Chapter 198.1: Is There Anything Else You’re Hiding? (1)

Kang Chan woke up as usual, removed the needle from his arm, and got out of bed. He slept for over twelve hours straight since yesterday.

Although he felt somewhat drained of energy, he was not worse off than yesterday. He just felt way too stiff—like a block of wood. After doing some light stretching, Kang Chan changed into his workout clothes and headed to the gym.

The gym on the sixth floor was always empty around this time. Kang Chan warmed up to loosen up a little bit more and then went over to one of the machines that were facing the window. He stepped onto it and pressed the start button.

Whir. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Once the machine started, he gradually increased the speed until he reached the speed that he usually ran at. No matter what anyone said, he would still be convinced that the Blackhead definitely drained him of his energy. He needed to find a solution for it.

“Hah. Hah.”

Even though his stamina wasn’t as high as it used to be, it wasn’t so bad that he had to stop running.

Will the French researchers find a way to solve it?

If they failed to find anything in particular, he would be willing to try Ethan’s suggestion to him and Lanok, which was to get connected to one of the supporting devices that were installed to extract energy.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

The energy that left the Blackhead stuffed Kang Chan’s dead self into someone else’s body, but it was now trying to steal it back.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

“Hah, hah.”

It was just a feeling—just out of instinct—that Kang Chan felt this way. Nevertheless, he was certain that if he let the machine take the energy away from him yesterday, they would have found themselves in the middle of a powerful earthquake.

Perhaps there was a problem with the machine’s design or the combination of energies failed. They had never built anything like it before, after all.

For now, Kang Chan focused on building his stamina back up. After about an hour of running, he switched to his strength workout. By the time he returned to his room, he no longer wanted to lift even one more finger. If he could have Yoo Hye-Sook saying, “Channy! You should have taken a rest day today!” during times like this, he would have likely felt going back up and running again.

Kang Chan showered and changed into new clothes before stepping out of the bathroom.

Knock, knock, knock.

After some time, someone knocked a few times on the door. He was already expecting that, though, since they had always brought him his breakfast around this time.

Click.

“Mr. Kang Chan. How are you feeling?”

Much to Kang Chan’s surprise, however, it was Pierre, the executive of the Niafles branch, who greeted him, not food.

“I’m feeling a lot better now. Please come in and have a seat,” Kang Chan politely offered.

“If it’s all right with you, may I join you for your breakfast?” Pierre asked.

“Of course,” Kang Chan answered in an easygoing tone.

“Bring in the meal!” Pierre shouted toward the doorway upon hearing Kang Chan’s response.

This sneaky man! How could he brazenly ask me if he could join me for breakfast when he had already prepared food for two people?

An employee carried in a portable table and unfolded its sides to prepare it for dining.

“Next week, agents from five different countries will be arriving at this location,” Pierre began as he spread a generous amount of butter onto his toast. “They will be coming from Russia, Israel, Germany, the United States, and China.”

Kang Chan just listened to Pierre speak as he tore off pieces of his bread. Every time he moved his mouth, the inside of his cheek throbbed with pain.

“Do you think you’ll be okay?” Pierre asked with concern.

“Is the agents’ arrival something that my answer can change?” Kang Chan asked.

“Of course. If you were to refuse, they would all be sent someplace else,” Pierre responded respectfully.

“It doesn’t really matter to me. I’m here to be educated, so I’m going to follow the plan that’s already been set up,” Kang Chan lightly replied.

Pierre nodded as he picked up a thinly sliced baguette, making Kang Chan think that he was the type to eat hearty breakfasts.

“Mr. Kang Chan, the purpose of this training is to facilitate an exchange of information between intelligence bureaus. Since you were recommended, France did not send any agents,” Pierre informed him.

If I’m hearing things right, there’s a slight edge to his words.

Kang Chan wiped his mouth with a napkin and straightened his back before looking at Pierre.

“I mean to say that after you agree to their arrival, it will be difficult for you to receive special treatment or leave the training. What’s more, you cannot use the things you’ll gain from this training to bring any harm to France,” Pierre explained.

“I understand,” Kang Chan obediently replied.

Although Pierre bowed down before Lanok, he was still an executive who managed a territory for an intelligence bureau. Kang Chan could understand Pierre giving him these words of warning.

After the meal and Pierre left the room, Kang Chan pulled out his phone.

