Chapter 141

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Russia-Ukraine war that suddenly broke out.

For Europe, which depended on Russia for natural gas and other resources, it could only be a big blow.

Because they had to implement economic sanctions against Russia, who started the war, which meant they also had to cut off natural gas imports.

“On top of that, our Germany serves as the hub connecting Russia and Europe. Compared to other European countries, the damage is severe.”

The one suffering most from natural gas imports being cut was Germany.

The pipeline called Nord Stream connects Russia and Germany, and with this line completely closed due to economic sanctions, the natural gas supply they depended on by as much as 70% was cut off.

“How much is our loss?”

“If Russian natural gas is completely cut off and we have to pay more than triple the price like this, a report came out that about 300 billion euros in losses will occur over the next 1-2 years.”

“300 billion euros?!”

German Chancellor Olaf’s face hardened.

300 billion euros.

A truly dizzying amount.

Isn’t it almost equivalent to one year’s national budget?

All this time, they had been serving as a hub, supplying natural gas to Europe.

They were making quite a lot of profit from that, and now it was being cut off.

“That domino effect will affect our German economy across the board. That’s why it leads to such massive losses.”

“In other words, we have to take all the blame?”

“Yes. Through this Russia-Ukraine war and Russian economic sanctions, the one who must suffer the most damage is our Germany.”

As if that wasn’t painful enough, they had to send weapons and various supplies to Ukraine.

More money would be leaking out there.

“Can’t we delay the negotiations a bit now? Asking us to buy natural gas at triple the current price doesn’t make sense.”

“We have no choice. Countries taking less damage from natural gas are already pushing forward to finalize negotiations with Gwangwoon with a ‘not my problem’ attitude.”

Among them, France was the worst.

When Germany and various European countries were busy with nuclear phase-out, these guys instead increased the number of nuclear plants and now rose to become the country with the highest nuclear power ratio in the world.

“So France doesn’t need to be desperate for natural gas like Germany. Rather, they seem to see this as an opportunity.”

“See it as an opportunity?”

“Yes. Under the French President’s recent instructions, they’re apparently preparing to maximize nuclear power operation, gather energy, and prepare for export. They’re predicting record-high energy exports this year and next.”

France did use natural gas, but the proportion was very small.

That’s why even while showing obvious dislike for Gwangwoon, they were trying to smoothly conclude negotiations with Gwangwoon.

“Gwangwoon doesn’t only have natural gas—they’re holding wheat and nickel too. Especially wheat is serious. France does have the highest wheat production in Europe, but due to last year’s poor harvest, their wheat reserves aren’t that high.”

“But they still produce the most wheat in Europe, right?”

“Yes. To get to the conclusion, France, which is leading the negotiations as representative, suffered very minimal damage from this Russia-Ukraine war—and will suffer very minimal damage going forward. Rather, there’s a high possibility they’ll profit greatly.”

French President Perom was raising his political standing by pouring out statements denouncing Russia almost daily.

Also, there was a reason he said he’d take a leading role in the EU to proceed with negotiations and quickly calm Europe’s chaos.

“The French election is coming up soon. President Perom is struggling to get reelected this time. Originally his approval rating had dropped quite a bit, but through this Russia-Ukraine war, he’s been continuously appearing in media making statements, and his approval rating is recovering.”

That made him even more uncomfortable.

Wasn’t President Perom someone who gritted his teeth at Gwangwoon?

Yet now he was very enthusiastically grabbing onto Gwangwoon’s coattails to negotiate.

He was trying to package the chaos now facing Europe as if he resolved it himself, using it as a means to raise approval ratings.

“Chancellor. This is only doing good for others. Especially for Gwangwoon and France.”

“Does that mean there’s a connection between Gwangwoon and France?”

“Yes. It’s a sufficiently suspicious situation. Of course, President Perom could purely be doing this for his own reelection.”

He remembered that Perom hated Gwangwoon tremendously. Yet he joins hands with Gwangwoon for his political career.

Isn’t that what politicians are like? Today’s enemy becomes tomorrow’s ally.

“Anyway, we can’t just do good work for those two, can we? If this continues, Eastern Europe will suffer enormous economic losses. While others are fattening their bellies.”

“Then what do you want to do? Should we build nuclear facilities now? Can we bear that cost and time?”

“That’s not the opinion I’m suggesting. The method is surprisingly simple. If we just reopen all the closed pipelines, it’ll be solved.”

“What? But… we already agreed through economic sanctions?”

“Yes. But given the situation, shouldn’t we reopen it? Russia actually contacted us first. They want to negotiate.”

Chancellor Olaf was intrigued.

“If this continues, more than 300 billion euros in losses will occur over 1-2 years. We can’t throw away an amount equivalent to one year’s national budget, Chancellor.”

That was right.

Just because the Russia-Ukraine war broke out doesn’t mean Germany and its citizens should suffer.

He would participate in economic sanctions to some degree, but was there a need to throw away 300 billion euros just like that?

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

Trinity Guild.

There wasn’t some great reason why hyung named the guild this way.

‘Work, family, and games. It means these three must be well-balanced. Hoho.’

‘Didn’t you just name it because it sounded impressive?’

‘Tsk. You’re sometimes too perceptive and that’s a problem.’

Anyway, the guild had been maintained under the name Trinity until now.

‘But… this is unexpected.’

I was looking at a document I personally pulled up.

The so-called combat analyzer.

It was an in-game indicator showing how well a player used skills and dealt damage.

But looking at this indicator, I couldn’t possibly think of him as a newbie.

‘I heard he’s barely played games, but is this talent?’

