Chapter 165

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Let me say this once again: we must stop Gwangwoon’s PMC expansion. They’re crossing the line. No—they’ve already crossed it. Backed by the Nigerian military, they’re using ships and weapons to commit murder on the open seas.”

Once again, Gwangwoon was the hot topic at today’s EU meeting. It seemed like Gwangwoon’s name came up every single time the EU convened.

“But Gwangwoon has justification too. Thanks to their bold and risky investments, the pirates that were running rampant in shipping lanes are disappearing. Criminal organizations spread across the region are being eradicated as well. Do you really need to call that murder?”

“That’s right. There are certainly positive effects. But do you think it’s acceptable for a single company to mobilize a navy, using pirate suppression as an excuse to overstep its bounds? And where do you think all those pirates and criminal organizations originated from in the first place?”

“You’re saying Gwangwoon created all those pirates and criminal organizations and staged the whole thing?”

“I’ve told you over and over: we’re all being played by Gwangwoon’s manufactured drama.”

“I understand, but let’s not resort to pure speculation.”

“This isn’t speculation! I’m telling you the truth!”

As was always the case when Gwangwoon’s name came up, voices grew louder. Everyone in the world knew the EU hated Gwangwoon, but that didn’t mean they could indulge in unfounded conjecture.

“Gwangwoon is trying to establish bases around the world under the pretense of protecting all ships at sea. We cannot be deceived by this ruse. We must stop Gwangwoon’s ambition at all costs.”

However, at Vice Chair Never Kaila’s words, everyone wore skeptical expressions.

“Vice Chair, you’re only opposing Gwangwoon because they’re an extremely corrupt company, right?”

“Yes. Gwangwoon is beyond corrupt. We all know that, don’t we? What damage they’ve caused to our Europe for their own profit!”

“Fine. For someone who can’t see corporate corruption when it’s right in front of them, let me ask you one thing. Why did you take bribes from Qatar?”

“…What?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Kaila’s face filled with confusion.

“Multiple simultaneous accusations have been filed across various countries, including our France. They allege that Vice Chair Kaila accepted bribes from Qatar and lobbied on their behalf to push Europe into participating in the World Cup. What on earth is going on?”

“That… that is…”

Kaila’s voice was trembling. His reaction told everything. The accusations were not false.

“How can someone representing the EU as Vice Chair do something like that!”

“And yet you have the nerve to report corporate corruption? Are you out of your mind?!”

“EU’s reputation is going to be seriously damaged by this. How are you going to take responsibility for this?”

“……”

Kaila couldn’t answer a single word. Because every allegation they were throwing at him was true. His face had gone completely white, unable even to respond.

“Vice Chair, leave this room immediately. And wait until the formal investigation begins. Hurry!”

Before the meeting descended into further chaos, Chair Sharol had Kaila escorted out. As Kaila fled the room, the heated atmosphere subsided somewhat.

In the silence that followed, someone spoke up.

“So… what happens to Gwangwoon now?”

“Even though Kaila is gone, it’s true that Gwangwoon is trying to cross the line. We don’t even have proper information about how their PMC operates.”

“In the end, what matters is Greece’s position. And Gwangwoon is trying to establish a new PMC branch there.”

“Greece is actually looking at it positively. They seem uncomfortable with Vice Chair Kaila criticizing Gwangwoon.”

Greece had a nickname: the Sick Man of Europe.

Greece had been suffering from a severe economic crisis for years, and in 2015, they even declared default, shocking the entire world.

As a result, there had been many voices calling for Greece to be expelled from the EU since it kept receiving bailout funds.

But now, Greece was showing remarkable economic growth. It was becoming a country that no longer fit the “Sick Man of Europe” label.

“That’s exactly why they’re uncomfortable. They’re afraid that if they upset Gwangwoon, Greece’s economy might collapse again like before.”

“So they want to bring Gwangwoon into their country to reap economic benefits?”

“Yes. The Greek government seems to want exactly that. They want to be as friendly as possible with Gwangwoon to trigger another explosive phase of economic growth.”

The state of affairs was truly absurd. A nation having to watch a single company’s every move.

But you couldn’t really blame Greece. The EU couldn’t provide the economic growth they wanted. If Gwangwoon could help, nothing could be more effective.

“But can we sanction Greece? We don’t have justification for that, do we? If we express concern over this matter, they’ll likely push back, saying we’re making a fuss over a mere PMC.”

