Translator: Khan

  Editor: Aelryinth

  “Hmm…” I watched the HTS. Nature’s Gift was not thinking of coming out of the lower limit price.

  ‘Today’s not a good day to escape unless there’s a correction or a rebuttal news! The loss must be fixed as soon as the loss is made. It would be better to try to recover from the loss quickly than to obsess over the loss.’


  I picked up the calendar application again, and only a week after the sale of Nature’s Gift, it was written with ‘FMMULPSC.’


  ‘F&M Media’s upper limit price on success in China…’


  F&M Media was a company that provided webtoons and web novels. It was not long after it was listed, but it was reported that its webtoons had become popular in China and it went to the upper limit price.

  ‘Yes, this is confirmed to be at the upper limit price…’ This one was comfortable and nice, too. I started buying it with the money I’d used to get into Nature’s Gift. The loss would be made up here. I changed my target and bought F&M Media. Of course, at the same time, I watched Nature’s Gift sneakily. Since $13,000,000 of sell-order residuals were accumulated, it was worrisome. The stock price didn’t even move from -30%.

  I looked at it and I thought, ‘By the way, how could she die from eating healthy food? A healthy person?’


  ‘Health-functional foods are foods that literally assist health. It’s a combination of red ginseng and some things good for health; it’s not a medicine…’


  And it was a little strange that she died after eating it. While I was trading the stock, I went to the portal site with a different window.

  [Nature’s Gift]

  [Power Red V of Nature’s Gift]

  [Death by Power Red V]

  There was nothing else to search for. Real-time search words were full of them on the portal main News. I clicked one of the articles in spite of my bitterness.

  [A woman in her sixties died of septicemia after taking Power Red V of Nature’s Gift.]

  As usual, I read only the core keywords.

  [Power Red V with red ginseng and probiotics.]

  [Caution is needed as the ginsenoside of red ginseng can cause fatal side effects with similar estrogen effects in menopause women.]

  [Probiotics are living germs that can disrupt the immune system or adversely affect the metabolic pathways.]

  [She was known to have had diarrhea and blisters after taking it.]

  [Death from septicemia. She had no other disease than high blood pressure and adult infirmities.]

  I thought I knew the story roughly, but I still wondered if this would kill a person. Even in the article, it was said that the correlation was unclear.

  [Red ginseng and probiotics have been designated safe foods and approved as health-functional foods. Also, whether any other substances have been introduced into the product manufacturing process should be closely examined.]

  ‘Surely, it would be too much to conclude at this stage that she died from eating this healthy food. But stocks are essentially fed on dreams and hopes.’


  It was true that the article was published today. [A death occurred after eating the health-related food from Nature’s Gift.]

  ‘If there is a clear correlation between death and health-related foods here, or if there is anything in the manufacturing process that shouldn’t have gone into it; either way, there is a lower limit price. Once the compensation for damage is paid, no one will be willing to eat the company’s products for the time being.’


  ‘It’s too big…’


  I searched again for the first article to report this. What was slightly strange was that it was Light Economic News, one of the Internet news companies run by Director Lee Won-jae.

  ‘This might be…’ If it was as usual, I would have passed it, but when I knew the background of this person, I was a little suspicious. ‘If there’s a chance to make tens of millions of dollars from a single story… He’s a man who can write this.’


  I clicked on the article in the Light Economic News. Here, too, was the story of the side effects of red ginseng, the dangers of probiotics in the front. It only added at the end, ‘It is being questioned. It’s possible. It seems so.’


  It used ambiguous expressions like these to make it look like she died after eating this.

  ‘100% sure, it was written with that sort of nuance.

  ‘It’s just in case the company files a lawsuit. If this article is not true, there will be victims: first of all, Nature’s Gift company itself and its shareholders, including me. So in case of a lawsuit, they will say, ‘We only had reasonable doubts as a media company,’ and they created a loophole to escape. Even if it turns out to be a lie later on, the media company itself will not suffer much damage.’


  That was what happened in the ’80s when the beef tallow scandal of Samyang Ramen happened. At that time, Samyang Ramen used beef tallow instead of palm oil, which became a huge incident with reports that it was using industrial tallow.

  In fact, it was often just beef oil for Koreans who enjoyed eating it, but because they did not eat it in the U.S., it was found to have been classified as industrial tallow and using industrial oil in the ramen. At that time, the incident grew into a wave and Samyang Ramen lost its market share.

  I didn’t know if the shares had been listed at the time, but if they had been, they must have gone down to the lower limit price. It was later discovered that the industrial tallow was deliberately used in the 1960s for people with insufficient animal oil consumption.

  ‘They tie it up completely, and then they hit it with an out-boxing…’ I now returned to HTS and saw the recent sales of Nature’s Gift.

  ‘Hmm?’ I had deep doubts. Since about two weeks ago, the amount of short stock selling had increased considerably. According to the sales trend, institutions bought stocks, but foreigners sold a lot of shares. Ants couldn’t get in on the short stock selling; in a word, it was the foreigners who sold. To be precise, they were people who used foreign securities companies.

