Chapter 7

Loan Shark Yu Dong-cheol (1)

“Long time no see.”

“It really has been.”

“I heard about it from the correctional officers, but it seems you adapted better than I expected. You're looking good. I guess an elite is still an elite no matter where you put him.”

“You're looking pretty good yourself, sir. I don't know much about cars, but the one you drove here in looks expensive to anyone, doesn't it?”

My court-appointed attorney.

No, perhaps he was no longer a court-appointed attorney. The man chuckled.

“I'm glad it looks that way. That's why I bought it. To make myself look as wealthy and successful as possible. When you're self-employed, you need that sort of thing.”

“Like a cat puffing up its fur?”

“Yeah, like a pufferfish inflating its body.”

I grinned.

“That's a good expression. Yeah, now that you're smiling like that, you finally look like a kid.”

“I'm not a kid anymore. I'm twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one is still plenty young. Anyway, it's cold. I've got the heater running, so let's get in the car first. We've got quite a lot to catch up on, don't we?”

The inside of the car was just as impressive as the outside.

“Looks like you've really made it.”

“Well, it's all thanks to you. Your case captured the entire nation's attention, after all.”

“So that's why you kept visiting me every quarter?”

“And is that why you refused to see me until the very end? Because you thought I'd suggest a retrial?”

“I read your letters. You said there weren't grounds for a retrial anyway, and even if we somehow got one, there wouldn't be much to gain. You said you just wanted to see me and talk. But I just didn't feel like it. While I was in prison, I didn't want to meet anyone.”

“And now? Do you feel a little better now?”

“I'm not sure.”

I turned my gaze toward the window. The face reflected in the glass felt slightly unfamiliar.

“Do you have somewhere to go?”

“I should go home. Ah, no. I guess I don't have a home anymore.”

“What do you mean you don't have a home? There's the house you used to live in.”

“We rented it on a jeonse deposit. Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to our belongings. If someone goes to prison while living in a rented house, does the government take care of their stuff or something?”

“Yeah, if the landlord deposits the money with the court for repayment, the court sends the belongings to a private storage container. You can retrieve them by paying the storage fees.”

“Are the storage fees expensive?”

“After four years, they add up to quite a bit. Almost ten million won, probably.”

“Ten million won? That's expensive.”

When I expressed my surprise at the larger-than-expected amount, he grinned.

“But who do you think I am? I'm a capable attorney who now makes regular appearances on KBC broadcasts. I've already taken care of everything in a perfectly legal and clever way, so you don't need to worry.”

“What do you mean?”

“After you were detained, the landlord was absolutely furious and demanded that your belongings be removed. So I took the death insurance payouts from your parents' policies and the civil settlement money I fought tooth and nail to extract from those bastards at the trucking company's insurance provider, who kept making excuses because it was a drunk-driving accident. The moment that money landed in an account under your name, I met with the landlord and struck a deal.”

The car glided smoothly through the Gimcheon tollgate.

The voice of this attorney, who had been passionate from the moment we first met, now carried the seasoned confidence that four years of experience had given him.

“As it happened, that was right after the real estate boom had ended, so property prices had settled down a bit. Think about it. Ten million won wasted on four years of storage fees, and even paying that wouldn't guarantee your belongings would be properly preserved. Moisture could get in and ruin everything. Not to mention the brokerage fees and other expenses you'd have to pay to find another place later. So I explained to the court that registering the property under your name would be far more beneficial, both in terms of preserving your assets and protecting your emotional well-being as a child. It wasn't easy, but the judge eventually agreed.”

“······.”

“No one's touched the place in four years, so there's probably quite a bit of dust, but everything is still there, from the bed you used to sleep in to all your family's belongings. Oh, right. I didn't know your original door code, so I changed it myself. Your birthday, four digits. Just enter that and go inside.”

It felt like the first act of kindness I'd received from another person since the day of the accident.

Something surged up from deep within my chest.

What exactly was I supposed to call this feeling?

“What? Looks like you're pretty moved.”

“······Thank you.”

