Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Translation: Godtl
"President. What happened?"
"..."
The executives had been waiting for President Kim Du-yeong to arrive at the company.
They had been hoping he would bring another silk pouch from Jeong Jin-ho and work another miracle. But the answer was already written on Kim Du-yeong's face.
"President Jeong says we need to prepare to sell all the companies we acquired..."
"What? Then... does that mean Gwangun Shipping will be dissolved like this?"
"Well, not completely dissolved. He said to keep the bare minimum and scatter everything we acquired to various countries."
"But that's practically the same as complete dissolution!"
"We must prevent the shipping division from being dismantled!"
Their reaction was understandable.
They had worked so hard to grow the company.
Especially after carefully selecting and acquiring numerous overseas shipping companies one by one to build Gwangun Shipping into what it was today.
"What can we do? President Jeong... that guy's heart is just too soft."
"Pardon?"
"If President Jeong had ignored each country's demands and tried to maintain the company to the end, what do you think would have happened?"
"That would be..."
"For starters, I'd be wearing handcuffs, and the same goes for everyone here."
This wasn't said in jest.
Had they truly ignored the demands until the end, not a single executive here would have avoided prison—on the absurd charge of disrupting international trade markets.
That's how fiercely governments, including the EU, had been sharpening their knives against Gwangun.
"President Jeong probably had no choice but to appease them. He said he didn't want to go that far at our expense."
"W-wait, President Jeong really said that?"
"Yes. Haven't I told you repeatedly? When you watch President Jeong conduct business, he seems utterly ruthless, but he takes terrifyingly good care of his own people."
The executives here knew well who the real power behind Gwangun Group was.
But when they first met President Jeong Jin-ho, his face—the kindest-looking in the world—had made them lower their guard slightly.
However, after witnessing Jeong Jin-ho's extraordinary moves and how he mercilessly crushed competitors, their perception gradually changed.
By the time they saw him unhesitatingly collapse a nation's economy, they hardly dared breathe in his presence.
And now this man, who seemed to have neither blood nor tears, was sacrificing the company's profits to protect his subordinates.
A tsunami of emotion swept through the conference room.
"There's only one way we can repay President Jeong. Sell everything at the highest possible price."
The shipping industry was currently experiencing unprecedented prosperity.
So breaking up this expanded company and selling it piecemeal would mean absolute losses.
But to minimize those losses, they had to sell at premium prices.
"Yes. That's all we can do now."
"We must repay his kindness by selling at the highest prices. But... what about our colleagues already stationed overseas? Even if we call them back, there won't be positions for them here anymore."
"Tell them to hold out for one or two years. President Jeong said the acquiring parties probably won't make immediate cuts either. We'll also include a condition in the sale to guarantee two years of employment for our people."
It felt like they might cry tears of blood, but what could they do?
With hearts heavy like those swallowing bitter herbs, they had no choice but to dismantle the company.
They were moved to the brink of tears by President Jeong's decision—to tear down the tower he had built with his own hands for the sake of the employees here.
"But... do we really need to sell everything except the bare minimum required to keep the company running?"
Yet there was one strange thing.
But Jeong Jin-ho had said to sell everything except for the bare minimum.
"Moreover, you said there wouldn't even be any restructuring. But if we sell off most of our shipping business... isn't this practically charity work?"
That was true too.
The company wasn't completely shutting down, but it wouldn't need as many employees as before.
Yet Jeong Jin-ho had stated they would maintain the company as-is without any restructuring.
"On top of that, I heard he told our people who'll be transferred elsewhere due to the company split to hold on for 1-2 years. He even made it part of the sale conditions."
"Doesn't this feel like we're just temporarily entrusting the divided parts of the company to other places?"
Temporarily entrusting the divided Gwangun companies elsewhere.
Looking at Jeong Jin-ho's current actions, it really did seem that way.
When a company splits, restructuring is inevitable—yet here he was maintaining all employees without any cuts, having them do only minimal work.
"Could the shipping industry outlook be bad?"
"Not at all. If anything, it's the opposite. Everyone agrees the shipping industry will perform even better in the future than it does now. That's exactly why the EU and other countries are trying to break us up."
That assessment was correct.
So why had Jeong Jin-ho made this decision?
