CH61 | MCT

Preparing to Hunt Cheongil (3)

Tae-soo had already predicted how Rahman would act after their meeting.

‘If it’s Rahman, he’s already making preparations by now.’

His father was none other than the Saudi Minister of Defense.

‘Rahman was convinced war was coming. That’s why he rushed out of the cabin in a panic. That’s why he scrawled his signature on the contract without hesitation.’

Tae-soo had deliberately put the contract in front of him.

He wanted to see Rahman’s true intentions.

Words could be deceptive, but actions revealed the truth.

‘People lie. They control their expressions. But signing a contract? That’s another matter entirely.’

When people sign a contract, they instinctively hesitate—calculating risks and benefits one last time.

But Rahman?

He signed it in the middle of chaos without a second thought.

That meant his mind was already made up.

‘By now, Rahman has surely spoken to his father about the war. If so, the Ministry of Defense must be conducting a secret investigation. There’s no way they won’t uncover evidence of arms smuggling.’

Tae-soo’s words made Jang Mal-dong swallow hard.

"I didn’t expect you to know that much… But yes, we’ve been supplying arms to Egypt and Syria."

"That’s why I’m saying—"

Tae-soo grinned.

"How about I connect you with the Saudi royal family?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you planning to do business with only one side?"

Of course not.

Jang Mal-dong had no ties to the Saudi royal family.

And for an arms dealer, making a clumsy approach could be a death sentence.

"And how exactly do you plan to introduce me? You haven’t even been in the Middle East that long."

"I’ll introduce you to the Saudi Minister of Defense. Or his son. How about that?"

How about it?

This was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.

Yet, Jang Mal-dong remained silent, deep in thought.

Tae-soo glanced to the side.

The man in the hanbok was also lost in contemplation.

‘For Jang Mal-dong, this is a life-or-death gamble. That’s what arms dealing is.’

Tae-soo waited patiently.

After a long moment, the man in the hanbok gave a small nod.

Jang Mal-dong, too, finally emerged from his deep deliberation.

"Alright. If we can establish a connection with the Saudi royal family, there’s no greater opportunity than this."

Then, with a subtle smile, Jang Mal-dong turned to Tae-soo.

"Now I see why you returned home in such a hurry. Truly impressive. And I assume… this information is a gesture of goodwill?"

Jang Mal-dong’s words were essentially asking how much the information fee would be.

In other words—was it free or not?

"If I expected payment, I’d be waving an IOU in your face."

"Enough with that damn IOU! Don’t even bring it up!"

Jang Mal-dong shuddered at the mere mention of it.

The thought of that day—the day a loan shark like him actually signed an IOU—was enough to drive him mad.

"Just thinking about it makes me bolt upright in bed. The most humiliating moment of my life!"

"Come on, don’t make such a big deal out of it. You must’ve lived a pretty smooth life."

"You little lunatic!"

Jang Mal-dong trembled with rage.

But seeing this reaction so often, Tae-soo was starting to find it amusing.

"I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but I haven’t. We’re allies, aren’t we?"

"So you’re giving me this information for free?"

"You don’t charge fellow passengers in a shared taxi."

After all, it’s the taxi driver who collects the fare, not the passengers riding together.

"Since we’re headed in the same direction, let’s go together. We’re allies—shouldn’t we help each other grow and succeed?"

An alliance was like a three-legged race.

Both partners had to move in sync toward the finish line, or neither would cross it.

"Stock up on supplies in advance. The Saudi Ministry of Defense is going to keep increasing its weapons budget."

"So this isn’t just a one-time deal?"

"Of course not."

In reality, the Saudi government had been expanding its arms purchases every year.

After the Middle East war, they had pushed out Western capital and monopolized their oil industry.

With wealth came power, and soon Saudi Arabia would become the third-largest military spender in the world—right behind the U.S. and China.

"Alright, I’ll trust you and go all in. Saudi Arabia—now that’s a customer worth listening to."