“Forget it. No need for all that embarrassing gratitude between men. If you're really grateful, just live a good life from now on. Take the high school equivalency exam. Go to college. You're smart, Bareum, so I'm sure you'll do well. And if you ever have any trouble, give your big brother a call.”

“Big brother?”

“Why? Am I acting a little too familiar?”

“No, it's not that. I just didn't know how old you were······.”

“Hey!! You're asking a young man who's only thirty-five about his age like he's some old geezer?!”

“Ah······.”

The roads ahead gradually began to look familiar.

The snack shop where I used to buy tteokbokki after cram school. The public bathhouse I used to visit with Dad on weekends, and the seolleongtang restaurant where we ate afterward. The shop where Mom used to buy ice cream cakes for our birthdays. The alley where my younger sibling fell off a kick scooter and split their chin open.

“Here, take this.”

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to me.

It was a business card so flashy that it almost looked childish, hardly what one would expect from an attorney. It reminded me of the cards nightclub promoters tucked into the windows of parked cars.

[ PJ Law Office ]

Managing Attorney Park Dong-yeop

Tel: 010-XXXX-XXXX

E-mail: dy.park@PJlaw.co.kr

Media Line: pr@PJlaw.co.kr (Broadcasting and Sponsorship Inquiries)

“In Your Darkest Moment, We Will Be Your Light Through the Law.”

※ KBC <​Current Affairs: Courtroom Spotlight> Panelist / YouTube <​Solving It with the Law> Creator

“Remember when I told you to call me if you ever had any trouble? Just so you know, that includes things like, 'Hyung, I'm bored.' 'Hyung, I feel like having a drink today.' 'Hyung, introduce me to some girls.' Or 'Question three on today's mock exam was too hard.' All of that counts too. Got it?”

“Yes. Thank you, Dong-yeop hyung.”

______________

It took me an entire day to clean the house.

Even that was only possible because the stamina granted by my status window meant I barely got tired. With my old physical condition, it would easily have taken three full days and nights.

Traces of my family remained throughout the house.

Fortunately, no tears came. I had come too far to start bawling over things like this now.

[Current Status]

Strength: 50 (First Limit)

Durability: 50 (First Limit)

Stamina: 50 (First Limit)

Karma Held: 4,200

[Items Held]

First Limit Breakthrough Rune Fragment (1/3)

The results of four years spent dealing with the trash inside Gimcheon Prison.

When Durability, the second stat I raised to its limit, reached its cap, I received a Roulette Ticket, just as I had when Strength reached its first limit. But things were a little different when my final stat, Stamina, reached its limit.

First Limit Breakthrough Rune Fragment (1/3)

[Proof that this world can become a better place. Currently fragmented.]

The limit of 50 imposed upon my physical body.

At last, a clue had appeared as to how I could break through it.

Let's examine the foundation of my skill.

The Scales of Karma.

What exactly is karma?

It is a concept of causality in which every action, whether thought, spoken, or performed, eventually returns to its originator in the form of a corresponding fate or consequence.

When someone commits an evil deed, karma accumulates in accordance with that act, and by judging that person, I forcibly administer the retribution they are due. In return, I, the executioner, receive a corresponding amount of Karma. That is how I believe the Scales of Karma work.

But if that's the case, couldn't the reverse also exist?

If judging evil deeds allows me to accumulate Karma, then perhaps saving someone who has performed good deeds and ensuring they receive the reward they rightfully deserve would grant something to me on the opposite side of the scales.

That was the method I had deduced for obtaining the Limit Breakthrough Rune from the phrase 'Proof that this world can become a better place.'

Fine, then.

If it meant obtaining even more overwhelming strength, transcendent abilities like those possessed by superheroes in movies, powers capable of laughing in the face of even the state's vast network of control, then I would gladly play along with this system's games.

I powered on the computer that had been relatively new before I went to prison but was now unmistakably outdated. With a loud whirring of its fan, the monitor flickered to life.

—Bupyeong Shopping Center Restroom High School Girl Bleach Murder Case.

When I entered the search terms into the browser, a considerable number of articles appeared.

