Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 99

Translator: Dreamscribe“Son. Are you going to work at this hour?”

“Yeah. I have to take care of some overseas matters today, so I’m going in during the evening. It’s morning over there right now.”

“Then what about dinner?”

“I was just going to grab a sandwich at the office.”

“Eat properly before you go. I made braised short ribs.”

I had planned to just handle things simply at the office like always, but I stopped in my tracks.

No wonder there was such a delicious smell wafting around.

If nothing else, I could never just walk past Mom’s braised short ribs.

“If it’s Mom’s braised short ribs, I have to eat before I go.”

“That’s right. Eating well gives you strength to work well too.”

As I tore into the plate full of braised short ribs, I kept letting out impressed sounds.

“I’ve been to a lot of high-end Korean restaurants, but none of them taste better than Mom’s braised short ribs.”

It wasn’t just because it was my mom’s cooking, I meant it sincerely.

“What’s your secret, Mom? How is the sauce this good? Do you have a special recipe?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? I just used the sauce from the supermarket.”

“......?”

I almost dropped the meat I was holding.

“What the food scientists from big companies make tastes way better than anything homemade.”

It was a shock like a child being told Santa Claus isn’t real.

But the fact that my mom’s love was packed into it for her family didn’t change. Maybe that was the real MSG that made it taste better than anything else?

That’s what I choose to believe.

“Jin-ho. Are you going to work now because of that by any chance?”

Just then, Dad, who was also eating diligently like me, pointed at the TV screen.

The evening news had a big headline about international news.

[UK, Brexit Deadline D-5]

***

“It’s definite, right? That the EU will grant an extension.”

“Yes. We’ve received a firm promise. But since there’s public scrutiny and we have to be mindful of public opinion, they plan to pretend to carefully consider it and announce the extension on D-1.”

Prime Minister Theresa March let out a sigh of relief.

It had already been two years since Brexit was decided by a national referendum.

As a result, the former prime minister had resigned, and Theresa had taken office.

But the Brexit, which was supposed to be wrapped up within a year, still hadn’t been concluded.

Because of this, public opinion within the UK was boiling.

“The opposition, the media, they’re all a problem. Why is everyone so desperate to tear me down? If I hadn’t brought negotiations this far, we’d already be in a no-deal Brexit, and the country would be in chaos!”

More than anyone else, March wanted to bring Brexit to a conclusion.

But no matter how much it had been decided by referendum, it couldn’t be carried out immediately.

Because of the so-called no-deal Brexit.

What is a no-deal Brexit?

Literally, it means the UK withdrawing from the EU without any agreement.

The problem is, if that happens, all EU nations will begin slapping retaliatory tariffs on the UK at once, and all systems currently connected between the EU and UK will be severed in an instant.

So even though March had boldly stepped in to handle Brexit according to the will of the people, she couldn’t bulldoze through it.

If she truly followed public opinion and went with a no-deal Brexit, the damage to the UK would be beyond imagination.

“The opposition must know about these side effects too, but they’re all blinded by power......”

The opposition and the media were fully aware of the consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

It would be a catastrophe.

And yet, they were pressuring the prime minister and the ruling party.

All to boost their approval ratings.

Isn’t it the same all over the world?

No matter what the ruling party does, the opposition attacks.

“But this time, you must wrap up the negotiations no matter what. The EU has made it clear this will be the last extension.”

“So are you saying I should go for a no-deal Brexit if necessary?”

“Prime Minister, we understand very well how frustrated you must be. The opposition and media are calling you the EU’s lackey, but we know that’s not true. But whether that’s the truth or not doesn’t matter. What matters is what the public thinks.”

The opposition and the media were framing March as a prime minister playing the role of the EU’s lapdog.

But March was dealing with the situation realistically.

If she really did as they said, it would lead to a no-deal Brexit, which would mean opening the hell gate for the UK.

She was doing her best to negotiate with the EU to prevent that from happening.

“If I manage the negotiations well and come to an agreement, they’ll find fault with that too, right?”

“Even if you successfully negotiate smoothly, they’ll still accuse you of doing the EU a favor.”

“Then what if I actually go through with a no-deal Brexit?”

“In that case, you might go down in history as the worst prime minister ever.”

“Ha... If I’d known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have taken this seat......”

From the moment Brexit was decided by vote, the position of the next prime minister had become a poisoned chalice. And since it was March herself who had knowingly drunk from it, she had no room to complain.

