Chapter 167

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“President, the Republican Party just submitted another bill targeting Wizny.”

“Again? Is it even okay to keep targeting a single company like this?”

It’s a well-known fact that the Republican Party and Wizny are rivals.

But I didn’t expect the Republicans to despise Wizny to this extent.

After all, whether it’s the media or Congress, they’ve been openly burying Wizny as a company of Satan. Because of that deep-rooted animosity, they’ve been beating down on Wizny ever since they came to power.

“On top of that, they’re opening a hearing and summoning Wizny’s CEO and key executives for interrogation.”

“On what grounds?”

“Anti-national behavior, they say. The word going around is that the Republican Party is harshly criticizing Wizny, claiming they’re committing crimes tantamount to treason.”

“Wizny is…?”

“Probably targeting Wizny’s China-focused work production, indoctrinating children with wrong ideology through animation, and so on. The Republicans have plenty of pretexts to use.”

Wizny must feel wronged.

It’s true they’re targeting the Chinese market for revenue, but that’s what every company does.

After all, China’s large population has always been an attractive condition for companies.

“But what can they do? The ones in control of America right now are the Republicans. Wizny probably never imagined things would turn out this way.”

When Wizny clashed with the Republican Party, the Democrats with their progressive tendencies were in power back then, so they had no major worries.

After all, the Democrats supported Wizny’s embracing of diversity, and the Republican Party was weak at the time.

But the world flipped in an instant, and now the Republicans have grabbed Wizny by the throat and are shaking them.

“Plus, Wizny has acquired so many studios. Before, Wizny’s prestige was so high and they’re America’s representative company, so the government didn’t really touch them. But the Republicans seem to have no such intentions. They’ve even threatened to investigate for anti-trust this time.”

“They’re really determined to destroy them.”

“Yes. It means they’ve been grinding their teeth for a long time. Wizny has been doing exactly what the Republicans hate the most.”

When running a company, you can’t help but earn resentment from someone.

And most of the time, it just passes without incident.

But Wizny really picked the wrong fight this time.

The target of their resentment happened to be the Republican Party, which now holds the most power in America.

“Thanks to that, Wizny’s stock is shaking tremendously. It had been dropping a bit since the Republicans took power, but since they never expected to be attacked this severely, everyone is fleeing.”

Wizny was already receiving massive criticism from shareholders after dropping from $400 billion to $160 billion in market cap.

But with this Republican pressure, the stock price was plummeting even more tragically.

After breaking through the $160 billion market cap they had been barely maintaining, they were now approaching $100 billion.

“On top of that, executives on Wizny’s board are also dumping their shares and leaving, so there aren’t many executives left now.”

“What about Mr. Paul Iger who joined our Enflix board of outside directors? Weren’t there talks of him returning to Wizny?”

“Yes. Some opposed his return, but with everyone fleeing due to the Republican attack, they’ve asked him to return as quickly as possible.”

“Will he maintain his outside director position?”

“Yes. Outside directors can work at other companies anyway. That’s the conditions they received him under. However, if Paul Iger returns to Wizny, there can be collaborative works between Enflix and Wizny.”

In other words, we at Enflix and Wizny could have opportunities to create better works through collaboration.

For that to happen, Paul Iger needed to serve as the connection point.

Collaboration between Enflix and Wizny would be an unprecedented event in studio history.

If they combine Enflix’s planning ability with Wizny’s artistry, wouldn’t there be tremendous synergy?

“But this time, activist funds are shaking up Wizny. Especially regarding management rights. Enflix is worried about that too. If they really take over management, Paul Iger might have to step down from his position soon. Then the collaboration with Wizny that all creators want would go down the drain.”

“So someone needs to back Paul Iger?”

“Yes. So if Gwangwoon acquires Wizny shares and becomes Paul Iger’s ally, Enflix says they could plan works without worry.”

But acquiring shares in this situation required extreme caution.

“If we suddenly buy up a lot of shares, couldn’t it be seen as a hostile takeover?”

“Yes. Since we need to make a public disclosure at just 5%, it is indeed dangerous. Plus, the US Republican Party is relentlessly attacking Wizny and mentioning anti-trust, so we could get caught up in that too.”

So if we really were going to make a purchase, we had to maintain an appropriate level.

If we even got close to 5%, the Republicans who have completely lost it might start firing at us.

“…”

I took a deep breath and mentally asked myself a question.

I was asking my intuition whether buying Wizny shares was the right thing to do.

What can I say.

It felt like asking “Mirror, mirror on the wall.”