  ‘Are these pure foreigners? If they are black-haired foreigners…’ During the two weeks of the short stock selling, the stock price went up. This was because pension funds and other institutions made large purchases.

  ‘I’m sure they were told the performance of the company is great. Like me. The stock market is always like that. A crisis is an opportunity, an opportunity is a crisis. The bait of good performance seemed delicious, so they came in, but traps were all about it.’


  I looked at the volume of the short stock selling, which was similar to the volumes sold by foreigners.

  ‘They are a bait and an angler…’ I picked up my cell phone and searched for ‘Lee Won-jae.’


  I’d tried to ask him once, ‘Did you sell my name?’ but I had quit. However, I would like to ask him this time, “What happened to this news? Is it a scamming stock?”


  But it was also true that I didn’t want to get involved with this guy. I felt sorry for him to call and ask, and I thought for a moment, ‘Should I do or not?’


  But then I got a phone call from Lee Won Jae.

  ‘What is this?’ I looked around with my cell phone, up and down. ‘Is there a surveillance camera here?’ I thought about that, but I got the call.

  “Hello? Long time no see, CEO Han.” His voice came over the telephone.

  I replied with as much calm as possible. “It’s been a long time since I saw you.”


  “How are you, CEO Han?”


  “I’m always doing great. By the way, what did you call about?”


  “It’s no different… but I’ve contacted you because we have a good item on our side.”


  “A good item?”


  “Yes, a good item.”


  In other words, there was good information for the media to sell. I looked at the HTS, and Nature’s Gift wasn’t thinking about moving, at -30%.

  ‘Don’t tell me… do you mean this thing?’ I said as if I didn’t know, “What item do you have? You seem to have a good item, if you’ve called me.”


  “It’s because it’s a little big. We can’t put it all in our basket. Ha-ha-ha!”


  It must be a lie that they couldn’t put it all together. They could use a loan if the information was 100% correct. This guy doing this meant that my financial strength, enough money to twist the stock price, was needed.

  ‘If news and money were combined in the stock market, it can have a tremendous effect. News gives probability, money gives reality.’


  “Please be a little more specific. That way, I’ll know whether I’ll buy something or not, right?”


  “If you spend about twenty million dollars, you can expect to get six million dollars in expectation. The price is twenty percent of your profit. Would you like to buy in?”


  Upon hearing that, I quickly drew up a scenario, on the premise that what he was selling was Nature’s Gift.

  ‘I spend twenty million dollars… they can’t go on the short stock selling because it’s at the lower limit price. They’ll tell me when to buy and when to sell. They’ll write a good article and send it out. That’s it. Because it is at the lower limit price, they’ll get 30% if it goes back to the right price.’


  “Can you wait a minute? It’s a big deal and I’m worried.”


  “Yes, sir.”


  Once I had bought time like that, I rolled my head, thinking hard.

  ‘First of all, they make the short stock selling and leak fake news to make it go to the lower limit price. Then, they collect the shares again from the lower limit price and send out the rebuttal news. This is a scenario which they can make money twice, once at the above and the other at the bottom. If this happens, the vulnerable ants will be left stranded.’


  ‘If the ants hear that a woman died, there’s no ant that wouldn’t want to sell, as the sell-order residuals are piling up at the lower limit price. When they manage to sell their shares, they will say that she survived, and the stock price will go straight to the ceiling. So the result is that ants are at a high point when they grab the stock, and if they sell, the story of flying is established.’


  I thought, ‘What should I do? Someday a rebound will come. Should I wait until then? But I didn’t know when that would be. Then, should I climb up when the rebound comes?’ They will sell it as good, then they will say, ‘She really died.’


  ‘Perhaps the man who set up this operation has already won the prosecutors, police, and other media over to his side. Surely this is a web woven by others. It’s too much to try anything more here.

  ‘Then, shall I negotiate with them? To make a few hundred thousand dollars?’ But that’s not very good, either. Anyway, I’m earning tens of million dollars if I am not in this. It’s no big deal to earn tens of million dollars from scamming a stock on someone else. I don’t want to do that paying a 20% commission.’


  I said to him, “No… I don’t think I need to.”


  “Oh, really?” answered Lee Won-jae in a slightly regretful tone. “Then I can’t help it. I’ll call you back if I have something good next time.”


  “Yes.”


  After the phone call, I called Secretary Seo right away and said, “Seo Secretary.”


  “Yes, boss.”


  “Are there people who filter out wiretaps?”


  “Yes.”


  “Please contact them and have them scan my office and our entire company.”


  “Yes.”


  ————————————-

  “Clean. From the president’s office to the bathroom… Everything.”


  “Oh yes, thank you for your good work.”


  ‘It must have been a coincidence, then. Just when I was about to call, I got a call from him.’ I looked outside, thinking that way. In the distance, the sun was moving west, through the woods of the buildings. I looked at my cell phone and Nature’s Gift ending at the -30% limit.

  ‘The fisherman was fishing… and I got caught in a hook while passing by? It’s not very big, even if it costs me thirteen million dollars. I just need to shake it off and get up, but the problem is… I’m in a bad mood.’


  I thought, ‘How can I drag the angler into the sea?’