Chapter 184

The address given by Meng Yao and the address provided by the loan shark were the same.

The Mania Mother and Daughter had indeed been taken by the loan sharks.

I urged Min Neong to fly quickly to that location.

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wakya-pya! Super high-speed flight, inu!

【Qkrnfl892】—Dude, Min Neong is crazy fast.

【Yoho】—Seems like they’re in serious flight mode.

【Meng Yao】—Guess they were flying slowly until now.

In less than 30 seconds, we arrived at the place where the Mania Mother and Daughter were.

Min Neong’s full-speed flight was unbelievably fast.

［Let’s go teach those bad humans a lesson!］

“We’re not going to teach them a lesson, so don’t get too excited.”

［Wangk-kwak? Are we just gonna forgive the kidnappers?］

“First, we need to go in and hear the full story. We don’t know what’s really going on yet.”

Min Neong and I entered a rather fancy-looking small building and took the elevator to the top floor, the 5th floor.

<5th floor.>

The door opened, revealing a long hallway.

At the end of the hallway was a door adorned with various jewels.

【Cheerful Hyeon Ji】—Wow. Is that the loan shark’s den? It’s so flashy.

【Handsome Licker】—They’ve gone all out with the money. Tsk tsk.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—F*cking bastards.

【Yoho】—Those are probably fake jewels.

【Qkrnfl892】—How do you know they’re fake?

【Yoho】—I’m not sure, but they just look fake. I’ve seen a lot of jewels, so I can kinda tell when they’re fake.

【Min Ji】—Of course they’re fake. What kind of crazy person would stick that many jewels on a door?

I strode up to the door and stopped.

I wasn’t planning to break in like usual.

I didn’t know if it was true or not, but the loan shark had texted me that they hadn’t harmed the Mania Mother and Daughter.

Even if things got rough.

It was better to understand the full situation before causing a scene.

*Creak.*

I grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and pushed the door open.

Right in front of the door, five women were kneeling with their heads to the ground.

Three of them seemed to be loan sharks, and the other two were the Mania Mother and Daughter.

【Se-hoon Defense Team】—?

【Big Girl】—???

【Qkrnfl892】—What’s this?

【Semen Thief】—Dude, why are they all kneeling like that?

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wakya-pya? What’s going on here?

【Handsome Licker】—Is this a hidden camera? *Lick.*

The absurd scene left me speechless.

Seeing this made it even harder to guess what was going on.

Was this a hidden camera prank?

That thought even crossed my mind.

Dumbfounded, I asked the people kneeling on the ground.

“···What are you all doing right now?”

“Oh, you’re here! Big Brother!”

One of the loan sharks jumped up from his spot.

He was someone I’d met before in another office.

Had I broken his arm?

I couldn’t quite remember, but his face looked vaguely familiar.

And I think he was the loan shark who texted me.

“Manager? What do you mean, ‘Big Brother’…?”

“Wow… Are you a celebrity…? Your face looks familiar…”

The others started getting up one by one.

The two loan sharks who stood up next were strangers.

They were probably subordinates of the manager who had stood up first.

“Huh? Se-hoon, the god? What brings you here?”

“Se-hoon? Why are you here? Did you come to see us?”

Finally, the Mania Mother and Daughter stood up.

Do Mi-rae and Do Mi-so asked with wide eyes, looking surprised.

Judging by their appearance, it didn’t seem like they’d been treated badly, as the manager had said.

Without answering the Mania Mother and Daughter’s questions, I turned my head and looked at the manager.

“······First, can you tell me what’s going on here?”

***

Sitting on a plush leather sofa, sipping tea, I listened to the manager explain the whole story.

In summary.

The loan sharks had been helping the Mania Mother and Daughter find jobs to repay the money they owed. But since Do Mi-rae kept getting fired from every job, they had no choice but to bring her here. They planned to provide food and shelter until Do Mi-rae found a job that suited her. They confiscated her phone because she was always glued to it, like an addict.

