WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ Incarnation of the Malevolent Star ◈

Chapter 30: Part 1 - Whispers of the Dark Brother (30)

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Legal Hunter was selected as a first-place recipient alongside Onik in the provincial government's regional creator support program and received 150 million won in production funding under the corporation's name.

This experience brought him a great revelation.

"Government money really is sweet once you get your hands on it. No wonder every bastard out there is so desperate to get a piece of taxpayers' money..."

He had understood it in theory, of course.

But actually holding the money in his hands made the emotional impact almost overwhelming.

It kept coming to mind, waking or sleeping, and his chest felt tight as though he had fallen in love for the first time.

He even sat blankly across from his wife at the dinner table, muttering to himself.

To get rich, it was not enough to siphon off the taxes he himself had to pay.

A person had to take it a step further and learn to make other people's taxes their own. That was how one became truly rich!

Having awakened to the sweetness of other people's taxes, the Legal Hunter began eagerly searching for his next opportunity.

"While I was foolishly focusing only on honest tax savings, the truly clever people must have been claiming all this ownerless government money. It's time I got clever too. Isn't there another opportunity somewhere?"

Surprisingly, there was.

After combing through national and provincial funding programs until his aging eyes were bloodshot, the hunter took his wife's hand. She had suffered alongside him, and his fighting spirit flared.

"This is it! We have to get this money!"

Regional extinction caused by rapid aging and population loss was one of the country's greatest concerns.

For that reason, many funding programs were available in the name of revitalizing local economies and preventing regional extinction, and their scale was far larger than ordinary people imagined.

"Rural Resource Integrated Commercialization Support Program... Up to two billion won per site!"

The heart of this program was independently linking the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries within a rural area.

Simply put, its goal was to foster local businesses capable of processing agricultural, livestock, and specialty products produced in the region, turning them into goods, and delivering them to consumers on their own.

The Legal Hunter made up his mind.

"I'll get that two billion won no matter what!"

He was not saying it without thought.

Wouldn't it look good to civil servants and policymakers if the proposal stated that it would be linked to a YouTube channel already selected for a provincial support program?

The fact that it would create synergy with another public project already underway would surely count as a major advantage in their work evaluations.

‘It would also make a fine accomplishment for the important people to boast about.’

Other competitors could only apply with resources belonging to the primary industry.

But the Legal Hunter already had a channel through which he could communicate directly with consumers.

There was the rapidly growing YouTube channel, 「Onik Uncle and the Hapless Chief」.

They had the potential to sell self-developed products through live streams and eventually open their own online store.

At least among newcomers, that was an enormous competitive advantage.

Still, that advantage alone would not win the competition if they did not have a proper plan for commercializing local specialties.

To secure the money for certain, they needed something distinctive.

‘Winning the competition isn't enough. The limit is two billion won, after all. If I want the maximum amount, I'll have to win by a crushing margin.’

With a ceiling that high, he could not be satisfied with getting only one or two hundred million won.

As the hunter obsessed over writing a two-billion-won business plan, he eventually found potential in the village where he lived.

Though it was falling into decline by the day, this aging village was an old clan settlement with a history so deep that few places in the country could compare.

The many traditions this old village community had preserved for generations were themselves excellent points of distinction.

‘Civil servants go crazy for traditional culture too, don't they? Local roots! Traditional culture! What a beautiful picture!’

It was a magical intangible asset, one that allowed them to advertise six hundred years of tradition without it being false advertising, and it had the substance to match.

To possess such a valuable asset and not think of using it?

That person did not deserve to call themselves a businessperson.

After following that line of thought, the Legal Hunter once again ended up kneeling before old Jo Jeong-ho.

He respectfully held out a notice from the provincial government office and an unfinished business plan in both hands.

"Please take a look at this, sir..."

Above all else, he needed Jo Jeong-ho's permission to use the intangible assets of the head family, the center of this village.

Even now, when customs had changed greatly, the village elders still respected Jo Jeong-ho's authority as the senior elder of the main lineage.

They still believed that the rights to family secrets passed down through generations, such as the distinctive methods of making jang, belonged to the head family.

What if he used those secrets without permission? What if he went even further, created a brand called something like the Head Family House, and started selling things under it?

