Sooho

Chapter 62: < Protect – Episode 61 – Asia Tour [3] >

The performance began.

Even though they only had little time to prepare, the lineup and the quality of the show was very good. The Philippine government must have felt generous because they booked an outdoor park instead of an indoor arena. Since guns were easily accessible in the Philippines, they had to be careful of terrorists, but the event was being guarded by the military and the police, so they were well prepared.

‘No matter how crazy the rebels are, it’ll be difficult to make a terrorist attack in Manila.’

And Ahn Soo Ho wouldn’t allow that.

‘Huh?’

While he was meeting the VIPs of the Philippines, he sensed that something was wrong with the dungeon. And it wasn’t just a trespasser but some kind of strong force.

‘How interesting.’

He built a bridge between the Philippines and Japan three days ago.

But it failed.

Japan was Philippine’s development assistance nation, a trading country, and they devoted their efforts into creating a negative image of the invading army during World War II. It was obvious why they wanted to explore Mindoro Island by using the Yamashita Treasure as an excuse.

‘Declassified troops.’

It was because of the first rule of the CIRO, which was also known as the secretive destruction troops. If China had the Northeast Project, Japan was busy trying to bury all of the crazy things they did during World War II. As soon as they failed to negotiate with the Philippines, they dispatched the special forces to make sure they wouldn’t discover the underground cavern.

That was because there was nothing more humiliating than having evidence surface that proved their criminal activity during the war.

It appeared that Murakami mistook the underground cavern for a major command or a secret archive. Then why did Wangtang Group instigate Masquesa’s murder? It was possible that they really believed the Yamashita legend. That was understandable since they had always exploited the invading army. Korea also got a lot taken away during the Japanese colonial era.

“Soo Ho!”

“Mr. President.”

The Philippine president looked like the boss of a drug cartel.

Since the country had an unstable government, it was hard to find a high official who wasn’t corrupt. This country’s bribes were at the scale of the written contracts in Korea, and they knew what was illegal, but they didn’t really care. Once a person became a president, he or she would have probably already pocketed quite a bit of money.

“Thank you for the enjoyable performance.”

“Thank you for putting extra care into it.”

“Anything for you. Haha.”

He smiled as if he was a good person, but he was very rotten inside.

“Is it okay that you go astray from Japan?”

“Since it wasn’t official, it was okay to refuse. Shouldn’t they be thankful that we’re letting their agents squandering about?”

“I suppose.”

As long as one weren’t complete enemies like the States and the Middle East, it was common sense not to lay a finger on their country’s agents that were active in their respective countries, but these days, that would be hard to guarantee.

“Do you think the Yamashita Gold is real, Soo Ho?”

“I’m not sure. Isn’t that just an urban legend?”

“I’ve heard a lot about it as a kid too. There are still con artists looking for the gold now. It’s not just our country. Since this place has been screwed over by Japan before, there’s no way they’ll cooperate.”

“So they’ll receive help, but they won’t cooperate?”

“They won’t refuse what is insisted on being given. Haha.”

It was a scammer’s method, but it was very effective. That was also another reason why Japan was hung up on the peace treaty. China’s illegal acts in the South China Sea also depended on whether or not military power could be invested. As long as Japan didn’t threaten them with military power, the Philippines wasn’t going to stop protesting.

Same goes for Korea.

The reason why the Koreans were exposed to murder, kidnapping, and crimes in the Philippines was because Korea’s diplomatic power was lacking. The only ones who could bring up humanitarianism within international relations were those who had more power.

“Your Excellency!”

As soon as someone came to the smiling president and whispered something in his hear, he excused himself. Ahn Soo Ho saw that and smirked.

‘It looks like he finally found out.’

The Philippines was planning to look into it themselves after turning down secret contact with Japan. If they got the treasure that would be good, and even if they didn’t, they could tease Japan, so they thought they were the ones in power of the negotiation.

“Wow!”

The spectators cheered.

Ahn Soo Ho had a déjà vu.

‘Would they know that there are sounds of gunshots and screaming on the other side?’

The CIA director, Jeremy O’Hare gathered the top analysts and started a task force.

“What did Lydia say?”

“There was no notable movement. She said it just seemed like he was enjoying his retired life.”

“But Logan, Alexa, and Kosino retired with him. Isn’t that weird?”

“It’s hard to regulate if they come off in a rebellious manner. Maybe they just acknowledged that it’d be hard to work with another middleman.”

“Maybe. But they could have had an objective. There’s an objective with the Philippine case too.”

“I confirmed that he made contact with Murakami.”

“What did they talk about?”

“There was a secret negotiation between the Philippines and Japan after that, but it didn’t come to a conclusion.”

“Did they meet because of the Yamashita Gold or whatever it’s called?”

“On the outside, but it was actually a destruction troop. As soon as the negotiation didn’t come to a conclusion, they dispatched the special forces to destroy the objective.”

“Those dumb bastards!”

The intelligence method that Japan usually used was planting an agent in a national company and dispatching them to a foreign branch as a non-official undercover agent. In contrast to the CIA agents who were being watched by many American companies due to their evil reputation, Japan wasn’t as bad. That was why the CIA used multiple Japanese companies.

“If this gets out, we’ll get hurt too.”

“Pull out.”

“From everything?”

“Report it to the operations team and seek help.”

“Yes, Sir.”

It wasn’t just the CIA that was disordered.

