“Hyung, Seungwon used to come hang out for a while, but then he stopped coming at some point.”
“Yeah, he did.”
Hearing that name from Jiho after a long time, Suho’s ears perked up.
“What’s he been up to lately?”
“That bastard’s in detention right now.”
“Detention? Why?”
“I heard he got arrested at a drug party. Good lord… crazy bastard.”
“What the…”
News of Seungwon after several months.
The money Suho had given him was exactly 30 billion won.
He had deposited the money for various reasons, partly wondering if the guy would really spend it wisely and shrewdly as he had boldly claimed.
And with just that 30 billion won, the guy had completely ruined himself.
“Life is all about one shot. One shot. Hyung, you got lucky and grabbed that shot, but I’ve got fucking nothing.”
The guy didn’t truly understand. The emptiness of abundance—that curse.
“Ah, since you have so much money, you wouldn’t need to worry about that stuff. Whew. I’m jealous. So jealous.”
Suho had vaguely understood.
“Hyung, you don’t know. How hard it is to have no money.”
That the money would become poison to him.
Seeing the guy’s impatient temperament and braggart nature, it had been easy to guess he wouldn’t be able to handle the money well.
But those words—“Since you have a lot of money, you must have no worries, no hardships, no troubles at all”—had riled him up a bit,
and perhaps he had also harbored a faint hope that maybe the guy might choose a different path, just as he had boasted.
More than anything, maybe he had wanted to see if it was possible to spend a sudden windfall wisely, meaningfully, and happily.
Of course, there are certainly people who possess great wealth and use it wisely and resourcefully.
But Seungwon was not capable of such things, and in the end, he had failed.
After receiving 30 billion won, like someone who had been filled with resentment over being poor, he bought houses, cars, and luxury goods, squandering it all for a while, and then one day he began coaxing women to travel with him.
Then, perhaps growing tired of travel, he began frequenting room salons he had never visited before, drinking heavily with women hanging off him.
None of that “solid, persistent investment with a long-term vision” that he had boasted about existed.
There was only gambling and coin investments aimed at hitting it big.
It was only 30 billion won.
The money he spent like crazy dwindled rapidly, and it felt as though his lifespan was shrinking along with it.
Perhaps fed up with everything, he eventually laid his hands on drugs, which had already become widespread in Korean society.
By now, one almost had to commend him for how long he had held out before touching drugs.
His long tail was finally stepped on. He threw a drug party and was eventually caught in a narcotics crackdown.
His trial was currently underway.
Such an obvious, common ending.
Suho was filled with various thoughts.
“Should I not have given him that money?”
Had he given him poison, or a chance? His mind was complicated.
In the end it was poison, but at the time he gave it, it had been nothing more than an unknown possibility.
Then again, whether he should feel guilty or not. Complicated feelings arose again.
If he met Seungwon again, he wanted to ask him.
How it had been, if he had no more regrets after spending money lavishly, if he had really been happy.
But he didn’t. Because he felt he already knew what the guy would say.
“Damn it… if only I’d had just a bit more money…”
Undoubtedly, at his current stage, he would probably answer that way.
* * *
The next afternoon, many people came from the government.
Because Suho had said, “What I intend to donate to the country is gold. I have a place where I’ve gathered a massive amount of gold, so come and get it,” government officials gathered at the warehouse where Suho had stored the gold.
Led by Minister Bak of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Vice Minister of Economy and Finance, the Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, the Governor of the Bank of Korea, the Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, and even the Senior Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs.
And officials from the Ministry of National Defense also participated, such as the Vice Minister of National Defense, the Chief of Operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Commander of the Defense Logistics Command, for the transport operation to safely move and protect the massive amount of gold.
Soldiers who followed to guard them, Suho’s guard androids, and even Sanarae clan members—a considerably large group began moving.
The officials, having imagined an underground bunker or a massive vault with multiple layers of security because he said there was a lot of gold, were bewildered when Suho’s group led them to an empty field in Gyeonggi-do.
The Governor of the Bank of Korea knew because he had been informed that trillions of won in cash had once been transported on pallets to this location, but the rest found the place itself unfamiliar and absurd.
“E-excuse me… is it really true that there is gold in a place like this?”
“No… it’s not even an underground bunker, at the very least… this is… hm…”
The government officials traveling by car, beyond absurdity, gradually began to feel anxious.
“Isn’t there some other scheme behind this? Calling us to such a remote place…”
“Hey, stop talking nonsense. Why would an S-grade Admitee enjoying massive support and benefits pull something like that against the government?”
Minister Bak of the Ministry of Economy and Finance sharply rebuked him, but he too was equally bewildered.
