The Former Mercenary is a Chaebol Heir

Chapter 28. The Price of Recklessness

At Livio Soft’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, USA, the CEO, Dale Becker, spent a sleepless night and couldn’t hide his anxious expression even when he arrived at work.

It was because Lloyd Douglas, who should have contacted him last night, had been completely out of touch for several hours.

Ding―

In the silence, an email written in English arrived with an alarm sound.

【From : MANDU】

【I hope you were prepared, as much as you were trying to kill me.】

Startled, Dale Becker jumped up from his seat and stumbled back with his chair.

“No, it can’t be……!”

He had spent a large sum of money to hire Lloyd Douglas, a famous lobbyist and fixer from the underworld, to handle this situation.

Douglas had a solid reputation for getting the job done, so Becker had trusted him and waited, but it had ended in failure.

“What should I do now? Right, Lillian!”

He recalled Lillian Foster, who had recently quit after verbally submitting her resignation.

Lillian Foster had claimed that no negotiations would be possible without her involvement. The biggest reason Livio Soft had hired her was because she knew the company’s secrets all too well.

Of course, because she could become another threat to the company, as soon as MANDU made direct contact, she was excluded from this business.

However, the situation had now completely changed.

Dale Becker called Lillian Foster. The ringing continued for a while before the call connected.

[…It seems the plan has gone awry.]

Hearing Lillian’s response, who already anticipated the outcome, Dale Becker was shocked once again.

“This has become a dire situation. Could you help me again?”

[I need to know exactly what happened to offer any advice. Tell me everything without leaving anything out.]

“Well….”

After a brief pause, Dale Becker had no choice but to confess everything, from hiring Lloyd Douglas to receiving the email just now.

Of course, he left out the part about trying to kill MANDU after extracting the source data, as well as the exact contents of the email.

Upon hearing the explanation, Lillian asked in a slightly surprised voice.

[Are you saying you haven’t heard from him at all?]

“He’s completely out of contact. Do you have any ideas?”

[Is the email untraceable?]

“I already tried, but MANDU’s skills are no joke—it’s impossible to track.”

[Give me the email address. I’ll try to get in touch.]

“All I need is for you to tell me how to handle this….”

Dale Becker hesitated to connect Lillian Foster with MANDU, who was deeply entangled with Livio Soft’s secrets.

He worried whether it was the right decision to link someone like her with such an elusive target.

[Do you have a death wish?]

“…What?”

[If that lobbyist was still alive, he would have contacted you somehow. If he’s been silent for this long, there’s only one reason.]

“…Are you saying he’s really dead?”

[Didn’t you plan to kill MANDU from the start?]

Lillian hadn’t worked for Livio Soft or Dale Becker for long.

Even so, she understood his character better than anyone else.

“What, what do you mean?”

[That lobbyist was probably a professional in his field, but if he was taken down, MANDU must have hired a professional too, or maybe MANDU is one himself. The next target is probably you.]

“I never intended to kill him! I was even willing to share stock options if he accepted!”

[Then handle it yourself. I’m not the one in trouble here; you are.]

Click―

The call ended with that response.

At the same time, Dale Becker’s desperate scream echoed through the office.

“Lillian! Lilliaaaan―!”

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Lillian, having finished the call, was in a different hotel in downtown Seoul.

She had to move as quickly as possible after Myung Un-seok kept visiting her previous hotel.

“Hah! That CEO values money more than his own life… But that idiot MANDU wouldn’t have the ability to take down someone sent by Dale Becker….”

The ‘idiot MANDU’ Lillian was referring to was Jang Man-soo. Lillian, too, had returned from the future, 12 years after dying with her comrades.

Her return point was when she had just graduated from university and was taking the CIA agent test. Of course, even for her, this situation was hard to believe.

As time passed, and she faced reality, she began searching for her comrades.

The first person she sought was Jang Man-soo, the developer of Triad Eye’s emergency communication network, which is why she joined Livio Soft.

“Could it be… that he’s already found the Captain and joined him?”

Since both were Korean, it was highly likely they would have met first.

“But why would that idiot suddenly show interest in Livio Soft, when he didn’t care about it before… Did he change his mind? Or does he need money?”

Whatever the reason, the important thing was that Jang Man-soo, who had ignored Livio Soft in his previous life, was now connected to them.

“Mandu should have been working on establishing the communication network instead of causing trouble like this! But why did the contact come right after the investment contract with MH Group was signed? The timing seems strangely perfect…”

Lillian’s thoughts spiralled endlessly.

Then, she came up with a hypothesis.

“Could it be… that Mandu got a job at MH Group? No, no way. He said he couldn’t even look at a place like that because of his memories of working for the NIS.”

The NIS referred to the National Intelligence Service of South Korea.

Before the regression, whenever Jang Man-soo got drunk, he would rant endlessly about how much he hated that place, so it was impossible for her to forget.

She had also heard about the situation with Livio Soft in a similar way.

“Where in the world is he?! Or should I just go back to Livio Soft and break into the CEO’s office?!”

If there had been no prior connections or if it was a warzone, things might have been different. But in this situation, if Lillian Foster broke into Livio Soft to steal the email address, she would be suspect number one.

