Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Eve of the Storm (3)
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Rewind the clock just a bit, to the early evening before the sun had fully set.
Kim Han-seong, the president of the Korea Development Bank, had summoned me in a tone bordering on command.
The sudden, one-sided meeting that ensued was laced with irritation from the start.
“Hey, it’s damn hard to get a glimpse of the next chairman of Ammunition Group. A young guy like you keeps acting all high and mighty—what’s up with that?”
“There’s still the shareholders’ meeting ahead, sir. You can assume I’ve turned down all external engagements, not just yours.”
Was it because he was a high-handed economic bureaucrat?
Even on a first meeting, there was no sign of polite deference.
He poured me a full glass of high-proof sake, as if bestowing it upon a subordinate.
“People in the business world who are too rigid end up breaking. Like a woodcutter swinging a big axe at the trunk. Someone like me, that is.”
His flushed, drunken face and disheveled hair.
The way he carelessly undid his belt at the pants cuff screamed it from every part of his body, not just his mouth.
He was the one with power.
So... I should bow first.
“...Busy people find nights short and time precious, don’t they? A long preamble just tires us both out.”
I had no intention of bowing my head.
Kim Han-seong, the KDB president, swept his rough palm over the tatami floor with a displeased expression.
It didn’t take long for the awkward silence to break.
“I heard you requested that the Korea Development Bank sell off its stakes in Ammunition Group affiliates.”
“That’s correct.”
“You’re quick to admit it. So, what’s the scheme? Especially with the shareholders’ meeting right around the corner.”
I responded to his probing with silence.
He seemed hot-tempered and began tightening the noose around me, step by step.
“It’s not just about consolidating control—the affiliates you’re buying are all over the place, and you don’t look like you’re swimming in cash either.”
“......”
“No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t add up. Don’t you agree?”
His words dripped with insinuation.
Just as he couldn’t read my intentions, I couldn’t easily decipher his thoughts either.
Simple self-aggrandizement? Or... some connection to my uncle?
A litmus test as rough as his temperament. I cautiously dropped a single drop of my sample onto it.
“You seem to have a lot of unnecessary curiosity. More than your station warrants, even overstepping it.”
“Heh heh heh... Overstepping my station?”
Kim Han-seong, KDB president, stared at me intently. The once-white litmus paper began turning red, just like his heated face.
“Well, grabbing chaebol leashes with stacks of cash is my job, after all. Especially young pups full of vigor... you’ve got to train them right from the start.”
“Young pup, huh...”
“I saw you eyeing the bone with plenty of meat on it. Your recent moves.”
It was red. Red with clear hostility.
The boundless pride of a financial elite. The desire to wildly swing the sword of power he held.
Normally, warning lights would be flashing and blaring alarms in my head.
“So, young Han, I didn’t hear your answer. What’s on your mind?”
But... right now, in the midst of a bloody war over group succession.
A power-drunk KDB president was nothing more than a mere pebble in my path.
Especially to me, who knew the blunder the Korea Development Bank nearly committed in my previous regression.
I took a sip of the clear sake from my glass and answered his question with another question.
“How many months has it been since you took on the dogcatcher role, President?”
His face crumpled like a wad of paper. Just before his frowning lips could unleash a tirade, I continued.
“From the looks of it, you won’t last long as president. At best, until the end of this month?”
* * * *
The hidden link.
The stakes in numerous subsidiaries tied to Ammunition Group’s control, invisible to the outside world.
These shares, unnoticeable on the surface, were held sometimes by hedge funds, sometimes by pension funds, sometimes by other securities firms.
Like worthless shrubs scattered through a forest, their true value unknown.
‘Chairman, have you been exercising appraisal rights these past few days? They’re offering a 15% premium, and most are saying okay without a fuss... but one holdout keeps jacking up the price.’
Kim Won-cheol had scratched his head and approached me last night.
The binder in his hand bore the blue Korea Development Bank logo, like butterfly wings.
‘If it were a small player like Haeko Asset Management with minimal shares, we could just buy them outright on the market. But this one’s a whale...’
‘Korea Development Bank... Got it. I’ll handle it myself, so keep pushing forward with what you’re doing.’
Kim Won-cheol stared at me with wide eyes.
He didn’t know the details yet, but my sudden confidence seemed to puzzle him.
‘W-what, do you have some dirt on them I don’t know about? Like the president’s illegitimate kid from outside or something?’
‘Dirt. Yes, I do. Though not some story about an unknown youngest child.’
Dirt.
More precisely, not personal dirt on the KDB president, but on the Korea Development Bank as a whole.
I smiled quietly to myself, thinking of this fact that only I, who had glimpsed the future, knew.
And now.
Anger flickered across the face of Kim Han-seong, KDB president, who had maintained his high-handed attitude throughout.
