The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 77

Double Operation (3)

“…Are you serious?”

Madam spoke, then raised her glass.

The sound of her downing a shot of soju and beer echoed in Sion’s ears.

The air crackled with tension.

With Madame’s one sentence, the welcoming atmosphere instantly reversed.

Sion frowned at the changed mood.

In truth, the hierarchy between the two was clear.

Sion was above, and Madame was below.

Sion was the lord of a faction, and Madame was a minister-level figure under that faction lord.

Such a Madame was expressing dissatisfaction to her lord.

Madam was flaunting her influence.

Madam subtly revealed that she wielded power comparable to other lords.

And above all, Madame was a merchant.

Merchants hate to take losses.

“We lost two of our gambling personnel. To you, of all people. Those two were quite valuable. Gambling is the best entertainment and tourist attraction in our town. But you killed those experts, so how will you compensate me for the loss? This needs to be calculated.”

Madam picked up a biscuit and broke it in half.

Then she crunched it in her mouth.

“I can only take it as an act of provocation. Suddenly, the lord of Manan comes and kills our experts… What would you have done if you were me? Execute them or drag them to the guillotine and kill them, right? If I had done that, I mean.”

Madam was blaming Sion for killing her subordinates in the tavern.

But Sion couldn’t think of any other way.

He simply thought that killing her subordinates would allow him to meet her.

In the end, that thought was correct.

As a result, Madame was wary of Sion, but Sion was not at all.

Just as Madame knew about Sion, Sion also knew information about Madame.

Thud.

Sion placed five packs of cigarettes on the table.

Madam, who had been picking at the biscuit with her fingernails, glanced at the cigarette packs and then smiled.

Sion pushed the cigarettes towards Madame and said.

“I heard that a pack of cigarettes can get someone killed. They’re experts, so two packs each. The remaining pack is a token of apology. And this is a down payment.”

The cost of murder was, at most, a pack of cigarettes.

In this world, a person’s life was worth a pack of cigarettes.

And from the start, Sion intended to give this much to Madame as a courtesy.

The important thing was what came next.

Ziiiiiip-.

Jin Jaehee, who was standing beside him, opened the zipper of a large bag and took out a black envelope.

And she carefully took out cartons of cigarettes from the envelope and stacked them up.

Instantly, Madame’s eyebrows furrowed.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

Ten cartons of cigarettes.

Two thousand cigarettes.

In their calculation method, it was the price of about a hundred lives.

A huge sum of money that could buy an entire small faction.

Moreover, these ten cartons were a down payment.

“……!?”

Squeak-.

Surprised, Madame straightened her back.

It was an enormous amount of money.

Basically, the currency circulating in Mangyeong was lighters, but cigarettes also had value.

This was because most factions used cigarettes as currency.

In other words, to the residents here, a carton of cigarettes was like a huge gold bar.

“Ahahaha… No. What is this…?”

The smile never left Madame’s face.

Such a huge deal.

There had never been one since the League began.

The biggest deal for Madame had been about one carton.

“Hahahaha… Ah, just a moment. Wow-.”

The threatening words from just now had vanished without a trace.

Madam clasped her hands together and wiggled her fingers.

She couldn’t control her emotions at the enormous sum.

Madam was a thorough merchant.

Sion took advantage of that merchant spirit.

He was trying to negotiate with Madame by offering an amount of money that was on a different level from the Lord of Doan.

“Okay. Lord. Good. Great. Perfect. Tell me. What kind of deal do you want with me?”

Now, Madame seemed to have forgotten about the gamblers who had died earlier.

In the end, Sion was able to elicit the story he wanted.

“My proposal is only two things.”

Sion calmly continued to speak about the two conditions.

“Do not pass on any information about the Manan faction to the Lord of Doan. And the other thing is.”

The expression on Madame’s face gradually brightened as she listened to him.

But Madame’s brow furrowed at the second condition.

* * *

After the deal with Madame, Sion and Jaehee returned to Mangyeong.

In Mangyeong, the police station building was like the Emperor’s palace to the residents.

No one could enter the station, and only those who were allowed could enter.

Even those who were allowed could not enter above the 4th floor of the police station, the security was so strict.

From the 4th to the 5th floor.

Both floors were Sion’s personal office.

It was filled with facilities only for Sion.

Shower, bath, restaurant, bookstore, personal space, even a vault.

Each space was created by the heads of departments.

Sion said that he only needed office space, but the heads of departments had different opinions.

The existence of Kang Sion transcended the concept of a simple lord.

The residents thought that Kang Sion was the faction, and that if Sion collapsed, they would collapse.

Kang Sion was the faction, and the faction was Kang Sion.

The support rate concentrated on one lord created his power.

The day Lord Kang Sion collapsed, the residents of Mangyeong would also collapse like a sandcastle in front of a wave.

So the heads of departments had no choice but to put their heart and soul into Sion’s safety.

In fact, the heads of departments were also negative about Kang Sion going outside the faction.

Because it was dangerous.

But Sion was not one to listen to them.

Whenever he came back from Bisan like this, the heads of departments would go crazy.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“You shouldn’t keep wandering around. Even if Jin Jaehee is with you…”

“First, let’s get you checked out. The doctor is waiting.”

Behind Sion, who was walking down the long police station hallway, the heads of departments and deputy heads followed like a tail.

Sion ignored their opinions and headed for the vault.

