Chapter 40
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Eat-and-Run
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One day, Jin-seong got a sudden call from headquarters.
"Hani, looks like we need to take the site down for about six hours for maintenance today."
Jin-seong quickly asked Tae-gyu for the reason in the headquarters Telegram room.
"What's going on with the sudden maintenance?"
Tae-gyu replied right away.
"The cops just raided the overseas HQ right now.
The center staff and the ops manager all got hauled in,
and the cops are demanding bribes left and right.
It's a huge amount, so we're scrambling to pull together the cash.
We need to set up a temp center in Korea,
so it'll take some time."
Jin-seong's mind reeled for a moment.
He was worried sick about headquarters,
but he immediately sent out a notice to all his members.
"HQ is undergoing emergency maintenance right now.
Please use our sub-site in the meantime until it's done."
Even headquarters was thrown into chaos by this.
They'd been meticulously preparing to oust Jin-seong,
and now this mess had derailed everything.
HQ hastily scraped together cash and sent over about 300 million won in Korean money as bribes before they could spring their staff.
In the midst of it all, headquarters approached Jin-seong.
"Jin-seong, the overseas HQ accounts got wiped out this time,
so it'll take a bit to recover.
Sorry, but can you hold off on settlements for like two weeks? We're in a bind too."
Jin-seong was caught off guard, but he understood their position.
If he took his settlement now, it would delay everyone else's.
Jin-seong graciously agreed.
"Got it. You've never delayed a single settlement in over three years we've worked together,
so I'll wait this once.
But you gotta pay it all at once by week three, right?"
The problem was his sub-agents.
They lived off their weekly settlements,
so Jin-seong couldn't put theirs off.
He decided to cover the sub-agents' settlements out of his own pocket, separate from HQ.
Just the weekly sub-agent payouts alone came to about 10 billion won.
Two weeks' worth meant 20 billion.
Jin-seong rushed down to Cheongsong,
packed 20 billion in cash from his secret bunker into bags, and brought it back.
Then he handled all the sub-agent settlements for two weeks with his own money.
"Eh, it's my money anyway."
At first, he shrugged it off like that.
But as week three's settlement day approached,
HQ dropped another bombshell.
"Sorry, Hani. Things got worse,
can you wait two more weeks?
One of the other lines took a massive hit, so we can't pay you right now."
In truth, if HQ had built up proper emergency funds,
none of this would have happened.
But Tae-gyu and the HQ managers had blown through the funds on partying,
luxury goods, fancy cars, and even drugs, leaving them high and dry for crises like this.
After agonizing over it, Jin-seong convinced himself things would normalize after this,
and covered a full month's settlements out of pocket.
Just the pure payouts to sub-agents came to 40 billion over the month,
and factoring in site payments, office rent, sub-agent living expenses,
Naland fees, and so on, it totaled around 50 billion gone.
A month later, the money owed from HQ—including his personal code settlements—hit about 60 billion.
Jin-seong was pissed seeing his nest egg halved overnight, but he still trusted HQ to the end.
"They've been good to me so far.
Once we get past this crisis, it'll all go back to normal."
Jin-seong pushed down his anxiety and reassured himself.
He had no clue yet that this was all part of a grand scheme to trap him.
HQ was already laughing.
They could have paid Jin-seong if they wanted,
but their plan was different.
To ensure he could never recover after they took him down,
they needed to drain his reserves completely.
Master agents were all about the money in the end.
If the boss seemed broke, no one would stick around.
Money-tied relationships were like that.
Once the cash dried up, even the ones pretending loyalty would bail fast.
On the flip side, HQ had to admit it was impressive that Jin-seong had shelled out his own cash for over a month.
Not a small sum by any means,
so his war chest must be bone dry now.
Convinced Jin-seong was tapped out, HQ set next week's final settlement as his endgame.
The HQ managers secretly messaged the master agents from Jin-seong's line who were switching to them.
"As soon as you get your final settlement from Jin-seong,
come straight to us. We'll match whatever he paid you on top."
The master agents cheered at the news.
Get paid from Jin-seong, then double-dip the same amount from HQ?
It was like getting paid twice.
Not one of them tipped off Jin-seong.
Despite raking in huge money under him,
greed had blinded them completely.
And finally, the last settlement day they'd been waiting for dawned.
The night before, just to be safe, he checked with HQ again.
"This time the settlements are definitely all coming through, right?"
HQ replied immediately.
"Don't worry, Hani. We've got all the cash ready this time.
Thanks for understanding last time."
