Chapter 351
Lee Jae-soon was fuming since the opportunity just wouldn’t come right.
His face was a canvas of disappointment and annoyance.
Yet, he managed to suppress the impatience bubbling within him.
It wasn’t too hard.
Though he didn’t know how to control his mind, he at least possessed the wisdom to forgo small prey for the chance at greater gain.
Isn’t that the attitude of an intellectual?
“Ugh. I’ve written the draft, though.”
He muttered under his breath as he glared at his laptop.
On the screen lay a splendid draft detailing the discovery of a relic bearing the Emperor’s name, intertwined with suspicions about the government desperately trying to cover it all up.
And it wasn’t just one, but several.
The first was simply to provoke suspicion and grab attention, while the subsequent ones deepened the scrutiny, and the final one hammered the suspicions into the public’s head as “truth.”
Lee Jae-soon could confidently assert that, if these articles came to light, the Republic of Korea would be in uproar.
It was a sharp blade he had honed while biding his time.
The government?
Once he shoved this article into their gut, they wouldn’t know what hit them.
But.
That chance wasn’t easily coming.
“Well, it’ll come someday….”
With a sigh of disappointment, Lee Jae-soon stretched his arms up. It was just a yawn.
Ugh—
Cracking his back like a patient groaning in distress, Lee Jae-soon twisted at the waist and got up.
Tap.
He locked his laptop and headed outside.
Thinking of grabbing a coffee to clear his head.
“Guess I don’t really need to take the laptop with me.”
Under normal circumstances, he would have taken it, but today, he just didn’t feel like it.
Since waking up in the morning, he felt great, and considering this place wasn’t unfamiliar, he was mildly curious about any happenings.
Thus, Lee Jae-soon just locked the screen and left without a second thought.
Quite carelessly, really.
Work tends to hit when you’re most relaxed.
A person who had been waiting for Lee Jae-soon to step out rose up from a corner and walked toward his spot.
Unlike Lee Jae-soon, who had been demoted to the entertainment section but returned again, this was his colleague who had built their career right from the society section. The sleek cut of his appearance was marred by impatience and tension, and perhaps that was why the USB in his hand was trembling a little.
“Whew. Fifty million won, fifty million won…”
His colleague repeatedly thought of those words, perhaps to calm his racing heart.
Fifty million.
Numerically, that’s 50,000,000.
An amount that could be called a lump sum.
“It’s not that hard, right? Just install one program.”
Moreover, he wasn’t even tossing himself into danger for that money.
It was simply a matter of installing one program on Lee Jae-soon’s laptop.
He didn’t have to harm anyone, nor did he have to ask someone to advocate on his behalf through a signed article. He wasn’t requesting a hit on a dangerous individual through an article; just one program installed into one person’s laptop was all it took.
In fact, even the installation method was simple.
Just plug in the USB, and it installs right away.
Fifty million won with just a flick of the finger.
How could one refuse this offer?
There was no rejecting it, especially in his recent plight for cash.
Of course, if it was someone like a senior or someone closer to him, he might have hesitated a bit…
But the target was Lee Jae-soon.
Lee Jae-soon.
That bastard who acted superior as if he were eating rice wrapped in his ego.
With conceit, he looked down on others, even his colleagues, while trying to devour his seniors.
Sure, his success was acknowledged.
Yet they were from the same media organization; his attitude was atrocious.
Even those who simply thought, “It’s nice that my colleague is doing well. Maybe it’ll benefit me later,” were pushed to harbor resentment.
‘This is all your own doing.’
Lee Jae-soon had accumulated grudges from countless people over a brief period.
With his relentless words and immensely arrogant attitude.
‘If you hadn’t said such nonsense at the gathering… this bastard.’
He gritted his teeth, recalling the embarrassment he faced because of Lee Jae-soon at that company gathering.
That gathering.
He was subtly trying to build rapport with a pretty junior reporter he liked.
But was he somehow aware of it?
Lee Jae-soon had brazenly belittled him.
