Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 158

Bum-seok waited by the outdoor fountain at the Rainbow Hotel. He wanted to meet Gloria quickly to understand the situation, but first, he had to see Lexter. As he paced anxiously, Lexter came running up to him, out of breath.

“Bum-seok! Did you wait long?”

Bum-seok waved his hand in greeting.

“Not at all. Thank you for coming.”

Lexter’s face was filled with worry, likely due to the sudden difficulties of the Rainbow Group. He seemed quite taken aback.

“Hey, what on earth happened? When I met Gloria not long ago, she didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all. How could she suddenly fall into such a difficult situation?”

“I don’t know either. I think I need to check it out first.”

“Really? Okay, let’s go in and find out.”

Bum-seok looked at the entrance of the Rainbow Hotel and sighed deeply. Reporters from local and international news outlets had already formed a long line to cover the story, and security guards were surrounding the entrance to keep them out. It was a bit awkward to just barge in.

“I think I should contact Gloria. If we just go in, we’ll probably be stopped by the guards.”

“Okay, then what are you waiting for? Call her quickly.”

Bum-seok took out his electronic notepad, found Gloria’s number, and pressed the call button. After the ringing tone sounded once, twice, and continued more than ten times, he closed the notepad and looked at Lexter.

“It seems Gloria is a bit busy right now.”

“Is she in a meeting? Then what do we do? If we just go in like this, won’t we be stopped by the guards?”

Bum-seok clicked his tongue in frustration and looked at the hotel’s main entrance.

“Let’s try going in anyway. If we say we’re here to help, they won’t openly kick us out.”

“Really? Okay, let’s go in.”

Bum-seok nodded and followed Lexter towards the Rainbow Hotel. The main entrance was almost like a marketplace, filled with reporters trying to get their story. It was an incident that would cause a huge ripple effect in the Avond regional economy and society, so it was impossible not to be interested. They were engaging in fierce competition for coverage, even getting into physical altercations with the security guards.

“Excuse me! What exactly is happening? What measures is the Rainbow Group taking in response to this credit rating downgrade?”

“I understand that LHN Bank is unilaterally demanding debt repayment. Can the Rainbow Group really repay all of this debt?”

A Rainbow Group executive, who looked to be in his fifties, came out to the main entrance and shouted to the reporters.

“Our Rainbow Group cannot accept LHN Bank’s absurd demand for debt repayment. However, we are prepared to pay in any case when the bond maturity date arrives.”

“So, are you saying that the Rainbow Group will avoid bankruptcy?”

“Of course. Our Rainbow Group has a stronger financial structure than any other company. Bankruptcy is absolutely impossible.”

At that moment, a blonde reporter raised her hand and asked a question.

“But why did LHN Credit Rating Agency suddenly declare a credit rating downgrade? There must be a reason, right?”

“There is no reason. Today’s situation is simply the tyranny of LHN Financial Group.”

Despite the executive’s plea of unfairness, the reporters didn’t believe him and cast suspicious glances. The world wasn’t so simple that they could take the words of someone involved in the crisis at face value.

Meanwhile, Bum-seok, who had reached the restricted access line, looked at an elf security guard in uniform and said.

“I’m Oh Bum-seok from the God Knights, is it okay to go in?”

The elf security guard stared at him with a curious expression. As he was known as the best gladiator in the region, there weren’t many Avond residents who didn’t know Bum-seok’s face. However, given the situation, he couldn’t openly welcome him.

“Yes, I know. But what’s going on?”

“I’ve come to see Chairwoman Gloria.”

“The Chairwoman? Why do you want to see her?”

Bum-seok opened his mouth with a calm expression.

“Actually, Chairwoman Gloria and I are very close friends. So, when I heard she was in trouble, I came to ask if there was anything I could do to help.”

The elf security guard smiled brightly. He was glad that someone was coming to help when the company was in such a difficult situation. Moreover, Bum-seok was the chairman of the God Knights team. He must be quite wealthy, so he thought he could be of considerable help to the company.

“Ah, is that so? Then I’ll report this to my superiors, so please wait a moment.”

“Okay, please do.”

