Peninsula: A Max-Level Forward's Leisurely Life

The deep night of Munich spills into the room through the half-open French windows, like a medieval oil painting with its exposure deliberately dimmed.

The email on his phone was still hanging on the screen. After regaining his senses, Lee Chi-hoon gave a mocking sneer.

These old fogies, ever since their souls from two lifetimes merged, have actually been deliberately avoiding those conspiracies and power struggles involving conglomerates.

Even going as far as Europe, where the original owner's football talent allowed him to carve out a niche for himself, was also a disguised way of escaping the power struggles among conglomerates.

At first, his mother in Seoul and his father in the United States naturally couldn't understand it at all. But as he ran faster and faster on the grass and established himself in an amazing way, and was about to take over some key positions, those hands that wanted to forcibly interfere slowly withdrew.

But Li Jixun's lack of ambition doesn't mean he's blind or stupid.

In this cannibalistic world, anyone who truly believes in the idea of ​​a peaceful and idyllic life will have their ashes thrown into the Han River the next day. This is even more unbelievable for a trader like him who spent a long time on Wall Street in his previous life.

Those old men could no longer contain their desires. Li Chixun raised his hand and tapped to reply to the person opposite him, but he didn't feel any urgency.

"Keep a close eye on it and play the long game."

After typing those five words, I pressed the send button and then threw that mess, which was enough to cause a bloodbath on the peninsula, back into the deepest recycle bin of my brain.

He casually tossed the damp towel onto the back of the sofa, then walked over and sat down comfortably.

As soon as I switched back to the usual chat interface, the chat window with the pink avatar in the lower right corner was already like a hornet's nest, with a whole bunch of unread messages popping up.

In the ten minutes or so that Lee Ji-hoon hadn't had time to reply to his email, a certain sensitive peach in Seoul started to overthink and bombarded him with messages.

Oppa! Why are you ignoring me?!

Did you go out drinking after taking a shower?

Hey! Are you looking at those beautiful German women?!

[Choi Jin-ri is angry! The kind you can't appease! She's going to bite you to death!]

Below the text, several funny emojis of kittens rolling around on the ground, crying, and waving frying pans were also displayed.

Looking at the overflowing coquettishness and possessiveness in these words, Li Chixun felt even more that this girl really needed to be taught a lesson. He touched his nose, helplessly pressed the voice button, and apologized earnestly in a low voice. He also promised to spend two off-seasons with her, which finally calmed down the little peach who was about to flip the table.

After doing all this, my gaze slid back to the top of the chat history and settled on the group photo that Sulli had sent ten minutes earlier.

She replied to them with a somewhat sly and teasing comment, "Look at Yoona-ssi, she looks so completely drained, it's really quite pitiful."

"If any of you Girls' Generation members ever come to Germany again, remember to let me know in advance. I'll treat you to a lavish meal to help you recover."

The voice message flew across Asia in a flash.

at the same time.

Inside a private lounge in the SM Entertainment building in Seoul.

Sulli was sitting cross-legged on the corner sofa without any regard for her image, holding a huge plush pillow in her arms.

Her phone was connected to a video call screen, and on the big screen were the Girls' Generation members who had just returned to their dorm and were sprawled out on the floor doing stretches.

"Beep beep—" A notification sound of special concern rang out.

Choi Sulli's eyes lit up, and she immediately threw away the cushion and grabbed her phone.

After realizing it was a long voice message that lasted over ten seconds, her eyes darted around, she covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, and immediately held her phone up to the microphone and pressed speakerphone.

In the quiet dormitory and lounge, the man's magnetic and teasing voice, amplified by the loudspeaker, clearly reached the ears of every woman.

The voice just fell.

……

An eerie silence fell over the dormitory in Seoul.

Three seconds later.

Hyoyeon threw down the resistance band and sprang up from the yoga mat with a high-pitched scream. "Daebak!!"

"Did you hear that! A feast! A German feast!" Choi Soo-young excitedly jumped around and did a chaotic dance on the spot.

Sunny's eyes lit up as she pounced on Yoona, who hadn't even reacted yet.

"Yoona! Did you hear that invitation that reeks of money?!"

"This isn't just an oppa, this is practically our mobile breadbasket in Europe!"

Yoona was sitting on the floor in a daze when the words "completely drained" came from her phone. Her head buzzed and her face flushed.

"Hey! Choi Jin-ri, you did this on purpose, didn't you?!"

