Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Cheolhwa Semiconductor Acquisition Battle (3)
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-Your traffic broadcast, always with you thanks to the sponsorship of Cheolhwa Group. It's 4 p.m.
The car jolted roughly along the rugged road at the foot of Bukhansan Mountain. The driver's face was etched with tension as he cautiously glanced at the rearview mirror.
“Mm...”
A wrinkled face. As deep as those shadows were the years Chairman Seo Guk-cheol had lorded over others.
One wrong move, and an iron ashtray could come flying from the back seat—no surprise there with his temper.
But lately, these past few days.
Chairman Seo Guk-cheol, who had risen from his sickbed, wasn't spewing his old venom quite as wildly.
“Hey, your driving's too rough.”
“S-Sorry, Chairman! I'll fix it right away!”
“Tch... Stop advertising how useless you are. Hey, turn up the radio.”
Click. The dial turned with a sharp sound. Soon, the clear voice of the radio host reached Chairman Seo Guk-cheol's ears as he sat in the back with his eyes closed.
-Lately, the hottest topic on everyone's lips is that the great star of Korea's electronics industry, Cheolhwa Semiconductor, has hit the market.
-That's right. In the acquisition process led by the Industrial Bank, the parties who've shown interest are SA Group and Ammunition Group.
-The Industrial Bank says they'll ensure ironclad fairness in this acquisition, considering Cheolhwa Semiconductor's history and symbolism...
Chairman Seo Guk-cheol waved his right hand dismissively, as if his head ached.
His quick-witted aide signaled the driver to hurriedly lower the volume.
"Look at these bastards playing with national funds—they're nitpicking and throwing their weight around. Fairness, my ass, from trash like them!"
"With all eyes on it, the administration's probably getting involved at the regime level..."
"Rotten scum! Even after we shovel money their way, it's never enough! They never help when it matters. Cough, cough!"
His rising fury threatened to erupt, but Chairman Seo Guk-cheol ended up coughing up blood instead.
Dark red petals of life stained the white handkerchief. Not much time left before it all ran dry.
"Ch-Chairman! To the hospital, quick...!"
"Enough of your whining, you fool. I haven't croaked completely yet."
He reached for a cigarette out of habit, then shook his head.
A long cigarette crumpled in his fist.
A body that could no longer even inhale smoke. Yet the fire of his will burned bright enough still.
Chairman Seo Guk-cheol turned to his aide.
"How's it going with fixing that kid Yoon-seok's registry? Possible?"
"They say bumping it up by two years is no problem. Since he was born overseas, it made things easier."
"So raising him to the adult threshold of twenty is still a stretch."
Looking a bit weary, Chairman Seo Guk-cheol leaned his head against the window.
Gazing at the approaching meeting spot, he spoke.
"Guess we'll have to insert that broker bitch in the middle."
"You mean Miss Yoon-ji...?"
The woman who bore Seo Yun-ji and then promptly passed away.
That's why, in the Seo family of Cheolhwa Group, Seo Yun-ji was treated like "some stray picked up off the street." No affection to hope for—just a tool for cold calculations of profit and loss.
Frowning at the sunlight, Chairman Seo Guk-cheol muttered blankly.
"Yeah. Time for that worthless street rat to earn her keep."
The car had now entered the Hangang Bridge.
The river, reflecting the sunset, shimmered in gold.
As if showing off its most beautiful moment right before plunging into inescapable darkness.
"Heh, guess I should set a table for that Yun-ji bitch too. Her big sis ain't even gonna scrounge table scraps from here on out. Heh heh."
"Chairman, do you mean... those two are connected to your collapse the other day...?"
A suspicion too dangerous for a subordinate to voice outright. His aide carefully chose his words.
Seeing this, Chairman Seo Guk-cheol snorted softly and let out a sigh-mingled final remark. His face mixed anger with something sorrowful.
"When I die, those two stand to gain the most. Natural order of things."
* * * *
If you had to pick the most suffocating chaebol among Korea's giants, Ammunition Group takes the crown without question.
Sure, the recent Ammunition Electronics reform had cleaned up a lot, but the group as a whole still hadn't shaken off its old glory—or infamy.
"How about these sunglasses? Heh... Wore 'em back in my special forces days during overseas training. Back then, girls couldn't take their eyes off me..."
Kim Won-cheol, spouting ridiculous tall tales, looking as sleazy as they come.
Hard to believe how this slippery guy survived the notoriously ruthless old Ammunition Group.
"So, the Spanish royal family's youngest princess says to me, 'Won-cheol, I love you! Run away with me to a place where no one knows us!'"
His brag turning into a cheesy romance flick script. As it veered off-topic, I raised my hand to steer us back.