The elf security guard quickly ran to a high-ranking official in front of the main gate and whispered in his ear. The official glanced at Bum-seok and Lexter for a moment, then approached and spoke to them. He was Jade, the head of the Rainbow Hotel’s public relations team, and he had briefly met and talked with them during the sponsor agreement with the God Knights.

“Mr. Bum-seok, long time no see. You want to see the Chairwoman?”

“Yes. When I saw it on TV, the situation seemed serious. I owe Gloria a great debt, so I came to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

For the Rainbow Group, which was in a desperate situation, even a small amount of help was welcome. Jade greeted Bum-seok and Lexter warmly and led them inside the restricted access line.

“Come on, follow me. I’ll guide you to the Chairwoman.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“No thanks needed. You came all the way here to help us, so we should be thanking you.”

The group, creating a temporarily amicable atmosphere, entered the hotel. They went to the front of the Chairwoman’s office and knocked on the door.

“The Chairwoman is currently holding a countermeasures meeting in the main conference room. You can’t see her right now.”

At the female secretary’s words, Jade looked at Bum-seok with a troubled expression.

“It seems difficult to see her right now. What would you like to do?”

Bum-seok exchanged glances with Lexter and immediately replied.

“We’ll wait.”

“Ah, is that so? Then please stay in this reception room. I have to go back to the main gate to continue talking with the reporters.”

“Yes, I understand. Then please take care.”

As Jade left, the female secretaries led Bum-seok and Lexter to the reception room.

Inside the quiet reception room, Bum-seok and Lexter sat across from each other at the table, casting tense glances. The matter was that serious. Lexter was the first to speak.

“Bum-seok, they say the debt is 23 billion Krang [Avond currency]. Can we even be of any help?”

Bum-seok sighed deeply and started counting on his fingers. He currently had 130 million Krang in cash, and he could borrow about 400 million Krang from the bank using the God Knights as collateral. Adding all of this together, it came to about 530 million Krang. It was a very large sum of money, but when considering the Rainbow Group’s 23 billion debt, it was like a drop in the bucket.

“Hmm, I don’t know. Even if I gather as much funds as possible, it won’t be much more than 550 million Krang, so I don’t think it will be of much help.”

“Really? I only have about 15 million Krang. This is really bleak.”

Bum-seok looked at Lexter with surprise. Recently, he had become almost penniless from recruiting a large number of elf gladiators. To raise as much as 15 million Krang showed his willingness to help Gloria, even if it meant taking out a loan from the bank like Bum-seok.

“It will still be a considerable help. It’s by no means a small amount of money.”

“I hope so. I’m also worried about Gloria’s health. She’s almost at full term and has to deal with this.”

Stress had an extremely negative impact on both pregnant women and fetuses. As a lover and father, Bum-seok couldn’t help but worry.

“I know. I don’t know how this happened…”

“But Bum-seok, doesn’t this situation seem a bit strange?”

“What do you mean?”

“Actually, when I met Gloria about the LKS Broadcasting investment, there was no indication of the company being in trouble. No, even further, she lent Natalie as much as 20 million without interest. If the Rainbow Group was in trouble, they wouldn’t have been able to do that so easily.”

Bum-seok nodded, wearing a puzzled expression.

“That’s true. The Rainbow Group isn’t a small company, and it couldn’t have suddenly become difficult.”

“Could there be window dressing [manipulating financial statements] or double books [fraudulent accounting]? So, it was caught by the prosecution or the Federal Tax Service, and LHN Financial Group, knowing this, made the first move.”

Bum-seok waved his hands frantically.

“Come on. Surely not. Do you think Gloria is that kind of person?”

“It’s not surely not. Originally, when managing a company, there are many cases where you have to do that due to unavoidable circumstances. It’s just that everyone doesn’t know because it’s not revealed, but most companies commit illegal acts, whether big or small. Unless you’re a saint, there’s no one who doesn’t have dust when you shake them [everyone has secrets].”

Indeed, it was unlikely that the Rainbow Group had no illegal financial operations. Gloria was Avond’s leading real estate tycoon, so there were many places where money would go in various aspects, and she may have prepared slush funds [secret funds] in a bad way.

At this, Bum-seok looked at him with sparkling eyes.

