Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 193

Translator: Dreamscribe"How could we have missed information like this?"

Until now, headquarters had never once reprimanded Sentinel or questioned their operational capabilities.

But this time, a lengthy official memorandum had come down, declaring their intent to evaluate everything from Sentinel's overall structure to its systems.

"Given the nature of an intelligence organization like ours, if the higher-ups came down on us this hard, we'd normally push back at least a little. But we've got nothing to say about this one, do we?"

Sentinel wasn't established simply for security purposes.

While they were tasked with guarding shipping vessels, their primary mission was covert operations and intelligence gathering.

"And yet someone tried to assassinate the core of our Kwangwoon Group, and we didn't catch wind of it beforehand."

Anthony Watson had been deeply shaken when he heard the news that someone had attempted to assassinate Jung Jin-ho.

It was entirely understandable that headquarters had sent down such a memorandum.

Sentinel.

True to its name, this organization was supposed to serve as a watchdog, yet it hadn't even known that Jung Jin-ho had nearly been killed.

"So, what did the investigation turn up?"

"As of now, we've confirmed a total of three assassination attempts. The first used a Korean mercenary. The second involved slipping drugs to a hotel employee to spike CEO Jung Jin-ho's drink. And the third appears to have used a cargo truck driver deep in gambling debt to carry out the job."

"Did you catch all of them?"

"Yes, we apprehended them all. However, none of them know exactly who gave the orders. They were contacted via burner phones, and payment was sent in Bitcoin."

"Who could be behind it?"

"We've gone over everything thoroughly. As you know, we maintain real-time surveillance networks and receive intelligence from a wide range of sources: cartels, the mafia, military governments, and so on. But no matter how hard we look, this one turns up nothing."

"So you're saying we're not capable enough?"

"It's because this originated from somewhere beyond our intelligence reach."

Beyond Sentinel's intelligence reach.

Through the recent negotiations with the EU, Sentinel outposts had been established across Europe, and intelligence operations on surrounding nations were already underway.

Beyond that, from Africa to the United States, Mexico, and elsewhere.

Intelligence on various criminal organizations and governments was actively being gathered.

Looking at it this way, it might seem like Sentinel was conducting espionage across the entire globe, but there were two places their capabilities couldn't reach.

"China or Russia?"

"Russia is relatively accessible, with freedom of movement and decent conditions for intelligence work. But China is different. We've planted operatives in Sichuan Province, but our reach isn't wide enough yet to penetrate China's core institutions."

"So you're saying this was China's doing?"

"While our reach in Russia is also limited, Russia has no reason to make an enemy of Kwangwoon right now. China, on the other hand, is being destabilized internally because of us."

"Seems like plenty of reason to go off the rails."

"Yes. It appears they tried to throw Kwangwoon into chaos by killing CEO Jung Jin-ho. It could also have been meant to send a message, to make an example."

Kwangwoon had been building up and shaking China for a long time.

What exactly Kwangwoon wanted China to become was unclear, but it was obvious they weren't fond of the current regime.

And there was no way China had been sitting idly by while Kwangwoon tried to dismantle their system. So they had taken action.

An assassination plan targeting Jung Jin-ho, something no other country had even dared to attempt until now.

"But the reason we failed to predict this is partly because it was so unrealistic. Frankly, China made a very stupid move. Killing CEO Jung Jin-ho wouldn't bring Kwangwoon down."

Jung Jin-ho, called the core of Kwangwoon.

He was not the one pulling the strings from the shadows.

One look at his profile made that clear.

How could a shut-in with no career possibly be the mastermind moving global finance?

In other words, someone had put him out front and was controlling everything from behind the scenes.

The problem was that no one had yet uncovered who that person was.

"Right. It was definitely a stupid move. If Jin-ho died, a replacement would appear extremely quickly, and all it would accomplish is provoking Kwangwoon's fury. No, they've already poked the sleeping lion."

Kwangwoon was now thoroughly enraged.

They had sent the memorandum to Sentinel and were conducting an aggressive investigation, wielding even Korea's public authorities.

"On top of that, apparently Kwangwoon dispatched all the personnel from their private security firms and swept up every organization connected to this incident. Police forces were deployed as well."

"If they move that aggressively, won't word get out?"

