Something Enormous Is Out There

"How's it looking on your end?"

Nam Jeong-hoon shook his head at Yeo Seon-kyeong's question.

"Nothing of substance. I can't even tell where this started, what's going on, or how it got this far."

Yeo Seon-kyeong, a senior economic reporter at Top Daily who covered the conglomerates, and Nam Jeong-hoon, a violent-crime specialist from the social affairs desk at Korea Post, were meeting at Nam Jeong-hoon's apartment.

They weren't dating — and yes, the wrong kind of rumor could easily take root — but they had steered clear of cafés on purpose, all in the name of extreme operational security.

"So you're saying you've got nothing... This is enough to make me lose my mind."

"Anyone who saw us would think we were conspiracy-theory lunatics."

"I already look like one. The boss gave me a week. If I don't drag back something usable by then, he told me to drop the whole thing."

"Still, Top Daily's better off than Korea Post. I haven't even been able to bring it up. And the only stories I've got to file are drunk driving and car wrecks. Even the detectives are shaking their heads, saying they've never seen anything like it. The Organized Crime Unit, on the other hand, is wound tight as a spring."

"The Organized Crime Unit? Why?"

"It's always calmest right before a typhoon. They're tense because they're afraid the gangs might start a war."

"That actually makes sense."

Yeo Seon-kyeong let out a dry little laugh, but Nam Jeong-hoon's face stayed locked in a scowl.

"Cheer up, would you? This isn't a bad thing for you, Reporter Nam."

"Easy for you to say when it isn't your problem. Do you have any idea how serious this is? I'm a crime reporter. I need incidents. Accidents. I need gangsters beating the hell out of each other, loan-shark terror jobs, drug busts, neighborhood punks brawling to get into a gang, people getting hurt and hauled off to the ER — that's how I eat."

"Hah... you're unbelievable. Reporter Nam, are you hoping people die? That's too much."

"You think I'd say any of this if I weren't desperate? My livelihood's about to vanish. This is quiet — way too quiet. Why aren't the gangs committing crimes? Do they think they're ordinary businessmen? I dug into it, and word is an order came down from the top: don't cause any trouble. Stay quiet as a dead mouse."

"So still no real leads, then..."

"Yeah. No matter how deep I go, there's nothing. I know the mid-level bosses of the Ogong Gang and the Duchil-i Gang out of Mokpo Crossroads pretty well. They don't know either. Their bosses ordered them not to fight — keep their heads down. Every gang in the country, all at the same ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time, like they'd coordinated it. That doesn't make any sense."

"That's why I'm telling you to find out why. That's what reporters do."

"You make it sound so easy... You think I've been sitting around? How's it going on your end?"

At Nam Jeong-hoon's question, Yeo Seon-kyeong's face twisted.

"Same as you. They're clearly plotting something. Number Five is getting together and cooking something up, but they won't tell me what. You know how those kids are, Reporter Nam. They're the pickiest, most high-maintenance brats alive. Fine if they hang out and kill time together — but working together? That's absurd."

Saengsong, MG, SA Telecom, Gyeondae, Nodae... Suspicious movements were being picked up among the five mega-conglomerates that moved the Republic of Korea.

Meeting together was one thing. Number Five held regular gatherings as a network among chaebol heirs, after all. But they were visiting one another's factories, and their research teams were huddling up and cooking something behind closed doors.

Saengsong and MG engaging in productive collaboration? Those people weren't built for that. They'd rather die. The way they loathed each other...

"This might make me sound unhinged, but... what if we've been invaded by aliens without realizing it?"

"Huuuh... I don't even know how to answer that. That's worse than a conspiracy theory."

"No, think about it seriously! Reporter Yeo, you know something completely illogical and bizarre is happening right now. Some invisible force is moving Korean society. Am I wrong?"

"That's why we got together to track down what it is. I'm disappointed in you, Reporter Nam. God, what am I even doing with my time? Sitting here with a conspiracy theorist..."

"You think I'd say this if I had any other choice? There's clearly something there — I just don't know what, so I'm running the possibilities. If it isn't aliens... then let's go through the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Group, the whole lot. If it's none of those, does any of this make sense?"

Starting one day, the gangs had simply stopped committing crimes.

Even the usual drug cases had dried up. Loan sharks were actually complying with the legal interest rate. Gangsters who until recently would have killed each other on sight now shook hands like old friends, had a drink, and parted ways quietly.