“Detective, can you help us?”

“I don’t know. If it’s the police or the prosecution, I can somehow do something, but if it’s the Federal Tax Service, it’s difficult for me. I have almost no connections there.”

Creak.

At the sound of the reception room door opening, Bum-seok and Lexter, who had been talking for a while, turned their heads at the same time. They wondered if Gloria was coming in. However, the person who came in was an unexpected figure. It was a young woman with silver hair, someone they knew very well.

“What? It’s Natalie.”

“Natalie, what are you doing here?”

Natalie huffed and plopped down on the sofa. Then, she looked at Bum-seok and Lexter with sharp eyes, alternating between them, and snapped in a voice full of anger.

“No, how can you leave me alone and come here by yourselves! Chairwoman Gloria has given so much support to our LKS Broadcasting, if I’m not seen to be helping, I’ll be seen as an ungrateful person! Aren’t you all being too much!”

Lexter looked at Bum-seok with a troubled face. Natalie was staying at his God Knights team’s dorm, so he should have taken care of her. Moreover, she was a tough woman with a fierce personality, so if something happened that she didn’t like, she would start yelling at everyone, regardless of age. He knew this well because he had been scolded by her before when he visited LKS Broadcasting to encourage them after hearing that Karen’s program had made a lot of money. At the time, the company’s server had crashed due to the flood of traffic, and she was quite sensitive, so the outlet became Lexter.

“Hey, didn’t you call her?”

“Well, I was so flustered and came in a hurry that I forgot.”

She asked Bum-seok as if she was blaming him.

“No, there are things you can forget and things you can’t. How can you leave me out? Do you know how much I searched for Bum-seok this morning after seeing the news!”

He scratched his head, feeling embarrassed.

“I told you I was so flustered. Just understand and move on. I was so flustered that I didn’t have time to pay attention to other things.”

“Hmph. But you brought Detective Lexter here just fine.”

Kim [a type of energy or aura] was flowing out from above Bum-seok’s head due to the continued questioning. Natalie was so good in terms of ability and appearance, but her personality was too terrible. Well, conquering such a woman and enjoying her flesh was a different kind of fun, but on a day like today when he felt crumpled, he was annoyed to have to listen to a long rant about something that wasn’t even a big deal.

Sensing his feelings, Lexter quickly changed the subject.

“Natalie, now that you’ve come this far, you must have come with that much determination, right?”

“Determination? What determination?”

“Bum-seok and I have decided to help the Rainbow Group with all the funds we can use. If you don’t have the same thoughts as us, there’s no need for you to be here. This is a place to be a strength to Gloria, not a place to just comfort her and offer empty words.”

Natalie stared at Lexter with calm eyes. She couldn’t bear to see her idol and the benefactor of LKS Broadcasting, Gloria, fall apart. It was a bit of a waste, but she was prepared to help as much as she could.

“Of course. I’ll help with all my might too.”

“Good. Then how much can you support?”

“All the funds in my account.”

Lexter looked at her with surprise. He didn’t think that the miser Natalie would be prepared to shake her pockets. She was still freeloading at the God Knights team’s dorm, saying that she couldn’t afford the room and board, even though she had made a lot of money recently.

“Oh, really? How much is it?”

“It’s 540 million Krang right now. And since our Karen’s program continues to be a huge success with worldwide response, we’ll be able to raise similar funds next month too.”

Lexter nodded, feeling proud. He could see that she was really prepared to pour out all her funds. 540 million Krang was all the funds that LKS Broadcasting had, excluding taxes and some operating expenses.

He looked at Bum-seok and smiled with satisfaction.

“Bum-seok, what do you think? If we do well, won’t it be a big help?”

Bum-seok smiled brightly, thinking the same thing. He needed to meet Gloria and hear the details to know the full story, but he thought that the funds gathered now could give a big boost to the Rainbow Group’s crisis. Not only would nearly 1.1 billion Krang be supported right away, but a considerable amount of funds would be additionally injected.

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

Ugh. I almost uploaded it tomorrow morning. I was sleepy, so I lay down for a while and just woke up now. Hehehe.

Then everyone have a comfortable day. I’ll see you again tomorrow.