I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 140

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

140 – Paralysis
140
“Team Leader, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
“Why don’t you hold on just a little longer?”
“I don’t think I can.”
“I know it’s tough right now, but if you just endure a bit longer, promotion will come soon. Everyone quit anyway, so we’re short-staffed.”
“Promotion or whatever—I’m dying here. I woke up this morning with nosebleeds pouring out. I think I’ll work myself to death before any promotion comes.”
“······”
“Thank you for everything until now.”
“No, wait. Just hold on a little longer. Things will get better soon, and we’ll normalize.”
“I don’t think I can. I’m sorry.”
Brian couldn’t stop the employee as he turned and left.
He was normally a conscientious guy.
The type who gave his all to whatever task he was assigned.
And now that very person was saying he couldn’t do it anymore and walking out of the office.
This was already the third resignation this month alone.
From Brian’s perspective as management team leader, the recent workload couldn’t be dismissed as merely “excessive.”
It was, quite literally, murderous.
Employees who couldn’t endure it were leaving.
I understood.
I thought it was understandable.
The real problem was that no new employees were filling the vacant positions.
We kept posting recruitment notices, but people weren’t applying.
Or more precisely, they came to work, but fled after half a day.
After experiencing half a day of work, they apparently decided this wasn’t it and bolted without even eating lunch.
Word had spread throughout the industry.
Del Rosario Insurance had gained a reputation for having too much work and being brutal.
Existing employees couldn’t hold on and were all escaping.
There were so many complaints that people suffered severe stress.
As a result, there were virtually no applicants anymore.
The management’s irresponsible attitude played a role too.
I thought management would try to resolve this crisis quickly, but they didn’t.
In fact, they were pleased.
The reason was that labor costs were being cut.
Fixed costs were decreasing, which actually improved financial soundness.
If employees weren’t being hired, we should have raised salaries or adjusted other conditions to recruit them, but management had no such intention.
Management was happy when employees quit, so there was no way they’d raise salaries to hire new ones.
The working conditions of employees weren’t really a consideration for them.
They were nothing more than disposable commodities—no better, no worse.
The prevailing mindset was that as long as things kept running somehow, that was enough.
As a result, work that ten employees once handled was now divided among nine, then eight, then seven.
And there was no telling how many fewer would remain in the coming months.
Fearing they might be next to go, employees rushed to resign.
Yet those who stayed received no compensation for their sacrifice.
They simply collected their regular salary.
Overtime pay wasn’t properly settled either.
The workload increased while wages remained frozen.
Unable to endure it, employees resigned in droves.
What was peculiar, however, was that only the operational staff were resigning.
The frontline workers left while the management remained intact.
.
.
.
“I recently signed up for Del Rosario Insurance, and I feel quite wronged. They promised to pay the insurance benefit, but there’s been no word for over a month now. They haven’t deposited the money. I’m not sure if I should continue with Del Rosario Insurance. It’s not like they’re deceiving subscribers or anything. The amount isn’t even large—just 1,200 pesos (about 30,000 won).”
In the video, a young man spoke with rising frustration, his voice growing louder.
To prove his words weren’t lies, he showed the documents he’d submitted to Del Rosario Insurance and a text message stating that the review was complete and the benefit would be deposited soon.
But there was no deposit.
They said they would pay, yet they didn’t.
The young man appeared quite angry.
“I twisted my ankle coming down the stairs, and they said it’s not covered by insurance. I have the document they issued themselves right here. See this claim denial letter? I feel so wronged. They clearly said it would be covered when I signed up, but now they’re saying it isn’t. I’m going to file an appeal.”
A middle-aged woman spoke with a weary expression.
She looked deeply aggrieved.
“I’m a chef, and I got burned while cooking. This should be within the compensation scope, but they keep saying they’ll verify the facts and haven’t said anything since. The amount is only about 2,000 pesos (roughly 50,000 won), yet getting that 2,000 pesos has been so difficult.”
A man in a white chef’s uniform showed a burn on his arm.
