Chapter 109

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Is it possible to short sell with 700 trillion won?

Actually, taking a short position with 700 trillion wasn’t that difficult.

It’s easy if you think of WhiteRock.

Isn’t the global market currently absorbing their astronomical investment of over 1 gyeong (10 quadrillion)?

Depending on the fund’s nature, they also take long or short positions.

Already hundreds of trillions of won are in short positions.

How is such a thing possible?

It’s possible because they don’t dump money into one market, but invest money across the world.

In other words, like them, we need to take short selling positions across stock markets worldwide to digest that much money.

“Isn’t the daily trading volume worldwide over thousands of trillions of won? Of course, suddenly digesting that much money in one day would be difficult.”

Obviously, they’re not suddenly investing 700 trillion in one day.

They have to carefully build short selling positions over several months to not shock the market.

“But as a single force, we’d be the first in history to take a 700 trillion won short selling position.”

Distributing 700 trillion won worldwide to take short selling positions is possible.

But it would be the first time in history for a single force to deliberately take such a large short selling position.

Because the market can’t digest it?

No. Because the risk if it fails is too great.

That’s the difference between us and large asset management companies like us that hold astronomical shorts.

They take shorts for hedging purposes.

We’re investing our entire fortune purely to make money from it.

“3 months. That’s our calculation.”

3 months to liquidate all assets and simultaneously build positions.

“If we do it as fast as possible, it’s 3 months. This way, we can minimize market shock.”

Our team’s analysis was accurate.

In 3 months, the pension can build positions across global markets.

“Of course, 3 months is also an estimated target. Because the President hasn’t told us which markets to position in yet.”

I handed the documents I prepared to the Chairman.

“This is……”

“The portfolio you requested.”

At that, the Chairman’s eyes sparkled as he quickly took the document to examine.

“S&P 500 SPY 15%, QQQ 10%, AAL to CCL 10%, VIX futures 5%, Euro Stoxx 50 10%, German DAX 5%……”

Before long, Chairman Choi took off his glasses.

“It’s much more detailed than I expected. US, France, Germany, eurozone bank stocks, etc.”

“Yes. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan are included too.”

“Surprisingly, Korea isn’t there?”

“If we make profits but it becomes known we short sold in Korea and profited, public sentiment would turn ugly.”

At my words, the Chairman burst into a slight laugh.

A very satisfied face.

“And I’ve appropriately mixed ratios from emerging market ETFs, energy-related short positions to REITs ETFs, IYR, and VNQ.”

“Yes. It’s very detailed and there are many types, so I’m relieved. We won’t need to worry about stocks at all. Since we’re continuously splitting and spreading money, we probably won’t need to worry much about market shock either.”

For 3 months, the National Pension will be very busy.

Because they have to liquidate their assets while simultaneously taking positions.

Especially since this isn’t tied to one market but requires getting shares on loan evenly across global markets to short sell, even 3 months was very tight.

“But we have to do it. Since we’ve already burned our bridges.”

“…Is everything okay internally? Opposition must be fierce.”

“Yes. The directors actually requested help from the government to stop me.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“It’s fine. Pulling me down from the Chairman position takes more time than you’d think. Plus, the work has already been progressing for a while. Even if someone comes to replace me, it’s too late to reverse things.”

Meaning he’s already removed the brakes.

“And even if we make big profits, someone will have to take responsibility for this. It’s citizens’ money, isn’t it? Since we speculated with it, naturally there should be punishment so such cases don’t happen again.”

“……”

“But I have no intention of making Gwangwoon take responsibility. Gwangwoon only gave advice—I alone made the decision and followed through. After all this is over, I alone will carry everything.”

If the National Pension makes big money through this, internally they’ll applaud.

But externally, they can’t.

Setting aside the moral issue of making money through short selling, the biggest problem is that they bet and speculated with citizens’ money.

“I’m also near retirement age. As a worker, I’ve achieved everything I can. So even if I resign in disgrace, I have no regrets. As long as I can save future generations through this.”

I could feel determination in Chairman Choi’s eyes.

Even while clearly knowing how his end would turn out.

“I have nothing I dare to say.”

“I just need this to succeed. Honestly, I still don’t know. No matter what data I pull, the current global financial market only shows a golden future. Yet despite that, President Jeong proposed such a massive operation to me.”

Yet he bet his fate on me.

