Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 184

Translator: DreamscribeEarthquake magnitude: 7.

Casualties: over 10,000.

40,000 buildings destroyed, 2,930 villages destroyed.

Damage estimated at tens of billions of dollars.

Royal army and U.S. military bases damaged.

Missile bases damaged.

Military operations impossible for the foreseeable future.

"......."

Anthony let out a hollow laugh after receiving the report on the damage in Morocco.

"So how long until everything's restored?"

"For areas outside the capital, it could take years. The construction firms there aren't exactly top-tier, and the Moroccan royal family is in such chaos right now that they'll likely pour all their efforts into restoring the military bases first as an immediate priority."

"The Moroccan people's homes have been blown to pieces, and they're rebuilding the military bases first?"

"Yes. Securing the royal family's safety comes before anything else."

It was understandable.

That was simply how royalty operated.

The safety of the crown always came before the safety of the people.

Selfish, yes, but it was only natural if they wanted to keep the regime from crumbling.

"On top of that, this is the first earthquake in 120 years."

Morocco had been completely unprepared for an earthquake.

Not a single major quake had struck in 120 years, so there had been zero preparation. And frankly, any country would have done the same.

A hundred and twenty years was more than enough time to forget about earthquakes entirely.

"But for something like this to happen the moment Morocco defied Kwangwoon......"

Could they really chalk this one up to coincidence too?

When coincidences keep piling up, don't they become inevitabilities?

"Apparently the Moroccan royal family branded Kwangwoon as the Dajjal long ago and refused to let them set foot in the country."

"The Dajjal...... something like the Antichrist?"

"Yes. In Islam, the Dajjal occupies a similar role to the Antichrist. The idea is that Kwangwoon deceives the world with lies, controls people to keep them from reaching truth and salvation, and ultimately tries to play God themselves."

On any other day, he would have laughed it off as nonsense.

But for some reason.

"Doesn't what the Moroccan royal family said ring eerily true?"

Kwangwoon deceiving the world with lies was something they were doing right now.

"Through the media they control, they turned CEO Jung Jin-ho and Chairman Hwang Dae-woon into the greatest saints on earth, while they made French President Perron out to be a devil bleeding the people dry, and completely toppled the French government. And what about the U.S. government? They turned that into a puppet regime too."

Kwangwoon had poured enormous sums into the media from the very beginning to reach their current position.

They had known all along.

That once you control the media, everything else becomes far easier.

Just as they were doing now, manipulating public opinion, coloring people's thoughts to suit their agenda.

Through social media, they planted hatred toward certain political leanings, stoked resentment against certain governments, and spread fabricated information about specific individuals to destroy them socially.

"And what about CEO Jung Jin-ho, the key figure driving Kwangwoon right now? They're in the middle of canonizing the man, aren't they? Day after day, every media outlet runs stories about his good deeds. But the journalists must know about Kwangwoon's dark side, yet not a single one of them tries to write about it."

There was a saying that had been common on Wall Street for a long time.

'No matter what happens, never go against Kwangwoon.'

Every last person who had ever tried to pull something on Kwangwoon had vanished from the scene without a trace.

Wall Street knew that better than anyone, and the media outlets receiving Wall Street's money knew the danger well enough to steer clear.

"But here's the scariest part. No matter how deep any agency digs into Kwangwoon, there isn't a single shred of evidence of the crimes they've committed."

That was the biggest problem.

Normally, you needed evidence to blow the whistle.

Without it, it was nothing more than fabrication.

And if you botched a false accusation, a global corporation like Kwangwoon could hit you with an astronomical lawsuit.

So evidence was absolutely essential.

But despite countless agencies and determined journalists digging into Kwangwoon's past, not a single trace had ever surfaced.

"We ran a thorough investigation ourselves. But everything that came back could only be interpreted as genuine coincidence. Absurdly so. In fact, the only data we found showed CEO Jung Jin-ho and Kwangwoon doing extraordinary charitable work to help those in need."

But Anthony knew.

He knew none of it was coincidence.

The people on Wall Street knew. The journalists knew too.

They all knew Kwangwoon was behind everything.

But no matter how hard anyone dug, no evidence ever emerged.

"I'm guessing it'll be the same this time?"

