IMCT 02

Chapter 2

After coming to his senses, Kim Si-min was discharged from the hospital that very day.

His senior team leader insisted on driving him all the way home, so Kim Si-min returned to his apartment without having to lift a finger and collapsed onto his bed.

It must have been a hallucination.

His eyes moved toward his wrist.

If it had only been his imagination, then why was this bracelet on his wrist?

—If you have any questions, please ask. I will answer them.

Whoosh!

Kim Si-min shot upright in surprise at the voice that suddenly came from the empty room.

—You may speak out loud or simply think your question. I will answer either way.

It wasn’t an auditory hallucination.

This was the real voice of something.

“What are you?”

—I am the main system of Lighthouse Co., Ltd., the company that lends opportunities.

“So what does that mean?”

—Lighthouse Co., Ltd. is a company that provides opportunities to people who need them and receives something in return. I am its main system.

None of this made any sense.

—Think of it simply. You lend opportunities to someone using your own power. It is not difficult.

“How am I supposed to know whether it’s difficult or not when I don’t know anything about this?”

He couldn’t even understand the situation he was in right now.

At the hospital, Team Leader Park clearly hadn’t been able to hear the voice from the bracelet.

No, it seemed like he hadn’t even noticed that there was a bracelet.

The same was true for everyone else.

—People cannot see me. They cannot hear my voice either.

“So what’s the point? Did you expect me to say thank you just because you suddenly told me I’m the owner of some company?”

Kim Si-min was a corporate banking officer.

He knew better than anyone how many different kinds of companies there were and how different their circumstances could be.

—Of course not. However, I can at least tell you that becoming the owner of Lighthouse Co., Ltd. is not necessarily a bad thing for you.

“…”

—I only hope that you experience more of it before making your judgment.

“…”

Kim Si-min stopped talking to the system of Lighthouse Co., Ltd.

He tried to sort out this insane situation, but he couldn’t reach any conclusion.

Eventually, he simply buried himself in his bed.

Tomorrow morning, everything will be back to normal.

The next morning, Kim Si-min woke up after sleeping more deeply than he had expected and looked toward the shelf beside his bed.

The bracelet he had received from the supermarket owner was still there.

Fortunately, it didn’t speak to him that morning.

‘….’

I must have been so tired yesterday that I heard things.

He washed up and left his apartment.

It was still early dawn.

Kim Si-min took a deep breath as he looked around at the streets before sunrise.

Sometimes strange things happen in life.

Just as he was thinking that—

“What the…? Why is this here?”

The bracelet was fastened around his wrist.

He had definitely taken it off before leaving.

His expression immediately hardened.

[Go to 888 Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu.]

Why is it suddenly telling me to go to Gangnam-gu?

Ignoring the bracelet’s completely out-of-nowhere message, Kim Si-min went to work as usual.

“Manager Kim, are you all right?”

“I heard you collapsed.”

“I heard you even grabbed the hand of the guy who was trying to jump off that bridge.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. If you watch the news, apparently Manager Kim was the one holding onto Mr. Park Moon-seong while he was falling…”

“Wow… Really?”

It was ironic.

The man who had been pressuring the debtor to repay his loan had been the same person who tried to save him when he fell into the river.

“I thought Manager Kim normally had no humanity in him, so I figured he’d just brush this whole thing off. But this is surprising.”

“Come on. Anyone would be affected after seeing someone fall right in front of them.”

“Still, if you want to become a corporate team leader after making manager at that age, you can’t exactly be a normal person. Honestly, you’d have to be a machine at that level. A machine loyal to the organization.”

Kim Si-min was an exceptional figure at Nara Bank, having become a manager at the young age of thirty-three.

People who rose through the ranks quickly naturally attracted jealousy and resentment from those around them.

Regardless of what kind of person he actually was, this incident was perfect material for office workers who loved gossip.

“Good morning.”

As the saying went, speak of the devil.

Just as the employees were gossiping about Kim Si-min, he arrived at the office.

His strangely hollow eyes and dark expression seemed to reveal exactly how he was feeling.

“Are you okay, Manager? Why would something like that happen to someone as kind as you…”

The people who had been gossiping only moments ago approached him with bright smiles as if nothing had happened.

“Yes, well.”

How could he not know what the assistant managers older than him were thinking?

Unlike the others, Kim Si-min had his own private office as the corporate team leader.

