Chapter 5

Chapter 5 This is all Thanks to Good Neighbours.

Chapter 5 – This is all Thanks to Good Neighbours

After studying it all night, Tae-hyuk had finally figured out the usage of the mirror to a certain extent.

It was basically the same as a smartphone with a touchscreen.

He could touch the screen to get any desired information, and even to change any of its settings.

Tae-hyuk could call up a list of accessible skills by clicking on the [Crime Skills] tab.

‘Robbery’ was currently the only one available.

Furthermore, Tae-hyuk had three affinity points, which he recalled seeing in a game before.

The acquired points could be used to strengthen skills.

Once he clicked on an item, several lists came up.

He could steal things from a person who didn’t even bump into him, pick the item that he wanted, etc. They all seemed like useful skill enhancements; however, the number of affinity points needed varied for each enhancement.

The one that was most expensive, at a total of 10 points, was stealing several items at once. The other enhancements ranged from one to five points.

Tae-hyuk decided to test the affinity points.

‘First of all, I have to raise this.’

‘Robbery’ was the skill that stole the object of a person he bumped into. The slightest mistake meant he could be seen as a pickpocket. 

Fortunately, there was an attribute to avoid that.

‘Activation Timing Adjustment!’

After selecting the desired attribute, he pressed the ‘enhance’ button, and the screen flashed with a message.

‘…It is like I am watching a B grade mobile game. Surely it won’t fail?’

[Insufficient affinity points.]

‘Ack! What? It requires five points to get Activation Timing Adjustment?!’

He needed two more points in order to prevent the crime skill from being triggered at an inconvenient time in the future.

The problem was that he didn’t know how to acquire additional points.

As Tae-hyuk grabbed his head in distress, somebody suddenly spoke to him.

“Hey, Tae-hyuk. It is Hyung.”

Cho Kang-suk, who was wearing jeans and an Aloha t-shirt, opened the cafe door and waved out to him.

He was also wearing red sunglasses.

Tae-hyuk instinctively wanted to leave the cafe but endured that notion.

Kang-suk, despite his abhorrent taste in fashion, had come to help.

Tae-hyuk greeted him.

“Hello, Kang-suk hyung.”

Kang-suk sat in a chair and said.

“I paid some attention to what I am wearing today. Huhu. Thanks to you, I received a holiday. I am planning to go to a club in the evening.”

Going to a club…? 

Tae-hyuk had a headache.

“It is really cool. I thought you were a model.”

“Haha! This guy. Won’t you do well in your social life?”

He was tall and had big, broad shoulders, so his social life wasn’t bad. However, he seemed to be more popular with men than with women.

“Auntie! A cup of coffee over here please! Keep it coming!”

“…Here, you have to go to the counter and order it.”

“I-I see. I’ve never been here before.”

Kang-suk scratched his head and ordered a cup of ice coffee.

After waiting for a while, the clerk came with an iced coffee and some ice cubes.

Kang-suk took a gulp and said,

“I still don’t know the difference between iced coffee and cold coffee.”

The tea room coffee seemed to suit his taste more.

“Thank you for helping me today.”

Tae-hyuk bowed his head.

Today’s meetup was regarding money. 

If a high school student accepted the reward money, then twisted, greedy dung flies would gather.

If Detective Kang-suk claimed it, then such people could be effectively prevented.

He was sincerely grateful for Kang-suk’s help.

“Well, I can take a vacation thanks to you.”

“Then let’s go straight away.”

“Hey. Sit down. There is an order in the works.”

Kang-suk started to explain.

“I think you should know most of it to a certain extent, but I’ll explain the details. Although the basic reward is 50 million won, you won’t be able to receive all of it.”

Tae-hyuk nodded. It was quite silly, but he had to pay a certain amount under the pretext of taxes.

“15% will be taken as the withholding tax. Then there is another 22% for the unearned income tax. Ultimately, you get 63% of the original reward.

Tae-hyuk already knew that 15% would be taken.

However, he didn’t account for the unearned income tax, the tax on profits obtained without working.

He had worked hard to earn this money!

Tae-hyuk felt wronged, but as it was the law, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“In the end, I will still get 31.5 million won.”

“That’s right, that is still a lot of money. It is even more than my regular salary.”

“You have a terribly small salary.”

“Hey, don’t say that. Anyway, what will you do with that money? Don’t spend it in strange places. Do you want Hyung to help you with installment savings?”

Tae-hyuk decided to tell the truth.

“Well. In fact, my parents died in an accident and a few debts behind. We can try and give up the inheritance, but it will be of no use as it was dragged into my noona’s name. In the end, I am living with my noona in a semi-basement rented room. My noona’s health keeps on getting worse due to the bad air, however. I was planning on using the bounty money to move us out of the semi-basement and into a better home.”

“…Well. This brat. A real man!”

Kang-suk’s voice trembled. He thought that after Tae-hyuk received the money, he would it to buy things he wanted or to travel overseas. Kang-suk was proven wrong, however, and was deeply impressed. 

Kang-suk pounded on Tae-hyuk’s back.

He liked this type of heart.

‘N-no!’

However, Tae-hyuk inwardly let out a shriek.

Once again, his crime skill was triggered.

[Robbery has been used.]

-You have failed to steal the opponent’s belongings… 

Fortunately, it was a failure.

Even if it was a mistake, stealing Kang-suk’s wallet would be the end.

‘Luckily it failed… Uack!’