"Yes. You anticipated that something would happen, didn't you? With Morocco and Kwangwoon at each other's throats, you predicted Kwangwoon would trigger some kind of incident to destabilize the country."

"I did. That's why we set up thorough surveillance in advance."

Anthony had been watching the standoff between Morocco and Kwangwoon and had anticipated that Kwangwoon would soon engineer an event capable of shaking the nation.

"So we had surveillance running on multiple fronts. The earthquake was one of the things we were watching for. But......"

"Nothing turned up this time either?"

"Correct. They say there's not a single piece of evidence suggesting an artificial earthquake. No matter how many times they review the data, it looks like a natural occurrence......"

Anthony nodded, as if he had expected as much.

"Of course it does. A country that hadn't seen so much as a tremor in 120 years gets hit by a massive earthquake the moment it crosses Kwangwoon, but sure, it just looks like a natural disaster. Naturally. So what's the Moroccan royal family doing now?"

"Apparently, right after the earthquake struck, they held firm. But the aftershocks kept coming, and when reports came in that another major quake could follow, just like what happened with Turkey, they rushed to contact Kwangwoon and agreed to accept all their proposals. But......"

"But?"

"The aftershocks stopped the moment they reached an agreement with Kwangwoon."

"......!"

"As a result, the royal family is completely terrified. King Abdul is so paralyzed with fear that he won't even utter the first syllable of Kwangwoon's name."

This confirmed it.

Kwangwoon had once again shown the world that they could manipulate earthquakes.

Yet how it was even possible, and how they managed to leave behind not a single trace of evidence.

Only Kwangwoon knew that secret.

Perhaps that was why.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.

What was Jung Jin-ho, the man at the center of all these events, thinking right about now?

What kind of expression was he wearing?

Could it be that he was already smiling, convinced he had ascended to the ranks of the divine?

* * *

"Ah....... That's heartbreaking."

The reports coming in from Morocco left me feeling uneasy.

The one consolation was that since Morocco had been blocking Kwangwoon's access all this time, none of our companies or foundation operations had suffered any damage.

"The Moroccan royal family seems to be in a real bind. They were standing on their pride right after the earthquake hit, but the damage must have been worse than they expected, because the royal family personally responded that they would accept all of our support."

"What's the Kwangwoon Foundation doing?"

"The moment Morocco gave the green light, everyone deployed to the affected areas. They plan to focus especially on the underdeveloped regions that aren't receiving any help from the royal family."

"But doesn't Morocco have a serious rebel problem too?"

"Yes. There's a significant rebel faction opposing the royal family, so Sentinel is going in alongside our staff for protection. The Moroccan royal family has also granted Sentinel permission to carry arms freely."

That put my mind somewhat at ease.

If the royal family had accepted us sooner, and our foundation staff had already been in Morocco when the earthquake struck, the damage to our people would have been devastating.

In a way, Morocco's refusal to let us in until the very end may have actually worked in our favor.

No. Even so, tens of thousands of people were suffering from this natural disaster. It was hard to use the word "fortunate".

"Morocco has a severe wealth gap too, like Nigeria, doesn't it?"

"Yes. That's precisely why the Kwangwoon Foundation was trying to get into Morocco in the first place. Just like Nigeria, the people at the top hoard everything, and the problems caused by that extreme inequality are severe."

The biggest problem in countries like Nigeria, nations overflowing with natural resources, was the royal family itself.

The royals monopolized all the wealth and refused to share it with the people beneath them, creating the ironic situation where the palace lived in unimaginable luxury while the citizens starved to death.

"The Kwangwoon Foundation was concerned about exactly that, so during this round of negotiations they apparently drew a firm line. All donations from the foundation will be managed by Kwangwoon, and the royal family absolutely cannot touch them."

"And they...... agreed to that?"

Given the Moroccan royal family's usual stubbornness, that wasn't something they would normally accept.

Typically, donations are used under government oversight.

"Fortunately, the royal family agreed. They must be truly desperate. The damage estimates alone already exceed tens of trillions of won. More importantly, there's a real possibility that the rebels could use this opportunity for an armed provocation, so the military is their top concern right now."

Seeing them agree to every condition we put forward, the Moroccan royal family must have had their backs against the wall, in no position to be picky.

"What are the chances of another earthquake?"

