Chapter 41: Maybe He Never Intended to Repay It in the First Place

Park Jeong-ho’s furious shout resounded through the president’s office of Hangang Securities.

“Stop it! Do whatever it takes to stop it! Keep the current price range until the subscription ends, no matter what! Just three more days… Please, hold out for just three more days!”

Under the relentless barrage of sell orders pouring down like a waterfall, Park Jeong-ho and the allied forces led by Hangang Securities were fighting with everything they had.

But it was, quite literally, like pouring water into a bottomless jar.

“President, we don’t have enough funds to cover the interest payments. If this continues, we could go bankrupt from being unable to pay later!”

At his subordinate’s gloomy report, Park Jeong-ho clenched his teeth and raised his voice even louder.

“I’ll handle that myself! Just do as I say and hold the line for now!”

At his command, the subordinates left the office with stiff expressions.

“Damn it…! What the hell is going on? What are those KCIA bastards even doing?!”

Left alone, Park Jeong-ho nervously lit a cigarette.

The hand holding the lighter trembled faintly.

It was clear that they couldn’t hold out much longer. They had to endure, at least until the paid-in capital increase subscription ended—only then could he dump everything onto the small investors and escape unscathed.

“Those bastards must be having a hard time covering their own interest too. I just need to hold out… If I can endure, I’ll win.”

While muttering to himself and exhaling thick cigarette smoke, a sinister thought suddenly crossed Park Jeong-ho’s mind.

‘No way… The KCIA isn’t planning something else, right?’

He shook his head violently, rejecting the idea.

“No. That’s impossible. They wouldn’t abandon me.”

He hadn’t yet delivered all of the promised political funds. Until that was done, he and the KCIA were in the same boat—bound by the same fate.

As he crushed the cigarette butt to extinguish it and tried to suppress the creeping unease, a knock sounded at the door.

“Who is it?!”

When he snapped irritably, the door opened.

The man who entered was Chief Choi. The moment Park Jeong-ho saw him, his expression brightened instantly, as if seeing a savior.

“Chief Choi!”

Leaping to his feet, Park Jeong-ho greeted him warmly. Chief Choi, expressionless as always, walked toward him.

“How did it go? Did you catch all those bastards interfering with our operation?”

His voice brimmed with anticipation.

But Chief Choi only shook his head coldly.

“We’re withdrawing from this operation.”

“W-What? Withdrawing? What are you talking about?!”

Looking at Park Jeong-ho with indifferent eyes, Chief Choi spoke in a voice devoid of any emotion.

“You’ve been too greedy, President Park. The higher-ups have decided that if this operation expands any further, it could cause problems for us as well.”

“What the hell are you talking about! Who do you think I’m doing all this for…!”

“Please don’t say that you designed this operation for our sake, President Park.”

Chief Choi cut him off decisively.

“Normally, I wouldn’t even be here in person. But since we’ve worked together for a while, I came to discreetly give you a final warning.”

“What do you mean by that?! Are you saying you’re abandoning me now?!”

Park Jeong-ho raised his voice without realizing it. The words hit him like a bolt from the blue.

Without KCIA backing, this plan could never succeed. No—without them, total ruin was inevitable.

“I need to meet Director Kang…”

As he desperately tried to grasp at straws, Chief Choi’s eyes glinted sharply.

“President Park. Don’t cross the line.”

At those words, Park Jeong-ho froze and shut his mouth. Chief Choi pressed on firmly.

“He has nothing to do with this matter. Do you understand?”

Swallowing dryly, Park Jeong-ho managed to nod.

“Right… Right. I just misspoke.”

Chief Choi’s expression returned to its usual calm, but Park Jeong-ho could detect a faint hint of mockery in it.

Ignoring his reaction, Chief Choi continued.

“From here on, we can’t intervene any further. Whatever happens next, you’ll have to handle it with your own ability, President Park.”

“W-What? Chief Choi, listen to me! If this keeps up, the entire securities market will collapse!”

“And what does that have to do with us? Besides, you’ve never been the type to care whether the market stands or falls, have you?”

At the cold reply, Park Jeong-ho’s voice trembled with despair.

“...You’re really abandoning me?”

“If that were our intent, I wouldn’t have come here personally.”

Chief Choi tossed a manila envelope onto the table. Park Jeong-ho’s gaze was drawn to it like a magnet.

“This is the outline of the operation behind this current attack, as we’ve discovered. Handle it yourself. If you manage to overcome this crisis with your own strength, we’ll use every resource we have to protect you afterward.”

Having said his piece, Chief Choi turned to leave—but paused. He turned his head slightly, his gaze glacial.

“But if even a single word about us leaks from your mouth…”

Trailing off, he smirked faintly. He didn’t finish the sentence, but the bone-chilling warning was clear enough for Park Jeong-ho to understand.

After Chief Choi left and the heavy door shut, Park Jeong-ho exploded in rage, sweeping everything off his desk.

With the crash of shattering glass, he howled like a wild beast.

“You think I’ll die like this?! You bastards…!”

His eyes burned with madness.

Collapsing onto the sofa, he grabbed the envelope Chief Choi had thrown and tore it open.

Inside was a detailed report outlining the masterminds and strategy behind the current crisis.

For a long time, only the eerie sound of Park Jeong-ho’s ragged breathing and rustling papers filled the room.

Sunday.

The last quiet day before the storm of the public subscription. I went to the secret office for a final operation check.

“Welcome, Captain.”

The first to greet me was Ma Dong-jin.

He looked exhausted from the past few days, but his eyes still shone sharply.

The office inside looked like a battlefield.

Documents and reports were scattered chaotically across the tables, while the blackboard on the wall was filled with market trends, fund flows, and countless cryptic symbols.

