Ultimately, Maru looked at me as if I were crazy and went back after drinking his fill of makgeolli. I kind of expected it, but it's still a shame. He's a trustworthy guy.
I diligently hammered away, reminiscing about last night's drinking session. I've gotten the hang of it after a month, at least.
As I was hammering rhythmically, I heard the owner calling me from the side.
"Sol, come here."
"Yes, sir."
"It's been a month now, right? How is it? Is it manageable? Are you going to continue?"
"Of course, sir. The more I do it, the more fun it gets."
The owner chuckled and suddenly tossed me a car key.
I caught it, but what is this? It looks like a very old car key. It doesn't seem like the New Grandeur's.
"That's the key to the Porter truck parked in the back."
"Porter? The truck key?"
"Yes. I'll lend you the truck. Go and collect some stuff. I'll pay you for it, minus the fuel cost."
My eyes widened. I didn't expect him to go this far.
"Really? You're really telling me to go and collect stuff? You'll lend me the truck and pay for the stuff?"
"Yes, you punk. This is a huge favor. I must be getting old and soft."
I bowed 90 degrees to the chuckling owner.
"Thank you! I think meeting you was a stroke of luck sent from heaven!"
"Don't overdo it and just go and try it. I'm not just giving you an opportunity. I want you to experience how difficult this job is."
"Oh, please trust me. I'll give you the first collection for free."
"Shut up and go."
Indeed, it was a considerably old truck.
It smelled musty inside, probably because it hadn't been used for a long time.
Unlike ordinary trucks, this one had high wooden plywood walls built on both sides to carry more when collecting, a true junkyard truck.
I finally managed to start the engine after turning the key several times.
"Let's go! It's the first run!"
I tried to think strategically.
Basically, the most expensive items were waste copper and waste wires, but these were hard to find in ordinary residential areas.
This area, where the junkyard was located, was a residential area, so I skipped it. The next most expensive item was aluminum cans.
But again, they weren't very common. The ratio of steel cans was much higher than aluminum cans.
"Well, I'll just drive around and pick up anything that looks profitable."
Not long after I started, I found a pile of garbage bags in an alley between houses.
I shouted "Lucky!" parked the car, and started rummaging through the garbage bags.
"Ugh. Food waste, paper, plastic, what a mix! Oh, there's even a diaper. Oh, aluminum can!"
I pulled out an aluminum can and a wad of paper from one garbage bag and tied it up again.
I was digging through trash, but I still had manners. I threw the collected items in the back of the truck and started rummaging through the next bag.
The garbage bags contained all sorts of things. After almost 30 minutes of checking all the garbage bags, the results were dismal.
"Two aluminum cans, six steel cans, five plastic bottles, a handful of waste paper… Wow. The grandmas and grandpas with their carts always seem to have them full. How long will it take me to fill this up? At this rate, it'll never end."
I sighed and started driving through the alleys again. I rummaged through a few more garbage piles, but the results were similar.
And then it happened, as I squatted down to rummage through the fifth garbage pile.
"Isn't that the young man who works at Mr. Kim's?"
It was the grandma who collected and sold waste paper to the junkyard.
"Oh my, who is it? Isn't it Mr. Ahn?"
Actually, we didn't call the grandmas and grandpas who collected with carts "Mr." or "Mrs.", but they loved it when I did, so it became my signature greeting. Thanks to that, I got a lot of free milk and stuff.
"Oh my, it is you. What are you doing here, young man?"
"Well, the owner told me to drive around and collect stuff. I have to start working on the front lines, don't I?"
"Is that so? But why are you rummaging through that?"
"Huh? Don't I have to rummage through garbage bags to collect stuff?"
"Oh my, that old geezer Kim didn't even teach you the basics before sending you out? What a useless old man."
So this is what he meant by making me work hard.
"Ah… then, Mr. Ahn, would you mind sharing some of your know-how? I'll buy you a glass of milk."
"Oh, you don't have to buy me milk. I wouldn't tell anyone else, but I'll tell you. But promise me you won't touch the residential area and the commercial area over there, those are my collection spots."
"Of course, it's only natural. There's a code of conduct. Would you tell me?"
"In residential areas like this, they collect all the garbage and throw it out together, so it takes a long time to find anything by rummaging through it. Even if you spend all day collecting, it's hard to fill up a cart. Instead, try the garbage bins in the entertainment district. People drink alcohol and then throw away their drink containers there, so there's a lot to find. And if you go to the shopping district in the morning, there are tons of empty boxes they throw out, so that's good too."
