It’s My Responsibility - 2
This is Bigman.
“....”
Jeong Yu-ri froze.
The lunatic who had once filled her with fear and caution had appeared again. Her legs rattled under the desk, and sweat broke out in the hand gripping the phone.
'I’d nearly managed to pin down the identity of that incomprehensible existence, but then it all dissolved beneath the disaster called the bill. So for a while, I let it slip from my mind.'
“....”
And yet.
This time, the other side had called her.
That fact was a little frightening.
'How in the world did he get this office number... No, I was the one trying to track Bigman down. If I can find him, then he can find me too.'
Jeong Yu-ri remembered the shredded Bigman Risk Report.
If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back.
The weakness of capital tracing meant that her side, the one operating under its real name, was actually the more vulnerable party. And if he knew what they were after, there was only one deal he would want.
Once she realized that, her heartbeat began to settle little by little.
'Did he come to acquire the Romantic Drive IP and Studio Romance?'
In effect, that would make Bigman the monopolist of Korea’s VTuber industry. But with the entire market already being flattened under the hands of all kinds of monsters, that hardly counted as a problem.
Bigman was the best possible option for Romantic Drive. In a situation packed with variables, a market-disrupting variable might actually be the safest place to land.
So this deal would benefit both sides.
He would take a finished IP,
and she would carry out her responsibility.
What remained was...
To negotiate as hard as possible so that he paid a fair price.
'At least 500 million won. If he names anything lower, I’ll do everything I can to talk him up. If we throw the sale price away for pennies, even Studio Romance’s remaining brand value will collapse completely...'
Romantic Drive’s value was precarious. The core of the project—the second-generation members and the various IP rights—had been preserved, but the budget and senior staff were all missing.
Honestly, if he got aggressive and said he’d take it for 50 million won, she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Then she would have to bow her head. That was the only kind of negotiation she had left.
Bigman, the most notorious market-disrupting creature in history, couldn’t possibly not know that.
'Still, I’ll persuade him as much as I can. That will be my "final responsibility."'
Jeong Yu-ri made her decision. And with the conclusion already settled in her heart, she opened her mouth to get a confirmation from Bigman.
“What can I do for you?”
As expected, Bigman went straight to the point.
“I will acquire Studio Romance.”
“I see.”
“I’ll give you 1 billion won. We’ll close the deal today, and Studio Romance will be acquired under the Big Plan A Company corporate umbrella.”
“....”
Negotiation over.
Jeong Yu-ri could go home now.
....
1 billion won?
....
Really?
....
'If it’s 1 billion won, the division head is going to do a somersault in the air before slapping down the approval stamp. The paperwork will probably all be done in a single day, too.'
Had she misheard him?
....
She must have misheard.
Jeong Yu-ri cleared her throat.
“I’m sorry. The connection must be bad, so I think I heard you wrong. By any chance, the conditions you’re thinking of are...?”
“1 billion won.”
“....”
“I’ll give you 1 billion won.”
“1 billion won?”
“Yes.”
....
What the...
'...Where do you just toss double the money out before even negotiating?'
Jeong Yu-ri clutched her head.
Her grandfather’s words—“You have to sell things at a fair price”—kept echoing in her mind. But he had never told her to become a peddler hawking jade floor mats.
Still...
1 billion was absurdly good. At that level, she could even use it later as a positive portfolio entry.
'Should I just sell it?'
But she forced her greed back down.
She thought it through coldly.
The Bigman sitting on the other end of the line was not a competitor. He was a buyer looking to acquire. So she needed to guide things so that both sides could profit as much as possible; she couldn’t fleece him simply because he didn’t know better.
'I think I’ve badly miscalculated the market value.'
With that thought in mind, she said, “I think it would be better to renegotiate face-to-face. I’ll prepare a location as soon as possible, so...”
“Is it too cheap?”
“Pardon?”
“Then I’ll give you 2 billion won.”
“....”
“Were you perhaps thinking of around 4 billion won? Bold of you.”
....
It had doubled.
Then it had doubled again.
'Is he seriously insane?'
In the end, Jeong Yu-ri spoke bluntly.
“...This is too much.”
“From an investor’s perspective, isn’t this a good deal? You can use it as a future performance metric, and there really isn’t a better condition for preserving brand value.”
“You knew all that and said it anyway? You were joking just to tease me, weren’t you?”
“I’m serious.”
“Pardon?”
Bigman answered calmly.
“Why are you so concerned with responsibility? I’m just taking ‘efficient’ results from a crazy market anomaly with no lingering resentment, at a price below market value. It’s nobody’s fault.”
....
Jeong Yu-ri replied,
“Selling something for several times less than its real value is... not the attitude of a seller. That’s not investment; that’s speculation. It’s fraud.”
....
Bigman said,
“Do you know my name?”
“No.”
“If you’d worked with private investigators or agents, you could’ve figured it out pretty quickly. Just tracing capital flows wouldn’t tell you, would it?”
“That’s illegal.”
....
Jeong Yu-ri said,
“M&A is legal, but bringing in hired muscle to threaten people isn’t. Tracking capital records is legal, but having people shadow someone is illegal.”
....
“And deliberately fleecing a buyer who misunderstood the market value is, to put it mildly, grounds for embezzlement.”
....
