Past Life Returner

That was how dollars were distributed. The Federal Reserve distributed out the money made by the mint, lent to the U.S. government, and brought in the bonds that corresponded to the amount. Then, they sold the bonds back to the banks worldwide. It was the largest money industry on the planet. The only spendings were the operating costs including labor, and the paper and ink needed to make dollars.

We were now the ones who possessed this golden industry and printed out bills.

***

「World on the edge」

「Capitalism at bay」

Such article titles no longer showed up in front of me, and the subprime crisis quickly died down. The stable trend began when the price of the corporation stocks and properties that had plunged regained their original price as people bought them. It happened simultaneously all over the world, not in just one country.

I was pleased in many ways. First, I could finally purchase the lands under the name of the International Fund for Nature as they weren’t previously available to me due to dictatorships and the countries’ other problems. This definitely allowed me to secure additional dungeons.

Second, the fact that our group took the lead in resolving the subprime crisis was considered a green light that I had hoped for. It wasn’t about my financial empire that had become bigger due to the subprime crisis. I was referring to our group’s elite employees who had been playing around the world’s ruined economy. They had been strictly trained and had a system that allowed them to keep up with their work in the future.

This would be the same even on the day the gate opened up in the air. When the global economy plunged into an abyss through greater shock than the subprime crisis, our employees would once again save the world. Of course, there was something that needed to be firmly established before that, and one of the Jeon-il Club’s agendas was about that.

Woo Yeon-Hee and I came back to Seoul from Hong Kong, and today was May 1st. It was four days before the first Jeon-il Club conference this year.

“Finally?” she asked.

“Yes, finally,” I replied.

Woo Yeon-Hee was delighted as it had been a while since we had a break. The taxi driver at the airport was also happy as he hadn’t had a long-distance customer in years. We weren’t in Las Vegas as I promised her last year, but Saemangeum’s Jeon-il Resort was the perfect vacation spot. It was a traditional Asian resort, but the largest in the world as well. The taxi driver had actually mentioned it. “You know it’s the biggest in the world, right? People talk shit about the Jeon-il Group once in a while, but who else could have created such a place? Don’t you think so?”

“Yes, sure,” Woo Yeon-Hee answered cheerfully.

He continued, “Ah, I envy you. At least I’m going to see it for the first time, thanks to you.”

“I guess you haven’t been there? I heard it has been a while since it opened.”

“You can’t do everything you want. I’ve been busy earning money, haha. But I’m happy to drive people like you who enjoy their life. This is the charm of being a taxi driver.”

“We’re having more fun, thanks to you.”

“Hahaha, I really appreciate that.”

It had been a while since Woo Yeon-Hee last talked to someone other than me. Their conversation continued as the car passed through the highway. It was mostly about the driver’s family, Korea’s politics, and Hong Kong, which was our previous target. When the driver asked about Hong Kong’s tourist attractions and food, Woo Yeon-Hee replied as if she had toured the city.

After the driver told us the story of how he met his wife, he asked about us. From his perspective, we were a rich couple. He thought that was why we could afford to stay at a luxurious resort right after traveling abroad.

“How did we meet? He was a student, and I was a teacher.”

Woo Yeon-Hee smiled mischievously at me, and the driver made eye contact with me through the rearview mirror.

“Oh, you were a tutor. Or a substitute teacher?”

He was joking as if I looked older than her, and she chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. The driver wasn’t a tactless guy, so he knew I didn’t enjoy the conversation. He brought up a different topic to move on.

“I’ll close my eyes for a bit,” I said.

Screech-

My eyes suddenly opened. I didn’t get hurt as I had reacted immediately, but an ordinary person would have hit their face on the back of the passenger seat.

“Are you okay?” the driver asked.

“We are fine. Are you okay?”

“I’m so sorry.” His voice was mixed with guilt and anger.

Woo Yeon-Hee said while pointing at the driver across from us with her chin, “They have been picking a fight with us.”

She also sounded annoyed, but fortunately, nothing had happened. We managed to avoid a collision, but it must have been a close call as their car was right in front of the taxi. Their car had been made in Germany, and a triangular star that indicated their manufacturer emblem was attached at the front.

That manufacturer has the largest stake in Jessica’s Telestar Investment…

“They have been bothering us consistently?” I asked.

“They cut in all of a sudden and deliberately slowed down multiple times. The driver kept trying to avoid them, but they just slammed on the brakes this time. What if the taxi hit that car?” Woo Yeon-Hee asked.

“We are almost there. I’m sorry. Do you mind if we take a break over there?” The driver’s voice shook as he tried calming down, and he pointed at the shoulder of the road. Even then, the cars behind were honking at us, but the car in the front had to move forward a bit in order for us to ride on the shoulder. The driver could have honked as hard as he could, but he merely hooted for a second.

Then, the other car’s driver opened the door as if he had been waiting. The driver was a young man who seemed to be in his early twenties.

Bang. Bang.

He slammed the driver’s window of the taxi. The driver lowered the window and said, “I apologize for everything, so could you please make room for us to get out of the road?”

“Is that how you apologize properly?” he demanded.

“Excuse me?”

The young man arrogantly lifted his chin. “That’s not the attitude of someone who is sorry. Are you going to drive like shit again?’

“What did I do? You seem much younger than me, but you are very rude. Anyway, I’m sorry for everything, so let’s stop here. Go ahead first.”

“What? If you were me, you would say the same thing.”

Woo Yeon-Hee opened the door and got out of the taxi with a look as if she was saying ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong.’ The cars honking at us started avoiding us on their own as the youth got angry.

Despite the ongoing argument, I couldn’t take my eyes off the resort as it was my first time being close to it. The walls were built as sturdy as I had requested. They stretched from one end to the other and looked decent. The color of the paint was perfect as it was a pleasant blue.

