Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Translation: Godtl
"So this is how it ends up."
"One could say it was an inevitable sequence of events."
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation.
The reason was to take responsibility for the UK's financial crisis.
Exchange rate declines can happen to any country.
Just look at Turkey—hasn't it experienced the shocking reality of its exchange rate plummeting by a staggering 40% in just one year?
But when the subject is Britain, the matter becomes far more serious.
"They say even a 5% drop constitutes an economic crisis, so a 20% plunge would be nothing short of a national catastrophe, wouldn't you agree? Prime Minister May couldn't possibly escape responsibility for that."
In truth, May's resignation had already been somewhat predictable on Wall Street.
Though she had avoided a no-deal Brexit, the complete lack of progress in negotiations over several years had caused her approval ratings to hit rock bottom.
Yet May held on.
Was it pride?
That might have been part of it, but the truth was she couldn't resign even if she wanted to.
If she simply threw up her hands and stepped down, she would have been branded an irresponsible prime minister and faced overwhelming criticism.
She had to at least bring things to some semblance of closure before resigning—only then could she hope to be remembered as having stepped down gracefully. Resigning outright was never an option.
"So this became the trigger?"
"Exactly. It provided the perfect excuse. They must have concluded that finding a way forward through Brexit was impossible anyway. The other side had likely done the math too—a peaceful Brexit through negotiations with the EU was simply unworkable. In the end, they'd have to make a decision closer to a no-deal Brexit. And we all know what that outcome would look like, don't we?"
Wall Street is faster than anyone at running the numbers when money is at stake.
They also calculate what future events might unfold from a given situation, and how to profit from them.
Their investment decisions and wealth accumulation follow the meticulous scenarios they generate daily.
In that sense, Brexit's fate had been sealed the moment it was decided by public vote. There was never any possibility of Britain leaving the EU peacefully.
"Prime Minister May probably wanted to see Brexit through to a proper conclusion, but that was impossible. Yet pushing through with Brexit as it stood would have made her the worst prime minister in history. So she passed the poisoned chalice to someone else. After all, people understand this financial crisis wasn't really her fault."
Reynold Vale, the director, believed May had seized the opportunity perfectly.
She had used the shocking financial crisis—dubbed the second Black Wednesday—as a chance to resign and pass the poisoned chalice of Brexit to someone else.
"Politicians will be politicians. They're astonishingly good at running away."
"But... who would willingly drink from this poisoned chalice?"
"That's precisely what defines a politician. Everyone knows it's poison, but it's sweet poison—the intoxicating sweetness of power, specifically the power of being British Prime Minister. They're probably thinking just as May once did: 'I can definitely resolve this situation.'"
Would she be remembered as the prime minister who failed to prevent a second Black Wednesday?
Or as the architect of a no-deal Brexit that would leave Britain suffering indefinitely?
May judged the former to be the lesser evil.
Although the exchange rate had plunged by 20%, marking the worst financial crisis in history, it was ultimately a flash crash—not a long-term phenomenon.
Flash crash.
A phenomenon where prices plummet dramatically within a short time before recovering.
Of course, this differed somewhat from the typical flash crashes discussed in financial circles.
Since the British pound is a globally influential currency, the shockwaves spread widely, inevitably slowing the recovery process.
As a result, while the exchange rate had recovered from its 20% drop to 10%, even this 10% was still alarmingly high.
Still, there was hope—at least the worst-case scenario of a sustained -20% had been avoided.
"Resigning over either would have been dishonorable, but she must have thought stepping down due to the financial crisis was the better bargain."
"Then should we actually be grateful to Gwangun instead?"
"Whatever the case, they did screw him over, so he can't be entirely thankful. But he probably doesn't outright hate them either. In a way, Gwangun opened an escape route for him."
It was an absurd yet strangely ironic situation.
Having to feel grateful to the company that triggered the UK's worst financial crisis—even the former prime minister must have been utterly flabbergasted.
"So, did you figure it out?"
That left just one remaining question.
Why had Gwangun done such a thing?
"Was Gwangun really the boy who cried wolf?"
The starting point of this entire incident was Gwangun's incomprehensible investment.
Their actions defied all common sense, causing bear funds to retreat first, followed by other financial institutions hastily dumping their holdings—culminating in this unprecedented crisis.
But once the situation stabilized somewhat, even the financial firms realized something was off.
Why had Gwangun made such an investment?
Had they simply been bluffing to deceive financial institutions without any real underlying issue?
