Vol 7 Ch 1

Joker Track 1

As a BM executive, he was cleared of charges regarding illegal U.S. housing purchases.

Due to insufficient evidence of collusion with the U.S. Democratic Party, he was cleared.

As no evidence of illegal acts was found in the bidding process, he was cleared.

Through more than a week of investigation by the German Federal Court, all the accusations against Kwon Taeha were dismissed.

Once the investigation ended, Kwon Taeha immediately left Germany for Macau, and just as he arrived in Macau, a tip came in that new documents had been discovered.

He had to return to Germany and was detained once again, but he put on a dumbfounded smile and filed an objection with the Federal Court.

The claim was that the representative’s room had 24-hour surveillance cameras running, and those would reveal who had hidden the documents in the sofa.

Those with access were Wagner, Joo Hawon, and Jade Miller, who had been instructed to look after Joo Hawon in his absence.

As Kwon Taeha had expected, the cameras had captured Jade Miller hiding the documents in the sofa.

But Kwon Taeha still had to return to Germany for reinvestigation.

Before that, he immediately called Joo Hawon, but there was no answer.

The same went for Wagner.

Checking the location tracker embedded in the tie pin, he found the signal coming from an STA private jet heading to Germany.

However, the cell phone had gone dark after its last signal was detected near Macau’s harbor.

He contacted the private jet right away and also checked with Macau Airport, only to learn that Joo Hawon had not boarded the plane.

Kwon Taeha’s mind was on the verge of burning out.

Joo Hawon had gone missing in Macau together with Wagner.

The arrow pointed in one direction only.

Jade Miller.

It was him.

Kwon Taeha mobilized all guards and personnel to track Joo Hawon’s trail, but it was cut off at the Macau harbor.

That could only mean he had been taken out to sea.

In the STA Füssen representative’s office, Kwon Taeha unfolded a map of Macau and issued a search order.

Being taken out to sea meant there was no intention of sending him back unharmed.

He forced himself to remain calm.

Joo Hawon’s safety came before Jade Miller’s betrayal.

He had been a fool.

He had been so certain Jade Miller would never betray him.

After all, they had grown up together for over thirty years, and the Miller family had served STA as legal counsel for three generations.

“Hey, my cousin.”

Knock, knock, knock—Aeil entered the representative office with his arms wide open.

There was no time to waste on meaningless sparring with Aeil.

Kwon Taeha needed every yacht docked in Macau’s harbor mobilized to find Joo Hawon.

“Who are you looking for so desperately?”

“If you’re involved in this mess, I’ll chew up Tex Corp whole if I have to.”

“Wow! Scary. But it’s not me. If anything, I’ve suffered losses from our old man’s greed. Did you know Kwon Yijaee had another son?”

Aeil sat down on the edge of the desk.

“Not knowing that, our old man sold off the shares to bring you down. Turns out, Kwon Yijae meant to give everything to his own blood all along.”

“Would you just get lost?”

Aeil was taken aback by Kwon Taeha’s harsh tone.

“Hand over 10% of your shares.”

Just then, Kwon Taeha’s phone rang.

“I know where Louis—no, where Hawon is.”

Aeil tapped his own wrist.

“You remember the tattoo? He put up such a fight that I knocked him out. He even made a contract with you and ran off—why would I believe him? So before I gave him the tattoo, I implanted a tracking chip.”

“……Tell me. Now.”

“What?”

“His location!”

“You’re saying you’ll make a deal? Really? Ten percent.”

Kwon Taeha didn’t hesitate.

No, what horrified him more was the thought that this useless conversation might delay finding Joo Hawon.

“Get the paperwork ready.”

“Thank you for your business,” Aeil replied with exaggerated elegance.

He tapped on his phone, and once the deal went through, he recited a set of coordinates in Macau.

It was Joo Hawon’s location.

Kwon Taeha immediately threw on his suit and relayed the coordinates to every search team.

“Taeha, you know something?”

“……”

“If you’d ever decided to erase the tattoo, the tracker I planted would’ve been discovered. But you didn’t—because emotions got in the way. And now you’ve lost out to me.”