He knew well what the heads of departments were thinking, but he couldn’t get used to being nagged at every little thing.

Sion arrived at the vault room and took out the key from his inside pocket.

A bunch of keys.

Most of the rooms here could be entered with a key.

And the key was only held by Sion and the heads of departments.

Sion took off his bucket hat and tucked it under his arm, then began to look for the vault room key in the bunch of keys.

Clatter, clatter.

The sound of the keys hitting each other was loud.

“When will you listen to the reports? The managers are waiting.”

The woman who was the head of the Order Department asked carefully.

Sion, who was still looking for the key, answered her words.

“Is there a need to listen to the reports? Aren’t you doing well?”

In fact, even without receiving reports one by one, the abilities of the heads of departments and executives were outstanding.

That’s because each and every one of them was directly appointed by Sion.

The reason why the faction could grow to this point was largely due to the role of the heads of departments in each field.

Click- Clack.

Sion found the key, put it in the hole, and turned it.

Squeak…….

The old iron door began to open with a loud hinge sound.

Sion looked back at them.

“I don’t have time to pay attention to internal affairs for the time being. Only report the necessary information to me. That’s why you’re in that position. And prepare war supplies.”

“If you mean war supplies.”

“Food, drinking water, weapons, training. Those things.”

“Lord. Then please tell us the timing. If we start a full-scale war with Doan, we will change the faction’s production items accordingly and increase efficiency.”

A full-scale war with Doan.

That was an unavoidable future.

The heads of departments were also aware of that fact.

Sion was silent for a moment, then answered.

“…As soon as possible.”

Squeak…….

The iron door opened, and the contents inside began to be visible.

Cartons of cigarettes piled up in the room.

A total of 1,305 cartons.

261,000 cigarettes in individual pieces.

These were the cigarettes that Jin Jaehee had started collecting as soon as the round started [the beginning of their current situation/conflict].

Jin Jaehee already knew that cigarettes would become more precious than gold, and she had been steadily collecting them for him for the past year and a half.

She had been collecting them since the price of cigarettes was low, when searching convenience stores and supermarkets would yield dozens of cartons.

The result was 1,305 cartons.

Thanks to this, Sion was able to gain an overwhelming financial advantage over other lords.

If Madame’s eyes widened after receiving ten cartons of cigarettes, then ten cartons of cigarettes were nothing to Sion.

Thud, thud.

Sion stacked the cartons of cigarettes in the bag back into the vault.

These were the remaining cigarettes left over from the deal with Madame.

* * *

The method Sion came up with to take over the ‘river’ [a strategically important area] was simple.

First, Mangyeong should not directly clash with Doan’s warriors.

Therefore, he would use the third faction of Manan.

Supporting the third faction of Manan with combat troops to check Doan and, furthermore, to ‘hunt’ the human hunters.

But in this process, Lord Park Jisoo of Doan would suspect Mangyeong.

If Park Jisoo suspected that Mangyeong was supporting the third faction, then a full-scale war could begin from that point.

So Sion had declared war on the third faction of Manan.

This way, Sion would be able to avoid Park Jisoo’s eyes and eliminate the enemy’s core forces.

It was like taking a definite advantage by using politics.

Sion was systematically and deliberately confusing the enemy.

A double operation.

Externally, it would appear as if they were fighting the third faction, but in reality, they would join hands with the third faction to annihilate Doan.

In this way, Sion would take over the river.

The center of that operation was Choi Myungjoon.

And tonight, the attack would begin.

* * *

“Attack preparations are complete.”

A commander with a blue armband bowed to Sion and said.

Sion answered while sitting.

“Begin.”

“Yes.”

The commander bowed his head to the soldier.

At Sion’s command, the soldier of Mangyeong, who was on the roof of the police station, turned on the flashlight.

Then, he made a finger shadow and projected it onto the wall of the opposite building.

Then a huge hand shadow created a pattern on the building.

Another signal soldier who confirmed it repeated the same pattern on the wall of the opposite building.

Like that, one person, two people, three people. In a relay format.

The signal soldiers were placed at regular intervals to quickly deliver the lord’s orders to the operation area.

Like the beacons of the Joseon Dynasty [a historical Korean kingdom, known for its sophisticated communication systems].

This type of signal had the advantage of being able to quickly deliver the mission to the operation area, but it also had the disadvantage of only being possible at night.

In the end, it was a signal using shadows.

That’s why the operation started late at night.

And Choi Myungjoon, who was stationed in the third faction of Manan, confirmed the signal projected on the building wall.

A fist clenched, with two fists touching each other.

It was the lord’s attack order.

Choi Myungjoon threw the cigarette he was smoking on the ground and rubbed it out.

Behind him were 100 fully armed elite troops and three catapults.

“Alright- Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

The soldiers lowered the catapult columns mounted on the city bus to the back, wedging them between the telephone poles and window frames to secure them.

Then, they grabbed sacks full of glass bottles and placed them on the catapult.

The commander shouted.

“Firing preparations complete!”

“Fire.”

“Fire!”

Flick-.

Choi Myungjoon lit a lighter and lit a cigarette again.

No matter how expensive cigarettes became, Choi Myungjoon couldn’t quit smoking.

Whoosh-.

Along with the thick cigarette smoke he exhaled, the catapults were fired.

Shooook- Whoosh!

Along with the sound of cutting through the wind, numerous glass bottles floated into the night sky of Anyang.