"The Korean government has taken the public position that they're cracking down on organizations tied to a serious gambling problem, and Kwangwoon is controlling social media and online communities to prevent the real story from leaking."

Back in the days when people got their news only from newspapers and television, manipulating public opinion had been easy.

But as smartphones advanced and social media and large online communities kept emerging, reckless manipulation of public opinion was no longer possible.

An era where everyone was watching had arrived.

"But that's just what people think. Look at Korea. Kwangwoon controls everything. And the chilling part is that people don't even realize it."

Kwangwoon owned not only social media platforms but also every major online community in Korea.

And it wasn't just Korea.

Their tentacles had spread overseas as well.

If a community rejected their acquisition offer, Kwangwoon would simply shut down the servers hosting it, making the platform impossible to operate.

That was the terrifying power of owning a massive cloud server infrastructure.

With the acquisition of Bluezone on top of that, there was nothing left for them to fear.

"Now I see why they've been so obsessed with investing in AI. It wasn't just about advancing humanity. It was for moments like this."

AI-powered control of public opinion.

Something that seemed possible only in movies, Kwangwoon was actually doing it.

"But here's what I'm curious about. There's no way China put together a sloppy plan, so how could they fail three assassination attempts? They must have known failure wasn't an option."

"Are you saying... that CEO Jung Jin-ho already knew about the assassination plot?"

"Exactly. No matter how lucky you are, you can't dodge it more than twice. Not unless you're prepared in advance. But he dodged it three times in a row? If China really was behind this, then the Central Operations Bureau carried it out, and we know better than anyone how good those people are."

They were not the type to make mistakes.

Yet the fact that they had failed three times meant information had been leaked beforehand.

"Then why are they coming down on us so hard..."

"It must have been a test. To see how far our intelligence capabilities go, to see where our limits are. On top of that, Sentinel has suddenly grown much larger. They must have figured it was time to tighten the reins and start internal auditing."

"And to secure justification for striking China?"

"Exactly. In the end, Kwangwoon engineered this so the assassination attempts would proceed. Thanks to that, they got to verify Korea's media control and the government's loyalty, and they now have grounds to overhaul Sentinel. It's a win for Kwangwoon all around."

Using Jung Jin-ho, the core of Kwangwoon and the one called God's Proxy, as bait to pull off something like this.

Kwangwoon truly did nothing but pull off the unthinkable.

But it was precisely because they had always been this way that they had become what they were today.

"Then... what should we do?"

"What else? The master's reaching for the rod, so we'd better lie flat. Tell headquarters we'll comply with everything they ask. You probably feel the same, but I don't want to lose this entertaining job either."

* * *

When I arrived at the office, the employees looked at me with worried eyes first.

"CEO-nim, you should have rested a bit longer..."

"Oh, please. I rested plenty. A whole week's worth of work must have piled up, right? Show me everything."

The employees hemmed and hawed, but they had no choice and brought me the reports.

"The Vice President handled most of the minor items."

"Wait, the man was in the same accident. Why was he working instead of resting?"

"We tried to talk him out of it several times, but he wouldn't budge."

At any rate, the Vice President was a certified workaholic.

It seemed like I'd need to handle all of today's work myself and force him onto a mandatory one-week recovery leave.

Even I, young as I was, could feel some lingering aftereffects. It couldn't be any different for the Vice President.

"But there was one thing the Vice President wasn't able to handle."

"What is it?"

"It's an agreement proposal from the Chinese government. China is currently suffering from a severe food shortage due to catastrophic crop failures. The financial crisis that just hit is making things significantly worse, and the domestic situation is apparently dire. The most critical issue is food."

I was glad I had bought up a large amount of food supplies in advance.

If I hadn't, everything from Africa to China and even our own country would have been in serious trouble from the food crisis.

"For our country, it'll probably just end with rising prices, but in China, rising prices means there are people everywhere who simply can't eat. The risk of riots is high. That's why they want to push for a quick resolution through negotiations."

Our conditions were the same as they had always been.

Opening the Chinese market so our subsidiaries could enter.

"The Chinese government initially refused, but eventually raised the white flag. So they're asking us to send a priority list of which subsidiaries should enter first, and they'll provide support to help them establish themselves quickly."

