Chapter 23: The Error in Statistics

[Fair Trade Commission to Investigate Kangseong Foods for Unfair Insider Trading]  

According to industry sources on the 13th, the Fair Trade Commission has launched an investigation into the abnormal stock fluctuations of Kangseong Foods. 

The company’s stock repeatedly hit the upper limit, triggering multiple volatility interruptions, suggesting potential insider efforts to inflate the price…  

I skimmed through the article and smiled with satisfaction.  

The chaos surrounding Kangseong Foods’ stock was entirely the work of Han Yeri and me.  

Han Yeri secured an insider at Kangseong Foods, who dumped a massive amount of shares into the market.  

We then swooped in, bought them up, and drove the price higher.  

Kangseong Foods scrambled to recover the shares, but in the process, they burned through a significant amount of cash.  

And because of that, a report of unfair insider trading was filed against them.  

I don’t know who the insider was, but they definitely landed a solid blow to Kangseong Foods’ back.  

“They lost cash and people. Kangseong Foods won’t be able to breathe for a while.”  

Well, that’s not what matters to me.  

What matters is the conversation with Han Yeri sitting in front of me.  

She was casually sipping water.  

Despite being the biggest beneficiary of this incident, she acted like it was no big deal.  

“By the way, my aunt got called in by Grandfather and got an earful.”  

“Didn’t you say he’s been unwell lately?”  

“He gets up occasionally. She got summoned right at one of those moments.”  

It’s not quite accurate to say he’s in good health, but it seems he’s still holding on.  

That family is such a mess.  

“I think that’s enough about my family. Shall we move on to other matters?”  

“Sounds good.”  

“How much did you make this time?”  

I had to pull some serious strings to secure quick cash for our strategy with Han Yeri.  

Of course, I made enough profit to cover the loans and then some.  

Let’s see…  

“About 240 million won.”  

“That’s all you got?”  

“Look at my factory. We’re a small company without even a proper office. Did you think we’d have piles of cash?”  

If Ribbon Corporation’s business had been more established, with more liquid funds,  

I could’ve easily made a hundred times more.  

But what can you do?  

This time, I was just lending a hand.  

The real winner here is Han Yeri.  

“I’ve had plenty of moments where I regretted not having more money, and this is one of them.”  

“Don’t feel too bad. You didn’t sell all the shares, did you?”  

“Of course not.”  

If I had dumped all the shares at the end, I could’ve made a lot more.  

Probably double the profit.  

But there’s a reason I didn’t.  

“Because you’re going to buy them, right, Ms. Han?”  

At a price that wouldn’t come even after multiple upper limits, Han Yeri would take them.  

She shook her head, incredulous.  

“Do you think I’m some kind of sucker?”  

“Nice to meet you, valued customer. So, how much are you offering?”  

“Geez.”  

Han Yeri shook her head again and slid a document across the table.  

“I’ll buy the remaining shares at market price, and in return, I’ll give you this.”  

“What’s this?”  

“An office in a building I own.”  

The photo showed an office that looked quite spacious.  

Way too big for a company with just one employee.  

Unless we had about 200 employees, that is.  

“You’re giving me this?”  

“Is it not enough?”  

“It’s too much. What’s the catch?”  

“No catch. This seals the deal.”  

No more, no less.  

This marks the end of our alliance.  

It’s a bit suspicious, but I decided to accept it as a gesture of goodwill.  

“Alright. Let’s do it.”  

“Good choice.”  

She handed over the contract and stood up.  

“Oh, did you find the person who was colluding with Kangseong Foods?”  

“It wasn’t hard. A lot of people don’t like me.”  

“You don’t seem like a bad person, though.”  

“Thanks for the compliment. Oh, Mr. Kang?”  

“Yes?”  

“Don’t forget. You come when I call, just once.”  

“…I’m hoping you’ll forget.”  

Han Yeri smirked, as if to say that wasn’t happening, and left the factory.  

After the sound of her car faded, Yuha burst through the office door.  

“Boss!”  

“Whoa, what’s with you?”  

“You’re not throwing away the company, right?”  

“…Why would I throw it away?”  

“I mean, why would she come here in person?!”  

“Maybe she had nothing better to do.”  

Who understands the minds of chaebols?  

Wasting time trying to figure them out is pointless.  

More importantly…  

“Yuha.”  

“Yes?”  

“Pack your things. We’re moving.”  

“Where to?”  

I waved the contract Han Yeri left behind.  

“To the new office.”  

***

“Han Yeri is a goddess. From now on, anyone who insults her insults me, got it?”  

The moment we moved into the new office, Yuha started spouting nonsense.  

“Anyone hearing you would think we were working on the street before.”  

“It was practically the same! No air conditioning, no heater, just a computer.”  

“We could still work, couldn’t we?”  

“Boss.”  

“Yeah?”  

“What’s our company’s operating principle?”  

Ugh, really.  

She keeps bringing that up, and since it’s my own principle, I had no comeback.  

“…People come first.”  

“So we need to care about welfare, right?”  

“Alright, alright. I won’t call you out randomly anymore, and I’ll try not to bother you during vacations.”  

“That’s a good mindset.”  

After some casual banter, I looked around the spacious office.  

Even on a second look, it’s way too big for just the two of us.  

“We need to hire people.”  

“Definitely. I’m swamped. Wheat deliveries, factory production adjustments, and now franchise management?”  

“You’ve been through a lot.”  

“So have you, boss.”  

Doing the work of over thirty people with just the two of us?  

