PETF 17

Chapter 17

Complete English Translation

If they hadn’t been able to think that far ahead from the start, Daehyun Group wouldn’t have risen to first place in the business world.

“Are you serious?”

Shinhyeok didn’t say much else — he asked only that.

Those four simple syllables carried a huge meaning.

Right now you’re about to draw a knife against the vice chairman of Daehyun Group.

If that information turns out to be false — or if it turns out to be true —

Are you prepared to take responsibility in either case?

That was what Shinhyeok asked Serin.

“Yes. I’m serious.”

Serin answered that she was sincere, and Shinhyeok closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and replied.

“Depending on the quality of the intel, if there’s solid evidence, I can go up to one trillion won.”

“What about in cash assets?”

“In that case, I could do five hundred billion in cash and tack on a building worth three hundred billion.”

After hearing his daughter’s resolve, Shinhyeok answered without hesitation. When Serin nodded, he took a document from the drawer and handed it to her.

“It’s an unnamed bond worth one hundred billion won. That should be enough as a down payment. Go and bring back reliable information.”

At this moment he was neither Kwon Woo-jin’s childhood friend nor Yu Serin’s father.

At this moment he was Yoo Shinhyeok, chairman of Daehyun Group — the top-ranked company in the corporate hierarchy — and precisely because of that he coldly asked his daughter to bring evidence that would sever the traitor’s head.

“Understood. I’ll bring proof, for sure.”

Serin realized her father had taken out something like an executioner’s blade aimed at Kwon Woo-jin, pocketed the one-hundred-billion-won unnamed bond, and stood up.

The next day, Namsan

The next morning Serin contacted Woohyun, and as a result the two met again on Namsan in the early dawn.

It was still very early so there were almost no people. Serin sat on a bench looking down at the Seoul skyline and waited for Woohyun.

A short while after she sensed his presence, Woohyun quietly sat down beside her, and when he did she handed him the envelope containing the unnamed bond and spoke.

“It’s an unnamed bond worth one hundred billion won. This should be enough as a down payment.”

Woohyun took the envelope Serin offered as a down payment, checked the contents, and replied.

“As expected of the chairman of the top-ranked conglomerate. A down payment of one hundred billion won.”

He’d set the minimum value of the information he knew at least at one hundred billion.

No matter how much Serin meant to him, she wouldn’t sell the intel for less, so he’d asked his father Joonghyeok whether one hundred billion would be enough.

But he was honestly surprised that Chairman Yoo Shinhyeok paid a hundred billion as a down payment rather than the remaining balance.

When Serin picked up the envelope containing the unnamed bond, she relayed her father’s words to him.

“He said, depending on the quality of the information, he could go up to one trillion won. If it’s in kind, he’d give five hundred billion in cash and a building worth three hundred billion.”

Serin laid out the offered compensation on the metaphorical scale, just like she had before they parted, and Woohyun nodded in satisfaction and began to explain what Vice Chairman Kwon Woo-jin’s scheme actually was.

“You can probably guess roughly, but Kwon Woo-jin isn’t trying to swallow Daehyun on his own.”

“I know. With Kwon Woo-jin’s personality, he’d only attempt a coup if he had solid proof. He can’t do it alone without trustworthy backers.”

Hearing Serin call Kwon Woo-jin more like a stranger than an uncle, Woohyun realized she’d already emotionally detached from him.

“Ahn Young-seok, the Prosecutor General, and Yeongseong Group. Those are the big brothers Kwon Woo-jin trusts.”

Serin was a little surprised by that.

“I expected Yeongseong Group, but Prosecutor General Ahn Young-seok is unexpected.”

“This is a bigger setup than you think.”

With that, Woohyun began in earnest to describe the coup scenario Kwon Woo-jin used in the first round.

“Daehyun Group has always invested more heavily in inter-Korean projects than other conglomerates.”

“That’s because the founder, Chairman Yoo Jeong-joon, was from the North and missed his hometown a lot.”

Woohyun nodded at Serin’s answer.

“That’s right. So under Chairman Yoo Jeong-joon’s will, Daehyun has consistently invested in projects like family reunions for separated families. The coup faction will use that against them.”

When Woohyun said they would use the North Korea business as leverage, Serin quickly realized that one of the coup faction’s knives was aimed squarely at North Korea.

“They’ll pin it on North Korea?”

“They’ll create a news story that Daehyun secretly transferred hidden funds to North Korea during its inter-Korean projects.”

Serin replied in disbelief.

“No one will believe that. There’s no reason to send money to North Korea.”

Her objection was reasonable, and Woohyun answered her.

