Chapter 115
‘Omnipotent Portal?’
Shione was still busy putting her clothes on. Her rustling was tempting my ears.
I confirmed the details of the item with my back still turned toward her.
[Omnipotent Portal]
Can create a portal anywhere to teleport to the nearest Magician’s Tower.
A maximum of 5 people can use the portal.
‘Those punks were relying on this!’
I really was curious. Someone like Demetri is a decently skilled individual. He’s sure to have a lot of experience as well. He should know how dangerous a Demon Cave can be.
But he still chose to make a team on his own and volunteered for the Demon Cave Clearing Squad. Furthermore, he was trying to rape Shione, the core of the Demon Cave Clearing Squad.
That is pretty much like committing suicide. It is difficult enough to clear a Demon Cave when everyone is working together, so why would you do something that would break your teamwork?
But he must have acted like that because he had already prepared a way out. Three or four others probably knew about it along with him, while the rest of the people were probably going to be left for dead.
“But why do you think those people acted that way? There is no way to make it out of the Demon Cave alive if the teamwork is broken.”
‘d.a.m.n, she surprised me.’
Talk after you finish getting dressed. Why do you have to keep making me imagine things? You want me to turn around and look?
“Yeah. I guess there was something they were relying on.”
“But what do we do now? The Demon Cave Clearing Squad is so small now.”
The rustling changed a bit. She seemed to be putting her leather outfit on now.
“The current members are enough. Just trust me.”
I killed the remaining two people while chatting with Shione. You need to make sure to do it right when you are taking care of business.
“Did you succeed in hunting the Shadow Fox?”
The Shadow Fox, Goonto’s Twin Blades, and the magic points I earned from Peria. I also added magic to my equipment with the help of the Shapirs.
My level was not much different compared to last time, but my abilities were incomparable to the last time she saw me.
Of course, there is no reason to tell Shione about everything that happened to me one by one.
All Shione needs to know is this.
“There is nothing for you to worry about.”
“But this Demon Cave will be harder than you think. I’m done getting dressed now.”
I turned my head around. Shione was fixing the sleeves of her priestess outfit.
But Shione’s expression wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. She seemed pretty calm for someone who went through something like that just now. Normally, girls who suffer like that would be crying their eyes out, unable to overcome the shock of the whole thing.
I’m sure she’s doing her best to look calm. She’s clenching her teeth and pushing herself so that she doesn’t break down.
It made sense for someone like Shione. She’s someone who has had to overcome a lot of different things since she was young. Just the fact that her grandfather is
Morris and her father is Harrison probably put her in situations where she had no choice but to get stronger.
“Why do you think it will be harder?”
“There are a lot of Midnight Black Alligators. We’ve had two or three attack us at once even though we are only in the beginning stages of the Demon Cave. I think there will be even more as we keep going in.”
Eh, so it was just Midnight Black Alligators.
The old me would not have been able to hunt them without having a giant shield. But that is not the case anymore.
It is actually better. Midnight Black Alligators have Midnight Black Scales and Fairy Tears. I should be able to get lots of both if I hunt a bunch of them.
I even thought that it would be better if the much stronger Golden Alligators came out in droves instead of the Midnight Black Alligators.
I smiled brightly toward Shione.
“That is really good.”
“Huh?”
Shione had a confused expression.
Is there a reason to explain with my words? I will show her with my actions soon enough.
“You’ll see.”
“I will just trust Kang Hwi Ram-nim.”
***
The Daily sports page was continuously covered with articles about me.
They had no other choice. I was showing them skills worthy of such coverage.
In the KPGA Pro preliminaries two months ago, I recorded 15 under-par for the 18 holes and 26 under-par for the 36 holes, surpa.s.sing the new record I just set for the KPGA.
And I had an overwhelming victory in the Albatross Golf Tournament that ended yesterday.
The Albatross Golf Tournament was the first step in the Golden Dragon Group’s Royal Road for rookies. The winner is given the chance to partic.i.p.ate in the Alondis KPGA Championship in Jejudo [1] three months later, and if you win that one, you will be invited to partic.i.p.ate in the Golden Dragon Cup PGA tournament. And if you win there once again, you will be able to immediately enter the PGA next year.
