Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 181

Translator: Dreamscribe[Does this child even know what it feels like to be full?]

There were donation ads that appeared on TV from time to time.

No. These days, I barely watched TV, so it was more like donation-related content popping up through SNS or internet ads.

Donating was certainly a commendable thing, but I didn't think ordinary people needed to scrape their money together and struggle to make donations.

That was something corporations, the ones raking in the money, should handle.

They could take a portion of what they earned selling products to customers and put it toward donations.

That way, the customers spending the money, the companies building their brand image, and the people receiving help all benefited. It was a good thing for everyone.

"Wow. One of the richest men in Korea, and he's eating triangle kimbap and cup noodles for lunch."

"What? I thought you went to work."

"I'm on leave today. This place is way too big. Even living in the same house, we never know if the other person's home or not."

My sister pulled a salad out of the fridge and started nagging me.

"Seriously. Oppa, you still haven't kicked the habits you picked up living in PC bangs?" [TL: A PC bang is a type of internet cafe or LAN gaming center in South Korea. Patrons can use computers, often to play video games in person with friends, for an hourly fee.]

"What's wrong with triangle kimbap and cup noodles?"

"This is exactly why Hye-rin unnie worries about you and nags you every single day. Just order room service from the hotel and eat something with actual nutrition."

She wasn't wrong.

Back when I was a total shut-in, cup noodles were my go-to meal.

Even when I went to PC bangs and gamed all day, I ate cup noodles constantly.

But apparently that habit had stuck with me all this time, because I still found myself boiling cup noodles alone every now and then.

"Fine. I'll eat properly starting tomorrow."

"Not starting tomorrow, starting tonight!"

"Okay."

I went back to eating my cup noodles, but.

"......"

I could feel my sister staring right at me.

"What?"

"Just one bite."

"......"

While I sat there looking dumbfounded, she slurped up a big mouthful of noodles.

"Shee, my shee ee oh..."

"Finish eating first, then talk."

"Ahem. Right. My CEO was asking when you're going to come visit the hotel."

"Out of nowhere? We work in the same building anyway."

"Still, she says come down when you have time. She wants to take some photos together for hotel promotion, have a chat, that sort of thing. Especially since your image has been pretty good lately."

"My image?"

"Are you pretending not to know?"

I tilted my head.

"What? Oppa, you don't even look up articles about yourself?"

"I'm not a celebrity. Why would I look that up?"

I had never searched my own name, and I didn't use SNS, so I had no clue about trending slang, memes, or any of that.

"Wow. The guy who owns the world's biggest SNS platform doesn't even use it?!"

"I don't run it. I just invested. And I barely watch Netflix either."

"Then what do you do when you're off?"

"Games? Or reading economic news?"

"Is this really how you have to live to succeed?"

Even I had to wonder if I had too few hobbies.

"Oppa, you really have no idea, but your public image is insanely good right now."

"I haven't done anything in the media, though?"

"But you showed up at that ESG Association event before, remember? Since then, news articles have been flooding out, and you keep popping up in short-form videos on SNS. Every time I'm just lying around scrolling on my phone, I get startled seeing your face."

She showed me a few videos.

They listed everything I had accomplished so far, calling me the god of investing, a financial genius, a national hero, and so on.

"......"

The praise was so overwhelming that my face turned beet red.

"Wouldn't people actually hate on this? It looks way too much like viral marketing."

"No way. Look at the like counts and the comments. The reactions are amazing. Plus, word is getting out that you started a foundation and donated a trillion won of your own money for good causes. Your image is seriously the most likable it could be."

The truth was, I didn't keep donating, and in such massive amounts, to earn anyone's praise.

Like I said before, I believed that if you built your wealth from ordinary people's money, giving it back to society was simply the right thing to do.

It wasn't like I could take all my assets with me when I died.

And there was nothing else I needed to spend it on.

So that was part of why I put my energy into donations. But.

Just knowing that my donations gave someone strength, that they could smile because of it, that alone was enough to make me feel proud.

"I'm really happy that everything's going well for you, oppa, and that people recognize you. But there's one problem."

"Hm?"

"After watching a few of your videos, now every time I open SNS or YouTube, all I see is your face. It's driving me crazy."

"......"

Come to think of it, I had heard that the marketing team was preparing a PR push about me, per hyungnim's instructions.

