People often say this:

The greatest among all obsessions is being an otaku.

But there exists something even beyond that.

That is the Gwangdeok.

Outskirts of Gasan-ri, Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Hiss!

Jinho plunged the steel he had hammered with a spring hammer into water. Steam burst upward alongside the deafening noise.

After pulling the cooled metal from the water and inspecting it carefully, Jinho nodded.

"Nicely done."

Satisfied with the result, he placed the steel back into the forge.

"Hey! Little brother! What are you making this time?"

"Huh? Hyung! You came?"

Busy moving between the forge and the machine tools, Jinho brightened when he saw his visitor.

"So what're you making?"

"A sashimi knife someone ordered."

"Sashimi knife?"

As his cousin made a strange expression, Jinho hurriedly added an explanation.

"A fish knife! A guy running a Japanese restaurant in Seoul ordered it! Seriously, stop activating your detective instincts at random!"

His cousin Kim Byungho worked as a detective.

Jinho's explanation eased Byungho's expression.

"Really? Sounds like you're getting enough orders to make decent money."

At the question, Jinho rubbed his nose with a finger and grinned.

"I'm making enough to get by. Hard-earned results from running around looking for customers."

"Is that so... Let me take a look."

"I only finished shaping it."

"Hm..."

Byungho examined the glowing red blade-shaped lump of steel for a moment before quickly losing interest and looking around instead.

"Seriously, clean this place up a little."

"Yessir."

"You answer well enough. That's about it."

While scolding Jinho, Byungho wandered around examining various things before his eyes landed on a knife resting inside a wooden box lined with soft cloth.

"Hey. This crescent-shaped blade has the edge on backward."

Having never seen a kukri before, Byungho assumed the blade had been mounted incorrectly. Jinho's expression turned strange.

"What's with that face?"

"...That's called a kukri. It's supposed to look like that."

"...Really? Weird-looking thing. What country's knife is it?"

"Nepal."

"Must be some strange people over there."

Jinho thought about what that meant for a second before shaking his head.

"Try saying that in front of a Nepali guy. He'd probably roll you off the top of Everest."

"I only say it because none are around. Anyway, is that kukri thing why you called me?"

"Yeah. I need you to help me get a blade possession permit."

Byungho measured the size of the kukri with his eyes and nodded.

"Looking at the size, yeah, you'll need one. But why do you need a knife like this?"

"I'm thinking about entering a competition in America."

"A competition?"

At the short question, Jinho picked up a tablet nearby and showed him a video. After watching it, Byungho clicked his tongue softly.

"Tsk. Would've been nicer if you entered with a Joseon hwando or some traditional blade."

"You know how many people showed up with katanas only for their blades to bend and get eliminated? Some guys even had their swords snap in the middle of the contest. Joseon swords and Japanese swords are sharp, sure, but they're not tough. Competitions like that are all about heavy, durable blades."

"Really? Fine then. I'll prepare the paperwork and bring it over."

Several days later.

"Here. The documents and the card."

"Much appreciated."

Handing over the paperwork and IC card, Byungho looked around before his gaze stopped somewhere.

"What the hell is that now?"

"What?"

"That! Over there!"

Where Byungho pointed stood a flintlock rifle.

"Oh, that? Someone overseas asked if I could make one, so I tried it out. Reenactors ordered it. You know, the people in America who cosplay the Revolutionary War and stage mock battles."

"Hm..."

Byungho half-listened to the explanation while carefully lifting the rifle into his hands.

After examining the firing mechanism, he looked back at Jinho.

"This is that gun, right? The one from that American Revolutionary War movie with Mel Gibson?"

"Yeah. It's a Kentucky rifle."

"Why are you making American guns?"

"Looks like craftsmen over there are disappearing too. And the surviving originals are basically becoming museum treasures..."

"So you made one yourself?"

At the question, Jinho nodded.

"I only made one for now, but if the reviews are good, I think I could export five to ten a year. If things go well, I could make twenty or thirty million won from it."

