Chapter 165 – Future [22nd Century]

Thud-!

After leaping about 15 meters, Siguk descended rapidly and drove his knee into the Pit Bull Terrier’s skull.

“Crunch!”

The massive Pit Bull Terrier, which had been charging with terrifying momentum, had its skull shattered on the spot. Its entire face caved in as it collapsed.

“……”

Both the woman who had been fleeing and the girl who had grabbed Siguk’s wrist to run away together stared blankly at the scene.

“Doesn’t seem to be a monster…”

Before driving his knee down, Siguk had used his All-Seeing Eye to examine the Pit Bull Terrier’s condition.

It wasn’t a monster. According to the information relayed through the All-Seeing Eye, this giant Pit Bull Terrier was nothing more than an ordinary mammal.

The problem was that no such dog existed in the world.

For a while, Siguk looked at the Pit Bull Terrier’s corpse with suspicious eyes.

‘Wait a minute… Korean?’

Suddenly, Siguk realized that both the fleeing woman and the girl who had suddenly appeared and grabbed his wrist had spoken Korean.

‘I’m in Africa… definitely…’

Siguk’s gaze turned towards the woman and the girl.

The two women, who were positioned almost in a straight line, flinched when Siguk looked at them.

Especially the fleeing woman plopped down right where she was, inadvertently revealing areas her rags couldn’t cover.

But Siguk paid no particular attention to that.

He strode purposefully towards the woman.

The woman trembled violently, then quickly composed herself and performed a deep bow to Siguk.

“…Hey.”

Siguk called out to the woman.

“Thank you, thank you. But I have nothing to give you. My younger sibling at home is starving to death. I cannot give you an apology.”

Judging that conversation with the woman would be impossible, Siguk shifted his gaze to the girl.

‘Huh?’

The girl had vanished from that spot.

If he had been looking with just ordinary eyes, he might have thought she had disappeared.

But the girl hadn’t disappeared.

She had simply blended in with the surrounding heaps of ruined concrete, hiding her form.

Siguk walked past the woman prostrate on the ground and headed straight for the girl.

The girl, holding her breath, could only watch as Siguk approached her in a straight line.

Siguk stopped in front of the girl.

He looked straight into her eyes and said:

“Doesn’t seem to be a Stealth Skill. Did you hide yourself using protective coloration, like a chameleon?”

“……”

“You seem young, but shouldn’t you answer when an adult asks you a question!”

Thwack-!

Right then, Siguk punched the broken concrete next to the girl’s face with his fist.

“Eek!”

The girl screamed, and because of that, the protective coloration vanished completely.

“S-sorry. I’m sorry!”

The girl immediately knelt on the ground, clasped her hands together, and began begging profusely.

‘What the?’

The woman still prostrate on the ground, muttering “thank you” and “I have nothing to give” on repeat, and the girl kneeling and apologizing for her mistake.

From Siguk’s perspective, it was a completely incomprehensible sight.

“Enough, get up.”

At Siguk’s words, the girl slightly raised her gaze.

Meeting Siguk’s indifferent expression, the girl bowed her head again and began clasping her hands together, begging profusely.

“I’m sorry.”

“I get it, so get up already.”

The girl sensed the irritation lacing Siguk’s voice.

She promptly got up from her spot.

Looking at her, still trembling with fear, Siguk asked:

“Where is this place?”

“I-it’s the field.”

It was a completely unexpected answer.

“The field?”

“Yes.”

“Is that the name of the neighborhood?”

Siguk looked around.

All he could see were pothole-ridden roads and collapsed concrete piles everywhere.

“What are you? A Villain?”

“Huh?”

The girl looked at Siguk with an expression of not understanding.

Siguk’s expression turned fierce.

The girl bowed her head deeply again.

‘What the hell…’

Suddenly, a building came into Siguk’s view.

‘That’s…’

Siguk’s eyes trembled violently.

‘Signiel Tower?’

Signiel Tower, a landmark of Songpa District and a landmark of the Gangnam area.