Due to the murder of the chairman of the board in Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Chen Mao of Wangtang Group who was suspected to be the murderer, Thailand and Vietnam were in a war of nerves. The Thai government insisted that the evidence couldn’t be trusted, and the Vietnamese government threatened to seize Wangtang Group’s funds until they cooperate with the investigation.

While the information world was overcome with waves after over ten years of peace, the Hosoo Entertainment Asia Tour team left the Philippines and headed to Indonesia. Jang Seol Hyun and some other actors, unfortunately, had to head back to Korea first. They got rid of the Comma Project and just called themselves tourists.

“The events in the Philippines were successful.”

They donated all of their profits, and due to all of the company donations and volunteering that Hosoo Entertainment provided, they even received an award from the president. To be honest, it was a bit forced.

‘Japan’s shoveling is turning things in a strange direction.’

His dungeon located on Mindoro Island was completely abolished. Even if they dig underground, they wouldn’t be able to excavate anything. Japan didn’t leave any evidence, but a firm belief was all the Philippines needed. The tax investigations and national restrictions were all just a part of getting revenge.

It was very unlikely that Japan would make a counterattack.

It would probably end as just a letter of complaint. If not, the Japanese ambassador would be summoned to the Philippines.

“We already sent an advance group to Jakarta who has started working on it. As you know, Indonesia has a lot of Muslims, so we have to be careful about how we dress and behave.”

“I know Muslims to be very worldly.”

“We should still be careful.”

When the employees were talking about Indonesia, Ahn Soo Ho was already walking in Jakarta. Since Jang Seol Hyun went back to Korea, there was no one to scold him about roaming about by himself. Ahn Soo Ho’s dungeon was 80km south of Jakarta. Since it was a volcanic island, the families were unstable, and they had no choice but to depend on mining to pay for their daily needs.

Moreover, due to the population density, it was difficult to build one dungeon. So he left a keeper with this dungeon. The village on the hillside was disguised to hide the fact that 150 families were living off of funds provided by a paper company.

“Riento.”

“Master!”

The boy who spoke English in an awkward accent ran over to Ahn Soo Ho and hugged him as soon as he saw him.

“You look like you’ve been well.”

“We were. We’re all well.”

The village was diverse. What was interesting was that there weren’t many elders. It might be hard to imagine for kids living in healthy families, but there were countless children starving to death in this world. Seeing how there were many noisy kids, families with dependents must have increased.

“Don’t strain yourself.”

“Not at all. We can get more.”

The way he minded others reminded him of common orphans that minded others when they ate. Ahn Soo Ho smirked and patted Riento on the shoulder. He then smiled brightly.

‘I’d better increase the support funds.’

Even though he had no money left in his black market account, he could always make more money. The estimated population was 260 million, but the way Ahn Soo Ho saw it, adding the ones who were registered resulted in more than 300 million people. Indonesia had a very large population.

The ones living in the blind spot of law.

They weren’t all criminals, but the children realized the reality early on and either adapted or found hope and roamed around the world. If Allah was real, he wouldn’t have let six-year-olds play with guns in order to get a scrap of bread.

“Does the enlisting officer visit?”

“No, Soo Ho. They’re scared.”

“That’s good.”

The Islam terrorist groups kidnapped small children, brainwashed them, and then made them into soldiers. There were many crazy regions where the concept of human trafficking didn’t exist. The world wasn’t so beautiful that one could say they were just unlucky.

Ahn Soo Ho gave him a backpack.

After seeing the cash inside the backpack, Riento smiled brightly.

“I love festivals! I love Soo Ho!”

After seeing off the happy boy, he headed toward a building in the village. It was kept fairly clean. After passing the kitchen, he saw a door that led to the basement. It looked like an ordinary brick wall, but as soon as he twisted a pole, the wall slid to the side and a metal door appeared. As soon as the metal door opened to the passcode, the sight that appeared didn’t match the secluded wallpaper.

There were well-made rifles and countless explosives that could blow up cities. The portable missiles and machine guns were the best of the best. However, Ahn Soo Ho just walked past them as if that wasn’t what he was there for.

A place filled with computer servers appeared. A ventilator kept running due to the dust and temperature, and he felt a chilly breeze due to the automatic temperature adjustment. Ahn Soo Ho typed on the keyboard in the central control room.

Vroom-

He crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair in response to the lightly vibrating servers.

Beep, beep- Beep, beep, beep-

The printer made a loud noise and printed a long piece of paper.

“Hm.”

Ahn Soo Ho knitted his brows.

In his over ten years as a middleman, his wealth wasn’t all in the form of capital. He also had hidden connections, information, as well as safe houses around the world. He had countless paper companies and proxies so that he could avoid being traced. The network that Ahn Soo Ho created got him everything he ever wanted.

The bulletin board disappeared.

However, the users became accustomed to convenience and started making multiple bulletin boards. The problem was that the managers mixed up the truths and lies to cover up the true nature. That all depended on conscience, so the results were fatal.

Beep, Beep- Beep, beep, beep-

The printer printed out another long piece of paper.

The bulletin board’s search results were shocking. In the last few days, 600 agents and civilian contractors either disappeared or died. It was as if revenge after revenge was taking place. No one knew how many people would kill and die from this point onward. He started to understand why J-Law was whining.

As soon as he came out, his phone vibrated.

“What is it?”

“There’s a problem, CEO Ahn!”

“A problem?”

At this point, they should have escaped Philippine’s influence and entered the Strait of Macassar.

“Pi...pirate ships are on our tail! There are so many of them!”

< Protect – Episode 61 – Asia Tour [3] > The end.