IMCT 06

Chapter 6

The next day, Kim Si-min, still on vacation, went to the Lighthouse Co., Ltd. office early in the morning.

“You are quite diligent. You come in like this every day.”

“About yesterday…”

Kim Si-min told Park Won-jung everything that had happened the previous day in detail.

“I see.”

“Do the others go through things like this as well?”

“No, not really. They do receive afterlife currency or karmic merit as rewards, though.”

“I spoke with Lawyer Hwang Su-ho. He said this company exists on the boundary between the living world and the afterlife.”

Park Won-jung nodded with his usual kind smile.

“That is correct. We are a company that exists on the boundary.”

“Were the company employees people who committed sins in their previous lives?”

“Sin. That may be true, or it may not.”

“Could you explain?”

“Is murder a wrong act, or is it a right act?”

“It is a wrong act, but I suppose that is not always the case.”

“Exactly. Take a battlefield, for example. There, people sometimes have no choice but to hurt others to protect their families or their country. Even now, there are situations where people have no choice but to harm other people. We cannot call all of those things sins.”

They were people who stood in a gray area.

“Those who stand on the boundary work here. Normally, their actions would be considered sins, but there are cases where those actions are justified. We give them opportunities as well.”

“What kind of work do they do?”

“They handle all sorts of things. Those are things Representative, you will have to learn one by one from now on.”

“I see.”

He nodded and continued talking about the rewards.

“So even you don’t know what kind of rewards will be given?”

“That is correct. However, I do know one thing for certain. You, Representative, will receive many more things as rewards. I have served only one Representative before, and I still remember how special that person was.”

“Special?”

“Yes. The Representative of Lighthouse is bound to be someone special.”

“…”

Seeing Si-min’s expression, which clearly showed that he found that hard to believe, Park Won-jung simply smiled.

“Anyway, since you have completed a Low-Rank Request, you might as well try another task. We handle such a wide variety of work that it would be good for you to experience something different this time.”

He pulled a document out of thin air and placed it in front of Si-min.

[Save the Snack Bar]

“…”

Kim Si-min read through all the information and fell silent.

“Does running businesses fall under our responsibilities too? We cannot decide whether a business succeeds or fails, can we?”

“That is correct.”

“Then how are we supposed to help with this?”

“We are a company that lends opportunities, not a company that makes people successful.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that it might not work.”

“…”

“Even so, we give them an opportunity.”

“Then how exactly are we supposed to do that?”

“By using the vast amount of data accumulated by our company.”

While Kim Si-min looked puzzled by his answer, Park Won-jung led him somewhere.

[Archive]

“What is this place?”

“Since Lighthouse Co., Ltd. was established, countless requests have been submitted, and all the answers to those requests are stored here. You can search through them as well.”

More than a hundred tablet PCs were set up along one side of the archive.

As soon as he sat down, Si-min searched for ways to save a tteokbokki restaurant.

[100 Tteokbokki Recipes]

[101 Ways to Advertise Without Spending Money]

There was all sorts of information.

Whenever he opened one of the search results, the related information was entered directly into his mind, as if it were being saved onto a storage device.

After storing about five pieces of information in his head, his head suddenly began spinning, and his body collapsed sideways onto the floor.

“Oh dear. You have already looked through five files before I could even tell you the precautions.”

Park Won-jung approached him with a slightly playful smile.

“You do not have to read the materials one by one to remember them. However, if your body is not ready to take everything in, it will become overloaded. As the Representative, you will eventually be able to store large amounts of information very quickly, but for now, it will be difficult.”

“You should… have told me… that… sooner…”

Kim Si-min barely held back the urge to vomit as he staggered to his feet and glared at Park Won-jung.

“I will do that next time.”

From that day on, Kim Si-min spent roughly a week buried in the archive, searching for ways to save the tteokbokki restaurant.

“First, taste, location, price, and advertising.”

That should be enough for now.

“The deadline is one month. We cannot help a snack bar forever. You have to produce results within that month. Of course, shortcuts are not allowed. This company is not as easygoing as you might think.”

He had no intention of taking shortcuts anyway.

