Strike First
“Ugh.” I groaned, stretching my limbs as I got out of bed. With half-closed eyes, I picked up my phone and opened Suming’s stream. Since I had thrown an eleven-hour bomb of a donation mission at her before going straight to sleep, I wondered if she was still live.
“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better...”
“Every day, I am becoming richer and richer...”
“Every day, I am becoming healthier and healthier...”
“...”
Pfft. The sight of her staring blankly at the screen with completely unfocused eyes was as eerie as a scene from a horror movie. That woke me right up. Checking the notice in the bottom-left corner of the screen, it looked like there was still an hour left until the end of the stream.
I slipped my phone into my pocket, went to the living room, and brewed some coffee.
“Mmm.” I sipped my coffee, sitting on the balcony and losing myself in thought. Today was, without fail, another peaceful day.
Ring! At the loud, ringing sound, I pulled out my phone and answered.
“This is Kim Sung-woo.”
"Hello, Young Master. This is Park Ji-soo, Team Leader of the Strategic Planning Office. Do you have a moment to speak?"
What made this man call me first? Tilting my head in curiosity, I continued the conversation.
“Yes, what is it?”
"By any chance, are you familiar with Kang Minwook, the Mayor of Seoul?"
Of course I knew him. Wasn't he that pathetic excuse of a Seoul Mayor who pulled the strings behind the scenes with Jang Do-hyung during the Unilabs incident? The sudden mention of that familiar name sent an ominous chill down my spine.
"It appears he is harboring a deep grudge over the Unilabs incident."
“Is he plotting some sort of scheme?”
"From what we have confirmed, he has been meeting frequently with short-selling speculative forces recently."
“Short-selling speculative forces, you say?”
Short-selling speculators. What kind of nonsense is he trying to pull now by meeting with those parasites? Come to think of it, didn't he just say the Mayor has a grudge against me?
“Don't tell me they're planning a massive short-selling campaign against Leonplay?”
"Circumstantially, that seems to be the most likely scenario, Young Master."
“Hmm.” I had once used short-selling forces to swing an iron hammer at Unilabs. The blow I dealt completely shattered the entire blueprint Mayor Kang Minwook had drawn up. He must be absolutely furious about that. Just how enraged was he to forget that Taewoong Group is standing right behind me?
“Have you reported this to Grandfather?”
"Not yet."
“Good job. There's no need to report it to him.”
"...Mayor Kang Minwook is a politician with more influence than you might think. Will you be alright?"
Of course he has influence; he's the Mayor of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The status of the Seoul Mayor is so powerful that ordinary National Assembly members can't even compare. There's a reason many assemblymen aim for the Seoul Mayor's seat as a stepping stone to the presidency. On top of that, Kang Minwook is a veteran among veterans who has served as an assemblyman five times. That's exactly why, if Taewoong Group steps in directly, things will get incredibly messy. Kang Minwook knows this, which is why he's targeting Leonplay specifically.
“No problem. If there's any new movement from Kang Minwook's side, please let me know.”
"Understood. I will contact you immediately."
Click. I hung up and leaned back in my chair, calculating the possibilities. Typically, short selling occurs when a stock is overvalued or when major bad news breaks, leading to massive sell-offs. But what about Leonplay? The stock isn't overvalued, and there are no major bad news waiting to explode.
Tapping my fingers on the desk, I kept thinking. What on earth is it? A massive short-selling campaign is high-risk, high-reward. Unless Mayor Kang Minwook is a brainless idiot, he wouldn't design such a scheme without a sure-fire trump card. What am I missing? Is there a fatal flaw in Leonplay?
Click. The misaligned gears began to fall into place. Now I get it. The picture Mayor Kang Minwook is painting. Going back to when I first acquired Leonplay, the outline became clear.
Choi Jae-young...
A massive financial audit and tax audit. Choi Jae-young fell for those two bluffs, panicked, and sold all his shares to me for forty billion won. After the change in leadership, Leonplay succeeded at an unprecedented speed. Thanks to that, his incompetence was laid bare to the world, and he must have suffered quite a bit. So, Choi Jae-young is definitely someone who would harbor hostility toward me. Wouldn't Mayor Kang Minwook have approached such an appetizing prey?
