12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

In the conference room, where the directors sat on the left and right sides, I said, “To be frank with you… our Invictus Investment is about to go to war with Suyeon Group.”

As soon as I was finished, everyone started murmuring. Choi, sitting in a distant seat, asked me, “Well, sir. What do you mean?”

“Of course I’m not talking about a war of gunfire. It is a conflict competing for interests in Korea. That’s what I mean.”

“With Suyeon Group?”

“Yes.”

Director Kwon, who was on the far side, raised his hand. “War with the Suyeon Group… Isn’t this a complete battle between David and Goliath? If possible, we have to avoid…”

It was a natural response. The directors sitting far away from this table were still unaware that our company had a pile of nearly forty-five billion dollars in cash. I’d kept it a secret even within the company. I spoke to him, “In fact, to be honest, the war has already begun.”

“Yes?”

“I heard from Changhae Food and OH Entertainment today. Suyeon Group’s dealers decided to unilaterally cancel their contracts.”

At my words, the directors on the far side of the table, as well as Vice President Jang, Director Kang, Director Kim, and Director Chung, who were sitting on the near side, looked at me. It was surprising news to people who knew that our company had 45 billion dollars.

“Why on Earth?”

I didn’t say anything about that; Tak Mun-su and I had a personal dispute because of the Ullim Electronics acquisition, and now we were in this kind of business-to-business conflict. I gestured to Director Kang instead of talking about it. He turned the data he was holding to his side. The title of the data was ‘Report on the current status of investments in China.’

I said to the directors sitting further away. “You should read this first.”

The other directors sitting far away, besides the four of me, were even more surprised than when they learned of the war against Suyeon Group.

“Eh?”

“Is this… real?” Now the mood was changing a little. They seemed to think that it was a fight worth trying if we had forty-five billion dollars!

I told them, “I’m sure our directors are well aware that the nation’s chaebol controls their entire groups with a small stake from the owner. So it is with Suyeon Group. They control the entire group of a hundred twenty billion dollars with a stake of only eleven billion dollars from Tak Woo-kyung and three billion dollars from Tak Mun-su. Of course, if they add the stakes of relatives and old household vassals, the total would be about twenty billion dollars, but it would be worth a try with our forty-five billion dollars, wouldn’t it?”

As I said that, some of the directors nodded. But in the meantime, another director raised his hand. “But, sir, wouldn’t it be okay to invest in a foreign country with this money? I am curious about your intentions to go to war against Suyeon Group.”

It was a good question, but I couldn’t give a clear answer to it, either. The final purpose of the series was to buy a company that exceeded ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty billion dollars among domestic listed companies; that way, I could get the future news of XXX Class, beyond Grandmaster.

“Because I want it.”

At my simple answer, Vice President Jang assisted me. “We have an advantage in expanding our business here, anyway. It’s easy to get information and communicate with the government. If we say we’re going to grow in Korea with forty-five billion dollars in cash… Even if it’s not Suyeon Group, we will be in conflict with other chaebols.”

Now that Vice President Jang and I said so, no one was arguing any more, as we were the two people who had made the key decisions of our company in the first place. A plan might not proceed if I said go and Vice President Jang disagreed, or if I refused to do so, but it had never stopped when he and I cooperated. This was because I had a hundred percent stake, and I, who knew the future news, and Vice President Jang, with his years of experience, whom I trusted, were the left and right brains of Invictus Investment.

I looked around at the directors and said, “So, I’d like to ask you to look into the problems of the Suyeon Group, its governance weaknesses, its financial soundness, and the status of its investments in China. I want to find the weak links of Suyeon Group, cut them off and make them ours. So go and investigate everything in the Suyeon Group.”

“Yes, boss.”

I said one more thing when I saw the directors bowing down. “And until I move on, let’s keep this data, the fact that it’s written in this document, a secret. Let the enemy look down on us. That way, we can fight to our advantage when we’re in a real battle.”

When I said that, they repeated in loud voices, “Yes, boss!”

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So, I had called the directors together to prepare them for war with the Suyeon Group. However, it was no exaggeration to say that the month of February that followed was “one-sidedly beaten.” Following Changhae Food and OH Entertainment, there was also a call from Oracle News.

“Boss, Suyeon Securities said it would terminate the banner ad contract by this month… So I asked if it was just a condition problem. They said the problem was that our company received Invictus funds. What the hell is going on here?”

“Oh, I see. I heard that Songhae Brewing is looking for a place to advertise its new chestnut rice wine. I’ll talk to them. Replace the empty banner seat with that.”

“Yes, boss.”

And then a while later, Blue E&M also contacted me. “If you’ve watched our broadcasts, there are BJ’s commercials before our broadcast. But three out of the five ads were cut off in a row. All the advertisers were talking about Invictus… It’s our problem, but… it’s a matter of income distribution for BJ’s.”

