Chapter 121

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“What? Where?”

“Britain. The market there seems to be in very serious condition.”

“How serious?”

“To the point where they should declare a national emergency. It wouldn’t be strange if national bankruptcy happened anytime.”

“Tsk tsk. That’s why they shouldn’t have left the EU.”

Britain had started shaking significantly since pushing through Brexit. Now they were paying the price.

“Brexit is one thing, but the decisive reason Britain ended up like this is because of Gwangwoon.”

“Hm? Gwangwoon?”

“Yes, you know. Gwangwoon bet on Britain’s destruction and bear funds all rushed in together, smashing the British stock market.”

“And as a result, the EU did a no-deal Brexit?”

“Yes. They already broke there, and this time dealt a proper finishing blow.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho felt like he already knew without hearing.

“Insurance?”

“Yes. Due to the Beirut explosion incident, most major insurance companies in Europe got tangled up in it, and it’s complete chaos right now. Naturally, Britain is one of them. It seemed like they were rebounding a bit thanks to the US stock market revival, but this time it seems like they’re completely finished.”

Britain has collapsed.

The no-deal Brexit becoming reality meant they had already received a death sentence back then, but this incident really drove them to rock bottom.

“Beirut is killing many.”

“Europe goes without saying, and Levant, which was Gwangwoon Shipping’s rival, is also going through dismantlement. Not only did they blow 30 billion dollars, they also lost the ships and goods at Beirut port all at once. As enormous lawsuits piled on, they seem to be just closing the company. In the end… it went according to Gwangwoon’s intentions.”

At those words, Kang Seong-ho narrowed his brow.

“According to Gwangwoon’s intentions?”

“Yes. Didn’t Gwangwoon benefit the most from the Beirut port explosion?”

“That’s right. On top of that, I’m hearing that Gwangwoon is using this opportunity to not just take over shipping, but also targeting the EU market.”

“Everyone stop. Are you going to create conspiracy theories with stories that have no evidence? And do you think I don’t know President Jeong? He’s not someone who would do something like that.”

“But Chairman. Looking at the current situation…”

“Enough. If you want to be sure, bring evidence. Then I’ll believe you.”

The executives didn’t open their mouths further.

Kang Seong-ho’s love for Jeong Jin-ho is famous, isn’t it?

“Even if all of that were true, Jeong Jin-ho would absolutely never be someone who attacks our Kangsung or our country’s businesses. He’d rather cultivate with us in symbiosis—he’s not someone who would fleece us.”

That was extremely fortunate.

Jeong Jin-ho had habitually said since before that he wanted Korea and its businesses to prosper.

And this time with the National Pension, he proved he wasn’t lying.

Among all the many business people, how many truly put national interest before their own profit?

“So, are you saying we should reduce investment in Britain?”

“Yes. Both electronics sales and semiconductors—Britain doesn’t seem attractive. It should be fine to reduce costs in that region to a minimum.”

“Then let’s do that.”

“Yes! Oh, and there’s one more thing to report. Several English Premier League clubs are looking for buyers this time.”

“Hm? Football?”

Kang Seong-ho wasn’t particularly interested in sports.

His late father was a sports fanatic, so he just maintains the investment now.

“Newcastle, Everton, West Ham, etc. With the British economy shaking severely, several clubs have come on the market. And right now the most controversial one in Britain is this team.”

“…Tottenham? Isn’t that a famous club?”

“Yes. It’s also where our country’s player is playing, and it was originally a team with really good profitability, but they recently spent too much money building a new stadium. They have considerable debt too.”

Tottenham is a famous club even in Korea. It also has a thick fan base in Britain. But that club has now fallen into financial trouble.

“Building a new stadium was fine, but corona happened right at that timing. Because of that, there are no spectators, they can’t even properly utilize the stadium, and they’re in serious financial trouble. Problem is, normally the British government would have given loans to bail them out, but…”

“The British situation is like that now so they can’t even give loans?”

“Yes. It’s that serious. London people are also in great shock. Saying they never thought even Tottenham would collapse so helplessly.”

“A club like Tottenham shouldn’t other companies want it?”

“European companies initially showed interest, but after the Beirut incident when the entire market collapsed, they lost interest. Saudi sovereign wealth fund is acquiring Newcastle. Other oil money seemed interested too, but they also can’t move money due to the Beirut incident.”

So Tottenham was now on the verge of bankruptcy and looking for a buyer.

Normally the government would have helped to maintain the football giant’s pride, but Britain had no room for that now.

“I’m not interested.”

“Yes. I’ll convey that then.”

Then Chairman Kang Seong-ho suddenly thought of something.

“President Jeong must be quite interested in sports, right?”

“Well… didn’t he suddenly acquire a baseball team and lead it to a championship? It’s still talked about among many baseball fans. I heard President Jeong Jin-ho personally picked all the players, manager, and staff.”

“Really?”

So that’s how it was.

“Then contact the Tottenham side and tell them to send a proposal to Gwangwoon too.”

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

“President. This is an official request from the EU.”

The EU that had made us a proposal and then immediately withdrew it.

But as insurance companies fell in a row from the Beirut port explosion, the entire European market was shaking again.

“Europe is a welfare state after all. Because of that, social spending was much higher compared to other countries.”

“You mean they did a lot of national support policies?”

“Yes. Other countries are also busily spreading money for economic stimulus right now. But the EU spread far more than that. Employment maintenance, unemployment benefits, and recently they even used a recovery fund amounting to 1,100 trillion won in our currency.”