He entered his office with his notebook of tasks and recalled what had happened that morning.

That evening, Kim Si-min finished his work quickly and left exactly at 6:00 p.m.

As soon as he left work, the message came to his ears once again.

[Go to 888 Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu.]

“…”

A system window appeared before him, making Kim Si-min frown.

He let out a small sigh and boarded the subway.

He worked at Nowon Station, so getting to Gangnam was easy on Line 7.

After opening his map app and arriving near the building indicated by the address, Kim Si-min found the building marked 888 among the tall buildings of Gangnam.

[燈臺]

Seeing the eight-story building with the Chinese characters meaning lighthouse engraved on it, Kim Si-min’s occupational habits immediately kicked in and he estimated its market value.

It must be worth around 50 to 60 billion won.

Because he was always dealing with loans, whenever he entered a new area, he automatically started thinking about things like building prices.

Step. Step.

He entered the building and checked the elevator.

That’s when he realized that the entire building was the headquarters of Lighthouse Co., Ltd.

Ding.

He stepped into the elevator on the first floor and, without thinking much about it, pressed the button for the highest floor: the eighth floor.

When the elevator doors opened, an office with a somewhat old-fashioned atmosphere appeared before him.

Ding-dong.

Perhaps because visiting various companies was part of his job, or perhaps because he was slowly getting used to this strange series of events—

Kim Si-min pressed the office doorbell without hesitation.

Thud. Thud.

He heard someone approaching from inside.

Because the door was made of glass, he could see the person coming.

A middle-aged man in a neat gray suit approached.

His hair was neatly groomed, with streaks of white here and there.

He also had a well-maintained beard, like an older foreign actor.

Creak.

The door opened with a sound, and the man stood before him.

“You’re Representative Kim Si-min, correct? It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Park Won-jung. I serve as the head of the secretarial office and an adviser at Lighthouse Co., Ltd.”

“Ah… Yes.”

“Please come in. I’ll show you to the representative’s office.”

“…”

There was no point saying anything when he knew nothing about the situation, so Kim Si-min simply followed Park Won-jung into the representative’s office.

Although it had a somewhat old-fashioned feel, the representative’s office, separately arranged on one side of the eighth floor, had the strange aura unique to old-fashioned private offices for important people.

“Would you like some tea?”

“Yes, sure. Anything is fine.”

A moment later, Park Won-jung placed a warm cup of tea in front of him.

Sip.

Kim Si-min drank the tea without saying much.

Given the situation, he could barely taste it.

“You’re quite different from the people I’ve met before, Representative.”

“…?”

“Usually, when someone comes here, they don’t come straight to the eighth floor like this. But you naturally came here first.”

“Yes.”

“And usually, the moment they see me, they ask a lot of questions. It certainly isn’t something that’s easy to understand.”

“I suppose not.”

“But you’re sitting there drinking tea and waiting for me to explain.”

“Occupational habit.”

As a corporate finance team leader, he had met countless company representatives.

He always started his work by listening to the representative first.

“Since you’re not asking any questions, I suppose I’ll have to start explaining myself.”

He continued with a light smile.

“Lighthouse is a company that lends opportunities.”

“What kind of opportunities?”

“The things people long for. The things they desperately wish for.”

Kim Si-min couldn’t understand.

How could you lend someone the things they wished for?

How would their value be determined, and what would be accepted as payment?

“You probably don’t understand.”

“No. I don’t understand at all.”

“We don’t measure our miracles ourselves.”

“Then who measures them?”

“The system of Lighthouse decides.”

At those words, Kim Si-min’s eyes turned toward the bracelet.

—That’s right. I decide.

“Can you hear the voice of the bracelet?”

“No. The voice of the bracelet is only permitted to you, Representative.”

“…”

Everything about this place was strange.

Even though it was located in Gangnam, the fact that the entire area was so quiet was strange in itself.

“Why do I have to be the representative?”

“Because you were chosen. But even we don’t know why you were chosen.”

“…Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Lend opportunities to those who need them.”

“I’m just an ordinary bank employee. If you’re talking about money, loans are approved according to the bank’s internal regulations. I don’t have the authority to lend money based on my own judgment.”

Even a scam wouldn’t work like this. No one would fall for it.

It was clear that they weren’t scammers.

But it was equally clear that they were strange people.