"Hm..."

Watching Byungho's reaction, Jinho cautiously added:

"So I'm gonna need some paperwork for this too..."

"You expect me to handle that too?"

"Come on, help me out. If this succeeds, I'll treat you properly later."

"You sure know how to talk."

Despite his uninterested tone, Byungho carefully inspected the Kentucky rifle with a serious expression. Pulling back the hammer without flint attached, he squeezed the trigger.

Click!

"Oh? It works properly. Hm... Is the barrel supposed to be this narrow?"

"No. I blocked it so powder can go in, but bullets can't."

"Hm..."

While inspecting the barrel, Byungho noticed a faint crack about a centimeter below the muzzle.

Carefully studying the line, he gripped the barrel firmly and pulled at the section above it.

Pop!

With a small sound, the muzzle section detached from the barrel, revealing the inside.

Six elegant rifling grooves twisted beautifully within.

The moment he saw the rifling, Byungho grabbed Jinho by the collar.

"You little bastard! You said this was a prop! Why the hell does a prop have rifling carved into it?!"

"If you're gonna make something, you should do it properly to satisfy customer nee..."

"What kind of damn customers do you have?! Snuff film directors?! You little punk! You only called me here so you could use me for this crap! You wanted me to cover for you!"

"I wouldn't exactly say no to that..."

"You little shit!"

"It was in the customer specifications! They wanted it usable in emergencies just in case..."

"In a country where more dangerous weapons are everywhere once you step outside the front door?! What kind of bullshit is that?!"

After a long wrestling match, the two finally reached a compromise.

Byungho used electric welding to permanently seal the muzzle plug already fitted into the rifle barrel, and Jinho added the following sentence to the product description on Amazon:

-According to the laws of the manufacturing country, the muzzle has been modified to prevent the use of live ammunition.

"What a waste..."

"Hah!"

Unable to hide his disappointment, Jinho immediately shrank back when Byungho glared at him. Byungho slowly read through the advertisement Jinho had uploaded to Amazon before asking another question.

"You said it's historically accurate. Did you use the same materials too?"

"Of course not. If I made the barrel entirely using historical methods, the price would gain another zero."

"Fair enough."

Just then, an elderly woman entered Jinho's forge.

"Blacksmith boy around?"

"Welcome!"

"These are seed potatoes. Store them in your warehouse for me."

"Of course."

Taking the box from her, Jinho carried it to a separate storage building behind the forge.

After the old woman left, Byungho looked at Jinho with surprise.

"You seem pretty close with the old folks around here."

"We help each other out with various things."

"But why are they using your warehouse?"

"Some of the chemicals I use in the forge are temperature-sensitive, so I paid extra attention to cooling when building the storage. Turns out it's also great for storing seeds and fertilizer, so lots of people use it."

"Really? Let me see."

"What are you trying to inspect now?"

"Hah..."

When Byungho's expression sharpened, Jinho shrank again and guided him to the storage sheds behind the forge.

The first warehouse was filled with stacks of steel plates.

"That's a lot of scrap metal."

"Spring steel is the best for making blades and all kinds of stuff. I practically became a regular at junkyards."

"Really? Open the next one too."

"...Fine."

Prompted by Byungho, Jinho opened the second warehouse.

Standing inside the cool storage room and examining the items within, Byungho glared at him.

"Why does a forge need chemicals like these?"

"For things like etching decorations and other additional work."

"You bought all this legally, right?"

"You want receipts too? Seriously... You really do act like a detective."

Despite Jinho's protests, Byungho's eyes remained sharp.

"If you cause trouble, I'll kill you myself."

"I'm not causing trouble!"

"Says the guy making homemade guns?"

"..."

After warning him, Byungho turned away, sniffing the air.

"Which house is it? Who dumped so much fertilizer around here?"

"My field."

"Huh? You're farming now too?"

"Hahaha..."