After passing rice paddies and fields, the place they arrived at was a prefabricated warehouse standing alone in an empty lot.
“Oh my… surely it isn’t here?”
“It’s a warehouse that looks like it stores farm equipment…”
Suho’s vehicle, which had been running at the very front, stopped, and Suho got out and spoke to everyone.
“We’ve arrived!”
Rrrrrrr—
As the shutter of the warehouse, locked with nothing but a single padlock, rolled up and the sliding door opened, the gold bars packed inside revealed their dazzling forms.
“Ooh…”
“Ohhh… my goodness…”
“T-this… such a thing…”
There really was gold inside the shabby prefabricated warehouse.
Moreover, the amount stored far exceeded the expectations of everyone present.
The Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance asked in a trembling voice.
“H-how much is this in total?”
“They are 500,000 gold bars of 20kg each. Exactly 10,000 tons.”
“T-ten thousand tons…”
“W-wait, where on earth did you…”
“Y-you truly intend to donate this to the nation?”
Suho answered as if it were no big deal.
“The source is, as you can probably guess, the Tower. When doing item collecting work, gold comes out much more frequently than Etherium, potions, or other key materials. I had no particular use for it, so I gathered it up, and I’m glad it can serve its purpose like this.”
People approached and carefully examined the gold.
Gold chunks shaped like dice, without so much as a serial number, let alone a certificate.
If they had been made through the typical gold bar production process—crushing and grinding gold ore, melting the gold, removing impurities through refining and purification, and pouring the high-purity gold into molds—they would naturally have had their own serial numbers and brands stamped on them.
But the neat, blank gold chunks, these perfect cube-shaped gold bars too, clearly showed they had not been stamped out of ordinary molds.
Moreover, the cut surfaces were so sharp that one could get cut without wearing gloves.
“Ohh… fascinating… gold from the Tower…”
“Have you by chance tested the purity?”
“Of course. It’s 99.99% or higher.”
In fact, it was nothing less than high-purity gold itself.
As of 2039, the gold possessed by the United States does not even reach 8,500 tons.
And the Netherlands, ranked 10th in the world in gold holdings, falls far short of 1,000 tons, while the gold held by South Korea amounts to a mere 135 tons, placing it somewhere in the middle of the rankings for central bank gold reserves worldwide.
But 10,000 tons!
At the unbelievable, massive amount, the Minister of Economy and Finance asked again.
“Admitee Suho, how much of this do you intend to donate to the state…?”
“All of it.”
“Whaaaat?”
“I’m giving you all of it.”
* * *
The operation to transport 10,000 tons of gold was a large-scale undertaking.
For this, not ordinary trucks but 250 low-floor trailers equipped with ultra-heavy special loading platforms were prepared.
The line of trailers moving in a row alone was an enormous procession reaching 4.3 kilometers.
In addition, forklifts and cranes to transport the gold bars were mobilized in large numbers, and an enormous number of security vehicles and military vehicles were also mobilized to escort the entire procession transporting the gold.
The sight of so many fully armed soldiers was reminiscent of a large-scale military operation.
While the trailers moved to the vault of the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation, soldiers stood guard along major routes and controlled traffic.
Government officials and key figures including ministers and vice ministers also participated in large numbers, watching over the entire process of moving the gold, and the highest level of security measures was taken throughout the transport and storage.
In fact, all of this was something Suho could have simply moved himself, but he deliberately did not.
For one, there was no need to publicly reveal Suho’s “large-scale subspace storage ability” at a time when the world was on high alert over the North Korea and Russia incident and searching for the culprit behind it; moreover, it was necessary to inform the outside world about this national donation of gold.
In fact, the government also judged that this matter was difficult to proceed with secretly, and that it was far more advantageous to report it publicly for the sake of transparency and restoring public trust, so they sought Suho’s permission and decided on an official report.
Therefore, reporters from all kinds of broadcast stations and newspapers flocked to the gold transport operation and broadcast the event live in real time.
“We are now at the scene of the large-scale gold bar transport. If you look over here, a massive amount of gold is being loaded onto trailers via forklifts and cranes. Up ahead, a trailer that has finished loading is about to depart, escorted by security vehicles and military vehicles in the front and rear. This is Gim Bongcheol from MBS.”
“The person who donated the gold has been revealed. It has been disclosed that Jeong Suho Admitee, the 10th S-grade Admitee in the country and the world’s first Item Collector class, has donated the massive amount of gold obtained through the Tower to the government. It is reported that Jeong Suho Admitee had concerns about the national economy and expressed his intention to donate private property to overcome the nation’s foreign exchange crisis. This is Han Jichan from KBC.”