“Interesting,” I muttered in a low voice. The fog cleared, and everything became crystal clear. Kang Minwook will launch a massive tax and financial audit when public attention is focused on Leonplay the most. If that happens, all the embezzlement and corruption Choi Jae-young committed in the past will be exposed. After that, things will obviously get very annoying. My innocence would be proven through legal battles, but I can already see how the media would drag my name and Leonplay through the mud in the process. Once they build negative public opinion, they'll use short selling to bleed Leonplay dry, just like I did to Unilabs.
Then, when will public attention be at its peak? Probably during the upcoming collaboration with Yu Minha. Talk about impeccable timing.
“He actually used his brain for once.” In short selling, the defender is always at a massive disadvantage compared to the attacker. The defender has to put on all kinds of shows to protect the stock price, causing the defense costs to rise exponentially. But all of this assumes I'd just sit back and take the hit blindly.
I grinned. In this case, there is only one solution. “The best defense is a good offense.” Choi Jae-young, and Kang Minwook.
On one hand, I could understand them. It's already frustrating enough to sell a company for dirt cheap, but to watch that company thrive and see its market cap multiply several times over must be absolutely infuriating. As for the other guy, I completely shattered his ambitiously planned Ponzi scheme, so he must have broken a sweat trying to clean up the mess. It's only natural they'd have a seizure at the mere sight of me. But that's their problem, and this is mine. Actually, this is perfect. I'll take this opportunity to smash their skulls with an iron hammer so they can never even dream of recovering.
A long time had passed since all his plans fell apart. He had managed to cut his losses and wrap up the incident by letting Jang Do-hyung take the fall, but cleaning up the aftermath had cost an astronomical amount of money and time.
Crack. Just thinking of the culprit behind all this, Kim Sung-woo, made his teeth grind. It infuriated him even more to see that arrogant bastard strutting around as if he owned the world. But that wouldn't last much longer.
“The audit of Leonplay and the short-selling campaign are scheduled to begin soon, Mayor.” The secretary standing before me announced that all preparations for Leonplay's downfall were complete.
Soon, a massive tax and financial audit would be launched against Leonplay. A massive audit alone would breed anxiety among shareholders. If we feed the fire with the right media play, it will burn even hotter. It will burn as spectacularly as the public's interest in Leonplay.
What kind of face would that bastard make when Leonplay fell in the exact same way he brought down Unilabs? Just thinking about it brought a natural smile to my face. The massive audit would be the opening shot for Leonplay's stock price plunge.
“Make sure our side is fully prepared as well.” At my command, the secretary nodded and left.
Of course, a simple attack like this wouldn't ruin Kim Sung-woo. Even if a mere company like Leonplay went under, it wouldn't be much of a blow to a bastard like him. But it was certain to leave a massive crack in his lofty pride. I had gone through countless backroom deals, met with numerous speculative forces, and consulted with experts to design this. Even if everything went sideways later, the damage wouldn't reach me. There were more than enough scapegoats to cut loose. I just needed to short the stock at the right time and pocket the profits. Not only that, I had pooled as much capital as possible for this operation. The financial losses I suffered because of Kim Sung-woo would be more than made up for.
Click. The door opened, and the secretary returned.
“Mayor, it has begun.” The operation had begun.
Once the audit started, the accounting fraud and various corruptions Choi Jae-young had committed would make front-page news. At the same time, the short-selling volume we prepared would flood the market, signaling the beginning of the end. Until Kim Sung-woo's innocence was proven, the stock price plunge would be unavoidable, and Leonplay would be torn to shreds as prey for the media. By the time the truth came out, Leonplay would already be in tatters—my silver tongue could guarantee that. I would simply pocket the profits, cut the tail, and slip away.
“Haha.” Finally, the time had come to give that naive brat a bitter taste of reality.