“More than anything, the delay in this negotiation is largely due to France. Though things have settled down a bit now, the protests were so intense that they couldn’t even come to the negotiation table.”

In the EU, the UK, France, and Germany were the three countries with the most influence.

But with the UK withdrawing, France and Germany were essentially left to take the lead in the EU. Among them, France, which had been playing the role of leader, had been unable to join the negotiation table because of the widespread riots.

Thanks to that, the negotiations had been delayed, and even though the opposition knew full well about this, they had been relentlessly attacking Prime Minister March.

“Now they can join, right?”

“Yes. President Perron waved the white flag and surrendered. Also, the foreign corporations that were putting comprehensive pressure on President Perron backed off, which naturally led to the protests dying down.”

That part was troubling.

“But is it true that the foreign corporations orchestrated the protests?”

“They didn’t directly cause the protests...... but it’s clear that they helped expand the scale of the protests through social media. The French government believes they incited the public to force the repeal of the digital tax.”

So that’s why President Perron, who had been so arrogant and adamant about crushing foreign corporations, suddenly tucked his tail.

Of course, there was a reason behind it all.

Even Perron couldn’t withstand the attack.

“France is pathetic. To think that just some corporate attacks could shake their government.”

“It’s not a matter to be taken lightly. This incident proves that corporations dominating social media can manipulate public opinion and incite people whenever they want.”

“That’s right, Prime Minister. This is a matter that must be taken very seriously. Especially the company at the center of the French riots, Kwangwoon.”

“Kwangwoon?”

“Yes. It’s a financial group currently exerting the most global influence, and they’re extremely ruthless. They’ll do absolutely anything if there’s money to be made. They were the ones who profited the most from the recent protests in France.”

There were rumors that a group had poured in more than 6 billion euros and reaped massive profits.

And the leading suspect behind that was Kwangwoon.

“They’re probably monitoring this Brexit situation very closely.”

“You think they might try to profit from it?”

“Yes. As I said earlier, they’re the kind of company you never know what they’ll do. And we don’t even know how far their network reaches. We need to start keeping them in check right now.”

An unpredictable company capable of anything.

To the British government, it was an extremely dangerous entity.

“But it’s not like they’ve done anything to us. Can we really just decide to keep them in check all of a sudden just because we want to?”

“If we can lead the ruling and opposition parties to an agreement and establish regulations on foreign corporations......”

“What I’m saying is, do we even have the luxury to focus on that right now? It’s not like our financial market is in danger, is it? On the contrary, I heard stock prices are rising thanks to growing expectations that Brexit might be canceled altogether. So tell me. Is there any current factor that makes that company a threat to us?”

“Probably...... not at the moment. It’s not like we’ve proposed an inappropriate law like France, nor are there any protests happening.”

In other words, even that so-called Kwangwoon couldn’t currently do anything that would negatively impact the UK economy.

That was how frozen the financial market was at the moment.

“Then let’s put that issue on the back burner for now. Brexit is more important for us. If these negotiations go wrong, it’ll be the end of all our political careers. You understand what I’m saying, right?”

“Yes, Prime Minister.”

Since the EU was also watching public opinion and planning to announce the extension on D-1, things were currently proceeding very smoothly.

Which meant there was no time to turn their attention to foreign corporations.

They were already walking on thin ice.

‘What could money shufflers possibly do anyway?’

***

“Most believe that it probably won’t come to a no-deal Brexit.”

“Really?”

“Yes. A no-deal Brexit would be the absolute worst-case scenario. No matter how much the opposition and public pressure her, choosing a no-deal Brexit would mean we’re all going down together.”

Public opinion in the UK was attacking Prime Minister March on a near-daily basis.

As if to say she should just go for a no-deal Brexit.

If that were really going to happen, the market should be trembling in fear, but in fact, the UK market was rising.

Because they knew, too.

They knew Prime Minister March would never choose a no-deal Brexit.

She’d rather cancel Brexit entirely than go to such an extreme.

“That’s why the UK stock market is slowly but steadily rising.”

“That Prime Minister over there is really pitiful.”

“What can you do? She climbed up to that seat fully knowing what it would entail.”

Through intuition, I saw a vision of the UK finally getting Brexit passed and becoming free. That meant the wise thing to do would be to buy stocks related to it.

But something felt off.

Even after reviewing the materials from the Research Department, my intuition weren’t reacting.

“These are definitely the stocks that will rise if Brexit passes, right?”

“Yes. We carefully filtered and selected only the related stocks.”

So why wasn’t there a reaction?