"The aftershocks have stopped for now, so the immediate risk is low. But earthquakes are unpredictable natural disasters."

Even so, our Kwangwoon Foundation staff were heading into Morocco with their lives on the line.

Living saints, you might call them.

If there's a heaven, I have a feeling our foundation employees will each have a seat reserved for them there someday.

I had no idea where that kind of courage came from.

"It's all thanks to you, CEO-nim. You created the foundation and fund it with your own personal wealth. Normally, people hesitate to go on missions like this because of personal financial concerns, but since you cover all of those costs, our staff can go out and volunteer with peace of mind."

Hearing Department Head-nim say something like that made me a little embarrassed.

"No, no. I'm just doing the bare minimum of what I can."

It wasn't as though I felt any sense of pride.

I was just spending money. The people doing all the hard work were our foundation staff.

"Ah. And the foundation sent over a report on additional grain procurement."

There were two things the foundation needed most.

Food, and medicine.

Medicine could be handled through the pharmaceutical companies AstraZenon had been acquiring.

The same went for food.

Following my instincts, I had been purchasing grain companies in Canada and around the world, stockpiling food supplies.

"But apparently the current stockpile is quite substantial. They say there's more than enough to distribute across African nations with plenty left over, so additional procurement shouldn't be necessary......"

Maybe I had been too obsessive about stockpiling ever since the crop failure two years ago.

I looked over the report the foundation had sent.

It was true. We had accumulated far too much grain.

"......."

But for some reason, my instincts were prickling at my fingertips like tiny needles.

And then, the contents of the report began to flush red before my eyes.

Startled, I set the report down.

"......CEO-nim?"

The moment I put the document down, the red aura vanished along with it.

It seemed my instincts were voicing their disagreement.

"Tell them to purchase more grain."

"What? E-even more than this? As the report states, we're almost out of storage space."

"Then buy additional warehouses and keep purchasing. Fill them to the brim."

I knew.

I knew the warehouses were already packed to the point of bursting with grain.

But if my instincts were reacting this strongly...... was something else about to happen?

* * *

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. President."

A blond man who introduced himself as Alex.

He entered the White House with a dazed expression on his face.

"Right. So you're from the Trinity Guild?"

"Ah, yes. I'll be serving as your mentor going forward, to help your recreational activities go smoothly."

Just looking at his face, he certainly looked like someone who had done nothing but play games his entire life.

"Given how packed your schedule is, Mr. President, I plan to come by according to the White House's schedule. There's a lot to learn, so for the time being I'll be here every single day without exception."

"Sure. And while you're by my side, you'll be keeping tabs on me and reporting everything back to Kwangwoon, right?"

"That...... 'keeping tabs' is a bit of an awkward way to put it, but yes, I will be reporting to the Trinity Guild daily. I need to report on your gaming skills and progress. That way, you'll eventually be able to go on fun Raids with the other Guild Members. Hehe."

Alex seemed like a perfectly good-natured young man.

He looked like a pure soul without so much as a gram of ulterior motive in him.

Typical Kwangwoon.

They had clearly sent this one on purpose, someone designed to lower his guard.

"All right. So where do we start?"

"We'll start with the easiest basics. Here, this is a booklet I put together myself. Please make sure to read it starting today."

[Alex's Gaming Basics, Volume 1]

"......."

Aiden couldn't help but be taken aback by the crudely made booklet.

No. Don't fall for it.

There might be listening devices planted in this thing. He would need to have it inspected later.

"This is all I need to read? It's thicker than I expected."

"Oh, no. Once you finish that one, I'll give you the next volume. There are over ten volumes in total. If you can read through them as quickly as possible and practice with me in-game, you'll get the hang of it."

"Ten volumes?!"

"Yes. It's an old game, so there really is a lot to learn. Monster and boss characteristics, patterns, progression, items, and so on. There's just so much."

"......."

"Oh, right. And we'll be having short quizzes next time, so please make sure you read it. Hehe."

"Q-quizzes too?"

"Yes. That's how I can figure out what you're lacking and what else you need to study."

Aiden blinked.

At first, he had felt relieved when Kwangwoon said they would accept him into Trinity.

But a thought suddenly occurred to him.

What if these people were actually using games as an excuse to torture him?