Kim Si-min took the elevator from the eighth floor.

Ding.

The elevator stopped at the seventh floor.

“Hey, Si-min.”

Hwang Su-ho, who had now become quite familiar to him, stepped into the elevator.

“Another field training?”

“Yes. This time, they want me to save a tteokbokki restaurant.”

“Really? Your field training is taking quite a while.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Well, I guess you need to learn everything about how the company operates.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. Anyway, good luck. Let’s grab a drink again sometime.”

“Where are you headed?”

“Business trip.”

Hwang Su-ho scrunched up his face as though he really did not want to go, then headed off somewhere.

Watching him leave, Kim Si-min let out a small laugh.

“Hmm… Maybe I should go too.”

Since Si-min did not have a car, he took public transportation to the area around Cheonho Station.

On his way to a market alley behind Cheonho-dong, he had to pass through the busy Rodeo Street, filled with young people.

After walking for quite some time, Si-min entered the market.

Then he froze when he saw the owner of one of the snack bars.

Why is she here…?

It was a face he could never forget.

Those hollow eyes and exhausted face, as if she had spent days crying without sleeping at the funeral home, were burned into his memory.

“Welcome.”

The tteokbokki shop owner smiled brightly at the customers entering her store.

She looked different from the day she had come to his bank branch, but Si-min could still feel the exhaustion buried deep in her eyes.

“Ma’am, two servings of tteokbokki and some sundae, please.”

“Yes, right away.”

Customers who had already finished their first round of drinks had come to the snack bar for their second stop and ordered tteokbokki.

The sun had already gone down, and since there were many bars nearby, most of the customers were drunk.

“Ma’am, where did that pretty young lady who used to be here go? Was she your daughter?”

Among the drunk customers, as usual, there were some who were rude.

“She is studying.”

“Really? That’s a shame. She was pretty.”

Not only the drunk middle-aged men, but also the young men at another table had their eyes light up at the conversation.

It seemed they were thinking along the same lines.

“…”

Why here of all places?

A scene he desperately wanted to forget resurfaced in his memory.

—I have to die… At least then, my family can survive…

The eyes of the man as he fell into the Han River.

He remembered those eyes and the face of the middle-aged father who had worried about his family until the very end.

“Phew…”

Kim Si-min turned around with heavy steps.

He could not bring himself to go inside today.

Just then, someone passed by him.

“Mom!”

“Our daughter is here?”

“Isn’t it hard?”

“Hard? Not at all.”

“By the way, did you see that young man outside staring at the shop?”

“A young man?”

“Yeah. His expression was kind of strange. I feel like I’ve seen his face before, too. Where was it?”

“A young man? I don’t know, Mom. Maybe he is another person waiting around because he wants to see our daughter. Anyway, be careful, sweetheart. There are so many strange people these days.”

“Oh, come on.”

The people in the tteokbokki shop were Lee Sun-hye, Park Moon-seong’s wife, and their daughter, Park Min-young.

“Come to think of it, I’m sure I’ve seen that face somewhere.”

She thought about it for a moment, then let it go.

Right now, helping her mother at the snack bar came first.

The next day, Kim Si-min was sitting across from Park Won-jung at the company.

“I suppose you know now.”

“That the snack bar owner is Park Moon-seong’s wife?”

“Yes. It is a connection.”

“I wish you had told me beforehand.”

“Would that have changed anything?”

“…”

He had a point. What would have changed?

“Do I really have to handle this request?”

“Yes. The request chose you, Representative. You are free to give up. But they may never get another opportunity. Once someone gets pushed back, even we do not know how long they might remain there.”

“…”

He had been cornered.

“You tried to save that man until the very end, Representative. The mark from that day is still on your wrist.”

Indeed, the marks left by Park Moon-seong, who had struggled desperately to break free from Si-min’s grip, were still visible on his wrist.

“I believe you can do this well, Representative.”

What exactly is he basing that belief on?

Still, Si-min did not dislike Park Won-jung’s words.

He let out a deep sigh and left the company.

There was something he had to do first before solving this problem.

He checked the single sheet of paper inside his coat.