Chapter 155

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“I told you multiple times that I needed to meet urgently.”

“Right. And I also told you multiple times that I’m busy, let’s talk next time.”

Jesse barely restrained her rising voice at Lainjov’s bland response.

“You’ve read the report, right? Our Bluezone is under attack right now.”

“Yeah. I read it. But aren’t you overreacting? There’s no reason Gwangwoon would suddenly attack us.”

Lainjov had also briefly skimmed the report Bluezone sent.

Ships attacked by pirates were stuck at harbor, unable to supply goods to Bluezone.

“Plus not all ships are failing to come in. Two ships are currently on their way without problems, right?”

“That’s not enough. Our entire planned discount event is going down the drain.”

“Didn’t Gwangwoon say they’d compensate for damages?”

“That’s the penalty for ships not arriving—it’s not compensation for ruining our promotional event.”

Lainjov remained calm nonetheless.

“So what. You think Gwangwoon deliberately sent pirates to shoot up their own ships? To pressure us?”

“There’s definitely a possibility of that.”

“You’ve been watching too many movies.”

“Chairman, you saw how Faceweb ended up in Gwangwoon’s hands. Gwangwoon is capable of doing crazy things beyond our imagination.”

Even so, Lainjov honestly wasn’t convinced.

Directly dispatching pirates to let them attack those expensive ships. Doesn’t that seem strange?

“And didn’t Gwangwoon say they’ll deliver all the goods inside as soon as the ship problem is resolved? Isn’t that enough?”

Just because ships broke down doesn’t mean they’d swallow all of Bluezone’s goods inside.

Gwangwoon has to pay penalties while still delivering all the goods.

In the end, only Gwangwoon loses.

“But it can deal a major blow to our Bluezone. Same with semiconductors. They deliberately cut off semiconductor supply to interfere with our BWS. Using the semiconductor shortage as an excuse. When I looked into it, other companies had their volume reduced too, but none were completely cut off like our Bluezone.”

“That means they want higher semiconductor prices. If we negotiate, that’ll be quickly resolved.”

“They’re not even pretending to listen to our side?”

“Keep requesting until they listen. Do you know how many semiconductors we buy? Surely they won’t give that up? And the same goes for this special promotional event. Black Friday is in a few months, right? We could just do a major event then—is there really a need to do such a big event early?”

Jesse was frustrated.

Right now Lainjov had no interest in Bluezone.

His mind was completely elsewhere.

“I know you’ve lost interest in Bluezone. But it’s still a company you built, isn’t it? This place is under attack right now, and if even you don’t pay attention, shareholders might leave en masse.”

“That’s a bit harsh. Are you saying I’m neglecting Bluezone?”

“It’s not wrong, is it? You’re only focused on Blue Space, which you’re personally running. You’re slowly selling off your Bluezone shares to fund it.”

“…………”

It wasn’t wrong.

Lainjov had established a private company to grow the space industry.

Blue Space—completely separate from Bluezone, an unlisted company.

Already tens of trillions of won had gone in, and more would need to go in.

To raise those funds, Lainjov was secretly selling Bluezone shares.

“I need funds urgently. Once Blue Space gets on track, I plan to buy back the shares I sold.”

“Doesn’t Blue Space need at least 5 more years before it’s profitable? No. 10 years?”

“It’s not that long.”

Blue Space was currently a money pit.

They say space industry will become money in the distant future, but no one knows when that future will come.

In other words, money must be continuously poured in until that time comes, and Lainjov, who’s running it with personal funds, will eventually reach his limit.

Despite that, he continues selling shares to pour in money.

“Chairman, you need to understand too. If you want to keep selling shares to raise funds, this company’s stock price needs to stay maintained.”

“………”

“And I don’t think Gwangwoon will stop here. If they have intentions, surely soon…………”

Just then, a secretary rushed in urgently.

“Chairman, and CEO. I’m sorry. This is urgent news.”

“What is it?”

“The 2 ships that were supposed to come to us were also attacked by pirates and can’t arrive.”

“!?”

Jesse stared at Lainjov.

With a look saying, still think I’m wrong?

“Sigh……………”

Lainjov finally had to admit.

It was certain now that Bluezone had become Gwangwoon’s target.

“Assemble the board first. It looks like we’ll need all hands on deck.”

After a long time, he was returning to the chaotic workplace.

***

“Attacked again?”

“Yes. This time the attack was much more intense than before. Usually they just take goods and run without attacking people, but this time they even shot at people.”

“What about the escort ships we assigned?”

“That’s the problem. The escort ships didn’t respond properly, so the damage got worse.”

Had I taken the pirate problem too lightly?

The situation had become more serious than expected.

Even though pirates had increased much more than before, they hadn’t been hijacking ships or shooting people to cause bloodshed like in the old days.

“Weakened naval power in the area is a big factor, and pirates used to mainly come from Somalia, Togo, Nigeria area, but nowadays they’re frequently appearing in Asian regions too.”

Somali pirates are now a thing of the past.

Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and various other nationalities—subsistence criminal organizations were rising up and committing crimes at sea.

“Plus there are many who have no qualms about killing people, so crew members on ships are becoming increasingly terrified. Many people are quitting their jobs.”

This was a crisis.

Not because of competitors threatening shipping, but because of pirates.

Competition between competitors just requires working hard.

But this had become a matter of life being threatened.

Why were seafarers quitting their jobs?

No matter how much money you give, humans flee when their lives are in danger.

“Is there a way to increase escort ships?”

“First of all, there aren’t many companies that do ship escorts. You have to be on ships for a long time, and the pay isn’t that great. Plus, these days criminal organizations have many former special forces members.”