"Initially, we also thought Gwangun had made that absurd investment purely to deceive global financial institutions like ours, without any major underlying motive. But in reality, they had another objective. They'd discovered a vulnerability in this vast financial market."
"A vulnerability?"
"Quantitative trading systems."
Quantitative trading systems are essentially automated trading.
While "automated" might make it sound like a recent development, its history stretches back to the 1970s.
It has evolved gradually since then, and recently merged with AI systems—the same technology sweeping through the Go world and expanding its influence across all fields—to continuously advance algorithmic trading.
By now, virtually all major financial institutions have adopted quantitative trading, executing massive volumes of transactions every second through automation.
"The problem is that these automated systems conduct trades based on predetermined programming. When situations occur that even developers couldn't predict, the systems forcibly liquidate positions without considering the cascading effects."
"So you're saying the unpredictable situation was..."
"Some lunatic betting billions of euros on the collapse of the UK."
Who could possibly predict that some deranged rich bastard would wager billions on Britain's downfall?
"And the systems automatically liquidated positions due to the sudden surge in volume. We found that some financial firms tried urgently shutting down their systems, but it was already too late."
Only then did Reynolds grasp the full picture.
The trading systems had begun forced liquidations as programmed, creating a domino effect that pressured other financial institutions to dump their holdings.
With financial firms collectively offloading assets, panic spread—everyone started following suit, and even unaffected trading systems began selling en masse, triggering this chaos.
"They say financial crises start from the smallest things."
Throughout financial history, companies have gone bankrupt for the most ridiculous reasons.
An employee miswriting a buy order and losing all their money.
A company shutting down after getting hit with massive tax penalties due to filing errors.
This crisis was a financial accident caused by overreliance on quantitative trading and AI technology.
"What's the overall damage?"
"Major financial firms like ours with fast information flow actually profited somewhat. We all dumped holdings and averaged down. But smaller firms with slower information got crushed left and right without even understanding what was happening—basically wiped out."
Companies relying solely on quantitative trading suffered the heaviest losses.
"And the UK itself took a massive hit—it's impossible to predict what'll happen next. Even the EU, which had been avoiding Brexit discussions, has suddenly become proactive because of this incident."
"Are they trying to cut Britain off because they're afraid the economic crisis might spread to them?"
"That seems to be their stance."
Britain had become a complete wasteland.
This was because it was a country heavily dependent on imports, making it extremely sensitive to exchange rate fluctuations.
At this point, even Reynold grew curious.
"But why target Britain specifically and not another country?"
If they knew the loophole in the quant trading system, they could have attacked any country, not just Britain.
"There might be political reasons mixed in as well. There was the no-deal Brexit crisis, and by creating an escape route for the Prime Minister, they might have slightly reduced the possibility of retaliation. Above all, since financial institutions worldwide, including Gwangun, jumped in together, it's ambiguous who to punish."
"No. Even so, something feels off."
Why Britain, of all places?
Reynold was convinced there had to be another underlying intention.
＊＊＊
"Wow······."
"I-Is this amount for real?"
The employees, who had successfully recovered all the money scattered across Britain, gaped at the staggering sum before their eyes.
Even I let out a disbelieving chuckle at the unreal figure.
"25 trillion won. I never thought I'd see such an amount in my lifetime."
"Honestly, I was worried Britain might collapse beyond expectations, and we wouldn't be able to recover our money."
Short selling only works under the assumption that the other party doesn't go bankrupt and holds out until the end. If the counterparty collapses outright, no matter how well you executed the short sale, there'd be no one left to pay you back.
But this wasn't just a matter of hundreds or thousands—no, it was an amount that surpassed trillions.
Had Britain completely collapsed, leaving no one to pay us back, our entire investment would have gone up in smoke.
Fortunately, though, Britain didn't completely fall apart.
Thanks to that, we were able to recover our investments overnight by cycling through the liquidity.
"So, now we······."
A whopping 25 trillion won.
From Japan to France, and now Britain.
Though I made the investment decisions, it was ultimately our team's hard work that allowed us to handle such massive volumes.
So, I figured it was about time to give them a break.
"Yes. I've brought the materials you requested."
"······?"
"I thought you'd definitely be looking for this. Due to this financial crisis, the valuations of all companies in Britain have dropped. Of course, blue-chip stocks are still expensive, but we've prepared a detailed report, thoroughly reviewed by our research team, on potential investment opportunities within this market."
For a moment, I blinked several times at the automatically generated report.
Noticing my expression, the team members abruptly stood up from their seats.
