Chapter 44
August 1.
A scorching summer day.
A bombshell struck the global dungeon industry.
With the New York Round, announced by WDDO—the World Dungeon Development Organization—taking effect, every country participating in WDDO now had to lift all regulations on its domestic dungeon market.
Regulations such as limiting foreign ownership in dungeon development companies or restricting hunters from other countries from clearing dungeons violated the WDDO agreements.
Nearly 150 countries around the world participated in WDDO.
In effect, it was nearly the entire world.
The countries hit hardest by the abolition of these regulations were naturally those that had led the effort to protect their dungeon markets.
Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were the most notable.
Many saw it as effectively targeting East Asia.
The fact was, the U.S. and Western Europe looked askance at East Asian countries protecting their own markets while earning foreign currency in other countries with open dungeon markets.
What if they rejected the agreement and withdrew from WDDO?
Not all goods could be supplied by their own country’s dungeons.
Some materials essential to modern industry could only be obtained from overseas dungeons.
Crucially, Western European monopolies like elixirs had become indispensable necessities for the social elite, and Western Europe had threatened to completely block their distribution to countries that didn’t participate in WDDO.
‘You’re stripping down to your underwear and opening the front gate just because of the rich! What are ordinary people supposed to do?!’
There were voices making that argument, but they didn’t ring out all that loudly.
Of course, the megaphone belonged to the rich.
It was dismissed as the nonsense of a handful of conspiracy theorists.
So what happened to the three East Asian countries that were hit hardest during the brief response period from June to August?
First, Taiwan.
Thanks to me, Taiwan’s stock prices had temporarily risen, slowing the influx of foreign capital.
Saying it was thanks to me was embarrassing, but it was true.
Still, they had no meaningful countermeasures and were on the brink.
What about Japan?
It was in the worst possible situation.
For some reason, Kaiser Corporation hadn’t completely taken over the Japanese market as initially expected, but other companies had entered in droves.
Local companies in each region were wiped out in no time, while European and American companies entered and seized control of the market.
The funny thing was, Japan’s major corporations didn’t think that was all that bad.
Dungeon raw-material prices, which had effectively been controlled by a monopoly, were plummeting as foreign companies entered.
With even the established conglomerates, long crushed under the dungeon economy, joining in, Japan’s dungeon market was conquered in no time.
Last is our country...
I still wondered if this was really the right thing to do.
A 50-story building on the most prime real estate in Gangnam.
On top of it was a logo that read SG.
Including a tiny caricature of Kkyu-Kkyu in the background.
“Chairman of SG Group, how do you feel?”
Zephyros asked, putting on a fawning, syrupy voice.
“I feel damn good. Go prepare a feast of wine and women... Ahh! That hurts! I was joking! Joking!”
“You little punk, so you’ve got enough energy to joke around. I nearly worked myself to death.”
Of course it was exhausting.
In two months, I’d acquired Korea’s five major dungeon development companies, along with seven mid-sized firms.
Even with the government’s support, who could call that easy?
As a result, overnight I’d become a big shot with twelve dungeon development companies under me.
And how had the world reacted...?
**
After confirming the news that the Korean ambassador to the U.S. had been summoned and chewed out by the U.S. government, President Kang Min-guk immediately summoned the U.S. ambassador to Korea.
“Mr. President. How are you?”
The U.S. ambassador to Korea greeted him in slightly awkward but fairly fluent Korean.
President Kang put on a translation necklace he took from his inventory and continued.
“Ambassador White. It’s been a while.”
“Yes, it has.”
With the translation necklace on, the president heard smooth Korean, without a trace of awkwardness.
Usually ambassadors wore them, but the U.S. ambassador to Korea was a non-Awakened, so there was no helping it.
“I hear you summoned our Ambassador Choi to the White House and gave him a hard time?”
“Mr. President! We didn’t give him a hard time...”
“If summoning him when he did nothing wrong isn’t giving him a hard time, what would you call it?”
“Mr. President. Our government has confirmed that the Korean government actively supported SG Group’s consolidation.”
“It would be troubling if the U.S. government didn’t know what even a child on the street knows. And?”
“This goes against the intent of the New York Round agreement...”
President Kang furrowed his brow for a moment at the ambassador’s words.
He gave a dry laugh and asked,
“What exactly is the purpose of the New York Round?”
“To dismantle national blocs, grant autonomy to hunters around the world, and abolish protectionism in the dungeon market...”
“I’m not asking for the dictionary definition! Who exactly benefits from that process?”
“We will actively provide hunter infrastructure to Third World countries that are underdeveloped in dungeon development...”
“The major dungeon companies will plunder their dungeon resources.”
“Mr. President!”
“Let’s not bother dressing up what we all know. And if you’re going to criticize SG Group, shouldn’t you start with your own Kaiser Corporation? It controls over 50% of the market, doesn’t it?”
Ambassador White smiled and shook his head as if he had expected the question.
“Our home government has already imposed substantial fines under antitrust laws and forcibly dismantled parts of Kaiser Corporation.”
“That was the previous administration. According to our investigation, Kaiser Corporation’s market share is suspiciously high. It has teamed up with several hedge fund investors and raised its unofficial share to 80%.”
“It would be troubling if a head of state believed rumors from the stock market.”
“We’ll find out whether they’re rumors once we investigate... At any rate, that’s oligopolistic control. Considering the size of the U.S. market, it can’t compare to our monopoly.”
“In any case, our country and WDDO member states are concerned that SG Group is undermining the treaty.”
“Concerned, my ass. You know the dungeon industry will collapse without a center of gravity, even if you forcibly bind it together.”
If it were as easy as he made it sound, other countries would have bundled everything together and left just one giant behemoth.
