Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 189

Translator: Dreamscribe"Shouldn't we be resolving this quickly? If grain prices keep rising at this catastrophic rate, every food product will take a hit."

"Food products are one thing, but meat prices are also setting new highs every single day. If this keeps up, meat prices will quintuple."

Grain prices affected countless food products while simultaneously driving up meat prices as well.

The cost of livestock feed had skyrocketed.

That meant an emergency for the everyday meals of ordinary citizens.

The thing people valued most was food.

And if prices surged to absurd levels, the government would have no way to dodge the arrows of blame.

"It's not even our fault. What are we supposed to do about Libya getting hit by a typhoon?"

"Whether it's our fault or not, the public will blame the government regardless. They'll say we should have been prepared."

Unfair as it was, there was nothing they could do.

Even if the government hadn't done anything wrong, the fact remained that they had failed to prepare for a food crisis like this in advance.

"So is recovery really impossible right now? Are we supposed to just sit here twiddling our thumbs?"

The EU was in a state of emergency.

A historically bad harvest had triggered a crisis in grain supply.

On top of that, Ukraine and Russia were still at war, making it difficult to source wheat from that region.

And amid all of this, a typhoon had swept through Libya, flooding the warehouses there and wiping out all the grain and food products that were supposed to be headed for Europe.

"If we bypass Libya's ports and use an alternative route, it'll take at least sixty additional days."

"Why can't the ships just skip Libya's ports and keep going?"

"The vessels need to resupply fuel and provisions for their crews, and more importantly, passing through territorial waters without government authorization is illegal. If the other side takes military action, we'd have no grounds to object."

"Then let's dispatch people immediately to help with port recovery. That's what's holding up the ships, isn't it?"

"We already reached out from the EU side to offer assistance, but the situation in Libya has taken a very precarious turn, making it extremely difficult to send personnel."

The damage in Libya from the typhoon was catastrophic.

Out of a population of only seven million, a staggering twenty thousand had died.

Naturally, they wouldn't refuse humanitarian supplies or relief workers.

"The area that suffered the worst damage from this typhoon is the east. And the west sees this as an opportunity."

"Wait. You're not telling me they're going to war at a time like this?"

"The war has already begun. Five key generals on the eastern side have already died under mysterious circumstances, and as a result, the east's chain of command has completely collapsed. The west has finished preparations to advance."

"No. Why would the west suddenly do something like that...?"

Libya, split between west and east.

In a chaotic situation caused by a natural disaster like this, striking when the other side was weakened was a sound strategy.

But the west had never been that belligerent.

They had been trying to avoid armed conflict with the east and maintain the status quo peacefully, as though the two sides had always been separate nations.

In other words, even if the east had been weakened by the typhoon, this was not a regime that would mobilize its military to attack.

"The west suddenly launched an attack...?"

"Isn't someone pulling the strings behind the western regime?"

"And on top of that, five key eastern generals die under mysterious circumstances?"

Something stank.

The stench of conspiracy.

"It's obvious, isn't it? Who's behind this."

President Perron spoke, his face far more gaunt than before.

"It's Kwangwoon's doing, isn't it?"

"Kwangwoon...?"

Was there anyone in all of Europe who despised Kwangwoon as much as President Perron?

But he was also someone who had suffered at their hands more than most.

Recently, while trying to keep the ESG Association in check, Kwangwoon had launched a hardline offensive using pension reform as leverage, and in the end, President Perron's government had been reduced to a Lame-duck Administration, just like the American White House.

"Eastern Libya has been a region that fiercely rejected Kwangwoon all along. And then suddenly this happens. Five perfectly healthy generals drop dead, and the moderate west suddenly mobilizes its military. It means Kwangwoon is behind it."

"But why would Kwangwoon... Just to punish the east?"

"It's not something as petty as that. We're being bled dry because of eastern Libya right now, aren't we? That's exactly what they were aiming for. They want to control the food supply and use it to threaten Europe."

"!?"

Only then did the pieces of the puzzle click into place for everyone.

There had been a reason Kwangwoon had been stockpiling food for years.

"The fact that Kwangwoon has been hoarding food means they knew years ago that bad harvests were coming."

"So you're saying Kwangwoon deliberately manipulated the weather? Even this typhoon?"

"Why wouldn't they? These are the same people who can cause earthquakes."

