The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 326 Boss Quan (7) - The Spear Demon Fill the cup noodle container with hot water up to the marked line, cover it, and wait. Once the noodles are fully cooked, slurp and munch them down with a triangle rice ball. It was a combination he used to quite like and enjoy eating, but after resolving most of his meals with this for several months now, he was getting sick of it. If he hadn't been eating the effervescent vitamins and cheap sausages he'd stockpiled during sales every now and then, his body would have already broken down. "Hah, life really." Twenty-five. Too old to be called a new member of society, but a young man who hadn't properly established himself either, Jun-seok sighed blankly in his small rented room. "Damn manager bastard. I shouldn't have believed what he said." Those naive days when he knew nothing. In the first year, they said being a contract worker was natural, so he just accepted it. They said they'd convert him to a regular employee after one year. The next year, even when they said the company circumstances were difficult and he couldn't be converted to a regular employee, he accepted it. He was still a contract worker, but at least his salary had increased. They say escape is in order of intelligence. Looking at it that way, Jun-seok thought he was truly lacking in intelligence. Because his salary had increased even a little, because they said this would all be recognized as experience later, because they said society was in a recession and there were plenty of people who couldn't get jobs and were unemployed. Most of all, because it seemed too wasteful to quit now after enduring for so long. The result of enduring like that for several years was the workplace's disappearance due to poor management. The employees pestered the boss and upper management to at least pay out severance, and even filed reports, but the results were unsatisfactory. They went in and out of court for months and clearly received a favorable judgment, but there was just talk about retrials and collections, and nothing actually came to Jun-seok and the other employees. Even though he saw with his own eyes that the bosses and managers were perfectly fine, driving cars, wearing nice clothes, and doing something else in decent new offices, the logic was that those weren't their assets but merely borrowed from "someone else," so they couldn't be seized. Jun-seok, who didn't know much about law, couldn't understand it at all. Can't they just really cut open the bellies of those who say they have no money? Whether it's prison or a gulag, just throw them in and work them until they pay up. If they really have no money, make them work and send those wages to the victims, and if they do have money, they'll figure out how to recover it and pay back somehow. Why are those who destroyed the lives of dozens of people including himself playing such obvious tricks, while the country just overlooks it? "Dirty world. Those with money are all in cahoots." It was a day when he wanted to have at least a drink of soju, but unfortunately, even that was just a luxury given Jun-seok's wallet situation. With no choice, Jun-seok took out his phone as if trying to forget the world's troubles. The screen of the old smartphone, which he couldn't even remember how many years it had been since he bought it, was covered in a spiderweb of fine cracks, but it wasn't so bad that he couldn't use it if he endured. Then, as if on cue, a message popped up with a vibration. [Senior Sang-hyeon] Kim Sang-hyeon. A returning student senior from college who used to share cup noodles in the corner of the department room while giggling that "this life is screwed." The message from him, who had suddenly cut contact two years ago, was short and powerful. [Jun-seok, let's have a meal. I will pay.] The address included with the message was a place he'd seen several times on video platforms. A high-end restaurant where even the cheapest menu item was equivalent to Jun-seok's two weeks' worth of food expenses. 'Did he send it to the wrong person?' Jun-seok swallowed hard. The last image he remembered of Sang-hyeon was of a returning student pulling his hair out over student loan interest. It seemed dubious that such a senior would suddenly want to buy him food at a place like this, but when he sent a confirmation message just in case, the only reply was that the place was correct. And this was just the beginning. Vroom— Along with the smooth exhaust sound, a metallic gray imported sedan smoothly pulled up in front of Jun-seok, who was standing blankly in front of the meeting place. It was a foreign car that would easily cost 100 million won even at a rough estimate. Of course, compared to the ultra-luxury lineup that real rich people drive, it was a luxury car in the realistic category, but to Jun-seok's eyes, it looked more intimidating than the president's ceremonial vehicle. The car door opened, and a man got out. Hair neatly slicked back with pomade, a custom suit that fit his body as if measured with a ruler, and a luxury watch exuding a heavy presence from his wrist. "Hey, Lee Jun-seok!" It was Sang-hyeon. Approaching while exuding the scent of refined leather and subtle sweet perfume, Sang-hyeon heartily patted Jun-seok's shoulder. There was no trace of his previous shabby and intimidated appearance no matter