Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 55

Chapter 55
The leader of the Sunset Glass merchant company, Lefman, was a quick-witted individual. He had managed to grow a back-alley potion shop into a large merchant company by selling even the waste produced from potion-making.

Lefman was sharp, and he could read the turn of events in the outside world. He was always the first one to kowtow if it was time to bow his head, but he was also the first to step on another person if it was time to arrogantly raise his head.

There were rumors that he was a money-crazed person who did not know any limits if it meant he would earn money. Lefman actually agreed with that rumor. He did not differentiate between good and evil when it came to profit, and he even engaged in all sorts of dirty tricks just for the sake of profit. The bribes he had given to the royal palace were so significant that a common family would be able to live off them for decades without working. His dirty tactics had enabled Sunset Glass to survive various troubles and grow into what it was today.

Suddenly, one day, a group of people from another world started to appear on the continent. They were called Travelers. Travelers had devices on their left arms, and they seemed to be obsessed with quests; they managed to survive on the continent by doing quests for the Continentals.

Lefman had instinctively known that the Travelers who toiled day and night, even forgoing their own happiness just to survive, would one day overtake the laid-back Continentals and grow into a powerful force on the continent.

Ultimately, his instincts had proven to be correct. The Travelers had grouped up into clans and taken over the back alleys with their resourcefulness. Lefman had thus decided to cooperate with the largest criminal clan in the back alleys.

That criminal clan was the Black Tiger Clan. They had erased all traces of bribery and tax evasion by the Sunset Glass merchant company. Lefman was unsure how they had been able to do that, but he was certain that they had either destroyed all the related files or planted a spy in the royal palace.

Sunset Glass paid the Black Tiger Clan in potions and a small fee for every job they did. It was not a losing business, as that was something that Lefman would never engage in; rather, it was a win-win situation for them. Sunset Glass thus provided the Black Tiger Clan with the resources they needed to hunt and grow for some time.

Once Lefman felt reassured that the Black Tiger Clan was not a bad business partner, he had decided to meet the leader of the Black Tiger Clan, Yu Si-Do, himself. It turned out that the Traveler called Yu Si-Do was a strange individual. During Lefman’s first time meeting Yu Si-Do, he felt strangely uncomfortable around the man. Maybe it was because he had created the first criminal clan on the continent, but Lefman could feel the madness embedded deep within Yu Si-Do’s mind.

Yu Si-Do had given an interesting proposal to Lefman that day; after giving it some thought, Lefman decided to accept it. That was how Sunset Glass had entered into a long-term partnership with the Black Tiger Clan.

They had decided to grow exponentially larger by taking advantage of the back alleys, partnering together to enter the illegal drugs market. Yu Si-Do had insisted that drug dealing was a very big opportunity for Sunset Glass to grow larger. Sunset Glass was already in the potion-making business, and it was very easy for them to make drugs by utilizing their supply chain, from the alchemists who manufactured the potions all the way to the herbalists who foraged for medicinal herbs in the wild. Additionally, it was not difficult for them to find recipes for drugs.

The Black Tiger Clan took care of distributing the drugs, while Sunset Glass secretly manufactured the drugs at night. The profits generated were so unimaginably huge that Lefman felt his time and youth dabbling in the potion making business were wasted, insignificant in the face of the immense wealth the drug trade brought.

They had gotten a variety of customers in the back alleys too; from homeless beggars who had nowhere to go to noblemen’s wives who were addicted to gambling, their customer base did not differentiate between old or young, male or female. It was to the point that Lefman thought their customer base had more potential customers than candies and snacks would.

It was impossible for their drug trade not to be profitable because of the people who took the drugs out of curiosity and ended up begging for a mere drop. As such, Lefman had decided to aggressively expand the business after getting a sweet taste of the profits. Sunset Glass had started to explosively increase its production capacity for illegal drugs, and the Black Tiger Clan had expanded its distribution network from the capital to even the most remote countryside villages.

The immense profits had been enough to bribe the investigators to look the other way. Although it had cost Sunset Glass quite the sum to bribe them, it was still well worth it to have the investigators in their pockets. Once the treasury of Sunset Glass started to amass quite the fortune, Lefman used his newfound wealth to buy out shares in the other merchant companies.

Lefman had bought out a few small merchant companies and absorbed them into Sunset Glass. After he absorbed the small ones, he went ahead and absorbed the mid-sized companies. Sunset Glass eventually became a large merchant company and proudly established a spot in the capital of the continent, and nobody dared to spread any rumors that Lefman was a greedy man who would sell his soul for profits. Lefman had become a mogul people would pay respects to even in private, and there was nobody who could treat him the way they had before.

That was why Lefman could not believe a man had just kicked his door down and entered his office so brazenly. His office in the merchant company was not a place that anyone could just enter without prior appointment, and even his secretary dared not open the door even after knocking unless he gave his permission. However, this man had just kicked his door down and welcomed himself into his office; not only that, he also sat down comfortably on Lefman’s leather sofa and arrogantly crossed his legs as if it were his own room.

Lefman put down the documents he had been checking and asked, “Who the hell are you?”

Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied, “A soon-to-be murderer.”

Lefman was left in a dilemma. He wondered whether he should call the guards immediately to drag this crazy man out of his office, or if he should fire his secretary and the receptionist who had let the man waltz into his office.

Lefman tapped his finger on his desk and said, “I’m sure you have seen my secretary and receptionist on the way here. Tell me, did they seem so incompetent as to let a madman like you waltz in here?”

