Three-thirty p.m., September 13, 2022.

The regular session had finally closed. And in the Dongmyeong Group chairman's office.

The handful of men who had led the fighting all day had gathered to report.

Go Seonghun, Director of the future planning office. Han Gwangsu, chief of the secretariat. The finance executive and the head of the funding team, too.

Nobody spoke first. Their faces were dark, and the exhaustion showed plainly. They sat in silence, stiff-faced and blank.

"Report."

From the head of the table, Go Jaeyong looked with weary eyes at his son Go Seonghun, who had gone gray to the lips.

The son's tie, straight and neat when he'd come in that morning, had come loose and twisted every which way.

Go Seonghun looked down blankly at the material he had brought. His face was so set that no one could tell what he was thinking.

"Chairman……."

This was the office. He wanted to cling to his father the way he would at home, call him Father, and pour it all out.

"Enough. Give me the numbers first."

"……Yes."

Go Seonghun went paler still. His mouth had gone bone-dry.

"As of today's close, DMC is down eleven point eight percent."

The moment he heard it, Go Jaeyong's eyebrows twitched.

"Dongmyeong Electronics?"

"Down eight point seven percent."

"Dongmyeong Chemical?"

"Down thirteen point four."

"……." With every answer that came back, the air in the chairman's office sank a little heavier.

In a single day, the core listed affiliates had crashed all at once.

"Market capitalization?"

Go Jaeyong asked without even looking at the finance executive.

"If you add up the market capitalization wiped out across all the group's listed affiliates today……."

The finance man stopped partway.

"About four trillion eight hundred billion won."

Go Jaeyong listened with his fingers laced together, and a chill came into his eyes.

Four trillion eight hundred billion!

For now, it was only a number that had vanished on paper. The four trillion eight hundred billion that was gone wasn't the bigger problem.

"How much did we spend today?"

Go Seonghun was the one who…