thenovelthief Chapter 119
Chapter 119
Translator: DreamscribeSix years.
In truth, even just six months is enough time for people to forget even the most perilous places or objects.
But six entire years had passed.
That was more than enough time for them to take lightly the fact that thousands of tons of extremely dangerous chemical substances were stored at the very place where they worked.
No, perhaps it would be fortunate if they even remembered at all.
So today, once again, the workers performing a simple maintenance job continued their work without much thought right next to the warehouse where the chemical substances were stored.
"What the hell did you do to start a fire?"
"Don't just stand there watching! Put it out quickly!"
"Huh? But the fire extinguisher isn’t working?"
At first, when the fire broke out, no one took it seriously.
It's just a fire. As long as you put it out, it’s fine.
But as the fire spread to the adjacent warehouse, someone said,
"Wait. Wasn’t this the warehouse with the chemical substances that must absolutely not catch fire?"
"What?"
Right then,
Puh-pung-!
A small explosion occurred.
The scale of the explosion wasn’t that big. It was almost like fireworks.
Weeeing~!
When welding, it’s inevitable that sparks fly.
But one of those sparks had caused the fire.
"Whew. That scared me for nothing."
"Exactly."
And not long after that.
Kwaaaang!!
A massive mushroom cloud rose up as if a nuclear explosion had gone off.
***
"R-re, repeat the report again. W-what did you say happened?"
Levant, which had been expanding its influence in earnest with the Beirut port as its base.
Khalid, the leader of that place, trembled in voice upon hearing the report that just came in.
"The ammonium nitrate stored in Warehouse No. 3 exploded, and the entire port has been blown away.
We haven’t been able to determine the exact number of casualties yet, but it's estimated to be at least several thousand."
"Ah~"
Khalid, who had jumped to his feet upon hearing the news, suddenly lost all strength in his legs and collapsed.
"CEO-nim!"
"T-the damage situation?"
"That is... All buildings within approximately a 1 km radius have sustained major damage, and even buildings within a 10 km radius had their windows shattered due to the enormous explosion. A crater about 130 meters in diameter has also formed at the accident site."
Given that thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate exploded, it was no wonder.
"What I’m asking about isn’t the damage to things unrelated to us. I’m talking about our company and everything currently tied up at the port!"
"As I mentioned earlier................ Everything has turned to dust. Everything at the port, whether people, goods, warehouses, or even ships nearby, have all been submerged due to the explosion."
"E-everything really got blown away?"
"Yes, not a single thing remains."
Even the employee delivering the report began to speak in a lower voice.
If the report was true, then even just counting what was at the port, losses would already amount to billions of dollars.
The problem was the radius of the explosion.
Even buildings 10 km away had all their windows shattered by the blast.
That meant anything close to the port had likely been reduced to pieces.
If those are included, the damages would swell to tens of billions of dollars.
"The bigger problem is that we purchased the port operating rights for 30 billion dollars. But because the port facilities have all been destroyed in the explosion, operating the port is impossible until it’s rebuilt.”
Khalid felt his head spinning.
This was all because of those bastards in the Lebanese government.
"That may be, but... do you think someone intentionally set the fire?"
"The timing is off, the timing! As soon as we acquire the operating rights, something that had been quiet for six years suddenly explodes. Doesn’t that seem strange?"
The timing was indeed suspicious.
Why would an explosion suddenly happen in a warehouse that hadn’t had even a minor accident in six years?
If those bastards had just disposed of that troublesome ammonium nitrate a little sooner, this kind of accident wouldn’t have happened.
But because they left it unattended for a whole six years, this disaster ultimately occurred.
"What about the cause of the accident? Do we know yet?"
"Not yet. But there is a record of welding work being done in that area. The fire may have started from there..."
In other words, it was an accident caused by a lack of safety awareness.
Things had been quiet for six years, and then the moment Levant acquired the port operation rights, this kind of incident happened. On top of that, those Kwangwoon bastards had forcibly driven up the bid price, and now Levant had suffered irreversible losses.
"Wait a minute... Kwangwoon?"
"Yes?"
"Who stands to gain the most from this situation? Isn’t it Kwangwoon?"
"Then are you saying Kwangwoon bastards..."
"It’s obvious. This is their doing."
"But there’s no evidence to point to Kwangwoon as the culprit."
That was the problem.
Even if there had been any evidence, it would have vanished in the explosion.
"Weren’t there also rumors that Kwangwoon was involved in the old Tianjin Port incident?"
"Ah, yes. A group called the Dragon Sea Alliance forcibly took over the Tianjin Port from Kwangwoon and started a business, but not long after, a major explosion occurred, and the Dragon Sea Alliance was forcibly disbanded by the Chinese government."
