Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong's Hobby
The shock of the Organization running wild under Nova's name left a deep aftermath in Korea.
Deaths alone numbered in the tens of thousands. The economic damage was enormous as well.
Three days had passed since the incident broke out, yet they still hadn't even been able to tally the damages, let alone estimate the scale of the losses.
And the greatest damage of all was the psychological shock inflicted on the people.
Though people didn't know it, thanks to the family's efforts all this time, Korea had been something of a safe zone when it came to Awakened crimes.
Even when the worst Awakened criminal emerged from Korea, he was eventually subdued and arrested—that was how safe Korea had been.
But this time, with Awakened acting in organized fashion, it planted a deep unease in people's hearts.
What if Awakened go on another organized rampage?
That was the anxiety.
To dispel such fears, President Seong Hyeon-Jang drew his sword.
He officially declared the establishment of an Awakened alliance to respond to Awakened crimes, monster raids, and overflows—the PS Association.
The detailed coordination had already been done with Jeong-Hoon, but the timing of the announcement had been the issue.
This incident became the perfect catalyst, and it received an enthusiastic response.
The entire nation—Awakened and Non-Awakened alike—went wild for it.
"So I've invited all of you here today to request your cooperation."
Though Lee Chang-Won's psychic powers had burned the area around Gwanghwamun Plaza and even Gyeongbokgung Palace, the Blue House was thankfully unharmed.
Thus, at the banquet held in the Blue House State Guest House, the President addressed the invited corporate chairmen.
It was essentially a "hand over the money" gathering of world-class conglomerate chairmen, but no one opposed it.
Refusing to cooperate with a system the entire nation was raving about right now could lead to a backlash and boycotts.
"Is it enough to just invest in the establishment of the PS Association, or do we also need to donate for the recovery from this incident's damages?"
But when someone alone raised his hand to ask a question in that setting, everyone's gaze locked onto him.
A businessman who, at the mere age of twenty, managed the massive hotel chain Lumen.
Lee Jeong-Hoon.
"...The damages this time are so extensive that the government will do its utmost to manage somehow by compiling an emergency budget. But we won't refuse the sincerity of chairmen who wish to help everyone."
The budget needed to handle this damage was astronomical. So when Jeong-Hoon asked if that money was needed too, the President deliberately spoke in a roundabout way.
He wouldn't demand they hand it over, but if they offered, he wouldn't refuse—that was the meaning.
And hearing those words, the businessmen gathered here all let out long sighs.
Not sighs of relief.
Now that the President had said such a thing, they had to show their sincerity.
With the reporters invited to the banquet recording every word of the conversation, failing to put up money for damage recovery would make them greedy corporations turning a blind eye to everyone's misfortune.
"Then our Lumen will mobilize all available funds to support both the establishment of the PS Association and the damage recovery."
"...Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon's heart will be of great help in comforting everyone's pain."
Clap clap clap!
When the President bowed his head in thanks at Jeong-Hoon's words, applause erupted.
It was the applause of reporters moved by Jeong-Hoon's ready offer to put up money.
And at that reaction, the thought that they'd been had flashed through the sighing businessmen's minds.
From the start, Jeong-Hoon had intended to put money toward both.
By bringing it up indirectly at an official banquet like this, he induced corporate donations and became the figure who set the precedent of giving first.
That thought filled their heads.
"I was impressed by Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon's good deed. Then our group will also put up all available funds—seventy-two billion won."
Everyone had been thinking only that they'd been had, but then someone appeared who immediately rode Jeong-Hoon's strategy.
A genius businessman who succeeded at every venture he touched.
The young chairman with the nickname "Regressor," Kim Sang-Myeong.
As the youngest chairman who could be invited to banquets like this until Jeong-Hoon appeared, he immediately read the flow Jeong-Hoon had created and climbed aboard.
Moreover, by stating a definite amount, he in a way received a bigger spotlight than Jeong-Hoon.
