Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Chairman Jang Sugi was flustered.
It was because his voice had trembled.
It was absurd.
The great Jang Sugi trembling in front of a young man.
He had never imagined it would turn out like this.
He had been in a situation where he had almost given up.
But after meeting Kim Deoksu, a desire he did not have before had appeared.
He wanted to retire while being applauded.
He wanted to grow the businesses he had built while staying up all night at Goguryeo Ayeon.
There were still countless ideas inside his head.
The humiliation of being scammed.
The sense of betrayal from being deceived by someone who had been like a younger brother.
Trying to retire because of that had been foolish.
Kim Deoksu had been right.
He had to do something.
After experiencing the thrill of throwing a punch at Beomsu’s face, he wanted to fight even more.
He wanted Beomsu to kneel before him and apologize.
Jang Sugi desperately hoped that Kim Deoksu would choose him.
He smirked inwardly.
It felt like confessing to his first love and waiting for the answer.
I never expected the chairman’s voice to tremble.
If it trembled, it meant he was that desperate.
I thought he had already given up and had no will left.
And honestly, I thought he had already expected this to some extent.
During our conversation, I had already said that I was leaning toward the chairman’s side.
“Ahem. Why are you taking so long?”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Was it because we had such an honest conversation?
The chairman immediately started speaking casually.
It didn’t feel unpleasant.
It actually felt like we had become a little closer.
“I will send the voting rights of the shares I hold to Youngpo.”
“Hm… thank you. Honestly, I was worried because I caused that assault incident for nothing. I wondered if that might ruin everything.”
“The assault charge did have a big influence.”
“Really? That could have been a disaster. I’m sorry. Something like that won’t happen again. Even though I caused such an unpleasant incident, thank you for choosing Youngpo.”
“Ah, you misunderstood what I meant. I don’t fully understand it myself, but when I saw you land that punch so cleanly, I felt refreshed. And I could see your determination to win this fight. That’s why I chose Youngpo.”
There was also another reason I could not say out loud.
It was because of the pleasant scent I smelled when I said I would hand it over to Youngpo.
When I imagined handing it to Goguryeo Ayeon, the chrysanthemum and lily scent felt strangely uncomfortable.
So I did not want to give it to that side.
If I actually handed it over there, we might make money, but there was no telling what would happen to Goguryeo Ayeon.
Like the scent of chrysanthemums, it might end up holding a funeral.
“Really? That’s unexpected. But after throwing that punch, I also wanted to win even more. I developed the determination that I absolutely cannot lose.”
“Assault is bad, but… you did well.”
“Hahaha.”
Chairman Jang Sugi laughed.
“With the shares we have now, we can dismiss Chairman Choi Beomsu’s directors and have you take the position of CEO.”
“Does Mirae Securities hold that much?”
“We gathered more shares separately from Beomhan Resources. Goguryeo Ayeon might try to buy more shares as well.”
“Thorough as always. How much did you collect?”
“An additional 2.5 percent.”
“That much?”
Honestly, I was surprised too.
When I asked a while ago, the assistant manager had said it was 0.8 percent.
But that had only been his portion.
The rest of the team had secured more.
And even after that day, despite the stock hitting the upper limit, they continued collecting shares.
“Chairman, since we’ve gathered enough shares now, how about calling an extraordinary shareholders meeting right away?”
“We should. No reason to delay. We’ll open the shareholders meeting immediately and dismiss Choi Beomsu.”
“Understood. If it’s not rude, may I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“If you become the CEO, what will you do?”
I was curious.
What kind of plan the chairman had.
“First, I will merge Goguryeo Ayeon and Youngpo. Then we must immediately begin a project to strengthen Goguryeo Ayeon’s competitiveness again. That is the most urgent issue. It wasn’t like this when I was there, but Beomsu was too easily swayed by the people around him. Beomsu… he is better than anyone when it comes to carrying out orders, but he is easily influenced and very greedy. Even Beomsu’s father, the previous chairman, worried about that. To me… I almost started talking about unnecessary things again.”
The relationship between the two seemed far deeper and more complicated than I knew.
“By the way, did you happen to serve in the National Intelligence Service or military intelligence when you were in the army?”
“Why suddenly ask that?”
“When I talk with you, I feel like I reveal my inner thoughts too easily.”
“Really? I don’t have such an ability.”
But I do have the ability to smell scents.
