Chapter 82
Chapter 82
Translation: Godtl
"The biggest victim of the recent Warner Cry hacking incident, Rusk, seems unlikely to recover."
At an executive's report, Chairman Hwang's eyes twitched.
"No way. But Rusk is massive, isn't it? It was once the world's largest shipping company. Didn't they operate over 450 vessels?"
"Yes. But they don't actually own most of those ships—that number includes chartered vessels from leasing companies, so the real figure is likely lower."
"Still, it's Rusk we're talking about. Even if they took a major hit from the ransomware attack, would they really shut down completely?"
"The ransomware incident was the final blow. Their credibility was shattered, which drove more business to our Gwangun Shipping."
The shipping industry had collapsed dramatically, and only companies that had built solid foundations over time managed to survive.
Among them, Rusk had been the largest.
But after suffering trillions in losses from the ransomware attack, they ultimately raised the white flag.
"So right now, the Danish government is debating whether to bail them out or dismantle Rusk and sell off its assets piece by piece."
This meant that Gwangun Shipping's last remaining competitor would soon disappear.
"What does President Kim want to do?"
"Acquiring them would be ideal. We're already struggling to handle the current workload—it's hard to keep up with the volume as it is. If we take control of Rusk, Gwangun would handle over 70% of global shipping operations."
Over 70% worldwide.
That meant hundreds of trillions in revenue.
"But going beyond 70% to 80-90% would be dangerous. We could run afoul of monopoly laws in various countries. We plan to carefully control our expansion to avoid crossing that line."
"Right. I'll leave that to President Kim. If additional funding is needed, just say so."
"Yes, Chairman."
As Chairman Hwang wrapped up the agenda, his gaze drifted toward Vice President Kang Ji-hwan, seated on the other side.
Though Jeong Jin-ho was officially the president of the securities firm, it was usually Vice President Kang who attended executive meetings.
Jeong Jin-ho focused solely on investments, leaving minor operational matters to Vice President Kang.
"Vice President Kang. I deliberately didn't ask President Jeong, but I'm still curious. Gwangun Securities suddenly opened a new account and withdrew group funds, didn't they?"
"Ah, yes."
"And legally, there's no issue with that?"
"None. We took special care to ensure everything was handled properly."
"Good. I trust you all to manage things well. But... where exactly did President Jeong invest? I promised not to interfere with his investment decisions, but I'm asking out of caution."
It was a question likely on every executive's mind today.
Not long ago, Jeong Jin-ho had coldly rejected the meticulously crafted portfolio the executives had poured their hearts into.
According to Chairman Hwang, the portfolio was so lackluster that President Jeong had outright thrown it away.
And now, this same Jeong Jin-ho had suddenly opened an account and withdrawn a trillion won in group funds.
The stocks they had recommended were the safest bets in the current market—easy money.
Yet he had rejected them all. So what exactly was he investing in now, with the VIX index so low in the U.S. market?
After over a week of silence, the executives were growing restless.
"Did he buy stocks?"
"He established positions as soon as the account was opened. He invested all available funds—over $1.8 billion, from what I understand. He shorted various derivatives and blue-chip stocks."
"Wait. Shorting? Is the U.S. market about to crash?"
"Yes. He also hinted to me briefly that once the bear market fully sets in, he plans to execute day trades for quick exits."
"W-wait, even day trading?"
"Hold on. So you're saying President Jeong is now day trading with 2 trillion won? In the US market of all places?"
"No way. Is... is that even possible?"
Even Kang Ji-hwan didn't know the answer to that.
Because no one in this world day trades with 2 trillion won.
The executives all had at least that much common sense.
Which was precisely why they were all in shock.
"If he makes even the slightest mistake, hundreds or even thousands of billions could vanish in an instant."
"Even if President Jeong is an investment genius, day trading with 2 trillion won is going too far, isn't it?"
While the executives voiced their concerns, President Hwang wasn't thinking about profits or losses.
"Vice President. The Jin-ho I know would absolutely turn a profit this time too, wouldn't he?"
"Yes."
"Then what do you think the US SEC will make of this?"
"...They probably won't let it slide. Even if we didn't engage in any insider trading, the moment a foreign entity swings 2 trillion won in day trades, the SEC will find some way to make it an issue."
"So those bastards might send us an investigation notice?"
"Yes. There's a very high probability they'll instruct an investigation in cooperation with Korea's Financial Supervisory Service."