It was the first time I had ever seen China being this cooperative.

That must have meant they were just as desperate.

And I had no intention of playing games with food when people's lives were at stake.

"Hmm. In that case..."

I looked through the list from top to bottom.

We needed to hand over the priority list of which companies should enter first so that they could begin cooperating on their end.

"......."

Did we really have this many subsidiaries?

It struck me once again just how massive Kwangwoon Group had become.

But all these companies couldn't enter all at once.

And my instinct seemed to know that too, flickering its light on a select few.

"......."

But among them, one subsidiary shone the brightest.

I circled that name in bold.

"For now, tell them to fast-track entry for this one first."

* * *

Hwang Dae-woon set down the reports after reading through everything that had come up today.

A heavy silence settled over the conference room for a moment.

"...Is this confirmed?"

"Yes. The circumstantial evidence points to it, and there are also several pieces of proof linking it to China."

The person Hwang Dae-woon cherished most in the world was none other than Jung Jin-ho.

Thanks to that kid, he had ended up playing chairman, a role that was never in his stars, and had become the richest man in Korea.

And yet, not once had Jin-ho ever lorded that over him.

He always called him hyungnim, and they had become closer than blood brothers.

That was how deeply Dae-woon cared for Jung Jin-ho, and the Chinese government had tried to assassinate him.

"Those sons of bitches, I could chew them up and spit them out..."

Of course the fury came surging up.

"How do we make them pay for this?"

"Chairman, I understand you're furious, but... the other side is the Chinese government."

"So what! You want me to just let this slide? If I do, they'll try to kill Jin-ho again!"

They had gotten through it this time by sheer luck, but there was no telling what might happen next.

That fear had driven him to triple Jung Jin-ho's security detail and replace his vehicle with a bulletproof car worth tens of billions of won, on par with what the American president rode in.

Even that didn't ease his mind.

There was no knowing when those bastards might target Jin-ho again.

"Then would you take a look at this report?"

"What's this?"

"The strategy team put it together."

The report detailed various methods for targeting China.

"Quite a few of our Sentinel operatives have been inserted into China?"

"Yes. During the Sichuan earthquake, they infiltrated by posing as relief volunteers. If you give the green light, Chairman, we'll make maximum use of those personnel to execute operations."

The operation they described was simpler than expected.

It was about distributing Kwangwoon-funded money to Chinese generals.

"In Bitcoin, no less. CEO Jung Jin-ho just accepted the food negotiations with the Chinese side, didn't he?"

"He did. I wanted to oppose it, though. Why should we share our food supplies with those bastards?"

"This is actually a good opportunity, Chairman. When CEO Jung Jin-ho opened the path for our subsidiaries to enter China, the one he placed at the very top of the priority list was KW Exchange."

"Then that means..."

"He intends to use KW Exchange as a channel connecting the generals with Kwangwoon."

"...!"

Reading between those lines, it meant Jin-ho already knew China was behind it.

"There are currently many generals dissatisfied with the Li Jinping regime. The simultaneous collapse of Evergrande Group and the real estate bubble completely destroyed China's property economy, and the generals suffered enormous losses. The value of the land they owned plummeted, and their avenues for making money were cut off."

"And KW Exchange can be used to funnel money to those generals?"

"Yes. That appears to be CEO Jung Jin-ho's objective. If we channel funds to the generals so they can use them as private military financing... wouldn't people start getting ideas, one by one? The Reform Faction already seems determined to topple the current regime."

"But reading this report, the strategy team doesn't seem to be backing just the Reform Faction. It looks like they're planning an indiscriminate distribution?"

"Yes. That's exactly the point."

"...?"

Hwang Dae-woon still didn't understand.

What exactly were the strategy team and Jung Jin-ho looking at?

"Think about it, Chairman. If generals suddenly came into funding that could realize their personal ambitions, would any of them listen to someone else?"

"Then..."

"Everyone and their neighbor would rise up wanting to be king, and like the old Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a Contest of Warlords would begin. If things go well, the country we know as China could be split into dozens of pieces."

"!?"

Only then did Hwang Dae-woon grasp what it meant.

Hadn't China, since ancient times, repeatedly united and fractured?

They were trying to trigger that super cycle once more.