“NoName must have really made a solid impact… Ugh, are we going to end up getting caught in this mess too?”
“Why are we doing public opinion monitoring again? They’ll just throw it away if it doesn’t suit their taste, even if we organize it properly.”
“Exactly. Isn’t that totally babyish? Babies spit out their food too.”
“Hahaha… Sigh, let’s just get back to work.”
“Right.”
The faces of the employees who arrived early on Monday morning were as dark as the coffee in their paper cups.
President Park Se-rip frowned as he walked through the hallway.
“Oh… hello.”
“Yeah, good morning.”
There was no way he couldn’t notice that a gloomy atmosphere was permeating the Korean Wizard Association headquarters.
As soon as he arrived at his office, he called in the executives of the Wizard Association.
It irritated him to see them saunter in one by one, barely responding to his summons.
“Didn’t we handle everything according to the rules? Why do we keep getting nitpickers showing up? Huh?”
The vice chairman and directors quickly read that the president was quite displeased.
As they glanced around nervously, more began to speak up.
“What is NoName thinking siding with Kim Love? I just don’t understand it at all.”
“It’s not like it’s pocket change; they swallowed 20 billion all alone. It wouldn’t hurt to share a bit. It seems like they’re set on robbing the association blind. Such a young kid, but greedy. Tsk tsk…”
“I saw that the executives from Janjeol had someone who worked on Wall Street in the mix. They’re all money-crazed fiends.”
“So we need to come up with a countermeasure, right?”
“…”
There was not a single constructive discussion happening.
President Park Se-rip despaired at having to lead these useless folks.
“How about recalculating Kim Love’s prize and penalty?”
“Then how do we run this year’s National Exchange Tournament camp? Who’s going to hire coaches? Does money fall from the sky?”
“…”
“Instead, let’s contact domestic sponsors and get advertising deals flowing. If we hit about ten, making billions isn’t even a challenge. Just convince the kids a bit and we’re golden.”
“What sponsors are you referring to?”
“There are plenty if you look, right? Domestic wand companies, plus big shots like Hyundai or Kia. Stop saying it can’t be done and try it out. If that doesn’t work, we can come up with another plan. Deal?”
“Yes, understood, President.”
“Seriously, how is it that a problem with such an obvious solution is still being pondered? Go get to work.”
The executives turned on their heels and rushed out of the room.
“Did they say the domestic wand companies want CFs, so Love is going to shoot one? They better make sense.”
With the terrible quality, even celebrities were hesitant, so would a magic battle player willingly tarnish their reputation?
But Park Se-rip was the president of HoSam ECC, a company producing raw materials for the mana chemistry industry.
He must have gotten his eyes and ears completely tainted after golfing and mingling with the wand company presidents, the main customers.
Everyone knew this fact, yet very few dared to speak out against him.
“Oh, Dong-seok? Can you stay back and talk with me for a moment?”
“You want to talk to me?”
President Park summoned the man who suggested returning the prize money to Love.
It was as clear as day that his career path was about to hit a wall.
The Korean Wizard Association was drifting further away from public opinion.
Floating precariously in an atmosphere of questionable authority, completely unaware of the storm that was looming ahead.
*
“Janjeol is now slowly entering a stabilization phase.”
COO Robert Kim reported.
“Yawn.”
“?”
“Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean to, I just overdid it a bit yesterday.”
“If you look at page 18, you’ll see that we’re currently putting all our efforts into acquiring a magic infrastructure company.”
“It’s pretty stagnant, isn’t it?”
“Well, mergers and acquisitions can be a painfully slow process, taking anywhere from one to five years.”
I nodded in agreement.
Internally, we were also running the world-class ASI to solve the engraving accumulation issues.
Finding the appropriate mana mechanism alone could take at least a year and a half.
That was already a few months old, so it seemed we had no choice but to keep watching for the next year.
Besides, R&D investments are always the right call.
“Is that it? I’m on vacation today. This is blatant child abuse.”
“Wait, just one more thing. Was that a joke just now, Na-me? I mean, where’s the CEO who’s a victim of child abuse, right? Hahaha!”
“Ugh…”
Uncle Robert chuckled as he flipped through stacks of documents.
After receiving reports about establishing a channeling factory in Southeast Asia and updating on mana link technology development in the U.S. and Europe, half an hour flew by.
I leaned over my desk, resting my head on it, and stretched my arms forward.
“Then apart from meeting Prime Minister Pham Thi Minh, there’s no additional scheduling, right? With virtual reality being a thing, I don’t see why meetings need to be held offline.”
I wrinkled my blonde hair with my fingers, sulking.
“For now, that’s just common courtesy between parties. Simply the effort of meeting can instill trust in investors or supporters. If you really hate it, you could change the culture later.”