“Oh, don’t worry too much. I’ll contact OH Entertainment and get their incoming ads to connect with the Blue E&M.”

“Oh, yes. Then, I’ll trust you and tell the BJ’s, sir.”

“Yes, it won’t last long.”

Then, there was a call from Vice President Jang. “Boss, we got contacted by Ullim Electronics. They said that Suyeon Electronics has expressed its intentions to take them over.”

“Really?”

“Yes. That’s why we are in trouble with our acquisition. We were going to spend about 1.6 billion dollars to buy… but Suyeon Group just interfered and… we don’t know how much they are going to spend.”

I knew that it was 1.9 billion dollars.

“Hmm… I see. Okay. Let’s spend a little bit more.”

“Yes, boss. But…” Vice-President Jang made a point of saying something that didn’t sound like him. “It would be good for you to think about it again. If Suyeon Electronics decides to take over Ullim Electronics… I don’t think we can stop it. No matter how much money we spend… It’s going to be difficult.”

“Why?”

“If we look at the sales structure of Ullim Electronics, we can see that there are a lot of contracts to supply goods to Suyeon Group. So if we were to take over…”

“Then they’ll cut off the receiver?”

“Yes, I think so.”

Vice President Jang was not wrong. Advertising contracts that had been in place were also being cut off, and it was absurd that a company that was in a war with Tak Mun-su would supply goods to Suyeon Electronics.

“Moreover, all the companies where the consumer goods used by Ullim Electronics are supplied are related to Suyeon Group… If pressure comes on them, Ullim Electronics’ profit margin will be much lower.”

I thought about that when I heard Vice President Jang. I was going to put in two billion dollars to see if I could win, but…

‘In any case, Tak Mun-su and Suyeon Electronics will not do business at a loss. Even if they buy it with 1.9 billion dollars, it must be an earning bet. However, that may be limited to Suyeon Electronics. If our company spends two billion dollars to buy the company, its value will be much lower than that, because of the Suyeon Group. I can pour in money and take over… But it’s going to be a painful victory. What I am going to buy is a temporarily cheap, promising company. If the price becomes more expensive and the prospect gets dark because of Suyeon Group, there is no need to buy it.’

I spoke to Vice President Jang. “All right. Don’t pull our feet out of the race, just keep in touch with them.”

Vice President Jang bowed to me. “Yes, boss.” But even though he said that, he had a dark expression. He had taken my side last time at the board meeting, but he seemed to be thinking, ‘This fight is against us. There’s nothing to help us.’

I didn’t blame him. So far, we’d lost some contracts, it was hard to take over the company, and in many ways, our company had been pushed back. But I sent him back out, pretending I didn’t see his expression, since I had the power to know the future, forty-five billion dollars, and the ability to magically figure out the current information.

Throughout February, until the end of winter, our company had to stay busy defending and handling Suyeon Group’s attacks. But in March, when the last cold snap of spring disappeared. Crow was back with the secret of the life and death of Tak Woo-kyung, chairman of Suyeon Group.

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One day in March, as soon as I went to the office, I called in Vice President Jang through Secretary Seo.

“Did you call me, boss?”

I put him in front of me and first asked about the directors. “So, how’s the information collection going for Suyeon Group?”

“Ah… We have not found any particular vulnerabilities, but… for now… we’ll keep doing it.”

“Well, I see.”

“And yesterday, I was asked to contact Ullim Electronics. Now we need to confirm the acquisition price. What do you want me to do, sir?”

When he asked, I turned my head slightly and brought up another story. “In fact, in the past, I had a personal conversation with Vice Chairman Tak Mun-su of Suyeon Group.”

“Directly with Tak Mun-su?”

“Yes.”

He was quite surprised to hear me saying that I had exchanged phone calls with Tak Mun-su. But when I thought about it, the only other contact between me and Tak Mun-su was Garden Royale. Garden Royal was an absolutely secret existence.

“At the time, Tak Mun-su said to me, ‘When you buy Ullim Electronics, it will be just a normal investment, but when we buy it, it will generate synergies and be good.”

Vice President Jang nodded with his mouth slightly open. “… I see.”

I looked at him and said, “But now that I’m thinking about it… Tak Mun-su is right.”

“What?”

“It would be synergistic if Suyeon Electronics and Ullim Electronics met. It would be much better than if a simple investment company like us buys and runs it.”

“Ah… Yes.”

Vice President Jang put on a sour face. I thought he felt a little strange as I praised Suyeon Group, which I had set up as an enemy.

“So, Vice President Jang…”

When I called his title, he answered with his head down. “Yes, boss. Tell me.”

At that time, I told him what I really thought. “Let’s hand over Ullim Electronics to Suyeon Electronics, and let’s buy Suyeon Electronics.”