Record of a Thousand Lives

What was the most important thing to remember when trying to pull off a scam?

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Kang Yoon-Soo’s voice was emotionless, and he was a man of few words.
In fact, he could not remember the last time he had actually gotten angry at someone.
However, he had to kick his stiff tongue into motion and spit out words smoothly to pull this off.
He racked his brains for memories related to Lefman as soon as he entered the Sunset Glass building.

‘Lefman Ackeron.
He’s a middle-aged man with plenty of kids.
He has four women whom he calls his wives, and he rarely goes home.
His teenage kids are all addicted to the drugs he distributes, but he isn’t aware of that fact.
He’s quick-witted and is very calculating when it comes to anything profitable, and his greed knows no bounds.
He isn’t capable of planning things, nor is he a good orator; rather, he survives by kowtowing in front of the strong,’ Kang Yoon-Soo recalled.

The rest was easy from there on out.
Kang Yoon-Soo just needed to act as an even worse villain than Lefman. He purposely sat arrogantly on the sofa and glared at Lefman, and he intentionally lowered his voice to make it sound more sinister and menacing.
He also remembered to tilt the back of his hand to make sure the tattoo of the Black Tiger Clan would be visible at all times. It was as if he had put on the mask of someone he was not.

“What do you want?” Lefman asked with a trembling voice he tried his best to hide.

Kang Yoon-Soo was satisfied with Lefman’s response, but he did not forget to maintain his arrogant posture before saying, “Give me five times the normal tribute you used to pay to our clan.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Lefman screamed, slamming his fist on the table.

Baaam!

Lefman’s face was red, and his fist was trembling in anger as he exclaimed, “I can’t accept that word! First and foremost, ‘tribute’? Are you trying to say the Sunset Glass company is something the Black Tiger Clan can sway according to their will?” He gritted his teeth as he added, “And five times the usual rate on top of that? Don’t make me laugh! You wouldn’t have asked that if you were a merchant yourself! What is this nonsense?!”

“That’s a shame.
You would have offered up the tribute yourself if you knew our boss a little bit better than that,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he crossed his legs and raised his right hand. He held his index finger and thumb together, as if to show that he was capable of triggering an explosion with the snap of his finger at any moment.

“Do you think you’ll be safe after doing this?” Lefman growled threateningly.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo calmly replied, “You’re free to try and pay us, the Black Tiger Clan, anytime, as much as you want.
Our boss, Yu Si-Do, is confident he can step on someone as insignificant as you any time.”

This was no different from a declaration of war.
The Black Tiger Clan actually needed to maintain their relationship with Sunset Glass, as it was currently undergoing a rapid expansion.
Of course, the Black Tiger Clan did not wish to cut their ties with Sunset Glass, and neither would they demand five times the rate they were usually paid.
The Black Tiger Clan actually had a very amicable relationship with Sunset Glass, and both of them greatly benefited from their cooperation.

All of this was just a ruse and a scam drawn up by Kang Yoon-Soo, and Kang Yoon-Soo alone.
However, events had turned out to be quite beneficial to him.
Lefman believed that Kang Yoon-Soo was a member of the Black Tiger Clan; as such, it was the Black Tiger Clan that was going to be on the receiving end of Lefman’s vengeance, not Kang Yoon-Soo.

The most important part when pulling off a scam was to maximize one’s own profit while passing the risk and responsibility off to someone else.

Lefman moaned, tearing his hair out.
It was difficult for him to give a rebuttal when Kang Yoon-Soo could blow his building away with a snap of his fingers.
Kang Yoon-Soo completely held the upper hand in the discussion.

“We don’t have enough cash as of now to pay five times the usual rate.
I’ll pay it as soon as the drug deal with Ark City has been completed,” Lefman said weakly.

“Is that the best you can come up with, Lefman? The deal with Ark City is scheduled to take place two months from now.
Do you expect me to believe that a large merchant company like this doesn’t have enough cash?” Kang Yoon-Soo spat. Every single word he said was an irrefutable fact, making Lefman all the more disoriented. Lefman was now sweating like the countless drug addicts he had helped create.

“Please, believe me! We really don’t have enough cash right now.
Isn’t the Black Tiger Clan aware that we spent most of our cash to produce the drugs when such a big deal is right in front of us? I could manage if it were twice the usual rate, but five times is just too difficult,” Lefman pleaded. Still, he had said everything he wanted to say despite being cornered, as expected from a true merchant.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo had no plans to go easy on him.
He said, “Then pay up with goods.”

“Goods?” Lefman asked, dumbfounded.

“Even if you don’t have cash, you should have some goods, right?” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

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Lefman thought deeply for a moment before asking, “You mean drugs?”

