abcnovels
Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
“Man, is he really OK with this or not? Why did he have to be so vague? Eh, I’m sure he meant it’s OK,” Ho Sung murmured, nodding while lighting a cigarette.
“You know what? Screw it! I’m doing this! What do I have to lose?”
Breathing smoke out of his mouth, Ho Sung’s eyes gleamed with dangerous determination.
“Hold on! Why am I worried about losing it already? All I gotta do is leave him alone when he’s eating, that’s all. Hehe, besides, what’s the worst that could happen? Those goons of mine are doing all the hard work anyway. I just gotta sit back, relax, and let the money roll in. Even better, Min Sung Kang even told me not to bother him! Hehe, this must be my lucky day!”
Smiling with delight, Ho Sung took his phone out to give Min Wook Cho a call.
—
In one week, with Ho Sung’s active involvement, the Diamond Clan grew at an exponential rate. With only two additional clans joining them, it now had over sixty members. Since taking over a clan was as easy as bringing the head into submission, the Diamond Clan had been able to grow in size with ease. However, a sense of apprehension still lingered in Ho Sung’s heart.
‘He hasn’t called in a while,’ he thought. For some reason, Ho Sung couldn’t stop wondering about the champion. ‘What’s this guy up to?’
—
[Thank you for your purchase! Enjoy your 20,000 moon balloons!]
After buying some moon balloons, Min Sung joined Hannah Lee’s server in order to experience the famous Muk-bang BJ. Due to her popularity, the messages in the chat window were popping up at an incredible rate. Because she was dressed in skimpy, provocative clothing, it seemed like her sense of style was contributing to her enormous number of subscribers. However, despite the BJ’s sexy, attractive appearance, Min Sung wasn’t all that drawn to her. What did impress him, however, was her ability to eat large amounts of food while maintaining her shape.
‘Maybe she has a strict workout regimen,’ Min Sung thought. Then, the BJ show started. Her table was filled with all sorts of dumplings of various sizes and fillings: steamed pork buns, fried-dumplings, fish, shrimp, braised short ribs, etc, which added up to a whopping one hundred dumplings. It was an enormous amount of food.
“All right! Let’s get this show started! Here we go!”
With that, the BJ picked up her wooden disposable chopsticks and grabbed a dumpling, dipped it in soy sauce and started eating. Although she wasn’t exactly a fast eater, her pace was consistent and unwavering. By the time she had reached her thirtieth dumpling, Min Sung gifted her two thousand moon balloons.
[2,000 Moon Balloons from HoSungLee!]
A message and an image indicating Min Sung’s contribution appeared in the chat window.
‘Whoa! Two thousand!’
‘Holy smokes!’
‘Is this guy loaded or what!?’
‘2,000 balloons. This guy’s at a-whole-nother level.’
‘Holy crap! How much is that worth?’
‘A moon balloon costs one hundred won, so that adds up to two hundred thousand won. Don’t mind me, I’m just some nerd who loves to explain things to people.’
‘Whoa!’
After Min Sung’s generous contribution, praises came pouring out from the audience. Of course, the BJ was just as ecstatic. Springing up from her seat while still eating, she threw her arms into the air and screamed with joy.
“Oh, my! Who is this generous gentleman!? Thank you! Thank you so much! I love you!” Hannah Lee said, bowing politely and repeatedly. Then, with a piece of dumpling still in her hand, she started dancing to the music in a manner that was both humorous and sexy.
After the brief celebration, she resumed eating her dumplings. At that point, Min Sung chuckled, thinking, ‘It wouldn’t be fun if we stopped there, would it?’
Then, he typed a message on the chat window.
‘HoSungLee: If you eat fifty more, I’ll throw in another 10,000.’
At that, the chat window exploded.
‘Lolol!’
‘Fifty!? LOL, dumpling overload!’
‘Wow, for 10k? I would do it.’
‘This guy sure knows how to make things more exciting.’
‘Fifty dumplings. lolol!’
‘What is this, poker? Lol!’
’10k balloons!? That’s a million won! This guy’s a baller!’
At a loss for words, Hannah Lee stared at the chat window.
“10k for fifty dumplings, huh?” she said with her hand on her forehead. Then, after some contemplation, she nodded and sprung up from her seat, looking determined.
“Let’s do it!” she said with a dumpling in her mouth. Soon, while she was still eating, fifty additional dumplings arrived at the BJ’s house. After that, she started chomping away fiercely at the dumplings to aggressive, battle music. Soon, having eaten one hundred and fifty dumplings, Hannah Lee leaned back in her chair and made a V with her fingers as a sign of victory.
Seeing that, Min Sung let out, “Impressive,” and gifted the ten thousand moon balloons like he had promised.
[10,000 Moon Balloons from HoSungLee!]
‘Whoa! HE REALLY DID IT!’
‘Holy crap... What does he do?!’
‘This guy’s the real deal.’