On top of that, Jang Man-soo was obsessively meticulous when it came to anything related to computers, to the point of putting even a germaphobe to shame.

He might have used a one-time email to avoid being traced, so even if she found the address, it might be useless.

“If that idiot Mandu were here, I could have easily tracked down his email… Should I just poke around the most suspicious places?”

Right now, the timing of the contact with MH Group was bothering her the most.

With that in mind, Lillian immediately searched for Myung Un-seok’s contact information on her phone.

***

【A suspect identified as Mr. A, who had stalked national goddess Yoo Ha-yeon for years, has been arrested for attempted kidnapping. During the process, KITE, a private security firm responsible for Yoo Ha-yeon’s protection, discovered and apprehended the intruder at her residence. Although the stalker, a former member of U.S. Special Forces, demonstrated meticulous planning… There was a knife fight during the arrest, but KITE’s security personnel swiftly subdued the attacker…】

After returning from Russia over the weekend, Shin-woo headed to Hanyul General Hospital in Seoul on Monday.

When he knocked on the door of Room 1402, he found two KITE security personnel lying side by side in the two-person ward.

“B-boss!”

“You’re here!”

Shin-woo quickly motioned for the two men, who were trying to get up, to stay put.

“Just stay lying down.”

Yu Hyung-jin, the operations director who had arrived at the hospital earlier, greeted Shin-woo.

“Did you have a restful vacation?”

Officially, it was a vacation. In reality, Shin-woo had passed through China and into Russia.

Because of his UAD background, he couldn’t officially leave the country, so he had to use a carefully crafted fake passport.

“It wasn’t too bad. But how severe are the injuries?”

“Go Jun-seon has two broken ribs on his left side, and Lee Young-hoon has a fractured upper left arm and a stab wound to his left waist. Fortunately, no internal organs were damaged.”

As Shin-woo listened to the explanation, he looked over the two men.

“You guys did well. Make sure they get a generous bonus and paid leave.”

At that moment, Go Jun-seon and Lee Young-hoon exchanged glances and smiled slightly.

But Shin-woo’s words didn’t end there.

“…But it seems MAT (Multi-Person Assault Training) and FRT (Firearms Response Training) aren’t enough. We need to add Weapon Strike Drill.”

“……”

“……”

The two men, who had been quietly celebrating inside, suddenly turned pale.

With a worried look, Yu Hyung-jin spoke up.

“You mean… even more training than now?”

“If you weren’t lacking, why would two of our guards struggle so much against just one man?”

“But in the end, they caught him and handed him over to the police. And the perpetrator wasn’t just an ordinary person; he was former U.S. Special Forces.”

“And what if the next person to attack our client is someone like him? Are we just going to sit there and take it?”

“Well…”

Shin-woo’s expression was more resolute than ever.

“Send the updated training program through Jang Jin-ho. Is there anything else we need to deal with? I saw the news report—it seems to have been covered quite extensively.”

This was no ordinary incident. A famous actress had been stalked for years and was almost kidnapped.

Usually, the focus of such stories was on the victim and the perpetrator, but KITE’s role was also being highlighted in the media.

“I moved the PR team to act. It’s also beneficial for the company. Of course, we received permission from Yoo Ha-yeon’s side as well.”

“Good work.”

“Thanks to this, we’ve received more security requests and contracts than before.”

“If something like this happens again, make sure to keep promoting it.”

Initially, Yu Hyung-jin wasn’t too fond of Shin-woo.

But during this Yoo Ha-yeon incident, he had noticed how much the security team’s skills had improved.

At the same time, he began to understand why Chairman Myung Joong-hwan had appointed Shin-woo as CEO.

“Leave that to me.”

Bzzz— Bzzz—

Shin-woo’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

When he answered, Jang Man-soo’s voice came through.

[Not coming to the office today?]

“I’ll be there soon. Why?”

[All the profits from the recent investment have come in. I wanted to discuss the next move.]

“Already?”

[Yeah, it seemed like the people involved caught wind of something, so we pulled out early. Still, we made more than expected. But it looks like four stocks are being manipulated by the same group.]

Shin-woo’s face hardened as the conversation grew serious. He stepped into the hallway.

“Are you sure it’s the same group? Or is it just a feeling?”

[There are some differences in the fluctuations, but the rumours started and the stocks began getting hit around the same time. It’s something I’ve experienced before. Back then, they told me not to worry about it, but I think there’s more to it.]

Shin-woo lowered his voice as much as possible.

“…You’re talking about the NIS?”

[It’s something the Financial Supervisory Service could easily handle, but they’ve kept quiet. No public announcements either. I think we need to be careful for a while.]

“Can you figure out where it’s coming from?”

[It’s not too hard. Why?]

Last time, there had been a significant number of stocks manipulated through insider trading.

If it was an organized effort, it was no small matter.

“I’m wondering if it’s connected to the company I mentioned last time, TSF Investment.”

[The company that blew apart MH Group? They’re a pretty big investment firm… You think they’re involved in stock manipulation too?]

“Just check it for me.”

[Alright. Got it.]

After ending the call, Shin-woo returned to the hospital room to finish his visit and then left.