“No, potions,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“What kind of potions do you want?” Lefman stuttered.

“Healing potions, holy water, and frost antidotes. All three of them should be in good condition and not expired.
Prepare enough to be used by at least 1,000 people, as well as enhancing elixirs to be used by six people,” Kang Yoon-Soo demanded.

Lefman closed his mouth and started to think.
He did have the items in stock, and Sunset Glass was more focused on the drug trade rather than the potion trade.
Additionally, it seemed more sensible for him and for the company’s future to pay using the potions’ value rather than paying in cash.
The potion trade was just a front for the company anyway, and the real profit was being generated by the drug trade.

There was no reason for him to be unable to prepare the potions as long as he was given the time to prepare them, and on top of that, he had to agree to the deal since the company and his life were being held hostage. As such, he asked, “When should I deliver the goods?”

“Right now,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

Lefman’s face became as pale as a sheet as Kang Yoon-Soo asked him to prepare that many potions in an instant.
Even though it was just a front for the company, supplying so many potions on the spot would require him to cancel most of his existing contracts.

Kang Yoon-Soo thought for a moment before adding, “Alcohol too.”

***

“That guy won’t be able to sleep tonight if he doesn’t drink at least a bottle of liquor because of what happened today,” Henrick cackled as he leaned against a wall in the back alley.

Shaneth smiled while dusting off Sally’s clothes and chimed in, “You were quite the actor! Anyone would think you were a righteous man, burning with a sense of justice.”

“Burning with justice, my ass! I was almost burned to a crisp moving you two while you were on fire,” Henrick retorted.

“Liar! Sally didn’t use a hot fire!” Sally yelled at Henrick.

However, Henrick just laughed at Sally, pushing her forehead away and saying, “Hey, little miss! I didn’t mean your flames, but my face was burning!”

“Huh? Why is Sally little?” Sally asked, confused.

“Hmm… Maybe because you’re noisy and a crybaby?” Henrick cackled once again.

“Sally is not a crybaby!” Sally stomped her feet.

Henrick laughed off Sally’s tantrum, then turned around and looked at Iris.
Iris was quietly standing in place, listening in on the conversation in the building.

“That punk Kang Yoon-Soo, is he doing alright?” Henrick asked.

“I’m not sure, but based on the voice of his opponent getting louder, it seems he is making the other person angry and gloomy at the same time,” Iris reported.

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“I guess he’s driving someone nuts right now.
I know the feeling, since I was his victim too,” Henrick said, letting out a sigh of pity for Kang Yoon-Soo’s latest victim.

The doppelganger had excellent hearing ability; Iris had been able to hear even the whispers of others in the Hatar Mountains. She had the ability to hear even the smallest of sounds through a window if she focused, which was how they had been able to hear the signal to start their act whenever Kang Yoon-Soo snapped his fingers.

The women and the girl who had been on fire in the street were Shaneth, Iris, and Sally. The flames that shot up from the ground had been made by Sally. They had looked like raging fires on the outside, but had not been hot enough to burn anyone who actually touched the flames.
That was how Henrick had been able to act the part of a man burning with a sense of justice, diving through the flames and dragging the women out to the back alley. He had avoided the gazes of bystanders by giving them the excuse that he was bringing them to the hospital.

Henrick stared at Shaneth and Sally before muttering, “To think he would draw up a ruse like this using the two least likely women to burn to death… That guy is really starting to scare me.”

“I always thought I had a rough past, but I reconsider whenever I see Kang Yoon-Soo.
I wonder what kind of life he’s lived?” Shaneth chimed in.

“Why don’t you ask him if you’re that curious?” Henrick added.

“He doesn’t tell me even if I ask him.
Perhaps he’ll tell me one day when the time is right,” Shaneth said hopefully.

“What a thing to look forward to,” Henrick said mockingly.

Suddenly, a large carriage stopped in front of the merchant building.
Laborers started to move large crates and chests, loading them onto the carriage.
Some of the chests were excessively heavy; they were magical chests with the capacity to store massive quantities of items.

It seemed as if the carriage was about to depart on a large trade expedition, filled to the brim with crates and chests.
The coachman whipped two large horses, and the carriage slowly departed; however, it stopped in front of the back alley Kang Yoon-Soo’s party was in.
Of course, the back alley was not wide enough for it to enter.

The coachman looked at the four people inside before saying, “Get on.”

“…Are all of those potions?” Shaneth asked.

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied from the coachman’s seat with a nod.

Shaneth was surprised, Henrick was laughing, Sally was amazed at the carriage, and Iris was just tilting her head in confusion.

“What is in that carriage?” Iris asked.