Additionally.

They weren’t planning to charge interest.

They just wanted the principal back and were planning to leave the loan shark business.

Etc.

They even explained things I hadn’t asked about.

【Maehwa Tree】—Are those guys really loan sharks?

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Right? Since when are loan sharks this nice? Wtf.

【Meng Yao】—The bad loan sharks must’ve all died.

【Handsome Licker】—At least the Mania duo is safe. *Lick.*

【Cat-eared Woman】—But do loan sharks even help people find jobs these days?

【Qkrnfl892】—No way.

【Se-hoon Defense Team】—Aren’t these guys just a special case? Lol.

After hearing the explanation.

I scratched my head and asked the manager.

“Wait, from what I heard, you didn’t really do anything wrong. So why were you all kneeling earlier? I thought you’d committed some huge crime.”

“Well… No matter how you spin it, we did technically kidnap your acquaintances…”

“This doesn’t really count as kidnapping. You said if Mi-rae and Mi-so had refused to come, you wouldn’t have forced them.”

For some reason.

The manager’s face turned pale, and he hung his head low.

He looked completely terrified.

【Maid】—Warkya-pya! He’s totally scared!

【Kyu Mi-ho】—Kyu? Why is he like that?

【Jujijoa】—Probably traumatized from getting beaten up by Se-hoon before.

“Anyway, I’m not planning to blame you for this, so you don’t need to be so scared.”

I lightly tapped the manager’s arm as I spoke.

He flinched and shrank back.

“Eek…!”

【Se-hoon Defense Team】—Lol, how badly did you beat him up for him to be like this?

【Jujijoa】—Did you torture him or something?

Seeing the manager trembling, the other loan sharks glanced at each other and whispered.

“What’s wrong with the manager?”

“I don’t know. Does he have a phobia of men?”

“Maybe? Now that I think about it, he sometimes gives me weird looks. Maybe he hates the opposite sex and prefers the same sex.”

“F*ck. If I quit, I’m blocking the manager’s number.”

They didn’t seem to understand why the manager was acting like this.

Of course, I didn’t either.

I don’t remember doing anything particularly harsh to him.

Except breaking his arm.

‘…Come to think of it, I think I broke one of the loan sharks’ arms five times in a row. Could that have been this manager?’

As memories of the past started resurfacing, I decided it wasn’t worth dwelling on and shook them off.

Then, I looked at the Mania Mother and Daughter, who were happily slurping down their soup, and asked.

“By the way, why were you two kneeling too?”

“We just followed what the others were doing.”

“It felt weird to just sit there comfortably.”

As expected, Do Mi-so and Do Mi-rae were not normal.

“Big Brother… I clearly told them to sit on the sofa, but they insisted on kneeling too…”

The manager was still trembling because of their actions.

Whether they knew it or not.

The Mania Mother and Daughter were completely focused on eating their soup.

Like they hadn’t eaten in days.

“Manager. You didn’t starve them, did you? They’re eating like they’ve been starving.”

“N-no, absolutely not! They just eat a lot!”

The manager answered, startled by my question.

Do Mi-so and Do Mi-rae also chimed in.

“We weren’t starved! We’re just eating a lot because it’s free food!”

“Yeah. We weren’t starved.”

They were the kind of people who made others misunderstand them.

Anyway.

While the Mania Mother and Daughter ate, I decided to talk a bit more with the loan shark manager.

Since I had nothing else to do while waiting.

***

“How much is the debt?”

“25 million won.”

“That’s 25 million won excluding interest, right? Just the principal?”

“Yes. Our office is planning to just recover the principal and leave the loan shark business.”

As we talked, the manager gradually calmed down.

Unlike before.

Perhaps because I was being unusually kind, his fear and terror toward me seemed to have lessened.

The manager, keeping an eye on the Mania Mother and Daughter, leaned in close and whispered to me.

