Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 156

158.

‘Was I wrong after all?’

This time, she searched for information on the new business sector of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. She wanted to check if Beomseok had received free body modification surgery, one of the pilot projects of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The procedure was quite expensive, so she figured considerable personal information would have been included in the screening process.

However, even here, detailed information about him was systematically blocked.

“No, no. There’s definitely something about him. It’s impossible for two major national institutions to have system errors at the same time. The possibility is extremely low.”

“What are you talking about? Two places?”

“Information retrieval is blocked not only at the Federal National Intelligence Service but also at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.”

At this point, Julian was also filled with anxiety. It was definitely strange, even in his opinion.

“Who the hell is this Beomseok?”

Aula, who continued to access through other routes, shook her head.

“I have no idea. No matter how I look, it’s all a search error. This has never happened before.”

“W-What should we do then?”

“What else can we do? We have to find out. Something will pop out if we keep poking at it.”

“Keep poking?”

She took her hands off the keyboard, stared at Julian, and said.

“First, we blatantly target this guy named Beomseok. If the federal government requests our bank to refrain from doing so, it means this guy is an agent performing important national projects. Or else……”

“Or else what?”

“I don’t know either. The former possibility is so high that there’s nothing special to mention about the latter.”

He sat on Aula’s desk.

“But. Earlier, you said you couldn’t touch that guy because of the conflict with the Black Society, right?”

“That’s right. But there’s still a way.”

Aula switched the screen and looked at his information after he entered society at the age of 20. Fortunately, this place was not protected, so she could check various interpersonal relationships.

“We target the people around him. Humans are social animals, so they will definitely react when their close friends collapse. But the Black Society can’t step in. Since they are interest groups, they won’t openly confront our LHN [Likely a financial institution] to protect people who have nothing to do with their interests. At most, they will provide some financial support.”

Julian’s face brightened instantly. It was a bit disappointing that he couldn’t target Beomseok directly, but he was looking forward to making things difficult by attacking the people around him.

“That’s a good idea. So, who are we going to hit?”

“Just a moment, let me check.”

The first person who caught her eye was Emma. However, she was a member of the Black Society. Touching her would immediately start a war. Next were a woman named Susan and Esther, who was a director, but they also had to be avoided. They were affiliated with God’s Knights, so it could be mistaken for targeting Beomseok.

‘Then I need to turn my attention to external figures…….’

The problem was that such detailed information was not fully grasped. When a person lives in society, they meet tens of thousands of people, and even the government’s major intelligence agencies have difficulty documenting all of this.

In the end, Aula brought up Beomseok’s financial information again. By checking the person’s money flow, the person’s relationships would come into view to some extent. People who are close sometimes exchange money.

However, no matter how much she looked, there was nothing about it.

‘Hmm. This is troublesome. There’s nothing special. I think I’ll have to send employees to check directly……. But what is this?’

Aula, who was about to close the financial information window, focused her attention on some unusual transaction details. It was the investment in Leopard Planning and LKS Broadcasting. Stock investment through the stock exchange was common, but it was rare to invest directly in specific companies and receive shares. Moreover, the companies invested in were almost in a state of collapse, or they were broadcasting companies disguised as personal hobbies. Investing a huge amount of money, millions of krang [currency unit], in such companies was completely incomprehensible.

‘W-What? A-Amazing.’

Aula, who was looking at the details, couldn’t hide her admiration. The hole-in-the-wall companies that would not even be considered for general investment were growing at a considerable rate as soon as he invested funds.

A company called Leopard Planning was making a big hit by featuring a singer named Karen on a major broadcasting station’s TV program, and in conjunction with this, LKS Broadcasting was providing viewers with programs that filmed her every move, receiving a great response. It was not certain whether these companies would continue to grow and reach a stable trajectory, but it was definitely a great achievement considering the previous scale.

Out of curiosity, she looked at detailed information about these companies. And when she checked the list of shareholders, she smiled with satisfaction. There were several major shareholders in both companies, most of whom were consistent with each other. Then it could be assumed that they were Beomseok’s acquaintances. If they were not united by a relationship of trust, they would not have invested in such companies, no matter how much money they had.

“Bingo.”

Julian asked urgently at Aula’s satisfied smile.

“Why? Did you find something?”

“Yeah. I found two acquaintances worth messing with.”

“Really? What are you going to do?”

“Just a moment, let me look a little more.”

She thoroughly investigated information about Inspector Lextor and put it aside for now. He was a rising figure in the Federal Police Agency, and he had the deep trust of the Federal Police Commissioner, so it was quite difficult to touch him.

Having no choice, Aula turned her attention to Gloria and enlarged the screen. It was determined that she was a worthy opponent to mess with. She was running a real estate company called Rainbow Group, and in line with the nature of the company, she had a considerable amount of debt. In particular, she was borrowing a large amount of funds from LHN Bank, an affiliate of LHN Financial Group, so even a slight touch could cause irreparable damage.

“It would be good to put a woman named Gloria on the target list.”

Julian’s eyes lit up at the word Gloria. She had experience of thwarting their plans when they bribed the promotion evaluation team to put pressure on God’s Knights. He had been planning to give her a big lesson someday, but unexpectedly, the opportunity had come now. Of course, he was all for it.

“Good. Let’s go with that woman. She’s quite close to that Beomseok, and she made things difficult for us before. That’s great. I’m going to screw her over this time.”

Aula’s hand was stretched out again.

“Then that’s settled. Then you have to pay the price.”

“Price?”

“Gloria is running a fairly large company in the area. That means I have to put in a lot of effort. I can’t do it for free.”

Julian frowned and clicked his tongue. He had wasted 500,000 krang listening to her swearing earlier, and he didn’t know how much money she would demand this time. He wondered if he could handle it on his own.

