I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 193

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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193 – Guest
193.
“Premium calculations are complete.”
“Simulation shows no issues.”
“APRC Pool integration confirmed.”
The Taerim Insurance employees, now independent operatives, still hadn’t left the office since that day.
Several days had passed, yet clocking out seemed as distant as ever.
I’d thought that if we just focused on creating the insurance, we could leave immediately.
We poured our souls into it, driven by a sense of mission.
We designed the policy, ran simulations, and refined risk scenarios.
We converted every situation into numbers and forcibly compressed reinsurance structures into reality.
‘This is success.’
The directive to design and launch the insurance as a product within 24 hours had failed.
It was physically impossible.
Instead, we created the insurance in five days.
Normally, the process from planning a single insurance product to launching it
takes anywhere from six months to two years—we completed it in just five days.
And within those five days, we even obtained approval from the Financial Services Commission.
The FSC approved the insurance product exactly 42 minutes after receiving it.
That meticulous, obstinate Financial Services Commission approved it in 42 minutes.
There were no requests for additional materials or revisions.
This had never happened once in insurance industry history.
Rather than celebrating the approval, everyone froze.
Why?
Why was it approved?
Like a coder watching code run without understanding why it works—that’s how we felt.
Could it be.
That major shareholder said not to worry about the FSC.
Did he pull strings?
Did it pass this quickly because of him?
There were many questions, but none I could answer right now.
For now, I was simply exhausted.
The realization that it was over brought a wave of fatigue.
My eyelids grew heavy.
“You’ve all worked incredibly hard. Let’s just send the product email to the vendors and head home.”
At the Team Leader’s words, a faint smile crossed my face.
Click.
Send all emails.
Now I could finally leave.
At last, I could go home.
I shut down my computer and grabbed the bag I’d set beside my desk.
I stifled a cascade of yawns and prepared to leave for the day.
On my way out, the thought of a cold beer crossed my mind, but I shook my head.
Sleep took priority right now.
Over five days, the only rest I’d managed was a few hours hunched over my desk.
The prospect of heading home, washing up in hot water, and collapsing onto a soft bed already filled me with happiness.
“Then I’ll be heading in.”
“Sure, good work today.”
That’s when the phone rang.
I answered it reflexively.
“Yes. Taerim Insurance…”
“Ah! You’re asking if it’s that insurance? Yes, that’s correct.”
“Our newly launched ‘Taerim Independent Insurance’ product has excellent terms and broad coverage.”
“What? You want to sign up? Yes. I’ll send you the required documents, and you can submit them once you’ve prepared everything.”
“Ah. You say all the documents are already prepared?”
“You’ll deposit the funds right away and want approval?”
“Yes, don’t worry. Our approval should come through within twelve hours.”
I hung up the phone, startled.
‘This fast? A response already?’
I hadn’t expected it.
I’d thought they’d need at least a day or two to consider.
Taerim is a newcomer.
While it’s an insurance company, it only dealt with personal insurance like life and fire coverage.
Marine insurance was entirely new territory.
Naturally, from a ship owner’s perspective, it was untrustworthy.
To put it simply, it was like an automobile company that had only ever made sedans suddenly manufacturing and selling dump trucks.
Sedans and dump trucks differ in structure, purpose—everything.
No matter how well a company made sedans,
dump trucks would inevitably be completely different.
And dump trucks aren’t cheap—people naturally hesitate to purchase them easily.
Besides, Taerim wasn’t even a company known for making good sedans.
So I’d thought there would be time to deliberate.
But less than ten minutes after sending the email, they called back.
The moment I hung up and set down the receiver, the phone rang again.
Wanting to leave for the day, I glanced around to see if someone else could take it.
The scene around me was identical everywhere.
Everyone had their bags slung over their shoulders, phones pressed to their ears in one hand, pens in the other as they scribbled notes.
I couldn’t rely on anyone else’s help.
Everyone was glued to their phones.
It seemed every phone line in the company was in use.
Some people were making calls on their personal phones.
The company lines were tied up, so they’d reached out using their personal devices.
This was a genuine emergency.
A bomb had dropped.
Leave early in this situation?
That seemed unlikely.
I quietly set down my bag.
I sat in my chair and powered on my computer.
After taking the call, I felt a slight rush of dopamine coursing through me.
Getting immediate feedback on the insurance I’d worked so hard to arrange felt genuinely gratifying.
Let’s go. Round two.
I launched the core insurance processing program on the illuminated monitor.
.
.
.
We burned white-hot through it.
No. We were still burning.
The insurance consultation wasn’t the end.
The shipowners would submit their documents and pay the premiums, thinking they were done—but for the insurance company, that’s where everything truly begins.
The underwriting department digs into the shipowner’s history to assign risk ratings and designs reinsurance structures, while
the actuarial team runs the formulas to set premiums, and the legal team reviews the terms one final time.
Only after all that does approval come through.
We’d committed to processing everything within twelve hours.
