Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 95

Translator: Dreamscribe"CEO-nim. Here's an additional list of players."

I looked through the list of all players we could possibly recruit at the moment.

Just like the list I had seen earlier, each player flickered with light.

Some were green, blue, purple, orange, golden, and so on.

I could see it.

The aura they were emitting.

‘If I compare this to a game... is it like being able to distinguish their grade?’

I could tell who was S-grade, or A-grade.

This intuition seemed to show me clearly.

"......."

If that's the case, I should make full use of it.

I checked only the players who seemed to have the best light.

"On the next page is the list of players currently on our team."

"Ah, really?"

I checked out the players who were already active in the existing NX Rangers team.

"......."

It was more serious than I thought.

There were barely any players giving off any light.

Even if they had brought in low-quality players to cut costs...

"Hmm?"

But as I skimmed through the list, one name caught my eye.

One person who was emitting a radiance greater than any player I had seen so far.

"Lee Young-hoo?"

"Ah. That player is considered the ace of our team. He's also a strong candidate for this year's Golden Glove award. Though he's currently injured and unable to play, he won the Rookie of the Year award last year and is a highly promising player for the future."

So, he debuted last year and is still showing an excellent performance this year.

Of course, there were other ace players besides Lee Young-hoo on the team, but none of them had the same radiance as him.

"......."

I marked an X on all the players who showed no light on the list and drew a circle around the rest.

"Could you pass this to Kwangwoon Prime? Proceed with the contract renewals as marked and try to recruit as many of the players I checked as possible. Ah, and tell them to make sure they hold onto Lee Young-hoo no matter what. Even if it means raising his salary."

After receiving the list from me, Lee Hye-rin’s face stiffened for a moment.

"Uh... Are you really letting go of this many players?"

"If we recruit according to my selections, shouldn’t we be able to fill all the positions?"

"Th-That’s true, but......."

She looked like she had a lot to say.

Well, that made sense, Lee Hye-rin was a long-time Rangers fan, after all.

I didn’t know much about baseball, but since she was a die-hard fan, she probably had far more extensive knowledge than me.

But her eyes were sparkling in a different way.

"Then, CEO-nim, should I also bring you the list of coaching staff and the manager? That market is also very active right now."

"Sounds good."

Was it just my imagination?

For some reason, Lee Hye-rin looked extremely excited.

Actually, I had looked up a bit about the NX Rangers online.

The most frequently mentioned topics were the need to replace aging facilities and overhaul the manager and coaching staff. Perhaps right now, Lee Hye-rin was embodying the sentiments of all those fans.

‘But what if only players give off that light, and not the coaching staff?’

That worry turned out to be unnecessary.

When I opened the list Lee Hye-rin handed over, smiling from ear to ear, light was also leaking from the profiles of the coaches and the manager, just like with the players.

***

"CEO-nim. Congratulations."

"Congratulations, huh. It feels more like sitting on a bed of thorns."

After the NX Rangers were merged into Kwangwoon, as with all M&As, a storm swept through the company.

More than half of the existing executives were let go.

"Honestly, I thought they’d get rid of everyone, including me, but they didn’t."

"Right. Usually they clean house and reorganize everything, but Kwangwoon didn’t do that. Also, it’s a mystery what criteria they used to decide which employees to keep."

"Yeah. But what’s surprising is, the company is running smoothly without any issues."

After the merger, the company became unsettled, and it was inevitable that various systems would be shaken.

However, strangely enough, things seemed to be running more smoothly than in the previous company.

“I looked into it, and apparently Kwangwoon is well-known for this kind of thing. After acquiring a company, they usually do a staff overhaul, but there’s never been any noise about it. The operation ends up running even better.”

“Seems like their HR standards are very strict.”

“Yeah. But it’s kind of strange too. Normally, you’d need approval from the headquarters for any decision, right? But here, it goes straight through Kwangwoon securities company without going through the headquarters.”

Oh Jun-yeop, who had been appointed as the CEO of Kwangwoon Prime Club, received three guidelines from the headquarters.

First, in case of problems, contact the headquarters.

Second, for matters requiring careful judgment, contact the securities company.

Third, follow any directive from the securities company without question.

“That’s a strange set of guidelines.”

“Right? But it seems all the affiliates are like this. Here at Kwangwoon, unusually, the power of the securities company is stronger than that of the headquarters.”

Could it really be that the power of the securities company is stronger than that of the Chairman at the headquarters?

On top of that, they were told to unconditionally follow the instructions coming from the securities company.

