Chapter 51: A Million-Dollar Business

Life reversal through dimensional monopoly.

John Friedrich’s story dragged on for about an hour.

Maybe it was because he was a developer by nature, or maybe the current situation was just too chaotic.

Anyway, the explanation was pretty messy and long-winded.

Thanks to that, I had to ask him to repeat himself several times.

“Phew…”

After hearing everything, I was dumbfounded.

“The previous person in charge arbitrarily found investors and ran off with the money?”

“That’s right!”

“And the problem is that he hid it from our Ribbon Corporation while doing it.”

Good grief.

There really are all kinds of crazy people in this world.

John Friedrich wiped the sweat from his forehead and said,

“I’m sorry. We only found out later…”

“No, it’s fine. We never expected something like this to happen either.”

An unexpected criminal act like this couldn’t be factored into any contingency plan.

Unless you’re a regressor, that is.

So what I had to do now was clean up the mess.

“I suppose I’ll have to meet the investors who were scammed.”

“No! Wait!”

John Friedrich stopped me as I started to stand up.

“They’re connected to gangs. It’s extremely dangerous.”

“Gangs?”

“Yes.”

“…This is seriously a pain in the ass.”

The danger level had just shot up another notch.

If they were the kind of gangsters who thought nothing of pulling a trigger, I’d literally be risking my life going there.

I agonized over it, but in the end my decision didn’t change.

“They ended up losing money too. They’ll want to recoup their losses.”

“They might try to recoup it with the boss’s wrist.”

“They’ll like money more than my wrist.”

In the end, what they lost was money.

As long as the demand wasn’t some absurd amount or an insane level of compensation, I was willing to pay.

If I settled it cleanly with that, it would be over.

Of course, I would also receive compensation for having someone else’s company overturned today.

Being scammed out of investment money and having someone wreck another company are completely separate issues.

“I don’t care if they’re gangsters or investors—just tell me where I can meet them.”

“Phew, you don’t even blink, do you?”

“If blinking would change anything, I’d blink as much as you want.”

“Haha, fair enough. The boss is right. Phew.”

John Friedrich shook his head and stood up.

“I’ll guide you.”

“You personally?”

“I was ordered to treat the boss with the utmost care.”

Probably Jeong Yuha’s instruction.

Well… she probably didn’t give the order knowing this situation.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

Better than nothing.

“B-Boss. Maybe think about it a little diff—”

“Sigh.”

Correction.

Nothing would’ve been better.

The moment John Friedrich entered the rundown Harlem area, he started looking around nervously.

Seeing him glued to my side trembling like a leaf made me sigh just imagining how the other side would view us.

“John, stop shaking so much.”

“I-Is it because the boss came from a war-torn country? You really don’t seem scared.”

“That’s annoyingly half-correct, so I don’t even know how to respond.”

“Boss…”

“Anyway, stop cowering. We didn’t do anything wrong, and if you shrink like that, it only makes the other side more aggressive.”

Having a guy bigger than me stuck to my side was honestly burdensome.

I wish he’d keep a reasonable distance.

I shrugged him off my shoulder and kept scanning the surroundings.

Just one block over and the street turns this rundown?

New York, the city of glamour and fashion.

Even in a city that looks perfect from the outside, Harlem exists.

And the fact that the company was located near Harlem wasn’t good news.

I had bought the company purely for its technology and hadn’t paid much attention to the environment, but seeing it now made me think I should’ve considered the location more.

I’ll have to think about moving the headquarters later.

Separately from that, if someone developed this area, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Maybe because I’ve gained some experience managing a dimension?

I started getting a feel for how this Harlem area could be transformed.

If I polished up a rundown back alley like this.

It would make a ridiculous amount of money.

Doing a business here would be insane.

Coming all the way to America just to check if the program runs properly and leaving felt like a waste.

Should I start something big instead?

Just urban development here would make a ton of money.

While I was mentally running the numbers on various business aspects, John stopped walking.

“Boss, we’re here. It’s this one.”

“Hm… it looks better than I expected?”

Compared to the desolate surroundings, it was a proper building.

It felt like the center of the back alley.

So the investor is here.

“Let’s go in.”

“…Boss, even now, maybe reconsider—”

“Staying still means we only lose more. I don’t do that.”

Ignoring John’s attempts to stop me, I strode inside.

The two thuggish gang members standing at the entrance gave me sleazy grins when they saw me.

“Hey, what’s a yellow monkey doing here?”

“Escaped from the zoo looking for food? The only thing we serve here is bullets.”

Seeing these idiots openly spewing racism made my head hurt.

I hope their boss is at least someone I can talk to.

“I came to see your boss. Apparently you owe us money?”

“What, you came to pay up?”

“You should’ve said that earlier. Here, give us the money. We’ll tell the boss right away.”

As if they’d actually deliver it.

There’s no benefit in dragging out a conversation with guys like these.

“Let me say it again. Call your boss. Or at least the person in charge of this deal…”

“Hey, you got some guts, monkey.”

One of the gang members pulled a pistol from his waist and tapped my chest with it.

“Does this look like some fancy main street to you? Run your mouth and get shot—no one will know.”

“And?”

“Listen up, you little monkey shit. Hand over your life’s worth first. Got it?”

When the muzzle pressed hard against my chest, my heart did feel a little tight, but I couldn’t show it.

They would try to control the situation by feeding on my fear.

So I had to turn it around and use it against them.