"You won’t be making a loss."

Once war broke out in the Middle East, weapons would fly off the shelves.

There wouldn’t be enough supply to meet demand.

A foolproof business.

"So, is that everything? You’ve come all this way, and there’s still time left… Maybe you’d like to meet my young lady—"

Tae-soo cut Jang Mal-dong off without hesitation.

"I have another matter to discuss."

"…And wouldn’t it be nice to talk it over with my young lady, maybe over tea?"

"I don’t think a conversation about Choi Mu-ryong is suitable for your young lady’s ears."

"Choi Mu-ryong?"

Jang Mal-dong’s expression changed in an instant.

His eyes were as sharp as a venomous snake ready to strike.

It felt like he had reverted to the man Tae-soo first met.

"Why the hell are you bringing up that cursed name here?"

"Let’s take down Choi Mu-ryong together."

"What?"

Jang Mal-dong was so shocked that he slammed his folding fan onto the table.

"Take down Choi Mu-ryong? How?"

"By swallowing up the bank he built."

Choi Mu-ryong had survived the 8.3 Private Loan Freeze.

When the crackdown on underground financing made loan sharking impossible, he quickly slithered into the legal financial sector.

That was how Chomyung Bank was born.

It was the same move Jang Mal-dong had made when he founded Jangsu Bank.

"We need to strike while Chomyung Bank is still vulnerable. Once it’s fully established, pulling it down will be nearly impossible."

Chomyung Bank was funding Cheongil Group—

Han Cheong-ho’s secret ally and an endless fountain of money.

If Tae-soo wanted to take down Cheongil Refinery, he had to start by shaking the very foundation—Chomyung Bank.

Jang Mal-dong scoffed.

"You think I don’t know that? Choi Mu-ryong is one of the most paranoid bastards I’ve ever seen. Do you have any idea how he survived the loan freeze?"

"How did he manage it?"

"With a ledgers of secrets."

Ledgers?

Was he talking about bribery records?

"That bastard never trusted IOUs when lending money. The only thing he trusted was holding something over his clients—something that could choke the life out of them. So when private loans became worthless, he used those ledgers to twist arms and recover his money."

Now it made sense.

In his past life, Jang Mal-dong had been swept away by the 8.3 Private Loan Freeze and was completely ruined.

But Choi Mu-ryong had survived unscathed and even established Chomyung Bank.

It wasn’t because he had connections with Park Jung-hwan—he had blackmail material on the powerful.

"You think someone like that will just back down? He’ll stay low, scraping together scraps, growing his bank little by little, until he’s strong enough to stand tall."

Jang Mal-dong was right.

Chomyung Bank had clawed its way up this way—patiently enduring, waiting for the right moment to expand.

And once it became a solid institution, it gave Cheongil Group the financial wings to soar.

So if they wanted to bring him down, they had to do it now—

Before he could grow.

Before he stopped scraping by and started devouring everything.

"That’s exactly why now is our chance. If we don’t act, we may never get another shot."

"The real question is—how do we drag him out? That rat is too damn sly. He feeds off crumbs and never gets caught."

Tae-soo grinned.

"Do you know the easiest way to catch a rat?"

"You need rat poison and a rat trap."

"Exactly. A rat, hypnotized by the trap, walks in on its own, takes a bite of the poisoned bait, and dies."

"But Choi Mu-ryong is an old, seasoned rat. He won’t fall for poisoned bait that easily."

"Not if it’s the same old bait. But what if it’s Western cheese? An exotic delicacy with an irresistible aroma? I’ll prepare it."

"Brilliant!"

Jang Mal-dong smacked his knee in excitement.

"You’ve already got the bait to lure Choi Mu-ryong, haven’t you? And it’s something foreign! What is it?"

"Oil."

The Oil Shock was just around the corner.

"Right now, Western oil companies’ stocks are hitting record highs."

