The Crazy Mercenary Commander Goes to Work in the Entertainment Industry

Translator: Dreamscribe

Ryu Hyuk's head was a complete mess right now. The talk of the Mercenary Corps had suddenly intensified, and at this very moment, the Commander of that Mercenary Corps was standing right in front of him.

"......"

Ryu Hyuk froze as he looked at Commander Kang Jae-ha, who stood just a step away. It was an appearance that defied all his predictions, and it had been far too long since he'd last seen the Commander's eyes.

'Th-this is insane. It's the Commander? It's really the Commander.'

In that instant, the moment Ryu Hyuk met Jae-ha's eyes, memories of the dozen-odd years he'd spent grinding away in the Mercenary Corps flashed past in a rush. He had clawed and struggled to survive, and at some point Ryu Hyuk had even come to enjoy that kind of life.

Of course, the investigative work he did as a Scout Unit member, to say nothing of the warfare and slaughter, was a given.

'Ugh, hell, my arms won't stop shaking.'

Among all those memories, the image of the Commander was the most vivid of all for Ryu Hyuk. The charisma to command hundreds, the utterly brutal impact he'd shown on the battlefield, the intelligence to wrap not only countless mercenaries but everyone connected to them around his finger, and so on.

'It wasn't me. This man was the protagonist.'

Back when he was first summoned to the Other World, Ryu Hyuk had thought he was somebody. But he wasn't. He was barely scraping by just to stay alive, and the true protagonist of that world was someone else entirely. The Commander of the Mercenary Corps, that is.

Whenever Ryu Hyuk looked at the Commander, awe was always accompanied by fear.

"C-Commander."

Make a quick run for it? Ryu Hyuk briefly wondered, then realized it was impossible. The only way out of this man's orbit was if the man himself allowed it. That was how it had always been, and it wouldn't be any different here. An old, old memory surfaced in Ryu Hyuk's mind.

Among his comrades in the Scout Unit, there had been one who betrayed the Mercenary Corps, and that man's head had flown off in an instant right before Ryu Hyuk's eyes.

The one who took the head was, of course, the Commander.

'Not the slightest change in his expression.'

The Commander was a monster with dead emotions. At least, that was how it was in Ryu Hyuk's memory.

'When he lost it, there wasn't a single mercenary who could stop him. The most anyone managed was the Vice-Commander getting in a few words.'

Of course, the Commander wasn't always a monster. There were times he laughed, and when there was fun to be had, he had it. That had to be why hundreds of mercenaries, Ryu Hyuk included, had followed him.

In any case, Ryu Hyuk, barely managing to get a grip on his pounding heart, opened his mouth once more.

"......It really is you, Commander??"

Kang Jae-ha nodded placidly.

"That's right. It's me."

Right then.

"Hi, hi."

A woman's voice cut in from behind. When he turned to look, Ha Yeon-ji, a cap pulled low over her face, was walking toward him, waving her hand. Ryu Hyuk was startled all over again.

"You–"

Before he could say anything, Ha Yeon-ji stuck out her hand. She was offering a handshake. Caught off guard, Ryu Hyuk took her hand and shook it. Then Ha Yeon-ji grinned.

"I'm the one who spotted you first, you know? Anyway, good to meet you."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah."

"But why are you so frozen up? This isn't really your style, is it."

"...I guess it's just too sudden."

"Ah, because of the Commander?"

Jae-ha, who had been watching the two talk, sat down on a nearby bench. He pointed to the spot beside him and spoke to Ryu Hyuk.

"Sit. Don't just stand there."

"Yes, sir."

Having calmed down somewhat, Ryu Hyuk sat down next to Kang Jae-ha, while Ha Yeon-ji settled onto the next bench over and crossed her legs. Her gaze stayed fixed on Ryu Hyuk. Soon Ryu Hyuk shot her a glance before turning his head back to the Commander.

"Commander. Before I ask anything else, that woman's voice I heard just now. Was all of that real?"

He was referring to the woman's voice he'd heard the moment he laid eyes on Jae-ha, and the 'Absolute Obedience' she had mentioned. Kang Jae-ha nodded.

"It's exactly as you heard."

Kang Jae-ha gave an additional explanation about 'Absolute Obedience'. Ryu Hyuk's eyes gradually widened.

"...So you're a dangerous man in this world too, Commander."

"Don't worry. I'll respect your choice, and you won't end up in your grave because of 'Absolute Obedience'."

"Well, that's a relief."

"Before we get into all the back-and-forth, let me ask you one thing. You don't have a team, you haven't joined any organization, you're on your own?"

"Yes. I've been on my own this whole time, and the guy who recently showed up at the police station was the first, the first person from the Other World, I mean."

The moment he heard the answer, Kang Jae-ha shifted his gaze to Ha Yeon-ji without making it obvious. She gave a small smile and nodded. Her 'Ability' had confirmed that it was the truth, not a lie. This was Kang Jae-ha's final check, and once all the verification was complete, he spoke again.