how hard you looked. "Senior...? Is it really you, Sang-hyeon?" "You bastard, after seeing someone after so long, where are you looking and why are you stuttering? Let's go in. I'm hungry." The inside of the restaurant he was dragged into in a daze was like a paradise. Subtle classical music flowed, and waiters guided them with utmost courtesy. Sang-hyeon ordered the finest steak course and wine without even looking at the menu, with an unhesitating attitude. Whether he had made a reservation order or not, the food came out almost immediately without waiting, but Jun-seok couldn't bring himself to touch it even while holding the fork. Because the reality before his eyes was completely unbelievable. Sang-hyeon lightly swirled his wine glass and smiled leisurely. "Why aren't you eating? Since I am paying, don't worry about anything and eat to your heart's content. You've been through a lot." "Senior, tell me honestly. What on earth happened? Just two years ago, you were with me debating whether to get a semi-basement room or not. ...Did you perhaps win the lottery?" At Jun-seok's question, Sang-hyeon's lips curled up strangely. "Not the lottery, but business. I had a good connection." "What kind of business?" "Well, it's a bit much to just tell you outright. That's how money works. If everyone knows and starts jumping in like loaches, it all becomes muddy water and everyone dies together." As Sang-hyeon stalled like that, Jun-seok became even more anxious. After all kinds of pleading and coaxing—please tell me, was this all there was between senior and me—Sang-hyeon reluctantly revealed information about a special lecture that could only be attended through member referral, and Jun-seok was overjoyed. ...Looking back, this itself was a kind of bait, but Jun-seok at the time had no idea. The lecture he directly attended, honestly speaking, didn't feel particularly brilliant or groundbreaking in terms of content alone. If anything, it strangely evaded specific profit models and felt like it was just continuing with pie-in-the-sky talk. Yet the reason Jun-seok couldn't dismiss it as foolish was precisely because of the atmosphere. Every time the instructor spoke a word, crazy cheers erupted from all directions and standing ovations that shook the ceiling. Seeing young people in suits who seemed much smarter and more capable than himself all nodding in unison and passionately participating in the lecture, Jun-seok couldn't shake the anxiety of 'Maybe that really is amazing and I'm the only one who doesn't understand?' "Those of you hesitating now will live and die as slaves to poverty for the rest of your lives! Will you just live being beaten down by those privileged bastards? Prove your worth and stand above those bastards' heads!" The instructor distributed contracts, saying they were recruiting investors to participate in this new deal, and threatened that they would cut people on a first-come, first-served basis starting with those who submitted contracts quickly. The fear that if only he missed this opportunity, he might have to live as a dropout eating convenience store lunch boxes for the rest of his life. In his anxiety to somehow submit quickly and get into the first-come group, Jun-seok hastily wrote only his name and submitted it without having time to properly read the contract, and that was the problem. "Gah!!" Pain as if something with sharp teeth had bitten and torn his torso. Jun-seok, who had collapsed to the floor, desperately called for help, but no one helped him. About a third of those in the lecture room, like Jun-seok, had hastily written contracts and were now writhing on the floor, while the rest just smiled as if everything was going according to plan as they watched them. When Jun-seok, who had lost consciousness in terrible pain, opened his eyes again, he had fallen into slavery. "You are now Gulgak. In simple terms, bronze rank members." "If you succeed in luring three people to become our members, then you become Ieol. That is, silver rank." "If you accumulate more results from there? Then you can rise to Yukhon. That is, gold rank." Multi-level marketing. There were no plausible products or groundbreaking technology like what was talked about in the lecture anywhere, just a structure where when new members joined, the member who lured them in received dividend profits. Whether new members had money or not wasn't that important. If they had no money, they forced them to take loans from third-tier financial institutions or whatever to extract investment funds. Refusal was impossible. Because after writing the contract, the tiger-shaped tattoo carved near Jun-seok's armpit burrowed into his body like a living creature, inflicting terrible pain. Among the new members, there were some who stubbornly tried to report them first, thinking they could just endure the pain, but they did not get their way. Because the tiger tattoo didn't just stop at inflicting pain, but took on physical form and completely bit and tore around that member's heart, killing them. Among the new members whose lower halves had become wet with fear, the instructor with tiger-like eyes rather than human ones spoke. "Do you want freedom? Then bring sacrifices to replace yourselves!" "The money you invested! The debt you owe! The tattoos carved on you! Just push it all onto new people and you're done!" "You don't need to fear