My intuition had clearly shown me the vision of Brexit passing.

Could it be that the selected stocks were wrong?

“CEO-nim. The Research Department has sent another report. They reviewed everything again and reselected the stocks.”

In the end, I received the updated research materials once more, but even among these, nothing triggered my intuition.

As I didn’t mark any of the stocks, the staff, looking uneasy, quietly asked me,

“CEO-nim, should we ask them to select again......?”

At that moment, a thought crossed my mind.

While my intuition had shown me the vision of Brexit being passed, when it came to selecting stocks, maybe it was demanding something else.

“Have them bring me the opposite side’s stocks this time.”

“Sorry? When you say the opposite side......”

Department Head Seo blinked for a moment, then let out a gasp.

“Y-You don’t mean you’re predicting a no-deal Brexit will happen, do you?”

“A no-deal Brexit? N-No way, that’ll never happen, right?”

I didn’t think a no-deal Brexit would occur either.

But since my intuition wasn’t reacting, I figured I should check just in case.

“H-Here they are.”

Before long, the staff brought me the new report.

It was a scenario based on the assumption that a no-deal Brexit would occur.

My intuition had definitely shown me Brexit passing.

So I thought even if I looked at this report, nothing would change, but...

“!?”

What unfolded was the exact opposite of what I expected.

The moment I opened the report, flashes of light sparked all over it, to the point that I furrowed my brows.

‘What the hell is going on here?’

It was supposed to be that Brexit would pass, so why was my intuition reacting to stocks that would benefit from a no-deal Brexit?

“.......”

And among them, there was one that shone the brightest.

Normally, I would have just checked it without question and moved on, but now that I’ve accumulated a lot of financial knowledge, I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it.

‘Really? Am I really supposed to place a bet on this?’

However, my intuition kept going off, as if determined to torment me until I checked it. In the end, I drew a big circle around the stock in question.

“C-CEO-nim. A-Are you really placing a bet on this? R-Really?”

Department Head Seo, who had always supported me more than anyone and had followed my instructions unconditionally.

But today, even he looked shaken, his pupils trembling as he looked back and forth between me and the checked stock.

***

There are financial firms that represent the global financial market, or to be precise, firms that control the world economy.

Gold Reagan, JP Mason, Bank of America, Whiterock, and so on.

Among them, Deutsche Bank, which had once held a major position, had now vanished into history.

At the hands of Kwangwoon.

While the companies still responsible for the global financial market remained, Reynold Vale believed that it was no longer those firms truly shaking the financial world.

The times had changed.

Ever since the emergence of the outlier company known as Kwangwoon, the structure of the global financial market had shifted.

In terms of assets, Gold Reagan was still far ahead, but sheer volume wasn’t the most important thing.

What mattered was quality.

Who leads the financial trend?

That was Kwangwoon.

That was why Vale always observed Kwangwoon’s movements closely.

“But... w-what? Kwangwoon is putting money where?”

“Deep OTM.”

Deep Out of The Money.

A speculative put option with an average maturity of 72 hours, basically a gambling option.

It was a bet that the British currency would drop by more than 10% within 72 hours, essentially a gamble.

But for the British exchange rate to drop 10% within that time frame was frankly impossible.

A 10% drop in Bitcoin or stocks was within acceptable limits.

But a 10% drop in British currency would be a national disaster.

“That’s not all. They’re pouring money indiscriminately into everything from futures on economic indices to all sorts of financial instruments. As if the UK will collapse tomorrow.”

That’s why he couldn’t understand it.

Right now, Kwangwoon was funneling all their capital into the bet that the UK was about to crash.

What on earth was Kwangwoon doing?

The UK market was actually rising, buoyed by optimism that Brexit would be canceled...

“......!”

At that moment, a thought flashed through Reynold’s mind, and he shot up from his seat.

“A no-deal Brexit is coming!”

But Gold Reagan had already completed their intelligence gathering.

There would be no no-deal Brexit.

The extension announcement hadn’t come yet, but it would soon.

In other words, Brexit would be resolved one way or another.

‘But what if that information was wrong?’

What if there would be no extension, and a no-deal Brexit really was about to happen?

And Kwangwoon, who had never once made an incorrect prediction, was currently launching a financial assault on the UK with massive funds.

What could that possibly mean?

“Could it be that our intel is actually wrong?”

When that thought crossed his mind, Reynold rushed out of the room.

If Gold Reagan’s information was wrong and Kwangwoon’s information was correct,

then it meant the UK was facing an unprecedented catastrophe.