"Spare me the princess tale. Let's hear about the prince instead. Not Spain—Saudi's Bin Salman."
"What? I'm sharing my beautiful memories, and suddenly that dark-skinned guy's popping up?"
"He's fronting half the funds we need. Makes him better than any princess, no?"
Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman.
Our connection had persisted even after the coup.
Having glimpsed <Cocoa>'s potential, he'd told me he'd spare no investment in Ammunition Group's new ventures.
No meddling in management—just betting on future growth. So Saudi funds were readily available, barring any red flags.
"Fair enough. That princess is probably a potbellied hausfrau like me by now anyway."
"Money doesn't wilt like youth. Anyway... funds are sorted. What about that thing I mentioned last time?"
A while back, I'd tasked Kim Won-cheol with reporting the capital needed for the Cheolhwa Semiconductor acquisition.
Pre-regression, I recalled SA Group's buyout at 3 trillion won.
But that was without Ammunition Group as a bidder—practically a solo deal—so adjustments were needed.
"The funds for Cheolhwa Semiconductor... Ammunition Economic Research Institute estimates around 3.3 trillion won."
"3.3 trillion won."
A 300 billion difference.
Ammunition Group's mere presence jacking it up 10%.
The institute's talent probably nailed it—purely on financial logic.
"Hmm..."
I stared through the detailed report.
Red pen slashed across nagging spots, notes scribbled, before closing the approval stamp.
"Recalculate it. From scratch."
"From scratch?"
"You missed things. Their corporate valuation methods won't hit the mark even in your dreams."
Kim Won-cheol tilted his head, utterly baffled.
A giant question mark floating over him, he protested like I'd wronged him.
"It was originally pegged at 2.8 trillion. That's why I double-checked before submitting."
"Chairman Seo Guk-cheol's ambition. Add every won needed for Cheolhwa Group's second-gen succession on top."
Finger to his lips, Kim Won-cheol pondered deeply.
After a beat, realization dawned on my implication.
He snapped his fingers—question mark flipping to exclamation.
"Ahh, right! That changes everything. Damn, our Chairman's a ghost. So, how precise we needin'?"
"15% over the other side, and we're out. Hit that band, high or low."
The 15% rule.
A quirky twist in this Cheolhwa Semiconductor bid.
If bids differ by 15% or less, they're deemed equal, straight to fairness evaluation.
But we couldn't just bid sky-high either.
Too wide a gap, and they'd drag it out for review.
"Government and Industrial Bank want bids close enough. They'll decide the rest based on public sentiment."
"Yep. Real judgment's on... fairness."
"But doesn't that put Ammunition at a disadvantage? SA's spinning themselves as export pros in electronics."
Fairness—a vague banner.
Behind the glittering stage of grand principles lurks dark backstage scheming.
Someone pulls the rigging strings, dims the lights at will.
Pre-regression, it favored SA outright.
That's why... I needed a joker to flip the board.
A card to draw eyes: executive ethics, morals, group-level crimes.
"Seo Yun-ji... she's a walking problem. Always has been. So..."
Finally catching on, Kim Won-cheol grinned like Buddha.
He'd griped about his workload spiking lately, but I'd piled on more—dispatching him to Ammunition Group's blade: the Audit Team.
"And I loaned the group Audit Team your aide Yoo Se-na for a bit."
* * * *
Yeouido. K Hotel.
A young woman in janitor garb—Yoo Se-na, dispatched from Ammunition Group's Audit Team—spoke with someone behind the hotel kitchen.
"Hah... Our Chairman, really. Why dump this on me?"
She hated it, but duty called. One line from her lord burned in her mind, enough to move her.
'Please, I beg you. Only someone I trust implicitly can handle this.'
Her cheeks flushed faintly.
But her expression soured anyway.
Not the job—just her external partner's presence irked her.
"Top floor. Penthouse. Bet Kim Beom-ho and Geumma's Seo Yun-ji are lost in the haze right now."
His long suit hid it, but tattoos scarred his beefy arms.
From blood-soaked alleys under Myeongdong's thug lord Yoo Tae-chon, he'd long played muscle for a detective agency.
His scarred eye twitched as he handed over a camcorder and recorder.
"Like father, like daughter—always picking the dirty jobs. Have fun with the scoop. Heh heh heh."
Left alone behind the kitchen, Yoo Se-na gripped her janitor cart handle tight.
She boarded the staff elevator, muttering.
"Screw it. Chairman wouldn't send me to die. See it first, think later."
-Ding-dong! 35th floor. Doors opening.
A hazy scent wafted as the doors parted. Loud voices from a man and woman.
The sight before her was beyond any normal person's imagination.
"Ah, no! That's...!"