“We aren’t asking you for money. In fact, we’ll probably be the ones giving you money. The opportunities we are talking about are… well, the things people call miracles. You’ll understand once you start working. It’s difficult to explain everything with words. However, if you accept this job, ownership of this building will be transferred to you immediately.”

“…”

This is insane.

They were offering him a building that was obviously worth more than 50 billion won.

“All taxes involved in acquiring the building, including acquisition tax and gift tax, will be taken care of. However, you will have to take on this position for at least ten years.”

Ten years for a building worth 50 billion won?

There was no way he could refuse that deal.

But what exactly was he being asked to do?

He couldn’t even imagine what the price for receiving a building worth 50 billion won might be.

“…”

“Not a single person who has served as the representative of Lighthouse Co., Ltd. has ever voluntarily quit.”

Kim Si-min was fairly good at judging people.

He had to be.

After all, he was someone who had spent years evaluating people before approving their loans.

“How long do I have to decide?”

“You have to make your decision right now.”

It was a textbook line from a scammer.

Yet the man standing in front of him clearly wasn’t a scammer.

“What about my current job?”

“You may do whatever you wish, but it won’t be easy to handle both jobs at the same time.”

“I’d like to see the contract.”

Park Won-jung smiled and waved his hand.

At that moment, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, a contract appeared in midair.

The contract was literally floating in the air.

“…”

Even in this completely absurd situation, Kim Si-min did his best to remain calm and read the contract floating before him.

[Standard Employment Contract]

Lighthouse Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”) and employee Kim Si-min (hereinafter referred to as the “Representative Director”) agree to enter into the following employment contract and faithfully fulfill its terms.

Article 1. Contract Period

1. The mandatory employment period shall be ten years.
2. If there is no expiration date, the contract shall be automatically extended.

Article 2. Workplace and Duties

1. Workplace of the Representative Director: Everywhere in the living world.
2. Duties of the Representative Director: Provide opportunities to those who need them.
3. The Company may change the employee’s workplace and duties when necessary.

Article 3. Working Hours and Breaks

Working hours shall be a maximum of eight hours, with no minimum working-hour requirement.

Article 4. Holidays and Leave

1. The weekly holiday shall be every Sunday.
2. Paid annual leave shall be provided according to the internal regulations of Lighthouse Co., Ltd.

Article 5. Salary

1. The salary shall be based on a performance-based system, with a guaranteed base salary of 10 million won per month in the currency of the living world. Subsequent salary increases shall be determined individually.

Article 6. Special Provisions

1. The Representative Director shall have full authority over all decisions concerning the operation of Lighthouse Co., Ltd.
2. Upon Kim Si-min assuming the position of Representative Director, all ownership rights to the building at 888 Eonju-ro shall be transferred to Kim Si-min, on the condition that Kim Si-min works for Lighthouse Co., Ltd. for ten years.
3. The Representative Director may hold another job, but it must not interfere with the duties of Lighthouse Co., Ltd.
4. If either party wishes to terminate the contract, an agreement must be reached between both parties.

“The salary… Is it really 10 million won per month?”

“Of course.”

“How is Lighthouse’s ownership structured? Is the company actually a legally registered corporation in Korea?”

That was something he could easily check just by entering its business registration number.

“The monthly base salary is indeed 10 million won. Representative, do you really think everything happening here right now is possible according to the standards of reality?”

“…No, I suppose not.”

“Lighthouse is not a company that exists in reality.”

“Then what basis do I have for trusting this contract?”

“You really are an interesting person, Representative.”

Park Won-jung smiled as if he genuinely found him amusing.

“No country in reality can give this contract more legal force than it already has.”

There was an inexplicable power in his words.

Is this what it means to be bewitched by a ghost?

Kim Si-min had written countless agreements over the years.

Yet, as if under some kind of spell, he wrote his name on the contract.

The moment he did, the two copies of the contract began to shine brightly before disappearing on the spot.

“…”

A contract that floats in midair and disappears the moment I sign it…

If I close my eyes and open them again, will I be back in the hospital?

“Please take good care of me, Representative. I look forward to working with you. I am Park Won-jung, the head of the secretarial office who will be serving you from now on. Your first month’s salary will be paid in advance. As for the remaining performance-based compensation, you’ll learn about that little by little.”

At that moment, Kim Si-min’s pocket vibrated.

[₩10,000,000 has been deposited.]