episode_0004

‘Status Window.’

【Cha Doyeon】

President of ‘Hwaryeong Card,’ a Hwaryeong Group affiliate.

Age: 23

Might: 34

Charisma: 17

Talent Management: 21

Operational Ability: 7

Charm: 45 (As an 《Homme Fatale》, +30 against the opposite sex)

Hopeless

《Homme Fatale》｛Sex Addict｝｛Alcohol Addict｝｛Chain Smoker｝｛Thug｝｛Troublemaking Master｝{Fatty Liver}

Human stats, made clearly visible at a glance.

The stats were nothing short of abysmal.

Aside from being born with a golden spoon in his mouth, he had nothing good to show for himself, neither in reputation nor stats.

The only saving grace was his charm, which seemed to be thanks to his naturally good looks.

Even that charm was useless, as his reputation for being hopeless was so infamous.

He marveled at how someone could be born with everything in the world and still end up so ruined.

‘But a sex addict… Is there any man who isn’t?’

He briefly thought this was a bit unfair, then dismissed the idle thoughts.

Although he himself had ruined everything, now that he was the new owner, he had gained even this power.

As a bonus, an immense power that could shake the world was naturally embedded in his brain.

“We are now entering the company’s young master’s exclusive parking lot.”

“Alright.”

Hearing that, he closed the status window.

Soon, it would be his turn to meet the company’s distinguished elite executives.

* * *

An emergency summons he had called.

A meeting room accessible only to the company’s high-ranking executives.

-… -… -…

In this quiet place, men ranging from at least their 40s to their 60s sat solemnly.

The gazes fixed on him, seated at the head of the table, conveyed a clear nuance.

‘This idiotic brat is acting up again.’

‘He occasionally throws a troublesome tantrum.’

‘Does he only show up at the company when it suits him?’

Such were their expressions.

It was his first time convening a meeting, but it seemed the original troublemaking master, the good-for-nothing, used to occasionally call them in to exercise his power or just cause a scene as usual.

‘Well, I guess I can tell just by looking at the setup the employee arranged.’

A crystal ashtray sat conspicuously in front of him alone, as if to tell him to smoke even during the meeting.

Finding it irritating, he subtly pushed it aside with the back of his hand, then began the meeting.

“Yes… Thank you all for gathering without fail despite the urgent summons.”

-…?

They murmured, as if it was the first time they had heard such a meeting opening,

“The reason I called you all here is none other than to inform you of the company’s newly re-established goals and to make major revisions to our strategic objectives. It’s a very simple and straightforward matter.”

He began in a rather solemn voice.

After a plausible beginning, he cleared his throat,

“First, to illuminate my long-term vision, it is to re-unite the scattered Hwaryeong Group into one.”

-Pardon?

“It’s exactly as I said. Please engrave it in your minds.”

It seemed like rather vague talk, as everyone wore expressions of confusion,

“And to reclaim the top spot in the business world with a re-united Hwaryeong! My father… fulfilling the wish of former Chairman Cha Seongtaek is my biggest objective.”

-?! -Number one in the business world…? -Pfft…!

Here, laughter could not be suppressed.

Just like his mother who first heard this, everyone was busy scoffing.

-Ahem! -Uh… -…You’re serious.

They whispered, ‘This good-for-nothing has finally lost his mind.’

As veterans of social life, not a few executives covered their mouths and pretended to cough, even as they tried to control their expressions.

Unable to bear it any longer, the man closest to him raised his hand and then abruptly stood up from his seat.

“President, if you don’t mind me asking… have you checked the company’s financial statements recently?”

A tone that seemed to probe his capabilities.

He chuckled in response.

“No?”

“Then, regarding the Hwaryeong Group’s governance structure, or our card company’s strategy—”

“Stop. There’s no way I would know any of that.”

He made him sit back down.

He cut him off immediately, as if to say not to expect much from a wastrel.

Then, his face, suppressed like a wrapped dumpling, was on the verge of exploding with dissatisfaction, only refraining from outright sighing because he was in front of the President.

[Internal reputation has decreased]

He didn’t need the status window to tell him; everyone was already protesting with their expressions.

Their expressions clearly conveyed a sense of skepticism about working under such a person, or the nuance that they were only enduring it for their families.

“Nevertheless, I am quite well-versed in the company I’m cultivating.”

-…Pardon?

