Chapter 145: Hey, Cheol-jin

I fell into a brief silence at Grant’s suggestion.

What’s the best course of action?

There were pros and cons to both maintaining the current hedge fund structure and transitioning to a formal financial company by changing the business type to an investment firm.

At this point, it was something that needed to be clearly addressed.

To aid in the decision, I urgently called Oh Seong-hak, the Executive Director in Korea, to New York.

“Is this really the Dojin—no, DJ Capital I knew?”

Visiting for the second time since its establishment, Executive Director Oh exclaimed at the scale, which was incomparable to what he had seen before.

“You’ll be even more surprised when you see the assets under management.”

Seong-hwan, perhaps wanting to see more of Executive Director Oh’s astonishment, eagerly boasted about the achievements so far without being asked.

“In just one month… $37.4 billion. So, nearly 40 trillion won. Is it true that we earned that much?”

“That’s right. It’s incredible, isn’t it?”

“Huh.”

Executive Director Oh stared at me with wide eyes.

I responded with a smile.

Only after finishing the coffee on the table did Executive Director Oh finally come to his senses.

He began to address the main topic.

“……Transitioning to an investment firm clearly has its advantages. First, we can gain official status as an investment company, and the possibility of collaboration with institutional investors or global financial networks increases. Additionally, we can more easily raise large-scale funds through listings and such.”

As Executive Director Oh finished his explanation, Grant continued.

“External credibility will also significantly increase, allowing us to exert greater influence in the global market.”

The conversation leaned toward a positive outlook on transitioning to an investment firm based on their words.

However, noticing no change in my expression, Executive Director Oh continued.

“Of course, transitioning to an investment firm also has clear disadvantages. There’s a significant risk of equity dilution during the process of attracting external investment, and we would have to transparently disclose all investment strategies and financial conditions. In other words, you would have to abandon the management secrecy you’ve maintained until now.”

Moreover, if the company’s scale were to grow even larger,

and we had to be mindful of the U.S. government, it would be difficult to respond strategically with all the details disclosed.

Seong-hwan added,

“But you wanted to keep Ahseong from knowing about DJ Capital’s existence, right? From that perspective, maintaining the anonymity and independence of a hedge fund wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

It was clear that keeping DJ Capital’s existence a secret had effectively prevented Ahseong’s interference during the Pintech & Curetech acquisition and the NeoChips case.

Executive Director Oh looked at me and said,

“Currently, DJ Capital is registered as a private hedge fund, so there’s almost no external exposure. However, as I mentioned earlier, if we transition to an investment firm, we’ll be obligated to disclose not only public offerings but also major investments and asset details.”

Grant, listening, spoke with a puzzled expression.

“Boss, if DJ Capital remains a hedge fund as it is now, it will suffer in terms of external credibility and public trust. I don’t know why you’re having such concerns, but even if we earn huge profits as a hedge fund, if the market doesn’t recognize us, we could be marginalized in the global financial network.”

Grant’s words weren’t entirely wrong.

Transitioning to an investment firm would not only gain credibility in the global financial market but also allow us to grow faster by raising large-scale funds.

It would also be possible to invest those funds in Dojin Tech and Dojin Soft.

“Hmm……”

It was a difficult decision,

but the direction my heart was leaning toward was clear.

If we have to disclose our investments while using future knowledge, people will definitely find it suspicious.

Even Midas’s abilities were being brushed off with vague explanations,

and there were clearly people within the company who found it suspicious.

They just couldn’t openly question me because I was the representative.

Moreover, Ahseong was already constantly hindering me,

and if it became known that we had access to massive funding sources, the resistance would only intensify.

Having made my decision, I looked around at everyone.

“I want to maintain the current structure for as long as possible.”

Seong-hwan and Executive Director Oh, who had guessed my thoughts, nodded simultaneously.

However, Grant still looked puzzled.

“Many on Wall Street have already caught on to our success.”

It was too much money to keep secret.

“Still, no one knows I’m the owner of this place.”

“That may be true, but secrets always leak out eventually. Especially if we continue to succeed, more and more people will become curious.”

I agreed with that.

“So…”

I paused for a moment before continuing.

“I plan to make DJ Capital’s structure even more complex than it is now.”

“What do you mean by making the structure more complex?”

Everyone, including Lisa, tilted their heads at my words.

I stood up and brought up a map on the monitor in the meeting room.

With several red marks, I continued.

“I don’t want DJ Capital’s asset details, investments, and fund flows to be exposed externally.”

Executive Director Oh’s eyes lit up as he saw the countries I had marked on the map.

“Could it be…?”

“That’s right. I plan to establish additional hedge funds in these countries: Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.”

“All of them are tax havens.”

I nodded.

“I’ll establish hedge funds with different characteristics in these countries and distribute DJ Capital’s funds among them. If the fund flows are split into multiple places, even if the scale grows larger, it won’t attract much attention, and the actual asset scale will be difficult to grasp.”

Only a few of us, including myself, would know the full scale.

Grant expressed concern.