"Ryu Hyuk, the man who came to see you a while back. That was me."

"Ah– yeah, I se......wait??? What did you just say."

"I said, that was me."

Kang Jae-ha explained the whole situation to Ryu Hyuk, whose eyes were practically floating question marks. The moment he heard it, Ryu Hyuk let out a hollow laugh.

"Ha, haha. So that means I cursed at you, Commander."

"You cursed?"

"Oh, I did. Let it rip, too."

"After being alone all this time, how does it feel to meet your comrades from the Mercenary Corps again."

"Honestly, I'm not even sure what this feeling is. I'm excited, but I'm worried too."

"You were always like that. It was that worrying that kept you alive. Even though you died in the end."

"......"

Ryu Hyuk, with no answer, scratched his head, glanced at Ha Yeon-ji, then opened his mouth again.

"How many are there? Comrades, I mean."

"Six, counting you."

Kang Jae-ha had left out the two who were dead.

"First off– I should let you know what it is I'm doing these days."

Jae-ha's explanation about 'MEG' took roughly ten minutes. He set aside the trivial details and laid out the core of it, mixing in the comrades who were with him now. The more Ryu Hyuk listened, the more dumbfounded he became.

"You're......running an Investment Firm, Commander?? No, at that scale it's an Investment Firm slash a Mercenary Corps for this world."

"Something like that."

Having heard about MEG's current state and its future direction and so on, Ryu Hyuk grew much calmer than he'd been at first.

"So you've been searching for Mercenary Corps talent this whole time, and somewhere in there I turned up on your radar."

"That's right. It wasn't me, it was Ha Yeon-ji over there who found you. And then I watched you for a while."

"......Did I pass?"

"If you hadn't, I wouldn't have shown up in front of you."

"Fair point. Ha– I guess the whole world suddenly feels like some kind of madhouse? But honestly, I'd been feeling kind of stifled anyway. And now that I've seen you, Commander, that stifled feeling has eased up a bit."

He was talking about the dark emotions that had so often surged up in him. The desire and the impulse for blood; those things had been cropping up in Ryu Hyuk frequently of late. Yet the instant he saw the Commander, that feeling had noticeably subsided. Well aware of this, Kang Jae-ha murmured.

"Everyone feels something like that. Some of them go off the rails. You're a detective, so you're probably a case of someone who held out better thanks to social restraint. Well, even if you hadn't held out, you'd have ended up seeing me anyway."

"Headed to the afterlife, you mean."

"Probably."

Meeting Kang Jae-ha's eyes, Ryu Hyuk smiled awkwardly.

"That chilling sense of humor of yours hasn't changed a bit, either. But the way you talk and act has shifted a little, Commander. Like a sheath has been slipped over a sharp blade, I guess you could say??"

"It's a different world, isn't it. There's none of that wringing necks and carving people up here, so I had to adapt. So, what do you want to do."

"......To put it plainly, I do want to be under you, Commander. For my mental state, and thinking about my future too. But I don't want to quit my current job. Believe it or not, I love what I do."

"Belonging to 'MEG' doesn't mean you have to quit being a detective. Ha Yeon-ji over there is part of 'MEG' too, but she's still keeping her own job."

"Huh? Really??"

Kang Jae-ha smiled faintly and went on.

"Just know that if you join 'MEG', you'll be busier. You'll have to do your own job and whatever I tell you to do on top of it. Being a 'MEG' member in name only won't fly."

"So you're saying you'll work me good and hard, just like back in the Mercenary Corps. Well, I actually liked that, too."

"Because you were a maniac for investigation."

"It's delicious, that moment when you're digging into a case and the results come together. There's no quitting that, ever."

Ryu Hyuk chuckled, heh-heh, like some kind of pervert. Watching him, Kang Jae-ha asked again.

"Are you going to join 'MEG'? Like I said, once you're in, you work for real."

Still going heh-heh, Ryu Hyuk wiped the perverted grin off his face and straightened his posture.

"Yes, Commander. I'll join. If anything, I'm the one who wants to ask you to let me."

Ryu Hyuk had joined the ranks beneath Kang Jae-ha.

Afterward.

Kang Jae-ha took Ryu Hyuk, whose membership was now confirmed, along with Ha Yeon-ji, and headed to MEG's conference room. Waiting inside were Lee Chan-hoo, Go Chun-seok, Cha Chung-hyeon, and Choi Ri-na.

The moment they saw Ryu Hyuk walk in, the subordinates smiled.

It was because something had been settled in advance. If Ryu Hyuk was on board, his membership was confirmed. And so the waiting subordinates welcomed Ryu Hyuk without the slightest reservation.

"Good to see you. Should I say long time no see?"

"Welcome aboard."

"Hi!!"