Why Kaiser could grow into a giant corporation.
The same was true of Triain.
The reason was clear.
They possessed the power of ‘pacification.’
The ability to inflate a region’s dungeon industry in an instant.
In other words... the ability to clear dungeons that couldn’t be cleared.
Kaiser grew by clearing the first-generation Unclearables, while Triain grew by clearing places even Kaiser couldn’t.
And so, the Third Generation began.
A being had appeared who could clear places neither of them could.
“Just accept it. A third force has emerged, after Kaiser and Triain.”
“.....”
From the U.S. perspective, this was the worst possible timing—enough to make anyone say, ‘Of all times, why now?’
How much time had they spent preparing to conclude this treaty?
Europe and the U.S. joined forces to pressure the governments of the three East Asian countries most reluctant to sign.
Later, even China, desperate to open its dungeon market, joined in.
The world’s superpowers had spent more than a decade applying pressure before they finally succeeded in concluding the treaty.
There must have been hundreds of instances of carrot-and-stick diplomacy behind it, even threats of economic sanctions.
And yet, of all times...
a third major power emerged.
If that happened, opening the global market would only give this new power wings.
“Greed always brings harm.”
The only thing the U.S. could do right now was warn him not to push too hard.
In response to that warning, President Kang smiled and spoke.
“In our country, people think of the president as the father of the nation. And I don’t want to be an incompetent father who crushes his son’s grand ambitions and aspirations before they can even bloom. The Republic of Korea will always remain a steadfast backer of Hunter Kim Segyun.”
“...I understand your position, Mr. President. I will convey it to my government.”
The U.S. ambassador bowed and left the office.
Left alone, President Kang put away the translation necklace in his inventory and let out a deep sigh.
“So this is only the beginning, huh? Raising a kid really isn’t easy.”
President Kang Min-guk was also a father in his private life.
But the child he was referring to now wasn’t his biological child...
It was a hunter about to step onto the global stage and the massive Korean dungeon development company he led.
**
I heard foreign media and governments were in an uproar over my founding SG Group.
In contrast, the domestic media were quiet or supportive.
Public opinion was much the same.
Despite openly backing the company, there was little outcry, and the main reason was...
─The Korean stock market’s on fire!
└It’s all thanks to Kkyu-Kkyu’s blessing!
└Kkyu-Kkyu!
Setting aside weirdly popular stuff like “Kkyu-Kkyu God”...
First of all, I hadn’t forced an acquisition by artificially depressing the company valuations.
Usually that would be impossible because it required enormous funds...
But once the government decided to force a consolidation, it employed every method available.
In fact, the dungeon industry was an easy place to get one’s hands dirty.
As people always said, no one knew what happened inside dungeons.
So there was plenty of tax evasion behind the scenes, and breach of trust and embezzlement happened all the time.
If the government started digging into things it had been overlooking due to the industry’s unique nature...
There wasn’t a soul who wouldn’t have some dirt on them.
Using that kind of pressure at the government level, we succeeded in buying shares at a reasonable price.
So the only thing left was for the shares I’d bought to rise on the good news of my acquisition.
Even if stock prices rose, once I’d gained control, I could increase my stake fairly cheaply.
Through methods like share buybacks or third-party allotment offerings.
“Good for the retail investors, good for me... Something like that.”
The domestic market had shed its Boxpi stigma and was enjoying a record boom.
Naturally, investor sentiment was at an all-time high.
So why was the media, which was usually negative about everything the government did, so quiet...?
[Kang Min-guk Administration’s Old-School Cronyism. Is This Really Okay?]
It wasn’t as if there were no critical outlets...
─That reporter’s a fucking piece of shit.
─Those bastards would’ve been bitching even if Admiral Yi Sun-sin were alive.
─Fucking traitorous scum.
The shield I’d gained from my image as a patriot(?) standing up to foreign dungeon giants was sturdier than I’d expected...
Zephyros said it wouldn’t crack unless I committed something on the level of murder or rape.
So, after wrapping up this enormous undertaking, where was I now?
I was in France.
**
Unlike the U.S., Japan, and Southeast Asian countries that had gone crazy over Kkyu-Kkyu, the countries of Western Europe weren’t quite as frantic.
A moderate number of fans had gathered at the airport.
...or so I thought.
As I found out later, fans who got the airport mixed up were waiting somewhere else.
Usually, people arriving in Paris from overseas came through Charles de Gaulle Airport, but I’d flown in on a private jet and landed at Orly Airport.
Ah, I did end up buying a private jet.
I figured I’d be traveling abroad more often now, and not having one would be too inconvenient.
“Whew, anyway, I’m so glad the reverse summon worked on Kkyu-Kkyu.”
I could send my pet away to the other side of subspace with the reverse summon skill.
I felt bad saying it, but...
If I’d come out into busy Paris with Kkyu-Kkyu clinging to my shoulder, it would’ve been a disaster; I’d have taken more than ten minutes to move a single meter.
There were still plenty of people crowding around me, though.
“Excuse me, I need to get through...”
Just as I was trapped in the crowd, unable to move either way...
Clatter. Clatter.
Suddenly, from a little way off, came the sound of bones knocking together.
At the sound, people scattered like the tide going out.
Through the parting crowd, I saw white skeletons controlling the people like bodyguards.
Down the path the skeletons had opened, a man who looked to be in his early forties slowly walked toward me.
As one might expect of a Frenchman, he was a dapper man draped in luxury brands from head to toe.
“Hello.”
...This person was...
the strongest in the current era.
The strongest and most fearsome necromancer in history.
“Ahmad Triain.”
No matter how busy I was, it would be hard to turn down this man’s polite invitation, wouldn’t it?