Jinho's awkward laugh immediately sharpened Byungho's suspicions again. He examined the field carefully.

The field looked roughly five hundred pyeong in size. Half of it was covered in solar panels, while the other half was blanketed in fertilizer.

After studying the layout, Byungho stared directly at Jinho.

"The one decent thing about your personality is that you can't lie. That definitely isn't normal farmland. What are you using it for?"

"Well... It's a nitrary..."

"A nitrary?"

"I wanted to try making potassium nitrate..."

"What for?"

"Well, if I want to test whether the Kentucky rifle works properly, I need black powder, and black powder's kind of hard to get..."

"You little bastard! This is way beyond anything I can cover for!"

Jinho's answer exceeded everything Byungho had expected. His face turned pale as he grabbed Jinho by the collar and shouted.

The reason Byungho turned white was not simply because Jinho was making gunpowder.

Three days before Byungho visited Jinho, a man from the National Intelligence Service had come to meet him and several fellow detectives.

The NIS agent had come regarding "domestic activities by Islamic terrorist organizations."

"Since Osama's elimination, Islamic fundamentalist terror groups have mostly been operating independently. As of now, no such organization has been discovered in Korea, but the danger level remains extremely high. The reason is the large number of illegal workers from Pakistan and Southeast Asian Muslim countries currently employed here."

According to the NIS briefing, the situation was extremely unpleasant.

Most illegal laborers routinely suffered excessive overtime, unpaid wages, and even physical abuse.

As this continued, more undocumented workers developed hostility toward Koreans and Korea itself, increasing the possibility of homegrown terror cells forming around them.

"These days I can't even tell whether I work for the NIS or the Ministry of Labor. My entire day disappears handling unpaid wages for illegal workers and securing treatment costs for those injured in industrial accidents. Even if they're deported, we still need to reduce resentment."

After venting briefly, the agent returned to the main topic.

"The reason I came to meet you is because of Yangsan's unique characteristics."

"There aren't many factories in Yangsan where illegal immigrants can work."

One of the detectives attending the meeting pointed this out, and the NIS agent nodded.

"That's true. But there are plenty of farms nearby. Agricultural and livestock complexes have become another major source of employment for illegal laborers."

The detectives nodded. Farming was hard enough, but livestock work was brutal.

After taking a sip of water, the NIS agent displayed several slides on the screen.

"The images you're seeing are from incidents such as the Oklahoma City bombing and several other bombing attacks. The important point here is the material used in the explosives. Sometimes military or commercial explosives are used, but many cases involve explosives assembled from materials easily purchased on the market. The most useful ingredient in such cases is nitrogen fertilizer. Mix nitrogen fertilizer with diesel, kerosene, or lubricants in suitable proportions, and you get an extremely effective explosive."

"Hm..."

The detectives' expressions grew serious as they listened. Nitrogen fertilizer was everywhere around Yangsan.

"Of course, fertilizer isn't available only in Yangsan. But to the east lies Busan, and to the west lies Changwon. If someone acquires detonators from the Russian mafia in Busan, or manufactures them personally, then drives a truck packed with explosives into the Changwon defense industry complex, the results would be catastrophic."

The detectives nodded grimly.

Fertilizer overflowed from farms and agricultural supply stores around Yangsan. Fuel tanks for greenhouses and agricultural facilities were everywhere, along with lubricants for farming machinery. One-ton trucks were also common.

And finally, many farms and ranches employed Pakistanis or other Southeast Asians under harsh conditions, rumors the detectives themselves had already heard.

Sensing that the detectives understood the seriousness of the matter, the NIS agent concluded his briefing.

"The NIS is asking for your cooperation not only regarding illegal foreign workers but also in monitoring organized crime groups in Yangsan. According to our investigation, brokers arranging illegal labor are connected to local gangs, and those same gangs are involved in controlling foreign workers and preventing them from escaping after employment. We ask that you focus heavily on this area. This is a matter of national security."