Chapter 134

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Give me the report.”

President Kim Du-young, who came in early since dawn, didn’t look happy.

With his already fierce face now frowning, the atmosphere was becoming even more threatening.

“The Ever Given, which was heading to the Netherlands, lost direction due to sudden strong winds, speeding, and hull defects, and ran aground on the canal embankment.”

“When will the damage be repaired?”

“Expected time is 7-10 days.”

Kim Du-young rubbed his face with his palm.

7 to 10 days.

For shipping, which is responsible for transport, this was critical.

“Then how many ships can’t get through?”

“If it really takes ten days for repairs, over 400 ships will be forcibly stuck.”

JIT.

Just In Time.

Also known as the zero-inventory system.

A method applied in shipping and logistics, it means minimizing inventory to reduce costs to the maximum.

Don’t handle unnecessary goods, send goods when needed, and store only as much as needed.

It’s a highly efficient system that optimizes the time ships arrive at port and reduces unnecessary waiting time to decrease port congestion.

“But this system’s biggest weakness appears at times like this. If shipping is delayed by more than two days without meeting the schedule, the logistics system becomes paralyzed.”

“Right. But now we’re told we have to be stuck for ten days? So what happens then?”

“There will be a tremendous logistics crisis worldwide. The damage alone will amount to tens of trillions of won. Energy resources aren’t being supplied first, so oil prices have skyrocketed right after the accident.”

“Our side’s damage?”

“It’s serious. As you know, our Gwangwoon is currently responsible for over 65% of global shipping. Our ships passing through Suez are overwhelmingly numerous as well.”

Due to the JIT system, shipping must absolutely be done on the exact schedule.

If that’s violated, a certain amount of compensation must be paid.

“Since this wasn’t caused by our mistake, we can avoid responsibility. If there’s an issue, the responsibility should be placed on Evermore Shipping, the owning company of the Ever Given.”

Evermore Shipping was a European competitor to Gwangwoon Shipping.

Perhaps you could call it Europe’s counter to prevent Gwangwoon’s monopoly.

It was originally a company with history, but it had grown recently after receiving massive investment.

“Then we can hold Evermore Shipping responsible and file a lawsuit against them for this?”

“Yes. We can calculate the damages and file a lawsuit worth tens of billions of dollars.”

There, Kim Du-young’s scowling expression relaxed.

“Wait. Then if we use this opportunity well, we can deal critical damage to Evermore?”

“Yes. It’s fully possible. We’ll take immediate damage, but if we shift all this responsibility to Evermore, we can deal considerable damage. They might be pushed to the edge of bankruptcy.”

That considerable damage could become a decisive blow pushing Evermore to the brink of bankruptcy.

Forcing down the rising corners of his mouth, Kim Du-young got back to assessing the situation.

“What’s the most urgent place right now?”

“Indonesia. Weren’t we transporting the vaccines produced to respond to the variant virus this time? But the accident happened exactly on the day of passing through the Suez Canal.”

Ah. Vaccines.

There was that.

When first distributing vaccines worldwide, they used both aviation and shipping. But most was aviation.

However, after the first distribution was complete, everyone started using shipping instead of aviation.

With the transport fees being more expensive than the cargo itself, everyone preferred shipping.

Of course, Kim Du-young’s influence also played a role.

Wasn’t it too wasteful to hand all delivery to aviation?

Back then, shipping really had no work at all.

So he built a system so that secondary vaccine distribution could only happen through shipping.

And the countries didn’t particularly complain either.

Because using shipping instead of aviation could achieve far greater cost savings.

Someone cursed Gwangwoon for monopolizing vaccines and transport at the same time, but Kim Du-young didn’t care.

If he relaxed even a little, Gwangwoon Shipping would be forcibly torn apart again like before.

Hadn’t he sworn that such a tragedy would never happen again?

“But this has become a bit troublesome.”

It was unfortunate but unavoidable.

It’s not like our Gwangwoon deliberately ran that ship aground.

“How’s the recovery work going?”

“The Egyptian government is doing their best to repair it, but this is their first time with such a case, so they seem lost. They’ve also requested help from our Gwangwoon side.”

“They want us to call in technicians?”

“Yes. If we gather as many as we can and remove the grounded ship, won’t the route open again?”

“…”

The executive reporting glanced at Kim Du-young’s expression.

“But you have no intention of doing that, President.”

