Dead Mother Fund

The market lately.

.

.

.

The bear market kept grinding on. Without a single meaningful bounce, it did nothing but cook investors alive from the inside.

For ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠people underwater on stocks, it was brutal. The losses hurt, but the real torment was not knowing. You couldn't see an inch ahead.

Lately the Korean market had gone past strange and into outright bizarre.

There was no clear reason. Of course investors were in chaos.

Pre-reflection of earnings. Global uncertainty. Even granting those explanations, the hole was far too deep.

No……

On fundamentals alone, this was clearly an undervalued zone. The community posts weren't wrong. Even so, Sora hesitated to buy — because she had seen something with her own eyes and confirmed it.

"Haa……."

A deep sigh escaped her. The difficult state of the real economy, and her own reflection for having been blind to it. In ordinary daily life, nothing had tipped her off. At most, kimbap had gone up five hundred won.

Restaurant operations were in worse shape than I thought.

Her senior was doing consulting work. She had gotten a chance to peek at a confidential income statement. The contents had been shocking. From March onward it had deteriorated at speed, and lately—

She swallowed hard.

On the brink of collapse. Without raising prices, the shops simply could not run. Delivery fees had appeared; restaurant prices had every reason to climb.

And it still looks like they have to go higher.

There was no grounds to resent the restaurant owners. Even the hikes so far had only put out the immediate fire. Prices would still need to rise more than ten percent just to claw back the old profit margins. That was how serious it was.

Tap. Tap.

Companies had no choice but to cut people. They had to shrink ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hours too, squeezing every drop of profitability they could.

Looking at this data, they've already cut quite a lot……

Consumers' purchasing power had every reason to shrink. Why Statistics Korea's unemployment numbers still looked fine, she honestly couldn't say.

She was certain the stock market bottom had not arrived. Looking at the communities, people still had enough energy left to laugh and banter.

The real bottom is when these bastards are all dead.

Experience so far — living through a bear market, and actually looking at the real economy — was proving enormously useful. Foreigners did not sell without grounds. Moving astronomical sums of money was not some idle prank.

There was a reason for it. From the outside, the Korean economy looked close to crisis.

And they don't even analyze that.

The analysts. People she had once respected. Lately her thinking had shifted a little. No — a lot. After seeing the real economy up close, their work felt like nothing but armchair theory. There were things the indicators alone could not show. The current economic situation was absolutely not optimistic.

Of course, that did not mean she was purely bearish either. A large share of the bad news was already priced in.

Putting on shorts at this point is way too much risk.

The terror of short bets was real too. If your brain pickled itself in bearish dogma, you would never buy stocks in a rally. That, above all, could not be allowed. You had to remember that stocks existed for the bulls.

There's really a lot to keep track of.

The world of stocks. The more you learned, the more it seemed you didn't know. Existing common sense shattered, then shattered again. It felt like floating in the middle of the Pacific. Let your focus slip even a little and you would be swept away with the current.

She swallowed hard.

That was stocks. Evaluating a company from a desk was nothing but armchair theory. If you truly wanted to value something, you had to run the field yourself. Trying to make money without that kind of hardship was wrong from the start. She was beginning to understand why her senior kept getting involved in all sorts of strange side work.

I can't do those things……

But that couldn't be the only method. There were clearly things she could still do from where she stood. Stock prices were in a downtrend. The economy was in a downturn. Which meant good stocks that were being undervalued would exist as well.

World Cup-related stocks? Ah — come to think of it, the World Cup is soon.

She was researching individual names. Treating the bear market, from a long-term view, as a buying opportunity. She was learning a great deal in the process. And by turning that into videos, Sora was growing.

Competition. It wasn't even a situation that deserved such an embarrassing label.

"Just sign here."

It had been one-sided. Simply letting time pass was enough to decide the winner.

A leader worse than doing nothing at all.

A matching sale. And even that had been reactive. He had only mirrored moves without understanding conditions on the ground. He hadn't even managed a proper profit-and-loss calculation.

"If you don't want to do it yourself, you can go through a lawyer."

"……."

"If you don't like that either, just quit."

"How dare this bastard talk to his elders like that!"

An incompetent CEO like this. In this country, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it wasn't even rare.

Water Rocket generation.

They couldn't even properly protect the assets their fathers' generation had suffered to hand down. And yet they had still been able to swagger. It had been a high-growth era. Life had been so easy that failing at business was actually hard.

"Don't yell at him."

"You're trying to lecture me?"

"Yes. I'm lecturing you. You, who failed to protect your father's business."

It was different now. The era when you could suck the easy honey out of life was over. You had to face the reality in front of you.

I'm sure the president has plenty he wants to say.

Baek Hwa-seon had a career inside Hales Food. That experience was what had let him build Food Market. But he hadn't set out to go independent from the start. Friction with the current president had been the trigger, he said.

"If the previous chairman were still alive, it wouldn't have collapsed this easily."

"This bastard and his big mouth……."

"If you had at least half-listened to what I said."

With Gwak Woo-seok, that was. He still seemed to think of himself as the superior, unable to drop the arrogant posture.

In the Water Rocket era, age mattered that much.

Korean culture. Age had been prioritized over ability. The fact that it no longer worked that way was something he would remember for life, after the beating he'd taken.

Grind. Grind.

He was grinding his teeth. He looked ready to throw a punch any second. He also knew perfectly well that he absolutely could not.

"The water's already spilled. You and I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have come much too far."

"Kh……."

"I won't drag this out. Whether you hand over your company for 17.285 billion won or not — just sign the papers."

"You thieving bastards."

If he wanted to live out whatever years he had left in any kind of comfort, that was. He had agreed to sell the entirety of Hales Food's equity and management rights.

Not many places will casually put up that kind of money in a time like this.

The reason private equity was strong in a downturn. They swallowed failed companies cheap through M&A. He was doing something similar. Gwak Woo-seok's Hales Food bled red just by operating day to day. In another month or two the company would not hold. He was paying the price for years of loose fiscal management.

"That aside……."

"Aside?"

"That bastard has nothing to do with this! That bastard!"

"He has everything to do with it."

The realization of justice. Which side was just was none of his concern. But from the side taking the hit, there was plenty to say.

This stupid old man.

He still hadn't come to his senses. The kind of intelligence that only barely grasped things after you explained them.

"Because that man is going to be the major shareholder of your company."

"!!"

"He's providing the capital."

"And he was the one directing the competition against your firm."

"What did you say!!"

It was hardly a small sum. Raising funds with rates this high was not easy.

If you're going to eat, eat big.

On top of the consulting fee, he had decided to participate in the acquisition. Normalize Hales Food and you could flip it for several times the price. A pity, from Gwak Woo-seok's perspective. His side had been the one to call first — and if they had promised a fair fee.

"As a matter of industry courtesy, I would have accepted your offer. If you'd bid over a billion won, that is."

"Are you insane! Trying to shake down a free billion, you con man—"

"Lucky you. Your company's not even worth a billion."

"……."

The old fossils always cut corners exactly where the money was needed.