The moment his words fell, a female employee from the company came out and distributed the files he had brought.

He had them each place a file in front of them and read it thoroughly.

“All this time, I’ve been cultivating a stock trading securities company right under your noses. What do you think?”

-President, what in the world is this…? Huh? Huh?! -These figures are truly— A net profit of 522% in one quarter?! -What in the world is this?!

The subsidiary he was cultivating.

A securities company he had openly invested his own money into, accumulating stocks as ordered, and selling them with a single command whenever he wished.

At the magical figures, they seemed startled enough for their wigs to fly off.

An absurd operating profit that a small company could never achieve.

If 10 billion won had been invested, the net profit was 55.2 billion won.

If 100 billion won had been invested, it would swell into 522 billion won – a magical feat.

However, to the executives, he only showed the calculations in percentages.

He intentionally withheld the specific amount invested, as it was privileged information.

“Are these figures truly accurate…?”

A cautious question, as if asking if there had been any accounting manipulation.

“Is this the time for jokes, when I have gathered the pillars of our company?”

“Still, these figures…”

“No matter how you perceive it, it’s all real. I’ve put in quite a bit of effort over the past two months.”

It was real.

Vast sums of money earned purely through short-term stock trading.

The reason this was possible was simple.

October 22, 2020.

Because now was four years prior.

It was a time of great uproar due to the COVID-19 issue from China, the stock market, and continuous interest rate fluctuations.

He had not only transmigrated into the body of a chaebol, but also traveled back in time.

One day, while idly clicking through the news, he had regressed to this era just like that.

Thus, his confidence stemmed from this.

Since he knew the past, growing money was simply a piece of cake.

He unleashed his pent-up frustration from being fleeced in the domestic stock market, which was teeming with swindlers, through furious short-term trades, squeezing out every last memory.

“Now, then, my presentation.”

-!

Click.

He revealed his next step, having scraped together some money from embezzled company funds and personal investments.

A honey tip for absolutely raking in money, revealed by a future person from the future!

Gather maximum company funds and credit loans =>

Leverage Bitcoin to buy aggressively =>

We all become rich!

-…

Everyone was dumbfounded.

They were aghast, looking at the *fucking* low-quality Bonobono presentation he had personally made and projected onto the screen.

‘Right, from your perspective, it must just be absurd.’

But this was truly his plan.

According to his hippocampus cells, around this time, the fluctuating stock market would surge once.

However, the quiet coin market would be struck by lightning even more intensely.

It was firmly etched in his memory that it had happened at least twice early next year.

Because he hadn’t been able to profit from it back then.

“It’s simple, so you all understood, right?

Besides Bitcoin, there are also stocks we need to invest capital into and accumulate, but I’ll tell you about those separately later. The deadline is at least by the end of this year. Secure as much capital as possible.”

That was the end of his presentation.

He delivered his intentions to his company employees cleanly and clearly.

‘…No applause for this perfect plan?’

By now, applause should have erupted.

He had shown them results, and unveiled a plan that would literally make them rich if they followed it—yet, there was only silence.

“President!”

What returned, however, was a shout of indignation.

As if unable to tolerate it any longer, an elderly executive in his 60s took the lead.

“A plan to recklessly gather money and invest it… and in Bitcoin, no less!”

“? Is there something wrong with crypto?”

At his innocent question, the executive frustratingly pounded his chest,

“We are a card company to begin with! We are a service industry! Suddenly investing such a huge sum—”

“Ha… What was our card company’s profit this quarter?”

“…Huh?!”

Disliking his long-windedness, he cut him off instantly.

The elderly executive, as if his brain had momentarily frozen from the sudden question, pondered deeply,

“Well, sales revenue is estimated at around 480 billion won… operating profit at 92 billion won, and net profit in the 70 billion won range, but….”

“Is the profit not bad?”

“That’s right! So, a company that’s running well—”

“But *fuck*, how long will it take to overtake other companies with that?”

“!”

He snapped back, annoyed.

He added another word, pissed off.

As he exploited his good-for-nothing tendency to disrespect everyone regardless of their status, even the dissenting executive flinched.

“I told you the company’s objective at the beginning.

I’ve already received the weakest affiliate, a card company. Do you, the elites, have the confidence to even catch up to the ankles of other companies that earn double what we do, crawling like ants?”