“Oh, I’ll definitely have to! I can’t be riding private jets all the time. Can I really leave now?”
“Yes, yes, thanks for your hard work.”
Finally, freedom! I’m coming, Mutt!
While I cheered internally and prepared to log out,
“Hmm?”
“Didn’t you just say it was over, Robert?”
“No, I meant, did you have a fight with the Wizard Association recently? Your name has popped up so much in today’s articles.”
I leaned forward to check the article Robert showed me.
[NoName, Exposes Kim Love’s Prize Payment Delay… Despite pouring 200 billion in public funds, why is there a deficit?]
[“Decisive Revelation” NoName Faces Korean Wizard Association Over Leak of Confidential Evaluation Meeting, Subsidy Violations, and Golf Course Misconduct.]
[“Normal Training Cannot Occur in This Environment,” NoName’s “Decisive Statement” Leads KMA to Express Regret.]
“The association keeps making a fuss over the prize money.”
“Oy.”
“They kept nitpicking about the prize money, making Love Unni uncomfortable. I figured I’d make it public.”
“Looking at this, I get the gist of what’s going on.”
Robert quickly skimmed through the article to understand the incident.
“But these guys are like a Galapagos organization, there’s not much we can do to regulate them unless the government steps in.”
“Oh, apparently so.”
“Is there no sharp solution?”
“I’ve tossed it to Cerberus.”
“Oh.”
There’s a single Cerberus living on the Korean Peninsula.
Also known as the Central Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the Fair Trade Commission’s Corporate Group Division, and the 4th Investigation Bureau of the Seoul Regional Tax Office.
“That method does exist, huh?”
In particular, the last head had dethroned three presidents of the Republic of Korea.
“I’ve also dealt with this Kingslayer and know all too well how painful and torturous it can be.”
Even that tax office had its rough days getting simultaneously raided by police, prosecutors, and the Board of Audit two years ago.
Thanks to some outlandish orders from higher-ups demanding to pressure the Bio-Akashic into an investigation, only diligent employees suffered the fallout.
“Please call Ms. Megan Alford.”
“I think I might have said too much.”
“No, no, Robert has given some good advice. I’ll cross-check with the finance team, and if indeed the association seems problematic, let’s file a report.”
“Are you planning to raise the finance team like a private investigator?”
“In startups, everyone juggles all sorts of tasks.”
I hurriedly began drafting the presentation content I had seen that day.
The presenter without accounting knowledge seemed eager to brag about their results and crammed a ton of reference materials like subsidy amounts into numerous slides.
‘It had such a structure that was incredibly easy to exploit from behind.’
If the organization had broken down to that extent, it was highly likely they’d engaged in relatively simple criminal acts like tax evasion.
It’s akin to how many serial killers have a history of animal abuse.
It was too early to leave today.
‘How dare they make me work on vacation day?’
I suppressed my rage and worked on the investigation plan for the Wizard Association.
For starters, I planned to investigate the training camp built in Sejong City.
*
According to the Tax Office, tips about tax evasion amount to around 30,000 cases annually.
In other words, it means that 99.9% of the tips are discarded due to lack of specificity.
That Bio-Akashic was selected after piercing through a 0.1% probability was simply absurd no matter how many times I thought about it.
Anyway.
For five days, the Janjeol finance team employees transformed into detectives, scouring various academies and the Sejong training camp to gather materials.
Was it because rumors spread that the Janjeol accounting team received hefty bonuses after investigating Shaolin?
CFO Megan Alford said the finance team was all fired up with excitement during their investigation.
I sat in a corner of Incheon Airport, opened the hologram, and reviewed the materials sent over.
“It’s a bit lacking… hmmm, this is awkward.”
With mere speculation, it could lead to an investigation that went beyond tax evasion into corruption allegations.
However, decisive evidence was insufficient.
Could these materials allow us to break into the tax office gacha?
“Unni! The captain says it’s time for us to board!”
I decided to use my trump card.
[Seoul Regional Tax Office Home Tax – Consultation Reporting – Tax Evasion Reporting – Real Name]
[NoName]
[Submission Material Registered Successfully]
[Content: Dear Employees of the Seoul Regional Tax Office, Investigation Division 4. If you don’t catch such a guy, I’ll be heading to Luxembourg with Janjeol!]
“Let’s go! Saetbyeol, Luri.”
“What were you doing over there? We’re super late!”
“I didn’t make Na-me Unni late; the clock was just running too fast.”
“Ugh No-No.”
Saetbyeol, Luri, and I were off on our last winter vacation trip to Europe.
Our first destination? The representative tax haven of Europe, Luxembourg.