"Is he really trying to sell at the peak like an investor and buy back at the lowest point?"
"But judging by valuations, isn't now the lowest point?"
"Well, that's true but..."
At this point, even Kim Du-yeong grew curious.
Was Jeong Jin-ho truly a kind-hearted philanthropist?
Or was he a ruthless investor?
＊＊＊
"President. Here... are the Hong Kong-related documents."
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
I glanced sideways at the team members fidgeting nervously before me.
Today of all days, I could strangely sense the employees walking on eggshells around me.
Even my older brother seemed unusually preoccupied during our earlier phone call.
It felt like everyone in the company was being extra cautious around me.
"Section Chief Lee, please stay behind for a moment."
At my words, the employees practically stampeded out the door as if they'd been waiting for this.
Hye-rin approached me stiffly, her face frozen in tension.
"Wh-wh-what's the m-m-matter?"
"Why are you so nervous?"
"Y-you asked m-me to stay alone s-suddenly... I thought maybe I'd d-done something wrong..."
"That couldn't be. You're always the one helping me the most."
Though Hye-rin's official position was Section Chief, she'd taken on secretary duties too.
I'd told her it wasn't necessary, but she'd said something about how this way she could feel slightly less guilty about her generous salary...
Anyway, that wasn't important right now.
"Is something going on at the company?"
"Huh?"
"Everyone seems to be watching their step around me today."
"Well... we thought you might be in a bad mood today..."
"Me? Why?"
"Well..."
Hye-rin hesitated before answering carefully.
"With all the chaos in the news about Gwangun Shipping... You worked so hard to grow Gwangun Shipping, and now it's being forcibly split due to pressure from the EU and other countries..."
Ah. So that was why.
I'd been wondering if there was something I wasn't supposed to know about, or if I'd unknowingly become an outcast—my mind had gone to all sorts of places.
But hearing this, it turned out to be nothing serious.
"Are... are you really okay?"
"Of course. If I were truly upset, would I have come to work today? And we have that company dinner planned tonight too. So tell everyone to stop worrying and just act normal."
"Ah! Really?"
"Yes. Tell everyone to come back in."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Hye-rin hurried out with her usual brisk steps.
After a brief moment of murmured conversation outside, everyone came back in laughing.
But Manager Seo still wore a heavy expression.
"President, are you really alright?"
"Yes, I'm truly fine."
"But I... I was so angry I couldn't sleep last night. Those bastards. No wonder people say all those EU folks are nothing but thugs."
"Exactly. When I heard about Gwangun Shipping, I thought my blood was boiling backwards."
"Those damn bastards!"
The team members were genuinely furious.
Though we work at this securities firm, we can't deny they played no small part in building up Gwangun Shipping.
"Let's not get too worked up. They say after bad things come good things, right?"
As a human being, I couldn't help but feel angry too.
Yet the vision my intuition showed me that day was clear.
The shipping industry, currently experiencing unprecedented prosperity, would soon crash.
Meaning the EU was voluntarily taking out the trash for us - trash that was about to turn to shit.
And they were even paying us to take it.
"Our president is truly something else. How do you maintain such steel-like mental fortitude...?"
"Manager always says not just anyone can have mental strength and a beast's heart like our president."
"Right. She's just built different."
Had my intuition not shown me that series of visions, I'd probably be cracking open soju bottles in my room by now.
"Is the media making a big fuss about it?"
"Yes. Turn on any TV channel and that's all they're talking about."
"But this is actually having a positive effect on us. While Gwangun's reputation was previously middling, we're gaining considerable public sympathy from this incident."
"In fact, we've prepared a separate report analyzing the current public sentiment."
I reviewed the report my team had prepared.
Gwangun's public perception had been complex until now.
But with the narrative that we're being unfairly forced to hand over our shipping business to those thugs, public sympathy has skyrocketed.
"Gwangun Securities too, and our exchange along with PicPic - we're seeing sudden spikes in Korean user registrations. It seems we're unintentionally getting tremendous marketing exposure."
"Is that so?"
We're actually doing fine.
The public is getting angry on our behalf.
To citizens' eyes, the EU looked no better than armed robbers.
This has caused Gwangun's image to soar dramatically.
'They take out our trash while boosting our corporate image...'
