Somewhere in Southeast Asia.

A humming sound and the creaking of wooden planks could be heard.

“Well, you live long enough and you see everything. Hah, we’ve got ourselves an esteemed guest.”

“Mmph, mmph!!”

–Thud.

An elderly man, bound to a chair with his mouth gagged, struggled, and a middle-aged man in a light Hawaiian shirt laughed as he tapped the chair with a knife.

“Aw, Chairman Jeong... You must be tired, huh? Just sit still for a bit. I’ll make it quick.”

“...”

Beside him, a woman with a somewhat weary expression spoke up.

“Just finish up and go. We already got all the money.”

“Ehh, come on. We can't be sloppy with someone this important. I’m telling you, Westerners don’t know how to handle things right.”

Grinning cheerfully, the middle-aged man looked straight at the bound old man.

“Ahem... Well, your ears still work, so listen up. They say hearing is the last sense to go when you die. Though... you’re not going to die just yet.”

“...Mmph!”

The old man let out a short groan—and then passed out.

The man looked down at his unused knife with a sigh, as if disappointed.

“Goodness, such a weak constitution. For a guy in business, he’s got less guts than our Western newbie recruits. Must be old age. He’s useless.”

“...I’m not Western. I wouldn’t mind being mistaken for one, though.”

She replied bluntly. She was a woman who had once worked in the Russian mafia and had later settled in Korea. The reason was simple—Lee Si-hyun, the boss of the faction she belonged to, had sent her there.

–‘Find Chairman Jeong of the Cheonggang Group.’

At that one command, the members had moved en masse... and as one could see, the trail had been uncovered quickly.

Though not much, the money funneled overseas had all been seized, and Chairman Jeong, who would soon be sent back to Korea, would be dealt with “by the law.”

“Well, anyway, don’t we work pretty well together? I was a bit worried since you’re from abroad... but I guess being from the Soviet Union means you really know how to get things done.”

“Section Chief Kim, you seem a little too excited. We’re not even from the same agency. We’re just working together this once.”

“Oh come now, don’t be so uptight. I mean, most of what we handle is dirty work, isn’t it? Serving the nation, keeping our conscience clean, and on top of that having something that’s comfortable and suits our tastes... that’s really rare.”

Kim, the section chief from the ANSP, chattered excitedly.

Only the kind of person who could feel a rush from taking down the elite could survive in this field for long—and he was clearly elated.

After all, he had taken down a powerful chaebol group in Korea under a righteous pretext.

Sure, someone would eventually have to shoulder the political fallout, but that wasn’t his concern—not right now. The public mood wasn’t in the chaebols’ favor.

“Well, let’s go.”

Just as the woman casually turned to leave the room, Section Chief Kim muttered with a puzzled expression.

“But still... something about this feels off. This kind of case shouldn’t be under our jurisdiction.”

“...What do you mean?”

“See, this kind of case usually falls into three big categories: domestic, overseas, and North Korea... I’m in charge of domestic. And to be honest, isn’t this more of a job for the police?”

Kim didn’t know it, but this wasn’t so much the work of the ANSP as it was a personal retaliation carried out by Lee Si-hyun on someone’s behalf.

‘...Did he notice? No, that can’t be. Even so... it doesn’t really matter.’

The woman blinked once, a bit startled. Then she swallowed and replied as if nothing was wrong.

“Well, we were told to cooperate from above, weren’t we? And with the chaos right now, the police aren’t going to move. In any case, it makes more sense for the Korean ANSP, which has worked with our Russian organization before, to handle this.”

“Hm, that’s true. Things are just too unstable in Korea these days...”

Section Chief Kim was still a citizen of the Republic of Korea—and a fairly well-informed one at that—so he understood just how serious the situation was back home.

And so, he chose not to dwell on the small things.

Because right now, the millions of dollars in Chairman Jeong’s hands were needed by the homeland.

***

What’s the greatest hedge fund in the world?

It’s a question that often comes up in idle conversation on Wall Street.

Some would name Soros’s Quantum Fund, others Tiger Fund, and still others Alpha Fund...

