abcnovels
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Cheonggyecheon Man-Soo’s Store
Shin-Woo, along with Jang Man-Soo, left Gochok-dong and entered a store deep inside a narrow alley in *Seun Sang-ga, Cheonggyecheon.
* Seun Sang-ga (????) is a well-known shopping complex and electronics market in Seoul, South Korea. It is located in the Dongdaemun district and has been a significant hub for electronics, computer parts, and various gadgets for decades. The complex is also known for its vibrant and bustling atmosphere, attracting both locals and tourists.*
Man-Soo’s Store
As Shin-Woo looked around the dusty store filled with light bulbs and fluorescent lights, he frowned.
“Do you not clean here? Is this really a place of business?”
“Of course, customers do come here.”
“So you’re not selling anything?”
“Nope. Just follow me.”
With an irritated response, Jang Man-Soo locked the store door and moved inside.
Shin-Woo followed him through a narrow passage hidden behind a bookshelf and arrived in a room full of computers.
“So this is the real workspace.”
“This is my livelihood at the moment. I woke up and found myself here.”
“I see.”
“So what about you? At this time, you should have returned from the military, right? I was worried if you were still in the unit.”
The members of Triad Eye were like family, so they often shared stories of their past whenever they had the chance.
“I was in a bit of a complicated situation. I also discovered this.”
Shin-Woo threw a shoulder patch covered in threads from his pocket.
It was taken from the man he had knocked out in the forest, and it bore a pattern of overlapping three-digit numbers.
666
Jang Man-Soo recognized the patch immediately.
“666th Unit? Where did you find this?”
“Someone was hired to assassinate my biological mother, who is believed to be the target. That’s my guess for now.”
“Oh, hired… Wait, biological mother? Your mother? You had a mother?”
It was something he had never mentioned even to his teammates.
“Would I have been born from an egg? Well, she did exist. Today was the first and last time I saw her. It was a return to that exact moment.”
“Wow… This sounds like a movie or fantasy novel really.”
“Our situation is already like a novel. By the way, I died in a nuclear base explosion and returned. What about you? Weren’t you supposed to escape safely?”
That was the most pressing question.
Jang Man-Soo shrugged his shoulders and replied.
“Why would you think that? I died too and came back.”
“What? You were waiting to escape from the helicopter!”
“It failed. Thanks to you, I managed to buy some time with the air defense door closing, but they had planted a self-destruct bomb outdoors. I got caught in it.”
The considerable effort to close the door alone turned out to be useless.
“Sigh… I hoped you would escape safely…”
“Sorry about that.”
“Then if you died and came back, does that mean the others as well?”
Other team members included Rick Watson, Lillian Foster, Hector Hammond, and Wen Wei.
“There’s no way to be certain. If you’re thinking of looking for them, it won’t be easy for me either. I don’t know where they are at this exact time.”
“How did you find my phone number?”
“We’re Koreans. And you had told me about your military discharge period. Also, I managed your accounts. I could find your phone number with your data.”
As the owner of high-performance computer equipment occupying the current room, Jang Man-Soo was responsible for Triad Eye’s web information collection, hacking, and data analysis.
“At least it’s a relief. But I still can’t believe it. To come back to 12 years ago after dying like that……”
Muttering, Shin-woo’s gaze shifted to the analog clock on the wall, something you would typically see in a bathhouse.
?February 14, 2023?
“I can’t believe it either. It wasn’t exactly a good time. Did they send us back to fix things……”
“What about you? Ah, could it be?!”
At that question, Jang Man-soo nodded his head.
“It was the time when I was almost caught by the National Intelligence Service. I worked like a slave there for about five years, then went to Morocco as a backup agent, and eventually, I was abandoned after a failed operation.”
“How much time do we have left?”
“About a month? In that time, I need to erase all traces to avoid being tracked. They won’t look for me once the necessary period passes.”
Shin-woo approached Jang Man-soo and patted him on the shoulder.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
“But what about you? What did you do in the future after this?”
“I sneaked into France, got a new identity, and joined FEROX.”
“Oh, so this was around the time you enlisted in FEROX. Are you going to do that again?”
It hadn’t been long since Shin-woo made up his mind.
“No. There’s no need to walk the same path again.”
“Then what will you do?”