He brought up that he was called out by the senior, a basic blunder that only a few knew about, and said it publicly, ruining his image. Because of that, the seniors began to look unfavorably upon him, including the very junior reporter he had an eye on.
He had been grinding his teeth ever since.
Lee Jae-soon, he’d get back at you someday.
Did he sense this feeling?
The opportunity came.
A man claiming to be Jung Hoon-sang’s manager had reached out to him.
“Lee Jae-soon, please just install one program on Lee Jae-soon’s laptop.”
“It’s not a grand program. Just a light virus, basically.”
“I’ll give you fifty. Fifty million.”
The manager of Jung Hoon-sang tried to deceive him with a nonchalant demeanor.
Of course, he didn’t believe that nonsense.
You’d give fifty million for just installing a program?
But it wasn’t exactly a grand program?
Does that even make sense?
Not fifty thousand, but fifty million.
Yet, it couldn’t possibly be an insignificant program.
Despite that, he accepted the manager’s proposal.
Why?
It was simple.
He wanted to mess with that bastard Lee Jae-soon.
Whether the files got decrypted because of that program, or if Jung Hoon-sang could see everything inside the computer, he just wanted to see Lee Jae-soon suffer in some way.
‘Right now, the office CCTV is broken, and everyone’s out on assignments; there aren’t many people in the building. This is my only chance.’
Resolving himself, he stood before the laptop.
To get back at Lee Jae-soon.
‘The password…’
The locking screen of the laptop flashed a prompt to input the password.
He slowly moved his hands.
Following the password he had covertly seen being typed in by Lee Jae-soon.
“Password incorrect. Please try again.”
But unfortunately, the password was wrong.
‘Did he change it?’
He thought, recalling what he might have pressed and tried a variety of combinations in his head.
“Password incorrect. Please try again.”
“Password incorrect. Please try again.”
“Password incorrect. Please try again.”
All he got back was the same message stating the password was wrong.
At that point, he was convinced that Lee Jae-soon had indeed changed the password.
He abandoned the previously known password and tried entering Lee Jae-soon’s birthdate.
“Password incorrect. Please try again.”
Another failure.
‘What is it? What could it be?’
He wrung his hands.
He had to crack that password before Lee Jae-soon returned or before someone passed by and caught him.
Just plug in the USB.
Once the password is cracked, in mere seconds he could acquire fifty million won and even take his revenge.
Yet, he simply couldn’t figure out the password.
Despite exhausting his brain, nothing came to mind, and soon, he relinquished hope and stood up.
“Well, this chance isn’t the only one…”
He decided to wait for the next opportunity.
Though regret lingered.
There wasn’t a chance as perfect as this.
There wouldn’t be a perfect opportunity like this again…
As he rose with that lingering disappointment, a string of letters and numbers suddenly flashed in his mind.
“Huh?”
A combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.
It was a set he was completely unaccustomed to.
Why on earth did this pop up all of a sudden?
He wore a blank expression for a moment before quickly sitting back down.
He typed the letters flashing in his head into the laptop.
“Huh?”
Success.
He succeeded.
The string of letters that suddenly crossed his mind was the password.
“What on earth is this.”
He felt as if he were possessed by a ghost.
How could such a thing happen unless a real ghost was whispering beside him?
Yet he soon snapped back to reality and moved his hands to insert the USB.
“Got it.”
The moment the USB was plugged in, the program was successfully installed on Lee Jae-soon’s computer.
As soon as he confirmed the program was in place, he quickly locked the laptop screen again, returning to the corner as if nothing had happened. He then plugged his earphones in and pretended to watch a movie on his smartphone.
* * *
“Lee Jae-soon, Lee Jae-soon, I-Oh-Lee-Jae-soon. Even your name sounds like a wretched puppy.”
Actor Jung Hoon-sang spat out thick curses that barely matched his delicate looks.
Around him lay empty wine bottles devoid of any contents.
“This trashy bastard dared to fool me? And he’s all happy on top of that? Not happening.”