However, Kang Yoon-Soo replied with an answer completely unrelated to the question Lefman just asked. He said, “There’s a bomb in this building.”

Lefman was not taken aback at all. He had seen worse kinds of bluffs from all sorts of people, compared to the madman sitting in front of him. The kind and benevolent mask he wore around people fell away, and he unhesitatingly showed his true face filled with greed and anger. Most people would be intimidated at the sight of his face and back off, but Kang Yoon-Soo was not fazed at all. In fact, Kang Yoon-Soo did not flinch even a bit as he stared right back at Lefman.

‘Look at this punk,’ Lefman growled inwardly as he pulled his beard. “You seem pretty tough for a youngster. I’ll overlook this, so why don’t you stop this nonsense and go home at once,” he said before going back to his documents.

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly pointed outside the window. Lefman looked outside out of curiosity, and saw a brunette woman walking while holding a child’s hand. It was a very common sight, which made him all the more confused.

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly snapped his fingers.

Tak!

Booooom!

“Kyaaaaah!”

Flames shot up from the ground out of nowhere, and the woman and the child were instantly engulfed by them.

***

The commotion outside turned into chaos, as several carriages bumped into each other and people began screaming in horror.

“W-What the hell is going on?!” Lefman shouted.

The woman and the child were on the floor twisting and squirming in agony, but nobody dared to approach and help them because of the flames that had shot up from the ground and appeared out of nowhere.

“Damn it! Move!” shouted a middle-aged man who suddenly appeared from the crowd and jumped into the wall of fire. The man bravely went into the flames and rescued the two victims, then took off his coat and tried to use it to extinguish the fire on the victims’ bodies.

Lefman could not hide his shock at the sudden turn of events. Meanwhile, Kang Yoon-Soo slowly prepared to finish the theatrics. As the room darkened, Lefman hesitantly asked, “That must have been done by you, am I right?”

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and replied, “There are explosives installed in the basement of this building, and a single flick of my finger will trigger a huge explosion.”

“You liar! Do you think I would believe you managed to do all of this alone?!” Lefman raged.

“Well, my comrades and I, to be exact,” Kang Yoon-Soo said. He showed off the back of his hand, revealing a familiar tattoo painted on it—it was a vicious black tiger.

The experienced merchant Lefman was left shaken, muttering, “The Black Tiger Clan?”

“Who else would be capable of doing such a thing within a day, if not us?” Kang Yoon-Soo replied as he sat back down on the leather sofa. It was hard to believe how composed he was after burning two people alive in broad daylight.

Lefman carefully examined the man in front of him. He had met many of the Black Tiger Clan members during his dealings with them, and his sharp eyes were telling him that the tattoo engraved on the man’s hand was the real tattoo of the Black Tiger Clan. It was almost impossible for anyone to create a forgery that was so similar to the real black lines of the tattoo used by the Black Tiger Clan, and the fact that he was a Traveler was proven by the device on his wrist.

However, why would the Black Tiger Clan do such a thing?

If there really were explosives installed in the basement of the building as the man said, this was indeed a grave situation, and it meant that everyone in the building as well as himself was now being held hostage. To make matters worse, there were a ton of rare, luxurious items in the building that even Lefman had not had the chance to use yet.

Lefman shouted aggressively, “Why are you suddenly doing this?! I remember the Black Tiger Clan being in a strong alliance with us!”

“A strong alliance, you say?” Kang Yoon-Soo smirked as he repeated Lefman’s words, retorting, “I wish our boss, Yu Si-Do, could be here to hear you say those words. If he had been here, your head would have immediately fallen off your shoulders.”

“Damn it, what the hell are you talking about?!” Lefman exclaimed.

“Lefman, you’ve made our boss very angry,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he rubbed the tattoo on the back of his hand. The tattoo should have smudged off by his constant rubbing if it were made of colored dye or paint, but it did not smudge one bit. He continued without even batting an eye, “Do you know the White Lion Clan?”

“White Lion Clan? You mean that clan founded by the Travelers?” Lefman replied.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and continued, “It’s currently the largest clan among the Travelers, and they’re the only ones who have the power to fight against us, the Black Tiger Clan. But, it seems someone leaked information regarding boss Yu Si-Do to the White Lion Clan.”

“Who are you talking about?” Lefman asked nervously.

“Who do you think would stand to profit greatly from betraying us right now?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked in a menacing tone.

“Are you suspecting me?!” Lefman shouted, sounding as if he were about to have a seizure at any minute.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed at Lefman’s chest and said, “I speak on behalf of our whole clan. You’re the most suspicious one.”

Lefman gritted his teeth, his face red with rage as he retorted, “Nonsense! That’s utter nonsense! How can you doubt the trust we’ve built for so long?! You held my company and my people hostage, and now you’re suspecting me? I’ll no longer deal with the Black Tiger Clan if you keep this u—”

“Shut up.” Kang Yoon-Soo cut Lefman off and lightly snapped his fingers. Suddenly, another explosion rang out from the other side of the building.

Booooom!

Lefman huffed and puffed toward the window; he saw another woman unconscious on the pavement, engulfed by flames. He hurriedly turned around and looked at Kang Yoon-Soo.

Kang Yoon-Soo sat arrogantly on the sofa and ordered Lefman, “Sit. Unless you want to see your whole company burned down to the ground.”

Lefman gulped upon realizing he had met a man far more evil and sinister than himself.