Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 99

Music Monster Overnight! Episode 90

Seeing Lee Jin-cheol’s interest, Mr. Shim looked troubled.

“Uh… you’re not thinking of trying this, are you?”

“Huh? No, well…”

At Mr. Shim’s words, Lee Jin-cheol uncharacteristically stammered. Seeing this, Mr. Shim shook his head emphatically.

“Oh, no way. Absolutely not. This is so addictive. I was lucky enough to stop at a reasonable point, but usually, it ruins lives. You know, gambling addicts are as bad as drug addicts.”

“Ah! I know. Come on. When did I say I would do it? I’m just surprised that my brother made money from it.”

“Phew. That’s a relief.”

Mr. Shim seemed to believe him and didn’t mention it again.

After that, they exchanged drinks and talked about their common interest, baseball, as usual.

However, unlike usual, Lee Jin-cheol didn’t show much excitement. He usually would have actively cursed at those baseball players, but now he only offered minimal responses.

He couldn’t help it.

Unlike usual, there were several things that caught his eye.

Following the Rolex watch, which was worth at least a small car, were the shoes and clothes that he could recognize at a glance, even though he didn’t know much about fashion.

He realized that Mr. Shim was wearing things worth at least a mid-sized car.

Naturally, Lee Jin-cheol couldn’t help but feel greedy.

‘Even this dimwit is making so much, if I did it…’

A police officer full of justice wouldn’t have thought that way, but he was a cop who was corrupt to the core.

The reason he was still working in the field, even though he was over 50, was because it was more lucrative.

Because of this, the attitude of the police officers who knew him was one of two things.

Either they hated him, or they envied him.

He had an uncanny sense for money, so even among corrupt police officers, they were amazed at how he stuffed it all in his own mouth.

In any case, Mr. Shim’s story didn’t easily leave his head.

It was the same when he came home and lay in bed.

‘Retirement isn’t that far off…’

He would get a considerable government pension, but it wouldn’t be enough to cover his already inflated spending.

That’s why he had been trying to accumulate money more desperately recently, wasn’t it?

Of course, no matter how hard he tried, he could only save a pittance compared to the good old days of the 90s.

So, when he heard this story, he couldn’t help but be interested.

Mr. Shim talked about the dangers of gambling, but he had long since dismissed such stories.

‘If the dimwitted Mr. Shim is fine, there’s no way a veteran cop like me would get swept up in that.’

The more he thought about it, the more the luxury goods Mr. Shim wore kept flashing before his eyes.

“When are you going to Jeongseon? Don’t tell me…”

When Lee Jin-cheol asked when he was going to the casino, Mr. Shim looked somewhat intimidated. His appearance revealed even more of his dimwittedness, and Lee Jin-cheol spoke with even more conviction.

“No, I just got a support request from that area. I was thinking of going to check out the casino as well, just in case.”

“Ah! I thought… I’m going the morning after tomorrow. There’s an event that day.”

“Really? Then let’s meet that day and go together.”

“Hahaha. Okay. It’s reassuring. Going to the casino with a detective.”

Lee Jin-cheol laughed inwardly at Mr. Shim, who didn’t seem to realize he was interested in baccarat [a card game played at casinos].

Two days later.

They met as promised and headed to Jeongseon.

On the way, Mr. Shim talked about the event that day and subtly shared stories of hitting the jackpot while playing baccarat.

The more stories he told, the more impatient Lee Jin-cheol became.

‘That should all be my money…’

He became anxious thinking that other guys were earning the money he should be earning.

As if sensing their eagerness, Mr. Shim sped up, and thanks to that, they were able to arrive earlier than expected.

“Here it is. This is where I usually go.”

At the casino, Mr. Shim showed him around as if he were the owner.

In the process, he taught him how to exchange chips.

“You can give cash to the dealer at the table like this and get casino chips.”

After that, he confidently started playing baccarat.

“Ah, damn it! My luck isn’t so good today.”

However, unlike his confident appearance, Mr. Shim only lost at first. Lee Jin-cheol watched him silently from behind, smirking, but at one point, he was shocked.

Because Mr. Shim suddenly started winning money.

“Okay, my luck is back. Hehehe.”

Then, he won more than twice the amount of money he had lost on the spot. Seeing him win 30 million won on the spot, Lee Jin-cheol was dumbfounded, but Mr. Shim was indifferent.

His nonchalant demeanor was so impressive that Lee Jin-cheol asked him how he could do that, and Mr. Shim said with his usual dimwitted face.

“I was going to throw it away as a jinx before the big game. Well~”

“This isn’t a big game?”

“It’s not a small game, but today’s event is a game where hundreds of millions of won are at stake.”

“I… I see. But what was that about luck just now?”

“Ah, it’s nothing special…”

According to Mr. Shim, luck has a certain cycle. Since baccarat is a game that is particularly affected by luck, it is important to look at this luck cycle.