"Right. Doesn’t this feel similar to that time?"
It was too similar to be a coincidence. Which meant Kwangwoon really might have...
"Even if it’s only circumstantial, now isn’t the time to focus on that. The Lebanese government’s response after the explosion has been suspicious."
"What do you mean by that?"
"They’re trying to pin all the blame on us. Because the scale of the damage is so massive, and since the Lebanese government left the ammonium nitrate unattended for six years, it’s inevitable that they’ll be held responsible."
"So they’re going to dump all the blame on us and pretend they had nothing to do with it?"
"Yes. Isn’t this a national emergency that could turn into a political issue?"
It certainly was a national emergency.
Lebanon handles 80% of its imports through the Beirut Port. And that port had now been blown away.
"We absolutely cannot let this become our responsibility. So spread money to the key figures in the Lebanese government, no matter what. We must stop it!"
Capitalism is cold.
But politics is even colder.
***
At last, the distribution of the vaccine that all of humanity had been waiting for finally began. As a result, the governments of various countries were making vaccination mandatory for their citizens.
"For now, in our country, once a person gets their first dose, they’ll be issued a certificate, and just by verifying it through a QR code, they'll be able to freely access restaurants, cafes, convenience facilities, gyms, and so on."
"What if someone doesn’t get vaccinated?"
"Then they won’t be able to use those facilities. You need to verify via QR code that you're not infected with COVID, and refusing that verification means you’re denied access. You won’t even be allowed to go to work."
In other words, if you didn’t get vaccinated, you couldn’t live a normal social life anymore.
"I heard there are people refusing the vaccine?"
"Yes. Refusal due to health reasons is possible. But even so,
you still won’t be allowed to enter any facilities. You’ll have to stay at home."
It was starting to feel like a frightening world.
"Things are already getting out of hand both overseas and here at home because of this. Especially in the U.S., where there’s strong agitation claiming this vaccine is the ‘mark of 666’ mentioned in the Bible, and that it must never be taken."
There’s a prophecy like that in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
It says that in the future, anyone who doesn't bear the mark 666 won’t be able to buy goods, move around, or live in society at all.
"On top of that, there’s even a conspiracy theory going around that taking the vaccine will subject people to mind control. Still, the fortunate thing is that in our country, those conspiracy theories are quite weak, right?"
"I believe that’s due to our high level of education, civic awareness, and cultural differences. Compared to other countries, our society is more collectivist."
The people of our country have a good understanding of the concept of herd immunity.
Also, since the culture values collectivism more than individualism, the resistance to vaccination was relatively low compared to other countries.
"Anyway, judging from how things are progressing, our country looks like it’ll be the first in the world to complete mass vaccination."
Since our Kwangwoon owns the company AstraZenon, it was only natural that South Korea and the UK were the first to receive the initial supply of the vaccine.
The UK had that advantage because AstraZenon’s headquarters was located there.
"WHO is projecting that it will take three years to get COVID under control, including booster shots."
Three years.
That meant our company would be supplying vaccines throughout that period.
"What about the other vaccine competitors?"
"Well, our technology was far superior, the timeline had over twice the gap, and more importantly, we have an overwhelming number of production lines. That’s why Pfizer and other companies have reportedly given up on developing vaccines."
In essence, it meant that Kwangwoon was monopolizing the vaccine market.
"That must mean we’re making an enormous amount of money just from the vaccines."
"Yes, according to AstraZenon’s projections, if we continue to hold this monopoly, annual sales will reach 150 billion dollars. Our stock price has already increased more than sevenfold."
In other words, just from the AstraZenon company alone, we’d be making several hundred trillion won annually.
This is why monopolies are frightening.
"Ah. What’s happening with the Beirut port situation?"
"They’re in the middle of recovery efforts. The port itself has been completely paralyzed, so the Middle Eastern countries that relied on it for trade are now scrambling to find alternative routes."
"I imagine many of them are turning to Kwangwoon Shipping?"
"Yes. Kwangwoon Shipping is already opening up new routes to assist the Middle Eastern countries."
It seemed the accident I had sensed through intuition was this one.
Maybe that’s why my heart felt so heavy.
"Contact headquarters and have them send a donation through the Foundation. Take part of the profits coming in from AstraZenon and allocate it."
"Ah, yes. Then what amount should I relay..."
"I heard the damage is worth tens of trillions of won. Shouldn't we at least give something in the range of several hundred billion?"
"Ah, yes. I’ll relay that."
I knew that several hundred billion won was a lot of money.
But since it was just a portion of the profits from vaccine sales, it wasn’t that much in the grand scheme.
Besides, I felt a burden on my conscience.
But then, the way the employees were looking at me seemed... a bit odd.