"If the materials are insufficient, we'll bring more right away!"
"Ah, no. That's not what I meant. Actually, I was thinking of giving everyone a break since you've all been working so hard lately."
"A break?!"
Given the overseas market situation, I was well aware that they'd been practically living at the office, barely sleeping and focusing solely on trading.
"So, let's take it easy for a while. Since you've already brought the report, I'll just skim through this for now."
"Yes, sir!"
At the long-awaited news of a break, smiles bloomed on the employees' faces.
Having made this much money, I was also considering taking some time off.
Catch up on the games I'd missed, go on an overseas trip with my family.
And there were quite a few personal matters to attend to as well.
After glancing through this report, I doubted we'd need to slave away on another grueling investment anytime soon. Even if there were opportunities, it'd probably just be a few clicks here and there······.
"Hmm?"
But perhaps that was my arrogance.
At first glance, the report seemed perfectly normal.
But as I moved to the next section, it was as if everyone had suddenly gone mad.
'W-What's going on here?'
It wasn't just one or two anomalies.
Even in specific sectors, my intuition was firing off at an alarming rate.
It felt like my temples were creaking under the strain of an engine pushed to its limits.
"..."
I quickly closed the report.
If I kept reading, my head might have exploded.
Then I looked around at my team members.
"...?"
They had been happily daydreaming about vacation destinations and how to spend their holidays, but as soon as they saw my expression, their faces gradually stiffened.
It seemed our vacation would have to be postponed.
＊＊＊
"Are we unaffected by this?"
"Yes. Nothing has surfaced yet. Kangsung doesn't have deep ties with the UK, so we're insulated. Moreover, the EU is fast-tracking Brexit to preemptively block the financial crisis originating from Britain. It's unlikely any damage will reach us."
Kangsung Chairman let out a sigh of relief.
"Honestly, Chairman Jeong could've given us a heads-up about something like this. Scared the life out of me."
"Since Kangsung wasn't at risk, he probably chose to stay silent. In fact, if we play our cards right, we might even secure raw materials at lower prices thanks to this."
"As long as we're unharmed, that's what matters. But... what happens to Britain now? From what I hear, the damage this time is no joke."
"'Beyond predictable' would be the right way to describe it. Though it's being called a flash crash, a 20% currency plunge is virtually unprecedented. The fallout exceeds twice that of George Soros' Black Wednesday back in the day."
And the fact that Korea—no, Gwangun—had orchestrated such a monumental event.
But in reality, it wasn't just Gwangun. Most major financial institutions had joined the fray to pummel Britain, making it difficult to pin blame on any single entity.
"Britain has become a complete pariah now. Just like Japan. Had they not pursued Brexit and maintained their EU status till the end... they might have avoided this level of devastation. The response would've been swift too. And every European nation would've risen to punish Gwangun for daring to attack Britain."
"But since Britain acted like the villain first, it's fine?"
"Correct. If anything, the European nations probably enjoyed the spectacle. Of course, the financial fallout reaching their shores is problematic, but deep down, they must've felt a twisted satisfaction. Britain was a nation that had committed every imaginable atrocity, after all."
This wasn't just schadenfreude.
Who could've predicted the mighty British Empire would be brought to its knees like this?
What was even more chilling was that the strategy behind Britain's downfall had originated from a single mind.
Had Jeong Jin-ho anticipated even this?
That by targeting Britain, he'd be met not with condemnation, but with cheers?
"But Chairman, Gwangun's current actions are... unusual."
"Unusual how?"
"Yes. After the British market collapsed like that, we assumed they'd withdraw all their capital. But... they've suddenly started pouring money back into Britain."
"Which sector?"
"Pharmaceuticals. For reasons unknown, they're aggressively acquiring pharmaceutical companies that crashed alongside the financial crisis."
"...?"
Of all sectors, pharmaceuticals?
Moreover, the pharmaceutical industry is currently in crisis.
Even major players are facing existential threats, with doomsday predictions becoming mainstream.
"Britain's pharmaceutical sector is worse off. The financial crisis delivered the final blow—everything there is collapsing."
"And Gwangun is buying into that?"
"Yes. They're injecting substantial capital as we speak."
Jeong Jin-ho had invested across various sectors before, but pharmaceuticals had never even been on his radar.
Yet now, after dismantling Britain, his move is to acquire all its pharmaceutical companies?
Is he trying to brew an elixir of immortality?
Or perhaps—
"Is a pandemic about to break out or something?"