Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 108

Translator: Dreamscribe“.......”

The Chairman and the Headquarters Director, who came out after the meeting, remained silent for a while.

It seemed as though each of them was organizing their complicated thoughts.

“Director Cho. What do you...... think? About what CEO Jung Jin-ho said earlier.”

“It’s nonsense.”

Director Cho Sang-sik shook his head.

“First of all, the very idea of selling all the shares currently held by the National Pension Service and converting them to cash makes no sense. When are we supposed to sell all those shares? And disposing of them now means we would have to sell at a loss, doesn’t it?”

What they wanted was Kwangwoon Securities’ investment methodology.

They wanted to understand how they predicted stock prices, how they gathered information, and how they reached their final investment decisions.

And who is Kwangwoon?

It is the place that is rewriting the history of the financial industry.

So they thought that even if Kwangwoon did not teach them all of their know-how, at least they would offer some advice. But what came out of the mouth of the person in charge there was shocking from the very beginning.

“And on top of that, a short? Isn’t he telling us to gamble? And with the people’s money!”

The National Pension Service is built on the people’s money.

Thus, they had a responsibility to protect that money and grow it safely.

Which is why the National Pension Service had strict internal guidelines.

Invest only in absolutely safe places to pursue stable profits.

Avoid high-risk investments like short selling or derivatives.

“Selling all the shares we currently hold and converting them to cash already violates those rules. Although the Singapore incident shook the global market once, it will stabilize quickly. But liquidating right now is, no matter who looks at it, an action that guarantees losses.”

“.......”

“And on top of that, to short the market...... that is an utterly insane idea.”

Selling off 700 trillion won worth of shares and turning it all into cash is already insane enough, and then using that to take a short position?

Is he out of his mind?

“Yeah. It really was a crazy thought.”

“Yes. I’m putting it mildly when I say crazy. He’s clearly out of his mind.”

“Yeah. That’s true.”

But why was that?

The Chairman’s expression was subtle.

“Chairman. D, don’t tell me.......”

“Director Cho. Think about it. Isn’t the current situation even crazier?”

"What?"

“Why did we go to see CEO Jung Jin-ho, grabbing at straws? Because the situation had already gone insane. We’re about to miss the golden time, yet no one is trying to address the issue seriously.”

Golden time.

The National Pension Service’s chance to survive through reform, perhaps its last.

But no administration tries to touch the National Pension Service.

Because if they do, their political career will be blown to pieces.

So everyone keeps quiet about it.

“When the situation has gone mad, isn’t a mad method exactly what you need?”

“B, but this goes beyond madness. It is far too extreme. If we incur losses, there will be no turning back.”

“I know. But you know it too. If we keep going like this, we’ll end up at the same irreversible point anyway.”

If they do nothing now, the depletion of the National Pension Service will become a reality.

And history will condemn these two men for having stood by and watched.

“I don’t want to run away, trembling at the thought of votes, like those politicians. Someone has to take responsibility and lead the change in this crisis.”

“But this is a gamble. A gamble with the fate of the people. What if we lose money? If we lose more than even 10%, the depletion of the fund will accelerate even faster.”

The Chairman’s hands trembled.

Just imagining it was horrifying.

But whether they died slowly or died immediately.

If the outcome was the same anyway, he would rather choose the latter.

Because one of the two had at least a very slight chance of survival.

"You're going to entrust that fate to that one man?"

“Not just any one man. A man who built a massive group called Kwangwoon. And in such a short time.”

The Chairman had been closely observing Kwangwoon for a long time.

Jung Jin-ho, the one known as the real power within the Kwangwoon Group.

He is the man who changed the landscape of South Korea’s financial world.

“No one knows what he was doing before he entered Kwangwoon Securities. One day he suddenly appeared, shook the financial world, and then turned Kwangwoon into a conglomerate. And that’s not all. He boldly expanded overseas, and if anything stood in his way, whoever it was, he crushed them.”

In short, the current Kwangwoon is an empire built with blood.

“Jung Jin-ho, that man. On the surface, he looks like the kindest person in the world, but in reality, he is the most ruthless. Do you know how many corporations and nations have fallen at his hands?"

“And yet you want to entrust our fate to someone like that?”

“He may look merciless when it comes to money, but surprisingly, there is one line he never crosses.”

“And what is that?”

“He never touches Korean companies.”

A man who is mad about money does not care about nationality in front of profit.