“I-It’ll cost quite a bit, right?”

“Of course. If you convert it into money, you’ll never be able to handle it at your level.”

“Sigh~ What about something other than money?”

Gloria smiled brightly and said as if it were nothing.

“Just give me the financial information of your Hyena Group.”

Julian looked incredulous at the unexpectedly easy offer. Under the Securities Exchange Act, corporations were required to disclose their financial information to the outside.

“Is that really all? But if you want our company’s financial information, you can check it directly.”

“Not that. I mean the specific financial information that only your company’s executives have. Do you know what I mean?”

Julian’s face darkened rapidly, and he shook his hands wildly. He didn’t know how she knew about it, but it was definitely not something to be leaked to the outside. There was a record of illegal slush funds that would have fatal consequences for the company, so the moment it was handed over, Hyena Group could be controlled by Aula.

“T-There’s no such thing. Our Hyena Group operates transparently with integrity as its motto.”

Aula laughed as if he were pathetic.

“Hah. If you guys are running with integrity, then politicians are democratic martyrs. If you’re going to say that, just go back.”

Julian frowned. If she was talking with such confidence, it seemed certain that she had caught on to something.

“Hey! Are you really going to do this? You know that it’s impossible to hand over the data, right? If I get caught handing it over, my father will kill me.”

“Just hand it over without getting caught. Can’t you even do that?”

“I’m confident that I won’t get caught! But aren’t you asking for it because you’re trying to do something! Then, of course, my father will know!”

“I’m not trying to do anything. I’m just trying to acquire it to use it as investment information. And if I get this confidential data, I can get recognition from my grandfather. How about it? Isn’t it a win-win situation?”

Julian shouted.

“What’s a win-win situation! Don’t say ridiculous things!”

“If you really don’t want to, there’s nothing I can do. Just go back.”

Julian snorted and turned around immediately. Now that he knew how to attack Beomseok, he didn’t need to cling to her by handing over Hyena Group’s fatal financial records. He had plenty of friends besides her.

“Okay. I’m just going back. Live well!”

Aula’s cold voice was heard in his ear as he was about to kick the door open.

“Okay. Goodbye. But don’t even think about messing with that guy named Beomseok. You’ll never succeed.”

“Hah. Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I can’t handle one of those guys on my own?”

“No. You can’t. You’ve never won against me before.”

Julian stopped walking for a moment and ground his teeth. He could fully recognize that what she was saying was a threat to interfere with him. Aula was a woman who was more than capable of doing that.

“Damn it, Aula!”

Aula, with a faint smile on her lips, said.

“Yes. There are only two options. One is to hand over the data I want and take revenge on that guy named Beomseok, and the other is to give up.”

Julian, who had been holding the doorknob and agonizing for a long time, eventually closed the door again and came inside. His desire for revenge on Beomseok was far beyond the interests of the company.

“You. You’re not really going to use that ledger carelessly, are you?”

“Of course. No. I swear to God.”

“Good. But there’s one condition.”

“What is it? Tell me anything.”

“The point at which I hand over the ledger is when that woman named Gloria becomes a beggar. If not, there’s no deal.”

Aula nodded her head immediately. It was so easy for her to destroy Rainbow Group. If she just gave a word to a few affiliates, she could disintegrate it within a month.

“Okay. I got it. But if you change your mind then, Hyena Group will pay the price. Do you know what I mean?”

“Of course. I’m also a manager. I know that it’s not good to be disliked by the bank.”

She smiled with satisfaction, reached out her hand, and shook hands. With just a few words of command, she had the weakness of the world’s best entertainment company in her hands, so there was no better deal than this. It was a very unfortunate thing for Julian, but the moment that ledger came in, Hyena Group would be swayed by her. She couldn’t help but use the key that would play an important role in the succession war.

“Sigh~ Now that things have gone wrong like this, what should I do?”

Late in the evening. Beomseok was sitting in the chairman’s office, sighing deeply. It was because LKS Broadcasting was growing at a terrifying rate. Everyone thought it was because Karen had become a superstar after singing on WBS Broadcasting’s famous music program, and LKS’s broadcast program depicting her success story was receiving a huge response around the world, earning huge revenues. It had only been 6 episodes, but the number of views was 67 million clicks, so if you calculate 5 krang per click, it meant that they had earned 335 million krang. In addition, some of those viewers were paying attention to the other 6 programs, adding an additional 43 million clicks. In total, it was 550 million krang, which was more than 4 times the funds held by God’s Knights.

Fortunately, he had roughly predicted this and purchased an office with a high-capacity dedicated line and a high-performance server to separate the business part of LKS Broadcasting. Otherwise, God’s Knights would have suffered a great loss due to disruptions in ticket sales and medical corporation operations.

‘Sigh~ Now I can’t control Natalie with my own hands.’

There was no way he could recruit Natalie, the CEO of a broadcasting station that earned 550 million krang in a month, to God’s Knights, which earned much less than that. Moreover, she was trying to consolidate her position rather than expand her business in earnest through the huge profits she had received this time. She was only spending money on doubling the number of employees to increase the broadcast time from one hour to two hours a day, and stabilizing the server and lines, and the rest was put in the bank and tightly closed. Natalie knew that the current growth was only due to Karen’s luck, not the ability of LKS Broadcasting, and adopted a conservative management strategy. Because of this, the possibility of LKS Broadcasting going bankrupt in the near future was almost zero. Rather, it was much faster to make her his woman through conquest. Fortunately, Natalie, who was stingy, was still staying at the God’s Knights’ accommodation, so there were many opportunities.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

The weather is getting quite chilly. It feels like we’re on the threshold of winter. So everyone, be careful not to catch a cold in the cold weather. I’ll see you again tomorrow.