Legend of Legends

While Junhyuk read it over one more time, Sungtae came in. When he finished, he looked at Daesan.

"I brought coffee," Sungtae said.

Junhyuk signaled with his hand, and Sungtae handed Daesan a cup. Daesan took it and said, "This must be a new business."

"I haven’t unpacked my bags."

Junhyuk smelled the aroma of the coffee and put his cup down. He had just drunk a cup, so he didn’t want to drink another one.

"Bakdu Security provides security for two companies at a rate of $100,000 each."

"Correct."

"There are two security teams. Not counting new employees, every employee has quite the resume." Daesan’s eyes hardened. He was starting to wonder how Junhyuk had gotten a hold of that information, but Junhyuk continued nonchalantly, "Just enough to pay your employees their salaries."

Daesan steeled his face and said, "My financial situation isn’t that good, but I can vouch for our abilities."

"I know. I don’t know about the others, but I know you’ve been the chief security officer for the Blue House." (Editor’s Note: It’s Korea’s equivalent of the White House.)

"How did you find out?"

"When we investigate things, we do it thoroughly," Junhyuk said, raising his eyes to look at him. "We are now looking for a security company that will provide security to our company."

"Just your company?"

"To be accurate, I want to acquire your company. How about coming under our company?"

Daesan expressed discontent, "We are in charge of two other companies now. The breach of contract fees are..."

"We will take care of those since we’ll be acquiring your company."

"It’s three times the regular fee..."

Junhyuk calculated it for him, "So, it’s $300,000 for each place for a total of $600,000. Bakdu’s assets total about $2 million. Not counting the breach of contract fees, I’ll pay you $4 million to acquire your company. I’ll also double your team’s salaries."

Daesan did not know what to say, but Junhyuk continued, "I want to double the number of employees, but how to do it will be your job."

"Their salaries..."

"They’ll depend on their experience. However, concerning our work here, you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement."

Daesan shook his head lightly. When Junhyuk checked the time, his smartphone said 2:50 p.m.

He looked back at Daesan.

"Today, I scheduled meetings with two companies, Bakdu and Taesan. You came here early, so I’m giving you the choice."

"Are you going to give them the same conditions?"

"Of course."

Daesan checked the time. There were ten minutes to go, but Taesan’s CEO might arrive early, just like he had done.

Daesan looked at Junhyuk. Junhyuk looked very calm, like it was easy for him to acquire Daesan’s company. Money must not be a problem to him.

"What exactly does GST do?"

"I can only tell you that after you sign the contract."

"If you are doing anything illegal, I can’t and mustn’t help you."

Junhyuk took a moment to think. GST’s main line of work was collecting information and, if possible, gather people who had activated their powers. He knew he couldn’t always remain within the law.

His work involved dealing with the Rockefellers, who could bend and twist the law according to their wishes. They could make Junhyuk’s work illegal.

Junhyuk crossed his arms and looked at Daesan.

"I’m looking for a security team for my company right now, but later, I may ask you for a more private line of work. And I can’t promise the work we do here will to totally legal all the time."

He was being honest, and Daesan was impressed by that. His eyes looked deeper than the eyes of anyone Daesan had ever met. His eyes were telling the truth.

After pondering things, Daesan said, "If we have to do anything illegal, I’ll do it alone. Is that OK?"

"I won’t ask you to do anything if I don’t trust you."

Daesan sipped his coffee and made his decision, "We will merge."

"Good."

Junhyuk got up and offered him his hand. Daesan shook it, and Junhyuk smiled.

"Today, we just made a verbal agreement, but the General Law Firm will contact you soon about the contract. They’ll tell you more then."

"Sure."

"Let’s work together from now on."

Daesan smiled, and Junhyuk walked him out. They met Taesan’s CEO Taesik Kim at the front, and Taesik smiled at Daesan.

"You came here too?"

Junhyuk looked at Taesik and was glad that he had gone with Daesan. Just by looking at Taesik, Junhyuk knew that he couldn’t be trusted.

"I’ve just signed a contract with Bakdu. I’m sorry since you came all this way."

Taesik gave him a business card and said, "Even though you signed a contract with them, you might need us. Please, take my card. I am Taesik Kim."

Junhyuk took the card and smiled. His expression turned scary, and Junhyuk’s smile made Taesik uneasy.

"GST’s CEO, Max."

Taesik offered his hand, but Junhyuk ignored the gesture.

"Please, take care."

Taesik looked a bit angry, but Daesan was smiling. Their relationship did not look pleasant, but Junhyuk wasn’t interested in that.

---

He pulled out his smartphone and called General Law.

"Hello, this is Choi."

"Max from GST here. I’m acquiring a security company, so I’ll need a new contract."

"Where should I go?"

"I’ll head to your instead."