President Hwang leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment.
The executives, who had been noisily chattering in the unusual atmosphere, all fell silent.
Eventually, President Hwang opened his eyes again.
"When I was offered this chairman position I wasn't even suited for, when I personally hired each of you executives one by one, I had only one purpose in mind."
"...?"
"Was it to work hard and grow the group? No. It was precisely for moments like this—to pour all our strength into ensuring no harm comes to President Jeong. That single purpose is why I built this group."
As he spoke, President Hwang swept his gaze across the assembled executives.
"One of you said something last time. That you all felt like you weren't doing enough. That President Jeong handles all the business planning and execution himself. Well, now you have work to do."
"!?"
"Our goal is singular. President Jeong must not suffer any damage from this incident. Because any harm to President Jeong would mean the collapse of our group. I trust you all understand what I'm saying?"
The executives' expressions shifted at President Hwang's grave demeanor.
"Now, let's all go earn our keep."
＊＊＊
"..."
There was still about an hour left before market close, but I stopped there.
Partly because my intuition had stopped guiding me, but mostly because after day trading nonstop for the first time in a while, my temples felt like they were burning up.
The acrid smell of an overheated engine stung my nostrils as I clutched my dizzy head.
Two days.
For exactly two days, I'd pushed my intuition to its limits, executing day trades without rest during market hours.
This time, I'd handled more stocks than ever before, making it impossible to lose focus for even a second.
Which was probably why the backlash felt so much more intense than before.
After calming down somewhat, I stepped outside.
"Ah..."
"Ugh..."
Everyone was slumped in their chairs, completely knocked out.
I approached the exhausted team and patted their shoulders.
"You've all worked hard."
"N-no, not at all. Compared to you, President..."
"Could you all gather the recovered funds and let me know the total profit?"
"Y-yes, sir."
Before long, Manager Seo announced our two-day earnings before the entire team.
"The initial investment was 1.8 billion dollars. After deducting all fees from the profits earned over these two days of trading, the final amount comes to approximately..."
Manager Seo swallowed dryly before continuing.
"3.7 billion dollars."
"!?"
"3... 3.7 billion dollars?!"
We'd turned 2 trillion won into over 4 trillion.
"In just two days!"
"No way, that's impossible."
"We were so busy buying and selling nonstop that we never even checked how much we'd made."
It had been the same yesterday.
By the time the market closed, most of us were completely drained, barely able to even leave the office.
But it seemed all that effort hadn't been in vain.
"Turning 2 trillion won into 4 trillion in just two days? Who would even believe this?"
"No matter how much the market crashed over these two days with the VIX index spiking to 50, this is just... unbelievable."
While we profited from the U.S. market downturn, it wasn't exactly a financial crisis-level crash.
The real issue, as always, was the VIX.
Until now, people had been pouring all their money into XIV, expecting the VIX index to drop even further.
Their predictions had been rational, at least on paper.
The problem was, none of them could have imagined money flooding in to this extent.
The more capital that pours in, the easier it becomes for minor fluctuations to trigger position liquidations left and right.
And ironically, it was the U.S. government that lit the fuse.
By suddenly releasing employment figures and wage growth data, they accelerated interest rate hikes, sending waves of panic through financial markets and driving the VIX index up.
XIV products, designed for automatic rebalancing, began liquidating positions, evaporating trillions of won in an instant.
"That set off a domino effect, dragging down the entire stock market. They say 1,000 trillion won vanished in just these two days."
But the crash wasn't over yet.
If we kept day trading now, we could've made even more than we already had.
Yet my intuition abruptly stopped me.
Had I pushed the engine too hard until it blew, or was this a warning not to go any further?
I couldn't tell the reason, but it was just as well.
My head was pounding too much to continue anyway.
"But... while making this much money is great... isn't the SEC watching us right now?"
"They probably are, right...?"
"It's not like we did anything illegal."
"Still, turning 2 trillion into 4 trillion in two days defies common sense. They'll definitely take some kind of action."
The faces of the employees, who had been overjoyed moments ago at making 4 trillion won, suddenly darkened. I clapped my hands to lighten the mood and said,
"Let's worry about that later. For now, everyone, go home and rest. Get some proper sleep, and we'll see tomorrow."
"Ah, yes, sir!"
The staff quickly began preparing to leave.
I acted nonchalant as I saw them off, but internally, I was starting to get nervous.