“Look at what you’re holding.”
He pointed to the shoulder patch symbolizing the ‘666th Unit’ that Jang Man-soo was holding.
“You’re going to pursue them?”
“You know who they are.”
“How could I not?”
The 666th Unit, known as human hunters in the mercenary market, was notorious. Their reputation meant that international mafia, terrorist organizations, and rebel groups were their regular clients.
The problem was why the 666th Unit, which mainly operated in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, was in Korea.
Moreover, the 666th Unit never abandoned a target once they set their sights on it. They were known for being ruthless and dirty.
Shin-woo never expected that the 666th Unit, through his biological mother, would come after him. At the same time, Jang Man-soo and other team members he might meet later could be in danger.
To truly enjoy life after the return, the best solution was to quickly find his comrades and eliminate the 666th Unit.
“You know well what’s going to happen to us in the future. Of course, we also need to find the others. Is there really no way? We had a communication network we used.”
Not all team members were involved in the same mission. Sometimes they moved individually or in small groups.
During those times, they used a dedicated communication network that Jang Man-soo had built on the web for the team’s safety.
“I built that while working with the team.”
“Will it take long to recreate it?”
“There’s some equipment needed that won’t be available until at least five years later, so I need to check.”
“I believe it won’t take long.”
Jang Man-soo frowned at Shin-woo’s smile.
“You always think things just pop up easily, whether now or in the past. Huh? Is it now or in the future?”
He seemed unsure whether to consider it the past or the present, given their return to the past.
“Whatever it is. But even if they’ve come back to the past, they might not be with us. Just find a way to check in on them.”
“That was my intention from the start. But what about you? If you’re not joining FEROX again, what will you do?”
At that question, Shin-woo thought for a moment before speaking.
“Could you investigate MH Group for me?”
“Why MH Group all of a sudden? You never showed interest in big corporations.”
As Jang Man-soo said that, he sat at the desk and turned on the computer screen.
“My biological mother is the Strategic Planning Department head there. She’s the hidden daughter of Myung Joong-hwan, the chairman of MH Group.”
“Really? Ah…”
Jang Man-soo was initially surprised by the mention of being a chaebol’s offspring, but then the term ‘hidden daughter’ stood out.
Jang Man-soo was unsure how to react to this.
“It’s nothing special. Just find out what you can.”
“It’s quite dull… But there’s no ‘Strategic Planning Department’ in the MH Group’s organizational chart, right? There is a Future Strategy Investment Planning Office under the Business Planning Department, but no such department.”
On the screen was the organizational chart of MH Group that Jang Man-soo had found online in the meantime.
Shin-woo, looking at the information, made several guesses.
“It seems like a very secretive department. There were also experienced-looking bodyguards nearby.”
“Is it a secret inspection headquarters or something? Even if it’s secret, it would still use the internal intranet. It might be a bit difficult, but it’s not impossible.”
Tap-tap-tap— Tap-tap-tap—
Jang Man-soo’s fingers flew over the keyboard. The screen changed rapidly as several items appeared.
?MH Group Finance Department Mail Server Contact ????
Shin-woo was astonished when he saw it.
“How did he access the internal intranet from outside?”
It was a network reserved for large corporations. Naturally, it would be heavily secured to prevent easy access from outside. Yet, Jang Man-soo had accessed it so nonchalantly.
“This is why the National Intelligence Service (NIS) took me in. Leucochloridium paradoxum.”
Shin-woo furrowed his brows without realizing it.
“Leuco… What? What does that mean?”
“It’s the name of a parasitic worm that infects snails and then birds that eat those snails. I named the virus I created after it.”
“Why use such a difficult name?”
“It’s also called LEUCO for short. It was an accidental creation of mine. I modified a multiplying virus… but you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it.”
Jang Man-soo seemed to be slightly dismissive, and Shin-woo stared at him.
“Then you should explain it in simpler terms.”
Sigh! “Anyway, it spreads through network lines without causing any damage to the computer. And as long as it remains online, you can unlock everything with LEUCO’s master key.”
Shin-woo realized something important from that statement.
“So it’s a master key? But are you saying this LEUCO virus is everywhere? And the NIS used it by capturing you?”
“Exactly. Officially, it was to monitor the leakage of key industrial technologies, but in reality, it was to surveil companies and organizations for the current regime and the NIS.”
