Chapter 137
Chapter 137
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Too Big to Fail (1)
As soon as he received the information, Ronan sprang into action.
The assassination plot had been an internal affair at Syneron Medica, so all we had were circumstantial clues at best.
A truly capable man, as expected.
From the single small lead I handed him, he dug up the rest of the evidence and swiftly tied everything up.
And the identity of the culprit who emerged? None other than Victor Kriswell, the chairman's eldest son.
'Unlike the original fate, he didn't even get a chance to try before being exposed.'
The plan to eliminate the chairman and the other heirs to seize control of the company.
Ronan revealed the evidence to the board and, with unanimous support, purged his own cousin.
Treason is like that from the start.
It had to be a perfectly secret surprise attack.
A gamble where success meant gaining everything.
But with his disloyalty exposed before preparations were even complete, Victor fell pathetically from power.
I didn't know the exact internal punishment, but he wouldn't be showing his face in the world again.
Yet amid that purge, an unexpected fact came to light.
Victor's plan had received support from external factions.
Among them were medical insurance companies—ones that had recently clashed with Syneron over drug pricing.
'If Victor had succeeded, he would've granted those insurers favors and formed an alliance.'
But with everything failing, the future had changed.
Syneron Medica was now at odds with the insurers that had aided the traitor.
Of course, this wasn't publicized externally.
Pharma companies still needed to sell drugs to hospitals, and insurers needed Syneron's products.
They were in a relationship where cooperation was inevitable.
But now, they were uneasy partners forced together by necessity, not allies ready to fight side by side.
In the future I'd seen, the medical conglomerates could wage all-out war against us because Syneron Medica—a near-megacorp—was part of their alliance. Without it, the coalition's weight class dropped entirely.
Even as the Church dominated the medical market and tensions rose, the insurers wouldn't dare pick a fight easily.
It was the difference between cutting losses rather than risking a low-odds war.
'Of course, they won't give up their interests easily, so we'll need to manage the situation carefully...'
Still, the possibility of war had definitely decreased.
Having returned from glimpsing the future, I'd saved Ronan's life, eliminated a potential enemy, and even identified traitors within the Church.
All those actions had proven effective and had shifted our fate to some degree.
'But are these truly fundamental solutions?'
If asked that... I couldn't be sure.
As the Church grew like in the future, friction with entrenched powers was inevitable.
The medical conglomerates, the power brokers of Alpha Circle, Leviathan Industries.
They were just surface results. Not the root cause.
No matter which field we advanced into, growth meant entanglement in ever-larger power struggles.
Anytime, anywhere, another 'Leviathan' could emerge to block our path.
'So...'
To avoid repeating the same catastrophe... we had no choice but to prepare a proper answer before it was too late.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ War. War never changes.
The catchphrase from a famous game depicting the apocalypse suddenly came to mind. Why now?
Probably because, even after arriving in the city fifty years in the future, I'd felt firsthand that the essence of war hadn't changed.
Across East and West, transcending eras.
As long as human greed existed, the fight to take and resist being taken repeated endlessly.
That was human history—and we were fated to become part of it.
The Church in the future had been swept into such a war, suffering horrific losses.
Foreknowledge had given me a chance to twist that fate. But the scenes still lingered vividly in my memory.
Countless corpses. Cities reduced to ash. People amid the ruins, having lost everything...
I had to avoid that future at all costs.
'But how?'
The clue might lie in the history of the previous world.
As I said, human history was a history of war.
Rulers vied endlessly for hegemony, and as weapons and technology advanced, the casualties grew exponentially. Wars killed tens of millions in a single blow, unleashing hell on earth.
It seemed like an endless tragedy that would never end as long as humanity existed.
Yet there was a time when the gunfire temporarily ceased.
The Cold War.
Of course, wars still raged in various parts of the world then.
But they paled in comparison to the possibility of a global conflagration that could burn the world.
The half-century conflict between two superpowers filled with ideological malice toward each other.
What allowed that precarious standoff to maintain its bizarre balance until the end?
Many causes, surely... but one was the advent of nuclear weapons.
The moment both sides possessed tools that could destroy the world with human power alone, total war between nuclear powers became virtual suicide.
By holding the means to mutually annihilate each other, war paradoxically didn't happen.
Yes. Strong weapons create deterrence against war.
And in this era, a weapon stronger than nukes existed.
Capital.
Anyone interested in economics might've heard it.
Da-ma-bul-sa—Too Big to Fail.
A term from go, meaning a massive group of stones backed by so many pieces that capturing it spells defeat, so it must be saved at all costs.
In economics, it meant the same.
When a massive corporation or financial institution collapses, countless linked entities could domino like dominoes, so it must be bailed out with public funds.
Overseas, it was called 'Too Big to Fail'—too big to let crash.
Indeed, the bankruptcy of a mega-capital entity doesn't end with that company vanishing.
Astronomical investments through it evaporate, debts and interests turn to paper, and the capital void triggers a tsunami of chain failures.
Before the web of debts shakes the entire financial market, governments often inject public funds to save crisis-hit firms. That's Too Big to Fail.