It was an unavoidable choice to get the ships sailing quickly.
Everyone had coffee and caffeine in their hands.
Their faces were transforming into something zombie-like.
The number of insurance contracts was staggering.
It had become Taerim Insurance’s largest contract volume since its founding.
Revenue was at an all-time high.
A new record, yet no one could celebrate.
There was no energy left to celebrate.
Everyone was mechanically processing work as if their souls had departed.
No matter how much we worked, the tasks never ended.
It was exhausting and draining.
Yet we pushed through.
The employees of Taerim Insurance didn’t think of this as mere work.
Believing we were saving the nation filled my heart with pride.
Of course, the incentive the CEO had promised played a part too.
Just that sense of accomplishment—that we’d actually pulled it off.
That pride in protecting the nation through insurance?
Pride in becoming independent operators drove them forward.
Because of their insurance, ships using our country’s maritime routes began operating normally.
The risk had been eliminated.
.
.
.
“Ana. Is this correct?”
I asked Ana while reviewing the sales report.
“Yes. That’s right.”
Ana, who had already reviewed the sales report, answered.
Wow.
I should have started maritime insurance earlier.
The numbers are… astronomical.
Every time I mentioned starting reinsurance, everyone tried to stop me.
It’s impossible.
You can’t even begin with ordinary capital.
One wrong move and everything disappears in an instant.
Insurance payouts could emerge that we couldn’t possibly handle.
So I had prepared myself mentally.
I was ready to spend tens of trillions—no, 200 to 300 trillion won.
I thought it would be worth it if we could protect the maritime routes by pouring that money into it.
It’s not like I’m some great patriot or anything.
I simply provided meals Father never gave, and even a high school diploma.
Doesn’t that mean I can afford to burn through 200 to 300 trillion won?
From the start, money held little meaning for me.
It was merely a number.
No use for it, no need for it.
I barely spent anything.
When there’s nothing I need,
forcing myself to buy something felt like quite the ordeal.
Ana said I needed to have expenses, so
I bought buildings and land, but it brought no joy.
Buying land and buildings didn’t change my life at all.
I still lived today exactly as I had yesterday.
The satisfaction was far too low.
So I stopped shopping altogether.
Then this incident broke out.
I started reinsurance with the mindset of throwing money away,
with that resolve, yet money keeps accumulating instead.
This wasn’t something I started to make money,
The money was coming in first.
This wasn’t part of the plan.
I was perplexed.
But why are the stocks rising?
Not just Taerim Insurance, but the entire Taelim Financial Group’s stocks are climbing across the board.
I haven’t done anything, yet my assets are growing.
They keep increasing.
“Ana, why are the stocks rising?”
Ana silently handed me a tablet.
[Independent Enterprise, Taerim Insurance]
Taerim Insurance has recently expanded into marine insurance and reinsurance. Breaking away from its previous business structure centered on personal and auto insurance, it launched “Taerim Independent Insurance,” positioning itself with “national pride” and “protection of independent maritime routes.”
An industry insider stated, “Until now, we’ve reluctantly accepted marine insurance dominated by global insurers, but now that our own company has created an insurance product, it’s reassuring. Both coverage and benefits are competitive with global enterprises. We plan to continue using Taerim’s independent insurance going forward.”
Who pulled this article?
Why is this being covered in the social section?
It’s just one company’s product.
Running this in a public newspaper is cheating.
They should pay for advertising like this.
Why are they running an unsolicited advertisement?
Taerim Independent Insurance became a major social issue.
We weren’t the only ones welcoming this phenomenon.
The Insurance Association of China (IAC) and the Philippine Insurance and Reinsurance Association (PIPA) were pleased as well.
All I’d asked of them was to lend their names.
I didn’t need their money or systems.
I had the money, and Taerim had the systems.
What we lacked was recognition and trust.
We decided to borrow just those.
But seeing us succeed, they sent word that we should create an actual collaborative POOL.
They proposed building Asia’s largest reinsurance consortium.
Insurance companies from Hong Kong and Singapore also expressed their willingness to participate.
So instead of APRC being just a name, a real APRC was about to be formed.
Since we could handle reinsurance on our own, European firms began extending their hands to us.
The moment money’s involved, everyone starts clinging to you.
In any case, I no longer had to worry about insurance.
*******
Tokyo.
Seiwakai headquarters.
Minase was in the garden, sipping tea.
The weather was beautiful.
Not a breath of wind stirred, and the pond’s surface gleamed like glass.
It was peaceful.
Even the silk carp that would rush toward Minase begging for food whenever they spotted him now swam quietly beneath the surface.
Minase sat at a table placed in the center of the garden.
The tea in his cup had already grown cold, but Minase paid it no mind.
He alternated between staring at the cold teacup and gazing out at the garden.
On the surface, he appeared serene, but his expression was unmistakably troubled.
“My apologies.”
A voice reached my ears.
Looking closer, I saw Kuroda kneeling beside Minase.
“The Busan Port operation failed?”
