Chapter 1517 Specified (2)

“Those bastards must be sh*tting their pants right about now.”

Lee Hyeon-Su smirked villainously while watching the outpouring of news broadcasts on TV.

“Good, good! Yes, keep being provocative like that. Good! Hiyaa~, those parasites sure know how to cook up provocative news stories, eh?”

He cackled insidiously.

Even he had to admit that what happened in Caffe Luogo’s stores only amounted to nothing more than the crime of “restraint of trade.” However, those reporters behaved as if they had been paid off to fan the flames as much as possible. And their chosen method was to repackage the restraint of trade into a deep-seated vile practice prevalent in the world of commerce.

With how grave the anchors and reporters sounded during the broadcasts, even the people with little to no interest in this matter were bound to pay more attention now.

What pleased Lee Hyeon-Su even more was how the reports had been painting Caffe Luogo as the innocent victim. The clip of the interview currently being played was a perfect example of that.

[I used all my savings to start this business, you know? Even if that guy was a customer, how could I hold myself back when he threw that hot coffee in my face? W-wait, I should apologize instead. I should have kept my cool, and... I can only apologize to you, customers.]

“Kuh-euh~!” Lee Hyeon-Su smirked deeply. I mean, look at how that idiot was nervously glancing at the camera during the interview!

It was as if that man was scared of the potential reactions of the customers. Of course, the actual truth was that he was merely scared of Lee Hyeon-Su’s reaction. Even an idiot could guess that the devil of the Martial Assembly would be watching the interview later, after all!

In any case! To other people, it must’ve looked like a dude with a hulking physique pitifully apologizing and bowing toward other customers.

“...Dang it. I don’t like how hulking his physique is. Tsk! It’s not like I can cut his shoulders down or something either. Oh, well.”

Lee Hyeon-Su casually voiced his inner thoughts that could have sent deadly chills down the back of the interviewee.

Regardless of what his thoughts were, though, the situation was clearly flowing in the direction Lee Hyeon-Su had envisioned.

Vrrrrr-!

Lee Hyeon-Su glanced at his buzzing phone and smirked after confirming the name “Bak Seong-Jo” appearing on the screen.

Is it okay for him to call me like this?

After all, that man was the deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. So, for him to carelessly call Lee Hyeon-Su on his personal phone!

Then again, he should have ways of erasing the call records, anyway. Or he could be using a private server of some kind.

“Hello, this is Lee Hyeon-Su speaking.”

—Good day, Mister Lee. This is Bak Seong-Jo. Are the proceedings to your liking so far?

Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled helplessly. I didn’t think he’d be this impatient, though.

Bak Seong-Jo gave off a slightly different vibe from all the other NIS agents Lee Hyeon-Su had run into until now. Those agents almost always beat around the bush and avoided being direct, but not Bak Seong-Jo. This man seemed to be the type to charge head-on first.

However, this way of doing things felt a little more palatable to Lee Hyeon-Su. He kind of liked it, in all honesty.

“We haven’t had any tangible results yet, so it’s too early to say. Honestly, I’m slightly underwhelmed, Mister Bak. I didn’t think the investigative abilities of South Korea’s finest would only amount to this much.”

Lee Hyeon-Su replied in a slightly weightier voice. He didn’t want to give the other side any wiggle room. However, Bak Seong-Jo didn’t sound flustered. If anything, he spoke even more leisurely than before.

—Our opponent has done a good job of obfuscating their involvement, you see?

“I hope that’s not your excuse, Mister Bak.”

—Hahaha. Not at all. Wouldn’t you say this is not a bad development for MK?

“I don’t follow?”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s question was met with an even more relaxed, nay, smug voice from Bak Seong-Jo.

—Going this far to cover up one’s tracks means they must’ve spent an exorbitant sum of money. Despite the financial burden, however, the culprits still went through with it, which can only happen if they have considerably deep pockets. In other words...

“Oho. So, we’re dealing with a mega corporation.”

—That’s correct.

Lee Hyeon-Su slowly rubbed his chin. That line of thinking made perfect sense. Medium-scale franchises wouldn’t haphazardly do something this costly since they were always razor-focused on making some profit and avoiding red marks in their ledgers.

“I guess South Korea’s mega corporations have way too much free time on their hands.”

—Well, as long as there’s profit to be had, they will try anything.