“Actually, the debt is 30 million won… But since it didn’t seem like they’d be able to pay it back, I secretly reduced it by 5 million won.”

“You secretly reduced it? Don’t tell me they don’t even know how much they borrowed?”

“…That’s right. Honestly, I thought they’d be grateful and even cry, but they just thought it was 25 million won and didn’t say anything.”

The more I listened, the more I realized how hopeless this mother and daughter were.

Anyway, the Mania Mother and Daughter’s debt was currently 25 million won.

According to the loan sharks.

Do Mi-rae’s bank account currently had 300,000 won.

To pay off the debt, they’d need to earn another 24.7 million won.

At first, I thought I’d just pay it off for them…

But after talking with the loan sharks, I decided to change my plan slightly after hearing one particular thing.

“Manager, the person next to you is named…”

“Geum Sa-rang!”

The loan shark sitting next to the manager.

A woman named Geum Sa-rang had casually mentioned something.

Do Mi-rae seems to have a talent for sculpting.

So, we’re thinking of finding her a job related to sculpting.

And by the way, it seems Do Mi-so sold high-quality sculptures to the parents at her school for just 10,000 to 20,000 won. It feels like they were scammed.

The key point here was the last part.

“Sa-rang. Are you sure the parents at Mi-so’s school bought sculptures for 10,000 to 20,000 won?”

“Yes. I heard it clearly.”

“…Then we can use that to pay off the debt.”

“Huh?”

I looked around at the three loan sharks and explained my plan.

Originally, I was going to pay off the debt myself.

But that would just spoil Do Mi-rae and Do Mi-so.

So, I decided to have them pay it off with money they earned themselves.

From selling sculptures.

When I said that, the loan shark manager looked puzzled.

“Money from selling sculptures? What do you mean…?”

“Exactly that. We’ll track down the parents who bought the sculptures for cheap and get them to pay the full price. We’ll use that to pay off the debt.”

We’ll get the money from the parents.

The money Do Mi-rae should’ve gotten in the first place.

After all, collecting money is their specialty, right?

When I added that, the loan sharks nodded one by one and agreed to join the plan.

“Not a bad idea. I like it.”

“Oh, this is good! I was just thinking about how to deal with those parent bastards!”

“We’re loan sharks, so we’re used to collecting money we didn’t even lend… This should work.”

We decided to execute the plan today.

***

Coincidentally.

The office I had raided in the past was a gathering place for loan sharks nationwide.

And the loan sharks who had attended that meeting.

The ones I had beaten up were all gathered in the office I was in now.

I had called them here.

I asked anyone who could come to gather here, and loan sharks from distant regions had rushed over.

“““Long time no see, Big Brother!!!”””

The loan sharks’ booming voices echoed throughout the building.

By the way, I had already explained that the whole kidnapping thing was just a misunderstanding.

I didn’t want these loan sharks to get into trouble.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—What the hell are these guys?

【Yoho】—They seem to be loan sharks from other regions.

【Se-hoon Defense Team】—Are they all Se-hoon’s underlings?

【Jujijoa】—Seems like it.

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wakya-pya… Se-hoon’s true identity is a nationwide loan shark…

【Maehwa Tree】—They all look so rough.

【Big Girl】—Loan sharks are supposed to look rough. But they’re still just half-moons.

【Meng Yao】—But why did he call all the loan sharks here?

【Jujijoa】—He said they’re going to squeeze money out of the parents. Didn’t you hear earlier?

The first phase of preparation was done.

The second phase was to disguise myself so people wouldn’t recognize me.

It’s a bit awkward for me to say this, but I’m kind of a celebrity, so a lot of people recognize me.

I can’t just go around extorting money with my face exposed.

Anyway, once the disguise is done.

We’ll track down the parents who bought Do Mi-rae’s sculptures for cheap and get them to pay the full price.

With a nationwide group of loan sharks in tow.

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