"From this moment……."

London. Isabella's office at the Hales boutique.

Twelve-fifty a.m., local time. In Korea it was eight-fifty in the morning.

Exactly ten minutes until the Korean market opened. But the war had already begun.

Isabella was on a video conference, run across the giant monitors that covered one whole wall of her office. London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong.

The heads of Hales's investment desks, scattered all over the world, filled the screens.

Private equity money tied to the Hales family. The investment funds of her own Hales division, which Isabella could run personally.

And, on top of that, the many accounts of the investment companies that managed the money Ha Tae-ung had made overseas.

Everything was set up perfectly. They had already borrowed the shares they'd need for the short selling.

Every account had enormous cash and stock holdings standing by.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Isabella's face was cool and steady, but her heart was pounding like mad.

She had certainly moved hundreds of millions of dollars before.

But this was the first time she had personally commanded a money war this big, with no playbook to follow.

In Korean terms, it came to hundreds of billions of won.

The truth was, even Isabella couldn't say how much money would go in and come out by the end of today's first battle.

This was war!

Right now, she was not an investor. She was a commander, directing operating funds scattered across the globe at a single target.

"Whoo……."

She steadied her breathing. Then she spoke to the generals on the monitors who would fight her battle for her.

"Begin."

The moment the order came, the fund managers on the screens threw themselves into it as one.

—London, first cash sell orders going in.

Singapore followed right behind.

—Singapore going in too.

—Hong Kong account orders going in.

—New York ready.

One screen flickered frantically. The indicative prices of the Dongmyeong Group's core affiliates lurched.

−1.8%.

−2.7%.

−3.4%. The market hadn't even opened yet. Only the pre-opening auction orders that would set the day's opening price were piling up.