"Why’s everyone acting like that? Do you have something to say?"
"A-ah, no, not at all. Haha."
"We’ll get back to work now!"
Why are they acting like that?
***
"It seems the Lebanese government is going to make Levant the scapegoat."
"Really?"
"Yes, on charges of failing to properly manage the ammonium nitrate. As soon as that rumor began to spread, people from Levant completely left Lebanon."
"What about the business rights?"
"If they ran away like that, the rights will probably be forcibly revoked. And even if they somehow keep the rights, it’s practically impossible to continue operations in Beirut right now. Everything really was blown away."
Levant must feel wronged.
It was the Lebanese government that left the chemicals unattended for six years, yet Levant was the one being held responsible.
"Of course, it does seem that the accident was caused by Levant. There are records showing welding work had been done nearby."
"So it was an accident? Not something someone did intentionally?"
"The authorities appear to see it that way, but we don’t know the full details. There’s nothing left to investigate anyway."
"..............."
Kim Doo-young quietly nodded.
"Are you perhaps worried about something else?"
"Hmm?"
"This accident happened right after Levant took over the business rights, didn’t it? Just like with the old Tianjin Port."
"You heard the report just now. It was an accident."
"Yes. But it still feels strange. Levant is now at a point where recovery is almost impossible.
If we hadn’t raised the bid price to 30 billion dollars, Levant could have somehow managed to keep the company afloat."
That was the first major blow, and this port explosion was the final nail in the coffin.
"And didn’t Kwangwoon recently purchase a large number of storage facilities?
That’s also playing a very significant role right now."
Under Jung Jin-ho’s orders, Kwangwoon had purchased storage facilities across various countries.
At the time, everyone thought it was to prepare for oil prices dropping into the negatives.
Even when oil hit minus 20 dollars, Jung Jin-ho simply said to wait longer.
So they assumed prices would drop further.
"Thanks to those storage facilities, we’ve been able to handle all the cargo stranded in the Middle East. Especially because we bought many storage units in that region."
Those storage facilities hadn’t been filled with oil.
Instead, they had absorbed all the stock that got stuck due to the Beirut explosion.
"For it to be a coincidence... it’s just too much.............."
"Tsk. What the hell are you all saying right now?"
CEO Kim Doo-young’s already stern face twisted even more fiercely.
"Are you seriously suggesting that CEO Jung went and set a fire himself to cause the explosion?"
"O-of course not."
"Exactly. You’ve all heard the reports from Lebanon, it was an accident, nothing more. If I hear anyone say again that ‘the timing is strange’ or that ‘it’s too suspicious to be a coincidence’, I won’t let it slide. Got that!?"
"Yes, sir!"
With the executives snapping to attention, Kim Doo-young cooled his anger.
"Next report?"
"Yes, the Kwangwoon Foundation is planning to provide large-scale support to Lebanon."
"As in a donation? How much?"
"They said it would be done in three installments, 100 billion won each time, totaling 300 billion won."
"What? That much?"
Three hundred billion won in donations!
But suddenly, it occurred to him that this might not be a simple donation.
"Couldn’t this be an investment disguised as a donation? Especially with that kind of money?"
"Hmm. That’s how it looks, doesn’t it?"
"Yes. If we spread around 300 billion won, we could do a lot of behind-the-scenes work in Lebanon, and once the port reconstruction is finished, we’d likely end up with the business rights. No one else is going to donate more than we are. We’ll win over public opinion, and the government’s favor will shift to our side. Plus, if we fund the construction of the facilities, we’ll have full control over them."
That meant this 300 billion won was actually an investment for the near future.
"This must be CEO Jung’s idea as well, right?"
"Yes, all the funds moved by the Foundation are managed directly by CEO Jung Jin-ho."
Jung Jin-ho often doesn’t clearly explain why he moves funds the way he does. But no one complains about that.
If you’ve risen to this level, then you should be able to pick up on the intent behind your superior’s financial moves without needing to be told.
This, too, is a kind of test.
"Then let’s align ourselves with CEO Jung’s intent. Gather up necessary daily supplies and send them to Lebanon. The faster the recovery work goes, the sooner we’ll be able to take over the port business rights."
"Yes, CEO-nim."
After sending off the executives, Kim Doo-young fell into brief contemplation.
They emptied Levant’s pockets with a 30 billion dollar bid, absorbed all the Middle East cargo by pre-purchasing storage facilities, and now they were initiating behind-the-scenes operations by sending 300 billion won in donations.
Could this really be a coincidence?
Then, startled, Kim Doo-young shook his head.
"W-what am I even thinking right now..."
Right. This is just a coincidence.
No, whether it is or isn’t, he must believe it to be one.
That is the mindset an executive of Kwangwoon must have.