“Well…”

“Aside from this massive strike, if you have any noble ideas to splendidly expand the company, present them.”

-…

They had a long way to go.

He hadn’t gathered them here to meticulously persuade each and every one.

This was merely a means to inflate the company’s scale.

More importantly, they were merely salaried employees anyway.

If the company went bankrupt, they would have to pack their bags, but the one who would be more fucked was him, who had diligently secured shares for the management rights that the wastrel had ruined.

‘This isn’t the time for arguments; this is literally a money duplication bug.’

What’s more, he knew the answer key, so all he had to do was copy it.

From his perspective, knowing everything, he was merely frustrated.

*Thump!*

But then, the executive who had dissented stood up again, like an Ottogi doll.

As if possessed by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, defending the nation alone, he declared solemnly.

“No matter what, Bitcoin—it doesn’t align with our company’s brand value!”

“Ha…”

From his own perspective, he was no less than Yi Sun-sin.

From his perspective, he was Won Gyun, destroying battleships.

“After my father’s death, the entire Hwaryeong Group has already been continuously pushed down in the business world rankings, so what ‘brand value’ are you talking about? Isn’t it a freefall without wings?”

“…”

“Speak up.

Ultimately, isn’t a good company one that makes good money?”

“B-but! What guarantee is there that Bitcoin, which is long past its prime, will rise?”

“Would it change if I explained it?

I showed you already, didn’t I? The net profit earned so far. I’m quite discerning, you know?”

Tap. Tap.

He lightly tapped the file.

The dissenting executive re-examined the file, then made a face that suggested cognitive dissonance from the results he had presented—like he desperately needed to go to the bathroom but didn’t want to.

Perhaps it was due to his preconceived notions about Cha Doyeon, who had lived as a good-for-nothing, or perhaps it was difficult to accept that the eldest son could be like this based on his own common sense, but he ultimately loosened his tie completely.

“No!

No matter if it’s the President’s company, I cannot tolerate this level of wantonness any further! I’d rather resign than watch the company I’ve dedicated my life to collapse before my very eyes!”

He curled his lips into a wide smile at the welcome news.

“Then get out immediately. You bastard.”

“……………Huh?”

It was the most welcome news he had heard.

He had no need for disobedient components who lived off his company’s money.

“Hey, the meeting’s getting long, so get him out quickly.”

“U-uh…?”

He immediately ordered the guards waiting outside to drag him out.

Two men in black suits entered, grabbed his arms, and pulled him, and being an old man, he was simply dragged out.

Their loyal executive shrieked his last death throes, yelling, “President, President, please reconsider!!!”

But even then, he didn’t listen to Won Gyun’s screams in the slightest.

‘Hmph… It’s sad that mere mortals cannot comprehend the phoenix’s will.’

It wasn’t that he particularly failed to understand that reaction.

After the boom had cooled down, it was an era when Bitcoin was perceived as a scam and had fallen into ruin.

He didn’t believe in blockchain technology or anything like that either; he was simply investing because it was a factual reality that it would objectively rise.

After all, it was just paper scraps; was there really such a thing as good money and bad money?

He would simply rush over and lick up the honey that God had bestowed upon him.

“It’s settled now.

Anyway, I plan to merge the subsidiary I invested in and inflated with our and operate investments through it. Oh! Of course, I’ll keep the card company alive, so please focus on cash procurement, and you all keep working as usual.”

-…

His concluding remarks.

After this, a very faint sound of applause quietly spread.

Applause did break out, but everyone, without exception, couldn’t hide their miserable feelings, as if their nation had been sold at a funeral.

They distrusted the company owner, and the nuance was that they would just collect their salaries until the company went bankrupt.

Even so, the fact that results were paramount, especially with future knowledge, remained unchanged.

‘Well, since his reputation is already in the dumps, it’ll be hard to restore credibility with just a subsidiary’s performance.’

After delivering a presentation that would make even Steve Jobs cry, he relaxed his stiff neck.

After rotating it counter-clockwise a few times, he pointed at someone at random and asked.

“What’s the current Bitcoin price?”

“P-pardon? Oh, oh! Well…”

Quickly taking out his phone and checking,

“It says 14.52 million won in real-time, but….”

“……Fucking cheap. Squeeze out the money quickly and sweep it all up.”

Is it on a special discount now?

From the perspective of a future person who had seen it hit 100 million won, his mouth watered.