It wasn’t severe, but it was clearly a burn mark.
“I don’t know when they’ll verify the facts, review it, and pay out. If they said it wasn’t covered, I’d accept it, but I don’t understand why they’re dragging it out like this. It’s frustrating. I don’t understand why they handle things this way.”
I scrolled through the shorts, reviewing the videos.
It seemed like a rather good choice.
Whether it was the algorithm or not, there was a lot of content related to Del Rosario Insurance.
All of it was negative.
This was exactly what I wanted.
Just overwhelming volume.
I wanted to damage the image Del Rosario Insurance had built.
What we wanted was to tarnish the trustworthy image that Del Rosario Insurance and the Del Rosario Group possessed.
But in the Philippines, this wasn’t easy.
No matter how many tips we sent to broadcasts and newspapers, nothing would be published.
Since they already controlled the media, they wouldn’t report anything unfavorable to themselves.
So we turned to shorts.
We couldn’t touch YouTube directly.
And YouTube was precisely what many people used.
I didn’t need a polished video.
Thousands upon thousands of raw, unfiltered videos continued to flood the platform.
We won out through sheer volume.
It didn’t matter if the message didn’t come across clearly.
All that mattered was planting a single seed of doubt: Del Rosario Insurance—really?
What if I file a claim and they refuse to pay me too?
If we could make people hesitate before signing up with Del Rosario Insurance, that was enough.
If we could make existing policyholders feel uneasy, we’d accomplished our goal.
We just needed them to think that the claims process was tedious and complicated.
But the operation spiraled in a direction we never anticipated.
We’d only meant to tarnish their reputation and call it done.
Instead, employees who’d been dissatisfied with their working conditions began resigning en masse, and the operational staff vanished.
Apparently, the working conditions had never been that good to begin with.
Literally, there was no one left to do the work.
Operations ground to a halt.
The problem wasn’t the insurance payouts themselves—it was that there was no one to process them.
Claims had to be reviewed before payment, but there was no one to conduct the reviews.
This had become Del Rosario Insurance’s most critical problem.
The system existed, but there was no one to operate it.
It was, quite literally, paralyzed.
As the system collapsed, countless people suffered inconvenience.
But those who reacted most strongly to the disruption weren’t the people of Mindanao—they were the people of Manila.
They began to question the Del Rosario Group.
The people of Manila started turning their backs on the Del Rosario Group.
*****
“The Insurance Commission Director has arrived.”
“Show him in.”
Moments later, the door opened and a middle-aged man with a receding hairline stepped into Celeste’s office.
He was the Director of the IC—the Insurance Commission of the Philippines.
The IC oversaw the licensing and regulation of Philippine insurance companies, the approval of insurance products, the financial soundness of insurers, consumer protection, and dispute resolution.
It was an organization wielding tremendous influence over all matters of insurance.
In essence, the IC held Del Rosario Insurance’s lifeline in its hands.
If the IC revoked Del Rosario Insurance’s license, the company would collapse outright.
And now the IC’s Director had come to see Celeste.
“It’s been a long time, Director.”
“Indeed, it has been quite some time. Chairwoman.”
Though the man who could strangle Del Rosario Insurance’s operations had arrived, Celeste showed no sign of tension or surprise.
“Is there something you wished to discuss?”
Celeste spoke with a businesslike tone, as if mildly annoyed, urging him to state his business and leave.
Instead, the Insurance Commission Director fumbled for words, as though he were the one who’d committed some grave offense.
“Yes. We’re receiving an overwhelming number of complaints about Del Rosario Insurance right now. Customers are claiming that insurance payouts specified in the policy terms weren’t paid, or that promised payments never arrived. The complaints keep flooding in.”
“And?”
“Pardon?”
“And? What do you expect me to do about it?”
“If you could provide guidance on how to handle this, we’ll do our best to explain the situation to the complainants and calm them down.”
The Insurance Commission Director explained the situation to Celeste as if she were his superior, seeking her counsel on how to proceed.
“What? Explain and calm them down? Why would you do that?”
