Chapter 117
I had conquered three dungeons alone while Woo Yeon-Hee was adjusting after upgrading her Strength and Agility. Then, we did twelve together in total. Two months after I arrived in North America, I conquered my fifteenth dungeon on the continent. In other words, I had conquered one dungeon every four days including maintenance and traveling time.
[Total points: 53200]
“What about you?” I asked.
Woo Yeon-Hee replied, “47310.”
Our tight schedule for the past two months had a disadvantage. Although she had filled her skill sets with things that didn’t need to be handed over to me and upgraded her stats, she had lost her smile. Woo Yeon-hee was indifferently looking at the wasteland outside the window, and she seemed lethargic as if she was grieving over her restlessness. It couldn’t be helped since her mind was filled with corpses and she murmured about dungeons even in her sleep. Last night, she shouted out Mary’s Hand a lot.
“Mick,” I called him.
“Yes.”
“Enter highway number fifteen.”
He asked deferentially, “Where do you want me to drop you off?”
I responded, “Wilson Hotel.”
Then, Woo Yeon-Hee looked at me and asked, “Why a hotel?”
I pointed to a sign outside that said ‘Welcome to Las Vegas.’
“I thought dungeons were in deserted areas,” Woo Yeon-Hee said in a whisper as if she wouldn’t expect anything, but her eyes shone with anticipation.
Las Vegas was really the dreamland that everyone wanted to visit, and it was the same for her even in this state.
“Everyone, disarm yourselves. We’ll take a rest in Las Vegas,” I said.
My words triggered their desire to sleep with call girls as they were making lots of money. It was the first time the air in the car had lightened up in two months.
“Don’t change your mind, okay?”
Woo Yeon-Hee sounded excited and a smile appeared on her face. Hunters couldn’t work endlessly, so we poured all our enthusiasm into brothels and gambling after conquering each dungeon. Las Vegas was the perfect spot to relieve stress, so I couldn’t just pass it by. Woo Yeon-Hee must have endured a lot of strain.
***
While Woo Yeon-Hee was concentrating on the slot machine like a basic traveler, I was playing blackjack in a VIP room as it was the only game I could earn some money at a casino. While I had lots of money, I didn’t want to lose a single penny. The method I used in a sloppy gambling house in the past could no longer be applied here. Back then, the house only played with three decks of cards, so it was easy for me to do card counting[1]. The one million dollars I had placed down had grown into 1.3 million dollars. I aimed to earn just short of the limit that would get me in their ‘Black Book[2].’
Since I had to maintain my focus, I had a raging headache, but it was worth it. I lost ten thousand dollars and thought of it as returning the money I had earned from the casino in my past life. It was similar to the way I gave portions of control over Singapore and the Philippines economy to hedge funds during the Asian financial crisis.
When I earned fifty thousand dollars, I heard someone speaking a familiar language.
“You guys play here. I’ll play a round of blackjack.”
The person was speaking in Korean, and even the voice was familiar. He sat next to me and placed his chips on the table after glancing at me. It looked like he had put down more than five million.
“Korea?” the man asked, and then I remembered his face. Since he wasn’t an important figure, it took me a while to recognize him. He was the guy who had raised a commotion on a plane to Seoul one year ago and swore at me.
‘Lower your eyes, you little punk!’
He was Jo Chang-Ho, the son of the CEO of the Hansil Group?that led Korea’s aviation, machinery, food and distribution industries. He was also the head of a department. I saw no need to talk to him as he was pouring money into casinos while Korea was still suffering from the IMF crisis. When I was about to move to a different table, he spoke to me.
“I’m Jo Chang-Ho. Since you are also from Korea, let’s introduce ourselves.”
He clearly didn’t remember me and motioned with his chin, commanding me to sit down. He must have been rude his entire life since he disdained everyone he saw, even when he was in the U.S. I scoffed inwardly. Hansil Group was one of the top ten Korean business industries, but it was not a known name in the U.S. In fact, I would have to explain to people that it managed Korean national airplanes.
