Mining And Construction Tycoon [EN]: Chapter 1

Mining Tycoon and Construction Conglomerate – Episode 1

1. Regression: 1972

Kang Tae-soo was dying.

Strictly speaking, he was being murdered.

In the VIP room of Seoul Cheongil Hospital, staffed with the best medical team in Korea.

“Cough!”

Thump, thump.

Tae-soo, in his patient gown, tumbled to the floor along with the unfamiliar hospital equipment.

He writhed in pain.

“That injection…! Ugh!”

“Yes, that injection was the problem. Your muscles will relax, your organs will shut down, and you’ll pass away peacefully.”

“Han Il-kwon!”

He felt dizzy.

The 70-year-old Kang Tae-soo reached out towards the source of his suffering.

And barely managed to grab the cuff of his sleeve.

“Get off, you filthy bastard. How dare you touch me.”

Two guards rushed in to pull Tae-soo’s hand away.

Han Il-kwon, the 70-year-old who looked at Tae-soo as if he were a bug, flicked the cuff of his sleeve.

As if it had been contaminated.

“Tsk, you’ve wrinkled my expensive suit.”

He was Tae-soo’s direct superior, the chairman of Cheongil Group, the number one conglomerate in Korea, and Tae-soo’s in-law.

“Tae-soo, our Cheongil Group is the number one conglomerate in Korea. It’s all thanks to your incredible nose for money.”

“What…! What are you talking about…!”

Tae-soo had a special ability.

The ability to smell money.

Literally, a strange ability to smell business opportunities that would make money.

This was the secret to how Tae-soo was able to grow the Cheongil Group, which had just entered the ranks of the chaebol [a large South Korean business conglomerate that is typically family-owned and controlled], to this extent.

He only pursued ventures that smelled like money, so how could he not be successful?

“Tae-soo, you’ve been hiding it from me until the end. Were we even friends?”

“How did you…”

“I heard it. But who could it have been? Heh heh heh.”

Tae-soo’s eyes shook violently.

‘Who told that bastard my secret?’

Han Il-kwon chuckled.

Then he started kicking Tae-soo with his leather shoes.

“Didn’t you ever think it was strange? Your parents, siblings, wife, son, daughter, and even friends all died young in accidents. That’s not normal, is it? Heh heh heh.”

“Ugh… Ugh… Ugh!”

“Now your tongue is stiff, too? Hahaha!”

Tae-soo clenched his powerless fist.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to get up.

He wanted to land at least one punch on that Han Il-kwon.

“I killed them one by one because I hated you. So you would shed tears of blood.”

Han Il-kwon began to recite in detail how he had killed Tae-soo’s family.

Tae-soo wanted to cover his ears.

“You know the saying, ‘The bear performs the trick, but the man earns the money,’ right?”

Thwack.

“So, you should have just performed your tricks and disappeared. You stubborn bear, you were so clueless that I went crazy!”

Thwack, thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

Cheongil Group, which started with Gyeongseong Rice, founded by the pro-Japanese Han Cheong-ho.

Cheongil Group entered the ranks of the chaebol by colluding with the political world.

However, the successor, Han Il-kwon, was known as a ‘dog son under a tiger father,’ and Han Cheong-ho always distrusted his son.

That’s when Tae-soo caught his eye.

-Tae-soo, you are the talent who can grow Cheongil Group into the number one company in Korea!

-Please remember the grace I have bestowed upon you. Please take good care of my son.

Han Cheong-ho’s insight was known to be remarkable.

He discovered potential in Tae-soo, who was just a scoundrel at the time, fully supported him, and pushed him with all his might.

‘I thought he was my benefactor.’

Han Cheong-ho was the one who released people to help find the body when Tae-soo’s father was dragged away by loan sharks and buried in a mountain.

He paid off the debt his father had left behind and gave his mother a job.

He put his younger sibling in the National Security Agency, saying they had potential, and Tae-soo was hired as his son’s secretary.

‘Not knowing that all of that was Han Cheong-ho’s scheme.’

Like a fool, Tae-soo helped his son, Han Il-kwon, to grow the company this much in order to repay his kindness.

He pushed out all the relatives who were eyeing the throne and firmly seated Han Il-kwon on the throne.

‘Not knowing that my family was dying one by one at the hands of Han Cheong-ho and Han Il-kwon!’

Tears of blood flowed from Tae-soo’s eyes.

Hate flowed from Han Il-kwon’s eyes.

The jealousy and hatred that he sometimes couldn’t hide when he looked at Tae-soo.

Now there was no need to hide it.

“This is my company, my company! The company my father left me! Cheongil Group is mine! Not Kang Tae-soo’s! I, Han Il-kwon, am the chairman!”

Bang!

“Ugh… Ugh!”

“Goodbye, Tae-soo. Thank you for growing the company so well.”

Swish.

Han Il-kwon picked up a thick document that had fallen on the floor.

It was the written by Tae-soo.

Han Il-kwon smiled with satisfaction as he scanned it.

“To give me such a good gift on your last journey, you really are a generous friend. You 병-신 [byeong-shin, a Korean slur meaning ‘retard’ or ‘idiot’]. Heh heh heh.”

Han Il-kwon shook off the secret he had kept for nearly 50 years, turned around with a refreshed expression, and left the hospital room.

‘Han Cheong-ho! Han Il-kwon! Cheongil Group! I will have my revenge! I will destroy you! I can’t die like this!’

Tae-soo writhed in agony, wailing.

His eyes kept closing as the injection spread.

‘Han Il-kwon! I will never forget you, even in death! I will follow you to the ends of hell! I will kill your whole family too!’

That’s how Kang Tae-soo closed his eyes.

The last word he thought of until the moment he closed his eyes was ‘revenge’.

* * *

He saw the panorama of his life that he was said to see before he died.

Tae-soo shed tears of regret as he watched the events of the past 50 years.

‘If I had another chance, I would really live my life properly. I would protect my family.’

Clap.

Someone clapped their hands in front of his eyes.

He suddenly came to his senses.

“Where are you spacing out! Why are you crying like a grown man? Did you receive a shamanic initiation or something!”

A shaman was glaring at him.

“Huh?”

“You’re mesmerized by my divine power! Did you see that? That’s how good I am! Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, I understand.”

A skinny man bowed deeply.

The shaman shook the bell triumphantly.

“Listen carefully. The General God says…”

The shaman shook the bell and pointed this way.

“You must do a business that involves touching dirt. Then you will become a sun-like figure who will resound throughout Korea in the future.”

It was absurd.

But it was something he had already experienced.

‘How did this happen?’

He was dumbfounded.

Then someone poked Tae-soo in the side.

It was the skinny man.

“Did you yawn? Wipe your nose.”

It was a handkerchief.

Tae-soo blankly looked at the side of the man kneeling in front of the shaman, accepting the handkerchief in a daze.

“Hol쭉-ah…”

He was Tae-soo’s best friend and a reliable colleague who was always with him.

The guy who was disguised as a traffic accident and murdered by Han Il-kwon.

Was it 20 years, or 30 years?

He was so happy that he hugged him tightly.

“I never thought I’d see you again in the afterlife. Thank you for coming to see me.”

“Why is this bastard suddenly like this?”

Then the shaman shook the bell wildly and shouted.

“The General God says! You will become a chaebol hunter who catches chaebols!”

Tae-soo smiled at the absurd words.

“A chaebol hunter who catches chaebols. That’s good.”

To put it simply, unbelievably, he had returned to the past.

To 1972, when he was 24 years old.