RIIING-.
Just then, the direct line on CEO Joo Yun-ha's desk rang sharply.
As he lifted the receiver, an unpleasant smile slowly spread across his lips.
"Ah, is that the dispatch supervisor? I see. President Gu Jong-su has ordered ten trucks for tonight?"
The supervisor's tense voice came through the receiver.
[Yes, sir! We have just received an urgent call from the Hwaseong factory.
They ordered us to quietly move everything in the underground warehouse to the secret warehouse in Pyeongtaek!]
It was a flawless tip-off, a pledge of loyalty to the true master who held the informant's life in his hands.
Joo exchanged a glance with Director Kim Jeong-gon, then issued his orders coldly.
"Good work. Send the ten trucks into the factory immediately. The moment they leave the gates fully loaded, their destination will cease to be Pyeongtaek."
He spoke in a low voice.
"Take them to the place I specified. Not a single truck is to stray from the route."
***
It was two in the morning.
Pitch darkness lay over National Route 1.
Ten heavy freight trucks sped along the road in single file, headlights blazing.
Their cargo beds carried the shame of Taeseong Foods that Gu Jong-su had fought desperately to conceal.
They were loaded with tens of tons of rotten imported flour and waste cooking oil intended for industrial use.
The trucks should have been heading to a secluded secret warehouse in Pyeongtaek.
Instead, the dispatch supervisor in the lead truck's cab took up a radio and called out an entirely different set of coordinates.
"All vehicles, turn right at Junction 3. Our destination is not Pyeongtaek. We are entering the abandoned logistics center near Osan Interchange."
[Understood. Entering now.]
Soon, the ten heavy trucks glided into the yard of the abandoned logistics center in Osan.
The moment every truck had entered the pitch-black yard and shut off its engine,
CLICK-! CLICK-CLICK-!
Searchlights blazed on from every direction, so bright that it was impossible to keep one's eyes open, tearing the darkness apart.
At the center of the yard, now as bright as day,
I stood expressionlessly in a black coat.
Behind me, Senior Department Head Song Jae-woong and Manager Lee Jae-hyeon trembled like leaves, dragged from sleep without knowing why they had been summoned.
Beside them, a Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) Special Enforcement Unit and cameras from major news organizations lay in wait like predators, ready to unleash their flashes.
I had secretly called them in under the 'RD's' name, promising a guaranteed exclusive.
"Baek! Why did you summon the food and drug authorities and reporters out of nowhere at two in the morning? What if there is nothing here?!"
Song shouted, deathly pale, but I gave a short laugh.
"Did I not tell you? I would expose the real garbage dump hidden behind that perfect stage set."
With that, I slowly approached the lead truck.
CREEAK-.
The cab door opened, and the subcontractor's terrified dispatch supervisor jumped down.
As the supervisor looked around for the 'Rubicon' representative who would direct the operation, I stepped forward and presented my blue employee ID.
"Baek Do-jin, Taeseong Group's RD. CEO Joo Yun-ha of Rubicon has explained everything to you, correct? You may hand them over to me."
It was the perfect cover: presenting myself as Rubicon Partners' liaison.
"I brought everything as instructed."
"Good work."
The dispatch supervisor bowed deeply and withdrew.
"Baek! Wh-what on earth is……!"
With a cold smile, I pointed to the trucks' cargo beds.
"It is the rotten heart of President Gu Jong-su, who sold garbage under Taeseong's name."
I gestured toward the enforcement unit and reporters, driving the point home.
"Inspectors! Reporters! Please open the lid of that enormous garbage bin now!"
CLANG-! CRASH-!
The moment the trucks' rear doors were forced open, a horrifying stench spread, and sacks of raw materials discolored black poured out.
Camera flashes erupted madly, embroidering the night sky with the death sentence that heralded Taeseong Foods' collapse.
***
Dawn passed, and a bright morning came to the president's office at the Hwaseong factory.
Arriving for work in the dazzling morning sunlight, President Gu Jong-su hummed cheerfully.
He leisurely raised an exquisite teacup, holding the telephone receiver in his other hand.
"President Kim. Yes, it is me. How about a round of golf this weekend?"
Arrogance dripped from his voice as he exchanged trivial gossip with the acquaintance on the other end.
"Oh, come now. Even if the country collapses, people still have to eat. Hahaha!"
He was just about to bring the cup to his lips, savoring a victor's ease.
BANG—!
The heavy office door was flung back so violently that its hinges seemed ready to tear loose.
"Wh-what?! What bastard dares come in without knocking……!"
He turned in alarm.
But the moment he recognized the man entering with a twisted smile, bewilderment flooded his bloodshot eyes.
It was me, Baek Do-jin, who had left empty-handed yesterday.
"Y-you insolent little bastard! Where do you think you are, kicking my door open?!"
He sprang to his feet, shouting all the louder to hide his confusion.
"You ran away with your tail between your legs yesterday, and you still haven't learned?! You're only an employee, you bastard! How dare you treat the president of an affiliate……!"
His blustering rebuke never reached its end.
THUD-!