“So I’m not doing it. Other investors might, but I won’t. Even if you want to act all nice while you’re basically a back-alley anteater...”
Jeong Yu-ri let out a sigh—one mixed with self-loathing and something close to affection.
“...I won’t do it.”
“I see.”
“So let’s renegotiate. There seems to be a misunderstanding.”
“No. There isn’t.”
“Pardon?”
Bigman said it without a hint of hesitation.
“I know the situation at Studio Romance. Its actual revenue and capital flow are blocked, so its financial value is basically zero, and the senior-level talent would’ve already gone to Arc Network.”
....
A brutally accurate diagnosis.
If anyone from Studio Romance had been there, they might have burst into tears. That was how mercilessly precise his assessment was.
But he said,
“Even so, I’ll still give you 1 billion won.”
“Why?”
“For a market to exist, there has to be someone else running alongside it, doesn’t there? Even within the same company, there has to be competition. Otherwise, all you get is distorted content.”
....
Jeong Yu-ri said,
“You’re talking as if you aren’t part of that market.”
“I’m not. I just give money when those people ask me for it. I don’t want anything from the market, and I don’t desire anything from it. I only want to see one thing.”
....
“A world where everyone lives well together.”
....
“So I’ll give you 1 billion won.”
....
“That’s all I can give.”
....
The two of them fell silent for a moment.
....
....
It was Jeong Yu-ri who spoke first.
“Good deal. Thank you.”
“Likewise.”
....
Then, all at once, she asked the question that had been nagging at her ever since she started tracing Bigman. For some reason, he didn’t feel frightening anymore.
“So...”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever played the lottery?”
....
Bigman sounded genuinely impressed.
“You got that far just by tracing capital through financial statements and activity records? That’s remarkable. There wouldn’t be direct proof, so I suppose it was half intuition.”
....
“That’s right. It was me.”
“I see.”
Bigman asked,
“Do you know my name now?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I wrote your risk report, and it got shredded right before it could go up to the executive meeting. I only caught a blurry look at your face, and I don’t really remember it. After that, I didn’t even have time to look at any of the related records.”
“Oh dear. That must have been rough. That’s the kind of hardship you go through when you work with a sense of ownership. I understand.”
....
Jeong Yu-ri suddenly felt strangely hollow.
The one person she had been more wary of than anyone else,
was understanding her better than anyone else.
'Was I chasing after someone whose identity, even if exposed, wouldn’t have mattered in the first place...'
He wasn’t a market-disrupting variable hiding behind a mask.
He wasn’t a monster running wild on the fuel of emotion.
He was just...
a lunatic living exactly however he pleased,
without any particular intention of hurting anyone.
....
So she muttered,
“You probably have your own share of hardships, too.”
“No. I’m fine. More importantly, this has become a rather long private conversation. I’ll send a representative immediately.”
....
Jeong Yu-ri lowered her head while still holding the phone.
“Thank you.”
“Not at all. Then I’ll be going.”
Click.
....
The call ended.
“...I’m sorry for misunderstanding you.”
Jeong Yu-ri set the phone down. Then she lifted her handset again and almost typed “May lottery winners” into the search bar. It was just a sudden burst of curiosity.
....
But in the end, she stopped.
He wasn’t dangerous.
He wasn’t someone who would distort the market.
So...
All she had to do was accept it.
'It’s not like I was even the one he needed to convince in the first place.'
That was how Jeong Yu-ri settled it in her mind.
Her work was done.
The RD fandom community had become a heap of ashes.
Burned,
and burned,
and burned,
and burned again until...
at last, it had turned completely white with ash.
Despair.
Sorrow.
Pain.
Rage.
Resignation.
Wherever all those things had passed, only emptiness remained.
[Notice] Title: Post the shitpost pics, go go go go
[Notice] Title: From here on out, this is Manchester....
[General] Title: Why the hell isn’t the mod deleting the shitpost pics?
[General] Title: Wow, look at that post rate lol. We’re doomed lol.
[Live] Title: Things to buy (ham, scallions, cheese, onions)
[General] Title: Setri, why aren’t you coming into the chatroom?
They had let go of everything.
A land of despair, fully enlightened.
And from that place, a sprout of hope began to rise.
[General] Title: !!!!Breaking: RD Big Plan acquisition confirmed!!!
“You fucking son of a bitch, that was real!!! Check the official SNS!!! Aaaahhh!!! I believed it!!! I believed in you, Bigman!!! Holy shit, Romantic Drive is coming back from the dead!!! We’re not done!!!”
↳ No cap lol
↳ Holy shit, it’s real? Another official post just went up, whoa.
↳ ??????
↳ For real????? Really?????
They saw it.
They confirmed it.
The mercy of God.
....
Bigman.
“Bigman...”
Main Notice: Studio Romance, Romantic Drive activity resumption, and Big Plan collaboration notice
-??
-It’s really Bigman.
-???
-Is that seriously true???
-Wow, holy shit hahahahahahaha
-Hey, mod, wipe the best-posts board clean, all of it lolololol
-The shitpost I posted yesterday still hasn’t been cleared lololol
-We’re not dead!!!
-Holy shit, Bigman is here!?!?
-Wow, fuck, fuck!!!!
-Bigman
-Are they really reviving it like this?!
-Bigman
-Bigman
Ah, Bigman.
He was light and salt.
And he was the savior.