That eased my mind.
Once the settlements hit, I figured I'd treat the sub-agents to a blowout feast for once,
or at least send down some extra support funds.
Truth be told, as soon as I got the money, I planned to head back to the Cheongsong warehouse and stash it.
Seeing it drop from 100 billion to 40 billion overnight had left it feeling way too empty.
This week's settlements were huge.
The big bettors had poured in, and luckily tanked hard,
putting payouts near 30 billion.
Some sub-agents were getting fat checks,
so I teased them in the group chat.
"You guys are getting a nice payout this time, huh? Lucky bastards."
The sub-agents were hyped, yelling stuff like "Straight to the dealership!"
I joked back with a grin.
"Hey, spend it wisely, idiots. Easy-come money slips away unless you manage it right."
Midnight finally passed.
Time for HQ settlements to drop,
so I tried logging into the admin page.
But it wouldn't load.
A chill shot down my spine, breath catching.
"What the hell? Why won't it open?"
I tried a few more times, but no dice.
I fired off a Telegram to HQ in a panic.
"Admin page won't open. What's going on?"
But they didn't even read it.
Calls went unanswered.
Goosebumps prickled my back as my heart pounded like mad.
Dread flooded my head.
Alone in the office, my throat tightened up.
My mind went blank,
and a low curse slipped out unbidden.
"Fuck... what the hell is this...?"
I tried to calm down, but my body wouldn't listen.
I couldn't believe this was happening.
I immediately called in my closest guys—Hyun-sik, Young-jin, and even Young-ho from the TM team—to the office.
When I laid out the situation, their faces went ghost white. Hell, I couldn't believe it either.
"This has to be HQ pulling an eat-and-run on the master agents, right?"
Hyun-sik muttered, cursing under his breath.
HQ owed me close to 100 billion including this week.
They could pocket that, bolt overseas, and live like kings forever.
My chest felt like it was exploding.
These bastards who never would've touched this kind of money without me,
now stabbing me in the back? It was infuriating and unfair.
Suddenly, I hated everyone.
While I sat there dazed,
Hyun-sik and Young-jin started hashing out ideas beside me.
"Bro, it's done. Might as well build up our own site properly now."
"Yeah, hyung. Time to make our site the main one and get back on our feet."
They had a point.
But running our site as the main operation meant we lacked manpower right away,
and we'd need fresh burner accounts and cash withdrawal guys.
Setting up the whole system would take time,
and I worried if the members would stick it out.
I ran the numbers in my head.
Our site pulled steady 20 billion a month in revenue,
but after sub-agent payouts and ops costs, my take-home wasn't huge.
I'd always been too generous with the subs,
sacrificing my own cut to keep them fat and happy.
That fueled our fast growth,
but now I wondered if they'd follow me through this.
Hyun-sik, Young-jin, and Young-ho tried to buck me up.
"Hyung, don't stress. We'll hustle harder and beat this crisis for sure."
In the end, I took a deep breath and steeled myself.
If I covered sub-agent payouts again out of pocket,
my reserves would be toast.
Over 90 billion gone in the last month alone,
leaving just enough for site ops and bare minimums.
No revenue for even a week, and we'd be in the red.
I couldn't let it collapse like this.
I hit the master agent group chat,
laid out the situation, and issued firm orders.
"iCos HQ just pulled an eat-and-run on master agents.
Notify all members immediately—no more iCos.
Anyone who deposits now and gets scammed, I can't cover. Make sure they know."
But the sub-agents were more worried about their own payouts than my words.
"Hyung, does this mean we won't get our settlements?"
My inner circle snapped back, pissed.
"Hyung just lost tens of billions, and that's what you're asking? Has he ever stiffed a single payout?"
But the sub-agents turned on me instead.
"Hyung, it's still money we earned,
and we took losses betting under your code.
You took commissions, so take responsibility."
I was so flabbergasted I was speechless.
These guys kept quiet when I covered their rent and living stipends,
but the second one payout delayed, they turn like this? Infuriating.
I was furious at myself for treating them so well.
But to rise again, I had to quash the backlash now.
I gathered myself and posted in the chat again.
"Fine, your money's on me, of course. I'll cover every cent out of pocket, so don't worry—just hustle harder from here."
The sub-agents finally quieted down.
But I had no idea some master agents spying for HQ between us
were feeding this straight to them in real time.
Those guys were tied by money alone anyway.
They figured siding with HQ—where their members and cash were—made more sense.
Blissfully unaware, I just racked my brain for a way through the mess.