Free Web Novel“So, Director Volk is saying your company can supply what I want? Am I understanding that correctly?”
“Of course. Our Volcano Trading handles a wide variety of goods.”
“Volcano? Does that happen to mean volcano?”
At Junho’s question, Viktor Volk Choi—once again the calm, intelligent mixed-blood Koryo-saram Russian businessman—showed a flicker of interest in his eyes.
“You know Russian?”
“No, not really. I just once helped a Russian guy out personally a long time ago. I only learned a few words from him, that’s all.”
“Oh... and what kind of help was that?”
“...Nothing much. Just a small favor.”
At this point, should he call it the future or the past...?
Looking calmly at the very man whose life he had saved, Junho answered in an even voice.
Viktor Volk Choi held his gaze for a moment, then grinned.
“So despite the slight misunderstanding we had at the start, it seems you don’t hold any bad feelings toward Russians. In any case, let me apologize once again for my employees’ mistake. Then shall we get straight to business?”
“Go ahead.”
“I hear you need specialty pharmaceuticals? I got the general outline of your pension from the counselor.”
“Yes. Thanks to Lawyer Lee Dongcheol, I’ve managed to secure the medical equipment, but because of the nature of our pension, procuring pharmaceuticals is a bit of a problem.”
At a glance from Viktor Volk Choi, Lee Dongcheol respectfully held out a tablet to Junho.
On it, complex drug names were neatly organized in both Korean and English, along with each item’s purpose and effects for easy viewing.
“Antibiotics, local anesthetics, general anesthetics, painkillers, antipyretics, hemostatic agents, IV fluids, steroids, anti-shock drugs. Even some vaccines are possible.”
“How reliable are they?”
When Junho asked, Viktor Volk Choi’s eyes sharpened with interest as he countered,
“You’re not going to ask how we can get all this?”
“You said you do major business in the Russian Far East, didn’t you? Then I figured you deal in all kinds of things. That region’s kind of been like that since the nineties, hasn’t it? I’ve studied a little history.”
At that, Viktor Volk Choi nodded.
Truth be told, it was barely even history study.
The Primorsky region centered around Vladivostok had long been heavily influenced by Korea, China, and Japan, and especially after the Soviet Union collapsed, it had become a place that could barely sustain itself without those three countries.
“There’s no issue with reliability. Everything passes Korean, Japanese, or European standards. And if you want, we can also get you dedicated pharmaceutical refrigerators and freezers.”
“Really? You handle a pretty wide range of goods.”
“In Korea and Japan, I think they call it a general trading company? You can think of Volcano Trading as something similar.”
Well, Russian mafias dealt in anything that made money.
Looked at that way, calling it a general trading company was not exactly wrong.
And Junho knew about one special kind of product the Volcano Group had handled even in the apocalypse.
“Then... do you happen to sell fuel too?”
“Fuel... meaning?”
“Gasoline or diesel. Engine oil and other machine-related stuff would be good too.”
“Oh...”
Seeing the look in Viktor’s eyes, as if asking why, Junho shrugged.
“I don’t know how it is in Russia, but in Korea, buying fuel in large quantities is a bit of a hassle. You need all sorts of permits and paperwork... anyway, it’s a pain in the ass. So if your company also dealt in petroleum, I was going to buy some together with the pharmaceuticals. If not, that’s fine.”
“No, I think we can get that for you. Would premium gasoline and automotive ULSD diesel work? How much would you need?”
“Oh, I don’t need fuel right away. Probably next summer or fall, roughly? That’s when I’d like to buy it.”
“Very well. Let me know when you need it.”
“I will. For now, I’ll just buy the pharmaceuticals listed here. Let’s say I wanted enough in the first round to treat around a hundred people. How much would that be?”
“We’d need to factor in customs risk and commissions. In Korean currency... I think around 150 million won should do it. That includes a twenty percent commission.”
“Oh? That’s cheaper than I expected.”
“That would make sense. Normally the commission is thirty percent.”
“Huh? Then why am I getting twenty?”
At Junho’s look of surprise, Viktor Volk Choi let out a short laugh.
“Because I like you, President Lee. Clients as straightforward as you are hard to come by. And ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ since it sounds like you’ll need other things too, I imagine we’ll be seeing each other often from now on.”
“See? Even Director Choi thinks so. I told you, didn’t I? He’s a very straightforward man. No grudges, no lingering resentment, none of that.”
Lee Dongcheol, who had been silent until now, stepped in.
Viktor Volk Choi smiled at him and nodded.
“I’m grateful to Counselor Lee as well for connecting me with such a good client. In any case, President Lee Junho.”
Shifting his gaze back to Junho, Viktor Volk Choi reached inside his black jacket, pulled something out, and held it toward him.
“If you pass along the items you want and the quantities through Lawyer Lee Dongcheol, you’ll be contacted through this.”
Handing Junho an old-model phone, Viktor Volk Choi rose from his seat.
Then he looked at Junho with a meaningful gaze and said,
“I like your type, President Lee Junho. I can’t stand people who talk too much, doubt too much, and keep weighing this and that. Of course, in business, a certain amount of caution is necessary... but at least when it comes to this kind of deal with our company, no one has ever tried to play games with us. Or if they have, they don’t anymore.”
“...!”
For a moment Junho flinched inwardly at the warning—or truth—packed into those words, but outwardly he stayed calm.