“After hearing what you said, Chairman, I don’t think we need to worry about Goguryeo Ayeon’s performance.”
“Heh heh, thank you for trusting me.”
“Not at all. I look forward to working with you.”
“Good.”
I hung up the phone.
Everything was going well.
It was almost too smooth, which made me uneasy.
But I trusted the scent.
Since I chose Youngpo, Youngpo, Goguryeo Ayeon, and I would all achieve the best possible outcome.
Director Kim Yugeon of Soft Investment was in a suite at the five star Imperial Hotel in Yeouido.
He was not there for rest.
It was for work.
When conducting top secret projects, they carried out operations in discreet places outside like this for security reasons.
At the chairman’s order, he was carrying out a mergers and acquisitions project here.
Strictly speaking, it was closer to a takeover than a merger.
Kim Yugeon sat at the desk looking at the monitor, his face full of confidence.
“There’s not much time left now…”
Victory was right in front of him.
The target was the acquisition of Goguryeo Ayeon.
The project had progressed in stages.
Stage one.
Separating the affiliations of Goguryeo Ayeon and Youngpo through Choi Beomsu.
Stage two.
The fall of Choi Beomsu.
Stage three.
Splitting Goguryeo Ayeon into separate entities and selling them.
Investment capital.
One trillion won.
Final target profit.
Ten trillion won.
Profit rate.
One thousand percent.
The goal was a tenfold return.
Kim Yugeon once again felt that the chairman was truly incredible.
Just like stocks or business, the most important thing was selling.
The profit was determined by how much you sold for.
What made Chairman Seong Jeongui incredible was that he had already secured all the companies that would buy the pieces.
All they had to do was seize Goguryeo Ayeon.
And Goguryeo Ayeon was progressing exactly as planned by using Choi Beomsu, who wanted to escape from Jang Sugi’s shadow.
Kim Yugeon purchased the convertible bonds issued by Goguryeo Ayeon.
Then he provided funds to Goguryeo Ayeon using the shares owned by Choi Beomsu as collateral.
Choi Beomsu used that money to secure more shares than Youngpo.
Just like when he worked under Jang Sugi, Choi Beomsu carried out orders well.
Everything had been progressing smoothly as planned.
It seemed like it would proceed without much tension.
Chairman Jang Sugi of Youngpo did not seem to have the will to fight either.
But Kim Deoksu shook the board.
He suddenly appeared and acquired Beomhan Resources.
Losing Beomhan Resources and the startup shares that had been sold off together with it was a fatal mistake.
But Kim Yugeon did not despair.
Since Kim Deoksu had entered this game, he wanted to gift him failure and despair.
Only if he failed could he block the chairman’s interest in him.
Kim Yugeon had prepared a big gift for Kim Deoksu.
Once Kim Deoksu took Beomhan Resources, it was obvious he would enter this game.
And judging by his personality, he would stand with Jang Sugi of Youngpo rather than Choi Beomsu.
So he told Choi Beomsu to secure even more shares.
Especially to secure at least six percent more than Youngpo.
That was a measure considering the five percent shares held by Kim Deoksu.
If Choi Beomsu secured six percent, Kim Deoksu’s shares would lose their value.
That was the first gift.
He had also prepared a second gift.
He told Choi Beomsu to visit Kim Deoksu and offer to buy the shares for two thousand.
That would buy time.
Of course, while continuing to collect shares.
“Should I actually thank Kim Deoksu for this?”
If he thought about it, Kim Deoksu was someone to be thankful for.
Because of him, it had become easier to trap Choi Beomsu.
The funds needed to purchase six percent of shares.
Of course Choi Beomsu did not have that money.
Kim Yugeon lent him the money using his shares as collateral.
The condition was three months without interest.
But after three months, an eight percent interest rate.
He accepted the money eagerly because of the three months without interest.
He did not think about how the eight percent interest would tighten around his neck.
Well, he probably thought he could settle everything within three months and repay it.
But the future rarely unfolds as expected.
The winner of this confrontation would be himself.
Kim Yugeon held two percent of the shares.
Considering the shares secured by Choi Beomsu, his victory was certain.
Victory was right in front of him, yet he felt regret.
He wanted to deliver an even bigger blow to Kim Deoksu.
But nothing came to mind.
Let’s endure it this time.
After all, Kim Deoksu’s loss would eventually become his gain.
