The Regressed Vault Keeper Took It All

Chapter 1: This Is Mine

A high-rise office.

Beyond the wide glass window, the night view of Seoul unfolded in full.

A space where only silence lingered, as if time had stopped.

An old man with a bent back and white hair stood before a solitary urn placed between the books on the shelf.

A cold metal box without a single flower or photograph.

That alone proved the existence of the one who slept inside.

As though all traces of their life had been erased.

“Min-soo. You and I, who once rolled around in the gutter, now stand at the highest point of Korea, looking down on everyone.”

The old man’s voice carried both longing and pride.

He stroked the urn for a long time.

After gazing at it for a while, the old man turned his body. Soon, leaning on his cane, he limped away.

Gangnam District, the center of desire in Korea.

A man who held over ten buildings in that golden land, where a single pyeong was worth billions.

Baek Min-woo, who crawled out of the mud of the beggars’ village in Cheongnyangni and swallowed one by one the dazzling lights of Gangnam. He was the very incarnation of desire.

On a night when darkness had settled, the old man’s eyes, gazing down at the sea of lights of Gangnam from the rooftop of a skyscraper, reflected past glory, present solitude, and an ambition that still had not gone out.

“Chairman Baek.”

Startled by the sudden voice, the old man turned and shot a sharp glare at the young man who called him.

“Why are you here?”

His words carried suspicion.

“The Elder sent me.”

“For what reason? Come here first.”

At Chairman Baek’s gesture, the man stepped to his side.

“What do you think? The lights of Gangnam that never go out, even at night. Just like my life.”

The old man’s voice was a complex mix of pride in the empire he had built with his entire life, and the deep loneliness hidden behind its brilliance.

“There’s no place better than this to see Gangnam in detail. Whenever my head is troubled, I come up here and look down on the world I created.”

The young man raised the corner of his lips and nodded.

“I see. It does feel like my head clears up. I should come often as well.”

“So, why did you come to see me today?”

The old man slowly turned his head toward the man.

His gaze was cold as ice. When the eyes of Chairman Baek, honed for decades in the battlefield of business, sank into that chill, the man spoke slowly with a mocking smile.

“Chairman. Or should I call you the Cheongnyangni Dog Eyes?”

Baek Min-woo’s gaze faltered. He clenched his fists unconsciously.

“What nonsense are you saying?”

“The Elder told me to deliver this message. Your usefulness is over.”

“What the hell are you talking about!”

Baek Min-woo growled. The man sneered at him.

“You must have been delighted when the real-name system for property came into effect. You seized that chance and made excessive demands. What do you think those people thought when the dog they raised bared its teeth?”

“Listen here, President Kim. I merely took the rightful reward I was due. Didn’t they hand it over without complaint, acknowledging my contribution?”

“You should have just eaten what was given. Why did you go so far? When a dog dares to bite its master……”

The man’s eyes gleamed dangerously as he trailed off.

“Such a mutt must be boiled alive, isn’t that so?”

The man pulled out black leather gloves and slipped them on. As he pushed his hand in, he continued.

“The Elder waited for time to pass. For people’s attention to fade.”

“If I die, do you think all this will return to your lot…….”

The man cut him off, tightening the gloves. A twisted grin formed on his lips.

“There are plenty of men willing to play the servant faithfully if you just hand them the scraps. Well, because of their greed, Chairman, you’ll end up dead.”

“What did you say? You bastard!”

When Baek Min-woo swung his cane, the man grabbed his neck in a flash and slammed him against the wall.

Baek Min-woo resisted fiercely, but soon lost hold of his cane. Even so, his eyes still blazed with fire.

“You’ve been running too far ahead. You should have brought people with you.”

As he said, there was no one left around Baek Min-woo who truly followed him. No—there had been, but they were all dead.

As if knowing this, the man jeered.

“In your next life, don’t be so greedy. Weren’t the crumbs that fell more than enough?”

The man’s grip tightened around his throat.

Baek Min-woo felt his consciousness fading. His body floated. His brain screamed as oxygen was cut off, and his vision blurred.

The man dragged him toward the railing.

Below, the lights of Seoul glittered, beckoning as though to tempt Baek Min-woo. A man who had stood at the peak of desire was now about to fall into its abyss.

“Thank you for the opportunity, Chairman. I mean that sincerely. But I must live too.”

“Che, Cheol…….”

The man pushed Baek Min-woo over the edge and let go of his throat.

Thunk—naturally, Baek Min-woo should have fallen. But with the last of his strength, he clutched the man’s sleeve.

“Stubborn old man. Let go.”

As the man tried to shake him off—

Baek Min-woo summoned the vicious will that had protected him since childhood.

Sheer desperate strength.

At his age, he dragged out even the strength from his nursing days, seizing the man’s wrist, twisting it, and yanking.

“I’m not going alone, you bastard!”

The man panicked. Normally, by this point, a man would be choked out and dead. Yet this aged old man, even in the moment of death, still had a murderous gleam in his eyes.

The nickname Cheongnyangni Dog Eyes flashed in his mind.

The man struggled with all his might to pry the old man’s arm away.

