“Ugh!”
Han Jin-ung groaned at the crushing pressure on his hand.
Pain surged through him, like the bones in his hand were breaking.
The unexpected pain made his mouth fall open on its own.
He tried to fight back, but he was overpowered in an instant.
He’d put his strength into the grip, but he was the one who’d been beaten.
However hard he pushed, his hand wouldn’t budge.
Wh-what the hell!
He looked again at the young CEO in front of him.
He realized this was no pushover.
It was one more twist in an eventful life.
As a boy, Han Jin-ung had lived half a hoodlum’s life.
Then one day, by chance, he passed an army officer on the street and began to dream.
He’d started studying late, so he barely graduated from a junior college, then went on to the Army Third Military Academy.
His athletic ability was outstanding; he earned black belts in hapkido, taekwondo and judo, more than ten dan all told.
He became the officer he’d dreamed of being.
But his grades weren’t that impressive.
He was good at anything physical, but study habits had never sunk in, and that was the problem.
His first posting was to a special warfare unit.
After that, it was nothing but special forces.
He made major, but that was as far as he went.
He’d never served in an aide’s post like operations staff officer, so he hit the age limit for his rank.
Three years ago, he’d refused an unjust order from a superior and left the army as good as kicked out.
Fortunately, his family had enough money that he didn’t need to worry about eating.
He joined forces with men from his old units and set up a security firm.
Plenty of juniors and subordinates trusted him and followed him.
He’d started the business with high hopes, but it wasn’t easy.
More often than not, instead of protecting people, they got hired as fixers for shady businesses.
His conscience pricked him, so he picked and chose his clients.
His main customers were people who weren’t on the right side of the law, so the company got into worse and worse trouble.
He’d burned through the family fortune, and his loans were maxed out.
Fifty-odd employees had shrunk to around twenty.
He’d been pushed to the point of shutting down.
But he held on, for the juniors who’d followed him on nothing but trust.
Half of them had even quit the army to come with him.
And then, a few days ago, he’d been contacted by an investor.
The offer was to buy the whole company, debts included.
Samu Law was out front on it.
They were trustworthy, so he sent the relevant documents and came in person.
Even if he handed the company over, he desperately wanted to beg them to keep his people on.
But now, in front of him, a young CEO.
Smiling a smile he couldn’t read.
He froze, unable to find an answer.
The investment corporation used the entire top floor of the new building.
Only one female employee worked there.
This place was like a goblin’s den.
He’d even wondered if it was some kind of scam outfit.
“Everyone, have a seat.”
The young CEO asked them to sit and took his place in the CEO’s chair in the middle.
“Have a seat, CEO Han Jin-ung. Nobody’s going to eat you.”
“Yes…”
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m Jo Yun-tae, a director at Samu Law.”
A director!
The man he’d taken for a lawyer or some investment company executive turned out to be a big deal.
Director Jo Yun-tae took out a business card and handed it over.
“Don’t think it’s strange that our CEO Jang is young. He’s more impressive than you think, CEO Han.”
Attorney Jo Yun-tae gave him the advice as he sat down.
For all his size, Han Jin-ung sat down primly.
This young CEO, Jang Tae-san, wasn’t just young, either.
He’d met plenty of big-company executives and small-business presidents over the years, chasing work.
He could feel an invisible confidence in this young man that went beyond any of theirs.
“I’ll buy it.”
“What?”
The moment he sat down, the CEO named Jang Tae-san declared he’d buy the company.
His big eyes went as wide as an ox’s.
There’s no acquisition like this anywhere.
Normally the buyer demands that the seller carry some share of the debt.
The acquisition itself made no sense, really.
It was an empty shell of a security firm with almost no clients and nothing left but debt.
“Sir. My company’s flat broke. Even if you invest, it’ll be hard to make a profit.”
He told the truth.
He’d never once sold out his conscience in his whole life.
“That’s why I like it.”
“What do you…”
“I’m not buying it to make a profit. The main purpose is security for the company and, in an emergency, for key executives.”
“If you hire ordinary guards, the labor costs are cheap. My guys cost more than you’d think. Every one of them has completed special warfare training. They’re veterans in close protection, guarding, VIP protocol, facility security, and wiretap and bug detection.”
All the affection he carried for his men came pouring out.
He’d gathered only the best from Korea’s special warfare community.
“I believe you.”
“What?”
“I believe everything you’ve said, CEO Han Jin-ung. That’s why I’m buying it.”
“Sir, do you happen to know me?”
“Today’s the first time I’ve seen you.”
“Then how can you be so sure…”
A goblin of a CEO who trusted him on sight—he couldn’t make sense of it.
This was no acquisition by ordinary common sense.
“Just trust him. CEO Jang’s young, but he knows how to read people. Look at me—can’t you tell right away?”
Attorney Jo Yun-tae said it with a laugh.
Beeeep.
“Yes, sir.”
“Team Leader Yu, please bring the acquisition papers I asked for.”
“I’ll get them ready right away.”
This CEO was so fast he could roast beans over a lightning bolt and grill a squid while he was at it.
His mind went blank.
“You have twenty employees in all, right?”
“What? Yes.”
“I’m keeping every one of them on. Including you, CEO Han Jin-ung.”
“Th-thank you!”
At keeping every one of them on, his head bowed on its own.
The security business had been a red ocean for a long time.
It had turned into a market where thugs like gangsters were in greater demand.
In a situation like that, keeping on every employee was a big deal.