Since it was the Chairman's orders, they'd probably gone a bit overboard with the preparations, but...

Still, turning someone into a national hero was a bit much, wasn't it?

* * *

"Ah, those videos. I've seen them too. Haha."

It seemed the Department Head and other employees had all watched the videos about me at some point.

"But CEO-nim, I've heard that while our marketing team did put some of them out, there are far more that regular people are making on their own."

"Why's that?"

"Well... how should I put it. It's what they call national pride, right? Kwangwoon is being recognized as the greatest conglomerate in the world right now. We own pretty much every major company out there. People feel a sense of pride in that. Content creators are capitalizing on exactly that sentiment, making videos to feed the demand."

In other words, making videos about me was profitable.

"And honestly, nothing in those videos is wrong. It was your bold investments through the National Pension Service that resolved national-level problems, CEO-nim. And your undefeated track record of investing brought in astronomical returns, elevating a Korean company, Kwangwoon, to where it stands now. It's absolutely something any Korean would be proud of."

"Exactly. Thanks to you, CEO-nim, it's not just Kwangwoon. Korean companies across the board have grown alongside us. They say KOSPI is about to hit 4,000 soon, and it's all because of Kwangwoon."

"And among your accomplishments, quite a few are deeply satisfying. Like how you brought Japan to its knees when they were threatening our country, or how you made the EU back down. There's just too much material for people to go wild over."

I had no desire for fame, and the thought of becoming a public figure was the last thing I wanted.

There was a saying, wasn't there?

That it's far better to be rich and unknown than to be rich and famous.

"Now that Kwangwoon is a top-tier conglomerate, the more of these heartwarming stories there are, the better it is for protecting the brand image. If the company's image takes a hit, all the subsidiaries suffer too."

That was exactly why I had established the ESG Association, to overhaul everything from the bottom up.

In short, the moment Kwangwoon grew to a global scale, hiding my face was no longer an option.

"Fortunately, your popularity is very high, CEO-nim. Especially after you appeared at that official event, your image became even more favorable."

Judging by what people wrote, it seemed that because I'd done so many good deeds, older folks especially liked me, saying I had a kind, angel-like look about me.

Looking back, the reason I'd thrown myself so hard into my work wasn't really to make the company a source of national pride. It was just because I was a dopamine addict.

So sometimes I thought about it.

If it hadn't been Kwangwoon, I probably would've been addicted to gambling instead.

"By the way, CEO-nim. Since there's been so much talk about you on SNS lately, we're getting a flood of appearance requests from broadcasters. Lots of interview offers too."

Television.

Just thinking about it made me feel camera-shy all over again.

"No thanks."

"But the marketing team keeps recommending that you go on one or two shows with real impact. There's this program where two MCs do an interview-style segment."

I knew which one they meant.

But I was worried I'd be so nervous that I wouldn't be able to speak properly.

So I was about to turn it down, when.

"...!"

I felt my Intuition prodding me strongly.

As if urging me to give it a try.

"Then... tell them to set up one or two."

"Yes, CEO-nim!!"

"Wow. Our CEO-nim is finally going on public broadcast?"

"I'll definitely watch it live, CEO-nim!"

"......"

Maybe I shouldn't have agreed.

I was already so nervous that cold sweat was running down my back.

* * *

In the past, the marketing team's focus had been on how to create groundbreaking advertisements.

That had been their primary concern.

Of course, they were still constantly striving to produce innovative ads, but now there was something even more important.

Brand image.

With the rise of SNS and digital networks, the world's scrutiny had grown far sharper than before.

If a restaurant did shady business or treated its customers poorly, it would spread across SNS and online communities in no time, ultimately driving the place out of business.

If a celebrity did something unethical, that too would blow up, leading to pulled sponsorships and massive lawsuits.

The era of getting away with anything was over.

The same applied to corporations.

Whether a company mistreated its workers, lied about product specs, sold personal data without consent, or got hacked, and so on.

Things that corporations used to bury with money were now being exposed by citizens and spreading beyond anyone's control.

"But that's actually the biggest misconception people have."

"Sir?"

"The idea that it's uncontrollable. That companies can't suppress citizens' networks like they used to. Half right, half wrong."

Kim Yoon-sung, the Division Head overseeing all of Kwangwoon's marketing teams, sipped his coffee and watched the TV.