“Well, the route is already blocked, the JIT system is broken, and it’s obvious as fire that there’ll be a global logistics crisis. And all that responsibility falls on Evermore. So what’s most beneficial for us?”

“…If the recovery work is delayed as much as possible, the amount Evermore has to pay will grow. If it rises to an unbearable level, they’ll struggle to survive. That way, we eliminate a competitor while sitting comfortably.”

At that answer, both Kim Du-young and the executives drew curves at the corners of their mouths.

“You know well. Then you all know what to do, right?”

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

They thought domestic tight surveillance with watchful eyes everywhere would be enough.

They believed even Gwangwoon couldn’t do anything then.

“To think something would happen externally.”

The Suez Canal had stopped.

How were they supposed to predict and prevent this?

“They’re vicious people. We never imagined they would block the canal.”

“Is this really Gwangwoon’s doing? Even so, blocking the canal? How are they going to handle the aftermath? Has the investigation result come out?”

“Investigation is still ongoing, but the captain is only repeating it was a simple mistake. As always, there’s no physical evidence. But the incident happened exactly when ships heading to Indonesia were about to pass through Suez.”

President Joko slowly nodded at the Vice President’s words.

“But couldn’t it really not be them?”

“From what I hear, the Egyptian government requested help from Gwangwoon, but Gwangwoon is responding tepidly.”

“What? They need to immediately remove the ship and open the canal!”

“Since it’s something they intended, they must not feel the need. Moreover, the company that caused this accident is a European shipping company called Evermore. It’s also a great opportunity to screw over their competitor.”

So they did this to catch two rabbits.

It was deplorable, but what was more devastating was that there was no way to retaliate.

“The urgent thing right now is the vaccine. If it had been brought in on schedule, we would have distributed vaccines in a few days. But if they drag out this accident to the end, vaccine distribution becomes impossible.”

When Gwangwoon distributed the second vaccine, they built a system so that shipping was the only way, creating maritime routes targeting the entire world.

Honestly, there were no complaints.

Unlike planes that needed to fly several times for one vaccine distribution, shipping could do it with one vessel.

So it took more time, but the advantage of innovatively lowering transport fees meant everyone used shipping.

But they hadn’t thought at that time.

That this would end up providing a weakness to Gwangwoon.

“What if we receive transport by aviation?”

“It’ll cost a lot in transport fees, but we can receive distribution as quickly as possible. The problem is Gwangwoon might use additional vaccine production as an excuse to make distribution difficult. They might not distribute vaccines at all.”

Just like Indonesia had been dragging out time to not pay the Korean government their contribution.

Now being on the receiving end, there was nothing more disgusting.

“Then what should we do?”

“We have no choice but to give them what they want.”

“Nickel? All this was really done to get that one thing—nickel?”

“Didn’t they expand their power in Canada recently? And Canada is a place with excellent nickel processing technology. It’s too blatant to call a coincidence.”

Meaning if they had just given the nickel ore when they asked, this wouldn’t have happened.

Because they didn’t listen, now money that should have been saved was going out double.

“…Send it.”

“Pardon?”

“Nickel. Give them as much as they want. Then they’ll hand over the vaccines, won’t they? Are you planning to give up the tourism business forever?”

Boiling fury rose at having to submit to those bastards, but he had no choice but to accept.

If he held out longer, who knows what retaliation he’d suffer, and how much the country would shake then couldn’t even be measured.

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

“Pardon? The Indonesian government?”

“Yes. They say they’ll sell all the nickel ore at cost. They say we can take as much as we want…?”

“Suddenly?”

“Yes. I thought the translation was wrong at first. But I checked several times and it was the same. They’ll partially open nickel ore exports only to our Gwangwoon.”

It was strange.

Wasn’t this the Indonesian government that had firmly said they absolutely couldn’t give nickel?

It was even a place that didn’t bat an eye when developed countries filed lawsuits and applied national-level pressure.

“I think it’s probably because of the vaccines. With the Suez Canal incident, they essentially can’t receive vaccines now, so their feet must be on fire.”

“They’ll give nickel if we distribute vaccines as quickly as possible?”

“Yes. Seeing they sent a request for vaccines along with it, that seems correct.”

Did they think we’d threaten them with vaccines?

I have absolutely no intention of playing with people’s lives.

So as soon as I saw the Suez Canal incident break, I started additional vaccine production and was in the middle of looking into aviation transport.

“The fortunate thing is, besides Indonesia, you instructed additional production in advance due to concerns about variant viruses breaking out in other countries, so transport is possible within two days.”