“No matter what, we’re really supposed to go along with this?”

“Yeah. I thought they’d leave the recruitment up to us, but then they suddenly sent this.”

Oh Jun-yeop and the employees of Kwangwoon Prime were baffled.

The first directive issued from the securities company was related to recruitment.

“Looks like they want to completely replace our starting players and fill the team with new ones...”

“Looking at the profiles of the players they want to recruit, to be honest, they don’t seem like very good prospects.”

“That’s what’s driving me crazy. I thought they were going to spend some money replacing our outdated facilities, but then the players they want to recruit are all like this.”

When the news broke that Kwangwoon, known for making a lot of money these days, was taking over a baseball team, people thought the stingy days were over and they would start spending big.

Of course, replacing all the training facilities was great, but when it came to player recruitment, they seemed to be incredibly stingy.

Most of the recruits were inexperienced rookies, and the few veterans they were bringing in were already past their prime and had cheapened in value.

There was no way to understand on what basis they were trying to bring in such players.

“......If we go ahead like this, isn’t it obvious to anyone that next season will be a disaster?”

“Probably.”

“Then shouldn’t we oppose it?”

“I told you earlier. Any directive from the securities company must be followed without question.”

“But if we do that.......”

“Just go ahead as instructed. From what I’ve learned, Kwangwoon... is a scarier place than we thought. Even the former CEO who got arrested refused to give up his shares until the end, right? But once the prosecution came in and swept everything clean without leaving a speck of dust, he finally surrendered and raised the white flag.”

“I had a feeling he wasn’t the type to give up his shares easily. That really happened?”

“That’s not all. If you look at Kwangwoon’s track record, there are more than a few companies that collapsed after trying to fight them. People like us could disappear without a trace. So whatever it is, just do as you’re told. If you want to keep your position.”

The executives nodded.

They were the survivors of the first round of purging.

So they knew all too well that unconditional obedience was the only way to survive.

“By the way, CEO-nim. What should we do about the partnership with the French company?”

“Renault?”

“Yes. They came in with NX when they were sponsoring us, but now that NX is gone, their position is kind of vague.”

This wasn’t just any issue, it was related to sponsorship.

But with the tire company NX pulling out, Renault, who had followed them in, also faced an uncertain future.

“They said to ask the securities company for important decisions, right?”

Even if it wasn’t that important, they planned to leave almost everything to the securities company from now on.

“Ask Kwangwoon Securities.”

***

When looking at presidential elections around the world, it’s usually a fierce battle between left and right-wing parties, with one side emerging as the winner.

But in France, an unexpected outcome occurred.

Antoine Perron, who had started his campaign by forming a new centrist party unaffiliated with either side, was elected.

Having served as Minister of Economic and Digital Affairs, including time at Rothschild Investment Bank, he was steadily preparing for economic reform by rolling out various policies related to the French economy.

“The key point in this policy is to abolish the wealth tax and convert it into a real estate asset tax. If we do at least this much, domestic companies will become very cooperative with our government.”

“Wouldn’t that increase public discontent? To anyone, it looks like you’re cutting taxes for the rich.”

“That’s why the digital tax must be implemented immediately. We have to punish those who’ve set up tax havens in Ireland and are just sucking our money dry. We’ll also make up for the missing tax revenue through that.”

To smoothly implement the policies he wanted, the cooperation of the wealthy, who held power over the economy, was essential.

Also, those who had actively supported Perron and even funded his campaign had to be rewarded.

“But wasn’t it originally decided to push that back until next year?”

“Yes. But it seems we’ll need to move it up a bit. Overseas corporations have penetrated our economy more deeply than we expected.”

“Which ones?”

“Google, FaceWeb, BlueZone, and so on. Of course, the large corporations are a concern, but there are other companies having even greater influence on society. In SNS, there’s PicPic; in media, it’s Netflix; in Bitcoin, KW Exchange. Even in shipping and automotive industries. The problem is, all the companies I just named are connected to a single firm.”

“You’re saying all of those are owned by one company?”

“Yes. A place called Kwangwoon in Korea. While companies like FaceWeb or BlueZone dominate single sectors, this one is different. From trade and media to virtual assets, and more recently, even the automotive alliance that Renault had been building, Kwangwoon has broken it apart.”

Now it made sense why the advisors were expressing concern.

From PicPic, which was threatening FaceWeb’s position, to the largest OTT, Netflix, and even the world’s biggest trading firm and Bitcoin exchange, Kwangwoon operated them all.

