How a Salaryman Became an Underworld Boss

Carlos was genuinely shocked.

While interrogating Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui, Vice Chairman Wei Chen had hinted that he might spare his life. Having figured out what Wei Chen was after, Chen Zhihui had answered every question with complete honesty and sincerity. Yet contrary to expectations, Wei Chen had mercilessly shot him dead.

Still, Carlos had absolutely no desire to ask why he had done it. After all, his own life was hanging by a thread as well.

While he was lost in thought, the conversation between Wei Chen and Director Santiago continued.

“Chen was already finished. Was it really necessary to kill him?”

Vice Chairman Wei Chen stared intently at Chen Zhihui’s body lying motionless on the floor and answered Director Santiago’s question.

“That bastard is more treacherous than a venomous snake. The moment I loosen my grip even slightly, he’ll sink his fangs straight into my throat. I had no choice if I wanted to eliminate future trouble.”

“If you put it that way, I have nothing more to say.”

“You’re not going to make an issue out of the fact that I shot him on my own judgment, are you?”

“How could I?”

“Ha ha ha. Thank you for understanding.”

Wei Chen gave a faint smile and nodded. At his signal, the Triad members lifted Chen Zhihui’s corpse and carried it outside.

“Then I suppose I’ll head back to the observation room.”

Looking noticeably more relaxed, Wei Chen pushed open the interrogation room door and left.

Director Santiago glanced after him, then turned to Carlos.

“Well then, shall we begin your interrogation?”

“Skip the interrogation and just kill me cleanly.”

Director Santiago could see right through Carlos.

This criminal had committed countless terrorist attacks under the pretext of fighting for Mindanao’s independence from the Philippines. Hundreds of people had been killed or maimed because of the attacks he organized.

Knowing that, Carlos understood perfectly well that he had no chance of surviving, so he asked to be killed outright. Santiago himself had no desire whatsoever to leave him alive, but there was far too much valuable information that needed to be extracted from him first.

“And why would I do that?”

“...I’m not sure I understand what you mean, Director Santiago.”

“I’m saying that if you honestly answer the questions Minister Fernando and I ask you, we may let you live.”

“Can I trust your word, Director?”

“Have you spent your entire life letting people fool you?”

“Understood. Ask whatever you want to know.”

“We intend to thoroughly verify every statement you make.”

In other words, if he lied, he would not leave this place alive.

“I’ll answer both of your questions completely truthfully.”

“We’ll see whether your words are worth believing. Now, first question. What is the total value of the assets you’ve hidden?”

Carlos could not tell the whole truth.

If he honestly answered Director Santiago and Defense Minister Fernando’s questions, he might be able to stay alive. And if luck smiled on him and he eventually regained his freedom, the first thing he would have to do was take Abu Sayyaf back from Alberto. Winning his subordinates back to his side would require an enormous amount of money. But if he revealed every last bit of his hidden wealth, any chance of reclaiming Abu Sayyaf would disappear forever. How could he possibly hand over everything he had accumulated with such difficulty?

“Including the gold bars hidden in the hideout, it comes to about six billion dollars.”

Director Santiago found the absurd answer so ridiculous that he barely managed to suppress a sarcastic laugh.

Carlos had hidden five tons of gold bars inside a secret chamber in the hideout. Cha Jiham had said that the gold alone was worth around 4.4 billion dollars. That meant Carlos was claiming the rest of his fortune, excluding the gold, amounted to just 1.6 billion dollars.

Pretending not to notice such an obvious lie would have driven Santiago into such a rage that he might have fallen ill.

“Do you really think I’ll believe that nonsense?”

“I told you the absolute truth.”

“The late Vice Chairman Chen said you spent half of your hidden funds buying gold.”

“I never told him anything like that.”

“He testified that you let it slip when you were dead drunk.”

Bzzzt, bzzzt!

At that moment, Defense Minister Fernando’s phone, which was lying on the table, vibrated. He picked it up, looked at the screen, and saw Cha Jiham’s name.

After showing the display to Director Santiago, the minister answered the call.

“Chief Cha, I’m listening.”

[It seems Carlos doesn’t take you or Director Santiago seriously at all.]

“I think exactly the same thing, Chief Cha. But why would that bastard look down on us?”

[He thinks that as long as he keeps his mouth shut, you’ll never find the assets he’s hidden.]

“I see. Should I put a couple of bullets in him to knock some sense into his head?”

[In the worst-case scenario, he could die from shock.]

“Hmm... You have a point. Then what should we do?”

[I’ll personally interrogate Carlos.]

Defense Minister Fernando tilted his head in confusion. It was only natural. Cha Jiham was an ordinary civilian. How could he possibly handle a hardened man like Carlos, someone who had been through every kind of hell imaginable?

He directly asked what Cha Jiham thought about that.

[There’s no harm in trying, so let me give it a shot.]

“Understood. I’ll be waiting.”

Click.

The moment Defense Minister Fernando ended the call, Director Santiago spoke to him.

“Minister, do you really think Chief Cha can handle that guy?”

“Why don’t we ask Chief Cha himself when he gets here?”

“That’s true... That would be better.”

Some time later.

With a soft click, the interrogation room door opened, and Cha Jiham walked inside.

Carlos, who had been watching him, was greatly surprised by two things. First, the man was not Filipino. Second, he looked far too young.

‘Who the hell is this guy?’

While Carlos was still confused, Cha Jiham sat down in the empty chair. Director Santiago immediately addressed him.

“Chief Cha, can you really interrogate this guy?”

The herbal tranquilizer made by the monk Popchin had the ability to suppress another person’s will. In practice, Jiham had already used it to subdue the wills of all kinds of people.

But if he told them the truth, Director Santiago might decide that the first thing he wanted to do was crack open Jiham’s skull and study his brain.