"If that's true, we need to stop them immediately! If they truly weaponize food to hold Europe hostage, we're finished!"

"And how do you plan to stop them? Declare war? Against whom? Kwangwoon is everywhere across the globe. They've already built an empire without borders."

Kwangwoon's home base might appear to be Korea, but that was nothing more than an illusion.

They already had footholds in multiple locations, and the destruction of one wouldn't bring them down.

"Haven't I been saying this all along? That we needed to stop Kwangwoon before they grew any larger."

"Then perhaps now we could still..."

"No. We've already missed our window. How are we supposed to pressure Kwangwoon now? They hold all the food, and they've cut off our only supply route."

That left only one option.

"From now on, we simply do as Kwangwoon tells us. If we refuse, we'll experience price increases straight out of hell."

It was a world that lacked for nothing.

Developed nations in particular had food in abundance.

No. That had been the case until now.

If any country defied Kwangwoon's wishes, even a developed nation would face a food crisis on par with Africa's.

Europe had already been collared by Kwangwoon.

* * *

"The EU wants to negotiate?"

"Yes. Libya is in complete chaos right now, isn't it? A typhoon followed by a war. The critical supply route to Europe has been severed because of it, and apparently prices across the continent are skyrocketing."

Every time I heard the news from Libya, it pained me.

I understood that, being split into west and east, one side would be eager to unify. That much made sense.

But even so, I couldn't help wondering whether they really had to start a war when everyone was suffering from the typhoon.

"With war breaking out between the west and east, all logistics have ground to a halt, and it's apparently become nearly impossible to even enter their territorial waters. That's why Europe is scrambling right now."

"Is the situation in Europe really that bad?"

"Yes. Grain prices have gone through the roof and the whole world is in an uproar, but Europe has it worse. They're projecting that prices will rise to the point where ordinary citizens can't even afford bread, and if this isn't resolved immediately, riots will break out across the entire continent."

Europe was a region that could, in theory, sustain itself.

But with the harvests worsening so severely, it was becoming unmanageable.

"Then we need to release what we have."

If I didn't release what we had, something terrible would happen to Europe.

Making money could wait. Saving people had to come first.

"CEO-nim. However, the Strategy Team is suggesting that we attach a condition to the negotiations this time."

"A condition?"

If they were going to tell me to sell at inflated prices, I was going to refuse.

I don't do business with people's lives.

"Well, Europe has always been blocking Sentinel from entering their territory, hasn't it? The idea is to get them to officially authorize it."

Now this actually had a valid basis.

Our Sentinel protected shipping companies.

But because it was a private military company, most European nations refused to admit Sentinel, which made escorting commercial vessels a constant struggle.

The proposal was to change that.

Since it would help protect the people working in the shipping industry, it was a perfectly reasonable demand.

After all, Kwangwoon never used Sentinel for any military purpose other than escort duty.

"That's a good idea. Please release our stockpiles so we can stabilize grain prices in Europe. But make sure the Sentinel contract is locked in tight. We can't have them accepting the food and then forcing Sentinel to withdraw."

"Yes, CEO-nim. I'll make it happen."

"Oh. And this, too."

"CEO-nim? What is this...?"

The Department Head tilted his head after receiving the document I handed him.

"A global warming initiative?"

"Yes. I was going through some materials the Research Department sent over and found something worth pursuing."

The Research Department sent over all kinds of materials on various topics.

While reading through them in my spare time, a document on global warming had triggered my Intuition.

"This typhoon in Libya is one thing, but super typhoons and all sorts of climate anomalies are popping up around the world. And the cause of all of it is global warming."

"Yes. But this... It would require substantial funding, and the scale is quite large. This isn't just a matter of partnering with corporations. It requires the cooperation of national governments."

"Exactly. On top of that, this draft is still rough, so I'd like it refined in more detail. But rather than doing it myself, I think it'd be better if headquarters handled it."

Everyone could feel that the weather was growing increasingly erratic.

Even the people who had once dismissed climate change as a complete hoax could no longer deny it in the face of these bizarre weather patterns.

That the Earth was going wrong.

But I believed it wasn't too late.

If we worked together, if we stopped looking away and confronted it head-on, if we were willing to endure inconvenience in the name of progress, we could still change things.

* * *

"This isn't easy. Not easy at all."

"But it's pretty fun, isn't it?"

