novelraw Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Looking to Blackmail Someone
A Korean set menu restaurant, 'Hanul', located on the southern outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
Inside the main building, Taeshin Trading Executive Director Tae Seok-ho walked leisurely, accompanied by the security guard, Lee Jae-jun.
As the door opened, a middle-aged woman who had arrived earlier stood up as if she had been waiting.
Tae Seok-ho sat across from her, placing Lee Jae-jun in front of him.
"You seem quite worn down, I suppose due to your son's issue."
The woman he addressed was Baek Min-sook, wife of the chairman of Moon Trading.
"I'm well aware you're doing your best, executive director, but the situation is just too dire right now."
Baek Min-sook's second son, Moon Jae-min, was under prosecution investigation for a drug case.
His name and identity had already been published online, causing Moon Trading's stock price to take a hit.
Because of this, Baek Min-sook had teamed up with Tae Seok-ho, desperate to find any way to get her son, Moon Jae-min, out of trouble.
"As you know, even your brother is pulling strings and yet it's come to this."
The 'brother' Tae Seok-ho referred to was Baek Ji-woong, chairman of W&W Group, whose main company was a major media conglomerate.
Even W&W, through its media outlet W&W DAYS, had tried to muddy the waters by running ambiguous articles and even mentioning the idol group DDS, who wasn't implicated in any crime.
"Still, it's obvious someone's intervening behind the scenes. Chairman Baek found it suspicious too and is checking on it."
"I agree with you there."
Baek Min-sook had joined hands with Tae Seok-ho much earlier, after he first informed her that her son, Moon Jae-min, had been linked to a drug investigation at the Central District Prosecutors' Office.
"You said before that if we follow your instructions, jae-min's problem would be solved. That's why I also asked Chairman Baek for a favor."
"To be honest, I didn't expect things to get this tangled either."
Tae Seok-ho's original plan had been to push the narrative that idol group DDS was involved with drugs and then extract Moon Jae-min and other stakeholders who would be profitable to save.
But suddenly, Moon Jae-min's name was mentioned along with Rizeburn, where the drugs had circulated, and even the inspector from the Central District Prosecutors' Office, whom Tae Seok-ho had lined up, was exposed.
From the circumstances, it was clear there had been a leak, but he couldn't find any trace of it anywhere, which was driving him crazy.
On top of that, new articles and anonymous posts naming the identities of second and third-generation chaebols kept surfacing, making it difficult to quiet the scandal.
It was obvious someone was manipulating things behind the scenes, but he couldn't trace them.
"So, are you saying there's really nothing that can be done?"
With concern filling her eyes, Baek Min-sook asked, and Tae Seok-ho let out a low sigh.
"To be frank... the situation isn't good."
He had considered trying to cover things up with a different article, but the people involved in the Rizeburn drug scandal were too high profile for the issue to go away.
"Is it possible to get to the new chief prosecutor overseeing the case?"
"It's already beyond the point where we can cover things up. And if Jae-min had only just done drugs it might be manageable, but... he's implicated in the distribution too."
From an outside perspective, people would say that Moon Jae-min, a chaebol's second son, shouldn't have had any reason to get mixed up in drug distribution.
But within Moon Trading, he had caused so many problems that his father, chairman Moon Dong-beom, had basically disowned him.
Yet Moon Jae-min never learned moderation and kept down a darker path.
"So, are you saying we should just let him go to prison?"
"For now, shutting this down immediately isn't possible. We'll have to stack the defense with former high-level prosecutors. It's hard to influence prosecution, so we'll have to pull strings in court to minimize the sentence as much as possible."
"But..."
Baek Min-sook genuinely hoped Moon Jae-min wouldn't serve prison time at all.
"It's too late to intervene. And you know Chairman Moon's character."
Her husband, moon Dong-beom, the chairman of Moon Trading, was known for his integrity.
He was so principled that he'd break before justifying an ethical issue with family ties.
That's precisely why he never allowed his problematic second son, Moon Jae-min, into the company.
"Ha―! That's what stresses me out every single day."
That was also why Baek Min-sook couldn't openly seek help and accepted Tae Seok-ho's proposal in secret.
"I'll do my best. In the worst case, he'll get a criminal record, but there are options like parole, so please don't worry too much."
"Haaa... alright. But given the outcome, it may be difficult for me to keep my previous promise about the conditions we discussed."
At those words, a slight twitch appeared on Tae Seok-ho's brow.
Baek Min-sook, for all her motherly concern, was no fool.
That's why she met Tae Seok-ho in person to carefully renege on their previous agreement.
"I completely understand."
"Thank you. Well, I'll excuse myself now."
"... As you wish."
Baek Min-sook got up and left first.
Meanwhile, Lee Jae-jun entered the room where Tae Seok-ho remained.
"Executive Director, are you alright?"
"Just who are these bastards messing up my affairs... Have you identified the whistleblower who sent the scoop to the online news outlet yet?"
"I just received an update. They say it's impossible to trace the whistleblower's email IP."
"... Not difficult, impossible?"
On the internet, all actions left some kind of trace.
"The word from the expert is that a very skilled professional is involved."
"In what way?"
"There are a lot of technical terms, but apparently they used a technique that deletes server logs for every proxied IP."
With worry clouding his face, Tae Seok-ho tapped the table with his fingers.
"Was the tip given to everyone but the major media outlets?"
"That's correct."
While wrestling with that, he remembered something.
"Have you checked why the article keeps showing up prominently on the big portal sites?"
"They checked for unusual activity and confirmed a traffic overload, but found nothing else suspicious."
If someone was manipulating the traffic with external IPs, there would be traces due to the overseas routing.