[Exclusive] Suspect Kim Arrested in Bupyeong Bleach Murder Case··· One-Sided Social Media Connection to Victim Confirmed

[Exclusive] National Forensic Service: “Bleach Poured Over Body Was Part of Meticulously Planned Crime Intended to Destroy DNA Evidence”

[At the Scene] “It's Unfair! I Really Didn't Do It!” Suspect Kim Shouts While Refusing Crime Scene Reconstruction··· Netizens Condemn “Unrepentant Devil”

A brutal crime that had shocked the public: the perpetrator strangled the victim to death, raped her afterward, poured bleach over her corpse to destroy evidence, then abandoned the body in a restroom at the Bupyeong Station shopping center before fleeing.

The reason I was searching for this crime was simple. The culprit who had been arrested and imprisoned was not the real murderer.

Furthermore, the boy currently imprisoned at Gimcheon Prison as the supposed culprit was probably the person with the highest 'likelihood' of being genuinely good among everyone I had encountered there.

Inmate Number 447, Kim Jin-hwan.

In that cesspit known as Gimcheon Prison, he belonged to a very unusual category.

When I first offered him a handshake, he reacted sharply and slapped my hand away. His eyes were unquestionably filled with hostility. Judging by appearances alone, from the messy tattoos covering his body to his overall demeanor, he looked every bit like a bottom-rung delinquent.

Yet, surprisingly, 'Resonance of Sin' did not activate on him.

According to my experiences over the past several years, Resonance of Sin activated against those who had accumulated at least 500 Karma's worth of evil deeds. In other words, someone who had committed sins roughly equivalent to killing one person.

That was evidence that Kim Jin-hwan was not the true culprit behind that grotesque murder.

Above all, prison was the absolute bottom of society. And it was only when people fell to the very bottom that their true, unfiltered nature was revealed.

He never engaged in delinquent behavior like stealing other inmates' commissary funds or taking food and places in line from weaker prisoners. In fact, that alone was enough to place him among the top 0.1 percent of decent people in Gimcheon Prison.

He simply sat alone in a corner, holding a Bible and staring blankly into space.

“Hey, freak murderer. What the hell do you do sitting in the corner all day?”

Jin-hwan glanced at me and let out a self-deprecating chuckle.

“I pray. And I'm not a murderer.”

“Oh, sure. I'm sure the guy up there is just dying to listen to a murderer praying.”

“I said I'm not a murderer, you son of a bitch······.”

“Yeah, sure, let's say you're not. What are you praying so hard for, anyway? Asking God to catch the real killer or something?”

He shook his head.

“No. The girl who died, Minju. She was the same age as me. I just pray that she went to a better place.”

“······.”

“Clearing my name is something that can be handled in the human realm. But making sure a girl who died like that reaches a better place? That's God's domain.”

Was it an act to improve his image?

Or was he sincere?

I didn't know.

“What do you mean it can be handled in the human realm? Handled my ass. The investigation was closed ages ago. What, do you have some cop friend who'll keep investigating for you?”

“Not a cop. My best buddy. His name's Yu Dong-cheol, and he's working as a private moneylender around Bupyeong Station right now. He won't just sit around doing nothing. I'm sure he'll find some way to clear my name.”

“Wow, you've got yourself one hell of a friend.”

Of course, people don't change easily. I still didn't believe that a delinquent like Kim Jin-hwan was a good person who deserved salvation. But I couldn't deny that, given the current situation, he was the most promising option available.

The online articles I had skimmed through contained little that differed from the information Kim Jin-hwan had personally told me while I was in prison. If anything, the things he'd told me were more useful.

So for now, my lead was the name he'd given me: Yu Dong-cheol, near Bupyeong Station.

“Looks like I'll have to pay him a visit after all.”

The monitor went dark, and darkness settled over the space where its light had been.

It was time to pack my things.

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

My endless gratitude to everyone who supports this story!!

In particular, I sincerely pray that everyone who reads this chapter within twenty-four hours of its release will be blessed with peace in their homes and success in all their endeavors.

Thank you!!!