“This is what you call a deal with the devil. Don’t you understand what it means for Greece to ally with Gwangwoon? They were the ones behind Greece’s default in the first place.”

But for the sake of national interests, Greece couldn’t afford to reject Gwangwoon right now. They had no idea how Gwangwoon might retaliate.

“And all of you here should be careful too.”

“What do you mean?”

“The information about Vice Chair Kaila spread simultaneously across multiple countries. Do you think that’s a coincidence? The obstacle that was blocking Gwangwoon has disappeared just like that.”

“So could it be that this accusation…”

“Of course it was Gwangwoon’s doing. Everyone here knows that the employees they’ve recruited for their PMC have impressive résumés.”

It was already widely known that brilliant talents from intelligence agencies around the world had flocked to Gwangwoon’s Sentinel.

“In effect, they’ve sent us a warning with this. They’re telling us they hold our weaknesses.”

“…!”

Everyone cleared their throats uncomfortably. How many people in this room could truly look up to the heavens with a clear conscience?

“So let’s all exercise restraint to avoid getting burned.”

The idea that the EU had to dance to Gwangwoon’s tune because they held leverage was unthinkable. But they all swallowed their anger and kept their mouths shut.

The dozens of secret sins each had committed flashed through their minds.

***

“Sir, did you see the EU news?”

“Ah, about Vice Chair Kaila?”

“Yes. They say bundles of cash from Qatar were found at Kaila’s home. And there are reportedly several other EU officials who also accepted bribes from Qatar.”

The Qatar World Cup had become the most successful tournament in history. It had the World Cup victory story, and set records from investment to revenue.

But behind the brilliant light, there was a dark shadow. And shockingly, at its center was the EU.

“The EU is going to get bashed for a while.”

“Yes. A place that always preaches about human rights was actually taking money from Qatar behind the scenes and leading the charge in human rights oppression. But this isn’t bad news for us at Gwangwoon.”

Vice Chair Kaila had been the person who strongly opposed our Gwangwoon’s PMC expansion. I understood, but at the same time, I felt a bit wronged.

“We just wanted to keep people safe at sea. It felt bad to be misunderstood like that.”

If you didn’t know better, you’d think our PMC was really abusing military power to overthrow nations. We just wanted to make the shipping industry safe.

“But who reported it?”

“We don’t know. The information was sent anonymously to various countries, and that’s how the investigation started.”

I didn’t know who it was, but risking danger for justice—they deserved some respect.

“Thanks to this, our Sentinel should settle in nicely in Greece. The Greek government is welcoming Gwangwoon.”

“Then we’ll need to make a show of investing, out of courtesy.”

“Yes. We don’t need to actually invest real money, but we should at least pretend. They’re showing us goodwill even while the EU opposes us.”

It couldn’t be helped. Even if it didn’t benefit us, if the Greek government was going to be like that, we’d have to sprinkle at least some investment money.

“Here are the recommended investment targets we’ve selected for Greece.”

So I accepted the documents with the mindset that we were spending money for Sentinel’s sake.

“……?”

But what was this? The research team’s recommended targets were all showing a bright, promising light.

Banking stocks, real estate, and bonds showed the best prospects. I was drawn in, checking off the targets one by one.

“Tell them to buy as much as possible of what I’ve checked here.”

“Sir? Even for courtesy’s sake, you don’t need to be this aggressive. Especially since Greek bonds are notorious for being junk bonds.”

I knew that too. Investing in Greece was essentially like throwing money on the ground. But my intuition seemed to think otherwise.

“I’m not doing this for courtesy.”

“Ah—”

The Division Head caught my meaning and smiled knowingly.

“Understood. I’ll follow your instructions. Our department employees will be busy for a while. Haha.”

Lately, there hadn’t been much to do besides helping the headquarters acquire companies as we pleased.

“Oh, right, sir. They say if things move fast, Silicon Valley Bank could face a bank run within two days.”

I’d been hearing more and more about SVB.

“They can’t stop it?”

“No. Unfortunately, the investments SVB made happened to be particularly vulnerable to interest rate hikes. Everyone’s in a panic now. The startups that were acquired by us are all withdrawing their deposits, which is accelerating the whole thing.”

Silicon Valley Bank had really ended up in an unfair position. They’d been accepting all the money flowing in from the tech industry.

But they couldn’t just let that money sit idle, so they’d invested it in what were considered the safest bonds in the world.

