Chapter 602
When Influ 1 and Chen Wei are both on screen, who do people empathize with?
The answer came before they even had to think about it.
Influ 1, the character who had been with them throughout the entire series, someone they had unknowingly grown attached to.
That same Influ 1 couldn't even speak now. She held her breath, tense enough to stop breathing altogether.
The audience sitting in the theater also grew anxious about the danger Chen Wei represented. The immersion Han Yeoreum created pulled everyone in the room into the scene.
The camera slowly shifted to Chen Wei's point of view.
Influ 1's face.
Her neck.
Then her fidgeting hands.
"Are you having fun?"
"..."
What kind of answer was she supposed to give?
Influ 1 only stared at him hesitantly.
"No answer..."
"..."
"How boring."
Chen Wei pressed the cigarette between his index and middle fingers into the ashtray until it went out.
The sharp fangs of the black panther statue beside his desk gleamed clearly.
"You should be enjoying yourself."
Still half-leaning against the desk, Chen Wei spoke as though forcing the words upon Influ 1.
"That's what gambling is all about."
Influ 1 could no longer withstand the pressure.
She forced the awkward smile everyone knew so well and nodded.
"Hahaha. Right. Yeah. The casino is really fun... Boss? Thank you so much..."
"Good."
"Don't forget."
Chen Wei pulled a golden card from inside his jacket.
"Even after you go back to Korea."
The word VIP shone brilliantly across its surface.
Influ 1 accepted it.
Invited at last into the dazzling, glittering world of the night, she left the Boss Room.
The expression on her face was completely different from the one she'd worn when she first reached for the doorknob before meeting Chen Wei.
A special person.
A lucky person.
Someone who had been chosen.
"Wow... Guys from China really fall for me so easily."
She never wondered why the casino boss she'd only met today somehow knew she was Korean.
She was simply overjoyed by the casino VIP card and the jackpot she'd won.
* * *
"Alright, alright. Don't push."
"God, seriously..."
The police station was packed with teenagers in school uniforms.
They lounged around in expensive windbreakers and zip-up hoodies, grumbling irritably.
"'Seriously?' 'Seriously?'"
The detectives smacked their heads with file folders before beginning the questioning.
"Ah, fuck!!! I told you I didn't do it! This is child abuse!"
"Even your own dad wouldn't believe that bullshit, you little punk. If you've got eyes, look over here."
The CCTV footage showed a student on an illegal webtoon site's community board posting screenshots of gambling profits, bragging about the money he'd won, and advertising the site.
[Bragging TIME / You pathetic losers, how does it feel living poorer than a fucking high schooler? LOL]
(Money withdrawal proof.jpg)
I make your monthly salary just by playing Ladder LOL
Thanks for the free money.
(Comments / 108)
-You crazy bastard, stole your parents' money just to flex? LOL
ㄴ Nope~ Won it with one click.
-If you've got that much money why are you reading pirated webtoons, dumbass?
ㄴ Smart spending.
-What'd you win it on? Seriously curious.
ㄴ Played Ladder LOL. Third site from the left is absolutely broken LOL.
Below that, another student agreed in the comments.
Then another posted their own proof.
Little by little, it became tempting.
Even kids like them were winning.
So why couldn't someone in their twenties win too?
That simple thought drew people in.
And once they stepped inside, they never came back out.
"Child abuse? Child abuse?"
"I don't know. I'm invoking my right to remain silent."
People in their thirties were more experienced than those in their twenties.
People in their twenties knew how to think better than teenagers.
Every direct advertisement for the gambling sites had been posted by teenagers.
Once they arrested those kids, the people above them would inevitably surface.
"Kids."
Detective Kwak, who had been reading a newspaper on the Violent Crimes Unit sofa, lowered it.
The face hidden behind the paper appeared.
The defiant delinquents immediately turned pale.
"Mister likes that phrase too."
"'The right... to remain silent.'"
Detective Kwak slowly clenched his fist.
"..."
The questioning proceeded very quickly.
* * *
"Something definitely feels off."
Detective Yoon, who had been unofficially working together with the Cyber Crime Unit, began analyzing the situation seriously.
