humiliation some day.

“Bastard, clenching your teeth.” Old man Kwon smirked.

“…..”

Black Leopard couldn’t speak, because his inner thoughts had been read.

“It’s not like I haven’t seen people like you before. I’ve been in this underworld business for a long 50 years. I know that people like you don’t give in easily. You would definitely try to look for an opportunity for revenge.”

“No, sir.”

“What do you mean, no.”

Old man Kwon shook his head, with a bit of murderous intent showing in his eyes.

“Do you know the reason I’ve been able to live and keep up this business for so long?”

At this moment, Black Leopard finally felt how cold-blooded Old man Kwon really was.

‘Kill your enemies…’

The rule was to not mess with people stronger than you and suppress those that were weaker.

“Well, even if you want revenge, you’ve looked for the wrong address. If you still want revenge, you should try doing that against my partner.”

But the problem was that he didn’t know who that ‘partner’ was.

‘Could it be… the man from back then?’

He thought of the man that had beaten him up back then. That man had strength and a force that didn’t seem like a human could have.

“Oh, and also…”

“I hope your surgery goes well.”

And Old man Kwon left the room.

Black Leopard’s head was full of questions by now.

“God dammit, what the hell did they do to me?”

For the result, Black Leopard was the Kwak-jung that Kang Chul-in was looking for.

35 years old, adventurer, a heavy smoker, the name, as well as lung cancer. There was nothing that didn’t fit into the criteria.

But Kang Chul-in was inwardly bitter that Kwak-jung wasn’t like Lee Gong-myung, who looked dignified and like a scholar.

‘Lee Gong-myung is white, and Kwak-jung is black.’

Riding in the Jaguar, Kang Chul-in compared those two to black and white, before laughing hysterically.

And it seemed very right too.

A peasant-born person that was in South Korea, Kang Chul-in. And against that was the one that had been given a diamond-spoon since he was born, Alex Rothschild. And the scholar Lee Gong-Myung against the gangster Kwak-jung. Thinking about it, it was completely a battle of Black vs White.

‘This, this is some sort of movie.’

Kang Chul-in thought of the report that he had read on Kwak-jung’s early life.

And even though Kang Chul-in had read it in detail, it was very hard to explain.

To say it simply in keywords, they were: domestic violence, running away from home, crime, prison, gangster, debt etc. It was quite a pitiful and violence-filled life, so it was understandable why Kwak-jung was such a heavy smoker.

If it was a normal person they would have probably gone crazy or become an alcoholic, but Kwak-jung didn’t throw himself away like that. It was something that Kang Chul-in thought highly of.

And while he was thinking of that, Kang Chul-in got closer and closer to An-san.

The reason why he came here was very simple.

According to Old man Kwon, a very important person to Kwak-jung lived here.

And when Kang Chul-in arrived there, some university students looked at Kang Chul-in’s car curiously.

“Woah, a Jaguar.”

“A Coupe too.”

“Kuuuu, look how dope that car is.”

“Big bro, is this car expensive?”

“Of course it is, it’s around maybe 200,000 dollars?”

“Woah… so expensive. Is a lamborghini more expensive, or this?”

“Of course a lambo.”

“Then is a Lamborghini better than this car?”  “Well… It is more expensive.”

“Oh, so it is then.”

And listening to their conversation, Kang Chul-in’s face stiffened.

‘These things… Do they think that only Ferraris and Lamborghinis are super cars or something?’

Kang Chul-in thought of this and seriously contemplated whether to take a Lamborghini from Old man Kwon.

Well, since he was going to buy most of the super cars anyway, it didn’t really matter to him.

After parking the car, Kang Chul-in started walking towards his destination.

And surprisingly enough, he was headed to a creepy, small road.

Crossing his arms together, he waited for the person that he was looking for to arrive.

Around 2 hours later, a group of boys and girls walked on the road that he was.

“Kak, twep.”

“Hey, hey, hand me a cigar.”

“Me too, me too!”

They were teenagers, smoking cigarettes secretly here, making it into a sort of base.

‘Is she here?’

Kang Chul-in scanned through the group, looking for the person that he was supposed to find.

‘Yes, she is.’

Identifying the target, Kang Chul-in smiled. As expected, Doo-sik’s information was right.

“You there.”

Kang Chul-in started walking towards that group and pointed towards a particularly pretty girl.

“You, come with me.”

It was Kwak-jung’s younger sister.