Judging from what Jung Jin-ho has done so far, he has swung his blade without blood or tears, chasing nothing but profit.

And yet, in the midst of that madness, he held on to the thread of rationality only when it came to Korea.

“They say Jung Jin-ho often said this. Rather than competing with Korean companies, he wants to grow together with them. That he hopes Korean companies do better than foreign ones.”

“Is that...... sincere?”

“Surprisingly, it is. Has there been any large Korean company trying to keep Kwangwoon in check despite how fast it has grown?”

Now that he thought about it, it was true.

When a company grows as fast as Kwangwoon, major conglomerates normally apply pressure.

Of course, in the early days some did try to pressure the political world.

But now, no one does.

“They know it too. Thanks to Kwangwoon, their own companies are making profits. Just look at Kangseong. They cooperated with Kwangwoon and even dominated the foundry market that had been out of their reach.”

Whenever Kwangwoon took the lead and toppled a nation or corporation, the companies behind them filled their bellies by picking up the crumbs.

“Kwangwoon mercilessly cut down those who pretended to be Korean companies but tried to control the market using foreign capital. The fallen LK was the first. After that, they have been diligently nurturing domestic companies. Their wish to grow together with this country was genuine. Now do you see why I want to place my hopes here?”

Only now did the Headquarters Director begin to understand the Chairman’s thoughts.

In a situation this insane, an insane idea is what’s needed.

But...... but no matter what,

“A 700 trillion won short is really too much, isn’t it?”

***

Will the National Pension Service short the market?

Half yes, half no.

The National Pension Service takes short positions only for hedging purposes.

In other words, to manage risk, they purchase various derivatives and take short positions.

But they never engage in speculative short selling.

Part of the reason is ethical, but the most important reason is risk.

Especially since short selling carries extremely high risk, they cannot engage in such gambling.

And what I suggested now wasn’t to start short selling immediately.

The advice was simply to first liquidate all positions and convert everything to cash.

“For the National Pension Service to convert everything into cash, the biggest issue is bonds. Nearly half of the NPS’s funds are tied up in bonds. But if a giant like the National Pension Service suddenly begins massive bond selling, rumors will spread across the financial world instantly.”

“What if they take it slowly?”

“The NPS has enormous capital. But if they spend several months carefully settling their positions...... it’s not impossible. They can proceed with the conversion while minimizing market impact.”

“How long would that take?”

“With the skill level of the NPS, about three months.”

Three months to settle all positions.

This is only possible because they have skilled veterans.

Even for us, it takes more than a week to settle over 10 trillion won worth of positions.

But they had to settle a staggering 700 trillion won.

There is no way to do that quietly, without shocking the market, without spending time. Even three months is short.

“What about us?”

“After the Singapore incident, just as you ordered, we liquidated all positions and have not placed capital anywhere.”

This was because of the images my intuition had shown me.

The United States, China, Korea, Europe, no matter which country’s index I touched, all I saw was a massive crash.

So for now, we pulled all assets out of the market.

“But CEO-nim. Did you really...... advise the Pension Service to sell everything and convert it all to cash?”

“Yes.”

“W, would the Pension Service really accept that?”

I didn’t know either.

But one thing was certain: if the National Pension Service continued like this, all of its funds would be depleted, causing enormous social chaos.

“They probably won’t accept it, right?”

“Liquidating everything and converting it to cash is not an easy task.”

“And on top of that, you told them to prepare for short selling.”

“......Then they absolutely won’t do it. The National Pension has internal rules, and they never engage in speculative investments like short selling.”

It wasn’t illegal by law, but since it was a regulation set by the institution itself, they could not break it. And fundamentally, the National Pension’s funds were the people’s money.

Asking them to gamble with it was madness, even by my standards.

“Let’s forget about that matter. I also don’t think they’ll accept our proposal.”

“Yes. Then...... shall we take short positions? Which market should we target?”

That was the problem.

Which market should we attack?

Because of the Singapore incident, our assets had grown again, and we now had to deploy 15 trillion won into the market. We couldn’t put all of it into a single market, so we had to spread it across several.

The issue was that every market I touched gave a warning of a massive crash, meaning it didn’t matter where we took short positions, all of them would work.

The important things were the ratio and the timing.

Which market to take positions in at the optimal ratio, and at what timing.

I needed to decide that now.

‘This will take some time.’

Setting all of this one by one took more time than people expected.

I had to gather information on each market, and based on that, adjust the ratios according to my intuition.