So Jiham gave the answer he had prepared in advance.

“I’m very good at reading people psychologically. I’ve interrogated many people before, and I’ve always succeeded in getting the answers I wanted. Of course, there’s no such thing as an absolute guarantee.”

“I understand what you mean, but this guy is no fool.”

“I’ll answer with a well-known saying: ‘Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.’”

If Cha Jiham was showing this much confidence, what was the point of continuing to doubt him?

“All right, then. We’ll step back, so interrogate him.”

“Thank you for your permission.”

After answering, Jiham turned his gaze toward Carlos and spoke.

“Aren’t you curious who I am?”

“You already know the answer, so why ask?”

“You’re pretty defiant. I hope you can keep that fire until the very end.”

I smirked at the glare he shot me from beneath his brows and casually said,

“I’m Chief Cha Jiham, an honorary agent of the Republic of Korea’s National Intelligence Service, as well as the CIA and FBI of the United States.”

Carlos decided Cha Jiham was simply lying. Still, his status did not matter, so he chose to ignore the statement.

“I haven’t committed any crimes against Korea or the United States.”

I instantly understood the hidden meaning behind his words. He was implying that I had no right to interrogate him.

“A criminal bastard like you still thinks he has the right to make demands? I spoke to President Gonzalez on the phone not long ago and told him that I would be interrogating you.”

“Chief Cha, is that true?” Director Santiago was the first to speak, not Carlos.

“If you doubt me, you can confirm it with President Gonzalez.”

“Then it must be true. Forgive me for doubting you, Chief Cha.”

“There’s no need to apologize. May I continue interrogating Carlos now?”

“Of course! Take as long as you like.”

Director Santiago stepped back with an apologetic expression.

I turned my gaze back to Carlos and resumed the interrogation.

“Do you have any objections to me interrogating you now?”

“Fine, whatever.”

“I’ll ask again. What is the total value of the assets you’ve hidden?”

“I already told you everything.”

Bang!

I deliberately slammed my fist hard against the table and fixed Carlos with an intense stare.

The moment his eyes met mine, his entire body suddenly began trembling like a leaf.

The will-suppressing effect of the herbal tranquilizer worked exactly as intended.

Watching this, Defense Minister Fernando spoke to me.

“Chief Cha, why is that guy trembling so badly?”

I had no reason to tell him the truth, nor did I feel any need to.

“That’s pretty normal for rotten criminals. He’s just trembling like a terrified stray dog, that’s all.”

Defense Minister Fernando did not believe Cha Jiham’s answer.

Carlos had nerves so steely that he could send hundreds of people to their deaths without batting an eye. How could anyone believe that a man like that had suddenly become terrified out of his mind?

There was undoubtedly some other secret behind it, but the minister did not press the matter. What did it matter whether a cat was black or white, as long as it caught mice?

“Ah, I see.”

The moment Defense Minister Fernando nodded, Carlos spoke in a trembling voice.

“I... I’ll tell you the truth. My fortune, including the gold bars, is worth around ten billion dollars.”

Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui had said that Carlos had spent half of his illegal funds buying gold. Considering that gold prices had continued to rise, he must have bought those bars for roughly three billion dollars.

That meant his hidden fortune should have amounted to around six to six and a half billion dollars.

Yet contrary to my expectations, he gave a figure of ten billion.

As I thought about why, the answer suddenly occurred to me.

“When did you buy the gold bars hidden in the cave?”

“About five years ago.”

In other words, over the past five years, Carlos had managed to increase his fortune to ten billion dollars.

“I see. Where is all that wealth hidden?”

“About four billion dollars is hidden in tax havens, including Switzerland.”

“And the rest?”

“I own real estate in the Philippines, the United States, and other countries.”

“What about the two hundred and fifty million dollars in cash found in the cave? Whose money is that?”

“One hundred million is mine. The rest belongs to Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui.”

Director Santiago had assumed that the entire two hundred and fifty million dollars belonged to Carlos and had planned to seize all of it for the national treasury.

But it turned out that one hundred and fifty million belonged to Chen Zhihui.

If Vice Chairman Wei Chen learned about that, there was a very high chance he would claim the money as his own.

While Santiago considered how to deal with any potential demand from Wei Chen, the conversation between Cha Jiham and Carlos continued.

“You saved a list of the assets and money hidden offshore on your laptop, didn’t you?”

“...Yes.”

“Tell me the password for the laptop.”

“ZKFM...... That’s the password.”

The moment Carlos said it, Director Santiago flung open the interrogation room door and rushed outside. He had probably gone to check whether the password Carlos had provided was correct.

I decided to wait until Director Santiago finished verifying it and fell silent.

After a while, Carlos addressed Defense Minister Fernando.

“Excuse me... I have a question for the minister. Did the government forces really bomb our main base?”

“What kind of nonsense is that all of a sudden?”

Carlos had been convinced Alberto had betrayed him.

He believed Alberto had deliberately given the government forces a false location for the Abu Sayyaf base in order to deceive him, and that the military, believing the information, had bombed a completely different area.

But judging from Defense Minister Fernando’s words, that was not what had happened at all.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but we absolutely did bomb your Abu Sayyaf base.”

“But the government forces didn’t know where our base was located.”

The coordinates of the Abu Sayyaf base had been obtained from the CIA and FBI.

Defense Minister Fernando could not reveal the truth, so he gave a different explanation.

“The Triad members were tracking Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui’s every move.”

A savage rage began boiling deep inside Carlos’s chest.

If not for Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui, he would never have been captured alive by the government forces!

But the culprit was already dead, and no matter how much Carlos regretted it now, there was nothing he could do.

“Haaah...”

Carlos merely let out a long, desolate sigh and stared blankly into space with glazed eyes.