Soho

Chapter 228: < Protect – Episode 218 – Grand Circle [1] >

The heads of the Angola Circle was a gathering among beasts. They were supernatural beings that lived for 100 or even 5000 years. They lived long enough to take over the world, so why did they hide in the dark in secret?

The answer was simple.

Their dominance couldn’t keep up with the rising human population. Just as Issac revealed, nuclear weapons were dangerous even to those with supernatural powers. That was because they had to get rid of thousands of bombs all at once. However, was that really the conclusion they came to after giving it their all?

Ahn Soo Ho didn’t think so.

Using supernatural powers to dominate mankind didn’t seem hard. Since even the Christians, Islam, Hindus, and Buddhists conducted brainwash, it was no difficult task for them. The problem was that not all supernatural beings joined the Angola Circle.

Supernatural beings working for the government.

In countries like England and France, there were even organizations related to supernatural powers. It was called a hot laboratory. And the gathering of these laboratories formed Europe’s nuclear research center.

CERN

Just like rumors claiming America was torturing aliens, Europe actually worked with supernatural beings. The reason why Europe made so many scientific discoveries was because of the supernatural beings and their abilities. Of course, it was likely that they actually didn’t know they were supernatural beings. The mental capacities of supernatural beings were much higher than that of an average person. As soon as they realized that, the heads of criminal organizations made efforts to create gifted individuals while using educational development as an excuse.

Following the production of gifted beings, the number of related gatherings became rampant, and Mensa was the most famous gathering of them all. Their advanced abilities were actually supernatural abilities.

It was true that the human ability was limitless, but when it came to the very advanced powers, it was hard for any kind of science to verify it. But the vibrant splendor of magic wasn’t all there was to supernatural powers.

‘The world already combined magic with science.’

Much of what people believed to be science were assisted by supernatural powers, and some of them were just like magic. If scientists heard this, they would have strongly denied it, but many scientific discoveries were just coincidences.

“What a sight.”

A city in the middle of a desert.

Emerald City-Quaran was led by Issac and Michel. Those who criticized it for being a crazy idea were shocked by the mercenary army that swarmed in. The reason why Quaran was known as the death triangle was because the desert was met with highlands to make it a place that not even the desert tribes wanted to be.

The scary part was that the construction group just made a road themselves to access Quaran. Before any kind of city development, roads had to be built first. The ones that obtained an order with the plan was Daesan’s heavy industry. That was not all. Many other construction companies also joined the Emerald Development Plan.

Since the business exceeded 40 trillion won, it was as big as a national project. For that reason, it was somewhat understandable that they withdrew from the Korean stock market.

The truth was, Ahn Soo ho didn’t spend a single won on Emerald Q. All the money spent on Emerald City-Quaran came from the circle, and they were just happy they could crawl out of the suffocating basement.

Following the Frankfurt Motor Show, Ahn Soo Ho went to the Sahara Desert. Jang Seol Hyun had been to Africa for UNICEF before, but she had never been to a desert before. The same went for everyone else except for Logan and Caroline.

The desert was a miserable place.

It wasn’t hard to live in just because of the hot sun and windstorms. It was so dry that most people became sick after a day in the desert. The human body was truthful.

Since Ahn Soo Ho was looking after Jang Seol Hyun, it was okay for her to stay a few days, but the rest relocated after a day. Their next destination was Emerald City-Kiranda in Sri Lanka. People thought there was no relation between Korea and Sri Lanka, but many Koreans had been on their land before.

“The Maldives is below here.”

“Oh yeah! Colombo is in Sri Lanka, right?”

There was no direct flight to the Maldives. They always had a layover somewhere, and when coming from Korea, it was usually Colombo. This didn’t matter to the rich with private jets, but for normal passengers, it was a painful journey.

“The scenery is nice... but it’s still a mess.”

Emerald K was more approachable than the desert, so there were many thugs and gangsters trying to get a piece of the pie. For that reason, they had to hire 100,000 mercenaries instead of 80,000. Ahn Soo Ho’s party kept moving after just one hour. They went to the Maldives.