"I see! Thank you for teaching me so much, Mr. Ahn. Do you have any specific places you'd recommend?"
"I heard from the 1-ton truck owner that there's no junkyard in the next neighborhood yet, but I'm not sure. Anyway, work hard."
I said goodbye and drove the truck to the commercial area in the next neighborhood, which was a bit further away. It was already past breakfast time, and as I drove in front of the stores that were preparing for lunch, a restaurant owner shouted,
"Here! Here! Garbage man!"
"Ga…Garbage man?"
I was momentarily flustered, but I managed my expression, rolled down the window, and said,
"Yes, did you call me?"
"Yeah, garbage man? Oh, you're not? Oh, you're a young man. I thought you were the garbage collector. I was going to ask you to take away some boxes."
"I can take them away for you."
"Thank you, thank you. This darn garbage is such a nuisance, it just takes up space."
"You're welcome. Feel free to call me anytime. You…you can call me the Collection Guy or something…"
"Huh? Ah! I just called you what I usually call them, but now that I think about it, it might be offensive. I'm sorry, young man."
"No, it's okay."
I said goodbye and started taking out boxes from the store, and there were quite a lot. It looked like at least a dozen kilograms.
'But even then, it's only 50 won per kg, so it's just a few hundred won. How long will it take to collect enough?'
But that was just a worry. Starting with the first restaurant owner, waste paper started pouring out from the restaurants lined up in a row.
It only took 2-3 minutes to collect from each store, and waste paper from newly delivered goods and plastic bottles from the previous day's meals poured out from restaurants and shops alike.
In less than an hour, the truck was full of waste paper, plastic bottles, and other things.
"The truck is full, I'll be right back."
I returned to the junkyard with a light heart.
The owner, who was hammering away, saw the truck and his eyes widened. I puffed out my chest and said proudly,
"Look, I brought a full load. I said I'd give you the first collection for free, right?"
"I sent you out to work hard, and what did you do?"
"Grandma Ahn told me it was easy to collect in the next neighborhood."
"Ah, that old woman is talking nonsense. Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's good. You have to experience hardship to know what it's like."
"But I worked hard collecting in the residential area. Hurry up and weigh it. I couldn't even finish collecting because it was full."
"Alright, bring it here."
I struggled to get it down and weighed it. The waste paper alone was over 400 kg. Including the plastic bottles and other odds and ends, it came out to 22,000 won.
It took 30 minutes to get to the next neighborhood and back, and the actual collection time was 1 hour. Excluding the time wasted in the residential area, I earned 22,000 won in just 1.5 hours.
"So the first collection is free, and I'll go and collect the rest."
I hummed as I started the truck. Working construction all day only earned me 50,000 won.
If I could keep collecting like this, theoretically, if I worked 10 hours a day, it would be over 130,000 won.
My intuition was right again, I thought as I arrived back at the shopping district, but beginner's luck is just beginner's luck.
The garbage man had already come and collected the rest in that short time.
"That's a shame, oh well."
I made a mental note of the time I spent collecting today and went to the nearby entertainment district.
Someone had already been through the entertainment district, and the garbage bins were relatively clean.
Then I spotted a garbage bin that either hadn't been checked or showed no signs of being rummaged through. I was a little disappointed to leave empty-handed, so I bent down to rummage through it.
"Ouch!"
Something flew and hit my head. It stung quite a bit.
I rubbed my head and looked in the direction it came from, and there was a kid standing there with a BB gun.
"A beggar is rummaging through the trash! Beggar, beggar!"
The kid aimed at me again and started shooting. I felt a surge of humiliation. I thought I wouldn't care what anyone thought as long as I made money, but I didn't anticipate this kind of situation.
A beggar? Yeah, I guess I could look like a beggar. At the same time, I scolded myself.
'Park Sol, you idiot. You were prepared for this when you decided to run a junkyard, weren't you? I'm proud. I'm proud of myself! I'm going to make money from this and become rich! I can see it. I can see the money.'
I stood up. Although I couldn't compare to Maru, I was still a big guy. 180 cm tall and 90 kg.
The kid flinched when I stood up. But he aimed at me again and started shooting the BB gun.
"Die, beggar! Die, die!"
I started walking towards the kid, taking one step at a time, while getting hit by the BBs. I didn't run. I walked slowly. The kid started backing away, probably scared. As the kid tried to run away, I said,
"Kid, what's your name?"
"I…I'm Baek Yong! You beggar!"
I pointed my finger at the kid and said,
"You. I'll remember you."