But in this world where even the best hedge funds can collapse in an instant, trying to determine the top player in the industry is a grueling task. Just look at Madoff’s fund, for example.

However... these days, the industry’s opinion had become unanimous.

[Who Owns $100 Billion? ‘God of Wall Street’ Special Edition]

[Alpha Fund’s Fund Manager, Charles Gray, Reveals Over $10 Billion in Profit... What’s the Fund’s Official Response?]

[Quantum Fund Estimated to Have Earned at Least $3 Billion from the East Asian Crisis. Impressive, But No Match for the “Monster”... Storm Chasers Shrouded in Fog]

There was someone.

A fund in this market that had made an astronomical $100 billion.

Stable high returns are a scam.

But then... what of those who reap extremely unstable, yet unimaginably high returns? Those people become legends.

Just like now.

–Thud.

“Hiding it any longer is getting hard.”

By the time I had swallowed up about three chaebol groups in Korea, I saw the tightening net around me and nodded.

‘At this point, playing coy would just be exhausting.’

One has to handle issues carefully. No matter how shocking the news, if repeated, it becomes just another nuisance in daily life.

And I had no intention of becoming a nuisance.

[Ha-yeon, can you come back and give a proper explanation soon? Too many reporters are swarming around and I’m worried we might slip up.]

Well, I’d gotten that kind of email too.

And it was about time Charles found out. He’s a bit slow, but as I recently confirmed, he’s loyal—so it wouldn’t matter much if he knew the truth about me.

“You handled everything properly, right?”

“Yes. The team should’ve done fine.”

Lee Si-hyun, who had returned to Korea for the first time in a while and was soothing her homesickness, nodded languidly.

Between the Cheonggang Group and everything else, why were there so many people running away?

Don’t run! Fight back!

...Though, considering I’d been caught while running away in my previous life, I couldn’t exactly talk. It was starting to feel like someone else’s memory now—but it was still me.

I ran my fingers along Si-hyun’s abs, lying beside me. Unlike Ji-yeon’s soft body, her firm muscles felt good to the touch.

“By the way, Si-hyun, do you have any personal requests?”

Since I’d captured Chairman Jeong at Seo Ji-yeon’s request, it only made sense I’d grant Si-hyun a favor too.

“A request... hmm.”

She thought for a moment, then narrowed her eyes at my hand.

“First, could you move that hand?”

“....”

So cold.

Feeling slightly sulky, I let out a deep sigh and was scrolling through pictures of Yoo Ha-yeon when Si-hyun spoke again.

“Now that I think about it, Miss, you do seem to like muscles... All the men serving around you are pretty built, aren’t they? At first I thought it was just because they were bodyguards, but now I think it’s just your taste.”

“Well, that’s because the delicate, beautiful image is already taken care of by Miss Yoo Ha-yeon. Of course, I am the most beautiful person in the world—but sometimes I want something different.”

To put it simply, “1 Yoo Ha-yeon = 1 Lee Si-hyun + 5 bodyguards + alpha.” And even taking that into account, the left side of the equation was still bigger.

“Ah, yes... I’m sure that’s the case.”

“Anyway, so—do you want anything? Money, maybe?”

Money.

At that word, Si-hyun’s expression subtly changed.

“Money, huh... Well, there’s already a lot of that. Ha. Even when I first heard it, I thought it was too °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° much—and it really is $10 billion. With that kind of money, I could unify Russia’s underworld for a while.”

I’d given a fitting reward to the subordinate who had been with me the longest.

Enough money that even spending a trillion won a year wouldn’t use it all up before death.

“I don’t need a reward. Just being able to travel freely in and out of Korea is already enough of a reward.”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to be one of those terrible bosses—annoying, sure, but not awful.

“That was something I had to give you. You went through hell in a foreign country because of my orders.”

“Haha... It’s fine. It doesn’t really feel foreign anymore... I’ve grown attached. And what’s the point of rewards anyway? If I just say the word, you’ll grant anything I want—if it’s something money can buy.”

“Well... that’s true. I’m rich.”

Si-hyun added with a joking smile.

“And not just rich—the richest person in the world.”

Amazingly enough, it still felt strange to say it out loud.

But yes—right now, I am the richest person in the world.