The Maldives, also known as Heaven on earth.

But the people actually lived there didn’t think that way. What many didn’t know was that the Maldives were mostly Muslim. And despite the secularization, the Islam ways were still alive.

“That makes me see the beautiful tourist destination differently, Soo Ho.”

Jang Seol Hyun made a sad face.

“Sorry. But that’s all I can tell you.”

Most tour guides would have told her about the history, photo zones, and fun clubs to go to, but her travel guide was very cold and detailed.

“I don’t want to know about the mafias here either.”

There were thugs in Heaven on earth as well. Actually, it was comical to call such a disastrous place a Heaven on earth. Ahn Soo Ho told her about the not so beautiful truth because that was the reality she had to live.

Jang Seol Hyun wasn’t happy, but she listened carefully.

She wanted to know what kind of life Ahn Soo Ho had lived.

After spending a week in the Maldives, they went to the Philippines. The island that he bought for survival training was almost done with construction.

“What about Rizal?”

“It’ll take some time until that place becomes livable.”

The island that Ahn Soo Ho received was desolate. It was boring to look at the ocean with nothing else to do.

“Soo Ho.”

He was faced with an unexpected person in the Philippines.

“Danny?”

Ahn Soo Ho quickly caught on to why Daniel Navarros wasn’t in Korea but here instead.

“Something happened, did it?”

“The Korean government would like to see you in person.”

“What for?”

“They don’t want you to sell any more stocks. And it sounds like they’re going to do a tax investigation as well.”

“Don’t they know that that won’t change anything?”

“If they acknowledged you so easily, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“That’s true. Are those scumbags trying to make me fight?”

If Ahn Soo Ho hadn’t left Korea, Mr. Guardian wouldn’t have existed.

“Why are you being like that when you already know? Your personality sucks, Soo Ho.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this from someone who used to launder money for drug addicts... Jeez.”

“Well... this one is pretty entertaining.”

No one remembered this anymore, but what Empire Konzern did best was baseless speculation. They attacked the stock market when they felt like it and brought down companies under their radar.

Despite Hosoo Investments withdrawing from the Korean stock market, the Korean economy was still standing. There was a lot of foreign currency that was collected, and Daniel Navarros just wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible. The market was unstable at first, but it soon refound its stability.

“The problem started when the top airlines, railroad companies, and marine transport companies slowed down.”

Even with normal operations, the transport duration exceeded a few days to a week, which made the companies worry. The current world was having a hard time with transport.

In order to return to normal, these companies had to find a new owner or make an extreme decision like nationalization. What was for certain was that neither was easy.

“Did you already know about this?”

“What?”

“Someone is suppressing product transport. They’re shaking up a major marine transport company at that. That’s not something anyone can do. Only someone like Huxley Group can do that.”

“It’s not Barbara.”

“Then who is it?”

“What would happen if there’s a problem with product transport, Danny?”

Ahn Soo Ho answered with a question.

“Hm.”

Navarros gave it some thought.

“The cost of living won’t go up right away since there’s insurance.”

“That’s right. It won’t. However, what if it doesn’t get resolved in a month or two?”

“They would have to make countermeasures with a strong nation. Someone with great power.”

Strong nations stressed the sacrifice of others to get what they wanted. They could put off or cancel shipments from weaker countries or even take over contracts of marine transport or railroad companies.

“Is it... a bank?”

Ahn Soo Ho nodded.

“And it’s a bank you know well.”

“K-Bank?”

“That and one more.”

“Rothschild?”

It was definitely a conspiracy. Rothschild probably found it unfair, but every time there was an accident related to money, they were suspected first.

“Why are they doing this?”

“Do you really have no idea, Danny?”

“Is it... because of money?”

“They always want to make profits. That’s how banks are. They like to monopolize on power.”

“If people find out the truth, they won’t just sit back.”

Ahn Soo Ho shook his head in response.

“Profits isn’t the true nature of just banks.”