“Ahem, looks like the young punk’s already learned the art of dirty tricks. Got some connections in the National Assembly or Blue House, huh?”
Propping one hand behind him on the cushion, Kim Han-seong pulled a cigarette from his pocket with the other and lit it.
“At best, you’ve got lines to a few senior secretaries. Listen up, you little shit.”
He exhaled smoke toward the floor.
Like an investigator facing a suspect, he slammed his fist on the table, his voice booming.
“The order to leash you clueless chaebol brats comes straight from the VIP! To set the tone early in this administration! Got that, you punk?”
“You’re... badly mistaken. We must’ve been talking past each other.”
“What...?”
“What I’m saying now has nothing to do with any senior secretaries in the Blue House or the VIP or whatever.”
A strange expression.
Like stained glass pieces pieced together filling a cathedral wall, his face held fragments of multiple thoughts.
The absolute power and connections he held so dear. Stunned into bewilderment by this alien language denying it all outright—Kim Han-seong, KDB president.
Without giving him time to think, I pressed on.
About ‘that incident’ I had witnessed from the future.
“The variable that will decide your future isn’t in shipbuilding, President. That devil’s probably hiding in a high-rise on 7th Avenue in Manhattan, wearing an angel’s face.”
At the mention of 7th Avenue in Manhattan, Kim Han-seong recoiled in shock.
How could the heir apparent of a private firm—still so young and green—know about this top-secret preparation?
“H-how do you...!”
His eyes trembled. Doubts and anxiety he couldn’t shake crept in like a rising tide.
The tables had turned.
His shoulders slumped, now meek like a dog awaiting its master’s word.
I opened my mouth, gripping the thick leash in my palm.
“Lehman Brothers. The moment you acquire them, it’s over. For you, this government, and this country.”
* * * *
My officetel near Ammunition Group headquarters.
Exhausted, I slumped onto the sofa and reached for a beer from the fridge when the doorbell rang.
-Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
“I can tell who it is just from the sound now.”
Like elementary kids pranking by ringing and running, pressing it wildly in succession.
The hallway camera showed only the glare of lights reflecting off a bald head.
“YO, Chairman-in-waiting.”
“YO, Deputy Director. What’s with buying this again? I told you we ate at that pricey Japanese place already.”
Kim Won-cheol held a black plastic bag reeking of pork hocks.
Kicking off his shoes haphazardly, he yanked a soju bottle from the fridge and said,
“Heh heh heh... This is for me to eat. Did you even get a proper bite while suffocating on tense talk?”
“You’re a mind reader. Sit down first.”
-Clink!
Two soju glasses clinked in the air, tension melting away into formless ease.
Kim Won-cheol, chomping on a mouthful of pork hock, spoke first.
Right on cue, the TV aired a perfectly timed, relevant broadcast.
-[Breaking News] Korea Development Bank Abandons Lehman Brothers Acquisition.
-[Breaking News] KDB President Kim Han-seong: ‘Lehman’s Total Debt Exceeds 620 Trillion Won... Can’t Disclose Source.’
The news showed Kim Han-seong, who’d been sharing drinks with me just earlier.
The envelope in his hand.
The report I’d written, drawing from future events I’d regressed from, detailed all of Lehman Brothers’ toxic assets.
“And Lehman’s insane debt—that, how’d you know about that?”
“To be the chairman’s vessel, you gotta know it all. You know I’m smart.”
“Ugh, you’re obnoxious. So, that Kim Han-seong guy’s just gonna hand over the Ammunition Group affiliate shares nice and easy?”
“I saved his ass from near-death. Now we just wait for the wire transfer.”
Finishing, I stretched my laced hands toward the ceiling.
Shaking off the stiffness, fatigue from my secret guest visitor settled in. Leaning back and closing my eyes, the TV anchor’s voice filled my ears.
-The failure of Korea Development Bank’s Lehman Brothers acquisition has Wall Street in undisguised panic.
-Lehman remains silent on its excessive debt revelations. Some are even calling this the onset of an economic crisis.
Lehman Brothers.
The Wall Street behemoth set to collapse in just days.
The dinosaur crashing to earth with a thud would unleash a storm across every food chain.
The U.S.-triggered financial crisis, a great economic depression.
“How long you think till the financial crisis hits? We’ve triggered the appraisal rights, but settlement takes time.”
Counting on my fingers.
In the past timeline, the Korea Development Bank’s acquisition pullout was the trigger for Lehman’s bankruptcy.
My intervention had accelerated that decision.
After sufficiently tapping my mental calculator, I wagged my chopsticks and said,
“It won’t take long. History’s changing, after all.”
“What kinda pie-in-the-sky talk is that?”
“Just trust me. Anyway, it lines up perfectly with our situation. Tomorrow, at sunrise, everything gets decided.”