The tallest building in South Korea, where the National Hunter Federation’s year-end parties were sometimes held.

The building visible in the distance, half-gone and faded, was unmistakably Signiel Tower.

Although its size was about half of what Siguk remembered, and glass windows were torn out in many places, it was definitely Signiel Tower.

‘During the Africa Expedition… did a war break out or something?’

The immediate possibility that came to Siguk’s mind was war.

‘Northwest Korea? No. Those bastards don’t have the capability for that anymore now. Then, China?’

Siguk’s gaze returned to the girl.

“What the hell happened? Was there a war or something?”

The girl couldn’t answer Siguk’s question.

“Say something!”

When Siguk shouted irritably, the girl suddenly burst into tears and started crying.

“F…”

Siguk barely suppressed the curse that threatened to erupt from his throat.

After taking a moment to compose himself, Siguk looked around.

“You, you have a phone, right? Lend it to me for a bit.”

Siguk spoke to the girl in a somewhat softened voice.

But the girl just shook her head while crying.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

Grrrrrrrr!

Then, a pack of giant Pit Bull Terriers revealed themselves.

The woman lying on the ground flinched in surprise, screamed, got up, and ran towards Siguk.

The giant Pit Bull Terriers swarmed not towards the woman, but towards the already dead Pit Bull Terrier.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

After sniffing the corpse with their noses for a while, the Pit Bull Terriers began barking fiercely.

Their gazes turned towards Siguk.

“What the hell are those things…”

Six giant Pit Bull Terriers began charging towards Siguk.

Sparks flew in Siguk’s eyes.

His body left an afterimage as it vanished from the spot in an instant.

Thwack-! Thwack-! Thwack-!

The overlapping impact sounds rang out only three times.

But when the sounds ceased, all six giant Pit Bull Terriers had become corpses with caved-in faces.

“What the hell happened? Did a nuclear bomb go off or something?”

Looking at the corpses of the Pit Bull Terriers, which weren’t even monsters but were just disgustingly large and fiercely aggressive, Siguk frowned.

“Huh?”

Then, Siguk’s senses picked up the breathing sounds of people other than the girl and the woman.

And there weren’t just one or two.

‘About 50?’

Siguk’s gaze turned towards where the breathing sounds were coming from.

Shortly after, about 50 men of diminutive stature appeared, holding all sorts of miscellaneous items from rocks and clubs to rusty kitchen knives.

Fifty men, dressed in rags or with only their lower abdomens covered by what looked like leather obtained from unidentified creatures, appearing in a filthy state.

“Cavemen?”

Feeling absurd at their appearance, which was practically no different from cavemen, Siguk was taken aback.

Among the men, one who seemed to be the leader, holding a rusty saw and sickle, cautiously approached Siguk slowly.

“P-perhaps…”

Siguk didn’t interrupt the trembling leader’s words.

He just crossed his arms and made an expression that said, “Go on, try saying something.”

“P-perhaps…”

For a while, the man only uttered the word “perhaps.”

“Perhaps…”

Just as Siguk’s patience was about to run out, the man finally managed to utter a proper sentence.

“Th-that… will you eat it? I-if not… c-can we… h-have some?”

Siguk looked with a dumbfounded expression at the man and then at the seven super-sized Pit Bull Terrier corpses lying dead behind him.

“What the hell is this bastard?”

In the end, a light curse escaped Siguk’s lips.

Wednesday, July 13, 2033.

18:30.

Prime Minister’s Official Residence Reception Room, Cheong Wa Dae.

Prime Minister Nam Hanseok, Han Myeongho, Kang Bonggil, and a stern-looking middle-aged man were eating a luxurious set meal of salmon sashimi accompanied by expensive wine.

“Mmm. As expected, since it’s shipped directly from Norway, the texture is alive. Hahahaha.”

Nam Hanseok picked up a piece of salmon sashimi, ate it, and uttered those words with a satisfied expression.

“The wine is also exceptionally good.”

Han Myeongho, sitting beside him, chimed in.

Nam Hanseok answered with a smile.