“That goes for me, and for us, too. Which is why I think you and I are going to make very good partners.”
At that, an even deeper smile spread across Viktor Volk Choi’s lips.
He valued, and liked, men with confidence like Junho’s very highly.
“I like that very much. Good. From now on, if there are other things you need, President Lee Junho, and our company handles them, I’ll get every last one of them for you.”
“That’s very good to hear. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
It seemed his first meeting with the wolf of the Volcano Group had been a tremendous success.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll never lose a hundred battles.
Even if the man was the second-in-command of a Russian Far East mafia organization that had Busan under its thumb, knowing exactly what kind of person he was was this advantageous.
***
“Then I’ll be counting on you, Director.”
“Understood. You should have the goods within a month. You’ll be contacted through the prepaid phone I gave you, so be careful not to lose it.”
At that, Junho lifted the old phone he had been given and smiled.
“I’ll keep it in my hand at all times. Anyway, I enjoyed today. I’ll see you again.”
“Yes, President Lee Junho.”
After Junho said goodbye in a respectful but confident manner, Viktor Volk Choi strode over and held out his hand.
When Junho took it for a handshake, Viktor lightly pulled him in and briefly wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
“Увидимся, брат.”
(See you, brother.)
He spoke in a low voice, then stepped back.
Then he grinned and got into the back seat of the German SUV, whose door was being held open by the same enforcer Junho had dropped an hour earlier.
“Then, President Lee Junho, I’ll contact you tomorrow.”
Lee Dongcheol spoke quickly and climbed into the back seat with him, and just after the enforcer—who had bowed repeatedly to Junho—settled into the passenger seat, the SUV let out a rumble of exhaust and slowly pulled away.
Once the car carrying them disappeared from sight, Junho breathed out into the cold and murmured the Russian words Viktor Volk Choi had just left him with.
“Uvidimsya, brat... so I got to hear that again, Volk.”
In English, it was probably something like See you, bro.
It was the same thing Viktor Volk Choi had said before the regression when he handed Junho the Glock 17 and left.
Even now, regression itself was still hard to believe, but through that impossible event, Junho had met him again just like the words promised—and now had even heard the same line a second time. It left him with a strange feeling.
More than anything, the fact that Viktor Volk Choi had called him brat again, just like before the regression, meant one thing.
At the very least, within the Volcano Group’s Busan branch, they were treating him as Gost’ sem’i—a guest of the Family.
And that in turn meant the chances had just gone way up that he would be able to acquire, through Volk, things that were difficult to obtain through legal channels in Korea before the apocalypse began.
Not only the specialty pharmaceuticals they had agreed to trade for today, but fuel like diesel, which was troublesome to buy in bulk in Korea.
And above all—
“I should be able to get guns too...”
Of course, to make that happen, he would need to build extremely strong trust.
So he would start with pharmaceuticals, make a series of clean transactions involving various supplies, and gradually build credit.
Then, once the atmosphere had ripened enough...
“All I’ll have to do is tell him who the traitor is, and which bastards he’s working with.”
Before the regression, he had already been badly burned and was being hunted even during the apocalypse. But right now, the betrayal quietly progressing beneath the surface within the organization—
if he casually tipped Volk off at the right moment, then even firearms—something they did not just trade to anybody—should become obtainable.
And not just any firearms, either.
Submachine guns and semiautomatic rifles with Picatinny rails as standard, outfitted with suppressors, red-dot sights, magnified scopes, and the rest.
“Just two of each. Along with subsonic rounds.”
That alone would make him practically invincible for the first year or two after the apocalypse hit.
Of course, things might be different if he ran into military units that failed to make it to Jeju, deserters, or looter groups armed with K2 rifles. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
No—even against enemies like that, Junho was confident he could beat them and wipe them out.
Their shelter would have armored vehicles linked to high-performance drones, a cutting-edge surveillance network, and a radio communication system covering everything from the shelter grounds to the whole Gahyeon-ri area...
It was hard to imagine being beaten by people who would be too busy just trying to stay alive.
***
Click.
Getting into the driver’s seat and starting the car, Junho muttered as he pulled out of the parking lot,
“If things go the way I want, I might be able to get real guns by next summer...”
But looked at coldly, that was still no more than an uncertain assumption—a wish.
Which was why the “event” coming up in a few days mattered more to Junho right now.
It was his and Junhyeok’s first trip out hunting with air rifles.
Of course, he had no intention of actually going hunting.
He would probably pick off a few nuisance birds as cover, but Junho’s real objective was this:
“Once I take an air rifle apart... I can finally start copying them.”
Baek Hail had already finished preparing a vehicle equipped with the gear needed to disassemble an air rifle and scan it precisely.
Given the times, it was possible to get blueprints for all kinds of firearms over the internet, but there was a huge difference between that and starting with a proven high-performance air rifle and building direct hands-on experience by copying it himself.
So if he disassembled the air rifle tomorrow and got exact part specifications,
then before the apocalypse began, he would be able to prepare dozens of high-performance air rifles capable of taking down zombies or looters at around 150 meters.
And those air rifles would not only be for people to use.
“I could tie them into the CCTV cameras and use them like turrets.”
After all, their shelter already had Yoon Youngsu, an AI computing expert who had managed exactly that before the regression, even under far worse conditions.