That is what people call the Royal Road.
And they are all expecting that, if a Korean person manages to become a Royal Roader, I would be that main character.
It will naturally be that way. I will make people talk about my name even more virally at that point.
There was a large picture of me on the newspaper. As you probably expected, I was wearing the Dandelion Uniform in the picture.
‘I wonder if a lot of donations are coming in.’
The donations had been blowing up lately. The foundation was receiving close to 1 billion won(~$887,170) in donations a day, even though most of the donations were less than 10,000 won each.
So, it wasn’t that a select few were donating to it. All of the citizens were getting interested and sending their donations with a joyful heart.
I presume it is because of the transparency of the account activity. Donors could at least be sure that the Dandelion Foundation would not use their donations for useless things.
I operated my computer and entered the Dandelion homepage.
Knock knock.
I heard a knock on the door.
I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 3:00pm. I had an
an interview scheduled for that time.
‘Time sure flies by.’
“Come in.”
The door opened and a very refreshingly beautiful lady walked in. She was wearing a mini skirt that showed off her white thighs, so it felt even more refreshing.
Three men followed behind the beauty. They had a camera and even a few lights.
“h.e.l.lo. My name is Im Sarang of K-Sports channel. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with us.”
“I’m thankful you want to interview me. Please take a seat here.”
I offered her the chair I had prepared in advance.
“Thank you. You are even more handsome in person than what I saw through the screen. Have you received any offers to be an actor?”
To be honest, I did receive quite a few, especially from the KBC Broadcast Station’s Director Han Sung Tak in the Lions Club. Not only did he want me to make an appearance in an entertainment show, he also wanted me to make a cameo in a drama.
But I declined all requests. I’m still not a fully cooked bowl of rice.
I may be getting famous, but people might not look at me too kindly if I already start making TV appearances.
And my fame and Dandelion’s PR is already enough as is.
Making TV appearances will not be too late after becoming the best in the PGA. That is probably what people expect from me as well.
“I am not yet at a level to do that. Right now, my focus is on entering the PGA.”
“I see. You have been donating all of your winnings from the compet.i.tions. Do you plan on doing the same thing once you enter the PGA?”
There were a lot of interview questions.
But I had already prepared answers for all of these questions, as they had sent me the questions in advance.
I was getting used to these kinds of interviews now too.
“Thank you. See you again soon.”
“Yes, please drive safely.”
Im Sarang and crew left my office. I heard another knock not too long after they left.
Knock Knock.
I subconsciously started to smile.
‘You b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You are finally here.’
“Come in.”
The door opened, and familiar faces entered. The people in the front were the Golden Dragon Group PR people that kept calling me and even came to visit me like stalkers. And the last person to enter was Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul, the person who could be called their manager.
I had finally managed to get past Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s stubbornness. He was trying to avoid meeting with me as best as he could, but he had no choice but to come himself since, forget about signing the contract, I didn’t even care to look at it.
I really was curious what kind of expression Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul would have when he came into my office.
I may have been the one to suffer in Middle School, but I’m sure Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul doesn’t have a good impression of me either. I’ve been returning the, ‘favor,’ as much as I could since we met again not too long ago.
Not only did I win a bunch of money off him at the exhibition match, I’ve also continued to reject Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s sponsor
Yul’s sponsor offer.
But he’s probably still looking down on me. He was a part of the large Golden Dragon Group while I was just a basic golf player.
At least that’s probably what Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul is thinking.
Then he will naturally act sn.o.bbish. He might even threaten me with something like, ‘I came in person, but you still won’t sign the sponsor contract? Do you want to die?’
But he showed a completely unexpected att.i.tude.
“It’s been a while. How have you been?”
A friendly smile. He looked like someone who came to visit a close old friend. I could even sense a bit of humbleness in his smile.
I could easily antic.i.p.ate Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s current situation based on that expression alone.
‘I guess he’ll really be in a pickle if he can’t get me to sign the contract!’