Even “grind” doesn’t quite cover it.  

The fact that we still have a mountain of work ahead is another issue.  

“For now, take that vacation you missed. Here’s your bonus.”  

“Thank you, boss. You booked the plane tickets, right?”  

“Yeah, you rascal.”  

“Yesss! I’m heading out then? Straight to clocking out?”  

“Go for it.”  

Yuha, who’d been raving about the office, left without looking back.  

No matter how nice the office is, it can’t beat home.  

Of course, for me, I’d have to grow fond of this office.  

I’ll be spending a lot of time here.  

“So, what’s first?”  

I sat at my desk and reviewed the remaining tasks.  

But my capable subordinate had already prepared for her absence.  

She’d set up everything except the tasks only I could handle.  

I may not be great at a lot of things, but I sure picked a good employee.  

“If the people we hire later are even half as good, we’ll grow massively.”  

…Let’s not get our hopes up too high.  

I set aside my expectations and checked the tasks Yuha couldn’t handle—things only I could do.  

“System.”  

[You called?]  

“Dimension Observation.”  

The system immediately displayed a vast dimensional map.  

I’d been too busy before to do more than hear brief updates through the system, but today, I planned to take my time and check thoroughly.  

“Let’s start with City 1.”  

Compared to the last time I checked, City 1 had changed dramatically.  

It used to look like a refugee camp with only shacks, but now stone buildings lined the streets, looking much more like proper homes.  

“Cities 2 and 3 are similar. Is it thanks to securing more stone?”  

City 4 exists in the steel dimension.  

Thanks to securing massive amounts of stone there, we could heavily utilize existing construction tech.  

It reminded me of the Roman Empire.  

“If only this boom could last. System, what’s the Tinyfolk’s happiness level?”  

[Currently, the Tinyfolk’s happiness level is 90%.]  

“Not bad. What about the Bloodkin?”  

[The Bloodkin’s happiness level is 97%.]  

“Good.”  

The happiness levels were high, as I’d hoped.  

But something felt off.  

Why do I feel uneasy?  

“System, are you sure the happiness metrics are accurate?”  

[Yes.]  

“Hmm…”  

I continued observing, checking various parts of the dimension.  

The more I looked, the more I doubted whether those happiness levels were correct.  

“There’s no vitality in the villages.”  

For people supposedly happy, there were few smiles.  

It wasn’t a depressive or unhappy vibe.  

It felt… subdued.  

Something was off.  

“System, can you read the thoughts of the Tinyfolk and Bloodkin?”  

[It’s possible.]  

“Then summarize the common thoughts—the ones most of them share.”  

[Compiling the data.]  

The system quickly gathered the information and displayed it in an Excel-like format.  

Reading the results, I let out a sigh.  

“Ha…”  

What’s the point of living like this?  

My kids will have to live like this too.  

I should be grateful just to survive.  

“What the hell is this, System…?”  

[41.]  

“Tinyfolk—you can analyze their mental health, right? Summarize the mental conditions most of them are dealing with.”  

[Compiling the data.]  

[Depression (84%), anxiety (10%), other conditions (6%).]  

“Depression.”  

It wasn’t until I’d reviewed all the cities that I understood the situation.  

“It was an error in the happiness metric.”  

The system’s happiness level wasn’t measuring how happy they were.  

It was measuring how not unhappy they were.  

“System, reset the happiness scale. Set zero as neutral, negative for unhappiness, positive for happiness, and display it that way.”  

[Deconstructing and reassembling the system.]  

[Recalculating happiness levels for Tinyfolk and Bloodkin.]  

[Current Tinyfolk happiness: -8. Bloodkin happiness: 2.]  

It wasn’t that 92% were happy.  

8% were unhappy.  

Damn it!  

“Why… No, I get it.”  

In that dimension, personal property doesn’t exist.  

All harvested food is stored in granaries and distributed based on labor contributions.  

In simple terms, it’s a communist-like system.  

At first, this was undoubtedly efficient.  

But as their civilization advanced, this system delivered unfair results.  

“Hundreds of years have passed, but their way of running society is stuck in the past.”  

Stuck in an era when they were just struggling to survive.  

Grind.  

“Time to reflect.”  

This is clearly my mistake.  

Blinded by my own profits, I neglected them.  

No, worse—I treated them like machine parts.  

Unconsciously.  

“…I won’t let it stay like this.”  

I won’t run things like I did at Spectrum.  

I need to move forward in a way that coexists and thrives with them.  

“Good thing I realized this before it was too late.”  

If I’d found out later, fixing this would’ve taken far more time and effort.  

Or it might’ve been impossible to fix, even with all that effort.  

Since I know now, I can make it right.  

“How do I do this?”  

How can I make them happy?  

How can I give them hope for the future?  

I started asking philosophical questions I’d never pondered in my life, examining various case studies.  

From those, I found a few clues and began developing them.  

By the time I’d finalized the plans, the sun was rising again.  

I started when the sun was up, so I’d pulled an all-nighter.  

“Still.”  

I found it.  

A few methods.  

“System, gather the apostles.”  

[Summoning all apostles.]  

The apostles’ consciousnesses flowed directly into my mind.  

We greet the Master of the Dimension.  

“Yeah, is everyone doing alright?”  

Thanks to your care, Master.  

“…No need to say that. Your lack of happiness is my failure.”  

Master?  

I could feel the apostles’ confusion.  

I cleared my throat and addressed them.  

“Listen carefully to what I say and carry it out.”  

Time for a social revolution.