Chapter 2 Part 7

It could be said that a loser’s cry is just an excuse, but Jeong Tae-ui muttered with a sigh. Furthermore, the fact that this man wasn’t really prepared to beat him down also helped Jeong Tae-ui. He had been soft-hearted, thinking of merely threatening or intimidating, which is why he was caught so easily.

The man gripped Jeong Tae-ui’s wrist, which was pressing down on his shoulder. And he began to apply force as if to break the wrist. As if to remove him by brute force.

Jeong Tae-ui wasn’t confident he could overpower this man with brute force alone. Even if he resisted with all his might, could he last a minute? The situation would likely be completely reversed soon enough.

Damn it, he had never been beaten up in his life. Would it hurt a lot? It probably would. He just hoped they’d take him to the hospital in time.

Feeling the increasingly hostile gazes around them, Jeong Tae-ui clicked his tongue. Then he muttered to the man, who was barely a hand span away.

“But, you know what? Given that I’m as cowardly and petty as you say, how do you know what I might have in my pocket to let yourself be caught so easily and lie there? You must be the type who wouldn’t die even if your throat was slit, right?”

He placed the hand, still in his pocket, just below the man’s neck.

The man’s eyes met Jeong Tae-ui’s, who was muttering nonchalantly with an unreadable expression. A sharp tip touched the man’s neck, through a thin layer of clothing. For a moment, the man’s eyes widened. And the instant he saw those eyes, Jeong Tae-ui chuckled.

“But the problem is… you can’t slit a throat with a ballpoint pen.”

Pulling the ballpoint pen from his pocket and tossing it away, Jeong Tae-ui got off the man’s body and slumped onto the floor. The man glared at the ceiling with a frown, then suddenly sprang up, looked at Jeong Tae-ui, and shouted in a trembling voice.

“This bastard, not only is he cowardly, but he uses cheap tricks. This won’t do. Today, I’m going to fix that insolence of yours.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea, but I’ll go first. Alta.”

The person who muttered in an eerily low voice was Carlo Sagisawa, who had just removed his hand from his groin and stood up from the floor.

Jeong Tae-ui looked at him with a dejected expression. He had planned to keep a low profile, quietly focus on survival, endure for six months, and then leave, but now he had to worry about his life right from the start. If he had to point a finger, it was the fault of the one who brought him here.

In fact, if he considered it a natural course of events, it wouldn’t be Tou’s fault, but Jeong Tae-ui, looking for someone to resent, even if unfairly, glared at Tou with a dejected face. Tou, who had been watching among the crowd, flinched and frowned when his eyes met Jeong Tae-ui’s. Growing more and more dejected, to the point of completely losing his spirit, Jeong Tae-ui looked gloomily at the floor.

“By the way, who’s your connection that got you in here?”

A shadow fell over his head. When he looked up, Carlo Sagisawa, with sleeves rolled up, was right in front of him. It seemed he wanted to check his background first before smashing him.

The moment he was about to say, “There’s no such thing,” Tou quickly interjected.

“Instructor Jeong. Instructor Jeong Chang-in brought him.”

“Instructor Jeong?”

Carlo Sagisawa glanced at Tou, then turned back to Jeong Tae-ui and asked with a puzzled expression.

“How do you know Instructor Jeong?”

“…If we were close, would you just let my insolence slide?”

Carlo Sagisawa seemed to ponder for a moment, then tilted his head.

“Let’s hear it first.”

To him, who spoke in an accent that clearly indicated he still thought his insolence needed to be fixed even after hearing him out, Jeong Tae-ui stated the plain truth with a sigh.

“He’s my paternal uncle.”

“Instructor Jeong? …Your biological uncle?”

Carlo Sagisawa’s voice rose, and the surroundings stirred. Jeong Tae-ui, though not outwardly showing it, was inwardly a little flustered by the unexpected reaction from those around him.

Was his uncle such a well-known person that they’d react with such surprise? Being an Instructor must be a surprisingly influential position.

“Tae-ui… Jeong Tae-ui… Then what’s your relationship with Jeong Jae-ui? There’s a rumor that Jeong Jae-ui is also Instructor Jeong’s nephew, isn’t there?”

Carlo Sagisawa, who had muttered Jeong Tae-ui’s name with a slight mispronunciation, asked again with a serious face. Jeong Tae-ui, hearing his brother’s name also slightly mispronounced, was once again surprised.

He hadn’t imagined his brother’s name would come up in this situation. No, more than that, he didn’t even know why his brother’s name should come up here. Well, it was said that people weren’t confined to one branch and could be transferred to other branches or headquarters, so it was possible they had worked together when his brother was briefly at the Headquarters.

“He’s my brother.”

“Your brother? Your brother? Jeong Jae-ui? Your biological brother? That famous genius researcher, that elite genius who left without a trace once his contract ended, even when Headquarters begged him, offering immense wealth and power? That Jeong Jae-ui, who’s incredibly lucky and succeeds at everything he touches?”

Jeong Tae-ui frowned, pulling his face slightly away from the excited Carlo Sagisawa, who was shouting.

This was the first he’d heard of it. But Jeong Jae-ui and he had never really concerned themselves with each other’s work. So, it might actually have happened like that. It even seemed plausible.

It seemed his brother was a far greater celebrity than he had imagined.

“Yeah, that’s right. My brother. …So, are you just going to let my insolence slide now?”

He hoped that his brother’s Good Luck, empowered by his fame, might rub off on him, even just a little.

Carlo Sagisawa, who had been murmuring with the men who had drawn closer, exchanging phrases like ‘the one we only heard rumors about’ and ‘the legendary one,’ looked back at Jeong Tae-ui after hearing his words. Then he shrugged his shoulders and grimaced.

“What are you talking about? Of course, that’s a separate issue.”

Carlo Sagisawa, who had once again cracked his knuckles and flexed his wrists, leaned his head forward, looked at Jeong Tae-ui, and feigned pity.

“Looking at you, you have no brute strength, no skill. If you think you can’t win outright, why not just give up instead of using dirty tricks to bring trouble upon yourself?”

“But I won definitively with dirty tricks, didn’t I?”

“…”