Franchise God - Chapter 56



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Franchise God Episode 056

Chapter 12 The Farm Owner and the 40 Thieves (3)

A group of mushrooms that appear enormous at first glance.

How much would those be worth in monetary terms? Wouldn’t a few billion won be ridiculous?

Greed spread across the eyes of Chief Park Chung-won.

‘I was wrong, I was wrong… … .’

I thought they were growing mushrooms on a large scale. Every time I go to pick them, there are a lot of large vehicles coming and going.

But I didn’t know it was this large-scale.

After all, you have to see everything with your own eyes.

“I guess these five won’t do.”

“Isn’t that so?”

“I’m going to be a bit busy today.”

The village chief stood up and said.

“You guys, put that down here, go home quickly, close your eyes, and get some rest. We’ll have to move again tonight, won’t we?”

“I understand. You too, Chief, have a hard time.”

They could tell what the chief was going to do without having to ask.

That evening, the five thieves gathered in the hall were able to see their five new comrades.

Of course, they were friendly neighbors in the village.

“Is that true? There are that many yellow truffles?”

“That’s what I said.”

“But if you get caught stealing, isn’t the penalty severe? I heard the laws are pretty strict these days…”

“Hey, don’t worry about that. No matter how hard we scrape it, it won’t show. It’s like taking a bucket of water from a stream.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s right. And the old lady in Seoul leaves behind ten million won worth of mushrooms as offerings to the wild animals. Even if we dig them up, they’ll just say the wild animals ate them and move on.”

“Oh, Grandma Seoul is useless. She’s so mean to her neighbors, but she’s so generous to the wild animals that she can’t even see?”

“They say that’s how people in Seoul are. They’re very kind to animals, but they don’t spend a single penny on people.”

“Seoul really isn’t a place where people can live.”

The group of ten thieves sneaked in at midnight and waited until daylight.

They noticed that mushrooms had grown in a different section of the field than yesterday, and were so excited that they dug them up and put them on a cart.

Even so, it was nothing compared to the seemingly endless mushroom field.

Village head Park Chung-won welcomed the thieves with excitement and loaded the golden umbrella mushrooms onto a truck and headed out to town to sell them.

Village head Park Chung-won, who sold it to the forestry cooperative and made a lot of money, felt very proud.

“Elder, I guess there’s a mountain in Seorak-eup where golden umbrella mushrooms grow well? You’ve been bringing them in regularly lately.”

“Oh, don’t ask for details. It’s a village secret. You just have to make a good purchase.”

“That’s true.”

Since we have been dealing with the local forestry cooperative for decades, we had no need to worry about the cube equation.

Because the union employee who is talking to you now is a close neighbor just across the street.

The next day, the number of thieves increased to twenty. The amount of mushrooms collected also increased, and the amount of money deposited into the village head’s account also increased.

The village chief generously shared the money with the thieves.

Of course, he kept 70% of the total amount for himself and distributed the rest to the thieves.

But the thieves, who were not good at math, were very happy about it, saying that it was a lot of money.

And the number of thieves increased to thirty, and then to forty.

Considering that the number of residents in Seorak-eup is less than 100, almost half of them are involved in mushroom picking.

* * *

The first day the thief was hiding in the mountain, Ha Su-yeong deliberately went down the mountain.

I thought it was foolish to go out and look for thieves who might be hiding somewhere.

After checking the CCTV footage remotely in real time, he went back up the mountain in the middle of the night when the thieves had come down.

He sprinkled mushroom spores soaked in elixir all over the farm and came down the mountain with light steps.

“As they say, the more colorful the evidence, the better. There’s no need to age it any further.”

The next morning, he climbed the mountain and checked the CCTV footage.

The five thieves, who appeared in the morning, began to pick mushrooms they could get their hands on from the field full of mushrooms and fill their carts and backpacks with them.

After checking the video, Ha Soo-young immediately called Jeon Seong-ryeol.

“Boss, it seems that the ripening is complete now. The harvest time has come.”

-Can we finally catch a bunch of bad boars? Okay. What should I prepare?

“Please give me five bodyguards fully equipped with evidence collection equipment. We will lie in wait tomorrow and catch them at the scene. It would be better if the police were present.”

-There’s a prosecutor I know. He’s also a distant relative of mine.

“No inspection.”

-The damage is huge. If I explain it well, this guy will go undercover with me. He’s my close friend.

“Oh, well. I can’t do that. What if we become close and the prosecutor secretly asks for my sponsorship later? I’ve decided that I will never get involved with those in power again in this life.”

– He’s not that kind of friend. And if you want to make your business big, it’s not good to distance yourself too much from those in power…

“The business is run by the CEO, and what I do is farming, farming.”

-Farming is ultimately a type of business.

“Legally, yes, but it’s still different. At least in this country, politicians don’t reach out or prosecutors conduct dozens of searches and seizures just because you farm a little bit.”

-So you don’t participate in the management of the company?

“Yes, that too. I like growing crops purely by mixing with the soil. Man, I don’t want to have even a single strand of hair mixed with power.”

-Okay. Then send the bodyguards.

“Please.”

Now that they’ve had their fill of mushroom flavor, they’ll definitely come back tomorrow too.

At that time, you can just mobilize security guards on the scene and catch him.