“The Police and National Intelligence Service were at the scene.”
Kuroda spoke carefully.
“Regardless of who was there, it would be difficult to prove a crime based on that alone. There was strong wind too, so we could claim it was an accident, couldn’t we?”
“My apologies. They seemed to know something. The money and messages the crane operator received became decisive evidence.”
Minase’s hand froze above his teacup.
His expression turned cold and rigid.
“My apologies. However, it should not be connected to us.”
Kuroda hastily added.
A brief silence fell.
“It seems the timeline will be longer than expected. If we’re only tightening the screws through insurance. It would be convenient if an incident occurred.”
Minase spoke with evident regret.
At those words, Kuroda’s expression hardened.
He needed to tell him that even the insurance scheme had fallen apart, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Well···.”
“Is there more to say?”
“My apologies. Taerim Insurance has launched marine insurance in South Korea.”
“Wasn’t there already plenty of marine insurance? The issue was the lack of reinsurance.”
“Taerim handles reinsurance as well. Together with the Insurance Association of China and the Philippine Insurance and Reinsurance Association, they’ve created a pool called APRC that provides reinsurance.”
“What?”
Minase, who typically showed almost no change in expression, was different today.
His voice rose and sharpened.
In over twenty years of serving Minase, Kuroda had never witnessed such a reaction.
Faced with this, Kuroda could say nothing and merely bowed his head.
“My apologies.”
“Then you’re saying the Korean shipping routes are operating normally?”
“···. Yes, that is correct.”
“Sigh···.”
Minase exhaled a deep sigh.
Nothing pleased him.
When the reinsurance operation first began, he had been satisfied.
It was an operation that could cripple South Korea without placing any burden on the government.
All responsibility could be shifted to the private sector.
While South Korea floundered,
I planned to nibble away at them piece by piece, but everything fell apart.
But I couldn’t just sit idle like this.
I had to strike some kind of blow.
I had to throw ash, mud something to tarnish them.
I couldn’t just watch South Korea escape this crisis.
“Then we’ll stir up an insurance dispute. We’ll cause accidents and complain about delayed insurance payouts, claim that Taerim is an untrustworthy company!”
Minase’s voice grew louder.
At Minase’s outburst, Kuroda exhaled heavily, looking troubled, and replied.
“We’ve also caused several suspicious accidents with that in mind, but the insurance payments were processed cleanly.”
“What?”
“We’ve staged several dubious accidents, but the insurance claims were paid without question or investigation.”
“Then just keep causing accidents.”
“That would damage our shipping company’s credibility. If we get labeled as a company with frequent accidents, we’re finished too.”
“That’s frustrating.”
Minase appeared quite angry.
He made no attempt to hide his emotions.
“Kuroda.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Is there no other way? We can’t just stop here, can we?”
Kuroda’s face hardened.
In truth, even the current methods are quite extreme.
We’ve already crossed the line long ago.
There’s little more we can do.
Too many eyes are watching.
While adhering to regulations and avoiding scrutiny,
there aren’t many ways to inflict moderate damage.
To make South Korea suffer, Japan would have to be prepared to fall into the gutter as well.
There’s no way to act noble while only harming South Korea.
But that’s not what Minase wants.
Minase is thinking of harming South Korea without Japan suffering any damage whatsoever.
The shadow of the Japanese colonial period still runs deep in Minase’s mind.
South Korea had been Japan’s vassal state, and it should have remained so.
But South Korea was no longer a nation Japan could control.
It had become an economic powerhouse standing shoulder to shoulder with Japan.
That was what Minase resented most.
He thought that merely blocking the South Korea route would make them seek mediation on their own.
He thought they would come crawling, begging for mercy and forgiveness.
Pleading for the routes to be reopened,
I thought they would beg for reinsurance approval.
But South Korea solved the problem independently.
The reinsurance that was meant to pressure South Korea came back as Japan’s poor sales.
Kuroda was hearing complaints from the CEO of Seiryū Reinsurance every day.
Without any justification, he refused reinsurance under the name of “risk holding” and missed enormous sales.
Moreover, he created a monster called Taerim.
If only he hadn’t held the reinsurance,
Taerim Insurance, which is now absorbing marine insurance like a black hole, would never have been born.
He couldn’t block the routes, sales dropped, and customers were stolen away.
On top of that, the symbolism that Seiryū was the standard was also wavering.
Minase, who had been thinking for a while, spoke.
“No matter how I look at it, this isn’t South Korea’s usual response.”
“It is somewhat different from usual.”
“It seems like a new guest has arrived.”
“Now that you mention it, Taerim’s CEO changed a few months ago.”
Minase’s expression changed.
It was the face of a predator before a hunt.
“Then dig into that side. Something will come up.”
“Yes.”
Minase poured the now-cold tea into the garden.
The garden remained silent still.
Through the Inventory, I became a major player in the black market.
193 – Guest
E-book Publication
/ February 9, 2026
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/ Black Card
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© Black Card, 2026
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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