"These sites..."
"The percentage of people winning money is strangely high."
Illegal gambling sites normally offered abysmal odds.
But several of the sites currently making headlines were practically giving money away.
"What's more, withdrawals actually work."
Many scam sites froze your account the moment you tried withdrawing.
Veteran gamblers who had spent years online all knew that.
Because of that, new sites usually struggled to attract users.
But this time was different.
The odds of winning were high.
Withdrawals worked normally.
As a result, new users flooded in, while almost nobody left.
"I think they're going to shut everything down all at once."
Detective Yoon pointed it out sharply.
"You mean they'll wait until everyone's betting huge amounts before locking it all?"
"Ah... That makes sense."
"They can easily recover the initial losses."
Unable to escape gambling addiction.
Already accustomed to spending bigger and bigger amounts.
Where would those people go next?
"We've got to find where these bastards are operating."
"Huh? Obviously overseas."
Detective Yoon frowned.
He had already put the entire puzzle together.
"What do you think they'll do with all that money they've trapped?"
Once people saw their online funds disappear overnight...
They would head straight to physical casinos.
Unable to cut themselves off from gambling.
"They're coming to Korea."
And they were undoubtedly planning to swallow every offline casino in Korea.
If they waited until they entered Korea before making arrests, it would already be too late.
By then, the thrill of gambling would already be burned into the brains of teenagers and young adults.
It's far harder to quit than it is to avoid starting in the first place.
"We've got to crush them before that."
But despite Detective Yoon's concerns...
The gambling addiction had already begun spreading at an alarming pace.
[★Would you like to deposit funds?★]
Alone in his room beneath his blanket, a teenage boy stared blankly at the Ladder game.
[Yes]
There wasn't the slightest hesitation left in his finger.
* * *
Influ 1 spent her time shopping enthusiastically in Macau.
"Ah... This is it. This is exactly it!"
Shopping bags filled both of her hands.
Even on the flight back to Korea, gambling was all she could think about.
"Damn... If I'd just bet a little more back then, I would've made four times as much..."
Dragging her suitcase home, Influ 1 finally checked the messages from her friends.
She'd barely replied while traveling, so the unread notifications had piled up.
[LOL What? Did you seriously get a boyfriend over there?]
[You never updated your Story. Super suspicious.]
Typing: No. I didn't meet anyone.
Influ 1 returned to reality.
[Sounds fake.]
[Huh? Weren't you filming couple Intube content with some Chinese guy?]
Typing: Casino...
She was supposed to have returned to reality.
But instead, everything still felt strangely unreal.
After hesitating for a moment, she typed another message.
Typing: But seriously, Chinese guys are completely crazy about me; the casino boss even gave me a VIP card.
Her friends exploded.
[HOLY SHIT WHAT???]
[Was he handsome???]
[W-Wait, but if he's the boss doesn't that mean he's old as hell?]
[Sounds like getting called into the principal's office LMAO.]
Typing: Definitely not. He's handsomeeeee. He's not that old.
[Proof.]
[No photos?]
[So did you get his number or what? When's Day 1 of your romance with the Chinese guy?]
A smile spread across Influ 1's face.
She hadn't really enjoyed the trip properly.
Maybe it would be more fun if she came back with her friends.
Typing: Hey, wanna all go together? I'm serious. I made a shitload of money at the casino LOL.
Influ 1 returned to the airport.
This time with her friends.
* * *
"We're getting nothing."
"..."
"It's an overseas site, so we can't trace it. And the payments are all in cryptocurrency."
"We can't identify the source."
"I heard you started investigating the pubs."
"They're even more organized than we expected."
"They seriously don't know anything."
"And the sites have been cleaned so thoroughly that we can't find a single piece of evidence. Damn... What do we do?"
The investigation had reached a dead end.
They simply couldn't locate the organization's base.
At that very moment...
The developers imprisoned in an underground warehouse came into view.
Inside the room without even a single ventilation shaft, dark circles hung beneath their lifeless eyes.
"Do it properly! Properly!"
