A man’s scream erupted once again.
Right after the scream burst forth, dust scattered from the broken wall of the house.
“Ugh, the monster is putting up quite a resistance.”
Like a thug from a movie set in the ’90s, he squatted down, nonchalantly tapping his shoulder with a cane instead of a bat.
The landlord’s lips trembled as if he wanted to say something.
His shaking eyes, lost fingers, and quivering lips stood out, making it clear he knew the gravity of the situation.
According to the information Ji-eun gathered through inquiries, it seemed like the man had funneled money away somewhere.
It didn’t look like he would simply spit out the cash by talking, so a sense of tension filled the air.
“Owner? Let’s not drag this out, I know all about the hidden cash.”
He spoke with a tone and expression that conveyed annoyance at the world, scratching the back of his head.
As I pressed him about the concealed assets, the man turned visibly flustered, unable to keep still and darting anxious glances everywhere.
To top it all off, I delivered my ultimatum.
“Will you nicely return the money… or should I really make your stomach turn here? Choose.”
The man’s gaze wavered even more.
He was the crazy girl who burst into the house, crumpled the door like tissue paper, and smashed the walls as soon as the house went up for auction.
That girl was the magical girl standing right before me right now.
Thinking that one wrong word might have me smelling the incense from beyond the folding screen, the man’s complexion turned pale.
“Okay, okay, I get what you’re saying… So, let’s try to calm down, alright?”
“You made it impossible for me to calm down!”
With a shout, I kicked the wall that had already caved in, dust swirling up as rocks exploded.
When a person loses money, whether it’s a guy or a girl, they lose sight of everything.
Even if they lost money through voluntary gambling, it drives a person mad, but to lose money through fraud?
It’s miraculous I didn’t just smash the landlord’s head like a watermelon.
“Where’s the hidden cash?”
“Well, it’s… tough to give you cash right now…”
“What?”
The man mumbled, glancing nervously.
Just as I suspected he was about to babble some nonsense, I once again escalated the tension with a forceful remark.
The man cowered, partially covering his face with arms, unable to look me in the eye while his mouth kept running.
“Calm down, calm down, you must listen to the whole thing…”
The man’s attitude shifted to one of excessive politeness.
A middle-aged man forcefully shoved his fingernail into the gap of the wallpaper, peeling it back until the cement floor became visible.
Upon closer inspection, there was a subtle gap even in the revealed cement floor.
The man who brought a flathead screwdriver from somewhere inserted the tip into that gap and pulled out a small piece of cement.
Then a handle-like groove formed where a finger could fit in comfortably.
It was a basement that looked like a nuclear bunker from some game, sitting beneath the house.
“Ughhh…”
The man unfortunately couldn’t open that entrance himself.
“C-can you help me a little…?”
“Good grief.”
With a sigh, I bent down and lifted the entrance he was clinging to with both hands.
It wasn’t particularly large or thick for a cement lid.
Following the man who descended first using an already positioned metal ladder, I stepped into the basement.
In the center of the basement lay something wrapped in a waterproof tarp.
When the man lifted it off, stacks of gold bars, just like you’d see in a crime movie, were piled up inside.
Sure, I’d seen them in games or movies, but seeing them in reality was a first.
And I certainly did not expect to see gold bars like this.
It seemed the man made a big resolution, swallowing dry.
“Let’s go with three big ones, alright?”
“Just three?”
“W-well, do you know how much gold costs these days…?”
At the man’s incredulous response, I thought about it and pulled out my smartphone to look up gold prices I hadn’t cared about before.
105,000 won per gram, and if he was talking about a big one, that’s about 1 kg…
‘100 million…?’
This thin bar of gold, like a smartphone, was 100 million.
In a flash, the amount exceeded my realistic grasp and my thoughts halted.
And if he meant three, that was twice the deposit amount.
While chastising myself for just a moment ago saying ‘just,’ I carefully clutched the gold bars nestled between my fingers.
It was only a moment before I became lost in thought.
Remembering that various gemstones come with certificates, I demanded to see them.
“Where’s the certificate?”
“Oh, of course, I’ll give it to you.”
In that way, I received three 1 kg gold bars and three corresponding certificates with engraved serial numbers.