“In that case, there will be limits to attracting external funds. We might not be able to attract any at all.”

To gain investors’ trust, we first had to instill confidence.

The credibility of a financial company was synonymous with its scale.

However, if we established hedge funds in those countries and distributed the funds, it was clear that no one would feel confident.

But…

“I plan to return all the current client-entrusted assets while establishing additional hedge funds in tax havens.”

“Are you saying you won’t attract external funds?”

“That’s right. From now on, fund operations will be conducted solely with internal assets.”

Of the final assets under management of $46.7 billion, including existing assets and this profit,

I planned to send $20 billion to Dojin Soft to be used for data center construction.

“So, you’ll distribute the remaining $26.7 billion across tax havens to establish hedge funds?”

“The more hedge funds we establish, the better.”

Since they could all be managed online, there wouldn’t be much difficulty in operation, even if they were split into many.

After delegating the task of fund distribution to tax havens to Executive Director Oh,

Seong-hwan and I returned to Korea first.

Three months later, after Executive Director Oh finished establishing the hedge funds, he came to see me again while I was working hard on the NCC project site.

“Are you really planning to stay on-site until the NCC project is completed?”

“Not continuously, but I plan to participate in as much of the construction as possible.”

Midas’s abilities had already been reflected to some extent in the production of blueprints and various equipment.

However, it was clear that my maximum participation would help build a stronger bunker.

That’s why, even while in New York, I had been frequently coming here to participate in the on-site construction.

“Hey, Kang!”

Just as Executive Director Oh was about to get to the point,

someone called me from behind.

It was Uncle Yu, who had been working with me on-site.

He held a walkie-talkie in his left hand, looking urgent.

“Uncle, what’s wrong?”

I momentarily stepped away from Executive Director Oh and approached him.

Uncle Yu wiped the sweat from inside his helmet and caught his breath.

“There’s a problem in the seismic design area! The tension cable installation work has started on the third-floor main concrete wall, but the formwork has shifted!”

“Tension cables?”

One of the most critical structures in this NCC project was the third-floor main concrete wall.

This wall was a combination of ultra-high-strength concrete and powerful tension cables, designed to withstand EMP and CBRN attacks.

The tension cables being slightly misaligned meant the overall structural integrity could be compromised.

“Who’s the supervisor there?”

“It’s Manager Jung… The situation is a bit complicated.”

“Let’s go check it out.”

I quickly put on the gloves from my work clothes pocket and headed to the third-floor main area where the tension cables were being installed.

With the construction site’s emergency lights on,

I pushed my way through the bustling equipment.

“Where have you been all this time?”

Manager Jung shouted at me as soon as he saw me.

“I… just went to the bathroom.”

If it became known that I was someone above Park Cheol-jin, the representative of Dojin Frontier,

the people on-site would surely find it strange that I was working here. So, everyone on-site only knew me as Kang.

Uncle Yu, of course,

and Manager Jung, the site manager, was no exception.

“The formwork has shifted, so the cables are misaligned by about 8 degrees. If we pour the concrete like this, the tension won’t be properly distributed.”

As Manager Jung said, the cables were indeed significantly misaligned.

“At this rate, we’ll have to redo the formwork from the beginning.”

Manager Jung frowned at my words.

“You, do you even have a brain? What do you mean redo it from the beginning? Just realign the misaligned cables and secure them.”

“Manager Jung, with an 8-degree misalignment, simply realigning and securing won’t be very effective.”

Uncle Yu supported my words, but

Manager Jung wouldn’t back down.

No, he became even angrier.

“What do you know to be talking like that? I’m the decision-maker here. Just do as you’re told.”

“No… If we force the work like that, not only will the tension cables not be fully secured in the concrete, but the entire wall could crack.”

“Who doesn’t know that? That’s why I’m calling in two people to handle it.”

“No… What I mean is…”

Uncle Yu tried to say something more,

but Manager Jung cut him off immediately.

“Enough, I’ll check later. For now, just roughly align it and start pouring the concrete quickly.”

As the manager, Manager Jung shouted, and the workers immediately returned to their positions to realign the misaligned cables.

Uncle Yu, unable to say anything more, turned away.

“Hey, why aren’t you moving? Don’t you want to get paid?”

His expression was as if he could devour me at any moment.

But I didn’t avert my gaze.

“Forcibly aligning and securing the cables won’t solve the problem. It will only cause bigger issues.”

At my words, Manager Jung snorted derisively.

“How many years have you worked in this field?”

“……It’s not about how many years I’ve worked.”

“Really? So, you’re disregarding the 20 years of experience I’ve built in this field? Or are you saying that if we follow your advice and fail to meet the deadline, you’ll take responsibility?”

“No…”

“If you can’t take responsibility, stop talking nonsense and just do your job properly. Got it?”

I tried to let it go,

but his increasingly dismissive tone suddenly ignited my anger.

So, without thinking, I took out my phone from my pocket and pressed the call button.

“Cheol-jin, it’s me. I think you need to come here.”