"Honestly? I never expected to pick up gaming as a hobby at my age."

The moment President Aiden joined the Trinity Guild, he began receiving one-on-one tutoring from Kwangwoon and studying the game.

His tutors doubtless had the secondary purpose of keeping an eye on him, but more than that, they were people who were genuinely passionate about gaming.

Driven by the singular determination to get this old man raid-ready no matter what, they taught him with real dedication.

"A president's schedule should be a little busier than this. But after becoming a Lame-duck Administration, I found I had more free time than expected."

"That's..."

"It's fine. I don't blame you, John. You didn't have a choice either. Kwangwoon isn't the type to give people one."

Still, the Trinity Guild had turned out to be more enjoyable than he'd expected.

He had originally come here to protect his safety and reputation, but he was discovering for the first time just how rewarding gaming could be as a hobby.

"But why a game?"

"Pardon?"

"This Guild, I mean. It's not just a front. Everyone genuinely gathers regularly to play."

"Maybe it's about giving people a reason?"

"A reason?"

"A reason to meet regularly, like you said. Thanks to it, even people who support different parties can be on the same team within these walls."

That was the biggest thing.

A reason to meet regularly.

Getting politicians this busy to gather on a regular basis was an incredibly difficult task.

"And at this point, left versus right, ideological labels, all of that has become meaningless."

"What do you mean?"

"As long as Kwangwoon controls our political arena, it doesn't matter who becomes president."

"Because everything ultimately goes through Kwangwoon anyway?"

"Yes. As you've seen, through their Strategy Team, Kwangwoon bribed and co-opted various figures, myself included, and swallowed the political establishment whole. The upper class is already overflowing with Kwangwoon supporters. And above all, every agency in our government is on Kwangwoon's side."

That was what had nearly driven Aiden out of his mind.

From the CIA down to the agencies beneath it, they had all sided with Kwangwoon and isolated his administration.

"On top of that, Kwangwoon conducts its operations without leaving a trace, and it advertises itself to the public as though it's doing the right thing."

Seizing control of politics while playing the angel for the masses.

Revolting, but that was how Kwangwoon ruled the world.

"This is probably another one of those projects."

"What is it?"

"Documents that just came in from Kwangwoon. They say they're creating an organization called GEAR, Global Environmental Action for Resilience, to address global warming."

Addressing global warming.

How rich, coming from a corporation that was currently destroying Guyana and the Amazon to build Small Modular Reactors.

"Obviously this is another front?"

"Yes. If you frame it as saving the planet from global warming, people will eat it up. Especially with the Libya typhoon becoming a worldwide headline and all the climate events happening everywhere getting constant media coverage."

In other words, they were using that as a pretext to create this organization.

"The problem is that this requires cooperation not just from corporations, but from governments at the national level."

"So they intend to enforce it through law."

"Yes. If a specific corporation doesn't comply with Kwangwoon's wishes, they'll first launch a media assault through the ESG Association, and then use the governments partnered with GEAR to deliver legal judgment."

"......"

Just how far did Kwangwoon intend to go?

They were now laying bare their insidious plans without reservation.

"Will this actually pass?"

"The EU has already approved it."

"The EU?"

"Yes. They're already done. Being threatened with food as leverage, they ended up even allowing Sentinel access, which they'd been blocking all this time."

They had held out until the very end.

And in the end, the EU had fallen too.

They must have had no other choice.

When someone holds your food supply hostage, how can you possibly say no?

"And right now, Kwangwoon is using the media to shape public opinion. There will probably be legislators who oppose it, but they'll be overwhelmed by public sentiment and end up casting their votes in favor. After all, on the surface, it genuinely looks like nothing more than an effort to save a planet suffering from global warming."

At that, Aiden let out a wry laugh.

Save the planet?

Kwangwoon were the ones destroying this planet, not saving it.

They just wanted to craft that image.

"Good cause, good timing."

"Yes. Even if you want to oppose it, you can't. Didn't our own country just suffer through a super typhoon? And the typhoon in Libya becoming a global headline was the clincher."

Had Kwangwoon seen this far ahead?

All along, they had left Libya alone despite it defying them, and it had all been to create this pretext.

"I'll sign it first thing tomorrow."

And Aiden had no intention of blocking it.

After all, he was now a member, in full standing, of the glorious empire that Kwangwoon sought to build.