The golden age of Western capitalism was built on buying oil dirt cheap from oil-producing countries.

But soon, war would erupt in the Middle East.

And the oil-producing nations would declare an embargo.

They would kick Western oil companies out and reclaim control of their own resources.

"We’ll scatter cheese all over a sinking ship and drive the rat inside. Once it sets sail, it’ll sink to the bottom of the sea—taking the rat down with it."

"Exactly!"

Jang Mal-dong was so excited he half-rose from his seat.

"What do you need from me? How can I help?"

"Get under Choi Mu-ryong’s skin. Stir him up."

They needed a decoy.

"A rat as suspicious and greedy as Choi Mu-ryong won’t board the ship on his own. He needs a cat chasing him from behind."

There was one major change from Tae-soo’s past life.

Jang Mal-dong was supposed to have gone bankrupt after the private loan freeze—but Tae-soo had saved him.

Now, Jang Mal-dong had more capital, more businesses, and more information than Choi Mu-ryong.

Choi Mu-ryong harbored inferiority and rivalry toward Jang Mal-dong.

"First, we spread false rumors—about Western oil companies."

"Rumors?"

"That their stock prices are about to soar, that their sales are skyrocketing, that they’ve signed major contracts, that mergers and acquisitions are imminent."

"Pfft! Who’d fall for such obvious lies?"

"Stock prices react to rumors. That’s why I’d like to introduce someone."

Tae-soo called out loudly toward the door.

"Han-soo, come in."

Clack. Thud.

"It’s been a while, sir."

"Aren’t you that problem-solver from Yeongdeungpo?"

Tae-soo gestured for his younger brother to take a seat beside him.

"From now on, he’ll be acting as the president of an American investment firm—Shadow Investment."

"Pleased to meet you. I’m Kang Han-soo."

"With your help, sir, we’ll be pressuring Choi Mu-ryong from both inside and out. We’ll be flooding the market with rumors."

Tae-soo smirked.

"This guy used to be an expert at gathering market gossip. But this time, we’re flipping the script."

Han-soo had once been a shoeshine boy in the marketplace.

He’d moved with a network of informants, collecting whispers and working as a fixer.

Over time, he’d built a vast web of connections.

And now, he would use every trick in the book to seed those rumors—starting from the streets.

"Sir, let’s make use of your information brokers."

Jang Mal-dong’s eyes glinted with amusement.

"Are you asking my men—whose credibility is their lifeblood—to tarnish their own reputations?"

"No, who said anything about ruining reputations?"

"Then?"

"I told you, we're flipping the script. We'll handle spreading the rumors—you just need to fan the flames."

Information brokers weren’t meant to be instigators.

They were more like filters, sifting out baseless rumors from credible information.

But now, they were being asked to stir things up instead.

"How? How do we fan the flames without compromising our credibility? When we know it’s all nonsense?"

"Simple. Just tell your clients the truth."

• This information hasn't been verified yet.

• But lately, an unusual number of people have been asking about it.

Tae-soo shrugged.

"Unverified information? That’s true. An increase in interest? Also true."

Jang Mal-dong burst into laughter.

"So you're saying we should present facts—but in a way that makes them seem suspicious? Inflate the buzz without outright lying? And direct it subtly toward Choi Mu-ryong?"

"The key is planting doubt."

Doubt was a dangerous thing.

Once it took root in someone’s mind, it grew wildly—feeding on every passing piece of information.

"Choi Mu-ryong is especially prone to suspicion."

He was the perfect breeding ground for paranoia.

A man like him lived in doubt, constantly questioning everything.

And in trying to prove himself smarter than the rest, he’d dig deeper, gathering more data—only to end up sinking further into his own trap of uncertainty.

"When Choi Mu-ryong is drowning in doubt, that’s when you, sir, step in with the final push."

"And what exactly should I do?"

"Show him a lifeline—one he won’t be able to resist."