The village elders, and even his own elderly parents, would surely heap abuse on him by the bucketful.

There was also a strong chance it would cause legal problems.

After reading through the documents brought by his grandson's business partner, Jo Jeong-ho took off his reading glasses and asked, "So what exactly do you want to do?"

"There's a world of difference between submitting only a proposal and attaching actual product samples! Other villages will probably only change the design on a bag of rice, or compete with some kind of rice cake that every Tom, Dick, and Harry has already made until people are sick of it..."

"But?"

"We're different. We have the premium of the head family, don't we?"

"The premium of the head family?"

"Secret meju fermentation and jang-making methods passed down from our ancestors! Jangjorim made from that jang through our distinctive submerged sauce-braising method! Special liquor carrying over six hundred years of history! Things like that!"

"By liquor, do you mean the ceremonial liquor?"

"Yes!"

"That isn't such a special liquor. And jangjorim is just jangjorim, jang is just jang. Why make such a grand fuss about secret methods and all that?"

"Oh, sir! If you worry about every little detail, you've already lost! Is there really anything in this world that was special from the beginning?

"If people believe it's special, then it's special! We just have to push our head family's history as hard as we can!"

The hunter thumped his chest with confidence.

"This is what they call marketing, sir! This is how everyone does things these days!"

"..."

Jo Jeong-ho rubbed the space between his brows with his thumb and forefinger.

To an old man who belonged to an earlier age, a family's secrets of brewing liquor and making jang did not seem especially remarkable.

Serving ancestral rites and welcoming guests were things the head family was supposed to do in the first place.

Brewing liquor for the ancestral rites was part of serving those rites. Carefully making jang and preparing food were simply everyday preparations to welcome guests without shame.

The gochujang of the Sunchang Jo family, supposedly loved dearly by King Yeongjo of Joseon, could truly be called special.

The king had loved gochujang more than his own son. How could it not be special?

(Perhaps Yeongjo putting his son in a rice chest and killing him had really been an effort to age his son like gochujang.

But because Yeongjo was unskilled at making jang and failed to add malted barley, Crown Prince Sado rotted instead of fermenting...)

Jo Jeong-ho did not believe this village's jang products could compare to those of the Sunchang Jo family.

The Legal Hunter gestured broadly as he tried to persuade him.

"And another thing, Onik is good at cooking, isn't he? If we use that image to sell things like meal kits, it'll appeal to the civil servants too!

"If things go really, really well, we might even end up collaborating with a major corporation later!"

The hunter sounded so certain that the old man asked quietly, "Are you confident you will succeed? If you intend to receive and use as much as two billion won of precious government money, you must approach this business resolved not to allow failure. If you have that level of resolve, I will help as much as I can."

The hunter suddenly adopted a meek posture and answered in a serious voice.

"Sir. Getting the government money is success."

"...What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. Any business is more likely to fail than to succeed, so why should I take that risk and pour all two billion won into the business?"

"..."

"I have a conscience too, so I'll generously spend up to one billion on the business! I'll set aside only half. Five hundred million for me! Five hundred million for Onik! A billion between us! Ah, that's nice!"

There was no point hiding such a plan from the old man.

Once two billion won officially began moving, word would spread from mouth to mouth, starting with the government offices in town.

After all, it would look as though a huge investment had entered a small town whose population shrank every day as the town itself declined.

For the town chief, a local notable and the head of the civil servants, it would be a happy occasion worth getting involved in and claiming some credit for.

They would probably put up large banners first to make it look as though they had done something.

Or perhaps a provincial assembly member would do it.

If there was a member who had led this support program, they would actively claim it had been possible thanks to them, if only to win votes in the next election.

The old war veteran's eyebrows twitched when he heard the Legal Hunter's horrible scheme.

Strength filled the sturdy fist of the still-healthy old man. Sensing the knuckle rap that was about to land, the hunter hurriedly raised both hands.

"Sir! Wait! Wait a minute!"

Afraid that Jo Jeong-ho would get angry like this, the hunter had decided to honestly spend the precious one billion won on the business.

Yet in the end, that was not enough to stop the upright old man's anger.

‘Ah, I thought it would be fine if I said Onik would get five hundred million!’

This was an opportunity for a child who had only just entered the first year of middle school to get enough money to buy an old apartment somewhere in a remote corner of Seoul.

