Chapter 58: Business Report

As soon as I got off at Incheon Airport, Yuha came out to greet me.

Of course, she wasn’t alone.

“Is that him?”

“Yes.”

Next to Yuha stood a line of airport police officers, and they strode toward Howard and me.

Howard stiffened immediately upon seeing the approaching police.

I don’t know his criminal history in detail.

But there’s such a thing as circumstantial evidence.

If he’s a subordinate Rick trusts that much, he must have killed a few people and been in and out of prison several times.

He somehow hid those records and boarded the flight to Korea just fine.

But things that are hidden are bound to be discovered eventually.

“[Mr. Howard? You need to come with us for a moment.]”

“[Who the hell are you guys?]”

“[We’ll talk there. Arrest him.]”

The airport police grabbed Howard from both sides and cuffed him to prevent escape. Since Yuha had already handed over all the information on him, there’s a high chance it’ll lead to deportation.

“FUCK!! MR. KANG!”

“Ugh, noisy. You really brought a guy like that around.”

“Guns are legal in America. Do you know how many times I almost got a hole in my chest?”

“Doesn’t the president have like three lives or something?”

“Does it look like I do?”

“You did all that without even three lives?”

“I had good reason.”

I watched Howard being led away, then headed outside the airport.

Yuha guided me to the prepared car and asked again.

“But is it okay to just send him like that? You said he was dangerous.”

“Did you handle what I instructed?”

“I did everything.”

“Then it’s fine. Even if Howard goes back, he won’t be able to meet Rick.”

The moment I entered Korea.

The mechanisms to take down Rick began operating.

One of them was searches starting on the assets Rick had hidden and the real estate he held under borrowed names.

Just this alone was enough to guarantee Rick would go to prison.

Of course, reports like this had probably happened several times even in America, and Rick would have prepared escape routes.

“How about the criminal records? Did you confirm?”

“Yes. It seems other gang members went to prison in Rick’s place, and I’ve arranged for all those cases to be reinvestigated.”

As Andrea said, not knowing Rick, who dominates New York’s back alleys, makes you an idiot.

That means the police and prosecutors had been keeping an eye on Rick too.

We just laid down small triggers one by one.

“A full-scale investigation into the drugs they distributed will begin as well.”

“There must be cops touched by Rick’s hand. What about them?”

“Drug distribution isn’t something only New York State was watching, so the FBI will probably move in too.”

“Clean.”

“It’s all per the president’s instructions.”

I left the detailed specifics to Yuha, but I set the overall framework.

Rick will probably be dragged away by the police and sentenced to life or even the death penalty before the first floor of the buildings even goes up.

Considering he seems to have quietly buried dozens of people.

“But what about the building payment?”

“What do you mean? We’re using it, of course.”

“Instead of payment, the entire buildings?”

“Obviously. That clause is in the contract.”

It was a part I added when coordinating the contract through lawyers.

Rick eagerly agreed to include it, in exchange for adding a clause that he wouldn’t pay construction costs if there were defects.

It was a contract made to screw each other over.

“We got all the profit?”

“To resolve it cleanly, we need to set the stage so he can’t come out and cause trouble later.”

“Preparing in case he gets bail too?”

“He’s a tough bastard.”

Even with this many traps laid, he might somehow wriggle out.

He didn’t dominate Harlem in New York for nothing.

“Make sure he can’t come back.”

“Don’t worry.”

Yuha smiled and said.

“That’s our specialty.”

“Watch your words.”

“What?”

“It was the specialty.”

“Anyway.”

If Rick has dominated people’s lives and deaths with force.

We have dominated people with information.

“That guy Rick will never return to his position.”

***

When I entered the company, all the employees from the Business Planning Department came out to welcome me.

The one who greeted me most enthusiastically at the front was Section Chief Hagichul.

“How was your exile?”

“Now you’re openly calling it exile. Before, you at least packaged it as a business trip.”

“Haha, it’s over now, so I’m saying it like this.”

Annoying.

Section Chief Hagichul, judging that prolonging the conversation wouldn’t benefit him, quickly changed the topic.

“I heard you acquired a construction company in America.”

“Did the vice president tell you?”

“Yes, the vice president was complaining about you increasing the workload.”

“Don’t even mention that time.”

I sent her on vacation, but she seemed quite resentful about me creating more work.

Well, what can you do.

“Crisis is opportunity.”

“I heard it was a considerably dangerous crisis.”

“It’s resolved well, so it’s fine.”

If I mentioned almost getting shot here, they might send me on a business trip to Europe this time.

Before more topics unfavorable to me came up, I pointed to the conference room.

“Details during the meeting. A lot must have changed in Korea too.”

“Yes, we have a lot to report anyway.”

Section Chief Hagichul looked at Assistant Manager Seong Jihoon standing behind him.

Seeing his triumphant expression, I could tell the results without hearing.

“Let’s start the meeting right away.”

As soon as we sat in the conference room, the briefing began immediately.

“First, the news to report is the fresh fruit juice specialty store <Neighborhood Juice>. It was planned as a franchise, and currently there are 15 stores.”

It was only one month.

It took exactly one month to take the first scoop of the business, and 15 stores opened?

“How did that happen?”

“Some existing <Neighborhood Bakery> owners expressed interest in operating it together.”

As the PPT flipped, faces of several owners appeared.