Then, without warning, the U.S. raised interest rates, and bond prices crashed to rock bottom.

As that rumor spread, people were gripped by anxiety, and eventually everyone began pulling their money out of SVB, creating this chaos.

“On top of that, they say SVB is involved in the Qatar Gate scandal. So there’s talk that their CEO is deliberately exaggerating the bank run to shut the bank down.”

The situation was even more disastrous than expected.

“Will we be affected?”

“No, probably not. The startups we acquired were able to withdraw their money quickly.”

That was a relief. But SVB was a massive institution. The shock of its collapse would be enormous.

“Has the U.S. government said anything about what they’ll do?”

“Not yet. Since there’s no official bank run declared yet. But even if a real bank run does happen, it’ll be hard for the government to respond quickly. There’s an election in two days, so they’re completely overwhelmed. So a bailout probably won’t happen for a while…”

Right at that moment. My intuition, which had been dormant, suddenly sent a tingling signal through my entire body.

“Sir, are you alright?”

I flinched involuntarily, and the Division Head was startled.

“Ah, I’m fine.”

Why had my intuition suddenly reacted? The last thing the Division Head had said was…

“So a bailout is difficult?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Shall we… try doing it ourselves?”

“…What?”

***

This year wasn’t over yet. Because the most important event of the year was still to come.

Christmas? No.

It was the U.S. midterm elections. And until a few days ago, there had been widespread predictions that the Democrats would win by a landslide.

“Is… is this really true?”

Democratic Party members were breaking into cold sweat over today’s poll results.

“We were clearly winning by a massive margin! How did this get reversed?”

“That’s… the bankruptcy caused by the SVB bank run had an enormous impact. The interest rate hikes hit SVB with a critical blow. And with Qatar Gate breaking at the same time, various allegations are coming out.”

Silicon Valley Bank had ultimately succumbed to the bank run and declared bankruptcy. Citizens saw this shocking event as entirely the government’s fault.

“How is that our fault? Raising interest rates to fight inflation is inevitable! SVB was managing their money poorly in the first place. And there are even claims they deliberately triggered the bank run because they were involved in Qatar Gate!”

“But the public sees it as our government’s fault. Plus, a lot of people were hurt by the SVB crisis.”

But the problem didn’t end there.

“If our government had responded quickly to the bank run, there would have been less noise.”

“How could we respond? The election is literally tomorrow.”

“Yes. The problem is Gwangwoon. They’ve suddenly announced they’ll distribute KW Coin as a bailout to SVB customers affected by the crisis. That’s making our government look even more incompetent.”

Bailouts were something governments did.

Companies didn’t step up to help victims. But suddenly, Gwangwoon was distributing KW Coin to SVB customers, declaring it a bailout.

“Wait, isn’t Gwangwoon partly responsible for causing the SVB bank run in the first place?”

“Yes. But the public doesn’t know that. On the surface, it looks like our government suddenly raised rates and caused this crisis.”

“And they’re not even compensating the full amount of losses. But the effect is undeniable. Victims are flocking to receive KW Coin. And the Republicans are using this to launch a vicious attack on our Democratic Party.”

Thanks to that, the Republicans had gained ammunition to criticize the Democrats and were shouting about it all day long. Under normal circumstances, everyone would have just let it slide, but this time the issue couldn’t be ignored.

“The House, the Senate, governorships, and other local offices—we could lose everything?”

The Democrats, who had expected an overwhelming victory, were caught off guard by this unexpected obstacle. They needed to do something, but the election was literally tomorrow.

And the person who had flipped this seemingly certain victory wasn’t the Republicans. It was Gwangwoon, who was now distributing KW Coin lavishly under the guise of a bailout.

The SVB bank run had been somewhat predictable, but without Gwangwoon, things wouldn’t have escalated this far before the election.

“Gwangwoon deliberately triggered the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and then followed it up with a bailout, completely flipping this election. At this point, it’s checkmate. There’s nothing we can do.”

“I wondered why they suddenly bought a game company. I never imagined they were targeting the midterm elections…”

Everyone sat in stunned silence, unable to rise from their seats. The Republicans’ overwhelming victory had already become a foregone conclusion.

The so-called “Red Wave” was approaching.

“No. We shouldn’t call this the Red Wave.”

This wasn’t a Red Wave started by the Republicans. This was the Gwangwoon Wave.

< End of Chapter 165 >