Faced with the fierce onslaught from her older sisters, Lim Yoona was utterly humiliated and indignant. She let out a wail, covered her cheeks, which were so hot they could fry an egg, with both hands, and buried her face in the sofa cushions next to her, frantically burrowing deeper like an ostrich.

"Don't call me! I don't know you!"

"I have absolutely no desire to participate in your robbery plan!"

Listening to Yoona's weak protest on the other end of the phone, Sulli on the other side of the screen was laughing so hard she was lying on the sofa, unable to straighten up, and she didn't forget to add fuel to the fire.

"Unnie, why are you hiding? Oppa said he'd help you recover!"

The cheers in the dormitory, Kim Tae-yeon's wild laughter, and Im Yoon-ah's angry sobs intertwined to create a symphony.

The chaotic commotion was transmitted back to the villa in Munich via the live call that Choi Sulli had pressed.

Li Chixun leaned back on the sofa, quietly listening to the noise that seemed to transcend time and space.

My mood suddenly improved for no reason.

He turned to the side, took out a crystal glass from the base of the low cabinet next to him, and poured a shallow layer of very old single malt.

The deep amber-colored liquor swayed under the dim yellow light.

In his previous life, he struggled in Wall Street, a place that supposedly controlled global wealth, and every step he took was fraught with danger.

Everywhere you look, there are despicable and hypocritical transactions. You have to sleep with one eye open, for fear that you'll wake up to find that your competitors have stripped you bare.

Heart-to-heart communication? That's a luxury that doesn't exist.

And in this life.

Even though he occasionally has to deal with the old foxes lurking in the shadows of the Hyundai Group, just looking at the people around him, because of a single word from him or a small gift, can bring him such joy.

This feeling of truly having the initiative in my own hands is fucking awesome.

Just as he raised his glass, continuing to be a quiet listener...

"Buzz—Buzz—"

Another black work phone, which was resting on the edge of the sofa, vibrated.

This is the encrypted line he left in Itaewon, Seoul, specifically for the internal security of Leon's bar. Normally, security will never disturb his private time unless absolutely necessary.

Li Chixun frowned slightly and stopped moving.

He casually tapped his wine glass on the glass coffee table, picked up his phone with one hand, and pressed the answer button.

"explain."

On the other end of the phone, the security supervisor, who had dealt with many dirty tricks alongside him, sounded strangely helpless and troubled.

"Boss... I'm sorry to bother you."

"A girl who suddenly ran to take shelter from the rain under the eaves by the back door of the bar. She looks like a middle school student, carrying a backpack that's bigger than her."

Li Chixun's eyelids twitched, but he patiently waited. Why were all sorts of stray cats and dogs running towards his back door?

"Give me some money, and I'll put you in a taxi to take you home."

"No, boss..." The security guard coughed, his tone becoming increasingly strange, "No matter how the brothers tried to persuade her, she wouldn't leave."

"She insisted that this bar was owned by her 'brother'."

"When the brothers tried to drag her away, she bit the back door handle and glared at us defiantly, saying that her name was Liu Zhimin."

Yoo Jimin?

The moment I heard that name.

Memories from the depths of his mind surged rapidly, and a gaunt figure he had encountered on the street, who always stared at him with a cold yet stubborn gaze, and whom he had fed with fried chicken as if she were his younger sister, gradually overlapped with the scene of the rainy night in Seoul.

Why is this little one out in Itaewon, a place teeming with demons and monsters, doing nothing at home in the middle of the night?

Just as he was about to have security hand the phone to the little stray cat.

【Ding--】

The long-silent electronic voice, mixed with a faint electrical hum, suddenly rang out from the depths of his mind.

[Detection detected that an S-level potential trainee has deviated from their predetermined destiny trajectory—]

[Special hidden interaction conditions triggered.]

Li Chixun's expression froze on his face. What kind of mess was this?

Why does your hardcore football system called "FIFA Green Field" spend all its time sending out detection and warnings to underage idol trainees on the Korean Peninsula? Zhang Yuanying and Liu Zhimin are examples of this.

Is this because he's been sitting in the football world for too long and has so much free time that he's started doing cross-industry business and taking care of his kids on the side?

Lee Chi-hoon held his phone to his ear, glancing at the string of floating green characters, a complex expression on his face that was hard to decipher—whether it was funny or absurd.

Outside the window, the night wind in Munich had picked up at some point, causing a slight whistling sound to come from the cracks in the French windows.

He slowly straightened up, holding the phone, a glimmer of something reassessing the situation flashing in his eyes.