“Are you serious? Why are you being so rude to someone who is your father’s age?! Whatever the problem is, apologize to the driver. Hurry up,” Woo Yeon-Hee raised her voice.

“Who the fuck are you?” he shrieked.

She ignored his question. “Go and apologize.”

“You must be reckless because people are around here, right? Do you think I will bear with you because you are a girl?” he screamed.

She replied flatly, “Do it, before you get in big trouble.”

“Big trouble? What trouble…” He clearly lowered his voice, and his eyes looking down at Woo Yeon-Hee began shaking. When I walked toward him, I saw her furious eyes glaring at him. Her face was definitely frightening to ordinary people.

“Let that boy go. This is an inconvenience to others,” I said.

The taxi driver also gave us a look to get back on. The incident seemed to have settled, but this time, the problem was the girl who got off the passenger seat of the boy’s car.

“Oh, wow. You… you are going to hit him, right? Do… do you know who he is?”

I wanted to compliment her for being able to finish her statement even after Woo Yeon-Hee glared at her.

“Who is he?” Woo Yeon-Hee asked.

The boy tried stopping the girl from answering her, but the girl was reckless.

“He is the only grandson of Taeil Group’s CEO!”

“Huh, I have never heard of such a group, but I’m pretty sure your grandfather didn’t establish the firm to raise his grandson to be this ill-mannered, right?”

Woo Yeon-Hee ignored the girl and just talked to the young man. Then, she made eye contact with me and went into the taxi. The driver and I followed her into the taxi. The boy and the girl stared at us for a few seconds and drove off.

“Do you know the Taeil Group?” Woo Yeon-Hee asked.

I shrugged. Since I didn’t remember their name, they weren’t a significant group.

“I’m so sorry. He must have been offended that I didn’t let him go first when I entered the highway from the rest stop. I guess I must have ruined your mood, right?” the taxi driver apologized.

“Nah, don’t worry about us. You must have been pissed. Uneducated people like them are the biggest problem in society. Tsk, tsk,” Woo Yeon-Hee responded.

***

We encountered the ungrateful couple again at the resort pool. People usually regretted being emotional after the moment passed, but they were different. The boy seemed to have been embarrassed that he had chickened out after Woo Yeon-Hee confronted him as he was rushing toward us with an angry look in his eyes.

“Ugh, it has been a while since we had a nice break…” Woo Yeon-Hee muttered. If he was a monster, his head would have already flown away. I shook my head at her as she was about to get up, and I let the boy approach us. His inattentive gaze scanned my whole body, and his fighting spirit vanished as if he realized he couldn’t physically beat me. Instead, he began rattling on in a sarcastic tone, “You both got nice tattoos. So what do you want? Should I leave? Think carefully.”

“I’m so done with this infantile situation. There is no need to deal with this any longer. I’ll get this over with.” Woo Yeon-Hee looked at me with a fed-up expression on her face.

He had to leave the resort anyway in three days, but I felt like he would annoy me until then. This was a VIP pool, so I would run into him at other VIP facilities. I ignored him chattering and called the resort staff passing by. Then, I told the staff to bring over the executive manager of the resort, or if she didn’t have that authority, the highest person up on the chain that she could contact.

“What are you going to do after you call them? Don’t you get the situ… Ugh!”

The boy suddenly collapsed with his hands guarding his stomach. Everyone’s attention was on us due to his disturbance, but they must have thought he just had a terrible stomachache. Only Woo Yeon-Hee knew the cause of his pain and clicked her tongue as if she felt sorry. I called Jamie while waiting for the resort manager.

<Jamie: Hello, Odin.>

Her Korean pronunciation had improved, and she sounded like a native speaker. From the moment she realized that I was the owner of the entire organization, she had become more uncomfortable with me.

<Seon-Hu: I’m here already.>

<Jamie: Are you at the resort?>

<Seon-Hu: Yes.>

<Jamie: If you had told me, I would have been waiting for you there. I’ll get there as soon as possible.>

<Seon-Hu: It’s okay. Come on the day you originally planned. By the way, there’s one little thing that has been bothering me.>

<Jamie: …>

She became silent instantly, and I felt like I knew what she was thinking about. However, it wasn’t something she was currently concerned about. I wasn’t asking her to plan a new currency war with the funds I had placed in France, nor was I asking her to press the Korean government harder.

<Jamie: We have been requesting to remove the articles that negatively impact our group’s image…>

<Seon-Hu: No, it’s not about that.>

<Jamie: I’m sorry. I’ll fix it right away.>

<Seon-Hu: No, no. Ah, it’s embarrassing to say. It’s just that there’s this little guy who has been annoying me here. I really want to relax a bit.>

<Jamie: Umm… a little guy?>

<Seon-Hu: He claims he is from Taeil Group, but have you heard of them? Because I haven’t.>

<Jamie: Give me one second, please.>

There was some noise as she put down the phone, and then I heard Jamie asking ‘What is the Taeil Group? Come on!’ from far away. Then, she picked up the phone again.

<Jamie: There is a company called Taeil Food, which is in charge of distributing food ingredients and a few other things. When the Daehyun Group started their construction business, the former CEO had brought them in.>

<Seon-Hu: Oh, yeah?>

<Jamie: I sincerely apologize for making you go through terrible things that you shouldn’t have. I’ll take care of it immediately.>

The boy was raising his head as if he wanted to earnestly appeal to something, but he couldn’t make his voice work. He looked like he had roughly figured out the situation although he didn’t know the details.

Yes, this was the expression! This was the expression I wanted to see from the former Bilderberg Club members when they gathered in front of me at the Jeon-il Club’s first conference!