‘Baller!’
‘LOLOL, I can’t believe she actually ate a hundred and fifty dumplings!’
Rubbing her belly to the camera, the BJ breathed laboriously. At that moment, another message from Min Sung appeared in the chat.
‘HoSungLee: Another 10,000 if you eat four bags of instant noodles.’
Of course...
‘Lololololol’
‘LOL Savage!’
‘Another 10k!? LOL’
‘Hannah, you’ve met your match lol’
‘A hundred and fifty dumplings and four bags of instant noodles... LOL’
‘Don’t do it...’
‘The guy’s gonna get this girl killed! Lololol’
‘He’s training her at this point lol’
‘Are you doing this, Hannah??’
‘Training. I’m dying LOLOL’
Aside from the flood of messages appearing in the chat at an inconceivable rate, the number of viewers also started to skyrocket. At which point, the BJ stared at her monitor with a dumbfounded look on her face.
—
Another week had passed without Ho Sung hearing a word from the champion. At that point, it was safe to assume that the champion had let him off. As the thought occurred to him, Ho Sung convinced himself that it was time to pull his life together. After all, although he could no longer get the champion’s help in dungeons, Ho Sung was now level 200, and he wielded an incredibly powerful weapon, which gave him a major boost in confidence.
—
Four miscellaneous types sat at a table in a dimly-lit room, each representing their branch of the Institute.
“There’s an individual who’s been taking over the underground trading rights. His name is Ho Sung Lee. Level 200,” Soo Hyun Kim, the representative of the Northern Branch said.
“So, he’s working his way up from the bottom, huh?”
“That’s right. We’re considering sending an informant who’s at a similar level as Ho Sung Lee. When the time is right, we’ll bring the Diamond Clan down from the inside,” Soo Hyun said, nodding. At that moment, the representative of the Western Branch tilted their head ambiguously and replied, “If our objective is to take this guy out, wouldn’t it be more efficient to send someone in the 300s?”
“That would make it too obvious. We’d be intercepted by the Central Institute before our plan to take them over even started. Ji Yoo Kim is incredibly quick witted. We have to be discreet.”
“I’m aware that our path to power isn’t an easy one, but is it really necessary to be on the lookout for some street thug?” the representative of the Western Branch said. To which, Soo Hyun, tapping his finger against the tabletop, said, “We must have a strong foundation if we are to become the central power. If we don’t need a reason, then we can strike the Central Institute right this instant. But...” lowering his voice, Soo Hyun added, “... that will just make us look bad to the world. In order to take over the Central Institute, we need a ’cause.’”
The three representatives nodded simultaneously to that in agreement.
“Let’s say we take over the Central Institute. What happens to the regional branches?”
“There are plenty of people out there we can use as puppets. Once we take over the Central Institute, the entire country will be ours.”
“What happens next?” the representative of the Western Branch asked, and a long, slow smile appeared on Soo Hyun’s face.
“Revolution.”
—
After Ho Sung Lee got out of the car and stuck a cigarette in his mouth, Min Wook Cho rushed toward him and lit the cigarette with a Zippo lighter. Taking a deep drag off of it, Ho Sung stuck his hand in his pocket. Getting out of the dozens of cars parked around him, his clansmen turned toward him, bowed at a ninety-degree angle and shouted, “Sir!”
‘Now, this is more like it!’ Ho Sung thought with a big smile on his face as he looked at his clan, which had grown substantially. Being an aura user brought one splendor and enough power to become a figure of ultimate power on the streets. Having acquired about 70 percent of the trading rights within Seoul, Ho Sung was now the head of the Diamond Clan, which had hundreds of members. It was all almost too good to be true. Taking his time smoking his cigarette, Ho Sung looked up at the building in front of him, where he was set to deliver a speech to the members of various clans in the conference hall. Not only did the building shine brightly, but it was also quite big.
‘Who would’ve thought I’d be giving a speech at a place like this?’ Ho Sung thought, smiling, his nostrils flaring.
“Shall we?”
At the boss’ command, Min Wook Cho nodded and signaled the clansmen, who were dressed in black suits, to move. At which point, the clansmen walked simultaneously like a swarm of ants and lined up behind Ho Sung.
‘I’m Ho Sung Lee, Head of the Diamond Clan!’ Ho Sung thought, puffing his chest with confidence. Then, just as he was about to go into the building, a man walked out of it and bumped past Ho Sung, who staggered from the impact. While Min Wook Cho helped him up, Ho Sung chuckled and narrowed his eyes.
“You, there. Stop right there.”
At Ho Sung’s command, the man stopped in his tracks and turned toward the head of the Diamond Clan unhurriedly.
[Lv223 Min Soo Choi: Mercenary]
It wasn’t until then that the text above the man’s head came into Ho Sung’s view.
‘An aura user?’ Ho Sung said to himself. On top of that, the man was at a higher level than him.