Aside from Ma Dong-jin, Kang Cheol-min and Yoon Ji-seong were buried in piles of paperwork, but when they noticed me entering, they hurriedly tried to stand. I raised a hand to stop them.

“Continue what you’re doing. It’s fine.”

My gaze turned toward an old sofa in the corner of the office. It had caught my attention since earlier. There, Cheon Sang-do was sprawled out, snoring loudly.

“Seems President Cheon has been camped out here every day lately.”

“Yes. These days, he’s been the busiest one among us.”

“How is he doing?”

I had asked the question vaguely on purpose, but Ma Dong-jin immediately caught the meaning behind my words and answered right away.

“He’s competent. Especially when it comes to handling things, he acts rather boldly. I’ve been surprised several times seeing how he even takes care of details we almost missed.”

I nodded in agreement with Ma Dong-jin’s evaluation. His experience and skill, honed through years in the private loan market, were indispensable for this operation.

I walked up to Cheon Sang-do, who was snoring, and lightly shook his shoulder.

Groaning and furrowing his brows, Cheon Sang-do slowly opened his eyes. Then, sensing someone nearby, he jolted up like lightning and scanned his surroundings.

Even half-asleep, his eyes were filled with sharp vigilance.

“Who’s there! Ah, it’s the young boss.”

Only after realizing it was me did his expression soften. I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh at his animal-like reflexes.

“Are you always that tense even when you sleep?”

“Heh heh, it’s just a habit I picked up after spending too long in this line of work. I don’t exactly appreciate anyone touching me while I’m asleep.”

“Why don’t you tidy up a bit and rest again later? I have something to discuss with you.”

Cheon Sang-do nodded and sluggishly rose to his feet. Cracking his neck side to side, he loosened his stiff body.

“You came by on purpose since the public subscription starts tomorrow, didn’t you? Well, that’s fine—I had a few things I wanted to talk about too.”

Together, we went over to the table and sat down. The other two paused their work and turned their attention toward us.

“Starting tomorrow, the public subscription will last for four days. The success or failure of this operation will depend on its outcome.”

I spoke first, and the moment I finished, Kang Cheol-min immediately gave his report.

“The market atmosphere isn’t as bad as expected. Everyone’s waiting for the subscription, so trading of Daegung stock’s physical certificates has actually decreased.”

Following him, Yoon Ji-seong added,

“But the regular trading market is still overheated. The price remains stagnant, but trading volume continues to increase steadily.”

“Good. It’ll probably look like a hit at the start of the subscription. But in the end, too much stock will be released through the public offering for everything to sell out. The purchasing power of individual investors alone won’t be enough to absorb it all.”

Normally, when a paid-in capital increase took place, most of the shares were absorbed by institutional investors like securities firms or banks.

However, this time, not only the securities firms linked to Park Jeong-ho, but even those allied with Jeong Tae-soo, had chosen not to participate.

Of the three securities firms that had purchased physical stock certificates from me, only two joined the subscription—but that was far too little to shake the market.

In other words, an abnormal structure had formed, with extremely low institutional participation.

Then, breaking the silence, Cheon Sang-do spoke.

“Physical trading’s dropped, but strangely, ordinary trading volume’s doubled.”

I turned my gaze toward him.

“There’ve been way more sell orders than we expected, but someone’s been buying up all of it. Don’t you find that suspicious?”

“What do you think, President Cheon?”

Cheon Sang-do picked up a cigarette from the table, lit it with his Zippo lighter, and continued.

“If what you said’s true, that fellow Park Jeong-ho shouldn’t have enough funds to buy that much. But if he’s still managing to absorb it all… well, there are only two possibilities.”

“Two?”

“Either Park Jeong-ho’s been hiding far more spare funds than we thought—or…”

Trailing off, Cheon Sang-do exhaled a long stream of smoke. I finished his sentence.

“He never intended to repay it in the first place.”

“Exactly. That’s why I said something smells fishy.”

The Park Jeong-ho I knew from the future had not only escaped punishment after this stock manipulation incident but had gone on to prosper—boasting about it as if it were a heroic tale.

But this time, things were different.

Because of my existence, the entire game board was being overturned.

If the cornered Park Jeong-ho had already given up on repayment and was pretending to buy through regular trades while secretly offloading his physical certificates behind the scenes—

“Yoon Ji-seong, what’s Park Jeong-ho’s recent activity like?”

“He hasn’t left the Hangang Securities building since he went in. He’s completely avoiding outside contact.”

“What about turning any of his internal staff?”

Yoon Ji-seong shook his head slowly.

“Even approaching them is difficult. The security is far stricter than we imagined.”

“What’s Kim Jin-ho been up to lately?”

“He’s been meeting people here and there. Also… there are rumors that he’s planning to personally participate in the public subscription.”

“He’s participating in the subscription?”

Was that idiot out of his mind? It seemed he was trying to fix the mess after using Yang Sobo’s funds by recklessly throwing his own money into this dangerous gamble.

I shook my head and gave an order.

“Keep a closer watch on Kim Jin-ho’s movements. Report immediately if anything suspicious comes up.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Good. Now, report on the progress of our short-selling operation.”

For over an hour, the three of them took turns giving detailed updates on the operation’s progress.

Everything was proceeding far more precisely and thoroughly than I had expected. I spoke with satisfaction.

“You’re all doing well. Very good. Then starting tomorrow, double the volume of our daily sell orders.”

Surprised, Kang Cheol-min asked,

“Double? All of a sudden?”

“Yes, double. Keep doubling the volume each day as long as the market price remains stable until the subscription ends. If the price begins to fluctuate drastically, stop immediately.”

“Understood.”

As long as someone kept buying, all we had to do was keep expanding the game.

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