But gravity was faster. At last, the man’s tilted body began to be dragged down together with the old man.

“Let go! I said let go!”

“Shut up! You think I’ll die alone?! You’re coming with me!”

Chairman Baek’s savage roar carried a mad sense of triumph.

He never intended to die alone. At the very least, he would die with this bastard.

“Let’s go together! You and I both!”

With those words, a deafening rush of wind filled his ears. His body was pulled down, down by gravity.

“Aaaargh!”

In that fleeting moment, Baek Min-woo felt everything he had built in his life collapse like a sandcastle.

His final scream carried all his desire, obsession, and venom.

“Damn it, this is mine! Built with my blood, sweat, and even my soul……!”

Before he could finish the words, he hit the ground.

And memory ended there.

Everything turned to darkness. As the lights of Gangnam faded far away, Baek Min-woo’s consciousness sank into deep shadow.

---

My breath caught. My heart pounded wildly.

The soul and consciousness dragged up from the pit of death thrashed violently inside me.

“Ha! Huff! Haaah……!”

Gasping for breath, I raised my body.

“Hyung, are you awake?”

I felt someone shaking my body. My head turned toward the sound on its own.

A small child was shaking me. The moment I confirmed the child’s face, I grabbed him urgently.

“Min-soo?”

“Hm?”

I seized the boy’s shoulders and shook him, staring into his bewildered eyes.

“Min-soo… Is it really you? You’re Baek Min-soo, right?”

My voice trembled on its own.

The face I had seen only in dreams for decades was right before me. The face I longed for at the threshold of death, the one I had wanted to see just once more.

Sixty years of desperation and yearning poured out, and before I knew it, strength surged into my grip on his shoulders.

“Ow, it hurts.”

At the sight of Min-soo in pain, I hastily loosened my grip. Only then did my surroundings come into focus.

‘Is this the reel of memories before death, or… have I truly returned to the past?’

The moment I looked around, I recognized where I was.

The beggars’ hut beneath the Cheongnyangni bridge where I had lived as a child. The very place from sixty years ago unfolded vividly before my eyes.

“Min-soo. My little brother, Min-soo.”

My younger brother, Baek Min-soo, who had died young. I pulled him tightly into my arms.

“Hyung, what’s wrong?”

“Min-soo, I missed you. After I lost you…”

*Cough, cough.*

“Hyung, I can’t breathe.”

Min-soo coughed weakly and tapped my back.

Startled, I let him go and held his shoulders instead, examining his face closely.

As expected, it was exactly as I remembered. Sickly and frail from tuberculosis, but still, the very same brother I remembered.

“Hyung? Are you crying? Are you hurt?”

Just then, the ragged cloth hanging over the entrance—meant to block the wind—was pushed aside, and some shabby-looking men walked in.

“Well, look who it is. Dog Eyes is still alive?”

A sharp voice stabbed into my ears.

Every cell in my body reacted. Rage boiled up like lava, hatred gripped my heart, and the thirst for revenge coursed through my blood.

“You bastard! Won’t lower your gaze? Haven’t you been beaten enough yet?”

A beggar beside the man lifted his leg as if to kick, but the man shoved him aside and approached me.

He squatted in front of me and creepily fiddled with my hair.

“Hey, Dog Eyes, do you get it now? From now on, you hand over both your share and your brother’s. My patience has limits. Your little brother is nothing more than a useless leech. Understand?”

Each word of his pierced my heart like a viper’s tongue.

In my previous life, at this very moment, I had been frozen with fear, unable to say anything.

But now, I was different. Time had tempered my soul.

“No one would notice if a brat like you died. If you want to live, then beg. Beg for yourself and for your brother too. This is the last warning. If you fail again this time…”

The Fly kept buzzing endlessly. Every single word of his reeked with disgust.

‘Right. This bastard existed.’

Even after so many years, his face was etched into my memory as if carved with a knife.

Trailing off, the Fly shifted his gaze toward my brother. Curling his lips in a sneer, he threatened:

“This time, it won’t be you who gets hit. It’ll be your brother.”

I remembered everything about this moment. The words I had spoken back then were—

‘There’s nowhere left to beg. Beggars from other areas are already coming into ours.’

‘Don’t bother with useless excuses. If you want to live, then work. Don’t come back until you do.’

In the end, I failed. I couldn’t bring in enough tribute for two.

The next morning, Min-soo lay beside me.

As a cold corpse. His face was beaten beyond recognition.

Blood and bruises smeared across his features. Broken bones. Torn flesh. They killed Min-soo. While I was asleep. My brother, whom I couldn’t protect.

“I’ll try. Just… don’t lay a hand on my brother.”

“Try? Don’t give me that dogshit. Excuses aren’t worth my time. You will bring tribute. Every day. Every damn day. Only then will you and your brother live. Got it?”

I clenched my teeth so hard I nearly bit through my lip. My fists tightened and loosened over and over.

I wanted to leap at him right that moment, strangle him. But if I did, Min-soo would be in danger too.

I had to endure. For now.

“Yes.”

The moment I answered meekly, only then did his expression ease with satisfaction as he stood up.

