Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 182

Translator: Dreamscribe[Everyone. When an ordinary person invests dozens of times, they're bound to make a mistake at least once. Even the people called masters of investing get it wrong several times. Especially when it comes to day trading. But this person has never made a single mistake like that.]

A live channel with tens of thousands of viewers watching.

This BJ, who mainly covered all sorts of events and economic issues heating up Korea, continued talking with his signature laugh.

[The CEO of Kwangwoon Securities, Mr. Jung Jin-ho. Anyone working in the financial industry here will know the name. He appeared like a comet in 2015 and achieved the highest short-term returns in the history of domestic securities. Back then, it was something only industry insiders knew about, so it didn't become a big deal, but in just eight years, this man built the Kwangwoon Group we know today.]

The moment my name came up, I flinched without realizing it.

But whether it was because of this BJ's captivating tone and smooth delivery, or because my name had come up, I found myself strangely drawn in.

[His investment track record is truly spectacular. Famous companies we all know. Netflix, AMD, shipping, World Link, Close AI, Yasik's People, KW Exchange, and more. There are so many companies under Kwangwoon Group's management that it's hard to list them all. They even say it's thanks to CEO Jung Jin-ho that the National Pension Service is approaching 2,000 trillion won, right? Wow. Isn't that incredible? No, is that even possible?]

I glanced at the chat beside it, where tens of thousands of people were typing away.

I'd been worried there might be hateful comments, but instead, they were cheering and shouting my name.

"......"

A thrill was running through my entire body.

It wasn't because of my Intuition.

It was simply because dopamine was exploding left and right.

"Ah. So this is why......"

This is why celebrities search their own names every day.

Watching these tens of thousands of viewers chanting 'The Great Jin-ho!' and showering me with endless praise, a stimulation unlike any dopamine I'd ever felt before was hitting me.

This must be what they call the need for recognition.

Is that how I should put it?

It felt like I was already getting addicted to this stimulation from an entirely different dimension.

Knock, knock.

"CEO-nim. May I come in?"

"!?"

Startled by the Department Head's voice, I hurriedly turned off my phone first.

"Ahem. C-come in."

"Yes, CEO-nim."

For some reason, my heart was pounding as if I'd been caught doing something wrong.

"......"

Department Head Seo glanced at me, reading the room, then set down his documents.

"These are the documents regarding Africa that you mentioned last time."

"Ah. Were these compiled by the Foundation?"

"Yes. The materials you requested were all sent over from their end."

I'd felt a lot of things the other day while watching an Africa donation advertisement.

The statistics also showed just how rock-bottom public perception of charitable giving had fallen.

The reason people were reluctant to donate was that there were too many thieves these days who used charity as a pretext to pocket the money for themselves.

Even organizations with official certifications were spending on employee salaries and various expenses first, so the money never actually reached the people who needed it.

That was why I had established the Foundation under the Kwangwoon name.

It was to manage everything transparently.

On top of that, our Foundation only uses company funds and my own money, and absolutely does not accept outside donations.

After all, when customers use our Kwangwoon affiliates, a portion of the revenue is already being allocated as charitable funds.

"However, as you were concerned, CEO-nim, even though an enormous amount of donations is flowing into Africa right now, there's been almost no improvement."

Countless wealthy people had gathered to create foundations and poured in astronomical sums of money to eliminate famine and hunger in this world.

Last year alone, donations totaling 300 trillion won were delivered to Africa from around the globe, but statistically, nothing had improved.

"The worst part is corruption in those countries' governments. There are plenty of thieves siphoning off money along the way. Donations are also frequently used for political purposes, and Africa has so many armed factions that the places most desperately in need of help are often completely inaccessible."

Government corruption, rebel forces, looting, and so on.

Those were the very reasons donations weren't being used properly.

Then why couldn't anyone solve those problems?

Because the developed nations lacked both the justification to raise armies and the willingness to throw money at it. So they simply looked the other way.

"However, our Kwangwoon Foundation has been producing quite good results. Rather than giving people fish, we're teaching them how to fish, providing various skills and even building and operating schools. And in areas threatened by rebels, Sentinel is providing protection, so apparently we've achieved far better results than any other foundation to date."

The biggest obstacle for the volunteers sent by the Foundation had been armed groups.

One wrong step and they'd be showered with bullets, and having all their relief supplies looted was hardly uncommon.

But our Kwangwoon Foundation didn't need to worry about that.