Many former soldiers were falling into criminal organizations, making the world quite dangerous.

“……”

It was a dilemma.

We couldn’t call the navy every time pirates appeared.

By the time the navy arrives, the pirates would have long finished looting and escaped.

“This is quite the predicament. Navies in various countries have also lost much of their influence due to military downsizing…… Plus the escort companies aren’t directly operated by us, so it’s difficult to deploy them precisely where needed.”

It was right then.

I felt my intuition responding to the department head’s words.

“Department head. What did you just say?”

“Huh? That the navy’s influence……”

“Not that.”

“That we’re not directly operating escort companies, so personnel distribution is difficult?”

There, intuition shook my mind once more.

It was a simpler problem than expected.

If there’s no company to protect us, we just make one ourselves.

“That……… seems like a good idea.”

“Right. One reason escort ships have difficulty is funding issues. Weapons, agents, ship performance, etc. But if we invest massive funds to solve those problems, escort quality would be much better too.”

Then there was no time to waste.

We didn’t know which ship would be attacked next, so we had to proceed as quickly as possible.

“We can’t make such a company in our country, right?”

“Yes. It’s impossible to make in our country. Because weapon trading isn’t allowed. But it’s possible overseas. Especially making it somewhere close to our shipping routes seems best.”

“Then can you show me the main routes Gwangwoon Shipping uses?”

“Ah, yes.”

If we really establish a company, we’d need to set up bases in multiple places including the headquarters.

Especially planning to concentrate personnel in areas where pirates frequently appear.

“…….”

I scanned through our main routes.

Then at some point, light began intensely emanating from one location.

“This is…………”

It was the optimal location my intuition had chosen.

***

“Why are there so many more pirates? Was it always like this?”

“No. Normally there should be fewer pirates than before. To the point you could say they were extinct.”

“Then why is this happening? Where do these guys keep crawling out from.”

Kim Du-young was going crazy.

If the problem was with the company or ships, he could manage them more carefully.

But pirates were a different problem.

This wasn’t something Kim Du-young could do anything about.

“The biggest factor is financial crises exploding in succession worldwide. And the Russia-Ukraine war dealt the finishing blow.”

“So everyone’s committing crimes because of that?”

“Yes. When this many financial crises explode, already struggling countries struggle even more, and then the national economy stops functioning properly. So everyone started picking up guns.”

Pirates were swarming because of successive financial crises…………

The problem is thinking about where these financial crises came from.

Even thinking about it, Kim Du-young noted financial crises had been exploding abnormally frequently.

And Gwangwoon always benefited the most.

“On top of that, COVID hit. COVID made the economy even harder, but shipping volume happened to explode at the same time, so they had no choice but to turn to piracy.”

So all of this was something Gwangwoon brought upon themselves.

After all, every major incident that had occurred was connected to Gwangwoon.

“But I don’t think this is necessarily bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“Pirates are swarming in droves, so this time at President Jeong Jin-ho’s request, our group is going to create our own escort company, right? Calling it an escort company sounds nice, but this is a PMC.”

PMC.

Private Military Company.

A private military organization that performs military operations, security, and training in war or conflict zones.

In other words, a company operating military forces.

“President Jeong Jin-ho even chose Turkey as headquarters. That’s quite clever.”

“That’s right. What kind of place is Turkey? Before the Russia-Ukraine war, President Jeong invested in Byker, a Turkish defense company, and built rapport with that government. And with this Russia-Ukraine war, Byker hit the jackpot.”

That’s why the Turkish government was very cooperative with Gwangwoon.

“Furthermore, Turkey controls the Bosphorus Strait connecting the Black Sea and Mediterranean, and is a strategic hub connecting Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.”

“Wait. So President Jeong thought this far ahead and invested in advance?”

“Honestly, we all thought it was strange. There are so many defense companies, yet he specifically picked Turkey to invest in.”

That was true.

Even if he knew the Russia-Ukraine war would happen, even with Byker hitting the jackpot, it might have been better to choose a different company.

But still, Jeong Jin-ho had chosen Turkey.

“Turkey is a suitable location for establishing a PMC, and they can also trade weapons through defense companies directly operated by the Turkish government, so they have no reason to stop us. They’ll welcome us with open arms.”

“Dispatching escort personnel centered on Turkey would be fast, and it’s also good for expanding bases. Good geographical advantages for weapons, ships, and personnel hiring. Everything will proceed quickly.”

Kim Du-young felt his mind going blank for a moment.

“So President Jeong Jin-ho prepared in advance anticipating pirates would increase?”

“Could be, or he might have been looking even further ahead.”

“Further ahead?”

“President. It’s a PMC. And with Gwangwoon’s massive capital going in, it’ll be an unprecedented private military company.”

This wasn’t just anywhere—it was a PMC with Gwangwoon’s capital.

Meaning its scale and quality would be considerably higher than anywhere else.

“And the justification is good too. Establishing a PMC to stop rampant pirates—no one can object. If shipping is blocked, it becomes a serious problem for every country. And if we spread bases throughout the world like a cell organization to protect shipping routes…………”

“We’ll have forces ready to move at our command anywhere in the world.”

“!?”

Was this it?

Why Gwangwoon—no, Jeong Jin-ho—had triggered successive financial crises and brought things to this point.

Why he had intentionally caused chaos that made pirates swarm.

Now Kim Du-young thought he understood.

Jeong Jin-ho’s goal was one thing.

A massive military company that only Gwangwoon could control.

A PMC with bases throughout the world under the guise of security.

The justification for creating that terrifying organization.

That was what had been needed.

<End of Chapter 155>