Urban Vagabond: Reload

I didn’t take off my goggles until I’d checked every member of the Three Evils Society’s pressure points and knocked them out.

Then I handed Han Jaechun the money I’d beaten out of them.

“See if the amount’s right.”

Han Jaechun didn’t even count the cash. He didn’t need to.

“This is... more than double what I was supposed to get....”

To begin with, the amount I’d demanded from the Three Evils Society was several times the original pay.

A thick bundle of fifty-thousand-won bills sat in Han Jaechun’s hands.

It was the kind of money he’d never once touched in his entire life as a drifter.

At his flustered reaction, I shrugged like it was nothing.

“You were out that money for a while. Of course you calculate interest.”

“...Were you thinking ahead so I wouldn’t get retaliated against later?”

If I’d demanded the exact amount Han Jaechun was owed, the other side might’ve caught a whiff that something was off.

But if you ripped off a much larger amount from them, there was almost no chance they’d connect today’s incident to Han Jaechun.

‘They’ll just think they got unlucky and got cleaned out by some deranged unorthodox master.’

From the start, I guided things so they’d think exactly that.

“Doing it clean so there’s no blowback—that’s what a pro does.”

“Hah....”

Han Jaechun had thought I was just violent, but my planning was far more thorough than he’d expected. He stared with his mouth half open.

“Are you really younger than me? You’re not some master who reversed aging or something, are you?”

“I told you from the beginning. This is my field. You came to the right place.”

“Why would an orthodox young rising star have any reason to go collecting stolen money, anyway?”

Only now was Han Jaechun starting to understand me a little more.

A pinnacle expert he couldn’t even compare himself to, and a young rising star carrying the hopes of Korean martial arts.

An orthodox martial artist with a future laid out like a highway.

He still didn’t know why I looked like a veteran who’d been rolling in this line of work for ten years, but—

“Me too, sometimes. Even right now, I’ve got about ten billion won in debts I need to collect.”

“Whoever that is, I feel bad for them.”

Thinking I was joking, Han Jaechun let out a quick snort-laugh and tucked the bundle into his jacket.

Then, like something occurred to him, he said,

“Oh—about the fee for the request...”

Han Jaechun was willing to pay even if I demanded half of what he’d just gotten.

But instead of money, I asked for something else.

“You know how to drive, right?”

“Huh? Yeah, I can drive, but....”

“I don’t have a license yet. Oh—and help me load some stuff, too.”

“...Wait. Don’t tell me.”

A little later.

The two of us headed to the basement storage where the Three Evils Society had hidden the contraband.

Inside, boxes piled high—packed full of red galangal brought in from Southeast Asia.

I glanced around the warehouse and muttered, impressed.

“These bastards. They hid a lot.”

After beating up the Three Evils Society, I’d grabbed the pickup truck keys, and Han Jaechun and I started loading boxes into the truck.

With two martial artists going back and forth a few times, the basement storage was empty in no time.

‘Contraband... I’ll just deliver it to Hwang Suksu and he’ll dispose of it.’

I had no hesitation about keeping the red galangal we’d taken from the Three Evils Society.

The amount they’d brought in was only a fraction of the whole, and it wasn’t some dangerous drug that destroyed mind and body.

Han Jaechun, now in the driver’s seat, looked like he was enjoying watching the Three Evils Society get screwed. He even cracked a joke.

“So is this... a righteous act too?”

In the passenger seat, I lazily reclined and answered.

“It’s making bad guys go completely broke. If that isn’t justice being carried out, what is?”

“What did you just say? Hahahaha—!”

Han Jaechun burst into loud laughter and started the truck.

He drove really well. He didn’t take razor-thin corners for fun like Kim Bokja, and he didn’t stomp the accelerator like I did.

Maybe he felt more comfortable with me now, because he smiled and asked,

“Where should I take you?”

“First, Seoul.”