Of course, chaebols banking on bailouts operated recklessly, privatizing profits from taxpayer-rescued firms—a side effect that sparked controversy. Governments sometimes let firms fail to cut out the cancer.
Anyway, the point was this.
Mega-capital holds importance beyond its face value—like a pillar.
In modern credit economies, companies are entangled in astronomical investments and loans beyond their assets.
If a key one collapses, the whole financial market shakes.
'Especially if it reaches top-ten megacorp scale, comparable to nations...'
In the worst case, one falling could collapse the global economy.
Because the intertwined interests, investments, debts, and financial bubbles create astronomical scale.
That was why wars between megacorps rarely happened.
Even if you toppled a rival, the fallout could drag you down too.
They were deterrence by their very existence.
I said to Celestina,
"Our new goal is to turn Tessellation Investment into one of those companies."
The answer I'd arrived at after deep thought.
Achieve capital so massive no one dares wage war.
That money was direct power, but also a magnet for debts and investments.
If we grew to top-ten megacorp scale or equivalent, our fall would harm everyone...
'No one—not even Leviathan—would rashly start a war.'
And the stage? The free global financial investment market.
No interference or monopolies to worry about.
"........."
As my explanation ended, Celestina looked dazed, lost in thought.
Just moments ago, she'd been grilling me fiercely about continuing to meet Ronan despite rejecting his proposal.
Now, she seemed to have cleanly forgotten it.
The poised, elegant heiress making such a dopey face.
A expression I'd never seen on her before.
It meant my idea was that absurd.
She stammered, "Eve, did you just... say... we're growing Tessellation... to top-ten megacorp level?"
"Yes. Spot on."
"That's..."
Her face was still full of disbelief.
Understandable—she was the top expert in this field.
She knew better than anyone how insane and delusional my plan was.
Top-ten megacorps. The true lords of capital ruling this world.
Forces operating economies on a national scale.
They were incomparable to other giants.
Tessellation Investment's current rank: 37th.
Numerically, just 27 steps to megacorp—but reality was worlds apart.
The top 100 rankings were like mountaineering. The higher you climbed, the exponentially more effort per step. The gap between 100th and 50th was smaller than between 30th and 20th.
And above the top ten... an insurmountable wall.
Her reaction made perfect sense.
"...Eve. Even so, that's... impossible. It's not a gap you can bridge with effort alone."
But I said once more,
"Maybe. But I've seen the future—nothing's impossible, right?"
"......!"
Her eyes widened instantly.
She finally grasped what I meant.
"No way..."
Future knowledge was a weapon.
But its value depended entirely on the user.
To some, just lottery-level luck.
But to someone who could truly leverage it...
'Way beyond lotto.'
In financial markets, was there a stronger edge than knowing the future?
That was why, upon gaining foresight, this was my first idea.
Dominate via investment to become an untouchable behemoth.
"With my future knowledge and your investment prowess, Cella sis—impossible's off the table, no?"
Of course, even growing capital massively, reaching true top-ten might be unlikely.
But nearing that level? Maybe doable.
Having heard me out, Celestina froze like she'd been struck by lightning.
Her emotions played across her face.
"Th-that's... even so..."
A sound like common sense shattering.
The plan was so outlandish she wanted to refute it immediately...
Yet her instincts sensed its feasibility.
Her dazed eyes regained focus.
"........."
Her red eyes, now composed, fixed on me intently.
Still traces of bewilderment.
But unmistakable desire shone too.
I thought to myself,
'That's right.'
No matter how generous Celestina acted toward me, if she truly lacked ambition, she couldn't have become president of a world-class investment firm. Nor earned the title of Oberシュ's white shark.
So I knew she'd never oppose this plan.
I grinned brightly. "What do you think? Not a bad idea, huh?"
But instead of the praise I'd hoped for, an oddly out-of-left-field question came back.
"Eve, how much do you trust me?"
"Huh?"
"You know the Church has no spare funds right now. Right?"
I nodded. Hospital operations alone strained the budget.
She continued,
"Then all future investments and profits go to Tessellation. Even if your predictions succeed, the gains come to me. So the one ascending to a throne of this world won't be the Radiance Church, but Tessellation. It's an investment plan in name, but you personally gain little, no?"
"Hm... I'd get to call the queen of the world my friend?"
Celestina's face turned suspiciously enigmatic again.
"What if I betray you later? If I don't act as you wish—what then?"
"Huh? Cella sis... betraying me? Pfft, heh..."
The question was so ridiculous I couldn't hold back and started chuckling.
If I could tell her what Celestina had invested for my sake in the future, she'd know how laughable that question sounded.
Finally stifling my laughter, I replied,
"Joking aside. Hm... If Cella sis betrayed me, I'd just have to accept it as 'my fate' or whatever."
"......"
Her eyes bored into me for a while, then softened into a smile.
And she said,
"Eve, you really... make me so greedy. Every time, always."
Then a calculating expression.
A glint of something almost dangerous passed through her eyes before she continued,
"Waiting for the harvest... is getting harder by the day."
"Huh?"
"........."
I parroted back, not grasping the meaning, but she just smacked her lips and said no more.
So I tilted my head briefly.
'...Talking about future investments?'