Chapter 219: An Offer Impossible to Refuse

Major General Lee Cheolseung could see right through Cha Jiham.

He was clearly planning to °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° exchange the 27.35 million dollars for the information Lee possessed.

Of course, the money was tempting, but he couldn’t accept such an offer.

The moment he let even a single piece of what he knew slip, a scandal of unimaginable proportions would erupt.

“I’m very sorry, but I don’t possess any information.”

“It seems you misunderstood me, Director Lee. The condition I mentioned was something entirely different.”

“Then what exactly was your objective?”

“The condition was for you and your hackers to defect to our country.”

“What are you...”

I understood perfectly well why Major General Lee Cheolseung trailed off.

After all, he and his hackers had effectively been kidnapped by our company employees and the CIA and brought to South Korea.

If they went to the press and caused an uproar over their kidnapping, it would create a massive headache.

To prevent such a scenario, they were being offered compensation under the guise of resettlement assistance for defectors.

There was no point in telling him the truth outright, so I gave him a different reason.

“Settling down in our country will require far more money than you might think. I intended to pay you the 27.35 million dollars as resettlement assistance. However, if you refuse to defect, that money will inevitably be returned to the state treasury.”

“I don’t need any resettlement assistance! Send me back to North Korea immediately!”

If Major General Lee Cheolseung defected to the South, there was a high probability that his family remaining in North Korea would face reprisals.

That was precisely why he was so adamant about being sent back.

Naturally, I had no intention whatsoever of returning him.

“I’m sorry, Director Lee, but returning to North Korea is impossible for you.”

“I’m not a voluntary defector! I was kidnapped by the National Intelligence Service and the CIA!”

“I’m aware of that. However, you’ll understand a little later why you can’t return.”

“We’ll see what you mean.”

“By the way, we already know most of the information you possess.”

Whenever NIS operatives interrogated Major General Lee Cheolseung, he had effectively exercised his right to remain silent.

Therefore, there was no way Cha Jiham could have learned his secrets.

“Don’t lie to me.”

I decided it was time to deliver the decisive blow and completely break his confidence.

“We confiscated your laptop from Politburo member Liu Peiqi’s villa.”

“The laptop is password-protected, so it’s nothing but a useless piece of hardware.”

“Ha-ha-ha. Do you really think so?”

I smiled faintly and gave Chief Secretary Kang Inhan an instruction.

“Bring me Director Lee’s laptop.”

“Yes, sir.”

After answering briefly, Chief Secretary Kang Inhan walked out the door.

Some time later, he returned and handed me the device.

I showed the laptop to Lee Cheolseung and asked,

“Director Lee, this belongs to you, doesn’t it?”

Major General Lee Cheolseung nodded in confirmation.

I placed the laptop on the table, opened the lid, and turned it on.

A few moments later, a password prompt appeared on the screen.

As though he had been waiting for precisely that moment, Chief Secretary Kang Inhan handed me a note.

I read the numbers and special characters written on it and slowly entered them into the field.

Then I turned the laptop around so that Lee Cheolseung could see the screen and asked,

“Do you still think it’s useless?”

“H-how...”

Lee Cheolseung’s pupils trembled violently from genuine shock.

“Judging by your expression, you want to ask how I learned the password, right?”

“...That’s right.”

“There was a notebook lying on the desk in your bedroom. I don’t think I need to explain in detail how exactly we found the code, do I?”

“...No, you don’t.”

Having completely lost his fighting spirit, Lee Cheolseung answered in a deflated voice.

“We found the passwords to the other hackers’ devices on your laptop. Moreover, we handed the emergency contact list we obtained over to the Chinese government. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what happened next.”

“Don’t tell me...”

I understood perfectly well why he had trailed off again.

“Exactly what you’re thinking. The Chinese armed forces completely wiped out the North Korean hacker organizations conducting cyber operations.”

“Ugh...”

Hearing that heavy groan, I knew we had finally crossed the crucial threshold.

All that remained was one final push to seize the summit.

“The Chinese military even used missile strikes to destroy the hacker groups. As a result, only a handful survived.”

“......”

“Who do you think North Korea will blame for the destruction of its hackers?”

Lee Cheolseung’s vision went dark.

The fact that hacker groups conducting cyberwarfare were operating from Chinese territory was an absolute state secret.

Therefore, only a very small circle of people knew about it.

No matter how he looked at it, he himself had become the root cause that led to the units being wiped out.

If an investigation revealed that the information had leaked because of him, his family’s fate in North Korea would be sealed.

And yet, completely unaware of what had happened, he had foolishly remained stubborn and demanded to be sent back.

“Haa...”

Cornered with nowhere left to go, Lee Cheolseung let out a heavy sigh and stared blankly into space.

“Director Lee, do you understand now why you can’t return to North Korea?”

“...Yes.”

Lee Cheolseung answered like a deflated balloon.

Now that he had been whipped bloody, it was time to apply the healing ointment.

“Director Lee, would you like me to tell you how you can protect your family from reprisals in North Korea?”

“...Is there really a way?”

“Of course. You simply must not return.”

“But I’m the one responsible for the Chinese wiping out the hackers!”

“We can make them believe someone else was responsible.”

“Who are you planning to make the culprit?”

“Director Lee, don’t you think you’re being a little presumptuous?”

Lee Cheolseung understood the implication behind Cha Jiham’s words perfectly.

To save the family he had left behind in the North, he would have to hand over all the information he possessed.

Wanting to confirm his guess, he cautiously asked, and I replied,

“We already have the data from your laptop, so that isn’t particularly interesting to us.”