Because Mirae Securities, where Kim Deoksu stood, would eventually become his.
And if Kim Deoksu remained there, he might even become one of his subordinates.
Maybe even his toy.
There was no need to hurt something that might become his toy.
Now the only thing left was to dismiss Youngpo’s directors through the extraordinary shareholders meeting and appoint new directors.
Those new directors would not be Choi Beomsu’s people.
They would be his.
Of course Choi Beomsu believed they were his people.
Through them, Choi Beomsu would be expelled on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust.
Then a new CEO system would be established.
After that, the company would be split into more than ten entities and sold.
But how did the chairman secure buyers?
Goguryeo Ayeon was an important company.
It would not be easy to split and sell it.
But Chairman Seong Jeongui’s power would make it possible.
That was not something he needed to worry about.
Kim Yugeon wanted to become someone like Seong Jeongui, who possessed enormous wealth and invisible power.
He imagined the perfect ending.
A net profit of ten trillion.
As expected, the real money comes from splitting companies and selling them.
Foolish Kim Deoksu had chosen an idealist like Jang Sugi of Youngpo.
But he was different.
While imagining the perfect ending, his phone rang.
“This is Kim Yugeon.”
“It’s me.”
“Yes, Chairman. Everything is proceeding without problems.”
“No problems… Kim Deoksu holds 7.5 percent of the shares, yet there are no problems…”
“What? That can’t be possible.”
“Are you doubting my words?”
“I, I’m sorry, Chairman.”
“Director Kim Yugeon. You’re not doing things carelessly just because you have somewhere to return to, are you? Remember your original intention. Didn’t you say you wanted to become the best? The best.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Think carefully about what you must do to become the best.”
“I will remember that.”
“Do not disappoint me this time.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
After hanging up, Kim Yugeon called Choi Beomsu.
“It’s me.”
“What is it?”
“They say the Youngpo side has secured more shares than us.”
“If that happens…”
“No need for long talk. From now on, secure shares by any means necessary. Also secure the voting rights of minority shareholders.”
“Th, the funds…”
“You don’t need to worry about funds.”
“Thank you.”
“No need for thanks. We’re people on the same boat. Also, we will turn every problematic matter related to Chairman Jang Sugi into news articles. If you have related materials, send them.”
“Well… his private life is quite clean…”
“Is that so? Then it can’t be helped. We’ll just make it not clean from now on.”
“To that extent…”
“Chairman Choi Beomsu. We are at war right now. If we lose, we die. Do you know what we urgently need to do? We need to kill Jang Sugi and bury him.”
…
Choi Beomsu felt a chilling coldness in Kim Yugeon’s voice.
It was a coldness he had never felt before.
“I’ll handle the media side, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
“Understood.”
After hanging up, Kim Yugeon called reporters he usually kept well greased.
He asked them to write some very good articles about Chairman Jang Sugi of Youngpo.
And he told them to link Jang Sugi and Kim Deoksu together well.
Articles about Chairman Jang Sugi of Youngpo began appearing one after another in newspapers and on the news.
Most of them were negative, raising suspicions about him.
A former employee claiming embezzlement.
A business partner claiming he was abused.
And stories about Deoksu also appeared.
They portrayed him negatively, calling him the godfather of derivatives such as futures and options and making him look like a reckless speculator.
The reason was simple.
To secure even a little more shares.
Now the minority shareholders were the key.
They needed to gather their voting rights.
Minority shareholders were very sensitive to morality.
Because of the flood of articles, they began viewing Youngpo and Kim Deoksu with suspicion.
They interpreted it as a management takeover driven by greed for money.
“Public opinion is worsening. Minority shareholders are all leaning toward Goguryeo Ayeon. The share gap is rapidly shrinking. It may not even remain at one percent.”
“Hm. That’s a problem.”
“This must be Chairman Choi Beomsu’s doing, right?”
“No. Beomsu isn’t this much of a wreck. When he criticized me with his own mouth last time, that was about his limit. He’s too timid to push me into a corner like this. There must be another force behind it.”
“Another force?”
That meant there was someone hidden behind the scenes.
But I was not worried.
The investigation into the hidden force was already underway.
She was handling it.
During her time in the military, she was a communications company commander who tracked targets more secretly than veteran reconnaissance soldiers.
Her nickname was the Smiling Wolf.
Once she bit into her prey, she never let go.