Maybe we should increase European donations through our foundation later?
＊＊＊
The EU stood at the forefront of efforts to contain Gwangun.
Their sudden pressure campaign against us wasn't without reason.
"Starting with Taiwan's TSNC, they first collapsed Taiwan's economy, then attacked numerous conglomerates through semiconductor supply controls to create massive platforms like PicPic and the Gwangun Exchange, before sequentially targeting Britain and France to reap enormous profits."
"Just hearing about it sends chills down my spine. And you're saying a single Korean corporation did all this?"
"Yes. The deeper you dig, the more unbelievable their atrocities become - utterly vicious bastards who'll do anything for money, no holds barred. But what's truly terrifying is that Gwangun reached our doorstep without us ever seeing them as a threat."
Moreover, the general public remains largely unaware of Gwangun's true nature.
Most believe them to be just another company doing good business.
"Didn't you see last time? How they incited social media to spark riots across French cities, then shamelessly distributed 'relief funds' afterward."
"Yes. The problem was that the amount was larger than expected, and it received tremendous cheers from the citizens."
"Exactly. They're extremely meticulous bastards. They know exactly how to sway public sentiment."
After witnessing even Britain being overturned by Gwangun, the EU nations had reached a consensus that this couldn't continue.
"The reason Gwangun can wield such power primarily lies in the overwhelming strength of their shipping operations. There are even rumors that the U.S. and China have connections with Gwangun—ultimately, even they couldn't restrain Gwangun because of its vast shipping network."
Perhaps that was why.
Gwangun had crossed the line.
And not just any line—they had provoked Britain and France, the two pillars of Europe and its most notorious bullies.
"Well, Britain already left through Brexit, so that's that. But targeting France, the representative of the EU, is a blatant challenge to Europe itself. That's why, unusually, nations are pooling their strength to contain Gwangun."
Their first target was Gwangun's core: shipping.
If they could cripple this, Gwangun wouldn't be able to exert influence as before.
So they had prepared hundreds of scenarios, ensuring they were fully ready to force Gwangun to relinquish its shipping operations.
"But who would've thought it'd end so anticlimactically?"
"Right? For all their infamous reputation as absolute mad dogs, they're giving up without much of a fight."
"In a way, isn't that the smart move? Reaching that level means they're sharp—they must've already done the math. If they resisted here, they'd get pummeled from all sides, and the entire Gwangun Group might vanish."
It was disappointing.
The moment Gwangun resisted, they had planned to crush it so thoroughly it could never rise again.
But it seemed even these bastards knew when to retreat.
"So what happens now?"
"Well, since the EU initiated this, it's only right that EU member states claim the spoils. Above all, this is shipping. Isn't the shipping industry in an unprecedented boom right now? Just look at the BDI—it's already broken past 2,000."
The overwhelming consensus is that the BDI will soon surpass 2,500.
"Gwangun knows that too, so they don't seem willing to sell cheap. They're planning to carve up the company completely and sell it off at the highest possible price."
"That's a bit of a burden, isn't it? Do you think their proposed price is reasonable?"
"Honestly, it is expensive. But given the shipping industry's growth trajectory, it's absolutely not a loss. In fact, it's a gain."
"Then it's settled. Let's actively encourage our European companies to secure as much of the shipping business as possible."
Since the EU took the lead in pressuring Gwangun, it's only right that the EU claims the spoils.
"But Chairman, isn't Gwangun backing down too easily?"
"Didn't someone say earlier? Gwangun knows when to fold."
"But they could've bought time by fighting through lawsuits, couldn't they?"
"Let's not overcomplicate things. We already have a mountain of work post-Brexit. It's embarrassing enough that the entire EU had to step in because we couldn't handle one small company from that tiny Korean peninsula."
Truthfully, the EU Chairman didn't want to escalate things further.
With the EU's reputation already at rock bottom due to Brexit, he had no desire to reinforce the image of the EU flailing helplessly against a single company.
"Besides, isn't the shipping industry's outlook still bright? What could possibly cause shipping to suddenly collapse?"
"Well, what if every country suddenly closes its borders and imposes lockdowns?"
Everyone burst into laughter at someone's joke.
If that ever happened, it'd be straight out of a movie.
But doesn't everyone know?
That such a thing could never happen.