“Pardon?”
“Do you have nothing better to do? You came all the way here over a handful of complaints? Are you bored? Should I send you somewhere else?”
“No, that’s not it. If complaints continue to accumulate like this, we’ll inevitably have to launch an investigation, so I thought we should take proactive measures beforehand···”
“I sent you to that position precisely to stop this. Whether complaints come in or investigations need to happen, you’re there to ensure we suffer no consequences. So what? An investigation needs to happen?”
“I apologize.”
The Insurance Commission Director bowed his head in apology.
Their positions seemed to have reversed.
Celeste exhaled slowly, then spoke again in a somewhat more measured tone.
“Director. Go back and make sure your subordinates keep their mouths shut.”
“Yes···”
“And regarding Del Rosario Insurance—the current issues are merely temporary troubles stemming from employee resignations. Everything will normalize soon. You needn’t worry too much about it. Understood?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Take this with you.”
Celeste handed over an envelope.
“You can’t manage your staff with empty hands, can you? That’s why I’m giving you this.”
The Insurance Commission Director carefully accepted the envelope and pocketed it.
“I have great faith in you, Director. You know that, right? I placed you in that position because I trust you.”
“I’m grateful for your confidence.”
“Then don’t disappoint me. Show me through your actions how grateful you are.”
“I will.”
“Take care then, and I’ll see you at the next gathering.”
“Yes, I’ll see you then.”
After the Insurance Commission Director left, Celeste picked up another report from the stack before her.
Her expression remained serene.
As if such matters were beneath her concern.
In truth, Celeste didn’t view the insurance payout issue as particularly serious.
She saw it as nothing more than the petty rebellion and defiance of money-hungry underlings.
She dismissed their whining about needing money over such trivial sums as the desperate flailing of insignificant people.
The system itself had no flaws.
The problem was simply that there was no one to operate it.
A few employees had quit due to the sudden surge in demanding work, but that wasn’t really a problem.
More people could always be hired.
There was no shortage of workers willing to do the job.
The Philippines has a population of 120 million. Surely there are people willing to work?
The Philippines is a place where highly educated individuals line up to find employment.
The current system’s malfunction is merely temporary.
Once this passes, everything will return to normal.
I simply thought that was the extent of it.
Celeste found it wasteful to spend time on such trivial matters.
Celeste’s time was precious.
She had no time to worry over such petty issues.
If she had the same amount of time, she needed to focus on grander concerns—matters of national importance.
Celeste’s mind was already that of a president.
Such problems were no longer her concern.
They were the worries of her subordinates.
How could Celeste privatize the nation through the massive enterprise that is the state itself?
Her mind was consumed entirely with thoughts of whether she could construct Celeste’s eternal kingdom—one that would never crumble.
*******
Contrary to Celeste’s thoughts,
contrary to what she considered trivial and insignificant,
Del Rosario Insurance was nearly paralyzed.
While not precise, rumors suggested that nearly 20% of the workforce had resigned.
The damage was severe because that 20% consisted entirely of operational staff.
All the employees, associates, supervisors, and managers who performed fieldwork had resigned, leaving only the administrative directors, deputy directors, and executives.
The departure of those who actually did the work dealt a crushing blow.
Only middle-aged men with protruding bellies remained at the company.
Everyone who could escape had fled,
and only those with nowhere else to go remained.
With only themselves left, uncertain what to do, they simply stared blankly at one another.
But they couldn’t simply wait for the axe to fall.
Without operational staff, they would have to do the work themselves.
It couldn’t be that difficult.
It was all work they’d done before.
These were people who had once been called aces in their field.
They charged forward with confidence, but the reality fell short of their expectations.
The pace simply wasn’t there.
It had been far too long since they’d stepped away from operational work.
So much had changed since then.
Their vision was blurry; they couldn’t see clearly anymore.
As managers, they’d boasted about being able to handle hundreds of documents a day, yet now they struggled to complete dozens in a single day.
Regret changed nothing.