“Then get out. The other kids are waiting because of you. Crawl out, now.”

Leaving those words behind, the Fly left the hut with the other beggars.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Min-soo. Wait a moment.”

Was this really the reel of my life flashing by before death? Only then did my mind settle.

My whole body ached, as though I really had been beaten.

‘It feels this real?’

I had spoken different words to that bastard compared to my memories. And the reply I got was completely different too.

“Hyung, let’s go. Hurry. Before they beat us again…”

Baek Min-soo shook my body uneasily.

“Yes. Min-soo. Let’s go.”

I raised myself up.

‘This filthy beggars’ den….’

With Min-soo, I stepped out of the hut.

Just as in my memory, the Cheonggyecheon stream flowed, and outside the hut, the Boss sat arrogantly in a chair.

In front of him, more than ten beggars were gathered.

“Hurry up! Everyone’s waiting because of you!”

The Boss shouted, and holding Min-soo’s hand, I joined the crowd of beggars. They glared at me with resentment.

“The Dog Eyes brat who came in with his younger brother a few days ago is now one of us.”

The Boss raised his voice as he looked around at the beggars.

“What does it mean to be family? It means filling our stomachs together with what we beg for together. But if some lazy brat who’s done nothing tries to snatch away what others worked hard to bring, that’s not right, is it? Am I wrong?”

“You’re right!”

The beggars all answered in unison.

I answered as well, while carefully watching the Boss’s face.

He was the man who, after the end of the Korean War, had settled beneath the Cheonggyecheon bridge and spent ten years gathering beggars, expanding his power.

The Boss, looking pleased, continued.

“Let’s all beg hard again today. Understood?”

“Yes, Boss!”

“Now, off with you. The sun’s going down.”

Except for the Boss, the Fly, and a few beggars around them, the rest turned their bodies.

“Here comes the peddler who came last year, still not dead. Olssigu ssigu, here he comes, jeolssigu ssigu, here he comes….”

The beggars began walking while singing the song of the peddler.

“Dog Eyes and your brother, come here.”

The Boss shouted at me as I stood dazed.

Holding Min-soo’s hand, I approached the Boss.

“What happened to your face?”

Behind him, the Fly was glaring daggers at me. His eyes told me not to speak.

What a joke. I never intended to leave my revenge in someone else’s hands anyway.

“I got beaten while begging.”

“There’s a knack to begging. You’ve wandered the streets, so you must know that, don’t you?”

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

The Boss gave instructions to the Fly standing behind him.

“Teach him well. He’s still not used to things.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“You two, head off now as well.”

Holding Min-soo’s hand, I ran to join the beggars. Behind us, I heard the Boss’s voice.

“Follow them and watch over the kids. Report back immediately if anything happens.”

“Yes, Boss!”

The Fly and his gang followed behind the crowd of beggars. The group began climbing up the bridge and scattered.

“Let’s go, Min-soo.”

“Yes, hyung.”

I no longer knew whether this was the reel of my life before death or not.

‘Whether this is a dream, an illusion, or a second chance granted by heaven—it doesn’t matter. This time, everything will be different. I will change the course of fate with my own hands. I will save Min-soo, no matter what. Even if my heart stops, even if my blood dries up, I will protect him. And… I will make those who trampled me pay a thousandfold. No—ten thousandfold.’

Leading Min-soo by the hand, I headed toward the marketplace. Even though decades had passed, I did not lose my way.

*Growl.*

I stopped at the loud rumble and looked at Min-soo.

“Hungry?”

“No, hyung. I’m fine.”

“You’re hungry. Wait here.”

As soon as we stepped into the marketplace, every kind of food smell teased my nose.

Freshly baked bread, pancakes sizzling in oil, the sweet fragrance of fruit—all of it mixed together in the air.

The longer it lasted, the more my stomach, exhausted from hunger, rumbled, and the more my younger brother’s small belly growled loudly in turn.

People moved busily like ants, and the sounds of haggling, laughter, and shouting vibrated through the marketplace air.

The marketplace from sixty years ago unfolded vividly before my eyes.

In the chaos of noise and smells, I searched for a hidden corner away from people’s eyes.

I led Min-soo there, let go of his small hand, and said:

“Stay right here. Don’t move. I’ll get us food.”

“Hyung…”

“Don’t worry. I will never abandon you. Even if I die, I’ll never abandon you. I will definitely come back. Don’t move, no matter what. Understand?”

At my firm tone, Min-soo’s unease faded, and he nodded.

“Okay, hyung.”

Leaving him behind, I moved toward the center of the market again. Slowly, I scanned my surroundings and began to organize my thoughts.

‘This year… was it 1962?’

Min-soo died in 1962.

I remembered clearly. No—I couldn’t help but remember.

Because it was the year when the military regime, having seized power in a coup, forced all the beggars across Seoul into facilities under the guise of “social purification.”

And in that facility, I met that man. They called it a facility, but in truth, it was nothing short of hell.

If I went back there again…

‘No. I’ll never return to that place again.’

I swore to myself as I quickly scanned the surroundings. First, I had to put out the fire right in front of me.