“Then first, prepare the report.......”

Just as I was about to give the order.

“CEO-nim.”

A staff member entered the meeting room.

“We just received a call from the National Pension Service.”

“From the Pension Service?”

“Yes. They said they will follow the proposal you offered last time. So they’re requesting the related materials.......”

Our team members were even more shocked.

“What? T, they’ll follow it?”

“No. Wait a second. Then they’re really going to liquidate everything and short the market with that cash?”

The staff member, who had only come to deliver the report, nodded with a bewildered expression.

"700 trillion won? Really?"

“I’m just reporting what they told me.......”

The team members understood.

They were reacting like this simply because they couldn’t believe it.

And I was the same.

I never expected them to actually accept that proposal.

“CEO-nim. You must approach this very cautiously. If you fail in this investment.......”

It wouldn’t just be us taking losses.

It could lead to the worst-case scenario where every citizen in South Korea suffers.

“The only relief is that even if the National Pension follows your instructions and still suffers losses, the responsibility won’t fall on you. We are not an asset management firm managing their money on their behalf.”

But on the other hand, if this investment succeeds?

“Then won’t the Pension Service try to entrust all their funds to us? We could establish Kwangwoon Asset Management and manage the entire National Pension fund ourselves. That would be a massive gain for our company.”

Of course, the National Pension would manage its money very strictly according to its regulations, that would be a downside. But through this incident, they had already decided to ignore all the rules they had followed until now and cross the line.

Crossing the line is hard the first time; after that, it becomes easy.

In other words, if we succeed in this investment, we would gain the strongest possible ally, the National Pension Service, which manages over 700 trillion won.

***

“Chairman. W-what on earth is going on?”

He knew they would storm in.

The moment the morning directives were issued, the directors rushed into the Chairman’s Office, foaming at the mouth.

“You all heard it last time, didn’t you? That I personally went to Kwangwoon and received their advice.”

“That advice was to sell all assets and convert everything to cash?”

“But to sell every single asset we hold, without leaving even one behind, and within three months at that!”

The timeline was tight, but it wasn’t impossible.

What they were arguing about was why such an order had been given in the first place.

The Chairman let out a faint laugh.

Because he could already picture how much more they would faint once they heard the next part.

“It’s not simply converting everything to cash. We haven’t received the official instruction yet, but once Kwangwoon sends over the materials, we’ll be taking new positions based on that.”

“W-what do you mean by that......? Is some stock expected to rise significantly?”

“No. It’s quite the opposite. CEO Jung Jin-ho predicted that a great depression worse than a financial crisis is coming.”

“What?! Wait a moment. Then you intend to short the market.......”

The directors went blank for a moment, losing their words.

They glanced sharply at the Headquarters Director sitting beside the Chairman.

He also shook his head, as if to say there was no stopping him.

“Chairman. The current market outlook is extremely positive. In a market like this, you want to liquidate everything and, on top of that, short the market with an enormous amount of capital?”

The market, shaken by the Singapore incident, was stabilizing and soaring straight upward.

But to sell all assets here, and then even short the market?

“That must never happen.”

It was something impossible to accept with common sense.

“I’ve already made up my mind.”

“Then we will stop you.”

“Then you’d better hurry. The orders have already been issued, and if you want to stop me, you’ll have to remove me from this seat. But that’s not as easy as you think. It will take at least a month. And by then, half our assets will already be liquidated.”

“Chairman!”

The Chairman rose from his seat, as if he had heard enough, and walked toward the window.

“I know very well how serious this is. I will take full responsibility. If we fail, I’ll end up in handcuffs, but if we succeed, won’t it become a revolution that saves the future generations?”

The directors knew well how stubborn the Chairman was.

Just look at those eyes.

They could feel his determination not to bend once his mind was made up.

“.......”

In the end, the directors gave up and left the Chairman’s Office.

Then the Headquarters Director, who had remained quiet, carefully opened his mouth.

“The directors won’t sit still.”

“I know. That’s why we have to move even faster.”

“......Are you truly going to be alright?”

“I’ll be fine.”

No. In truth, he was not fine at all.

Anyone with a normal mind would feel the same.

Every passing minute and second felt terrifying.

It wasn’t only the Chairman’s fate on the line, it was a colossal bet upon which the fate of the entire South Korean population depended.

“I’ve already prepared myself for this.”

Even so, the Chairman forced himself to appear calm.

Though the hand inside his pocket was trembling like crazy.

*****

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