The Regressed Vault Keeper Took It All

Chapter 5: I Lived My Life in Regret

“Who’s this? The Dog Eyes is back?”

The Fly bared his yellowed teeth and let out a mocking laugh.

I took a deep breath and stepped lightly under the bridge.

Zhang Wei followed right behind me, silent as a shadow.

“If you can, please don’t step in.”

As I fully descended into the darkness beneath the bridge, a musty stench pricked at my nose.

The moment I faced them, even the air tightened like a drawn bowstring.

“Hey, Fly. Who’ve you been meeting these days?”

The smirk that had been smeared across the Fly’s face evaporated in an instant.

He shot a sharp glare toward the beggars around him.

A few of them moved toward me, cackling unpleasantly.

“This bastard came back to die, huh? Where’s your brother? That useless leech.”

The Fly’s swaggering words pulled the trigger, and the rage I had suppressed for decades burst out.

My vision turned red as I charged straight at him.

I shoved aside the beggar standing at the front.

“You bastard!”

The first beggar tried to grab my collar.

I snatched his wrist and twisted.

Crack—bones snapping split the damp air of Cheonggyecheon.

“Aaagh!”

At the scream, a second beggar swung his fist in a sloppy motion.

I flowed aside, ducking low, and struck his stomach with all my strength.

He collapsed to the ground, coughing and writhing.

“Dog Eyes has some skill, huh?”

Seeing me take down two at once, the Fly’s eyes widened in surprise.

The sleazy confidence drained from his face, replaced with caution.

At that moment, the Boss—who had been watching in silence—stood up.

“What’s all this racket?”

I halted at his intervention.

The fury inside me still boiled, but I fixed my cold eyes on him.

The killing intent in my gaze sank heavily into the air.

“Boss, aren’t you the one in charge here?”

“What did you say?”

I asked sharply, and the Boss furrowed his brow.

“Do you know what filthy business that bastard Fly’s been up to lately? Do you know what kind of knife he’s sharpening behind your back?”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s trying to sell off every beggar here.”

“What nonsense!”

The Fly’s voice cracked out, a mix of fear and rage.

“An Seong-ho.”

The moment the name left my mouth, the Fly’s pupils shook like waves.

As his hidden secret was dragged into the open, fear seeped into his face.

“The person you’ve been meeting is—”

The Fly cut me off in a rush.

“What the hell are you babbling about! Who is that! Stop trying to stir up trouble!”

Despite his desperate denial, suspicion shadowed the Boss’s eyes, deep lines creasing his weathered face.

Eyes that had judged men for decades could see through lies.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

Pressed by the Boss, the Fly broke into a cold sweat and raised his voice.

“Boss, are you going to believe this traitor? This Dog Eyes bastard who abandoned us and ran?”

After a long silence, the Boss finally lifted his head.

His wrinkled face bore the weight of a man who had endured countless years.

“Stay quiet for now. Let’s hear him out.”

His voice carried the authority of a judge passing final sentence.

“Go on.”

“Boss, you know the government’s been going on about social purification lately, right?”

At my words, the Boss slowly nodded.

At last, he let out a low sigh of understanding.

Just because they were beggars didn’t mean they were ignorant of the world.

In fact, living in society’s shadows made them more sensitive to its cruel truths than those in power.

“For the government, it’s easier to sweep up beggars like us—people no one would miss—than shantytown folk who at least have family ties. We’re nothing more than stains on the city. They just want to scrub us out.”

I fixed my eyes on the Fly and continued.

“That bastard was planning to send everyone here into the facility. In return…”

“You crazy bastard! You must have a death wish! Where’d you get that garbage!”

The Fly bellowed, snatching a sickle from the ground.

“This time I’ll kill you!”

He rushed at me with the sickle.

I twisted my body to dodge the first swing, but the second grazed my arm.

A sharp sting flared as blood trickled down.

‘My body won’t move the way I want it to.’

“When you die, I’ll find your brother and make him suffer before I kill him too.”

Those words turned my vision red with rage once more.

The Fly swung the sickle again.

I dodged to the side, grabbed his wrist, and twisted.

His hand bent grotesquely, and he screamed, dropping the weapon.

I immediately smashed my fist into his face.

A sickening crunch of breaking bone rang out as blood splattered.

The Fly staggered back.

“Y-you bastard! How dare you—”

He faltered, but I ignored him and charged again.

He reached for the sickle on the ground, but I caught his neck and slammed him to the floor.

His skull cracked against the earth with a dull thud.

Mounting his body, I pummeled his face over and over.

With each blow, I poured out years of pent-up resentment.