“What’s happening that so many stocks would fall like this? At this level, almost all markets would experience a crash……”

While I was turning my head thinking about how to explain this.

Chairman Choi quietly observed my face.

“I asked something pointless. Isn’t Gwangwoon a place that creates something from nothing? I won’t ask further. Ah. But Gwangwoon doesn’t have an asset management company yet, does it? If you’re really confident this will succeed, you should create one in advance. After this performance, the National Pension’s money will be entrusted there from now on.”

Chairman Choi smiled faintly and drank his tea.

How should I put it.

He looked almost enlightened.

Even knowing he’d be cursed whether this failed or succeeded, he threw himself in calling it work for future generations.

And he’d steadfastly take all responsibility and leave.

“…!”

Then suddenly I felt a tingling sensation in my fingertips, and something new appeared to my eyes.

It was Chairman Choi, sparkling blue.

This was like the phenomenon I saw when interviewing employees.

If that’s the case, could it be……

‘Does our company have an advisor position?’

He seemed too young to retire yet.

————————————————————————————————————————

AstraZenon was originally a company led jointly by all shareholders, not dominated by one person.

But the conqueror who toppled Britain claimed this company as spoils.

From then on, the company was chaos itself.

Because this conqueror brought pharmaceutical companies from Europe one by one, merged them, and disrupted the work system.

“But it’s really strange. Normally, a company’s system itself would collapse and it would take months—no, sometimes years—just to normalize operations, but here it didn’t even take days.”

AstraZenon’s CEO, Luke Wayne, thought when Gwangwoon invaded without warning, flipped the company, and conducted haphazard mergers, that this prestigious company was finally finished.

But it was a strange thing.

Rather, he was getting a peculiar feeling that the company was running even better.

“You could call it the power of restructuring. I don’t know who exactly is giving orders at Gwangwoon, but they knew our company and all the other merged companies to the bone.”

The core was restructuring.

When you say restructuring, it seems like they’d fire indiscriminately, but this wasn’t the case here.

They truly staffed necessary areas and boldly cut unnecessary ones, solving problems that had been festering in AstraZenon itself all at once.

That’s why it was scary.

How long had Gwangwoon been looking into AstraZenon?

Otherwise, they couldn’t have pruned the rotten branches and planted new ones the moment they acquired the company.

It meant they had thoroughly prepared to consume this company for a long time.

“Everything up to there is fine. The problem is returns, isn’t it? Right now, they’re spending money lavishly on weird things. What is Gwangwoon thinking?”

Gwangwoon purchased shares and then injected additional investment through paid-in capital increase.

At that time, they thought it was simply to increase their ownership stake.

But they poured all that investment into technology called mRNA.

To be precise, it’s divided into 3 technologies.

Technology to synthesize antigens with mRNA and inject them.

Nanoparticle delivery technology.

Excessive immune response blocking technology.

If these three technologies are maximized and combined, it’s possible to create stable vaccines quickly.

“But isn’t investing funds only in this while ignoring everything else very inefficient? mRNA technology still needs much development.”

That was strange.

This technology is definitely good if developed well.

Because it can solve things like genetic disease treatment.

However, to pursue company profits, there are more urgent things.

But Gwangwoon is pouring investment only into this.

“And instead of looking at the distant future and developing slowly, they’re acting like they’re being chased……”

“Plus they’re not pressuring us for returns.”

“Is it really okay to just sit here doing nothing? Our blockbuster drugs’ patents are ending so we need to develop and produce additional drugs.”

They simply couldn’t understand Gwangwoon’s thinking.

They heard it was a place pursuing maximized profits.

They wondered if it was okay to work at a company like this.

“For now, let’s do our best to follow what they tell us from above. This company is no longer a place moved by multiple shareholders. For us, well, there’s no performance pressure, and we just do what we’re told, so it’s comfortable and nice.”

“That’s true, but if the company collapses like this……”

While thinking it was okay to play around and get paid.

There was underlying fear that they might do nothing and the company could disappear.

It couldn’t be helped—hadn’t the fortress-like AstraZenon been acquired by Gwangwoon?

“So at least among ourselves, we should put our heads together and think about how to develop the company. Although investment is all concentrated in mRNA, using the funds we currently have……”

“CEO.”

Then an employee urgently came into the meeting room and handed something over.

“What’s this?”