I hadn't expected to turn 2 trillion into 4 trillion either, and riding high on dopamine, I'd just bought and sold stocks based on gut instinct without considering the aftermath.
"Are they seriously not gonna come busting in here?"
I'd heard the FBI usually steps in when things get this serious.
Suddenly, scenes from movies flashed through my mind—agents shouting "FBI!" as they stormed in.
＊＊＊
"A-Am I seeing this right?"
"Yes. This is the data we've gathered without missing a single second over these two days."
"So you're telling me they turned $1.8 billion into $3.7 billion in just two days?"
"Correct."
"And only through day trading?"
"...Yes, Director."
Volmageddon.
That's what people were calling this event.
A portmanteau of VIX and Armageddon—as XIV's funds plummeted below 90%, effectively zeroing out all the money invested in it.
Tens of trillions of won piled up there had vanished like smoke.
But when someone loses, it means someone else has made just as much.
And amidst this chaos, there was one group that had raked in an enormous fortune.
"At this point, can we consider this insider trading?"
"Given that they positioned themselves a week ago and made a massive profit, suspicions are certainly warranted. But the real issue lies in what came next. The majority of this group's profits actually came from day trading."
That was utterly insane.
Anyone could see that taking positions in advance was highly likely to be insider trading.
But after that, they executed trades on a second-by-second basis through day trading and made an astronomical sum from it.
"That's exactly why I'm saying—there's no way humans did this manually. At this scale, it must've been AI-driven high-frequency trading, right?"
"Calling it AI might be a stretch... Typically, AI trading follows certain patterns and executes hundreds of trades per second."
"So you're saying this was all done by humans?"
"Yes. And there's a high chance it was done by a single person."
"Huh..."
That would mean someone orchestrated this insane day trading operation with a coordinated team.
Frankly, we can't just arrest them outright since we only have circumstantial evidence of insider trading and no concrete proof.
But if we dig deep enough, there's bound to be dirt we can uncover.
On any other day, we would've immediately requested cooperation from South Korea and raided that company, flipping it inside out—but there was one major obstacle.
"Aside from these guys, the other biggest beneficiary was probably Gold Reagan, right?"
"Yes. Gold Reagan had positioned themselves at least two months in advance."
Gold Reagan.
A financial firm hand-in-glove with President Trent.
Hadn't a flood of Gold Reagan's top brass already infiltrated the Trent administration?
"The fact that those bastards positioned themselves two months ago means..."
"We have to assume they meticulously planned this to milk it dry."
Money had been pouring into XIV for months now.
But coincidentally, the frequency spiked dramatically starting two months ago.
"No matter how you look at it, this was an inside job."
There's a saying.
Every time power changes hands—or whenever an administration succeeds—a financial crisis inevitably erupts.
The dot-com bubble, 9/11, the housing bubble, the subprime crisis, astronomical bailouts, and now this disaster. Listing all the minor ones would be exhausting.
Especially this time—it was planned with surgical precision.
The government deliberately released employment figures and wage growth rates, sending a strong, intentional signal that interest rates would rise soon.
As a result, the panic-stricken market spiraled into this mess.
Some might dismiss this as absurd conspiracy theorizing, but few in this industry would brush it off as mere speculation.
Because whether it's the U.S. or any other country—
The first thing those in power do is line their own pockets.
It's a bitter truth, but there's no way to stop it.
And above all, the opponent here is the U.S. President.
There isn't a single investigative agency with the authority to scrutinize a head of state.
Someone might raise serious suspicions about this affair, but that's as far as it'll go.
It'll just be dismissed as a conspiracy theory and buried.
Like always.
"Then what if we just go after this South Korean group and leave Gold Reagan alone?"
"Did you even look at the data properly?"
"Huh?"
"The exact timing when the Gold Reagan faction cashed out aligns perfectly with when this South Korean group did. What do you think that means?"
"Ah..."
It was a silent warning.
They were deliberately showing that Gold Reagan and the South Korean group using them as prime brokers were on the same team.
If we try to take down this group, the White House's name will inevitably surface.
Why else would this group have chosen Gold Reagan as their prime broker?
They were flaunting their connection from the very beginning.
Don't mess with us.
"Just make it a token investigation."
"What if someone raises an issue about it?"
"Then we'll sweep it under the rug like always."
Soon enough, the media will flood with similar headlines:
[This Volmageddon was caused by foolish investors failing to predict market risks!]
Or something along those lines.