The dealer was waiting for me, so I sat back down and bet a ten thousand chip. The man had bet a hundred thousand.
“Are you not going to introduce yourself?” he asked.
“Let’s stop chatting and focus on the game,” I said.
“Chatting? Ha…!”
I said bluntly, “This is not Korea. Keep in mind that if you cause any disturbance, they will kick us out. A blackjack table is not a place for formal introductions.”
Because of his slightly raised voice, the guards began to keep an eye on us. He frowned, but nodded, then he changed his expression to a sneer. In this round, I won and he lost.
“Ten thousand dollars is so little,” he deliberately muttered out loud so that I could hear him. He bet another hundred thousand dollars. As I had mentioned, blackjack was the only game the player had a chance of winning by 49.9 percent. The Las Vegas casino was designed with a winning rate that was incomparable to the casino in Gangwon-do[3].
He won a hundred thousand in the second round and looked at me proudly. He seemed to be more interested in the fact that he was playing with a Korean, not the game itself. However, his chips disappeared while mine increased. When my total reached two million dollars, he had lost all five million dollars, and I seemed to have crushed his pride.
He ignored his secretary’s advice and had him bring more chips. I then started to raise my bets. If such a loser was pouring money on the table, I thought winning more wouldn’t place me in the ‘Black Book’ since the casino was raking in cash.
He lost all of his chips again, and half of them were on my side of the table.
“You should stop,” the secretary told him.
The money he spent must have been slush funds of the Hansil Group, not his personal property. Also, since I held the majority of Hansil shares, his misconduct would be my loss. I opened my mouth then.
“You should stop.”
He snapped, “Don’t meddle. You must be overconfident at winning a bit. You don’t know anything about this. Ew, look at your clothes.”
He wasn’t even drunk when he said those words. His secretary instead apologized like he had done so often.
“Director, please get up now. You’ve already spent a lot,” the secretary almost begged him.
“...”
“You’ll get into big trouble.”
He was already in trouble as he had squandered twenty million dollars of foreign currency within one hour of stopping by in Las Vegas. If the money had not been laundered properly, things would go haywire on his return to Korea. Of course, it might not be publicized, but he would get a phone call tonight. Since I had watched everything he had done, I couldn’t let this guy stay in Hansil.
He eventually got up, pretending that he couldn’t resist his secretary’s pleas.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the poker table tomorrow at the same time on this floor,” he said before leaving.
I felt like I’d never see him again, but I encountered him again in front of the elevator after I had a nice dinner and watched a spectacular circus performance with Woo Yeon-Hee. He was putting his arm around a call girl’s shoulder. He must have recognized us but didn’t look at us after making eye contact with me. Then, he started bragging about his job to the call girl for us to hear.
“Do you know about the Jonathan Investment Finance Group? Their hedge funds don’t accept any money, and usually take a large amount of funds,” he said.
I realized that he had lost twenty million dollars of his firm’s reserve money.
“The world is so tiny, right?” Woo Yeon-Hee whispered.
Since she didn’t want to talk to Jo Chang-Ho, she stood close to me. A decent number of other guests were waiting for the elevator around us. We each pressed the buttons for our hotel floors in the elevator. His was on the fortieth floor, which was a high-class suite. He was the only one staying on that floor in the elevator, so everyone paid attention to him.
However, it didn’t last long as I pressed the button on the highest floor of the hotel. He grimaced since everyone turned their heads toward me.
As soon as I entered the room, I called Jamie.
<Seon-Hu: Set up a meeting with the Hansil Group’s shareholders and start auditing. Also, I don’t believe Jo Chang-Ho, the director and a descendant of the founder, will be helpful to the group.>
That was more than enough to kick him out of the group.
1. A strategy where the person memorizes the deck of cards and calculates the probability of winning. 👈
2. A list of people who are unwelcome and blacklisted in casinos. 👈
3. A province on the east side of Korea. 👈
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