They worked all day without eating dinner, yet the workload didn’t decrease—only more complaints accumulated.
The more they worked, the more it piled up.
I could see why they’d given up.
The more I struggled, the deeper I sank—like quicksand.
It felt utterly hopeless.
Like standing before an insurmountable mountain.
And then another problem emerged.
Death by a thousand cuts.
Small individual payouts, yes, but the sheer volume of claims made the total staggering.
Single individuals were filing multiple insurance claims.
This was no longer an amount we could ignore.
The Insurance Commission Director was watching closely.
Insurance policies clearly define compensation scope, amounts, payment procedures, and deadlines in their terms and conditions.
We’d been violating these for quite some time now.
Even with investigations, there should have been at least ten more by now, but the Insurance Commission Director has been surprisingly quiet.
It’s good, but unsettling.
It feels like we’re just delaying the inevitable punishment, which makes me anxious.
Most troubling of all—our reputation had deteriorated drastically.
It’s not on television, but YouTube is flooded with videos about Del Rosario Insurance.
Shorts appear by the dozens every single day.
Most are about people who couldn’t receive their insurance payouts.
Claims rejected.
Nothing but negative content.
YouTubers with over 500,000 subscribers actually tested whether these videos were real.
Whether all those complaints were genuine.
The problem started the moment someone tried to file a claim.
Long lines stretching endlessly.
But only two counters were open.
We simply didn’t have enough staff to work them.
Online submissions faced the same issue.
All people received was a message saying their application had been received and to wait.
After that, nothing was processed.
The videos ended by showing pages with no response after one day, two days, a week.
Del Rosario Insurance was becoming increasingly vulnerable.
*******
Things were unfolding strangely.
I never intended this.
I only wanted to tarnish Del Rosario Insurance’s reputation, yet it was actually faltering.
It wasn’t going according to plan, but it was working even better.
I’d meant to make things slightly inconvenient and troublesome, but I never expected it to shake like this.
At the same time, I decided to adjust my strategy slightly.
Until then, I’d been constantly deliberating on how to eliminate La Camara.
No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a suitable approach.
So I simply considered killing them all.
That was the only solution I could think of.
But then a sudden thought occurred to me.
Did I really need to kill them all?
Did I really need to eliminate La Camara?
La Camara is honestly an incredibly formidable organization.
An organization capable of controlling and shaking the Philippines in its grasp.
They can control politicians and administrators, the military and police, and their connections and capital are immense.
Did I really need to destroy such an organization?
Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to bring them to our side instead?
Wouldn’t that help when Patrick becomes president?
After long deliberation, I concluded that was the right approach.
La Camara wasn’t an organization we needed to destroy—it was one we needed to acquire.
While conversing with Bituin, I investigated La Camara.
By the end of our conversation, I learned that Celeste had founded La Camara and had been nurturing it all this time.
In reality, Celeste was the true owner of La Camara.
Celeste’s authority within La Camara was absolute.
Everyone else was simply obedient subordinates.
That’s how Celeste had structured it.
The answer became clear.
All I needed to do was eliminate Celeste.
This was almost too convenient.
Once Celeste was dealt with, the rest would be simple.
The remaining council members would comply easily once we showed them a gun.
They’d fall in line with just a gesture.
We decided to seize La Camara, which Celeste had painstakingly built and nurtured over a long time.
Hadn’t Celeste already benefited without effort when we pushed for the term limit system?
Wasn’t it fair for us to reap the benefits of what Celeste had cultivated?
We were simply exchanging favors with each other.
Through the Inventory, I had become a major player in the black market.
140 – Paralysis
E-book Publication
/ December 9, 2025
Author
/ Black Card
Publisher
/ Son Je-ho
Published by
/ Munpia
Address
/ Doosan Landmark Tower 12F, 308 Gangnam-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
List Price
/ 100 Won
https://munpia.com
[email protected]
© Black Card, 2025
This e-book is
Munpia
published in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and
Munpia
without written permission, this e-book and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means.
This e-book is a work protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
979-11-11-99634-4

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————