No matter how much Jeong-Hoon spent later, the articles would first go out saying "Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong readily put up the huge sum of seventy-two billion won."
Thanks to these two young chairmen's performance, the door to donations swung wide open.
It became impossible to just toss some pocket change and take credit. Seventy-two billion was impossible for most, but they had to put up money befitting their companies' scale.
After the banquet ended, Jeong-Hoon was about to head straight back to Lumen when a hand catching him stopped him in his tracks.
"Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon, have you been well?"
"...Yes. I've been well, thanks to you. You're alright, Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong?"
Jeong-Hoon was flustered that Kim Sang-Myeong, whom he hadn't met since the previous Nova hotel terror incident, had grabbed him.
He hadn't thought there was any personal conversation to have with him.
"Today Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon accomplished something great. I stopped you to apologize for seeming to steal that credit."
"...I'm sorry, but what exactly did you steal?"
When Jeong-Hoon asked back, not feeling as if anything had been taken from him by Kim Sang-Myeong at the banquet, Kim Sang-Myeong wore a blank expression before bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha, looks like I was the only one fretting for nothing. Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon led this donation, but I worried that by hastily following after, I might have stolen the attention."
"Ah, that? Well, I didn't say it to get attention, so you don't need to worry about it."
Jeong-Hoon had asked in a way that suggested they should also put up damage recovery donations because he didn't think the President's goal was only investment in the PS Association.
So he brought up the damage recovery funds.
Saying he would put up available funds was something he uttered to clean up after saying that.
Rather, because Kim Sang-Myeong responded, it could pass smoothly.
"...No matter how much money I make, it seems I can't match Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon's magnanimity."
"Is that all you wanted to say? I don't mind at all, so Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong also..."
Relieved that the reason he'd been stopped was an apology, Jeong-Hoon tried to turn away.
With Yong-Ha's suicide, finding the whereabouts of the connections left by the Organization—more precisely, the family's traitors—had become distant.
But Kim Sang-Myeong, who had succeeded at every business he touched since sixteen years ago even before the world changed, was a highly suspicious figure.
Considering his young age and starting from nothing, he was the number one most suspicious person in Korea.
So Jeong-Hoon had no desire for a long conversation with him.
He was only giving him this brief chat now because he owed him some measure of gratitude.
"Last time we promised a meal but couldn't meet, so I wanted to ask if you'd like a light drink today, but it seems you're quite busy."
"Ah, I'm sorry. I've been dealing with this incident in my own way and it's been hectic."
When Sang-Myeong, observing proper etiquette, brought up the meal promise, Jeong-Hoon recalled when he first met him at Myeongil.
He had definitely said something like that then, but it was just a polite "let's have a meal sometime" sort of courtesy remark.
So Jeong-Hoon bowed his head and apologized.
He never imagined the man would remember it all this time.
"...Hwa-Rim, what's my next schedule?"
"If you wish, Chairman, they're all schedules that can be postponed as much as you like."
Thinking he should spare a little time since Sang-Myeong treated a courtesy remark as a promise, Jeong-Hoon deliberately mentioned a nonexistent schedule to Hwa-Rim standing behind him.
Currently the Head Butler Ju was away on a week of forced vacation Jeong-Hoon had given him, so Hwa-Rim was attending Jeong-Hoon in his place.
And she was performing the role so excellently that the Head Butler's absence wasn't felt at all.
Even now, though there was no schedule, she immediately played along with Jeong-Hoon's words—her improvisation was outstanding.
"Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong, if it's just a light drink, I think I can make time."
"Thank you for making the time."
Kim Sang-Myeong wasn't one to miss that Jeong-Hoon's act was obvious.
But Jeong-Hoon's performance now was an essential skill for people in business.
It was the pretension that "I'm very busy right now, but I specially made time for you."
Jeong-Hoon and Sang-Myeong moved to a bar near the Lumen main branch, quite far from the Blue House, and lightly tilted their glasses.