“In the case of Owner Yoon Sungmi, she said she wanted to operate <Neighborhood Juice> next to her existing <Neighborhood Bakery>.”

“Wouldn’t it be quite busy for the owner to handle both?”

“Yes, but after review, we concluded it’s advantageous to place this franchise near <Neighborhood Bakery>.”

“So synergy can be created.”

“Exactly.”

Such cases are common among franchises.

When one business enters a neighborhood, others follow competitively.

In a similar form, when <Neighborhood Bakery> enters, <Neighborhood Juice> follows.

“We judged we could profit somewhere between competition and cooperation. And current sales are maintaining a line not far from our projections.”

From pre-calculated sales figures.

It was leaving quite a large profit.

“First month projected sales of 450 million won?”

“Yes.”

“With only 15 stores, how did such sales come out?”

Roughly calculating, each store needed monthly sales of about 30 million won.

30 million in sales seems insignificant, but anyone who’s done business knows it’s not easy.

Even with heavy first-month promotions, to reach this sales level, they’d need to sell about 167 drinks a day at 6,000 won each.

How did such absurd results come about?

“It’s the victory of marketing.”

“Victory of marketing?”

“We carried over the brand image of <Neighborhood Bakery> as is.”

With Yuha’s additional explanation, Assistant Manager Seong Jihoon confidently said.

“<Neighborhood Juice> is now located in regions famous for each fruit. We created the image that it’s made using fruits from those regions.”

“It inherited the marketing of <Neighborhood Bakery> directly.”

“Yes. Word of mouth from people added to that.”

As the PPT flipped, Instagram posts poured out.

“As you can see, keywords like ‘delicious,’ ‘makes you happy,’ ‘fun like traveling,’ ‘relieves fatigue,’ etc.”

“‘Relieves fatigue’ is there?”

“Yes. It’s circulating as a rumor, but there’s talk that drinking our beverages builds up less fatigue.”

That doesn’t seem like just a rumor.

“Won’t other companies pick a fight over that point?”

“We openly disclose nutritional information for all drinks. We’ve been explaining that such effects are purely psychological.”

The best answer we can give is that it’s all in the mind.

If we said it’s helpful for fatigue recovery because of blessings, we’d end up in a mental hospital.

“It’s factually having a positive effect on us.”

“Yes, thanks to that, our sales are continuously rising, President.”

“Yes.”

“We’d like to check if we can increase the supply of ingredients a bit more.”

“Ah.”

We have agreements with local farmers for many fruits, but the main is dimensional fruits.

I know we’re already importing quite a lot.

But looking at the growth, it seems it’ll become insufficient.

“I’ll talk to the suppliers. Submit an additional report on the required fruit quantities.”

“Understood.”

I should tell the Tinyfolk or Blood Nobles to assign more farmers to the orchard dimension.

Assistant Manager Seong Jihoon’s report concluded with how many more stores would open in the future and how much net profit that would bring.

There were many numbers, but to sum up the results: huge success.

With the fruit quality maintained high, and the blessing effects circulating through word of mouth. Profits will keep rising unless something major happens.

I’d love to attach such effects to wheat through dimensional farmers too.

But it’s a bit regrettable that there’s only one dimensional farmer.

“System, how many dimensions do we currently possess?”

[There are currently 25 conquered dimensions.]

Excluding One Direction, the steel dimension, and the orchard dimension: 22.

“Use 10 to create new dimensions, and distribute the remaining 12 to One Direction, steel, and orchard dimensions for energy absorption.”

[Executing instructions.]

I redistributed dimensional energy on a whim.

This should allow production of higher quality goods.

Hehe

Just thinking about it makes me smile.

“Ahem, President?”

“Ah, yes. Section Chief.”

“May I continue the report?”

While I was briefly lost in the dimension, the presenter had changed from Assistant Manager Seong Jihoon to Section Chief Hagichul.

“Sorry, please continue.”

“Understood. The next matter to report is related to Kangseong Foods.”

Section Chief Hagichul continued reporting on the stabilization of Kangseong Foods.

They reduced unnecessary expenses and maximized clearly profitable areas, and as a result, net profit was showing signs of gradual increase.

“There was fierce resistance during the process, but now that results are coming out, everyone’s quiet.”

“Results are more important than a hundred words. If they complain later, just suppress them with these results.”

“Wise words.”

“Then, can Kangseong Foods escape deficit next quarter?”

“It seems it’ll take a bit more for net profit to go positive.”

How generously did that Han Kyungsook shit all over for profits still not to come out.

Sad to say, but we’ll have to invest a bit more.

“That’s the end of the report.”

“Good that there are no major issues. Then, it’s my turn now.”

I distributed the report I had prepared in advance to everyone and went to the front.

The Business Planning Department employees grumbled while looking at me.

“The president just went to play.”

“Yeah. You’re bragging, right?”

Hmm… Seems only Yuha and Section Chief Hagichul know what I did in America.

Well, if word spread that I caused trouble, what would the employees say?

It’s better they didn’t know.

Though not anymore.

“I’ll report on what happened during the business trip. It might be a matter that will spur Ribbon Corporation’s growth in America in the future, so please listen carefully.”

I didn’t say much when I went up.

Just that there was a small dispute with a gang boss, and while resolving that issue, I did some tech sales, bought a construction company, and started construction?

Ah, and included that we could import raw materials cheaply.

“Compared to what you all did, it was nothing?”

The conference room falling silent must be my imagination.

Imagination.