“Something you can’t eat,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“That’s too bad,” Iris said with a disappointed smile.

The party boarded the carriage, and Kang Yoon-Soo whipped the horses into motion again.
Sally insisted on sitting on the roof of the carriage; her voice reached all the way into the carriage as she exclaimed, “Wow! It’s so fast!”

As Kang Yoon-Soo was driving the carriage, he suddenly said in a low voice, “Open the chest in the left corner.”

Henrick was surprisingly quick when it came to such things, as he ran to the corner and quickly opened the chest.
The contents of the chest made him laugh as he exclaimed, “This is why I can’t help but like you!”

The contents of the chest were none other than alcohol; every single bottle was expensive and luxurious, and the glasses were just the right sizes. Henrick snatched up one of the glasses and poured a drink for Shaneth.
It was his attempt to preemptively stop her from nagging.

Shaneth glared at Henrick before receiving the glass and saying, “Don’t drink too much.”

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“No need to worry,” Henrick said as he laughed and kept pouring out drinks.
This time, the glass was meant for Iris.

“What is this?” Iris asked.

“To some, it might be referred to as a panacea; to others, it might be their reason to continue living,” Henrick replied poetically.

Iris accepted the glass with eyes full of curiosity. Kang Yoon-Soo and Henrick did not have glasses; rather, they each had a whole bottle of alcohol with them.

Sally climbed down from the roof of the carriage and peeked through the window, asking, “Papa! What about Sally?”

“Just have a taste,” Kang Yoon-Soo answered.

Kang Yoon-Soo was busy driving the carriage, so Henrick instead poured a sip of alcohol into a glass for Sally.
Sally curiously sniffed the alcohol, taking in its aroma.

The sky turned orange as the sun started to set.
The party shared a toast, watching the sunset from the rolling carriage.

***

They left the capital and camped outside once night fell. The night passed rather quickly, and the sun rose over them once again.
The Winterkill Ruin was still as cold and as eerie as ever; the carriage stopped in front of the ruin, and they unloaded the crates and chests containing the potions.

Kang Yoon-Soo opened a strange, small chest as soon as he got off the carriage.
It contained vials filled with a variety of different-colored potions.

“Drink,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“What are these?” Shaneth asked nervously.

“Enhancing Elixirs,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Shaneth gave Kang Yoon-Soo a skeptical look and asked, “…These aren’t going to have any strange side-effects like that Adrenaline Potion, are they?”

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The Enhancing Elixirs Kang Yoon-Soo had gotten from Sunset Glass could be considered the highest quality potions there were in that category. They nearly had no side effects, and they raised the user’s stats to the maximum almost immediately after taking them. They were one of the solutions he had prepared to close the level gap with the Martial Blood Clan.

“Summon White,” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered.

“Grrrowl!” White growled loudly as it was summoned.

Kang Yoon-Soo extended a bottle to it and commanded, “Drink.”

“…”

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As precious as the elixirs were, their availability was quite scarce, and Kang Yoon-Soo planned to have his party members drink them all up before the Martial Blood Clan arrived.

[You have consumed a Potion of Vitality.]

[Your movement speed will increase for half a day.]

[Your endurance has increased.]

[You have consumed a Potion of Strength.]

[Your attack power will increase for half a day.]

[Your muscle mass has increased.]

[You have consumed a Potion of Mana.]

[Your maximum mana will increase for half a day.]

[You have taken three kinds of potions at once.]

[The potion effects have been enhanced.]

The Martial Blood Clan soon arrived at the Winterkill Ruin; it seemed they had thoroughly prepared themselves for the raid, as they were heavily armed.

Jiang Ren-Wei exclaimed in surprise, “You really did prepare all the potions!”

Durman and the other clan members raised their weapons in fright as they saw White growl at them.
However, they soon breathed a sigh of relief after realizing it was one of Kang Yoon-Soo’s summons.

“To think you managed to tame that aggressive and vicious beast.
I really can’t seem to guess what kind of person you really are…” Durman muttered.

The Martial Blood Clan members took a potion each, storing the vials in their belts.
They did not have a separate healer in this raid, so they were provided an ample amount of potions.

Kang Yoon-Soo raised his right hand and said, “Summon 612 Undead Ahinkuls.” An undead legion emerged at his command.

Kang Yoon-Soo checked his backpack once more and pulled out the Sword of the Holy Cross he had obtained from the Castle of the Dead, strapping it to his waist alongside Ravian’s Longsword.
He had kept it in his backpack because he had previously had no use for it.

Jiang Ren-Wei approached him and asked, “Are you done with your preparations?”

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and moved to the front of the group before saying, “Let’s go.”

The doors of the cold ruin slowly opened.