And that still was not enough to get him off the hook? What kind of injustice was this?

‘Great-Uncle is far too rigid.’

Sighing inwardly, the hunter defended himself.

"Sir! Even so, doesn't that make me one of the honest ones?"

"Honest? You? Have all honest people gone off and died?"

"You have to judge this relatively, not absolutely! I looked into it. This isn't the first year the province has run this program, you know? They ran it last year and the year before too!"

"...And?"

"But among the people who received government money last year and the year before, hardly any actually accomplished anything properly!

"As far as I can tell, they all put on a show of running their businesses, then split up the government money among themselves behind the scenes and called it a day!"

"What grounds do you have for being so certain? Perhaps their businesses simply failed."

"Come on, sir. You know how it is. When money isn't watched, someone takes it every time."

"It isn't watched?"

"Yes. I don't know about other provinces, but it is here. The civil servants' work ends when they hand out the money. There is no oversight, no interference in the actual progress of the business!

"I hear they check most progress and results only through written reports! In other words, all you need is paperwork that looks convincing!"

"..."

"With things like that, who would take the risk of failure and go all in on the business?

"They probably set aside a suitable amount from the beginning in case the business failed, or only pretended to run it and swallowed all the remaining money whole. Isn't it obvious?"

"Ha..."

"What do you think? Don't I seem admirable for saying I'll still spend half on the business? Hurry and praise me! I'm honest!"

If only he had not said that last part, he might have avoided the knuckle rap.

The hunter was struck anyway, and his eyes welled with tears.

The old man spoke sternly. "If you're going to do it, do it properly. I doubt you can truly secure all two billion won, but if you do, invest it while considering it money that was never yours in the first place. I will also help as much as I can."

"Then Onik can't set aside five hundred million either, sir."

"I told you already. Just as it was never your money in the first place, it was never Onik's either. If the business succeeds, then Onik will finally have a share left over."

"Ugh... Doesn't it feel like a waste to let that much money go? Everyone else will make money this way."

"Enough. Before you begin, sort out the corporate shares properly. If you truly consider Onik a serious business partner, as you said yourself, shouldn't you split up the existing corporation or create a new one entirely?"

"Well... Of course that has to be done... I'm planning to make a new one with Onik as a joint founder..."

Separating the corporations was necessary for their future broadcasting activities as well.

Only by completely separating income from hunting and income from broadcasting at the corporate level could his smuggling of hunting byproducts and tax evasion remain safe going forward.

"Ha..."

As he left the towering gate of the Songryeong Jo Clan Head House, the hunter let out a sorrowful, regretful sigh.

The dream of easily getting five hundred million won felt as though it had vanished before his eyes like a mirage.

‘Sob. I'm so sad.’

Though he had received permission in the end, the Legal Hunter returned home with his bubbling enthusiasm utterly deflated.

Using the lingering embers of his greed as fuel, he searched for one thing after another and continued filling out the business plan.

Then, by chance, he found an article that made his eyes flash.

‘This is it!’

The article systematically analyzed the trademark value of a certain food brand.

At the moment, there was one major source of anxiety in the Legal Hunter's earning plans.

He relied far too heavily on Onik for both hunting and broadcasting.

Even if both hunting and broadcasting continued to go well, wouldn't they both collapse one day if Onik left his side?

But suppose he had already established a highly recognizable brand by then.

Half of that brand would remain in the hunter's hands even after Onik left.

Even if “Onik Uncle” went away, “Hapless Chief” would remain his asset.

And in consumers' minds, the two would not be strictly separated.

The hunter believed that would remain true for at least five years.

Building a familiar consumer brand was no easy feat.

If he built it properly, simply selling it off would surely leave the hunter himself with a generous retirement fund.

Various imagined storefront signs passed through his mind.

‘Hapless Chief Fried Chicken... Hapless Chief Naengmyeon... Hapless Chief Cauldron-Lid Pork Belly... Hapless Chief collaboration convenience-store lunchboxes...’

An aging hunter's imagination went no further than that for the moment, but it was still enough to fill him with enthusiasm again.

The Legal Hunter, who always regarded honesty as a virtue, decided to give this project a proper try.

Footnotes:

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