“But I have information stored right here in my head!”

“I doubt you possess more information than Deputy Director Jo Ilcheol of the Reconnaissance General Bureau.”

“......”

The blow struck precisely where it hurt, leaving Lee Cheolseung speechless.

“If you want to save your family, you’ll have to offer something else.”

“Stop beating around the bush and just tell me directly what you want from me.”

‘Ha-ha, that’s exactly what I was waiting for.’

“Let’s clarify one thing first. Do you intend to defect to our country?”

“Do I have any choice other than defecting?”

“That’s true... Now that I think about it, you really don’t have any alternatives.”

“Then hurry up and tell me what you want from me.”

“Before that, I have one question. Are the captured hackers still capable of conducting cyberwarfare?”

“My specialists’ skills are among the best in the world.”

In other words, the hackers were fully capable of conducting cyber operations.

“Excellent. In that case, you and your hackers will lead a cyberwar against North Korea.”

“What!?”

NIS Director Om Giyeon and Major General Lee Cheolseung exclaimed in surprise at the same time, though the meaning behind their reactions was completely different.

NIS Director Om Giyeon and his people were surprised by the unexpected idea, while Lee Cheolseung was simply shocked.

To bring everyone present up to speed, I immediately continued.

“Director Lee and his subordinates were born and educated in North Korea, so they know its internal realities inside and out. Moreover, they’re thoroughly familiar with the structure of North Korea’s internet infrastructure. There are simply no better candidates for conducting cyberwarfare against the North than North Korean hackers themselves.”

“Hmm... There certainly is logic to that,” NIS Director Om Giyeon agreed.

Leaving his comment behind, I turned back to Lee Cheolseung.

“Director Lee, what do you think of my proposal?”

“From a technical standpoint, it’s more than feasible, but there’s one thing that concerns me.”

“What is it? Go ahead.”

“If North Korea finds out that we’re the ones waging cyberwarfare against them, they won’t let it go.”

I turned toward NIS Director Om Giyeon, signaling for him to answer.

As though he had read my mind, he spoke unhurriedly.

“Officially, you are listed as missing persons in China. And the fact that you defected to South Korea will remain classified as top secret forever.”

“I’ll trust your word, Director Om.”

“Excellent. Now continue your conversation with Director Cha.”

NIS Director Om Giyeon stepped into the background, handing the initiative back to me.

“Director Lee, we’re planning to make Politburo member Liu Peiqi the culprit behind the leak.”

“Is that possible?”

“The hacker organizations’ bases were located on properties personally owned by Liu Peiqi.”

“Ah...”

Lee Cheolseung nodded, understanding where I was going with this.

At that moment, FBI Director Nevers, unable to contain his curiosity, addressed me.

“Director Cha, what about the hackers we’ll be taking to the United States?”

“By analyzing their laptops, you can determine the methods they used to hack and steal cryptocurrency.”

“Without the hackers’ direct cooperation, we won’t be able to understand everything completely.”

“How about assigning FBI agents to the team conducting cyberwarfare against North Korea?”

“That’s it! Excellent solution!”

Director Nevers exclaimed and slapped his knee at the brilliance of the idea.

I smiled faintly and addressed Lee Cheolseung again.

“Director Lee, would you like to earn some pocket money?”

“Pocket money?”

“We captured Politburo member Liu Peiqi in Dandong, China.”

“How?”

“We were monitoring you when you met him at the Crown Hotel. I’ll skip the details of how we captured him to save time.”

“Well... All right, I understand.”

“During the interrogation, we discovered that he owns approximately two billion dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency. However, circumstances only allowed us to collect four hundred million dollars from him as ransom.”

Lee Cheolseung seemed to have figured out what I meant by pocket money.

I was offering him the chance to hack and steal Liu Peiqi’s remaining cryptocurrency.

Wanting to confirm his guess, he cautiously asked, and I replied,

“You’re absolutely right.”

“To steal Liu Peiqi’s cryptocurrency, we need to know his exchange accounts and passwords.”

“But you already know Liu Peiqi’s exchange accounts, don’t you?”

Lee Cheolseung’s hackers had been tasked precisely with hacking and stealing cryptocurrency.

He himself transferred the stolen assets to Liu Peiqi and handled cashing them out, so he knew the accounts where Liu kept his funds.

That was exactly what I was pointing out now.

“Of course I know the accounts, but I don’t know the passwords.”

“We have video footage of Liu Peiqi personally transferring four hundred million dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency to us. If you analyze that footage, couldn’t you figure out the password?”

“If he hasn’t changed it, then it’s entirely possible.”

“Director Om, provide Director Lee with that footage.”

“Understood. We’ll do that.”

Leaving NIS Director Om Giyeon’s brief response behind, I continued my conversation with Lee Cheolseung.

“Use this opportunity to let your hackers demonstrate their skills to the fullest.”

“We will. But what should we do with Liu Peiqi’s cryptocurrency after we take it?”

“I already told you. It’s your pocket money.”

“That much pocket money!?”

Liu Peiqi still had another 1.6 billion dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency remaining.

Hearing that such an astronomical sum was being given to him as mere “pocket money,” Lee Cheolseung was dumbfounded.

“I told you, settling down in our country requires a lot of money.”

“That’s true, but the amount is far too large for a simple reward.”

“If you think it’s too much, share it with your subordinates who’ll be working on the hack.”

“I sincerely thank you for your generosity, Director Cha!”

“Ha-ha-ha! There’s no need to thank me!”

I responded to Lee Cheolseung’s gratitude with loud, genuine laughter.