"So some extremely powerful entity has appeared?"

"Exactly. Like how if aliens invaded, Japan and North Korea would have to form an alliance... that's my conclusion."

"Well, there have been an awful lot of strange things lately. Number Five's assets suddenly multiplying several times over, Saengsong and MG cooperating, and at SA, Choi Ki-cheon suddenly emerging as the successor to the CEO's chair. This isn't a normal world. They used to say he couldn't even land a board seat at a group affiliate... I asked around internally, and everyone's calling Choi Ki-cheon a management genius."

"What? A management genius? Choi Ki-cheon? And he's the candidate for CEO of SA Telecom? That slow, dim-witted idiot? Bwahahaha!"

It was a claim too absurd to swallow.

Choi Ki-cheon was the dullest of the three sons — so much so that rumors circulated he'd been packed off to study in America because no Korean university would take him, and that the family had donated a building to an American university to buy his admission.

"SA is thriving right now thanks to Choi Ki-cheon. The order to expand the 50-gigabit network? That was Choi Ki-cheon too."

"Isn't that premature? They'll just burn through the investment. And even if he said it, would Chairman Choi Dae-hyun listen?"

"During the copper crisis, the entire SA Group was in serious danger. But Choi Ki-cheon had bought copper futures in advance, so they weathered it in one piece. When someone like that talks, of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course you'd listen."

"Haaah... this is the kind of story you want to believe and just can't... it's impossible."

The fact that Choi Ki-cheon was an idiot was common knowledge across the entire nation. Nam Jeong-hoon shook his head, utterly unable to accept it.

"There's also a rumor that Prince Aziz appeared in Seoul. The gangs behaving themselves, the Number Five chaebols moving in concert... there's clearly something here. Once is coincidence, but when coincidences keep stacking up, it isn't coincidence anymore. There's definitely something."

"Huuuh... I agree with you, Reporter Yeo... but there's no answer. It's either Andromeda or the Illuminati."

"Would you cut it out!"

"Aliens or a secret society... how does any of this make sense?"

"There's clearly something. There's definitely something... keep digging. Bring back anything usable."

Nam Jeong-hoon shook his head, but Yeo Seon-kyeong's eyes only grew sharper.

Yeo Seon-kyeong gathered her bag and was about to stand when—

"Y-Yeo... Reporter Yeo! W-want some ramyeon before you go?"

At Nam Jeong-hoon's hastily thrown-out words, Yeo Seon-kyeong's face crumpled.

"That hand hovering in midair. That stammering. Are you hitting on me right now?"

"N-no... I just thought you might be hungry! We haven't even had dinner."

Yeo Seon-kyeong pinned Nam Jeong-hoon's face with a glare.

His eyes lost focus and darted in every direction.

"Tsk tsk... so that's why you insisted we come to your place... Nam Jeong-hoon. This approach isn't going to work. Have you ever even dated? Of course you haven't... that's why you're like this. Next time, we meet at a café!"

"Th-that's not what I—"

Without even waiting for him to finish, Yeo Seon-kyeong clicked her tongue and walked out of the apartment.

"Still, she said we'd meet at a café. So it's not a total disaster..."

Nam Jeong-hoon, investigative crime reporter, muttered it quietly to himself.

"Who even is this guy? For days now the news has been nothing but him... who is he supposed to be, carrying on like this..."

Ji Jeong-eun grumbled, and Lee Ki-seok jumped in as if he'd been waiting for the cue.

"Ah, Nail Nehru... how to put it. Someone who holds both political power and economic power at the same time? He's the great-grandson of Nehru, the hero of Indian independence, so the family pedigree is already elite — and on top of that, he's the chairman of the Anandi Group, which has a stranglehold on the entire country."

"The Anandi Group?"

"From corner stores to heavy industry, electronics, wireless, aviation — every kind of company sits inside the Anandi Group. In a word, it's India's alpha and omega."

Jung Jinwoo had heard of it too.

If you wanted to do business in India, you had to meet the chairman of the Anandi Group. That was the saying.

India was not, in truth, a single country so much as four regions, and those four regions fractured further along local lines, each administered by its own state government. The Prime Minister had no real administrative reach beyond his home region. Anandi, by contrast, was wired into the entire subcontinent — even into Bangladesh and Pakistan.