His shrieks filled the air.

“You son of a bitch! Because of you! My brother died because of you!”

“Argh! Aagh! Y-you lunatic! Stop it! Stop—!”

Then, a thunderous voice drowned out the Fly’s howls.

“Stop! You bastard!”

The Boss’s roar snapped me back to my senses.

Movement stirred behind me.

I turned my head to see Zhang Wei clutching the wrist of a beggar who had tried to strike me with a stone.

“This is between the two of them. No one interferes.”

Zhang Wei’s calm words carried a weight that dominated the den.

I sent him a grateful look, then climbed off the Fly.

Picking up the sickle, I hurled it far away.

“Get up, you bastard.”

The Fly staggered to his feet.

His face, battered and bloodied, was a mess of split lips and nosebleed.

“You son of a bitch. Do you know how much I’ve suffered because of you?”

“W-what the hell are you talking about?”

“I lived my whole life in regret. Because of me…”

I couldn’t finish the words.

Sixty years of bitterness clogged my throat.

In the end, I chose to speak with my fists.

“Come on, you bastard.”

I snarled viciously, while the Fly glanced around at the Boss and the beggars for help.

But not a single one moved.

I chuckled darkly and mocked him.

“Looks like you’re alone now too, huh?”

“Shut up! Dog Eyes bastard!”

The Fly lunged, throwing a punch.

Weaker than before.

I dodged easily, keeping my distance.

The longer we fought, the more my youthful reflexes returned.

Meanwhile, the Fly grew slower and slower—his strength running dry.

“What’s wrong? Getting tired?”

His face twisted hideously with rage.

He swung one last desperate punch.

I caught his fist in my palm and bent his wrist.

“Aaagh!”

His scream of agony echoed through Cheonggyecheon.

I hammered his face with relentless punches.

Each blow painted over the dried blood with fresh crimson.

Thud—he collapsed to the ground.

I mounted him and wrapped my hands around his throat.

“My brother must have died like this too, huh? Begging for breath, pleading for his life? Die. You die too.”

I squeezed tighter.

His eyes glazed over, and the strength drained from the hand clawing at my arm.

“You can’t kill him here.”

Zhang Wei’s voice came from close by as he gripped my hand.

I turned to look at him.

“You’re going to make yourself a murderer over trash like this?”

His eyes asked me: Is that all you amount to?

At that gaze, I loosened my grip.

The Fly gasped, coughing for air.

“Your brother, is he dead?”

The Boss approached.

“……No. He’s alive.”

What I had spat at the Fly wasn’t my present truth, but the desperate cry Baek Min-woo had carried in his heart his entire life.

The Boss looked puzzled, but I said no more.

After a moment of thought, the Boss glanced briefly at Zhang Wei before asking me,

“There wasn’t a lie in what you said, was there?”

I nodded heavily.

“That’s right. That bastard tried to hand everyone over.”

“The reason?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he was promised a share of the profits from the facility. Or maybe he had some other reason.”

In reality, once he entered the facility, the Fly wielded absolute power.

Small and petty as he was, inside the facility, he was king.

I, too, had slaved away in that facility for a year.

“You said everyone here is family to you, Boss. Think about what you need to do for that family.”

At that moment, the Fly, sprawled on the ground, crawled up and clutched the Boss’s leg.

“B-Boss. He’s just spewing nonsense. Why would I ever sell out our boys?”

The Boss looked down at the Fly with bitter eyes, and the Fly flinched under that gaze.

Even if he didn’t believe my words, having watched the Fly for years, the Boss must have had his own suspicions.

“Please, you’ve got to believe me. I’ve worked under you for years, Boss…”

Sensing the Boss’s dangerous silence, the Fly tried to appeal with a pitiful voice.

Still scheming to the end.

I kicked him aside as he babbled nonsense.

“Boss, you’re free to trust this bastard if you want. But you’ll be responsible for everything that follows.”

The Boss sighed softly and nodded as he looked down at the Fly.

“From now on, you’re no longer part of us. You’re not family.”

“Boss! What are you—”

“I overlooked the violence you used against our people. I thought it was necessary for the sake of the community.”

That meant the Fly’s rampage had happened with the Boss’s tacit approval.

“But I was wrong. Leave. Right now.”

The Boss turned his head away with a bitter smile.

Seeing no room left to argue, the Fly staggered to his feet.

His eyes brimmed with hatred.

“Dog Eyes. You’ll pay for this.”

He staggered off.

I watched his retreating back.

The rancor I had carried for sixty years felt a little lighter.

But I had no intention of ending it here.