"Then, how about 4:00 p.m. at my office?"

"Sure."

Junhyuk hung up and looked at Sungtae.

"Perhaps, you picked out a security company too fast?"

"I’m a better judge of character than you’ll ever be," Junhyuk said and added, "When the security team arrives, they’ll have to have access to their entire building. Tell Ganesha to get everything ready for them."

"But isn’t that the security team’s job?"

"No, Ganesha must be in control of the entire building."

"Understood."

"I’ll tell Ganesha what it needs to do."

"Sure."

Junhyuk opened the app to contact Ganesha, "I need two corporate credit cards and one personal card under the name of Max. One of the corporate card should have a limit of $10 million. The other two should have no limit. I need them as soon as possible."

[Understood.]

Junhyuk turned to Sungtae and said, "I’ll head out. The security company deal should be over by tomorrow."

"The sooner, the better."

"Whenever I’m not here, you’re in charge. You have 5 percent of the shares of this place."

"It’s my company too."

"Correct. Work hard."

Junhyuk patted him on the shoulder and headed out, heading to the General Law Firm.

There, he talked to Choi about the merger and, thinking he had worked too hard that day, he headed back home.

Once he entered his home in Paju, he took off his mask and lay on his bed.

"Whew!"

He had only shopped that day, but he had spent $6 million dollars. While lying on his bed, he looked at his hands. Junhyuk hadn’t expected he would spend so much money. While he reminisced about his past, he heard a voice.

"What are you doing?"

He saw Gongon’s face on the ceiling and laughed.

"I just got home and was trying to rest."

"Nice!"

"Gon, what have you been up to?"

"I’ve been to the Dimensional Battlefield."

"Right. Did you meet some heroes?"

"Yes. They are nothing, but I still had to flatter them. I had a hard time."

"Be careful. Heroes are basically different from us."

"I know. I challenged some of them, and they almost killed me."

Junhyuk laughed.

"You were acting yourself."

"I want to train harder. I won’t contact you again till I go to the Champions’ Battlefield," Gongon said.

Junhyuk hadn’t thought about contacting Gongon. He’d been too busy in South Korea, but he did not tell the little dragon that. There was no need to get him upset.

"Too bad!"

"Ha-ha-ha. I know it’s bad, but we’ll meet soon."

"Right. Train hard, and I’ll see you on the battlefield."

"Yes, see you next time!" Gongon said, waving his short arm.

Junhyuk waved back, and Gongon cut the connection. He lay on his bed with his eyes closed and said, "Till next time."

---

Junhyuk was about to go to work and had just left his house when he saw Jeffrey in front of his door.

"Are you going to work now?"

"What about you?"

"I am as well."

"Did you wait for me?"

Jeffrey sat on the stairs in front of the gate and said, "Have you been to the Dimensional Battlefield?"

"You know I have."

"Doyeol wants to know if you brought anything back?"

"Nothing," Junhyuk said evenly and sat next to Jeffrey. "Do you have any new information?"

Jeffrey got up and cleaned the back of his pants while saying, " The world is changing too fast."

Junhyuk looked at him, and Jeffrey continued, "The number of people activating powers is increasing too fast."

"Isn’t that because of the monsters’ appearance?"

"That could be. But people know about the Dimensional Battlefield now. Someone was behind the leak. Even though it was for a short period, someone told stories about the battlefield on the internet, and I think the number of novices is increasing because of it."

"How many novices?"

"So far, there are thirty novices."

"That many?!"

"Yes."

Junhyuk couldn’t hide his surprise.

"How many novices has Doyeol acquired?"

"He has twenty novices now. The enemy has another six, and we can’t locate the four remaining ones. It’s not possible to find them."

"How many do we have on our team?"

"We are trying hard, but only Tsubasa so far. Sora follows you, so she could be on our side."

"Then, we only have four?"

"It looks that way. We don’t have as much information as our enemies. There’s nothing we can do."

Junhyuk had Ganesha now, so he wouldn’t lose out on any information. However, there was a limit to that. When compared to Zaira, Junhyuk thought Ganesha wasn’t as capable.

It wasn’t a matter of the AI coding. Zaira just had superior hardware. Elise, Robotics’ number one researcher had created Zaira with cutting edge hardware. Meanwhile, Ganesha had been created with lesser quality parts acquired through brokers.

Information gathering wasn’t the only problem. To get the novices, he had to meet them, but he didn’t have enough personnel to do it.

Junhyuk had acquired a security company, but it only had two teams.

Doyeol had many security teams at his disposal, so it wouldn’t be easy to reach novices before him. He told Ganesha to keep the searches within South Korea, meaning to get a jump on the novices at home, but even that wouldn’t be easy.

Junhyuk sighed.

"I have to get her."

"Who?"

He didn’t answer Jeffrey.