“As soon as the investment contract is signed, salaries go up to two hundred percent of what they are now.”
“!!!”
His heart dropped.
It all felt like a dream.
He’d struggled to get them even two million won a month, allowances included.
Now it was four million, just like that.
“Pay all overdue salaries and allowances right away, and you’re authorized to spend on upgrading and buying personal protective communications gear and search-and-surveillance equipment. And bring in more people you can trust. You can get to fifty by the end of the month, can’t you?”
“…Yes! Absolutely!”
His voice had switched to army speech.
A savior who’d suddenly dropped out of the sky.
The savior gave his orders crisply and decisively.
“And move into the empty fifth floor of this building. Right away, please.”
“Loyalty!”
The salute came straight out of him: Loyalty!
Han Jin-ung shot to his feet and snapped a crisp salute to his young superior.
The benefactor who’d saved him from a hellish reality.
Now all that was left was to serve him loyally with his life.
“What did I do that was such a big deal, to get this many karma points~?”
I’d scattered some money around to people who were desperate, and gotten karma points as a bonus.
A perfect example of killing two birds with one stone.
I’d acquired the security firm I needed.
The contract was handled very quickly.
Only the shares changed hands.
The security company stayed a separate corporation, and the investment went in.
Ninety percent of the shares were transferred to B.M.J Investment Corporation.
The setup was built to lose money year after year.
Perfect for disposing of excess money.
I cut CEO Han ten percent.
He even tried to turn it down as too much.
It wasn’t free.
It was a balanced exchange of mutual benefit: I paid money and got safety.
The detailed employment contracts for the staff were even better.
I took out generous accident insurance for them.
For an injury in the line of duty, a billion-won payout was guaranteed.
For employee welfare, there was tuition for their kids and interest-free apartment loans, too.
Employment was guaranteed until age sixty.
You have to throw out that kind of bait before people will risk their lives to protect you.
You have to make sure that if they get hurt doing company work, they’ll have enough to live on—that’s what builds loyalty.
It was the same method big companies use to prop up their group affiliates.
Of course, that was only on the surface; in reality, everything followed my orders.
“Jin for true and ung for bear… CEO Han’s father sure had a way with names.”
CEO Han Jin-ung’s name means the true bear of the Han family.
眞熊.
His father must have liked bear bile, or had his life saved by a bear in a past life.
Just thinking about CEO Han Jin-ung put me in a good mood.
When I told him about the employee welfare system, that mountain of a man shed big fat tears.
That made me trust him even more.
If you can’t trust a man who genuinely cares for the people under him, who can you trust?
“Shall I enjoy a little healing today, too?”
I’d picked up a hobby lately.
Click.
I clicked on the news on a stock site.
“‘The Ana Group Wobbles. Daeung Shipbuilding Takeover Expected to Be Impossible!’ Heh heh. I should slip this reporter a little more under the table. Why do I love this headline so much? Heh heh heh.”
The comments were excellent too.
— Rock-bottom character, rock-bottom company.
— Bye-bye~ Ana Group.
— Dog father, dog son.
— Sold all my stock today. Word is they’re going under.
— Once the IRS goes after you, it’s pretty much over. Everyone, don’t even look at Ana stock.
— Serves you right, Ana! Never liked that chairman bastard.
— Every Ana Group affiliate’s like one funeral after another right now. Stock down 50% since the start of the year! No end in sight.
— Trash companies like this should be kicked out of the market!
Diehard netizens were carpet-bombing every article about the Ana Group.
Besides Robert, I’d mobilized reporters Samu Law knew too.
I’d handed out fat envelopes and done a little work on the articles.
The Choe Byeong-bak administration was in its early days, still getting its bearings.
It really had no room to look after the Ana Group.
Meanwhile, through Robert, short selling on every listed Ana Group affiliate was in full swing.
The public, who’d watched big companies’ reckless management during the IMF crisis, wouldn’t forgive Ana.
The reporters the Ana Group hired tried to stoke fears of a wider crisis, but it didn’t work.
Public opinion of the Ana Group’s chairman and his son—both of them rotten in character—was in the gutter.
They’d brought it on themselves.
“I’m full without even eating dinner.”
Still, it was a big company, and it was holding on pretty well.
The stock had hit rock bottom, but they were barely holding the line with their retained earnings and bank credit.
“Is Chairman Oh shitting bricks right about now? Kuhuhu.”
A devilish laugh burst out of me.
Chairman Oh was probably having a hell of a time with constipation in the bathroom these days.
Serves him right.
— Dark karma points acquired.
“This crazy…”
Getting dark karma points never feels clean.
I didn’t know how to use these things.
I had a feeling that if I just hoarded them because they were free, something big would go wrong.
“This’ll be over within the month.”
I’d been quietly picking up Ana Group stock at the bottom.
Just two percent, in Mom’s name.
The perfect present for Mom, who was about to make her glamorous return as a chaebol daughter.
“Anyway, shall I call on the gods for tomorrow’s class~?”
I needed the gods’ abilities for Wednesday afternoon’s class.
I’d earned a lot of karma points today, so it was no burden.
I settled comfortably into my chair.
The security team was already up and running.
My building was safe now.
I thought of the new talent I wanted.
And then…
“Um, is there a god out there who’s killer with computer programs?”
I sent out an invitation to the gods.
Fwaaash!
An answer came right then.
“Huh! Wh-what’s this now!”
(End of Chapter 118)