Other whales had each taken over one sector, but Kwangwoon was expanding its influence like tentacles, reaching in all directions, which made it necessary to impose checks.

“But... will that really be okay? Isn’t Japan going through a massive economic crisis? They say it’s because of Kwangwoon. It’s been said that they deliberately triggered that economic crisis.”

“So what, you’re saying France should fear a single foreign company from a far-off country? Now is precisely when we need to show the power of our administration. With the digital tax that we’ve been postponing, we must strike down foreign companies that have used tax havens to avoid paying their dues. And also introduce regulations on Bitcoin to clamp down on KW Exchange.”

KW Exchange had already become the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world.

When Bitcoin collapsed after reaching $30,000, it seemed like it was all over, but thanks to FaceWeb putting on a show of issuing its own coin out of nowhere, the Bitcoin price had bounced back again.

“There definitely seems to be a need to keep this Kwangwoon company in check.”

“Yes. The shipping business has already grown to an uncontrollable size, and it’s nearly impossible to regulate now. We have to suppress it before it grows even bigger. They’re also aggressively using tax havens like other foreign corporations, so at the very least, we need to make them cough up more taxes.”

"Then what about the oil tax increase proposal this time?"

“We’ve prepared thoroughly for that as well. Since France has publicly committed to becoming a leader in eco-friendly systems, we have to stick to that strategy.”

“Sounds good. Let’s announce it quickly without dragging it out, so Kwangwoon place can’t prepare for it.”

Though he had done a lot of work in the economic field and believed he had a good grasp of global economic trends, perhaps he had focused too much on politics lately.

A company that had started in that small country of Korea was now spreading in all directions, aiming to devour the world.

***

"CEO-nim. It’s clear now, France is targeting our Kwangwoon."

While checking the sponsors connected to the baseball team we acquired, a piece of news came in from France.

President Perron had announced a new economic policy that he planned to push aggressively by the end of this year and implement fully next year.

A new France through environmental protection and energy transition.

That was the slogan presented by President Perron.

The problem was, when you looked into the details of the plan, it included wealth tax cuts, oil tax hikes, and, most notably, a slew of tax policies that clearly targeted our Kwangwoon.

“Even the minister who announced the policy clearly listed the name of our company, syllable by syllable.”

“Have we been evading taxes?”

“We’re simply doing things the same way as other corporations. In other words, we’re paying everything we’re supposed to. But the French government is demanding even more from us. The issue is, our company doesn’t just operate one business; we have multiple entities. So the tax hikes apply differently to each, and the total burden is far greater than expected. The financial loss is significant.”

On top of that, they had just announced new regulations regarding Bitcoin, which would inevitably impact our exchange as well.

“France does have its own domestic Bitcoin exchange, but most people still use our KW Exchange. Although we’re not officially servicing France, users are accessing it through servers installed across Europe.”

“And now they’re going to regulate that?”

“To be exact, the regulation targets Bitcoin itself, but naturally our exchange will be affected.”

While they claimed to be checking other foreign companies, it was clear they were swinging a club at Kwangwoon in particular.

No wonder I had a strange feeling when the baseball team asked what to do about Renault, the French sponsor.

“The policy hasn’t been implemented yet, right?”

“No. They’ve only announced it. They’re planning to pass it as quickly as possible after internal review.”

In that case, we needed to respond.

And the response would have to be very cautious and strategic.

“If we respond poorly now, it’s obvious that regulatory winds will spread from France to all of Europe. That would mean continued damage to the company.”

But what could we possibly do when a government had declared its intent to target us with regulations?

No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t come up with a viable solution.

As I sat there pondering and moved my pen toward the word “France” written in my notebook.

“!?”

A powerful shiver surged up from beneath my feet to the top of my head, and in an instant, a panoramic vision unfolded before me.

Riots were breaking out all across central France, fires burning, and people in yellow vests shouting for President Perron to step down.

An intense protest that flashed before my eyes like lightning and then vanished.

The afterimage of it still lingered faintly in my sight.

“CEO-nim?”

I snapped out of the vision, steadying my breath.

It had only lasted a moment, but it felt so real, as if I had actually been there.

“Please look more deeply into the policies the French government is trying to implement. Especially how French citizens are reacting to them.”

In the vision my intuition had shown me, hundreds of thousands of people were rioting and protesting.

It clearly seemed related to these policies.

That was why the citizens had risen up.

There was something I had momentarily forgotten.

What kind of country is France?

It is the country of revolution.