Several broadcast stations set up news studios and invited economic experts to analyze and discuss the impact this gold donation would have on the national economy and the world economy.
“Today, an event worthy of being called a national celebration is underway. A transport operation is in progress for the massive amount of gold donated to the country by S-grade Jeong Suho Admitee, who is receiving heated attention worldwide. To discuss how to view this large-scale influx of gold, we have with us Dr. Bak Heonjae from the Economic Policy Research Institute and Professor Choe Sikhyeon from the Economics Department of Korea University. Welcome.”
“Hello. I am Choe Sikhyeon.”
“Hello. This is Bak Heonjae.”
“Thank you both for accepting our sudden invitation. First of all, this is a good thing, isn’t it? A promising Admitee has stepped forward to pour his private funds to save the country. If we view this positively, could this lead to a national boon?”
Professor Choe Sikhyeon answered the question.
“First, gold is a safe asset recognized and circulated internationally. We can predict that it will greatly help stabilize exchange rates by strengthening foreign exchange reserves. It can increase confidence in resolving the foreign exchange crisis and promote the re-inflow of foreign capital.”
Dr. Bak Heonjae picked up where he left off.
“That’s right. Gold can be used to repay international debt or for rescheduling. This will contribute to rapidly recovering the nation’s credit rating. It may also be possible to provide bailout financing utilizing gold to resolve the insolvency issues of financial institutions.”
“More than anything, isn’t it the recovery of the people’s trust? This is something that cannot be valued in money. This can bring social stability as well as economic stability. The recovery of trust in the international community will be the same. It will have a positive impact on investment attraction as well. It seems that the need to receive IMF bailout financing will disappear as foreign exchange reserves increase rapidly once again.”
“Ah, so both of you see it that way as well. It seems to be another moving day in which Admiti Jeong Suho, the pride of the Republic of Korea, has played a tremendous role. However, since gold is an asset used globally, there would seem to be negative effects from oversupply as well. What are your thoughts?”
As expected, Professor Choe Sikhyeon was the first to answer.
“That, unfortunately, is also true. A massive supply of gold like this could upset the balance of the market and cause a plunge in gold prices. If gold prices plummet, the asset value of investors and central banks holding gold will decrease. If the price of gold falls, gold’s appeal as a safe asset falls along with it, and investors may begin selling gold in large quantities to secure cash liquidity. That could trigger inflation.”
“That’s right. Even if Korea’s foreign exchange crisis is calmed for the time being, the large-scale influx of gold could create imbalances in the composition of each country’s foreign exchange reserves and the value of their currencies. This would undermine international financial stability…”
For a while, the experts simulated the negative effects of the massive influx of gold, but it barely reached the ears of the public, who were already drunk on the good news.
└ Uwaaaah! Long live Jeong Suho!
└ You are a true hero
└ The news has actually been fun to watch lately
└ Give him a commendation
└ Hey, don’t try to brush this off with something like a commendation, give him proper compensation on a national level!!
└ Tears are falling at this miraculous news of donation. I was afraid the pain of the past would be repeated… But because someone like this exists, we gain the strength to rise again. Let’s all join forces, not miss this opportunity, and overcome this crisis!
└ My heart is on fire, uooooh
└ Everyone who cursed Jeong Suho for splurging, come on out
└ Get a grip, it’s not all good. People who were investing in gold are screwed. Gold prices are faaaalling~
└ Shut up. I don’t have any gold. So it’s unconditionally a good thing
└ Broke bastard, like that’s something to brag about
└ Kuhaha, overnight the Republic of Korea became the world’s number one gold-holding nation!
└ What rank were we originally?
└ Like 42nd or something, a resource-poor country
└ Anyway, our country has no oil, no gold, no lithium… not a single proper resource
└ So what if we don’t! We have outstanding talent instead!
└ True, acknowledged, truly king-acknowledged.
Not only on the internet, but in markets, workplaces, schools, and homes as well, the news kept rising to people’s lips with no sign of cooling down.
“Hahaha… I’m going crazy. Donating ten thousand tons of gold to the nation. The scale is just… hahahaha. Our dear Suho, from now on I’ll have to serve you as my boss. Hahahat. No matter how many times I look at this headline, it doesn’t feel real, so it’s seriously hilarious. Pahahahaha!”
Thomas, the Money-Splurging Man, who had seen the news together with Danbi and Taeung, laughed so hard that he wiped tears from his eyes and doubled over.
Now that he had lined up behind Suho, his face was clearer and brighter than ever before.