I’m sure Chairman Jung Man Yong is in the background of that. Even I know how much Chairman Jung Man Yong loves his golf.
He probably got orders to make me sign no matter what. Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul probably talked about our, ‘old cla.s.smate,’ relationship to claim that he can get it done.
But his a.s.s must be on fire because I continued to reject the contract.
That means there is only one course of action for me.
‘Might as well let you experience h.e.l.l.’
Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul reached out his hand as if he wanted to shake my hands after not seeing each other for a while.
Sure, I can shake your hand. It’s not like I’m signing the contract by shaking your hand.
“You’re still the same.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have a dirty expression.”
Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul started to lightly frown, but it quickly disappeared. It was as if he was trying to tell me, ‘I normally smile like this.’
“Haha, let’s only talk about good things since we haven’t seen each other for a long time.”
“Would you be able to say good things if you were me?”
I decided to be blunt about everything today. I was now at a spot where I could do that. I was prepared to win even if I went face to face with Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul now.
“I’m sure you’re like this because of the past, but it has already been over 10 years. You’re still bitter about all of that?”
“What are you talking about? I forgot about the past a long time ago.”
Of course, it was a lie. But I did not want to seem like a petty person.
“Then why are you being like this?”
“You really asking why? You think you are at the level to sit at the negotiation table with me? Someone like you who only relies on his daddy’s allowance?”
Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul frowned even more, but he still held himself back.
How bad must his situation be for the extremely terrible Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul to be holding back like this?
Every time he held himself back, I just pushed even further forward.
‘I can really send him packing today.’
“Then what about you? Are you a chairman of a company or something?”
“Oh, I’m glad that you asked. I’ve actually taken the role of a Chairman of a small company as of yesterday. I naturally have business cards readybusiness cards ready as well.”
I took out a business card and handed it to Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul.
“You can call me Chairman Kang from now on.”
Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul looked at the business card.
“AFC?”
It is a Vietnamese business specializing in food ingredients. The business was pretty large and cost me 230 billion won to buy 60% of the stocks.
Of course, I had never heard about this company before. How would I know about a company in Vietnam?
Lee Man Bok recommended it to me. That was why I hired someone to collect information on it for a while. They are a pretty skilled company that is profitable and is compet.i.tive on the world level when it comes to food ingredients.
They have locations not only in Vietnam, but also in Indonesia, Thailand and even India.
But the greed of the Chairman destroyed the company. He has been expanding the company an absurd amount the last few years, making it difficult to manage.
That was why a lot of people were looking for a way out. As such, the person who paid 230 billion won took over the food ingredient company, as well as three other companies that were not looking too good.
To be honest, it might have been too much to pay for a business of that size. But the specialists all agreed that it was a company that one should invest in.
And I also needed to spend some of my money. My money had already increased to close to 3 trillion won($2,662,997,700).
Korea’s KOSPI was too small, so I have been trading in the US, Chinese, and even j.a.panese stock markets. But the size of my investments were so large that the earning rate was not so great.
That was why I was looking for another way to invest, other than stocks, when this came into my radar.
It took close to two months to take over the company.
But it still has not been finalized. I put food company specialists in place as CEOs of each company and have been receiving daily reports from them.
But anyways, it is true that I have become a Chairman of a company.
“Is this …… real?”
“You think I’m you?”
Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul still didn’t seem like he believed it. He could only look back and forth at the business card and my face.
“Negotiations need to be done by people at the same level. Someone like you is not qualified to sit at the negotiation table with me. Or you can go and go find a fake business card somewhere I guess.”
“Then you want me to bring my dad or something?”
I wouldn’t be satisfied with that. Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s dad won’t make Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul feel that burdened at all.
Someone who can make Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul beg on his knees. I need to personally meet that person.
“Now that I think about it, I have never met Chairman Jung before. I heard he really likes golf. Why don’t you create that bridge for me?”
Seeing me casually say that, Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s eyes became extremely wide. I was worried his eyeb.a.l.l.s might pop out if he kept that up.
“What? Our chairman?”
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[1] Name of a Korean Island