“Lost out? I’ve never been more grateful to you than I am today.”

Kwon Taeha launched a helicopter and headed for the yacht docks.

He boarded a yacht and, along with three helicopters, set out for the coordinates Aeil had given.

The trip felt longer than the flight from Germany to Macau.

Please, let him be safe.

He could only pray Jade Miller hadn’t made the worst choice.

At last, the helicopters and yachts spotted another yacht at the coordinates.

All lights focused on it, and in the center, a frail body swayed precariously.

Joo Hawon.

Kwon Taeha shouted his name.

But there was no response.

Blood was seeping from his swaying body.

Kwon Taeha cursed himself.

He had dragged Joo Hawon into this dangerous game.

No—blame could wait until after he was saved.

Someone was pointing a gun at Joo Hawon.

Bang!!!

A gunshot rang out from the helicopters.

Recognizing the imminent danger, the security team fired immediately without going through identification.

At the same time, Joo Hawon fell into the sea.

Kwon Taeha called out to him, again and again, but could not stop him from plunging into the water.

Without hesitation, Kwon Taeha dove into the sea.

“Boss!!!!”

Shouts erupted from all around, but he had to follow Joo Hawon sinking below.

The murky waters of Macau’s sea made it impossible to see ahead.

Kwon Taeha prayed—something he had never done before, to a god he didn’t even believe in.

He swam deeper and deeper toward where Joo Hawon had fallen.

A chilling thought crossed his mind—that in this vast sea, he might never reach him.

But he didn’t give up.

Suddenly, something brushed his outstretched hand.

He dove deeper, reaching for it.

It was Joo Hawon.

He had truly caught his body.

Kwon Taeha pulled him in, wrapping his arms around him.

Joo Hawon flinched but clung to him in return.

Ah…… this thin, small body was holding onto him.

Holding him desperately.

Kwon Taeha breathed air into Joo Hawon’s mouth and began swimming upward.

The surface felt endlessly far away.

“Haah!”

Kwon Taeha broke through the surface and gasped for breath.

Joo Hawon barely had a faint breath left in him.

The lights of the helicopters and yachts shone down on them.

Joo Hawon’s hand, once clutching his neck, slipped away.

Kwon Taeha held him tighter and cried out.

A desperate, anguished scream.

***

—200X, XX Month, XX Day, somewhere in Macau’s Senado Square—

Dressed neatly in changpao, Minling respectfully observed the complexion of the man seated beside him.

The young man, just barely into adulthood, carried a nobility utterly unlike the lowlifes Minling had seen before.

Having been by Joo Sangkyung’s side, Minling had often seen men of high rank, but this young man didn’t even seem of the same kind as him.

It was as though he belonged to an entirely different species.

There was no trace of the basic human emotions—exchange, sympathy, compassion—that usually defined relationships.

He seemed a new breed of humanity, complete and detached.

Even Joo Sangkyung, who had committed inhuman acts, had dearly loved his son.

But from this young man, there flowed an aura that suggested he could never be expected to hold even a grain of emotion.

It couldn’t be said that his condition had nothing to do with the kidnapping incident of that day.

He was a blue-blooded heir who had clearly survived a malicious attempt on his life.

And in the years since, he had shown just how cold blue blood could become.

The slowly moving sedan was following a small, thin boy.

The boy, unaware that someone was tailing him, kept his wary eyes only on the pedestrians along the sidewalk.

“Why is he in Macau?”

The young man asked Minling.

“His stepmother ran away with the rest of the property. Because of the loan sharks, it seems he can’t return to Korea.”

“Loan sharks?”

“When President Joo—no, Joo Sangkyung—fell into ruin, he borrowed heavily from them.”

Of course he did.

The young man muttered low.

“PL Construction,” which had been building a resort on Taipa Island, went bankrupt under bank pressure, and along with investor Joo Sangkyung, Korean investors one after another collapsed.

Behind it all were the young man and his mother.

The boy, who resembled Joo Sangkyung yet somehow didn’t, turned into an alley.