“…”

Then a response came immediately.

“Let’s buy.”

“Then how much should we buy?”

“What do you think, Section Chief?”

“I think 3% would be appropriate. The activist funds are currently targeting management rights with 2% stake. So we can adequately defend against that and create the image that we’re not making a hostile takeover but rather protecting Paul Iger’s position and seeking collaboration.”

Our purpose wasn’t to acquire Wizny.

It was simply for Enflix and Wizny to collaborate and create better works than now.

If we were really considering an acquisition, we would have made a disclosure and entered into share purchases instead.

In a way, now was the perfect opportunity to acquire Wizny.

With the Republicans constantly pressuring them, wasn’t Wizny’s stock price hitting rock bottom?

“But that would actually become poison. If we try to swallow Wizny, America will never stay still. So we must not give the impression that we’re trying to acquire Wizny. Otherwise, Enflix could be torn apart by anti-trust laws.”

That was exactly what I was afraid of.

Right now, the Republicans had nothing to fear.

“But… we haven’t done anything to offend the Republicans, have we?”

“That’s honestly hard to gauge. But seeing as there’s been no word from them yet, they must be focusing all their energy on killing Wizny right now.”

If that’s the case, then good.

I didn’t want to be marked by America’s power holders.

Also, seeing my intuition responding to the 3% the Section Chief mentioned meant that was the safe zone.

“Then please proceed as planned.”

I heard that the production team at Enflix had been most looking forward to collaboration with Wizny, they’ll be jumping for joy when they hear this news.

I was already looking forward to what these two companies would create together.

***

“3%?”

“Yes. Along with the Enflix and Wizny collaboration, Gwangwoon directly announced that they’ve purchased a 3% stake to protect CEO Paul Iger’s management rights upon his return.”

3%.

An ambiguous number.

It wasn’t a stake ratio for acquiring a company.

“Isn’t this obviously sending us a message?”

Naive people would really see it as a pure share purchase by Gwangwoon purely to create synergy between Enflix and Wizny collaboration.

But Gwangwoon wasn’t a pure place.

Wasn’t it a company where all kinds of evil demons gathered, plotting all sorts of wicked plans?

Would they really have purchased 3% for clean purposes, with a determination to make good works?

“Since we reshuffled things thanks to our Republican Party, they’re probably telling us to stop now?”

“It probably means we’ve dealt with all the guys that needed to be dealt with, so stop hitting the company now. Seeing that they purchased shares after we opened the hearing.”

The Republicans held hearings and turned Wizny into a traitorous anti-national company.

Public opinion was on the Republicans’ side.

The fact that parents had long been quite displeased with Wizny’s PC ideology had a big effect.

“The timing is perfect. When Wizny hit rock bottom, they filled in with new executives and a CEO. And Paul Iger said this upon his return, that he would return to the old Wizny.”

If it had been Wizny during its heyday, shareholders would have looked askance at cooperation with Enflix.

But in a situation like this, someone needed to step forward to save Wizny.

And Gwangwoon, which is said to make everything it touches successful, is reaching out with Enflix backing them?

Shareholders had no choice but to rejoice.

“Word is that Wizny’s stock is recovering quickly as this news spreads.”

“The Gwangwoon brand really is something.”

“Yes. They didn’t buy management rights, but honestly, everyone on Wall Street knows. That Paul Iger and with just 3% stake, Gwangwoon is now running Wizny.”

It was a plainly obvious move, but there was no way to stop Gwangwoon’s actions.

Because this was a kind of deal.

Gwangwoon gave the Republican Party the midterm election victory, and the Republicans thoroughly destroyed the public enemy Wizny while handing it over to Gwangwoon.

Both got what they wanted.

“Plus, no matter how much we hate Wizny, it’s a studio that represents our America. Making them shut down wouldn’t be a good thing for us either.”

“Then shall we just leave it like this?”

“Since they didn’t actually acquire it, there’s nothing for anti-trust to catch, and pressuring Wizny further from here won’t look good either. Besides, we have mountains of other things to handle besides Wizny. We need to prepare for the next presidential race.”

The next presidential race. That’s right.

Having seized this opportunity, we need to turn the current government into a vegetable as soon as possible and prepare for the next presidential race.

This much was enough to send a clear message to other companies about the Republican Party’s stance.

But there was one thing that bothered me.

“But why did they target Wizny of all things?”

***

“Congratulations on your return.”

Enflix CEO Rod Baystings smiled as he shook hands with Paul Iger.