Hearing that, Tae Seok-ho's expression grew even darker.
"It's too clean—that's even more suspicious. Someone knew our plans and took preemptive action."
It was too complex to chalk up to coincidence or random chance.
Furthermore, only outlets that hadn't been pressured from the start were tipped off, lighting a fire that spread—there was clear intent behind it.
"Even the friendly news agencies might not be able to stick to the current line much longer."
Even if the voices were small, if there were enough of them, the impact would multiply.
"Now things have gotten infuriating. The plan's gone bust, and the stocks I was going to get from Baek Min-sook are lost..."
"Why not try talking directly with Chairman Moon Dong-beom, then?"
Tae Seok-ho slowly shook his head.
"Chairman Moon is the kind of man who'd think it isn't enough even if he gives an inch and we take a mile. If we're not sure to get our bite, we could lose our necks instead."
The real reason Tae Seok-ho tried to strike a deal with Baek Min-sook was the shares in Taeshin Trading—the holding company owned by Moon Trading.
A stake of 2.44%.
The plan was to use Moon Jae-min's drug case as a leash to manipulate Chairman Moon Dong-beom.
"I'll look for other options, then."
"Do that. Oh, and what happened to that accident where Kang In-hyuk and Tae Ju-ha almost died?"
Tae Seok-ho had also heard about the two being in an accident.
He considered intervening, but since Kang In-hyuk had delivered Tae Ju-ha's file just in time, he stopped worrying.
Lee Jae-jun replied in a calm tone,
"Perhaps because of all the eyes on them, it seems the matter was wrapped up quietly."
"So, Kang In-hyuk and Tae Ju-ha accepted things as they are?"
"Objectively, it's likely President Kang put some pressure on them. Still, I doubt either of them would ruin corporate relations over something like this."
After a moment's thought, Tae Seok-ho nodded.
"That makes sense. But still no contact?"
The last time Tae Seok-ho summoned Kang In-hyuk, he was ignored.
It was infuriating at the time, but with Chairman Tae Gun-seung's eyes on them, it wasn't easy to bring him in, so he waited quietly.
"Should I call him in?"
"No. We've got lots to deal with on our end—just keep monitoring Taeshin Asset Management and report on internal movements regularly."
"Understood."
With that, the two finished their talk and left together.
* * *
After work, In-hyuk visited Go Mi-ah's studio.
He entered using the code they shared, and inside, he was greeted by her wicked voice.
"How dare they pick on our DDS!"
Tap-tap-tap—tap-tap—
She was posting an actual drug list to drown out articles implicating DDS in the Rizeburn drug scandal.
As a result, major media outlets couldn't keep running contradicting rebuttals and started following her lead.
"You're really loaded for bear."
"Hold on a sec."
Her keystrokes only got heavier.
Soon, as her drug list posts and related articles' view counts soared, they dominated the main pages of various portal sites again.
"If you keep posting like that, won't the numbers get flagged as manipulated? If a lot of overseas IPs show up through zombie servers, they'll get suspicious."
"Ha-ha—! Stop worrying. Do you take me for an amateur? I've only been using domestic proxy servers from the start, and the click manipulation is distributed through algorithms, so there's no way I'll get caught."
Go Mi-ah, though much younger than In-hyuk when they met, was indisputably a computer prodigy.
"Good thing I teamed up with you."
"It's more like I made the right choice. If we hadn't teamed up, I'd have been caught by the National Intelligence Service. Otherwise, this mess wouldn't have been stopped either."
"Somehow, you sound more grateful for the latter than the former."
It was apparent in her tone.
"Hey! That's just your imagination. Ah, you wanted me to install a program on your phone, right? Hand it over."
At her request, In-hyuk handed over his phone.
She connected it to the computer and installed several programs.
"It's the same proxy program you use, right?"
"I've upgraded the volatility. Also, if you're on a network, you can access the server links inside through another phone or computer. But it'll drain your battery fast."
"I'll deal with it. More importantly—if the target replies, it's still safe?"
He meant a messaging app that left no trace.
"No problem. If they don't reply within a set time, the server location changes, erasing any traces."
"Nice."
"But why the sudden need for such a program?"
Normally, messages are used for communication.
But what In-hyuk emphasized was not just communication but volatility and leaving no trace—for the opponent's reply window to be limited, making them nervous.
"I'm thinking of blackmailing someone."
"Blackmail? Hearing you say that is pretty scary. Whoever it is, I feel sorry for them."
"I just need a few people for my purposes."
In-hyuk retrieved his phone and deftly typed an email address and message.
"You're using it right away?"
"This is the time. By the way, what's going on with that stock purchase I asked about last time? The price dropped to 23,000 won."
"You mean Taiwan's SolarView? I was going to mention it—your target of 31% ownership was barely reached. That's why AMK Partners keeps getting swamped with emails."
"I'll reply myself."
"Looks like it's some semiconductor-related company... What are you after?"
In-hyuk offered a faint smile.
"It's just something to grow AMK Partners' assets. Don't worry about it."
"I trust you know what you're doing. But I don't see anything special—it's rumored to be in financial trouble, too."
As she said, solarView was a semiconductor company currently struggling with outdated technology and poor earnings.
Still, the rumors and careful handling had allowed him to nab over 30% shares with little fuss.
"SolarView is just a piece. The person interested in it is the one I need."
"Whatever that means... Want some?"
Go Mi-ah pulled out some potato chips from a bowl and offered them.
In-hyuk reached out for one of the ordinary-looking chips, but hesitated.
"Wait... These aren't homemade, are they?"
"I made them myself."
With that answer, In-hyuk withdrew his hand to its original position.