“That’s true. But what they’re aiming for is to use that as a pretext to have Chairman Yoo Shinhyeok urgently arrested. If he’s accused of sending hidden funds to North Korea, that’s enough grounds for an emergency arrest.”

From the conversations she’d had so far, Serin immediately understood what Kwon Woo-jin was after.

“If my father is urgently arrested, according to security protocol, a person with security level 1.5 — Kwon Woo-jin — would inherit my father’s security level 1.”

“That’s right. Chairman Yoo created the 1.5 security level anticipating his possible absence. So even if it’s just a 48-hour emergency arrest, if Yoo Shinhyeok is definitely absent from the company, Kwon Woo-jin can assume the level-1 security clearance.”

Serin nodded, having grasped Kwon Woo-jin’s plan from Woohyun’s explanation.

“But that alone wouldn’t be enough to take the company from my father. He’d be released after 48 hours.”

Before Serin finished speaking, Woohyun cut in as if he already knew what she was thinking.

“Daehyun Industry.”

“Daehyun Industry? The place that processes monster corpses?” Serin asked for clarification.

Woohyun nodded.

“There will be three empty magic-stone slots worth ten billion won each at Daehyun Industry. Kwon Woo-jin will fabricate those as proof of money funneled to the North, make a public confession, and then you know what comes next.”

“Since Prosecutor General Ahn Young-seok is involved, the prosecution will immediately apply for an arrest warrant, and with the judiciary full of Yeongseong’s protégés, the warrant will be approved. Then my father will be formally detained and unable to return to the company. But—”

Before she could finish, Woohyun spoke as if to reassure her.

“Even if they investigate, they won’t find falsified ledgers at Daehyun Industry.”

“Why not? If they created false records, the legal or audit teams should uncover it.”

Woohyun answered her with a question.

“Do you know who supplies the monster corpses that Daehyun Industry uses to make items?”

Honestly, Serin didn’t know.

If she hadn’t become a player, she wouldn’t have known much about Daehyun Industry at all.

And the reason she was so intent on stopping Kwon Woo-jin’s coup now was because he was crossing a line — trying to take the company from her father. If he’d stayed within proper bounds, she wouldn’t have acted so aggressively.

“No way…”

After thinking for a moment, Serin voiced a tentative “no way,” and Woohyun answered.

“Yeongseong Resources.”

Because Woohyun’s father Joonghyeok worked at a company that processes monster corpses, the first-round Woohyun had relatively deep knowledge of the coup that occurred in the first iteration.

He told her that Daehyun Industry received monster corpses from Yeongseong Resources, then continued.

“Yeongseong Resources will produce fake magic-stones and sell them to Daehyun Industry. They probably already did. And Kwon Woo-jin would have approved the payment using his vice-chairman authority. If that happens…”

Even before Woohyun finished, Serin could picture what came next.

“Daehyun Industry would show thirty billion won as spent even though they never actually received those stones. Because the fraud didn’t happen inside Daehyun, the legal or audit teams at Daehyun wouldn’t be able to detect it.”

“Bingo. And Yeongseong Resources sources monster corpses from YS Guild, which is under Yeongseong Group. Shockingly, YS Guild is controlled by the chairman’s grandson. So manufacturing monsters that were never caught is nothing to them.”

“Since whether a corpse remains depends on how a player hunted a monster, if YS Guild is compromised, creating that kind of fake transaction would be easy.”

Serin had not expected the coup to be constructed with such fine detail. Anger at Kwon Woo-jin’s meticulousness welled up inside her.

But she didn’t get excited; she calmly asked Woohyun another question.

“I understand how Kwon Woo-jin plans to take Daehyun from my father that way. What do Ahn Young-seok and Yeongseong get in return?”

It was a very reasonable question from Serin’s perspective, and Woohyun answered exactly as what had occurred in the first round.

“Ahn Young-seok will finish the Yoo case and run as the opposition Freedom Party’s presidential candidate. After all, moving the prosecution without presidential permission is a kind of coup too.”

“They’ll frame it as having uncovered Daehyun’s corruption, but being forced out by the president, and build a presidential campaign from that.”

“That’s right. Ahn Young-seok will become the owner of the Blue House as payment for helping Kwon Woo-jin’s coup.”

When Woohyun said that, Serin immediately inferred what Yeongseong would gain.

“If Ahn Young-seok becomes president, what follows is predictable. The new chairman — Kwon Woo-jin — will, as an act of contrition, hand over several core affiliates to the state at rock-bottom prices to nationalize them. Ahn Young-seok will then privatize them again by selling them to Yeongseong, expanding Yeongseong’s empire. Yeongseong will reclaim the top spot in the conglomerate rankings they so desire, and Ahn Young-seok will boast of buying companies cheaply and selling them at a profit as an achievement.”