“I watched your speech well. Hearing you say that Wizny’s creators lost their direction and that you’ll return to the glory of Wizny made me regain my own initial resolve. Haha.”

However, Paul Iger’s expression wasn’t good.

“So what happens now?”

“Excuse me?”

“Gwangwoon has essentially swallowed our Wizny, hasn’t it? They’ll eventually make the name Wizny disappear too.”

“Don’t worry about that. The Wizny name will never disappear. It’s just that its influence will decrease compared to before. Because ultimately, Wizny will revolve around Enflix.”

That was painful.

On the surface, it would look like Wizny was fine, but in reality, Wizny had essentially been taken over by another company.

“Don’t look at me like that. I never expected Gwangwoon to come out like this either. I’m just someone who acts on orders from above. Besides, the investment going into Wizny from now on will be enormous, so you can look forward to it.”

One of the reasons for Enflix’s success was investment.

It was because Gwangwoon made aggressive investments in Enflix that they were able to continuously put out good works.

“But what’s the secret?”

“Pardon?”

“Everything Enflix puts out is a hit, right? Because of that crazy planning ability, Enflix took the world’s number one spot in an instant. Is there some secret?”

“The secret…”

Rod laughed softly and shook his head.

“Actually, I don’t have a secret. We just send a list of works to Gwangwoon and only make the ones they pick.”

“Wait. Then all the works that have succeeded so far…”

“Yes. They’re all selected by Gwangwoon.”

“No. How, how does that make sense?”

“It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Still, Gwangwoon guarantees us freedom, so sometimes we make works our own way too. And nine out of ten completely bomb. So after that, we never make a work unless Gwangwoon has selected it.”

Paul Iger couldn’t believe it.

How on earth does Gwangwoon recognize a work’s quality and make every investment a success?

“I don’t know either. But I heard Gwangwoon has this company motto: Abandon your ego.”

“What does that…”

“But I’ve never lost out by following that motto. You’ll adapt soon too.”

Honestly, he still didn’t believe it.

Who in the world could get them all right just by looking at a work’s synopsis and determining whether it would be a hit?

He thought Rod was surely exaggerating.

“But there’s one thing I’m curious about. What is really Gwangwoon’s purpose in acquiring Wizny? Honestly, at Gwangwoon’s level, they already have everything they could want.”

“We didn’t acquire it.”

“I have ears to hear too. I know that Gwangwoon intentionally gave the Republicans an election victory and got Wizny as payment, right? That’s all anyone was talking about on Wall Street too. But no matter how many times I think about it, I don’t understand. Enflix alone should be enough, so why Wizny?”

At those words, Rod’s lips twitched.

“I understood right away. Why Gwangwoon took control of Wizny.”

“Because of our theme parks?”

“No. It’s not for such a simple reason. Gwangwoon has a bigger picture here. What kind of place is Wizny? It’s taking a lot of criticism now, but it’s still a brand that countless children around the world watch and love. That’s exactly Gwangwoon’s purpose.”

Paul Iger tilted his head.

What on earth was he talking about?

“Gwangwoon’s purpose isn’t simply to make good works. What they want are the children currently watching Wizny and the children who will be born in the future. Think about it. From now on, works made by Gwangwoon will spread worldwide through Wizny. What does that mean? It means the ideology they implant will influence every child.”

“Wha-what!?”

“And those children will be steeped in the ideology Gwangwoon implanted without even knowing it.”

Paul Iger shot up from his seat.

“Wha-what are you saying!? If that’s really true, I absolutely cannot be part of this!”

Seething with anger, Paul Iger tried to leave on the spot.

“Paul. Think carefully. The moment you walk out that door, I can’t guarantee your future.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m not. I’m talking about Gwangwoon. They bought just one gaming company and brought down the mighty Democratic Party and turned the current US government into a vegetable. Do you think such a company would hesitate to snuff out one person’s life?”

“!?”

Paul Iger’s hands and feet trembled.

The conspiracy theories about Gwangwoon he’d heard several times flashed through his mind.

“Accept it comfortably like me. It’ll be hard at first, but once I accepted it, I felt at ease. Rather, I’m even happy to become a member of the new empire Gwangwoon is trying to build.”

“…”

Rod patted the shoulder of the pale-faced Paul.

“I don’t think you’ll make the wrong choice. Following the trend is the fate of people like us, isn’t it? You have to follow trends to make good works.”

Leaving those words, Rod left the room with a smile.

Only then did Paul, his legs losing strength, collapse on the spot and realize.

Without even knowing it.

He had stepped into a terrifying blueprint.

End