“It’ll all be transported by plane?”

“Yes. Oil prices are skyrocketing so transport fees are quite expensive, but the Indonesian government isn’t in a position to be picky right now.”

They’ll even pay the transport fees themselves, and even give nickel on top.

Unintentionally, things flowed in the direction we wanted.

“Then we should send it quickly.”

“Yes. We were already looking into companies for airplane transport. Since they said they’ll pay all the transport fees, we just need to pack it up and send it.”

“Yes. Please do that. As fast as possible. Before the virus spreads more.”

“Yes, President. Ah, then what about the nickel?”

“The Indonesian government said they’d give as much as we want, right?”

“Yes. They did.”

I smiled gently.

“Then couldn’t we just take as much as we can take?”

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

“Hm? You were here? Didn’t you say you quit smoking?”

“Hehe. They built this smoking room really nicely here. Plus hearing nagging after so long made me crave a cigarette.”

“Nagging?”

“Ugh, don’t get me started. Starting from ‘that’s not how a tank plays,’ they just— but why are you here to smoke?”

“Well, I never quit smoking.”

Kang Ji-hwan and Kim Du-young sat in the smoking room, each putting a cigarette in their mouth.

“Hey. Did you know this was what this place was from the start?”

“Of course I knew. The Chairman told me to play games together.”

“Then you should have told me it was this kind of place. Ha. I thought it was some incredible secret organization and made such a fuss…”

“Hehe. The Chairman and I had a good laugh thanks to you.”

Even thinking about it now, it was absurd.

He thought they gathered members in this secretive building to decide very important matters, but it turned out this was just a guild made by people who like games.

The Chairman was the guild master.

President Jeong Jin-ho was the vice guild master.

And Jeong Jin-ho personally built this building solely to enjoy games more.

“So, do you want to leave?”

“Even if I wanted to leave, I can’t. The Chairman made me swear before entering. Free to enter, but leaving costs your life.”

“He must have enjoyed tricking people.”

“My legs were shaking back then.”

“But if you really said you wanted to leave, he wouldn’t stop you. It must have been a joke.”

Kang Du-young knew that too.

But he didn’t particularly want to leave.

“It’s… not bad, actually. The guild members here too, I thought games had nothing to do with me, but when I actually learned, it’s fun.”

“When dozens of people gather to communicate and run raids and clear them, something hot does stir inside.”

Kang Ji-hwan was staying in this guild for similar reasons.

Of course, he still got nagged about improving his control.

“Plus I like these facilities. I can relax comfortably after running raids. There are lots of conveniences. But… these guild members, their average age is quite high, isn’t it?”

“It’s because the game is old.”

“No. That too, but when I exchanged greetings and talked, there are company executives, people doing big business. There are even civil servants.”

“And?”

“Since President Jeong became vice guild master here, he personally recruited guild members. Guild members got refreshed at times, and now these people are fixed.”

Meaning half the guild members here were people selected by Jeong Jin-ho.

“You just joined the guild and already found out a lot in that short time.”

“What does shipping do? It’s where you build connections. It’s a profession of eating through connections, so occupational disease kicked in.”

“Well, he probably didn’t choose based on job. Most are people met through games.”

“No other intentions?”

“Right. We purely gathered to enjoy games.”

True. Even in Kim Du-young’s view, people here genuinely loved playing games.

That’s why they built facilities like this and meet regularly.

“Do you know about the Freemasons?”

“Hm? The group that appears in conspiracy theories?”

“Originally it was a guild made by stonemasons. A gathering to share their construction techniques, protect each other, and build connections.”

“Then it suddenly grew in scale?”

“Yes. When people in prominent social positions, not stonemasons, started gathering, the scale grew absurdly large.”

Thus the Freemasons became a core organization of conspiracy theories that still pop up.

“Why that story suddenly?”

“Just. Looking at this place, they suddenly came to mind.”

“You’ve watched too many movies. Rest a bit and come out. Since you and I are both tanks, we need practice to sync up.”

“Ugh. I’m going to get scolded again for being bad.”

“Then just be good at it.”

Kang Ji-hwan put out his cigarette first and left. Alone, Kim Du-young was lost in thought for a moment.

“A game guild…”

A game guild with suspiciously positioned people gathered.

Although it started as a game guild, just like the Freemasons that started with stonemasons developed, doesn’t no one know what the future of this guild might become?