When he came back out, the envelope he had been holding against his chest was gone.

The boy folded a few patacas again and again before clutching them tightly in both hands.

Minling felt a flicker of satisfaction at the young master’s downfall—though there was a faint trace of pity mixed in.

“How much is the debt?”

“Probably… even the loans alone, with interest, exceed two billion won.”

“You think he can pay that back?”

The young man spoke as he watched the boy loiter in front of a jerky shop.

“They’re not the kind of loan sharks you can take lightly. They’ll bleed him for what they can, and in the end, hand him over to a brothel.”

“Bleed him” meant they intended to use the boy as a male prostitute.

After draining him of all they could, they’d sell him off to a brothel or a den filled with addicts.

That is, unless the boy killed himself first.

“Strange.”

“What do you mean?”

“He doted on his son so much. And yet he didn’t leave behind a single arrangement for him? Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“I understand the stepmother ran away with it all.”

The young man rolled the window down halfway.

“For now, let’s just watch.”

“For how long?”

“A year or two.”

“And if he gets sold to the brothels before then…”

Minling didn’t finish the sentence.

He feared it would sound like he was worried about the boy.

“If he gets sold before then, does it matter to you?”

“No… that’s not what I meant.”

In front of the jerky shop, the boy picked things up and put them back down until finally he clutched a single fish cake in his hand.

Squatting by the wall, he looked around nervously as he chewed it into small bites.

“Still…”

The young man, staring blankly at the boy, continued.

“He’s just a kid.”

The boy eating the fish cake suddenly lowered his head.

Then, moments later, he lifted it again, biting his lips as though forcing back tears.

He rubbed his eyes roughly with both arms, then dusted off his clothes and stood up.

His gaze caught the sedan’s open window.

The boy stared curiously at the young man watching him.

His pitch-black eyes clung to him like those of an abandoned animal.

For a fleeting instant, the young man felt paralyzed, unable to move.

But he turned away from the sticky gaze and rolled the window all the way up.

“……Send someone. Make sure he isn’t sold.”

“Pardon?”

“Give him hope. Like Joo Sangkyung once gave me.”

The young man muttered, lowering his bluish gaze.

Rage was not easy to control, and whenever it welled up, destructive urges surged with it.

The young man had survived Russian roulette, but for days he had been forced to smell the stench of a rotting corpse.

The reason Joo Sangkyung had left the dead man’s body there was to instill the fear that the young man could end up the same way.

But because he hadn’t been killed, there was hope.

It wasn’t until he was forced to play Russian roulette again that he sensed his death was imminent.

Joo Sangkyung spun the revolver and pulled the hammer back with a click!

The first shot was a misfire.

But Joo Sangkyung didn’t stop—he kept pulling the trigger.

Click, click, click, click!

The revolver, capable of holding six bullets, still had one round left.

Any pull of the trigger could have pierced his temple.

The young man squeezed his eyes shut.

Click!

Cold sweat drenched his body.

But the gun had no bullets.

And what had Joo Sangkyung said then, watching him flounder between death and hope?

“Kwon-gun is really lucky. Don’t you think? Shall we test if that luck holds again?”

Joo Sangkyung slipped a single bullet into the chamber.

Clink—the cylinder spun.

In the countless moments he slipped between hell and life, the young man made up his mind.

If he made it out alive, he would give back the worst life imaginable, worse than anything this world could offer.

It wouldn’t be easy.

He would dangle a little hope as bait, only to bring maximum pain.

But Joo Sangkyung chose suicide before the young man ever had the chance to act.

Perhaps it had been the wiser choice.

Or perhaps, from the moment he let him live, it had already been inevitable.

Still, fuel was necessary.

Something to stoke the fire of his rage, something to sustain him through battles ahead.

It was unfortunate for the boy, but the only way to quell his destructive impulses was to vent his wrath.

He sneered at Joo Sangkyung, who had died without knowing that the son he so cherished would end up living that kind of life instead.

The sticky, clinging black eyes that had stared at him so suddenly—he tried to forget them.

But his mood didn’t improve for a long while.