What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of chaebol heirs?

Bratty kids who think they own the world, treating commoners like they don’t even exist. Spoiled and arrogant. Chaebol are almost always portrayed negatively in the media.

It was all about immersion.

Chaebol are a tiny minority.

The vast majority of viewers are ordinary folks—or even the poor. To pull those people in, it’s easiest to make the chaebol the ultimate villains.

Whether for content creators or developers.

People hate black-and-white morality.

But hate is still an emotion that moves people. The underdog story of a commoner hero standing up to a loathsome chaebol had a magnetic pull that kept you watching, even as you grumbled.

“Lee Taebaek.”

Daesung Group’s second-in-line successor, Ryu Subaek, was nothing like the typical chaebol we all knew.

Not in a good way, of course.

“Become my son-in-law and the Gigolo of Daesung Group.”

He was the kind of guy you’d call a madman.

“I don’t care if it’s a bastard child—just give my daughter a baby!”

Part of me wished he’d just been a straight-up villain…

Ban sat there dumbfounded, huddled in a corner of the Eunko Bar with a blank look on his face.

Jasbi was right beside him, knees pulled up to her chest, staring blankly at the bar table.

The two who split the Hundred-Fold Sect down the middle had called a temporary truce.

“I see there was a misunderstanding. Not your child, then.”

“……”

Ryu Subaek glanced at Ban and Jasbi before turning back to Lee Taebaek.

“Wouldn’t have mattered either way. The end result is what counts. What happens along the way? Irrelevant.”

Ban’s head spun for a moment.

He could tell right away that Ryu Subaek wasn’t just some random drunk. The man and his secretary were impeccably groomed.

The Founding Patriarch wouldn’t just sit there quietly if someone spouted nonsense like that in front of him.

The chances of his personality changing out of nowhere were slim.

Even after all this time apart, the Founding Patriarch’s eyes burned with killing intent. No—if anything, the glare he fixed on Ryu Subaek was even more yellowed than before.

He’s holding back.

Which meant this crazy bastard blabbering away was someone even the Founding Patriarch couldn’t touch lightly. A heavyweight.

Right on cue, Jasbi’s mutter backed up Ban’s reasoning.

“Why is Daesung Group’s Executive Director in a place like this?”

Jasbi gnawed anxiously at her thumbnail.

She was on edge. She wanted nothing to do with Megacorp if she could help it. Her soul had escaped a Megacorp lab, and her body had been stolen from a Siesta secret factory.

From head to toe, she was pieced together from things pilfered from Megacorp. From her perspective, any bigwig from there was bad news.

But Ban, the big-time thief, had no clue about Jasbi’s baggage.

“Me… Megacorp…?”

Jasbi scowled at Ban as he gulped nervously. She hissed under her breath.

“The Patriarch told us to stay put here—doesn’t that tell you anything? Play dumb if you know. Look away if you see. Plug your ears if you hear!”

“Ah… y-yeah, right. Sorry…”

“You look like a thug, but your self-esteem’s in the gutter. Anyway, let’s just sit tight and watch.”

“Mm…”

Watch what, exactly?

Even Ban, clueless about the world, could more or less grasp the situation. Ryu Subaek was laying it all out plain as day.

“You may or may not know this, but my father’s looking for you. An old man who can buy almost anything in this world with money—and he’s drooling over you.”

Ryu Subaek’s eyes gleamed as he spoke.

“Daesung’s chairman? Wants me? Why?”

“Saber Master Muyachi mentioned you.”

The secretary, who’d been still as a porcelain doll, finished the sentence.

“The Saber Master… mentioned me…?”

She drew a sharp line.

“He didn’t use your name directly.”

She’d asked him before, but it seemed like Taebaek’s name had come up multiple times since.

“I’m the one who found you. No need to worry about word spreading. I did the legwork myself to track down Taebaek.”

The kind of bold statement that took real guts to make.

It probably started as her father Ryu Subaek’s orders. But taking full responsibility? That was her choice.

And here I thought she was an emotionless machine.

In some ways, she seemed even more mechanical than Jasbi.

Even when Ryu Subaek talked about handing her over to him or not, she’d stayed silent.

Their family dynamic’s anything but normal.

Their relationship seemed far more tangled and subtle than it appeared.

Lee Taebaek felt his curiosity piqued.

The history he’d shaped himself. Meeting these two who’d nearly been buried in its shadows was intriguing enough—plus, what scheme did this Megacorp bastard have in mind? He had to admit, he was curious.

Because Ryu Subaek shattered every stereotype of a chaebol Lee Taebaek knew.

Team Leader Seo always said it.

A content developer’s basic trait is curiosity. All creation stems from it.

Let’s hear more.

After a brief silence, Lee Taebaek nodded toward the secretary.

The sharp-eyed woman seized the moment and explained the situation to Lee Taebaek and Goeun.

The picture she painted was pretty bizarre.

The air was prickly and businesslike—not exactly what you’d expect from a marriage proposal(?). Lee Taebaek shoved aside the creeping sense of regret for later.

“The chairman is desperate to boost Daesung Group’s military strength right now.”

“Daesung already has the Saber Master.”