“You lose little when it’s bad and earn big when good luck comes in.”

“Is it okay to tell me that?”

Lee Jin-cheol asked cautiously, as if he had learned a special secret, and Mr. Shim shrugged his shoulders.

“I wouldn’t tell anyone else, but aren’t you my brother? Besides, you’re not going to do this kind of thing…”

“Uh… right.”

Lee Jin-cheol, who was showing impatience at Mr. Shim’s last words, didn’t reveal his thoughts rashly.

Instead, he just felt sorry that it seemed like his money was going out as Mr. Shim continued to win money with baccarat.

Fortunately, Mr. Shim had to pack up and leave soon.

As he said, he had to go to the event venue now.

“I’ll be going now. The buffet here is delicious, Detective. This isn’t much, but go and buy something to eat.”

He handed him chips worth nearly 1 million won.

It was a lot of money, but Lee Jin-cheol, who received the money, didn’t really appreciate it. No, rather, he was just annoyed at Mr. Shim’s attitude of only giving him that much when he had earned so much money.

As soon as Mr. Shim disappeared from his sight, Lee Jin-cheol immediately sat down at the table where Mr. Shim had been sitting just a moment ago, as if there was nothing more to see.

It was long after lunch that Mr. Shim and Lee Jin-cheol met again.

“Why don’t you look so bright? Did things not go well?”

“Oh, don’t even mention it, Detective.”

Mr. Shim said that he had really been cleaned out. He couldn’t hide his resentment, saying that he had lost most of the money he had brought.

“I don’t know why it’s like this all of a sudden. The cards just don’t come in as well as they should. No, usually, the cycle would have turned at least twice more by now.”

“Ahem. Really?”

Mr. Shim said so, using his strange theory of a luck cycle that he had created, and Lee Jin-cheol’s face, who was clearing his throat, was bizarre.

‘Hehehe. There was a reason why his luck was so good.’

Lee Jin-cheol cheered all the way in the car.

‘Baccarat, baccarat is my real God!’

‘The world has changed! I’m going to write my resignation letter today!’

It was natural that he was so happy.

Today, he had earned 20 million won with the 1 million won chips that Mr. Shim had given him.

He had been insanely lucky to the point that he himself was doubtful, but he thought that Mr. Shim’s luck must have rubbed off on him.

“20 million won…”

If he had increased the amount of his initial investment, wouldn’t he have been able to earn even more?

He couldn’t make more than 8 million won even if he did all sorts of things for a month.

He had earned the money he would have earned after doing dog things for three months in just half a day, so it was no wonder he was so excited.

He decided to dedicate his life to baccarat.

However, since the job of a detective was not one that could easily make time, he couldn’t go to Jeongseon even if he wanted to.

But he had made a considerable amount of money every time he went, so he had no choice but to make a decision.

He decided to retire, and he scraped together his retirement pay and other things and jumped into the casino with all his assets.

It was a crazy thing to do, but it was perfectly normal for him, who had been wanting to come but couldn’t.

“Carpet bombing!”

With the crazy thought of repaying the grudge against earning little by little because the money he bet was small, he threw all his assets into the baccarat game.

And…

As expected, he was the one who got bombed.

That day, he lost all the assets he had gathered by doing all sorts of dog things.

The end of someone who lost all their assets to gambling was obvious.

He urgently borrowed money from everyone he knew.

‘I didn’t consider the luck cycle. I was too impatient and didn’t see the luck cycle!’

If he thought about it, there were several times when he could have won big. Every time, he won little and lost a lot.

Perhaps because of such thoughts, he thought that if he had more money, he would naturally be able to easily recover his lost assets.

But his wish was just a delusion.

In the first place, there was virtually no way he could win in a system where the casino could only win money.

In the end, he was cut off by his past co-workers, family, and even his children, and became one of the vagrants wandering around this casino.

* * *

Youngchan, who received this report at the time, was dumbfounded.

He couldn’t believe that even a veteran police officer, even if he was corrupt, could collapse so easily.

The guy in his memory also frequented casinos, but he didn’t get so addicted that he would make such a stupid choice.

‘Well, doing music was also stimulating…’

No, by the time he really started thinking about it, he had already fallen into drugs.

Even considering that, this was an incomprehensible process.

As if knowing his thoughts, Garmuchi told him the reason.

“According to the guy who worked on him, baccarat is the end-all be-all of gambling. It’s not a game that involves a battle of wits, and even if you lose, you can just blame it on luck, so it’s even more insidious.”

Above all, the more you chase your losses in a fit of anger, the faster the game progresses.

Whether it was made by chance or not, baccarat was a truly devilish game.

Whatever the reason, Youngchan nodded.

With this, a way to avenge himself and restore his father’s honor through him was opened.