"So that's why the chaebol chairmen are in a frenzy. Get close to that man, and you can do business sitting on top of a population of 1.4 billion."

"Exactly. That's precisely it. As expected, Team Leader Ji is sharp!"

Sharp? He just told her all of that himself.

Lee Ki-seok's campaign to win Ji Jeong-eun over was running at all hours, and it was enough to irritate anyone stuck watching it.

"I've always been rather sharp. Hahaha."

Well, well. Lay out a mat and he plops himself right down on it.

That was when it happened.

A text from Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok. Something important, by the look of it.

"I've got a bit of work to take care of. You two go ahead and eat."

"There goes the manager, skipping lunch again. Off to meet your girlfriend every lunch hour?"

"I wish. Haha."

Jung Jinwoo said it, stood, and headed out — at which point Lee Ki-seok popped up a thumbs-up.

I'm not clearing the room for you, you idiot. I actually have work.

His head's stuffed with nothing but how to win Ji Jeong-eun over... and he isn't even doing his job.

He said he'd present his business proposal this evening, didn't he? Let's see how usable an idea he actually brings.

In the Vice Chairman's office, Ko Yoon-seok was waiting with two men in silk suits.

One looked to be in his forties, a face Jung Jinwoo found vaguely familiar, sitting with one leg crossed over the other. The other appeared to be in his fifties, legs splayed wide, his back sunk deep into the sofa.

"Ah. So this is him?"

The man with the crossed legs rose as he looked at Jung Jinwoo.

"Yes, that's right. Manager Jung ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jinwoo, come sit. This is Jung Jinwoo, a manager at our Giseong IT."

Ko Yoon-seok glanced at Jung Jinwoo and flicked him a wink the two men couldn't see.

"I'm swamped as it is... and they send me on errands like this..."

"Now, now, Secretary Yu. Is there such a thing as important or unimportant when it comes to affairs of state? This is the sort of man I am."

The man in his fifties extracted himself from the sofa just long enough to set a business card on the table.

Embossed on the card, in a golden phoenix pattern, were the words: Ham Chang-ho, Senior Secretary ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the President for Economic Affairs.

"Isn't the Chief just trying to stick it to us? Why send us to a place like this..."

Secretary Yu grumbled, and the older man cut in at once.

"Ahem! Watch your language. We are people who conduct the affairs of the nation."

He said it like a lecture — and then sank right back into the sofa.

Coming into someone else's company and playing the master of the house.

The actual hosts, Ko Yoon-seok and Jung Jinwoo, were sitting ramrod straight out of courtesy. These two were not.

"So... what business did you have with me?"

Jung Jinwoo asked, and the answer came back without hesitation.

"We are inviting Mr. Jung Jinwoo to a banquet."

"Why?"

At that single word, the secretary and the senior secretary both snapped their eyes wide, as if something that could never happen in their world had just occurred in front of them.

"Why? Excuse me? This is an invitation to a presidential banquet!"

"Yes. And I'm asking why I'm being invited."

"That's not— when the President tells you to come, you come. Do you have any idea how many conglomerate chairmen are dying to get into a presidential banquet? If you're not one of the top ten, you don't even get near the door!"

"Then tell those people to go."

"Heh-heh..."

Secretary Yu started huffing, and the senior secretary stepped in.

"This is a very important occasion. It is a seat everyone wants. We don't know why Mr. Jung Jinwoo was invited, either, but... if you don't have anything else, you really ought to attend..."

From the start, he hadn't liked the way these people carried themselves.

And besides — an invitation was something you accepted because you wanted to, wasn't it?

They invite you to a seat you never asked for, then act like showing up is a given? Are they out of their minds?

"I do have something else."

"Good heavens..."

"Might I ask what important business requires you to decline an invitation to a presidential banquet?"

"A department meeting. It's scheduled for this evening."

"A d-department meeting? For heaven's sake..."

Secretary Yu and Senior Secretary Ham Chang-ho both shook their heads, looking as if the floor had dropped out from under them.

"Y-you're turning down a presidential banquet because you have a department meeting? Are you insane?"

"Ahem! Secretary Yu!"

At Secretary Yu's words, Jung Jinwoo's face darkened sharply as he answered.

"By your logic... I suppose I must be insane."

"You— you—"

Secretary Yu clenched his teeth, furious — but no suitable retort came to him.