Kris wasn't particularly strong. Within his family of smugglers he was a bit of a black sheep because he was the only one who couldn't do anything amazing with his abilities alone. He couldn't force thoughts into other people's minds, he couldn't poison anyone through a simple touch, he couldn't break bones just by looking at them. He could fly, yes, but so could his family members because there were enough flying devices.
He was a child when he realized that he would have to use his brain like every other average citizen if he wanted to have success, so he tried to think of his intelligence as his major power. So when he tried to imagine himself as someone, he figured that it wasn't really him who had to possess great powers. What he needed were people he could use who did.

When he used all the money he had to buy an old ship from one of his uncles, he knew that he just had to be smart about his crew. The first one he coerced into following him was Lay, his old friend he saved from bullies before. Lay wasn't really strong but he could heal and to Kris that was more essential than any aggressive powers.
The next one he got was his cousin Tao who could control time but who was known to be bratty and unreliable. Kris figured that Tao just never got a chance to prove himself and that he would eventually grow up. He knew him since young, so it was at least worth the try.

The next two persons he wasn't so sure about at first. Luhan and him used to attend the same school but that never meant that they were friends. Luhan's family owned proper businesses, his obviously got rich through dubious trade. He didn't think he would ever have any reason to even talk to him when Luhan suddenly approached him.
Kris had no idea what he was trying to escape from but it seemed quite urgent when Luhan begged him to take him and his servant in. He couldn't even offer much money, just their powers and loyalty.
It was pity that made him agree and at first he regretted it. He knew that Luhan's power was telekinesis and although that certainly was a quite practical, did he not think that he actually needed it in an age of machines. His servant Xiumin meanwhile was incredibly strong but could only use his power as offense. He could freeze things but then he couldn't unfreeze them and often destroyed them while he was at it.
It was funnily the moment Kris realized that Xiumin was Korean that suddenly gave him completely new perspectives though.

During the last couple of years the so-called Killing Games became a really great hit. They were especially popular with all those people who didn't possess any powers because the basically were huge fighting competitions between people with did.
There were always twenty-eight competitors that started out. Their powers and nationalities always varied and during the fights they could use whatever means they had. All they had to do in the end was to make sure that their opponent was dead.
There were of course those people who joined the Games because they enjoyed it and because they thought of themselves as that strong. It was also what the Games itself promoted: The chance to prove oneself.
It was a true fact though that most competitors weren't there out of their own free choice. Many had debts they couldn't pay off, others were sold of by their family members. There were many death row candidates, too. They all were forced to join with that one great opportunity ahead of them: If they won, they were free.

Koreans were particularly popular during the games. It was said that Koreans often had very basic powers they used brutally. Fire, water, earth, wind. It always seemed easy to beat them at first but they often prevailed in the end.
Kris knew that it mostly was a marketing trick. Korea was one of the countries with the harshest conditions for people with powers. They knew how to fight because they had to. Their powers also weren't that different from those of people from other countries, the Game makers just preferred those Koreans with simple powers.

Kris had spent a summer watching his uncle lure Koreans on his ship by offering them to smuggle them out of the country, so he knew about the whole slave smuggle business. He didn't really think much of it though, he just thought that it was too bothersome to sell desperate people to erts who wanted slaves for themselves. Because that was mostly what the slave trade was to him.
But when he noticed that not just Xiumin but Luhan, too, spoke fluent Korean, he began to wonder whether this wasn't actually the kind of chance he was hoping for. Most ships hired strong crew members, not people who were friendly and good talkers. For average slaves that of course wasn't necessary but with Xiumin and Luhan it maybe even was possible to find strong candidates for the Games.

He was of course worried that Xiumin in particular wouldn't agree but Xiumin just shrugged and said that it was Luhan's decision.
It was odd but Xiumin didn't actually seem all that Korean if he thought about it. It was maybe because he spent most of his life in Luhan's family but his lack of compassion was still scary sometimes. Only when he actually spoke the language did he seem like he was not actually one of them.
Whatever reason Xiumin had, he soon became one of the most important members of Kris' crew.

It was probably because Xiumin was so helpful though that Kris became reckless.
They occasionally got their slaves from the death row candidates Korea sold to save costs and make money. It was really a nice system. You could just go there, pick the ones you like and bid for them. Most of them were guaranteed to make a good prize in the end because they were usually strong and violent but with the horrendous charges the police charged for them, there barely was any profit left for the ones who sold them to the Games.
Whenever there was an auction Kris still went there of course, just to see if he could make a bargain.
It was in situations like those when Xiumin really prove to be a real asset. The police always published the complete personal and criminal record of every prisoner but always only in Korean. Even with translation software those records often didn't make full sense, so it was always good to have someone who could read Korean. Whenever there was an auction it was Xiumin he took, never really wondering whether there might be a problem about it.