While we drove to Seoul on the highway, I called Hwang Suksu.

The moment he picked up, he spoke in a guarded voice.

[What is it? If you’re calling at this hour, either something blew up, or...]

“Either that, or I found a nice score. I’ve got some stolen goods—can you handle it?”

[It’s not something that’ll ruin you if you touch it, right?]

When I told him how I got it and what it was, Hwang Suksu answered in a satisfied tone.

[No problem. I’ll send you an address—leave it in front of that place. I’ll take care of it and call you again.]

“Okay. And do me a favor—take care of the truck too.”

Listening to the call, Han Jaechun shook his head in disbelief at how smooth it all was.

After we left the truck in front of the address Hwang Suksu sent—

Han Jaechun got out and bowed deeply to me.

“Thank you. Truly.”

Han Jaechun got back his stolen pay several times over.

And I didn’t just complete the Blue Wolves Office’s first request perfectly—I pocketed a nice side profit too.

Clean, warm closure.

It was time for the two of us to part ways.

“I don’t know if I’ll be any help, but... here’s my card. If you ever need a driver, give me a call.”

It was the most he could do and say to show gratitude.

I took it, hesitated for a moment, then said one thing.

“...When you make a decent amount, quit being a drifter. No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t suit you.”

The Han Jaechun I saw wasn’t someone who could survive long as a drifter.

His martial skill and his limp were issues, but more than anything—

He didn’t have enough venom.

He’d come back with money without even putting a knife into the man who betrayed him.

‘With that sucker personality, you won’t last a few years. You’ll wreck your body and retire, or die out on the road.’

I didn’t say it that bluntly, but even “it doesn’t suit you” could be unpleasant enough.

Yet Han Jaechun didn’t get offended. He gave a faint smile.

“I’ll earn a little more and think about it. Then... I’ll be going.”

“......”

I watched him limp away into the darkness for a moment, then turned.

‘When I get back, I should talk to the Martial Alliance about the smuggling situation.’

If I really wanted to, I could’ve swallowed far more contraband by myself.

But I’d only taken the side profit sitting right in front of me. I didn’t want anything beyond that.

I was thinking through how to deal with the massive contraband that would come through the port—and the organization behind it—

When a voice called from behind me.

“...Uh, if it’s okay.”

I turned slowly.

Han Jaechun stood there with an awkward expression.

There was something desperate in his eyes.

“As thanks... could I buy you a drink?”

After regressing, I tried not to touch alcohol whenever possible.

But right now, without realizing it, I was smacking my lips.

“Sure. I was just thinking I wanted some soju.”

It wasn’t only because his eyes were so earnest.

Back when I worked as a drifter—

After a job, I always shared drinks with my companions.

I suddenly missed that.

*****

After a few drinks, Han Jaechun became a chatterbox to an almost unbelievable degree.

“Me, when I was a kid—I was good at studying. I never went to a cram school even once, but in middle school I was third in my class. Single mom, dirt-poor house... but when I studied like my life depended on it, my grades kept climbing.”

His face flushed red with alcohol, he talked about this and that.

How he studied hard through high school and ended up with top-tier grades.

How he’d wanted to become a lawyer who defended people who’d been wronged.

And how his life twisted until he became a low-level drifter.

“...Then I made one mistake. There was this bastard who bullied me my whole school life. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I swung my fist. But when he fell, his spine fractured... heh, heh, heh. That’s when my life started going to shit.”

I’d heard countless drifters’ stories at drinking tables.

So instead of clumsy comfort or sympathy, I fired back with a joke.

“When I saw you swing at me, I could tell your fist is nasty.”

“Pff—heh....... Anyway, because of that I couldn’t even go to college, and then my mom died from illness. But I still had to live.”

Han Jaechun had done every part-time job you could think of, and eventually, he ended up getting involved with the martial underworld.

But he hadn’t learned even a single proper piece of martial arts.