At the greetings from his Mercenary Corps comrades, Ryu Hyuk felt his heart grow that much lighter.

"Haha, quite a colorful lineup of people."

After watching his subordinates exchange greetings for a moment, Kang Jae-ha pulled out a chair and sat, crossed his legs, and asked Ryu Hyuk.

"Ryu Hyuk, what's your 'Ability'."

"Ah."

Meeting the Commander's gaze, Ryu Hyuk explained his 'Ability'.

"Mine's, what should I call it, Weakness Detection? I can see through an opponent's weaknesses."

"Weakness Detection."

"Yes. How to put it– whether someone has an illness, or which part of their body is weak, that kind of thing. Mental weaknesses are included too."

"Mental illness is a weakness too, sure."

"Beyond physical weaknesses, a person they cherish or an object and so on can be a weakness too. Everyone has one, you know, something that makes them weep blood when they lose it. Whatever it is, an opponent's weakness shows itself to me."

Having confirmed Ryu Hyuk's 'Ability', Kang Jae-ha judged that his power was, likewise, extremely useful.

'When it comes to threatening an enemy, nothing beats a weakness.'

The reason for gathering intelligence ahead of time in war was likewise to detect various weaknesses, and the side that seized those weaknesses first had an exponentially higher chance of victory. The same held true for individual people.

Even setting enemies aside, an 'Ability' that detected weaknesses had endless applications if used well.

'Subduing an opponent would be easy, too.'

Then Kang Jae-ha asked again.

"And the conditions?"

"Conditions– so it really does seem like everyone besides me has an 'Ability' too. I can't do it on too many targets in a day, maybe a few people? And I have to eat well. If I'm hungry, it doesn't work right."

Understanding, Kang Jae-ha changed the subject.

"For starters, I intend to make you, Ryu Hyuk, a powerful cop."

"You mean in terms of authority?"

"That's right. You're free to use that power for yourself, but naturally you'll have to use it for our 'MEG' as well. And if you ever get drunk on power and pull something stupid."

"That's a no-go. You'd send me straight to my grave before I even got a word of explanation in. On top of that, you know everything about my 'Ability' and all the rest."

"Well, that's true."

Kang Jae-ha, who had been resting his chin on his hand, stood up.

"For you to get real power on the police side, you'll have to climb the ranks fast, and to do that you'll have to keep cracking big cases one after another. You'll need to back the right people, too. Well, that sort of thing we can build up over time, and I'll help. For now, the priority is getting yourself noticed, right?"

Jae-ha jabbed his index finger at Ryu Hyuk.

"Did you catch that Jeonse Fraudster you were after?"

Ryu Hyuk scratched his head. He wondered how Kang Jae-ha even knew about that, but given who he was dealing with, Ryu Hyuk answered obediently without asking anything in particular.

"......No. He hid himself so thoroughly– I think he probably fled overseas. I really wanted to catch that asshole. The victims weren't just one or two, either."

Having heard this, Kang Jae-ha looked at Lee Chan-hoo and nodded. Soon Lee Chan-hoo stepped forward, holding out a sticky note to Ryu Hyuk as he spoke.

"He's at that inn in Ulsan. He's basically holed up in his room, so catching him should be easy."

Ryu Hyuk's eyes shot wide in an instant as he glanced down at the sticky note. An address was written on it. To the stunned Ryu Hyuk, Kang Jae-ha showed a smile.

"First, catch that guy. Next time, bring me info on things like wanted criminals, too."

Around lunchtime on the 17th.

Having left Leon, Kang Jae-ha was driving toward an upscale Japanese restaurant. In the middle of it, a short vibration buzzed from his phone.

-Buzz.

What had arrived was a text. The sender was Ryu Hyuk, who'd recently joined. The message was brief. He'd caught the Jeonse Fraudster. A note of thanks came as a bonus. Kang Jae-ha let out a short laugh and lowered his phone.

'Catching criminals like this and solving big cases, the promotions will come fast enough.'

Of course, these were all things that would unfold according to Kang Jae-ha's blueprint. Soon Jae-ha arrived at the upscale Japanese restaurant, parked his car in the lot, and, guided by a staff member, came to stand in front of the room. When he opened the door, three people inside welcomed Kang Jae-ha.

Two men and one woman.

Among them, the woman who gave off a rather formidable impression was the first to extend her hand to Kang Jae-ha.

"Welcome, Manager Kang Jae-ha. I'm Director Kim Joo-hee of 'LN Entertainment'."

The other party was a major conglomerate ranked among the top five.

"I suppose it's because you're the talent our CEO has his eye on? You're quite hard to get a meeting with, Manager Kang Jae-ha-nim."

It was LN Entertainment, the company that had made Kang Jae-ha a recruitment offer.

*****

For more extra chapters, you can check out my Patreon here --> patreon.com/dreamscribe

If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊

To receive the latest update notifications or report mistakes, join our Discord server linked below.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!