New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 171

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 171. Celebration (1)

Carter Till moved urgently.

He practically dragged the busy Deputy Director who was moving frantically in the wartime situation and demonstrated the location tracking system that had been added to Omnis.

“Through Omnis, we’ve found the location where Saddam Hussein is most likely hiding.”

“The bunker complex near the Presidential Palace.”

“That’s right. Right now, there’s the highest possibility he’s hiding inside the bunker.”

“We think so too. By now, the U.S. military is probably conducting airstrikes on this entire area.”

The Deputy Director said while glancing at his watch.

Not only Palantia, but the CIA and U.S. military had also confirmed the underground bunker as Saddam Hussein’s hideout,

and immediately launched large-scale airstrikes under the name of leadership elimination operations.

“Ah, the airstrikes have already proceeded? I’m a bit late.”

“It’s fine. The fact that a civilian intelligence company’s information capabilities match those of the CIA or U.S. military is surprising enough.”

During their conversation, the Deputy Director was receiving real-time reports from various channels.

Along with reports that the airstrikes had ended, messages followed indicating a high possibility that Saddam Hussein had died.

“The leadership elimination operation ended in just one day.”

“Do you really think Saddam is dead?”

“No matter how much he was in an underground bunker, it would be hard to survive that level of bombing. Now we just need to find the body and it’s over. However, it’s become such ruins that it’ll take some time to find it.”

The Deputy Director was already convinced the situation was over.

But Carter Till didn’t think so.

Because Omnis’s location tracking system was still operating.

“If he didn’t die, there’s a high possibility he’s fleeing by now. Omnis has also detected anomalous signs.”

“What kind of signs?”

“Electronic signals that were maintained even after the airstrikes suddenly disappeared in a specific section. It’s too unusual to be seen as a simple communication failure. There are traces of intentionally blocking signals. There’s a high possibility he completely cut off electronic signals for escape.”

Carter Till trusted Omnis.

Omnis analyzed the electronic signal cutoff as signs of Saddam Hussein’s escape, and the reliability of that judgment reached 82%.

“Hmm, it’s not impossible.”

“If we predict the movement route through the direction where electronic signals were cut off, it’s Tikrit. It’s also Saddam Hussein’s hometown. We need to move in that direction and search for new hideouts!”

“If there’s even a slight possibility, we need to confirm it. Let’s transmit that information to the U.S. military.”

“Thank you!”

The Deputy Director immediately sent the materials predicted by Omnis to the U.S. military.

But the reply that came back was cold.

[Information from civilian sources cannot be verified. Please retransmit as official correspondence including CIA guarantee.]

The U.S. military trusted systems more than information.

They seemed to have no intention of starting search operations without CIA guarantee.

“Hmm, the U.S. military’s reaction isn’t good. CIA guarantee exceeds my authority. We need to go through the formal reporting system to get approval signatures…, it’ll take at least a week even at the fastest.”

“In a week, Saddam Hussein would have more than enough time to escape to the outskirts.”

“I’ll try to shorten the procedures as much as possible. Keep continuing the tracking in the meantime. Report immediately as soon as the location is updated.”

The Deputy Director trusted Palantia.

He had received predictive materials from numerous agencies so far.

But there was no place that produced analyses as reliable as Palantia.

***

Baghdad became ruins in an instant due to U.S. military airstrikes.

In just two days, the scene of U.S. tank units entering the capital was broadcast live worldwide.

It was only two days.

The market changed rapidly at the sight of the U.S. military conquering the capital in such a short time, and finally the flow I wanted began to form.

“Branch Manager! Oil prices have started to plummet!”

“It’s too early to be happy. We haven’t secured all our target volume yet. The longer time passes, the lower our profit rate will be. Fill it up as quickly as possible.”

Oil prices that seemed ready to rise to the $40 line.

We spent each day anxiously watching the rising graph.

Because the funds we invested were so enormous, even a $1 increase in oil prices meant massive losses.

But now the situation was different.

Oil prices began to plummet overnight, and now they had fallen to $35.

“We’ll secure them as quickly as possible. But the speed of oil price decline is unusual.”

“How’s the stock situation?”

“It’s changing rapidly similar to oil prices. Aviation and tourism stocks are surging, while conversely, energy and defense stocks have started declining.”

At least the stock situation was better.

While oil had limits on the amount that could be invested per day.

Stocks could fill target volumes in a short time using various methods.

“Other financial companies will now start betting strongly on oil price declines too. We absolutely must bring in the most volume.”

“We’ll definitely fight and win!”

The Deputy Branch Manager returned to his seat burning with enthusiasm.

He encouraged the employees and threw himself into securing volume, and the General Manager watched this scene with satisfaction.

“Now I can finally feel relieved. It’s regrettable we couldn’t secure more volume, but since oil prices have started declining in earnest, we won’t suffer losses.”

“It seems the declining market will be maintained for at least a month or more.”

“If that happens, nothing could be better.”

“Now that the situation seems roughly settled, wouldn’t it be okay if you don’t return to the United States?”

Since oil prices had started declining, there was nothing more to see.

The profit rate might differ slightly, but making a profit was definitely confirmed.

But the General Manager had no intention of returning to headquarters, and casually sat down pretending to be busy.

“There’s still work left to do in Korea. I plan to stay in Korea until this investment is completely finished.”

“What kind of remaining work are you referring to?”

“Ahem, the baseball team reorganization isn’t completely finished yet either. Facilities and equipment construction is done, but player reinforcement is more difficult than expected.”

He must have definitely relaxed.

The person who had been looking at graphs all day was now taking out player lists.

“Is player recruitment difficult?”

“We did recruit major FA players, but it’s still not enough.”