Relying only on a tough body and sloppy fighting skill wasn’t enough to survive in that world.

“Then, while I was working, a drifter older brother told me. He said if I got an artificial lower abdomen installed and could just use internal energy, people would treat me like a real martial artist.”

“That bastard was a broker, wasn’t he?”

Han Jaechun laughed—kik, kik, kik—and slapped the leg that now limped.

“And this is the result. I became a cripple, but hey, at least I got a drop of internal energy. I’m lucky, right. Thanks to that, I barely survived a few times when I should’ve died.”

After dumping his story out, Han Jaechun looked a little more relieved.

But that unknown desperation in his eyes was still there.

At some point, I felt like I understood what it meant.

The desperation of someone who wanted to change their life.

I stared at Han Jaechun’s face for a moment, then asked,

“Han Jaechun. You’ve got something you want to say to me, don’t you?”

Like I’d hit the nail on the head, Han Jaechun flinched and avoided my gaze as he drained his glass.

When I refilled it, he stared at the soju and muttered.

“I don’t know. Maybe I just wanted to vent. I didn’t ask you to drink because I wanted something, shamelessly. It’s just... you’re way younger than me, but....”

“Come on. How many years apart can we even be.”

It was just the roughly tied ponytail and the dark stubble that made him look older—Han Jaechun was only mid-twenties too.

He lifted his head and looked at me with a face full of envy.

“Still, you’re nothing like me. You’re that strong, and you use that strength to do something like justice... it’s incredible. I’ve lived as a coward who only cares about money.”

“It’s not that incredible. For me right now, it’s easy.”

“...What?”

To Han Jaechun, asking with a blank face, I said it like it truly wasn’t anything.

“My martial arts are strong and I’ve got money. So I don’t have a reason to be a coward, and I’ve got enough leeway to help other people. Like a rich man’s charity work, you could say.”

It wasn’t humility, and it wasn’t arrogance.

That was genuinely what I thought, so I kept going in a calm voice.

“On the other hand, if you’re weak and poor, you have to risk your life even for that ‘easy’ thing. So don’t go copying me.”

“...Don’t copy you?”

Han Jaechun looked oddly irritated, and I nodded with a serious face.

I gave a cold warning to a drifter who seemed like he’d been influenced by me.

“Don’t go chasing justice half-assed. Even if you see wrongdoing, swallow it. If something looks dangerous, don’t even look at it. If you don’t want to repeat the mistake that made your life go to shit.”

That was how a bottom-tier drifter survived a long time in the underworld.

Han Jaechun knew it too.

But he couldn’t help being angry. His face twisted as he said it.

“So someone like me... has to live like that forever?”

“Then get stronger.”

“Easy for you to say! You think I wanted to end up like this?!”

Drunk and heated, Han Jaechun slipped into casual speech without realizing it.

I smiled coldly and emptied my shot glass.

“You ever actually try to get stronger?”

“I went looking for martial arts with money in my hand more times than I can count! But they were all scammers. Trying to sell me medicine and—”

“Then if I give you a real chance, you’ve got the will to take it?”

“Of course—...Huh?”

Realizing my question was strange, Han Jaechun made a stupid face.

The me who’d been staring at him cold a moment ago was grinning now.

“What? You don’t have confidence now that it’s here?”

“N-No! It’s not that... I mean... really...?”

“Han-hyung. Let’s just talk casually to each other. That’s more comfortable for me too.”

I couldn’t turn a third-rate fighter into a master.

But if we were talking specifically about being a “drifter,” I was confident I could make him a lot more useful than he was now.

‘If he wants to change his life, I should at least give him a chance.’

Just the experience and know-how I had could fill a whole book.

“Starting tomorrow, come to our office. I’ll teach you a few things for fun.”

“Huh? Uh...? Uhh—uhhh?”

Han Jaechun blinked like an idiot, making nonsense sounds like he couldn’t believe the opportunity that had just landed in his lap.