That also meant if they had saved that, they could have blocked this financial market aftermath to some degree.

“What does the EU want us to do?”

“They’ve set up a few regulations. Also, there are a few markets that are urgently in need, so they seem to want us to concentrate funds there.”

I checked the request the EU sent. The investment direction was written in more detail than expected.

10% for this market, 20% for that market, etc.

They were just asking for help in words—in reality, it was no different from saying they’d use our money as they pleased.

Our employees also caught on to that right away.

“President. Isn’t this too shameless?”

“I understand there should be some regulations, but this is no different from them using our money as they please.”

In other words, it was a proposal where shame had gone on vacation.

“President. I think it would be better to withdraw from EU investment.”

“Yes. They’re the ones who need help, but seeing them make such a ridiculous proposal, they must not need it that desperately.”

There’s no need to invest while receiving this kind of treatment. So I was about to close the document—

“…?”

The document wouldn’t come off my hand.

As if my fingers were stuck to the paper, no matter how hard I tried, it was useless.

‘Why is this happening?’

Could it be because of something else?

My intuition seemed to want to show me something more here.

So I didn’t reject it and accepted it.

Thus I opened the document again.

“…?”

But a strange phenomenon appeared.

The letters written in the document made a whoosh! sound and burned in fire, turning to dust and disappearing.

The page I’m looking at now.

The next page too.

And the page after that too.

The letters were disappearing.

Eventually not a single letter remained in this thick document.

“…”

I just stared blankly at the empty document.

What does this mean?

“President?”

The employees tilted their heads as I was just staring at the document without saying anything.

Probably in their eyes, the letters in this document are visible.

But my intuition made all the letters in this document disappear.

‘Why are you showing me this?’

I couldn’t grasp it at all.

This was the problem with this intuition.

Because sometimes it shows visions like this out of nowhere.

‘Surely you’re not telling me to send this blank back to the EU.’

The moment I was thinking that.

“!?”

A strong thrill spread through my body from my fingertips.

‘Wait, you’re really telling me to send the blank?’

Then another tingling current stimulated me.

‘This is like Xun Yu’s empty food box.’

No matter how I thought about it, sending a wad of blank pages didn’t seem right, so I tried to put it down.

But this damn intuition pressed me harder.

A sensation like my whole body was being paralyzed.

I tried to resist, but no use.

“P-President, are you okay?”

“You’re breaking out in cold sweat…”

In the end, I raised the white flag.

‘Fine. I’ll do it.’

Then my paralyzed body returned to normal.

“Manager Seo.”

“Ah, yes, President.”

“Return this to the EU.”

“Pardon? Just like this?”

“No. All the letters here—erase every single one without leaving any. Send it back in a blank state.”

“…Pardon?”

At those words, Manager Seo blinked.

The employees also seemed very flustered, frozen in place staring at me.

I know too.

That it’s an absurd thing to do.

Even thinking about it again, it seemed wrong so I was about to take it back—

“I’ll send it right away.”

The manager had already rushed out of the meeting room.

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

“…What is this?”

“This is the file Gwangwoon sent.”

“I know. But why isn’t there a single letter? Are you sure you received it correctly? There wasn’t a file error?”

The response from Gwangwoon to the document the EU sent had arrived.

But not a single letter was written.

Despite there being this many document pages.

“We checked several times too. But they say that file is correct. They intentionally made the same number of pages as the document we first sent, and wrote not a single letter.”

Is this crazy bastard?

That thought would normally come first.

But soon Sharol felt a chilling sensation looking at the empty pages.

This empty space.

A document with no letters.

It was like looking at a silent warning notice.

On top of that, Gwangwoon sent the same number of blank pages as the document the EU sent.

It was a threat with not a single letter written.

“…”

Sharol swallowed dryly.

Even when the EU’s proposal was first sent, she wondered if Gwangwoon would accept it.

Because even to her eyes, it looked too much like they were trying to use Gwangwoon’s money as they pleased.

And indeed, Gwangwoon rejected the EU’s proposal.

Along with this terrifying silent threat.

“Couldn’t you just ignore it? It probably has no meaning.”

“As if. Do you know what kind of company Gwangwoon is? They’re the ones currently gripping the entire world market. Would such a place send something like this just to joke around?”

This was clearly a message to Sharol.

And Sharol felt she knew what this meant.

Whatever you imagine.

We can show you enough fear to fill all this blank space.

That’s what it seemed to say.

“From the old Deutsche Bank to corona, to Beirut—there’s nothing Gwangwoon isn’t connected to. And you said it before. This Beirut might have been targeting Europe. If they did it once, what’s hard about twice?”

Just like they shook the European market using Beirut, Gwangwoon could attack again.

“If not that, it could be a threat aimed at me.”

It could be paranoia.

And she couldn’t ask for help anywhere with this.

If she said Gwangwoon sent a bunch of blank pages so please help me, everyone in the world would laugh.

Perhaps Gwangwoon was even aiming for this.

To isolate Sharol both psychologically and externally.

For the first time since becoming chairman, Sharol felt something called fear.

“…”

What should she do about this?

Should she really ignore it?

Then how should she handle the situation after that?

When she couldn’t even predict what Gwangwoon would do next?

“Chairman?”

“…Call people, we need a meeting. The proposal to send to Gwangwoon needs to be completely revised.”

Sharol ultimately raised the white flag.

It seemed she had messed with the wrong opponent.