“Then couldn’t you just recruit more?”

“The problem is the player pool itself is too small. I compared the recruitment candidate list the Team Manager sent with our database, and there are hardly any players at the level we want.”

I checked the list.

Next to the list were scores set by our self-made database, and there weren’t even a few players visible with over 50 points.

“But is this all there is to the recruitment candidate list?”

“That’s what they said.”

“No matter how I think about it, it’s too few.”

“They said it’s a list selected considering relationships with other teams and even relationships with the baseball league.”

Baseball was ultimately all about victory.

Not just baseball, but all sports were like that.

As long as you win, everything else could be ignored.

But was there a reason we had to recruit players while watching other teams’ or the league’s reactions?

“Why should we watch other teams’ and the league’s reactions? I want us to recruit based purely on skill without thinking about other things.”

“I want to do that too, but the Team Manager made such a fuss about it. He said several times that if we recruit a player who created something like a players’ association, which is like a union, the league won’t stay quiet.”

“Is our team also deeply related to the players’ association?”

“He said it’s the deepest. Maybe because Daehyeon Group had to pay attention to various places after the IMF and didn’t focus on the team, our team’s players took the lead in creating the players’ association.”

It was a time when Daehyeon Group’s support wasn’t certain.

So it wasn’t unreasonable that players felt the need for a players’ association for their own survival.

“So that’s why the player pool has weakened now?”

“That’s right. They said they largely cleared out veteran players who were involved in founding the players’ association. They traded them for cheap or released them, and some were essentially punished by being sent down to the 2nd Team.”

I could understand the team’s and KBO’s position too.

But I couldn’t just leave players who were immediate alone while worrying about them.

“I want us to recruit players on the blacklist too.”

“Would that be okay? The Team Manager said the league could harass us by using referees to make biased calls.”

“It doesn’t matter. Unlike the past, all games are now broadcast on TV. If biased officiating is shown on television, it’s the league whose image will suffer.”

Unless the players’ association made unreasonable demands.

There was no need to penalize them just for raising their voices to claim their rights.

Of course, separate management would be needed after recruiting them.

“Then the recruitment candidates would increase significantly.”

“It’s also a good opportunity. We can trade at bargain prices from other teams, and players who were released or sent down to the 2nd Team will want to come to our team even at reduced salaries if it means playing in the 1st Team games.”

“If we can produce results that way, there’d be no problem, but if we don’t get the desired results, we might face tremendous criticism.”

I could just listen to criticism with one ear and let it pass through the other.

And it wouldn’t be me receiving the criticism anyway—it would be the Team Manager and coach’s responsibility, so I didn’t need to worry about it.

“We can increase the league support funds a bit or provide sponsorship money in other ways to suppress the voices of criticism.”

“You’re saying to suppress them with money.”

“If we fatten the league’s coffers through various linked businesses, it’ll become difficult for them to complain.”

“Good. I’ll step in personally and finish the recruitment decisively. With the season opening not far away, I’ll have to move quickly.”

The General Manager hurriedly stood up from his seat.

As if proving with his body why he should remain in Korea, he seemed to deliberately show exaggerated movements.

***

With little time left before leaving work.

I organized everything on my desk without a single error and looked at my watch.

But at that moment, a phone call came that disrupted the entire flow.

[Mister Lee! The US Military is rejecting our system! What’s the point of knowing where Saddam Hussein is if they have no intention of catching him!]

“Have you been drinking?”

[I was so frustrated I had a glass of whiskey. If they couldn’t find a body after searching the underground bunker for days, they should think he escaped! But they’re still doing pointless things!]

It was Carter Till, drunk with his tongue twisted.

It was something I had expected.

No matter how excellent a system we created, if the US Military didn’t accept it, we couldn’t achieve any results.

Carter Till, who was directly confronting the situation on site, must have felt that frustration more than anyone.

“If the US Military won’t move, we just need to make it so they have no choice but to move.”

[How?]

“Hire private mercenaries to obtain decisive evidence.”

[You’re saying to hire a PMC to catch Saddam Hussein? Would that be possible?]

“Arresting him is realistically impossible. But proving that Saddam Hussein is alive is something we can sufficiently do through a PMC.”

Thanks to the Iraq War, PMCs were emerging everywhere.

The United States was planning for post-occupation Iraq, and there were even stories that they were unofficially helping establish PMCs.

[I did hear stories about CIA veterans creating PMCs.]

“I also confirmed it through information registered with Omnis.”

[If we achieve results using CIA veteran PMCs, the US Military won’t be able to do anything about it!]

“We don’t necessarily need a lot of evidence. Just proving that Saddam Hussein is alive would be sufficient. Going one step further, if we can just identify the messengers going between Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military, the US Military will never exclude us again.”

PMCs could do what the US Military couldn’t.

PMCs could move more freely than the US Military and didn’t need to move in large numbers.

[I’ll discuss with the Deputy Director and proceed with contracting CIA veteran PMCs. As expected of Mister Lee! You found the answer immediately!]

“I’m continuously upgrading Omnis’s location tracking function. Soon we’ll be able to track not only Saddam Hussein but also the movements of surrounding figures and messengers.”

[Great! Once this job is done, I’ll come to Korea personally and buy you a proper drink!]

“I’ll buy then. It’s not proper etiquette to push drink expenses onto someone working hard in the field.”

America’s system was more crude than expected.

Information exchange between the military and various agencies wasn’t properly conducted, and to bind them together through Phalancia, we needed definitive results.

Capturing Saddam Hussein alive.

There was no better result than this.

If we could arrest him early, I could shake oil prices and stock prices much more dramatically in the direction I wanted.

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