retaliation or resentment! Just as you can't lay a finger on the members who lured you now, the new people will be the same!" Several months passed from then. Jun-seok's life was far more miserably ruined than when he had been getting by on convenience store lunch boxes. Both his body and mind were already no different from a wreck. His rank was still Gulgak. While other peers had quickly compromised with reality and each achieved success, or at least managed to somehow pay off their own debts, Jun-seok had been suffering for months without producing a single result. It might have been conscience that he couldn't put others in hell in his place, or it might have been stubbornness that he wouldn't play along with the wishes of those who had scammed him. However, the price of maintaining human dignity was harsh. Since there were no results, the loan principal and interest accumulated entirely as Jun-seok's burden, and the pain that his "direct supervisor" Sang-hyeon inflicted by activating the tiger tattoo at every settlement report was terrible. Then one day. His trainer and the enemy who had pushed him into this pit of destruction, Sang-hyeon, entered the consultation room with an undeniably greedy smile filling his face. The moment he saw a woman who entered following Sang-hyeon, Jun-seok unconsciously swallowed. She was a woman with blindingly beautiful and elegant appearance. Judging by her appearance, probably mixed-race. Her braided silver hair hanging in two strands and youthful face gave a still young impression, but her body curves were quite intense for someone like that. The blue off-shoulder dress that boldly revealed her shoulders and collarbone gave a somewhat flashy impression for everyday wear, perhaps suitable for a party venue, but the woman had the charm and elegance to carry it off effortlessly. "But will it be okay? This is my first time with this kind of investment." "Of course! It's perfectly fine! I'll cleanly handle all the parts that might be inconvenient for you, so just leave it all to me!" Sang-hyeon, who had been full of himself lately with the gold rank just around the corner, was fawning over the woman to a degree that felt servile. Jun-seok could clearly see his ulterior motives. She obviously seemed like a young lady from some wealthy family, so he must be thinking it would be a jackpot if he could just get her under him. The more investment money that young lady put in, and the more investment money from upper-class people she would newly bring in, the more crumbs he, who was directly above her, would get. Jun-seok looked at her with unfocused eyes. His fingertips trembled. He couldn't let such an innocent and beautiful young lady who didn't know the ways of the world fall into this miserable life. And above all, burning hatred toward Sang-hyeon raised its head from deep in his heart. That bastard Sang-hyeon who had deceived him and made him a slave—he absolutely did not want to see him catch such a huge fish, improve his performance, and thrive in the organization. He had to see this bastard properly fucked over. Jun-seok, who had been anxiously watching for an opportunity around the reception room where Sang-hyeon and the woman had entered, quickly approached her when she stopped by the bathroom. His heart pounded as if it would burst. Not only Sang-hyeon, but if any other high-ranking member saw this and activated the tattoo, terrible pain would surely strike him. No, in the worst case, it might not end with just pain, but he might be completely devoured by the tattoo like those other peers he saw on the first day. However, the courage that 'spite' gave him was tremendous. "Excuse me...! Listen carefully to what I'm saying. Run away from here right now." "What do you mean?" The woman tilted her head with a puzzled expression. It wouldn't be strange if she found it suspicious that a man she'd never seen before suddenly grabbed her and said such things. Jun-seok swallowed dryly in his anxiety and continued speaking. "This is a multi-level marketing scam group that's only flashy on the surface! I don't know what that bastard told you, but it's all lies, and soon they'll pressure you to sign a contract. If you sign that, your life is really over—you become a slave! Please don't look back and get out quickly! Hurry!" He didn't say things like asking her to report to the police. Because he knew that while the tattoo was usually in an inactive state, the moment certain forbidden keywords were spoken or acted upon, it would immediately harm the host. Honestly speaking, even this current action was quite risky. "......" The woman didn't answer readily. Does she not believe me after all? Just as Jun-seok was about to speak more persuasively. "What? Local collaborator? I'm fine without that kind of thing." Sudden muttering to herself. No, seeing her as if she was conversing with someone, Jun-seok's eyes widened. He looked to see if she might be wearing earphones, but there was nothing visible in the woman's ears. Jun-seok pressed urgently as his insides burned with anxiety. "Listen, this isn't the time to be doing this—" Thunk! Jun-seok's words stopped. He looked down. The woman's index finger. It had transformed into something like a long cone, and was piercing deep into the area near Jun-seok's left chest—the area where the 'tattoo' was carved. The woman. Qiana said. "Consider yourself lucky."