Sentinel, which was cooperating with several African nations, was protecting the supplies from groups that tried to loot them.

"What's more, Sentinel is composed entirely of special forces veterans and has been ruthlessly wiping out the groups that try to rob us with state-of-the-art equipment, so their reputation is apparently fearsome. As a result, attacks have almost completely stopped."

That was precisely Sentinel's role.

Protecting our shipping operations, as well as our angelic Foundation staff.

"Looks like it was the right call to spend all that money."

"Yes. I sometimes wondered if too much money was flowing to the Sentinel side, but looking at the results coming in now, it seems like we're getting our money's worth."

I had deliberated many times over whether it was truly the right thing to do when I created Sentinel, but in the end, it seemed like it had been an excellent decision.

"Please contact headquarters and have them send additional operating funds to Sentinel. We're building several schools across Africa right now, aren't we? We can't have some deranged rebel forces attacking them and children getting hurt."

In any nation, children are the greatest asset of all.

Education must also enable children to become self-reliant and take responsibility for their country's future.

"And......"

I looked through the materials the Foundation had sent over.

Then, at one particular document, my Intuition reacted.

'So they see the people in the ruling regimes as the most serious problem.'

The supplies being looted by armed groups were a problem, but the ruling powers siphoning off donations under various pretexts were the biggest issue of all.

In a way, they were an even greater problem than the armed groups.

They invoked government directives and laws to extort donations, and individuals wielding power to steal money outright was anything but rare.

But this wasn't something we could solve on our own.

How was a businessman from another country supposed to fix government corruption?

"Still, please relay to the Strategy Team that they should negotiate well with those governments and minimize cases of money disappearing along the way."

It was admittedly a difficult ask to burden the Strategy Team with something like this.

But since we were making donations with money earned from customers using our company, we had a responsibility to see it through.

"Now, the remaining items......"

I checked the rest of the materials.

I was breezing through the others when the very last one triggered my Intuition again.

"Schools?"

"Ah. You know how we're currently building schools in various African countries? Rather than dividing them into elementary, middle, and high schools like in our country, we're putting children into a single school and teaching them by dividing them into levels. And we plan to continue doing so going forward. The issue is what comes next."

Where were students who had completed their higher education supposed to go next?

University, of course.

"So the question is whether we should create an educational program to select outstanding students and send them abroad to universities, or......"

"Build universities in those countries?"

"Yes. Building universities under the Kwangwoon name, in multiple countries, exclusively for outstanding students."

A powerful vibration hit me right then.

Universities. Build universities?

Kwangwoon Universities, at that?

* * *

"......"

After finishing his report and leaving the CEO's Office, Department Head Seo tilted his head in thought.

The staff noticed the odd air about him.

"What's the matter, Department Head?"

"Hmm. Try not to go into the CEO's Office today if you can help it."

"Pardon?"

"When I went in to give my report earlier, it seemed like the CEO was deep in thought about something. You know how it is. When you're in the zone, fully focused on an idea, and then someone suddenly breaks your rhythm. That's exactly what it was."

"The CEO? Does that mean he's preparing some new investment?"

"Yeah. Looks like he's thinking about taking on something big. It's been a while since I've seen that look on his face."

The staff were excited at that, but also worried.

When someone like CEO Jung Jin-ho was preparing a major investment, it meant something big enough to shake the world.

And that also meant the Prime Department staff could end up working through the night.

"Whatever it is, it's good news for us. When the CEO takes on something big, it's tough, but there's nothing more exciting, right?"

"Ugh. Should I get another Cheongshimhwan ready?" [TL: Cheongshimhwan is a Korean herbal stress-relief pill]

"He's not going to go throwing huge sums into day trading again, is he?"

"N-no way."

"Anyway, if you've got anything to report today, tell me first. If it's nothing major, I'll compile it and report it all tomorrow."

* * *

Sentinel was more freewheeling compared to the other subsidiaries.

Its center director, Anthony Watson, often made decisions on his own authority, didn't he?

But there was never an instance where he defied orders from above that came through the Strategy Team.

"Here's the list sent by the Strategy Team."

"A list?"

"Of the people intercepting donations being sent by the Kwangwoon Foundation."

"Ah, those thieves."

It hadn't been long since they'd eliminated the politicians opposing the peace agreement between Guyana and Venezuela, and already another list had come down.

"Guyana is one thing, but a huge amount of personnel is being deployed to Africa too."