On the screen, CEO Jung Jin-ho sat between two MCs, flashing a bright, guileless smile.

"For other companies, sure, they can't control public opinion. They don't have the power. But Kwangwoon is different. If all the Team Leaders in this room join forces, we can control every last article about Kwangwoon, from SNS down to community forums. Every single one."

The marketing team was where Kwangwoon's strategy division focused the most resources.

Their role was singular.

Protect Kwangwoon's image.

And above all else, protect CEO Jung Jin-ho's image.

That was the top priority, more important even than the company itself.

The company's official stance was that even if the company took damage, as long as Jung Jin-ho's image remained intact, nothing else mattered.

To that end, they had seized control of all major domestic SNS platforms and online communities.

People would never know.

That the biggest online communities they used were all being steered by Kwangwoon.

On top of that, using recently developed AI, they were automatically filtering out all negative content about Kwangwoon. If someone deliberately tried to post defamatory content, the system would auto-delete the post and even ban the user.

All of it was handled by AI.

The world had changed.

"But Division Head, conspiracy theories about Kwangwoon keep popping up steadily. Why do you just leave those alone?"

"Because there's no need to get rid of them."

"What?"

"Think about it. If someone told you that a certain person succeeded at every single investment, and on top of that, he assassinated the prime minister and various politicians to control the entire world, and even caused earthquakes on purpose, would you believe it?"

"...No."

"Exactly. Once you frame it as a conspiracy theory, most people don't buy it. In fact, it becomes its own kind of marketing."

"Ah......"

"Our ultimate goal is one thing. To make CEO Jung Jin-ho beloved not just in our country, but by people all over the world. So that even if any corruption allegations surface, people will firmly believe that CEO Jung Jin-ho would never do such a thing. That's what we're after."

Remarkably, these were words that Chairman Hwang Dae-woon himself had personally delivered to Division Head Kim Yoon-sung.

It meant that Jung Jin-ho's image was far more important than the company's.

"And look at him on that broadcast right now."

"He looks... extremely nervous, doesn't he?"

"Well, yes. It's his first time on a show like that, so of course he'd be nervous."

"Tsk, tsk. You're all still so far off. Does that really look like genuine nervousness to you?"

Division Head Kim Yoon-sung broke into a smirk.

"Why do you think CEO Jung Jin-ho suddenly decided to go on a broadcast? He always kept to himself, like a recluse, never showing his face in the media."

"Well, that's..."

"It means the time has come for him to step into the spotlight. Once you reach this level of fame, it becomes very hard for anyone to touch you. And if you build a virtuous image on top of that, making yourself a national hero? Then it's not just domestically. Even internationally, no one can touch you. Because it becomes a diplomatic issue."

"Ah."

And that was precisely why CEO Jung Jin-ho had decided to come out into the open.

"He's moved from the shadows into the light, choosing to make himself a sanctuary. A sanctuary no one can touch. That's why he's deliberately showing that kind of image right now."

"What? S-so you're saying that's all an act?"

"That's right. This is a man who moves trillions without batting an eye. He's at the center of every incident that's been circulating as a conspiracy theory. A cold, ruthless man. You think he'd get nervous over something like that?"

"!?"

The Team Leaders who had been watching the broadcast live alongside the Division Head were all stunned.

That nervous, innocent-looking demeanor was all an act?

"Even you all fell for it just now and felt a sense of warmth toward him, didn't you? Be honest."

"Y-yes. We'd always just thought of him as someone frightening, but he seemed so different from what we'd imagined..."

"Exactly. That's precisely what he's going for. Approachability. Innocence. He's enormously wealthy and young, yet he comes across as humble rather than arrogant. People can't help but like that."

At last, it clicked for all of them.

Every single thing he showed on that broadcast was calculated strategy.

It gave them chills just thinking about the level of acting skill involved.

"Alright. So now you all know what we need to do, right?"

"We need to maximize the image he showed on that broadcast."

"And spread it everywhere, domestically and internationally, to make people feel that warmth and familiarity."

"That's right. He went on the broadcast himself and set the stage for us. All we have to do is spread the material."

So that the moment anyone heard the three syllables of Jung Jin-ho's name,

the very first image that came to mind would be a pure, respected businessman worthy of admiration.