The secretary adjusted her glasses with her index finger out of habit before responding to his question.

“Without the Three Calamities, one Ten Wing isn’t enough to stand toe-to-toe with the other Megacorps. That’s reality.”

“…I’m not a Ten Wing.”

“You’re on par with the Ten Wings.”

She fiddled with her glasses again.

He’d thought it was just a habit, but tiny text floated on the lenses. High-tech gear, a step above Yu Dahui’s. She was conversing with Lee Taebaek based on real-time intel.

The core info was all about his exploits so far. Common knowledge to those in the know.

But to the upper districts? You’d have to dig deep to uncover it.

“If the background check bothers you, I apologize.”

The secretary bowed her head briefly before lifting it again. Her gaze was impassive. Dry and withered.

“Megacorp places great weight on force.”

Fancy on the outside, but the City ran on raw power in the end.

Savagery and high-tech were just a sheet of paper apart. To avoid losing material abundance to rivals, you had to bare your fangs.

And rivals aren’t just external.

Internal ones might be the biggest threat to Ryu Subaek.

It would be a sandwich, squeezed from above and below.

“So you’re trying to lure me in as your solution.”

“Exactly.”

Ryu Subaek took out another cigar.

“It’s about getting ahead. No matter how much power I have as an Executive Director, my capital can’t touch my father’s. Or even my brother’s. So I make a different offer.”

“And that’s handing over your daughter?”

Lee Taebaek amped up the vulgarity on purpose. Push hard, test Ryu Subaek’s reaction.

“I knew Megacorp heads were rotten to the core, but this? Selling your daughter like a commodity.”

“Never thought a Siesta Hound assassin would be such a moralist.”

That Siesta Hound concept still worked wonders.

“Not a moralist—just disillusioned enough to run. Thanks to scum like you.”

“Why not just curse me out? Golden chance to hurl F-bombs at a Daesung exec.”

“Sometimes beating around the bush hits harder than straight insults.”

Ryu Subaek exhaled a long plume of smoke. He glanced at his secretary with a bitter smile curling alongside the cigar.

“Both of us are just flailing to survive.”

He continued.

“We have to sell ourselves to make it. Born in that jungle, we’re addicted to hawking wares.”

“……”

“Gotta maximize that skill to survive this game. Megacorp’s a fancy label, but at heart, we’re merchants. Ready to sell anything to live well—or just live.”

It was pretty convincing.

Son of a concubine? Bluntly put, Ryu Subaek had faced endless hurdles as a bastard.

Just like Ban over there with those dead-fish eyes. The only difference was material wealth. Their twisted lives were similar. His might’ve been harsher in some ways.

Not a lie.

Lee Taebaek subtly activated Presence Detection and buffed his Mental stats. From the moment they revealed themselves.

Being an Executive Director meant guards around the building, probably. If things went south, Ryu Subaek could turn Eunko Bar to ash with a snap.

Yet he came with just the secretary. That’s how desperate he was.

His Mental buff dragged their hidden emotions to the surface. In short, they were half-hypnotized right now.

At least Ryu Subaek’s sincerity is confirmed.

The offer was so outrageous he’d held back, but the gist was…

“Be my sword.”

Ryu Subaek dunked his cigar in his glass.

“My goal’s simple: survive. To do that, I take the chairman seat from Father. Then ditch it.”

“……”

“The power over life and death is the strong’s privilege. If my brother inherits, my daughter and I are dead.”

“How’s that different for you two?”

“He’d chop off limbs, sure. But I don’t want to kill blood kin. Half-brother or not, we were siblings once.”

Lie or truth?

Or is even this sincere?

This deep into a sly merchant’s heart? Even the Heavenly Demon would struggle. Ryu Subaek’s eyes were profoundly cunning. Surely laced with deceit.

“Guarantee our survival—you can do whatever with Daesung. External CEO if needed. Best-case scenario, of course.”

“One question.”

“Ask away.”

Ryu Subaek’s stiff lips softened.

The man had insane perception. He clocked Lee Taebaek’s rising intent, and curiosity, instantly.

“Why Gigolo specifically? An Executive Director like you has more to offer than cash.”

“Hm?”

He looked baffled, like it was obvious.

“Well, your track record’s all red-light districts, salons. Women everywhere. Then the gay club massacre? Figured you like women—”

Lee Taebaek dropped the Mental buff.

Lesson learned today: don’t fog minds too much. Bad for mental health.

Things calmed down only after they left.

Ryu Subaek kept dropping gem-like lines worthy of a Reycons chaebol, but the subtext boiled down to: get involved in Daesung’s succession war.

Goeun shoved Ryu Subaek out the door. The secretary left stone-faced, unfazed by her father’s antics.

Chaebol lose all dignity when they drop the act.

Probably because he was a bastard son. As he said, survival meant shedding pride constantly. Must’ve loosened a few screws.

“So.”

Goeun tossed the question after sending Ban and Jasbi upstairs.

“What’s the plan?”

Her tone probed subtly.

He didn’t agonize long. Rubbing the rim of his glass, Lee Taebaek spoke.

“I’ll take it.”

“…What?”

With a twist, though.