Moreover, this was Chairman Kang Seong-ho’s combat analyzer.

I tried him as a dealer, and he was better than expected. They say indicators don’t lie.

‘With more practice here, he could really become our guild’s main dealer.’

It felt like discovering an unexpected gem, and my mood suddenly improved.

Tank and healer roles are important too, but ultimately, it’s a game where dealers have to deal well to clear.

“President. You seem to be looking at an important document.”

“What?”

“You seem to be concentrating really hard.”

“Ah, yes. It is important. Did you bring that report?”

“Yes. Here’s the report compiled from current market information.”

There’s one report I receive once a day without fail.

It was a report compiled from domestic and overseas news.

But it was different from ordinary information reports.

Because it scraped together information that ordinary people couldn’t know.

“…”

I slowly examined the document.

From politics to economics to entertainment.

Various information was contained within.

Then my gaze caught on one place.

“Germany is trying to reopen the pipeline?”

“Ah, yes, that seems to be the most important information in today’s report. It hasn’t officially come out yet, but currently Germany is apparently trying to negotiate with Russia to open the pipeline and receive natural gas.”

“But they’re in the middle of economic sanctions?”

“Yes. But the problem is if they keep the pipeline closed like this, Germany’s economic losses become enormous. About 300 billion euros. That’s over 400 trillion won in our money. Germany doesn’t want to implement sanctions while accepting that level of losses.”

I understood Germany’s position.

War suddenly broke out and they closed the pipeline when told to, but when they actually punched in the numbers, Germany’s economic damage was enormous.

“The negotiation with the EU side was at the final stage, and all that was left was signing. It was practically over. But it seems this is why it’s being delayed.”

“Germany isn’t doing it.”

“Yes. If they negotiate with Russia again, they don’t need to buy natural gas from us at triple the price.”

That meant the negotiations with the EU could completely fall through.

“The problem is this news is spreading and it’s affecting natural gas prices. There’s talk that prices will crash within days.”

“Since natural gas negotiations will probably fall through, you’re saying we should dump our volume now?”

“Yes. I think that would be better. Storage costs keep going out. At this rate, there’s a high possibility we won’t even recover our capital.”

If Germany really opens all pipelines through negotiations with Russia and receives supply again, the situation reverses.

Our losses could become enormous instead.

“…”

I brought my hand to the natural gas section.

Should we quickly process the volume before it crashes?

“…!”

That’s when a certain image flashed by.

A strange scene of lots of bubbles rising on the sea.

“President. What should we do? Selling quickly now would be the way to minimize losses.”

I understood in my head too.

But I don’t know exactly what that scene I just saw was showing—if natural gas was really going to plummet, would my intuition have made me buy it a year ago?

“Let’s… wait and see for now, shall we?”

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

Ukraine is currently walking the line between life and death.

It’s a terrible war.

The fighting spirit that collapsed upon hearing Russian troops were invading was perfectly revived by Zelenkis’s will to resist.

But recovering fighting spirit doesn’t mean you can win the war.

Because the opponent was none other than Russia.

No matter how Russia’s military wasn’t as good as its reputation, Russia is Russia.

Would a tiger with missing teeth have no claws?

“Is this true?”

“Pardon?”

“Germany. Those guys are trying to open the pipeline again?”

“Ah, yes. After investigating several times, it seems to be true. The German government has apparently been in close contact with Russia to resume natural gas supply through the pipeline.”

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery frowned.

“F*ck the economic sanctions and shake hands with Russia again?”

“Isn’t Europe already Russia’s slave? They can’t give up natural gas.”

Fury was boiling up.

Right now, countless young soldiers were dying by hundreds, by thousands every day to block Russian forces.

Yet Europe, which said they would support Ukraine and sanction Russia, changed their position.

“This means Russia won’t be receiving economic sanctions. They’ll fund military expenses with money from selling natural gas, and then they’ll pressure us even harder.”

Russia, which failed its plan to quickly occupy Ukraine, was preparing for long-term war.

Then what’s needed? Money.

That’s why they were trying to join hands with Germany again to sell natural gas.

Then European money would be used for bullets and missiles destroying Ukraine.

“That’s absolutely unacceptable.”

Valery also realized the time had come to make a critical decision.

Europe helplessly swayed by natural gas, and Russia trying to receive Europe’s money to use for military funding.

There was exactly one way to completely cut off these two.

“That Baltic operation we planned before. We’ll have to readjust that.”

“That operation… you mean sabotage?”

Sabotage.

It means the act of deliberately obstructing or destroying production activities.

“Yes. If those bastards refuse to give up to the end, we’ll have to force them to.”

At the commander’s words, everyone’s faces hardened.

What did sabotage in the Baltic mean?

It meant blowing up the undersea pipeline connecting Germany and Russia.

“Commander. This operation was opposed by the President. Especially the American side warned us never to carry this out. That’s why it was indefinitely postponed.”

“I know. But they’re the ones who broke the promise first. On the surface they say they’re helping us while blatantly advertising they’ll fund Russia! And you want me to just watch quietly!?”

“But if it’s revealed we’re behind this, we don’t know how the EU or Germany will react. International criticism will be unavoidable.”

“That’s why it’s called a secret operation. We must proceed so it’s not revealed that we’re behind it. Even if it gets revealed, we’ll play dumb and insist this was all Russia’s doing. And we’re not doing this because we want to. Those bastards created this situation.”

No one could refute the Commander-in-Chief’s words.

Because it was true that Germany broke the promise first.

“Proceed immediately. The responsibility. I’ll take all of it.”