It was nine in the morning, which meant it was around five in the afternoon in South Korea. The dial tone crackled from the audio feedback and rang about three to four times before the call was picked up.

- It’s me, Cap!

Seok Kang-Ho sounded as coarse as always. Kang Chan listened to this voice every day, but he was still glad to hear it again today.

Kang Chan began to explain to him in detail what happened yesterday.

-Are you all right now, at least?

“Yeah. It’s bearable. What’s up with you, though? You sound a bit different,” Kang Chan asked out of curiosity.

- Well, the thing is, Oh Gwang-Taek is behind bars.

“What?” Kang Chan couldn’t believe his ears.

Maybe it was inevitable for a gangster to be imprisoned, but Kang Chan still found the news quite shocking. He couldn’t believe the same man who told him a while back that he was going to quit being a gangster and become a proper businessman suddenly got arrested.

- He was involved in a fight at the bar. He apparently thought that the civilians who fought him were gangsters who came to attack him, so he pulled out his blade and struck back. I guess five against two isn’t exactly a fair fight.

Tsk! To think he was just talking about how scared he was about getting attacked!

- I heard Joo Chul-Bum is also in prison. He wasn’t at the site but was arrested later. When I didn’t hear from him, I began to wonder if he didn’t call me because he was embarrassed. Unfortunately, they told me only his lawyer was allowed to see him when I tried visiting him, so I just headed back.

He should be able to meet him if he talks to Kim Hyung-Jung, no?

Kang Chan wondered if he should tell Seok Kang-Ho that or not.

- I thought about asking Kim Hyung-Jung, but I don’t really have any reason that I can give him if he asks why I have to meet Joo Chul-Bum. It made asking feel so awkward.

Seok Kang-Ho seemed to have already thought of it.

“How did you find out they were arrested?” Kang Chan asked.

- I heard from Executive Suh.

“You met with Executive Suh?” he wasn’t expecting that.

- Last night, after dinner, I went out with Director Kim, Executive Suh, and the section chief for a couple of drinks.

“

Tsk

! So they already know what happened then,” Kang Chan said.

- That’s why I can’t ask them for that favor. If you were here, I would have tried to come up with an excuse to go.

That idiot! He swung his blade at the wrong people!

“Let’s just keep our eye on it for now,” Kang Chan told him.

- They did say something about the investigation probably being handled by Unit 4. Based on the limited visitation rights to go see him, they’re most likely right.

“What’s Unit 4?” Kang Chan asked.

- It’s an organized crime unit that handles serious cases, including those eligible for capital punishment.

“Goddamn it!”

- Anyway, don’t lose sleep over it. I’ll see what happens after the first trial.

“All right,” Kang Chan responded.

Kang Chan hung up feeling quite uneasy and upset. There was no room for excuse for what Oh Gwang-Taek did, but that didn’t mean he cared any less about it.

He went to class as soon as the call ended. He had to do a role-playing exercise involving eight people, nine including Kang Chan.

Each participant had to perform their part flawlessly nine times in English to complete the exercise. Kang Chan thought that they could probably make good money by introducing this kind of training program in South Korea.

Afterward, he took courses in politics, economics, and psychology. While he spent the day studying, his stamina slowly began to return to normal.

***

Kang Chan spent the next few days attending even more classes. After some time, he had grown to adapt well enough to his life at Niafles. Everything went according to the schedule that the intelligence bureau had set.

On Saturday morning, Lanok came to visit him. It had been about a week since they last saw each other. Since Lanok arrived in time for breakfast, they brought each other up-to-date on recent happenings over a meal.

“The researchers have given me quite an intriguing report,” Lanok told Kang Chan, who had been dying to know more about this topic.

Lanok picked up a slice of baguette as he continued, “According to the researchers’ analysis, the Blackhead is a type of energy aggregate. It requires a balance of nine energies, but it is currently missing two of them.”

Wait, is that all? That can’t be everything that the research team came up with.

Kang Chan couldn’t help but be reminded of the sly snake that Lanok was. He even doubted anyone could be more cunning than him in this world. His expression made it impossible to tell whether or not the researchers had actually come up with a solution.

“There is apparently a significant reason why cetinium and denadite were used to replace the lost energies. Their findings suggest that the two energy sources were used to replace the missing energies so they could stop the earthquakes, not to actually trigger them from occurring,” Lanok continued.

What’s he saying this time?