I hadn’t lived a life so light as to leave danger festering behind me.

“……Zhang Wei. I’m entrusting this to you.”

Zhang Wei nodded and went after the Fly.

I turned back to the beggars.

“Boss. You won’t be able to stop them from sending you into the facility.”

“What should I do then?”

“No matter how hard it is, if you endure, you’ll survive. For that to happen, you have to stay strong.”

The Boss swept his gaze over the beggars.

Their eyes trembled with fear.

“Even if you run, you’ve got nowhere to go. Boss, you go into the facility too. And you protect your family there.”

I calmly laid out what he had to do.

The Boss opened and closed his mouth soundlessly.

“You… are you really the Dog Eyes I knew?”

“If I’m not, would it change anything?”

At my counter, the Boss let out a faint laugh.

“You’ve changed a lot.”

“The world has changed.”

“Even the clothes you wear are different. Looks like you’ve stepped into a world apart from us.”

I didn’t bother replying.

The Boss seemed to understand my silence.

“Go. Don’t ever come back.”

“Boss. One day, we’ll meet again. My name is Baek Min-woo.”

“I am Kim Seon-ho.”

It was the first time I had heard the Boss’s name in sixty years.

I engraved it in my mind and looked at the beggars who had followed the Fly, now collapsed on the ground.

“Leave them to the Boss.”

The Boss let out a long sigh and nodded.

“Then, I’ll go.”

With that, I turned and walked away.

When I climbed back up to the bridge, Zhang Wei was waiting.

The Fly lay unconscious on the ground.

“Did you kill him?”

“That’s not my choice. It’s yours.”

“Can he be sold off to some island?”

“Island?”

When I nodded, Zhang Wei chuckled.

“How do you even know about such things?”

“Cut both his Achilles tendons and sell him off to an island. Make sure he never gets out for the rest of his life.”

“So be it.”

At his calm reply, my lips curled up.

I had no intention of letting that bastard die easily.

Just as I had lived decades in suffering, so too must the Fly.

“I leave it to you.”

Suddenly, a downpour struck.

I lifted my head to the sky, rain soaking me through.

As if the heavens were weeping in my stead.

The knot buried deep in my chest finally began to unravel.

The Fly’s screams rang against the warehouse walls of Yang Sobo’s estate.

It was the pain of having his Achilles tendons severed.

His downfall, after reveling in petty power by tormenting the weak, brought me a twisted sense of satisfaction.

Days later, the Fly was dragged away from the estate by Yang Sobo’s men.

An evil tie was cut off completely.

It was time to move forward.

Min-soo and Yang Yeong’s health was recovering day by day.

It would take a long time for full recovery, but they were no longer at risk of dying from their illness.

Now, I had to begin the work I was meant to do.

“Mr. Yang.”

I faced Yang Sobo again.

His sharp eyes pierced through me.

“I want to visit the Seoul Stock Exchange.”

“The Stock Exchange?”

Yang Sobo’s voice carried suspicion.

“What for?”

“There’s something I need to confirm.”

“Are you trying to trade stocks?”

Yang Sobo fiddled with his teacup, his eyes gleaming with interest.

It felt too soon to reveal my hand.

“I’ll explain after I’ve had a look around.”

Yang Sobo was silent for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly in thought.

“Zhang Wei!”

The door opened, and Zhang Wei entered.

“Bring Jin-ho.”

“Yes, Master.”

Zhang Wei bowed and left, leaving tension in the air.

After sipping his tea, Yang Sobo asked in his usual voice,

“This will count as the first of the three favors I promised, won’t it?”

“Yes. This is where it begins. But I can’t give you a certain answer just yet.”

“I don’t know why you’re going to the Stock Exchange, but… very well, I’ll watch for now.”

A moment later, Zhang Wei returned with a middle-aged man.

“Master, you called?”

“Take this boy to the Stock Exchange.”

Yang Sobo spoke flatly.

At his command, Kim Jin-ho fixed me with a sharp look.

“Just take him, is that all?”

“Give him whatever he asks for.”

Leaning slightly forward, Yang Sobo studied my face, his eyes intent as though to pierce my heart.

“If he asks you questions, answer them. If he says he wants to meet someone, make it happen.”

I rose from my seat and extended my hand to Kim Jin-ho.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Baek Min-woo.”

“I’m Kim Jin-ho.”

We clasped hands.

In his eyes, I caught a flicker of suspicion and wariness.

It seemed he was wondering why he was suddenly ordered to take me to the Stock Exchange.

Sensing his guarded look, as though I were stepping into his domain, I simply smiled.