“Agreed. However, what were you implying earlier when you said it wouldn’t be a bad development for us?”

—You already know the answer, Mister Lee. I’m sure the revelation of a massive corporation, not some random punks, being the mastermind should create far greater ripples. Don’t you think so, too?

“Hmm...”

—Of course, it’d increase the burden on our side by several times, too. Hahaha! Even so, we’ll make sure that MK is the one being favored this time.

Ah. So, that’s what you wanted to say all along.

Bak Seong-Jo’s intentions were easy enough to read, but he couldn’t be faulted this time. Some random punks, as he put it, could be handled with the NIS’s powers alone, but even the mighty spy agency would get nervous when it came to dealing with a powerful mega corporation.

Not because of the corporation’s power, no, but more like it had paid off all the right people at the top, of course!

Lee Hyeon-Su grinned wryly. “But that’s a story for when we actually catch the culprits. However, judging from how things are unfolding, we might end up with nothing to show for our troubles.”

—Well, well. If we uncover nothing after going so hard on the investigation, the pride of the police and prosecutors will hit rock bottom, wouldn’t you agree?

“Really? Do they have any pride left in the first place, though?”

Bak Seong-Jo chose not to respond this time. It seemed he also understood that public opinion on the South Korean police and prosecutors had been extremely poor recently. That was why they shouldn’t have been so greedy in accepting bribes. They couldn’t blame anyone but themselves for trying to quash obviously guilty and unacceptable matters constantly.

Especially in the 21st century, no less!

—Don’t worry, Mister Lee. We will uncover them. I’ll make sure of that.

What a dangerous-sounding declaration that was.

The NIS had no jurisdiction or authority over the police or the prosecutors, at least officially speaking. As a matter of fact, no other government departments should have a say in how those investigative bodies operated. Only tax-paying civilians could do that.

Unfortunately, worldly affairs didn’t strictly operate under the rule of the law.

The ruling elite of the country was behind the NIS. If those people wanted to, making the cops and lawyers do their bidding should be a cakewalk. Any investigators and prosecutors wishing to keep their jobs should be working extra hard right now to uncover the truth of this matter.

“Mister Bak... Are you saying you will catch the culprits and punish them appropriately, or that you will definitely find who the culprit is?”

Those two things might sound similar on the surface, but Lee Hyeon-Su and Bak Seong-Jo both understood they were definitely not the same.

—There will always be a limit to how much we can do legally.

“Hmm...”

—However, wouldn’t publicly revealing the identity of the culprit be just as effective? Citizens of this country aren’t morons, after all.

“Really? I thought cops and prosecutors viewed us that way, though?”

—Haha...

Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded. He knew that chiding Bak Seong-Ju wouldn’t fix this situation, so he decided to drop it and move on. “Very well, I understand. However, Mister Bak? Before you go public with the findings, please get our permi... Oops, that wasn’t the word I wanted to use. Please inform us first so that we can discuss the matter.”

—Mm? Is there a reason to do that?

“Yes, there is,” Lee Hyeon-Su replied with a smirk. “In certain cases, our opponent insisting on their innocence will make it easier for us, you see?”

A lengthy silence ensued next, which indicated that Bak Seong-Ju understood what Lee Hyeon-Su was implying just now.

What if the mastermind tried to cut its tail off and escape? Indeed, if they wheeled out a sacrificial pawn and pretended to know nothing, the cops wouldn’t have lawful methods to bring them down. Such cases had happened many times before, after all.

The bigger problem with that, though, was that if the mastermind had resorted to such a method, MK... No, the Martial Assembly wouldn’t be able to use its financial wherewithal to punish them, either. Because, if something happened to them, all eyes would shift to MK next.

If that happens, it might be better to tell the public that those bastards had nothing to do with this incident.

News broadcasts had already cleared Caffe Luogo’s name. What remained now was keeping the conversation going for as long as possible, and...

...And utterly crushing the bastards daring to come after us.

Not only Lee Hyeon-Su, but Kang Jin-Ho would definitely never forgive the culprits. Since that was an inevitability, maybe it’d be better to create a less-scrutinized environment instead.

—I understand what you’re saying. Then, let us proceed that way.

“How advanced is the investigation? How much do we know now?”

—It seems the culprits went through five layers of deception, and we have dug past three. But the problem is that the deeper we go, the more secretive and harder to track things get.”

“I see. Rather crafty bastards, aren’t they?”

Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled helplessly. Not even he went to such lengths back in his Yeongnam Group days.

“If they were that scared of getting found out, they shouldn’t have started it in the first place. They want to mess with us, but don’t want to get caught, is that it?”

—That’s how humans think, after all.

Lee Hyeon-Su smirked while nodding. “In any case, thank you for the update. I have to say, though, the news broadcasts feel a little lackluster. Shouldn’t they start hinting that the cops have a rough clue of who might be behind this situation?”

—We’ll consider it.

“Good. Then, until next time.”

Lee Hyeon-Su ended the call and grinned.

Gee whiz. Lee Hyeon-Su, you sure have moved up in the world, haven’t you?

To think he’d converse one-on-one with the obsequious-sounding NIS deputy director! While appreciating how much his position in society had changed, Lee Hyeon-Su got up and hurriedly left his office. He should report this to the Assembly Master as soon as possible.

He strode briskly in the corridor before knocking on the chairman’s office. “Sir, it’s me, Lee Hyeon-Su.”

“Come in.”

He opened the door and stepped inside before bowing to Kang Jin-Ho. “I just received a call from the NIS, sir. They are apparently close to uncovering the truth, and will pressure the police until the culprits are in custody.”

Kang Jin-Ho reclined against his chair while narrowing his eyes at Lee Hyeon-Su. “How nice of them, keeping us up to date like this.”

“It goes to show how desperate they are, sir,” said Lee Hyeon-Su with a wry smirk. “With how enthusiastic the cops are, I’m certain that we will find the culprits soon. However, sir? I have a hunch that punishing them legally will be difficult.”

“You think the mastermind will escape punishment?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lee Hyeon-Su hesitated, wondering if he should say this out loud. Before he could make up his mind, though, Kang Jin-Ho beat him to it.

“That’s good.”

“I... beg your pardon?”

“Being law-abiding and all. Staying within the confines of the rules and regulations created by other men. Behaving like all the other ordinary people...” Kang Jin-Ho nodded as a subtle smirk floated up on his lips. “Indeed, it’s a good mindset.”

Despite the smirk, though, his eyes were withdrawn. Cold.

“As long as the other side sticks to the rules, that is.”

“...!”

Lee Hyeon-Su nervously swallowed his saliva.

“However, they broke the rules first. In that case, only us trying to stick to the same rules would be strange. Wouldn’t you say?”

“I agree with you, sir.”

“Very well. Let’s see who we are dealing with. And figure out what made them confident enough to come after us.”

Lee Hyeon-Su swallowed his saliva again. Damn. The Assembly Master is a lot more pissed than I thought.

Kang Jin-Ho being quite unhappy with this situation should be easy enough to guess. After all, this franchise venture was something he had been enthusiastically pursuing for a while now.

All those who had quit the Martial Assembly recently did so because they couldn’t survive all the changes Kang Jin-Ho had brought to the organization. He knew this, and that was why he felt responsible for their fate in his own way.

This cafe franchise was Kang Jin-Ho’s idea of supporting those people, so how could he forgive some unknown bastards trying to ruin his plans with some underhanded schemes?

“Oh, and by the way, sir?”

“Yeah?”

Lee Hyeon-Su spoke sheepishly. “We received a rather amusing request recently.”

“An amusing request? Like what?”

“The Jae-Il Business News have requested an interview, sir. They wanted to hear your thoughts directly from you. Of course, your thoughts as the chairman of MK, not the Assembly Master.”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow. “Huh? Do I have to?”

“An interview might not be the worst idea, sir.”

“...? Mm?”

Lee Hyeon-Su grinned meaningfully. “Since your appearance in the ads was received positively, I’d wager that people would also respond positively after learning that you’re MK’s representative as well. It’d be the same as shooting another ad without spending a dime.”

“B-but, uh...? I’m sure there’s no need to...”

“Assembly Master, sir!” Lee Hyeon-Su spoke resolutely. “This is a great opportunity to regain all our lost revenue!”

“...”

“Revenge is one thing, but let’s not forget profits, sir! Profits! That’s more important than getting even!”

“...”

“Please do this, sir.”

“...”

“Please. Do. This. Sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho squeezed his eyes shut.

This guy... Is he trying to get back at me for reducing his salary?

He should have remembered how petty Lee Hyeon-Su could get and made preparations accordingly. Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets now.