"Because it's easy pickings. The place is practically a wasteland, right? Developed nations are hard to infiltrate and harder to control, but here, if people like us are deployed in large numbers, toppling a regime is nothing."

The Strategy Team seemed to understand that well.

What else could sending a list like this mean?

There were no explicit orders to eliminate anyone written on it, but sending detailed profiles and even photographs to identify the targets meant: handle it at your discretion.

"Rotten as they may be, to think they'd covet Kwangwoon's money of all things."

Even a thief should know what not to steal.

These people had apparently gone blind at the sight of money, opening their mouths without even remembering whose money it was.

Now it was time for them to pay the price in full.

"Send this list to every agent stationed in each country. Whether they stage it as an accident or just assassinate them outright, tell them to handle it however they see fit. If we don't make a proper example this time, there'll only be more people reaching for Kwangwoon's money in the future."

"Yes, sir. On top of that, Kwangwoon sent additional funds. For personnel reinforcement. They specifically want us to focus on school construction and security."

Schools.

Some Sentinel agents might find that a bit deflating to hear.

The reason they'd been protecting Foundation staff and helping volunteers enter dangerous zones all this time was never about charity.

The real purpose had been to root out rebel groups in those regions, seize control, and put the territories under Kwangwoon's governance.

"But guarding schools? Some people might have complaints about that."

"If anyone's thinking that way, tell them they need a refresher on what we're about. Why do you think Kwangwoon wants us to guard the schools?"

"Well, that's......"

"Because those children are Kwangwoon's future assets. You saw it this time, right? Kwangwoon's planning to build universities across multiple African nations. African kids, unlike children in other countries, often don't even have phones, and they lack basic knowledge. So Kwangwoon gathers kids just like that and educates them?"

"Don't tell me... they're going to indoctrinate them thoroughly from childhood?"

"Exactly. The goal is to create children who won't hesitate to jump into a pit of fire if Kwangwoon tells them to. To those kids, Kwangwoon's education will be the voice of God, the best information they'll ever have access to."

Only then did it make sense why they'd been ordered to guard the schools so heavily.

It was a measure to protect Kwangwoon's future assets.

"That's a little terrifying, and I feel sorry for those kids."

"Not at all. Wouldn't it be far better to become Kwangwoon's servants and eat well than to starve to death? Besides, it's an opportunity to become part of the empire Kwangwoon is building. Honestly, I think they'll have it better than kids in developed countries."

This alone revealed why so much money was being poured into Africa.

Kwangwoon would seize places that had nothing, build infrastructure, take in the children, and turn them into Kwangwoon's assets.

That was the chilling plan all along.

Wasn't this precisely the devil wearing an angel's mask, straight out of the Bible?

"And what about the matter I ordered last time?"

"Ah, yes. I was actually about to report on that. We reinvestigated the earthquake in Turkey and combed through every trace leading back to Kwangwoon, but......"

"But?"

"We found nothing. We used every means available to look into it, but no matter how hard we searched, there wasn't a single shred of evidence that the earthquake was artificially triggered, nor could we find any connection to Kwangwoon."

At that, Anthony let out a quiet chuckle.

Right. That's Kwangwoon for you.

In truth, he would have been a little disappointed if they'd found so much as a trace.

But no matter the event, no matter the accident, no matter the catastrophe, Kwangwoon never left a trace behind.

This time was no different.

This was Kwangwoon.

Truly worthy of being the company Anthony Watson had decided to dedicate the rest of his life to.

"At this point, couldn't it really just be a coincidence?"

"No. When it comes to Kwangwoon, there are no coincidences. It's always been strategy disguised as chance. This is no different. We simply lack the ability to uncover Kwangwoon's tracks."

Despite being agents assembled from the world's finest talent, they couldn't dig up a thing on Kwangwoon.

What a spine-tingling thought that was.

He was grateful to be on the same side as a company like that.

"Then do you think Kwangwoon might use a natural disaster to orchestrate something again? They covered their tracks well this time, but there's no guarantee next time."

"Heh heh. If they were sane enough to worry about that, they wouldn't have schemed this far to begin with. So just sit back and watch. Let's see what kind of madness Kwangwoon pulls off this time."

After the Turkey earthquake, Kwangwoon had been quiet.

Merely operating Sentinel behind the scenes, carrying out covert operations.

But Anthony knew.

Kwangwoon was never a company that would stay quiet for long.