I grabbed the gun and aimed it straight at my heart.

“Do whatever you want.”

“…What?”

“But then you guys will lose the chance to earn big money, and when your boss finds out later, won’t he blow your heads off?”

“…What the hell is this bastard saying…”

“One million dollars.”

Before their anger could boil over, I struck first.

I threw out the largest amount that even these meatheads could understand, and their movements stiffened.

I spoke clearly to the idiots who still didn’t get it.

“The moment you kill me, your boss loses the chance to make a million dollars.”

“…If you die here, no one will ever know.”

“Haha, come on. You just said it yourself—this isn’t main street.”

I pressed the muzzle harder against my chest and continued.

“You think I came here completely unprepared?”

“Choose. Shoot and deal with the consequences later, or call your boss.”

They rolled their eyes around for a moment before slowly lowering the gun.

Even people with nothing to lose have one precious thing—their life.

“Wait here. We’ll go tell him.”

“Do whatever.”

The two members glared at me before disappearing inside the building.

Watching them go, John belatedly grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

“Boss! What the hell are you doing?! Do you have two lives?!”

“One.”

“Then why do something like that?! This is a New York back alley! They really could’ve shot you!”

“They wouldn’t have.”

They were idiots, but not so stupid that their brains didn’t work at all.

They must have sensed from my expensive suit that crossing the line would be bad.

“They don’t know what kind of big shot I’m connected to—if they killed me, the aftermath would be impossible to handle.”

“Still… if luck had been bad, you’d be dead!”

“That’s why I stayed within the line.”

“Boss, that’s just hindsight.”

“John, let me say one thing.”

I spoke while watching the members coming back out from inside the building.

“I never lose in any deal.”

As John chewed on my words, the two members jerked their chins toward the interior.

“The boss wants to see you. Follow us.”

“Alright.”

One member walked in front, the other behind, escorting us inside.

It felt shitty, like being dragged as a prisoner.

But if I finish this deal happily, it won’t matter.

“Get in.”

***

The room the member led us to was luxurious and grandiose.

Even saying it was coated in gold wouldn’t do it justice.

The room piled high with all kinds of luxury goods reminded me of Chairman Han Kang-sung’s study.

This was his home ground.

There’s that familiar sense of accomplishment when snatching a deal right in the opponent’s stronghold.

While I was looking around, a casually-dressed man came out from the inner room.

“I heard there’s an Asian with two hearts. Looks like that’s you.”

“Unfortunately, I have only one heart.”

“But you let a gun barrel press against it?”

“You need at least that much guts to do business with a boss here. Don’t you think?”

The man, who was as plump as John, curled his lips and chuckled.

“You’re a funny guy. What’s your name?”

“Late introduction. I’m Kang Jisung. I run a small company. This is our employee, John Friedrich.”

“Kang Chi-sung? Hard to pronounce—Korean, right?”

“You can just call me Kang. The product we’re dealing in doesn’t have my name on it anyway.”

“Hahaha, that’s a good one. Mr. Kang.”

He approached me and offered a handshake.

“Rick Edman. I run a very small street.”

Rick Edman.

The representative of New York’s back alleys.

I repeated his name in my mind and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

“So, Mr. Kang. I heard you have something to pay me. Shall we talk?”

“I heard you invested in a company we acquired.”

“Invest, invest… I’ve invested in so many companies. Which one was it?”

“Hm, John?”

“Ah, uh, the former name was Hack.com.”

“Hack dot com. Ah, yes. I remember. Some country bumpkin came begging for investment, talking our ears off.”

The sleazy smile Rick made was unmistakably that of a loan shark ready to bleed someone dry.

He remembered everything from the start and was pretending not to.

“I’m sorry, but it seems our person in charge acted on his own. I have nothing to say about the failure in oversight.”

“I understand. When the distance is far, thoughts become distant too.”

“Therefore, that investment never legally existed from the beginning. Unfortunately, you were scammed.”

“Oh no. So that bastard ate our blood money on his own.”

…This guy.

He knew from the start that Hack.com was already part of our company.

He knew and still let himself be “scammed” into investing.

All to find a pretext to squeeze more money out of us.

He must have thought a foreign company would have deep pockets and tried to pull a fast one.

“That’s certainly unfortunate, but that doesn’t mean we can just say ‘sorry’ and walk away.”

“Even though it has nothing to do with our company, you’re saying you’ll bill us for that investment?”

“If a subordinate messes up, the owner pays the price. Your company is the owner, so no choice, right?”

“What if there’s no reason to pay?”

“Then since we didn’t get our blood money back, we’ll have to take blood instead.”

“…Hic…”

Along with John’s hiccup, a chill ran down my spine.

So this is how he says he won’t let us leave nicely.

“That’s some brutal intimidation.”

“Why bother talking nicely when it hurts the tongue? This is faster.”

Rick grinned and said,

“So, are you going to give me back my blood money?”

Money or blood.

In this tragic situation where I had to choose one.

I had already made my choice long ago.

“I’ll give you money.”

“Hoho, good. They say Asians are smart—indeed the calculations are fast…”

“I’m not saying I’ll return the investment amount.”

“…Then?”

Seeing Rick’s uncomfortable expression, I knew I had landed a solid blow.

Reading his mood, I curled my lips.

And with the friendliest businessman smile I’d ever worn, I said,

“How about we do a million-dollar urban development project together, just you and me?”