“It’s a 30-year-old Château Haut-Aragon that the late former Chairman Yong Hee-gon, father of Samhwa Group Chairman Yong Jaehyung, enjoyed during his lifetime.”

“Ah~ Château Haut-Aragon~”

Watching Han Myeongho, who knew nothing about wine but pretended to know and expressed admiration, Kang Bonggil let out a brief, stifled laugh.

Nam Hanseok’s gaze turned to the stern-looking middle-aged man.

“I wonder if it suits the Chairman’s taste.”

At those words, the middle-aged man, the Chairman of the National Pension Service, chewed the salmon sashimi as quickly as possible, swallowed it with wine, and then answered.

“Ah, yes. It’s perfect. Thank you. Thanks to the Prime Minister, my mouth and stomach are being treated to a feast.”

Watching the Chairman, who displayed considerable flattery skills contrary to his appearance, Han Myeongho and Kang Bonggil silently took a sip of wine.

Seeing that, a deep smile formed at the corner of Nam Hanseok’s mouth.

After eating another piece of salmon sashimi, Nam Hanseok broached the main topic.

“I checked, and it seems the Pension Service holds about a 6% stake in JH Holdings.”

His gaze turned to the Chairman.

The Chairman hurriedly swallowed the wine in his mouth and answered.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Is the investment only in the holding company?”

“No. We also hold stakes in the trading, construction, and entertainment subsidiaries, ranging from 5.5% to 6.4%.”

“That should be enough to be a casting voter on the board, even if not a leading role, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Nam Hanseok’s gaze turned to Han Myeongho and Kang Bonggil.

“For the Pension Service to exert its power as a casting voter, the two CEOs must secure at least 45% of friendly shares. Is that possible?”

Nam Hanseok’s question wasn’t about possibility or impossibility.

It was a question about how much friendly shareholding had been secured so far.

Han Myeongho and Kang Bonggil put down their utensils, wiped their mouths with a tissue, and began to answer.

“In the case of the trading company, small shareholders in the Honam region hold about 20% of the shares. They are all seniors from my hometown, so they will strongly support me if a shareholders’ meeting is held. Adding my 7% stake and the shares held by former directors just waiting to retire from their sinecures, it comes to about 43%.”

“Hmm… 43%… That’s literally short by 2%.”

“2% is a figure we can safely ignore if it’s from general retail investors. They have no possibility of participating in the shareholders’ meeting. If an actual meeting is held, it will be a fight against the holding company’s 40% stake.”

“Hmm…”

Nam Hanseok’s gaze turned to Kang Bonggil.

“For construction, first, my stake is about 10%. And there’s quite a bit paid in stock instead of construction fees; if I pick only the shares immediately friendly to me from those, it’s about 30%.”

“I understand JH Holdings holds a 47% stake in the construction company.”

“Combining my stake, my friendly stakes, and the Pension Service’s stake, it becomes similar.”

“Becoming similar isn’t good enough. The Pension Service must be able to be the casting voter.”

Nam Hanseok took a sip of wine with a slightly dissatisfied expression and continued.

“Freeing the construction and trading companies from the holding company’s influence. That is the first thing the two CEOs must do to pursue the JH Group. If that doesn’t happen, the very plan to seize control of JH Holdings and ultimately control the entire group falls apart.”

Nam Hanseok emptied his wine glass.

Watching the Chairman refill the glass, Nam Hanseok spoke to Han Myeongho and Kang Bonggil in a firm tone.

“It’s already been three years since the JH Group made it onto the list of the top 50 conglomerates. To enter the list of the top 30 conglomerates within the next five years, there is much you must do.”

Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho silently nodded.

“Next year’s general election for the Senate… the groundwork for nominations has already begun. To achieve satisfactory results, we need at least 50 billion won in political funds.”

Nam Hanseok gave a light smile towards Han Myeongho and Kang Bonggil.

What that meant, Nam Hanseok never gave a concrete answer until the end.

But everyone present understood its meaning.

“We will do our best.”

With Han Myeongho’s answer, the meal resumed.