In the serious atmosphere, Shin-woo sighed deeply.
“Those guys are terrible. But if it’s such a dangerous program, it must have spread overseas as well, right? I’m sure the U.S., Russia, and Europe wouldn’t just stand by.”
“I set a lock to self-destruct if it went beyond the GPS coordinates of South Korea during initial development. Of course, the NIS requested to remove that lock, but I said there was no way because it seemed too risky.”
It was a truly impressive skill.
“That’s incredible. Anyway, are you trying to track down the Strategic Planning Department using the financial records?”
“Any department needs a budget to operate. Ah, found it.”
Jang Man-soo found another screen through the recently discovered mail server.
?From: Strategic Planning Department Head Im Hee-yeon?
Seeing the sender’s name, Shin-woo nodded.
“Yes, this is Her.”
“Wait a moment. If we search using the employee number…”
?Personnel Record Card — MH2005042231?
— Name: Im Hee-yeon / December 16, 1981 (42 years old)
— Affiliation: Strategic Planning Department / Department Head
— Graduated from Seongjin Elementary School, Busan
— Graduated from Haeseong Middle School, Busan
— Transferred from Busan Girls’ High School to St. John’s High School, New York, and graduated
— Graduated from Harvard University, School of Business
— Mother: Im Myung-joo passed away on August 3, 1997
.
.
Only basic information was provided.
Jang Man-soo compared the photo of Im Hee-yeon with Shin-woo’s face.
“You look somewhat alike.”
“Be quiet. But there’s nothing unusual here. Are there any recent projects related to the Strategic Planning Department? Something connected to MH Electronics. It might be classified, but let’s see if it’s on the intranet.”
This was a reference to what he had heard from Im Hee-yeon during their meeting at the café and the incident that almost happened at that time.
Jang Man-soo nodded and continued typing.
“LEUCO spreads through any location within the domestic coordinates, creating pathways. Ah! It’s out!”
?MH Electronics Balance Sheet?
?MH Electronics Income Statement?
?MH Electronics Cash Flow Statement?
?MH Electronics Combined Capital Change Statement?
“Is Myung In-chul, the president of MH Electronics, the eldest son?”
“Correct. But the numbers here don’t match what MH Electronics has in their records.”
Jang Man-soo was already comparing the figures from the financial statements.
“Is this a double entry accounting?”
“Yes. Even a rough calculation shows that the embezzled amount exceeds 50 billion won.”
“That’s not too big?”
“That’s just from last year. Given the situation, it seems they’ve been embezzling funds like this for several years.”
“That would mean at least several hundred billion won.”
“That’s right.”
It became clearer what Im Hee-yeon’s plan might have been.
Im Hee-yeon, the biological mother, would have planned to either shake or completely bring down Myung In-chul, the eldest son and successor of MH Group, and then live together with him.
“The likelihood that Myung In-chul, feeling the crisis, hired Unit 666 to cause today’s incident is high…”
“So, you’re planning to track them down?”
“That’s the idea. Since they were the ones protecting the nuclear base.”
Unit 666 was the military force that had fought at the nuclear base during Triad Eye’s final mission. Although Shin-woo and his team had eliminated all of them, it was unclear if that was the full force of Unit 666.
“Oh, do you have a place where I can stay for a few days?”
“Don’t you have a home?”
“I was discharged a few days ago. I was staying at a motel since I was planning to leave Korea anyway.”
“That’s something…”
“You will find a place, right?”
“Of course.”
“There’s a temporary bed in the corner over there. You can sleep there. The bathroom is that way, and the kitchen is over there. But you can’t stay long.”
“Thanks.”
As he responded, Shin-woo noticed a shelf in the corner filled with books.
“By the way, are these fantasy novels?”
?The Bard Who Regressed and Started as a Dealer? ?The Retired SSS-Class Hunter’s Regressed Life? ?Returned with Legendary Physical Strength?
There were numerous titles.
Jang Man-soo, who had come over, showed a proud expression.
“These are my collection! The situations we’re in are often found in these novels. Well, usually, it’s only one of us or you and me going back to the past… But here we are together.”
“I guess that’s something to be thankful for.”
Shin-woo said that and went out to retrieve the items stored in his car.