Without a moment's hesitation, I strode forward and seized his collar and expensive silk tie together.
Then I snatched the receiver from his hand and smashed it against the desk.
CRUNCH-!
"Gah……! Have you lost your mind?! Let go of me! Just because you have a Strategic Planning, no, an RD business card, you think you can do this to the chairman's favorite……!"
"His favorite?"
I gave a quiet laugh and tightened my grip mercilessly.
"See for yourself whether that precious favor saves your life, or gets your head cut off as a sacrifice for an apology to the nation."
Dragging the bulky man like an animal, I slammed him against the floor-to-ceiling window at the front of his office.
"Take a good look down there, President Gu."
"Ugh……! What are you doing……, ah!"
His face turned ashen the moment he looked outside.
His eyes darted wildly, widening as though they might burst.
The ten heavy trucks that should have secretly carried his goods to the Pyeongtaek warehouse before dawn now stood in formation, filling the Hwaseong factory's front yard.
Their rear doors were wide open, and sacks of flour black with mold and drums of waste cooking oil lay piled like mountains where they had spilled into the yard.
Dozens of members of the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) Special Enforcement Unit, wearing blue jackets, were attaching search and seizure notices to the heaps of filth.
Beyond the police cordon, television cameras flashed without pause.
"Wh-why is that there……! My trucks were supposed to go to Pyeongtaek! Why?!"
His legs seemed to give out, and he trembled against the window.
I struck his face without mercy with a bulky leather bag.
THWACK-!
The bag burst open, and Underground Sector 3's real 'second set of books recording goods movements' spilled like snow around his feet.
"I had the trash you sent to Pyeongtaek personally delivered back to its original owner's yard. Well? Do you like the service?"
Looking down at him as he sank to the floor, I added coldly,
"And these filthy books you kept so meticulously? I got them quite easily after taking the factory manager by the leash."
"A-ahhh…… Ah……!"
His lips trembled, and an animal's groan escaped him.
"This is not a simple case of embezzling a little company money, like Hwang Gi-cheol at Taeseong Pharmaceuticals. You smeared lethal poison on Taeseong's name and committed attempted murder against the public."
At my icy rebuke, his eyes rolled back, and he screamed as though seized by a fit.
"AAAAAH! Y-you devil of a bastard!"
"Who the hell are you?! How does a brat like you see through everything and stay a step ahead of me?!"
It was the overwhelming knowledge of a man who had lived through the future and returned.
Before that absolute gulf, the old raccoon dog who had spent his whole life relying on cunning raved and thrashed, gripped by a terror he could not comprehend.
"Please prepare yourself for hell, President Gu Jong-su."
The politeness was poisonous. With that mocking death sentence, I left the office without a backward glance.
***
A few hours later, in the Restructuring Division head's office on the twentieth floor of Taeseong Group headquarters in Yeouido, a hastily scheduled news bulletin played continuously on the large CRT television mounted on the wall.
[Anchor: "Public outrage is spreading after Taeseong Foods, one of the country's leading corporations, was found to have manufactured products with moldy flour and waste cooking oil. The Korea Food and Drug Administration has ordered the immediate closure of the factory and suspension of operations, while prosecutors have requested a detention warrant for President Gu Jong-su."]
THUD-! CRUNCH!
Division Head Oh Se-dong roughly switched off the television with the remote, then hurled it against the wall, shattering it.
At the vicious crack, Song and Lee froze nearby, trembling like leaves and scarcely daring to breathe.
Then his cold gaze, blazing with anger, fixed on me as I stood expressionlessly before the desk.
"Baek Do-jin. I did order you to peel the poisoned apple."
Stepping on the shattered fragments of the remote, he spoke in a low, icy voice.
"But I never told you to bring in the food and drug authorities and the media on your own, without a single report to your superiors, and turn it into this. You have smeared shit all over the group's face!"
His eyes were murderous.
But rather than shrink back, I bowed respectfully and answered calmly.
"The wound was already too badly infected to report quietly and cover up internally. If we had tried to contain it clumsily and it later broke outside, it would truly have been a time bomb capable of bringing down Taeseong itself."
"A time bomb."
"Yes. President Gu Jong-su's petty cost reductions would eventually have branded Taeseong with the fatal stigma of a 'murderous company.'"
I straightened and met his gaze.
"We cannot have the chairman standing before the cameras to apologize to the nation, can we? If that abscess was going to burst anyway, we had to lance it ourselves in the public square. This was a stage designed to direct the public's anger away from the main body, 'Taeseong,' and channel it entirely toward 'Gu Jong-su's individual malicious misconduct.'"
His fierce eyes narrowed at my ruthless logic.
Oh Se-dong's doctrine was to sever a tail without mercy whenever necessary to protect the group's main body.
I had scratched that exact itch for him, using the most extreme and decisive means possible.
"……Yes. You are right, you bastard. We must cut off the tail immediately. But, Baek."
"Who would spare a glance for an affiliate covered in that filth after being caught selling garbage ingredients? Even if we began liquidation right now, the debts and contractual penalties would be enormous. Cutting off the tail will cost headquarters a great deal of blood as well."