People talked about how the society needed to be just, but the reality was different. Why? Why did everyone dream of justice while the world was just a disaster?

“They talk about how small companies should be grown, but once they look for a job, they only look to major corporations and even though they insult self-employed people, they want to found their own companies.”

But why? Even three-year-olds knew that small countries didn’t treat employees well. In the current society, major corporations were better than small companies. And it was easy to insult others while justifying one’s own contradictory behavior.

That was why the mob psychology was scary.

“There’s no need for me to lead a revolution.”

.9% of the people were opportunists that changed their stance depending on the circumstance. No one could honestly admit that they kept the same belief in their whole lives.

Not everyone could be a great man.

“The standard of justice is too cold-hearted, Soo Ho. We’re just average people.”

“That’s why I’m telling you. If you don’t want to give up, just shut your mouth and keep working.”

In order to change the world, one had to give up on their own happiness.

“It’s greedy to want to have both.”

“What about you?”

“Me? Well... I haven’t chosen an enemy.”

“But aren’t you changing it right now?”

“If it seems that way, I won’t argue it... but I’m not sure. I don’t want to change the world.”

He didn’t have a utopia. Just like how some people see Heaven on earth as hell, there were those who couldn’t give up on their lowly lives.

Navarros sighed deeply.

“Sigh. So it’s already been decided.”

“I told you. Nothing will change.”

He was just going to go his own way.

******

The Korean economy faced an emergency the next morning.

As a country that lived off of exports, the most important thing was the supply of materials. However, many Koreans didn’t know that not all raw materials came domestically. In order to reduce costs, many production companies in foreign countries became involved.

Why did China become the world’s factory?

Because personnel expenses were cheap?

Following over 20 years since the reform, China’s personnel expenses weren’t cheap either. But the world companies still relied on China’s production because of their smooth production and supply. China was full of natural resources.

Those who didn’t experience the oil shock of the 70s couldn’t understand how important natural resource security was. Similarly, those who didn’t experience the currency crisis of the 20th century didn’t understand how cold-hearted the market economy was.

However, this time, there was a very good example.

The new iPhone will sell for 1.6 million won!

Imports have halted? The deliveries have been delayed for more than 2 months!

Despite the stable currency, the cost of living is skyrocketing!

Flights have risen in price! They’re at the biggest loss!

Is Daehan Merchants going to liquidize? They’re our last hope!

After the downfall of many marine transport companies, the ones that survived normalized their prices again, but they couldn’t handle the number of goods that were going to be transported.

Even after buying ships from companies that had gone bankrupt, they still had to go through half a year of safety inspection and re-education. And even if they increased their number of ships, they still had too much to handle. No matter how much insurance money they got, they were going to be at a great loss.

Allan Smith allowed an overload on the world’s distribution network, only so much that he wouldn’t be harmed. Bribing a harbor manager was easy, but it left traces. So instead, he chose to report the illegal acts being committed in the harbor in order to extend the duties to be completed.

Hiring bad mercenaries and destroying the engines and electronics of the ship wasn’t terror, but it caused quite a lot of damage. And movements to expose the Islams for doing that to punish the capitalist pigs began.

After enjoying a vacation in the Philippines, Ahn Soo Ho returned to the Korean peninsula. North and South Korea had been in conflict over Emerald G, Gaesung. That was because the investments small Korean companies made on the development became unclear.

The companies that moved into Gaesung claimed that giving Gaesung to Ahn Soo Ho as an individual was a breach in contract. And in response, North Korea said only he had the rights to the land, so no one else could say anything about it.

Ahn Soo Ho called both staff and made it clear.

“Then I’ll accept another land besides Gaesung.”

‘Huh? This isn’t right.’ Both sides looked as if they chewed on a piece of shit in response to Ahn Soo Ho’s idea.

Ahn Soo Ho just smirked. ‘Who do you think you’re messing with?’

“Not Gaesung, but Ongjin. Deal?”

< Protect – Episode 218 – Grand Circle [1] > The end.

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