Now that I had my money back, there was no reason to stick around here any longer.
While flying back to the sky, I grabbed my smartphone and made a call.
The man probably thought he’d cleaned his hands of this and it was over, but of course, it wouldn’t end there.
“Hey, Mari. What happened?”
“We’re going to need to report this fast. He stupidly hid gold bars in his house.”
“Just as I suspected, there’s definitely something going on… Got it.”
The phone hurriedly disconnected, and I returned home, tightly clutching the certificates and 300 million won worth of gold.
Anyone who runs off with someone else’s money should be prepared to get taken for theirs too.
Thanks to the connections of my capable older sister Ji-eun, the landlord’s hidden assets were discovered and seized.
Of course, the office space that had gone up for auction was deemed “the landlord is capable of repaying” and canceled.
Just as I thought, it truly is a skill to extract taxes in South Korea, they wiped everything clean.
It’s incredibly difficult to get things back, I tell you.
“So, what do we do with this?”
“Yeah, what indeed.”
“Gold!”
With three gold bars resting on the floor, we all huddled together.
Ignoring Siyeon, who seemed happy just looking at pretty gold, I was at a loss with 3 kg of gold bars in front of me.
To be frank, this wasn’t just an amount you could think lightly about and casually buy or sell.
After all, I had the certificates and serial numbers, and since physical possessions are easy to trace, we needed to handle it with care.
Going to the bank to resell these bars would practically prove I was directly related to the previous owner who bought them.
Though tempted by the amount, I had no idea about this kind of issue.
“Is this really gold?”
“Yeah, each one is said to be worth 100 million.”
With eyes sparkling at the shiny gold, Siyeon pointed at the gold bar, asking for confirmation.
How she knew it was gold, I couldn’t tell, but Siyeon’s knowledge was rapidly increasing day by day.
Nodding, I nonchalantly recited the measurement.
“Wow! So expensive!”
“Yeah, super expensive.”
Maybe that’s why, without needing me to compare it to food anymore, Siyeon had already understood it’s an ‘incredibly large amount’ and was in shock.
She was in fourth grade now, learning about large number units in math.
If this solid gold bar was the size of a smartphone, she could eat chicken every day for ten years without any issue.
The difficulty of disposing of gold bars was secondary to another piece of good news.
“Are you planning to move out as soon as the lease ends?”
“That’s the plan. Just to get another piece of that bastard’s deposit.”
What did she mean by taking the deposit?
“The landlord must be really confused, thinking you’re just some tenant.”
“Exactly, I realized that too after coming here…”
That’s right.
The three 1 kg gold bars I had received as a replacement for the deposit.
From the landlord’s perspective, it must have seemed like a sweet deal for the deposit they’d double-crossed.
However…
In comparison to a regular apartment, it was cheaper to run studios or villas.
How would a landlord know which tenant received gold bars from which villa or office building?
In the end, the landlord would have to give up three gold bars, and when the lease contract ended, he’d have to return the full deposit of 150 million won to me.
“Wow, you made 300 million in one outing?”
“Looks like it.”
Thinking back to Ji-eun’s words, this trip was a downright ridiculous profit.
With the shiny gold bars in front of her, Ji-eun folded her arms, her head slightly tilted in curiosity as she asked slyly.
“But isn’t this all a bit too close to being a crime?”
“Oh come on… Don’t be that way, I helped out by getting rid of the monster that showed up at the house, and the landlord willingly transferred ownership out of joy.”
“Is that… really how it is?”
With my brilliant words, Ji-eun seemed momentarily lost, letting out an impression of vague acceptance.
In truth, it was all a criminal act.
Falsified monster alarms, breaking and entering, threats, and special theft… you name it.
If we look closely, there’s nothing that isn’t a crime, but it feels alright since the ones suffering are the criminals.
Moreover, Ji-eun and her associates who provided the fake monster alarm are accomplices too.
If those who cooperated just keep quiet along with the three of us here, it’d be foolproof.
Let’s call it an act of justice.
“Well then, for starters, we need to find people who will buy this.”
“Sure, I’ll handle it.”
In the brief silence that followed, Ji-eun took up her smartphone, looking for this contact and that.
Seemingly without needing to ask, she naturally began laundering the money.
Isn’t this a talent?
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