"If there's even a one-second delay, you're dead!"
The men who had come from Chen Wei's casino screamed at them.
"Ah... Ugh..."
Even when someone developed a nosebleed, nobody asked if they were alright.
"Fuck... Fuck..."
While the exhausted developers continued maintaining the sites like people who had already lost their minds...
One man quietly glanced from side to side.
* * *
"See?"
Watching the CCTV footage, Chen Wei curled the corner of his mouth upward.
"Koreans really do love gambling."
Influ 1 appeared on the screen.
She and her friends were completely absorbed by the casino.
"So? How much did you win?"
"About 1.4 million won!"
"Damn... I'm down 200,000. Can you lend me some?"
Influ 1 and her friends had completely lost themselves in the casino.
Chen Wei slowly turned his chair to the right.
A gigantic screen filled his view.
Today: HKD 46,000,000
Roughly 9 billion won.
Chen Wei flexed the fingers resting on the chair's armrest.
There was unmistakable excitement in his expression.
As though the real gambling was only beginning now...
He raised the stakes.
"Increase the price."
All transactions on the site were made in cryptocurrency.
By driving the coin's value through the roof, Chen Wei pushed people into a frenzy.
"Holy shit, what?!"
"W-Wait?! Wait?!"
"Crazy!"
While eating with friends.
Walking home alone.
Riding the subway.
People using the gambling sites couldn't believe their eyes as the value of their coins suddenly multiplied several times over.
"Holy shit... How much is this..."
"One, ten, a hundred, a thousand..."
The illegal webtoon site was no longer filled with paid advertisements.
Now genuine users themselves were flooding it with posts bragging about their profits.
As stories of massive earnings exploded across the site, even people who had only logged in to read webtoons felt something change in their eyes.
Inside a single subway car.
It wasn't difficult to find people browsing illegal webtoon sites.
There was usually one to your left.
One to your right.
One in front.
One behind.
"..."
-This is Wangsimni. Wangsimni Station.
The expressions of the passengers inside the train changed.
They now wore the faces of people taking their very first step into gambling.
* * *
"My treat! Everything's on me!"
Influ 1 laughed as she drank with her friends at a rooftop bar.
The glittering red nightscape of Macau seemed to stretch beneath her feet.
She had won 40 million won in a single day.
"Seriously... What are you?"
"I'm so freaking jealous..."
"Sigh. I ended up losing everything."
Each friend reacted differently.
One stared in amazement.
One sighed in envy.
One couldn't hide a trace of irritation.
Luxurious cocktails.
A breathtaking skyline.
The excitement of traveling.
Under a night like this, it wasn't strange for people to lose themselves.
"After playing a few times, I finally figured it out."
"There are actually patterns."
"When you're playing the slots..."
Even the expressions of her friends listening to her began changing.
Everyone lost a little on their first try.
Today's losses weren't even that much.
Most importantly...
"You just have to win back more than you lost!"
The classic gambler's mindset.
"Just think of it as winning it back."
The miraculous logic every gambler believes.
Influ 1 and her friends agreed to return to the casino the next day.
Click!
While they laughed, drank, and took photos inside the luxurious bar, someone replied to one of her friend's Stories.
[LOL. When you get back to Korea, Oppa will buy you drinks somewhere even better.]
(Coin screenshot.jpg)
[Just tell me what you want to eat.]
"Huh? Who's this Oppa?"
"What?"
The cryptocurrency earned from an online gambling site.
Its value had skyrocketed.
"..."
Realizing there was a way to keep multiplying their money even after returning to Korea...
Smiles spread across their faces.
"You'd have to be an idiot not to cash in on this."
While fools worked themselves to death...
People like them—
People who had "figured something out"—
Could make money effortlessly.
A bird's-eye view showed the building where Influ 1 and her friends were gathered.
Beside it stood the hotel with the casino.
Nearby, another casino.
Across the street, another.
Farther away, yet another.
The yellow and crimson lights of Macau.
Their reflections spread across the river like poison dissolving into water.
Light slowly seeped across the black surface.
The nightscape of Macau was swallowing them whole like a raging fire.