However, Kang-suk hadn’t finished pounding his back.

Pang pang pang!

Robbery was triggered eeach time.

‘Failure…, ah again failure…!’

The success rate was lower than he thought.

But no matter how low the probability was, as long as it wasn’t zero, it would eventually succeed.

 [Robbery has been used.]

-You have succeeded in stealing the opponent’s belongings! 

‘Dammit. I stole a detective’s property!’

People were sentenced for two years in prison for special larcenies.

“Eh. Sorry. Are you in pain?”

Kang-suk saw that Tae-hyuk’s face turning sour, and had stopped pounding his back.

Fortunately, Robbery stopped after only succeeding once.

‘This is really crazy. I have to do something about this.’

All he needed to do was bump into someone to activate Robbery. 

While this was sometimes useful, more difficult situations like this would occur.

‘Um. But what did I steal?’

Please, just let it not be the wallet! If that happened, then he wouldn’t be able to get out of it.

He searched through his pockets while trying to maintain an expression that was as casual as possible. Fortunately, it wasn’t the wallet that was stolen.

Unfortunately, the item stolen was even worse than a wallet.

‘Crazy. Handcuffs!’

It wasn’t a toy, and it wasn’t an SM item. It was the real, original thing. 

It was made of a very solid alloy so it would be a big deal if he accidently put it on.

‘How do I prevent him from noticing…’

Unfortunately, the only crime skill available to him was ‘Robbery’.

He would only steal the other person’s possession if he used it. The opposite, returning the other’s possession, was impossible.

It would be possible if he was a skilled pickpocket, but unfortunately, Tae-hyuk wasn’t considered one.

‘Come to think about it, there was no attribute regarding returning the possession.’

Certainly, it wouldn’t be considered an act that fell under robbery.

‘It can’t be helped. Let’s just go by the book!’

“Ah. Hyung-nim. You dropped this.”

Tae-hyuk deliberately dropped the handcuffs onto the ground and pretended to pick them up.

He was tense as sweat dripped down his back.

‘Damn. This type of lie would only work on a fool!’

However, there was no other alternative.

“Tae-hyuk, this brat…”

‘As expected, he saw through my lies!’

“Really, thank you! Aish, when did this fall?  Last time I lost it, I had to spend 200,000 won to buy a new one from the stolen goods department! I’m glad you found it this time.”

It passed!

Furthermore, it was a stolen property. 

“…That is a relief.”

 Kang-suk wasn’t the neighbourhood hyung type, but the neighbourhood fool type.

“Anyway, a deposit on a house would be difficult with 30 million won. The housing prices have gone insanely expensive these days. Are you living together with just your noona?”

“Nope. My younger brother as well.”

“Three people. Well, you should have at least two rooms. Will the house be near here?”

“Yes. Noona works at a factory nearby, so it needs to be within a walking distance.”

Kang-suk was thinking with all his strength as if it was his own problem.

Although Tae-hyuk already knew that Kang-suk was overflowing with kindness and openness, he hadn’t expected this level of sincerity.

‘It is good that I’m entrusting it to Kang-suk.’

Kang-suk let out a strange moan as he searched through a real estate app.

“You’ll need at least 30 million won to rent a house. Damn. There are no taxes set on the bounties from companies… Shouldn’t the country pay more when such a big criminal is caught?”

Wait. A bounty from companies?

‘I’m certain that a big company put out a bounty for Yoo Cheol-ho.’

He couldn’t remember exactly where.

‘Where was it… ah. Sungjin Group!’

Tae-hyuk carefully told this fact to Kang-suk.

Kang-suk was delighted, as if it was his own work.

“Yes. Let’s jump and catch two things today!”

“We’ll go get the bounty from the government first. Do we receive it from Central Bank?”

“It is like the lottery. Did you bring what I asked you to?”

Tae-hyuk nodded.

They were copies of his ID card and a bankbook in his own name.

“If you send that to the person in charge ,then it will be deposited by tomorrow. Originally, they reward would be received from Central Bank, but it is like Tae-hyuk said. There would be problems if you went there.”

“Certainly. Lotto prizes would be received, there so there would be dung flies buzzing around all day.”

“Haha. Yes, dung flies.”

There were people looking for investors, saying they had a ‘sure fire’ item. Businessmen asking for donations. In addition, there were gangsters with crude and rough words. Various groups would be gathered like flies.

Kang-suk gathered the papers that Tae-hyuk gave him.

“I’ll give this to the person in charge.”

“Kang-suk hyung, I really appreciate what you’ve done so far.”

“No, it’s fine. Anyway, I will be interviewed as the detective who caught Yoo Cheol-ho, and it’ll come out on the evening news.”

“Oh. You will be a celebrity.”

However, he wondered what type of clothing would be worn for the interview. Surely, he wouldn’t show up on TV like that?

Tae-hyuk had an ominous feeling.

“One thing is over.”

It ended earlier than he thought. 

Tae-hyuk said with a satisfied expression,

“Then let’s storm the Sungjin Group.”

“Well. Can we do that?”

“Of course. I made a key tip in catching Yoo Cheol-ho. Kang-suk hyung is the one who caught Yoo Cheol-ho. If we can’t go, then who can?”

“I-is that so?”

“Then we will go straight to headquarters. I know the location.”

“You sound like you worked there or something.”

Tae-hyuk just smiled instead of answering.

Worked there?

It was the place where he was previously framed.