Ha Soo-young hummed, feeling a sense of relief just thinking about it.

“To catch a thief, shall we go to the sea? To catch a thief, shall we go to the mountains? Fill this bottle to the brim, lalalala lalalala here we come.”

-Son, what kind of weird song is that?

“That’s weird. Please don’t underestimate my editing skills, Father.”

And that evening, the five bodyguards prepared by Jeon Seong-ryeol arrived at the Seoraksan mansion.

“We’re going to catch mushroom thieves in the act. They’re just five ordinary country men, so there shouldn’t be any problem, right?”

“Of course.”

“Please make sure the evidence is especially perfect. Take good video shots from multiple angles.”

“Don’t worry.”

The bodyguards also spent the night at the mansion with light hearts.

They were amazed that such a luxurious mansion was built in such a rural area.

The next morning, Ha Su-yeong quietly climbed Mt. Seorak with her bodyguards.

But something was different from yesterday.

“One, two, three, four… ten people?”

“Don’t worry, we can handle it.”

The captain of the guards, who thought it was because of the difference in numbers, expressed his confidence.

But Ha Soo-young didn’t respond to those words, but stroked her chin with her finger and became lost in thought.

Finally, he looked back at his bodyguards.

“Let’s just hide here and collect evidence. You must never show yourself.”

“They are ordinary, untrained civilians. In contrast, we are experts from the counter-terrorism unit. I can easily subdue ten of them by myself.”

“It’s not that we’re afraid of losing. I thought it was fully ripe, but it’s not quite there yet.”

“yes?”

The bodyguards didn’t understand what Ha Soo-young was saying, but they followed her orders anyway.

After completing the evidence collection and returning to the mansion, they overheard Ha Su-yeong talking on the phone with Jeon Seong-ryeol, and only then were they able to figure out why they had returned without arresting him at the scene.

-You said you didn’t catch the thieves and just came back? Why is that?

“I realized that it wasn’t fully ripened yet. There were five people so far, but today there were ten.”

-You, really?

“The number will increase tomorrow. And as far as I know, there are a little over 90 residents in this village of Seoraek-eup, right? So I thought it would be a good idea to expand the scale a little more.”

-Are you trying to arrest all the villagers as mushroom thieves?

“If you’re going to scold them, you should give them a proper lesson. Then they’ll be so scared that they’ll look down the next time they see you.”

-… … Mr. Ha, you are truly a scary person. I am glad that we are not enemies.

“I am on the side of all hard-working and good people. I have never strayed from that path… no, I have often. Anyway, I will live this life as a friend of those who can live without the law. So don’t worry.”

When Ha Soo-young hung up the phone on speaker mode, the bodyguards who had been listening to the call looked at her with their mouths wide open.

Only then did they understand what was going on.

“This board has grown quite large.”

“If we just calculate the value of the mushrooms they’ve stolen so far, it would easily exceed 1 billion won?”

“That would be a truly heinous crime.”

“Big criminals should be held accountable. Isn’t that the way of life?”

The captain of the security guard felt a slight goosebump at Ha Su-young’s bright smile.

* * *

The five continued to stay in the mansion, repeating the task of collecting evidence every day.

He waited for the thieves to appear and captured their every move from afar with a high-performance camera.

Not only did they capture the overall cut-out appearance, they also made sure to capture each person’s face clearly.

“To this extent, it is perfect evidence. No prosecutor or judge would ignore such evidence.”

“What’s lacking now is not evidence. It’s maturation.”

The bodyguards had to feel the thrill once again at Ha Soo-young’s nonchalant words.

The number of thieves increased day by day.

From five to ten, from ten to twenty, from twenty to thirty, from thirty to forty.

When the number of thieves reached forty, the number of thieves stopped increasing.

However, that does not mean that the village chief intentionally did not add more.

The other residents were too physically fit to be of any help in harvesting mushrooms.

In other words, the village chief gathered all available human resources and focused them on mushroom harvesting.

After four days of not increasing the number any further than forty, Ha Su-yeong finally made a declaration.

“D-Day is tomorrow.”

“We don’t have enough personnel at the moment. It’s not that we’re losing, but it’s difficult for five people to arrest all forty people on the spot.”

It’s impossible to catch all forty people who are running away with only five people.

“Wouldn’t it be okay if forty of us came out? No, we have to collect evidence, so let’s go with fifty. Ten of them should run away, and we have to film them being arrested.”

“Understood. I will request reinforcements.”

The captain of the security team immediately requested reinforcements from the headquarters of the security company, and that evening, 45 new security guards arrived at the Seoraksan mansion.

Naturally, they each scattered and entered the mansion secretly without the townspeople noticing.

Those who had already familiarized themselves with the mission details were given further detailed training by the captain of the security guard.

And then dawn broke.

Ha Su-yeong wore a straw hat, body pants, muddy boots, and a spray can of weed killer on his back.

To anyone who saw him, he looked like a kind and innocent young farmer.

“Boss, that appearance is…….”

“Please take a good picture of me too. It will be a great help in knocking on the judge’s heart.”

“You have to act well.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Ha Soo-young held the spray gun in her hand and held it forward, shouting softly.

“Strawberries, assemble.”

“…What is that?”

“Oh, that’s the slogan I used to shout when I went out to hunt mobs with my teammates during games. Don’t worry about it.”