Lumen also had a members-only bar they could have gone to, but Sang-Myeong said he wanted to treat him and brought them to his regular bar.
"How is it? Does the wine suit your palate?"
"...It's moderately sweet, so it's nice."
Jeong-Hoon, who mixed orange juice into whiskey with friends because he found it bitter and wasn't good with bitter liquor, liked the wine Sang-Myeong had chosen.
Though he'd studied wine as essential for a chairman, Jeong-Hoon had considered wine something where the grape's sweetness vanished somewhere and only astringency and bitterness remained.
"Hwa-Rim, please get me a few bottles of this. I like it."
"I'll have it procured right away."
When Jeong-Hoon showed through action that he quite liked the wine Sang-Myeong chose, Sang-Myeong smiled gently.
"I'm glad our wine tastes seem similar, Chairman. Actually, I don't like liquor with strong bitterness either."
"Oh? Is that so? What a coincidence."
Nodding as he thought it an unexpected taste, Jeong-Hoon slowly savored the wine.
"Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon, I'm sorry to make a request when I said I'd treat you, but could you at least hear me out briefly?"
"...I can listen. The decision will come after I confer with the executives later."
He'd been prepared that there would be some business from the moment he suggested a drink, but Jeong-Hoon hadn't expected him to be this direct and frowned slightly.
He'd respected him as a businessman to some degree, but he hadn't known he'd be this materialistic.
"It's about the dungeon Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon won at the last dungeon auction held at Lumen."
"Which dungeon are you referring to?"
When dungeons came up, Jeong-Hoon slowly nodded.
Kim Sang-Myeong was making big profits from dungeon development businesses.
But since Jeong-Hoon had monopolized the largest-scale dungeons, he must be asking for a concession.
As that thought struck him, the wine that had only been sweet now tasted bitter to Jeong-Hoon.
"Among the dungeons you won, Chairman, there's a ruins dungeon. The Engine Guild's dungeon."
"...What?"
He'd thought it would be a request to concede a dungeon, but when the Engine Guild dungeon—which had been such a hard sell it was like a clearance item—popped out, Jeong-Hoon nearly spat out his wine.
Ruins dungeons were a dungeon type so well-known to people that they were used as a key concept at Diana Theme Park, the dungeon-themed amusement park.
Because the civilizations from before seals appeared and monsters, magic, and martial arts vanished from the world stirred a sense of mystery in people.
Moreover, since no one except the family and the Organization knew the truth of dungeons, ruins dungeons were treated as one of the keys to researching the civilizations of the monster worlds, more than mere natural resource troves called dungeons.
"Actually, I'm a bit interested in researching monster world civilizations through ruins dungeon research. So I have deep exchanges with scholars in that field, and those people had their eyes on the Engine Guild's dungeon."
To a businessman doing dungeon development, the Engine Guild dungeon was like a bounced check, a clearance item, but to academic societies researching dungeon civilizations it was completely different.
In academic circles, the prevailing view was that worlds where monsters lived had existed, those worlds had fallen for some reason, and ruins dungeons were evidence of those fallen worlds.
So the academic society had wanted to purchase the Engine Guild dungeon for research purposes, but they didn't have the financial leeway to spend the large sum of five billion won.
"So they requested that I purchase that dungeon for them, and I accepted, but then you suddenly bought it, Chairman, didn't you?"
"Ah, was that the issue? If it's for research purposes, you're more than welcome."
Since it wasn't a concession of a profitable dungeon but research into that era, Jeong-Hoon readily nodded.
His face bloomed into a smile, having been disappointed thinking it was some typical businessman scheme to split profits.
Honestly, he'd gone on a spending spree buying dungeons in a daze back then, and he hadn't even had a sense of how to use them.
And the fact that the Engine Guild dungeon—which had been the trigger for that mindless shopping—had a use was actually welcome.