“A document from WHO.”

“What? WHO?”

“Yes. They’re delivering this document to all pharmaceutical companies right now, not just us.”

Eventually,

“!?”

Horror rose on Martin’s face as he read the document.

————————————————————————————————————————

The financial market was peaceful.

Hadn’t so many incidents happened until now?

Especially after the typhoon called Gwangwoon swept through the financial market several times, peace came.

The shipping business forcibly dismantled by the EU was continuing to grow, and although it shook once due to the financial crisis that came to Singapore, it soon normalized.

Although Singapore took major damage, they were self-congratulating that this incident gave them even stronger roots.

Japan also, thought to be unable to rise for a while after being trampled by Gwangwoon, was somehow firing signal flares of revival and embarking on full-scale change.

That’s what typhoons are like.

New flowers bloom where they’ve swept through.

“But… this is too concerning.”

It made sense that Gwangwoon was quiet.

After being forcibly stripped of their company by the EU, they realized they shouldn’t run wild anymore. So if they were staying as quiet as possible, that was understandable…

“Why on earth is the Korean National Pension?”

The problem was over there.

What is the National Pension?

In terms of pensions alone, it’s the third largest in the world.

And they had shown suspicious movements for several months.

“They’ve disposed of all bonds, which are the safest assets, liquidated shares they held, and even real estate? And they’re taking short positions with that money?”

“Yes. It was a process that had been progressing very slowly, so we completely missed it.”

“How much are they holding?”

“That’s the problem. Looking at other countries’ securities firms stirring, it seems the National Pension is spreading money to almost all markets regardless of US, Europe, or Asia.”

“Wait. Does that mean… they’re spreading all their operating funds? And in short positions?”

“Unless they’re out of their minds—no, even a considerably crazy person wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Right. That’s the common sense view.

Is the money the National Pension holds small change?

Plus, it’s not their money but citizens’ money.

Using that for some speculative purpose short selling is already problematic, but spreading all the National Pension’s money worldwide to take short positions is a nonsensical story.

“But it’s certainly strange. They carefully spent months clearing positions without shocking the market while simultaneously taking short selling positions. We can’t know the exact scale, but did they really bet everything?”

“That guy just said. Even a crazy person wouldn’t do such a thing. If they lose just 1%, billions of dollars fly away.”

“Yes. Ironically, whenever Gwangwoon did something, such talk always came up too.”

“……”

And the National Pension and Gwangwoon are attached to the same country.

Could it be that Gwangwoon is staying quiet because they’re doing something else behind the scenes?

Using the National Pension as a smokescreen.

“Find out what Gwangwoon is doing right now.”

“Ah, yes. By the way, Director. A rather peculiar report came in.”

“What kind?”

“The pneumonia that occurred in Wuhan a few months ago… do you remember?”

“Wuhan?”

Raynold tilted his head.

It seemed like he’d heard of it somewhere.

“Where is it?”

“China. It wasn’t a very important report back then, but it seems to be spreading quite significantly now. Sensing something unusual, WHO has been sending official documents to all pharmaceutical companies for a month requesting they research the virus and develop vaccines.”

“How serious is it?”

“WHO may soon declare an international public health emergency.”

“…Is that very serious?”

“If they declare this emergency and things don’t improve, then it’s a pandemic. Declaring a worldwide epidemic.”

Raynold furrowed his brow.

“So what. Is a plague-like infectious disease spreading?”

“Yes. The difference is the transmission rate is higher than during the plague. Because people are traveling everywhere in the world now.”

He felt something was off there.

“But WHO hasn’t declared a public health emergency yet. This might get better quickly.”

“But what if it doesn’t improve? If a pandemic really hits like you said, what happens?”

“That’s hard to predict easily. But if a pandemic hits, it means closing all borders, and if that happens……”

Raynold, who had already finished calculating, continued instead.

“A depression. The largest depression in history.”

If all trade is cut off and movement between countries is cut off, what follows after that?

A financial crisis.

Everyone would feel fear at experiencing something for the first time and dump all their holdings.

If that happens, a financial crisis even larger than the 2008 subprime could come together.

“Then Director. What happens to Gwangwoon and the pension?”

Gwangwoon liquidated their shipping business and took pharmaceutical companies.

And the National Pension is randomly disposing of all assets and taking large-scale short positions.

What does this mean?

“Could it be…!”