Chapter 55
The WG Food office.
By 9:00 AM...
Every employee had arrived.
The office was filled with massive confusion.
And yet, beneath that chaos was a strange, silent panic.
Everyone wore the same blank expression.
The nonstop ringing of phones made the office sound like hell.
Ring!
Ring, ring!
Bzzz.
Dozens of office phones sat across the Accounting and Sales Departments.
Employees' personal phones were screaming just as loudly.
There was barely even a one-second gap between calls.
The entire office seemed ready to burst from the noise.
“Ah, yes, sir.”
“The news?”
“No, no.”
“WG Food hasn't gone bankrupt.”
“There was just a temporary issue with headquarters' fund execution...”
“Yes?”
“Our next payment will be made normally without any problem.”
“What?”
“You're stopping all credit transactions?”
“Sir, that's not what happened.”
“Sir!”
Employees were drenched in sweat.
Some practically begged into their phones.
But the people on the other end coldly hung up.
Before one call even ended...
Another phone would begin ringing.
The moment news of Bongau-tang's deliberate planned bankruptcy broke...
Every supplier connected to WG Food became terrified.
Livestock suppliers.
Sauce ingredient vendors.
Vegetable suppliers.
Packaging companies.
WG Food had purchased raw materials and packaging from all of them in order to manufacture Bongau-tang products.
Naturally...
Those companies feared WG Food would no longer have enough money to pay its outstanding credit bills.
If WG Food collapsed too...
They might never receive their money.
Even companies whose official payment dates had not yet arrived were aggressively demanding confirmation that WG Food could still pay them.
Many declared that they were immediately suspending transactions.
“God...”
“This is the company I spent my entire life building with my own blood and sweat...”
Inside the CEO's office...
Jeong Seonghan stared at the unpaid-invoice documents piled across his desk.
Stacks of receipts were scattered across the floor.
He was nearly sobbing.
Only yesterday...
He had been staring happily at Bongau-tang's sales reports.
Now his lips had turned blue.
Manager Kwon Seunghun was no better.
He could not answer the office phone.
His personal phone.
Or even a single message.
He simply sat there blankly.
They needed to recover quickly.
They needed a plan.
But everything felt hopeless.
The business partner they had trusted so completely...
The company that had seemed large and dependable...
Had turned out to be an elaborate scam.
It was not easy to recover mentally from something like that.
“My fault...”
Manager Kwon finally began slamming his head lightly against the desk as he blamed himself.
“I was blinded by the sales numbers right in front of me...”
“I destroyed the whole company.”
The criminals were obviously the ones at fault.
But Manager Kwon felt guilty because he had been seduced by the dazzling promise of an exclusive supply contract with a large company...
And had pushed the project forward.
It was not merely because several hundred million won had gone unpaid.
There was the second DD Franchise Consulting payment they had never received.
Another several hundred million won in ingredient costs WG Food still needed to pay.
And worse...
Hundreds of thousands of packs of sauce and broth were sitting in their warehouses.
They could not sell them.
They could not even dispose of them easily.
Dead inventory worth hundreds of millions of won.
Employees gathered together anxiously, biting their nails.
“Shouldn't we somehow sell the inventory at the factory?”
“Right.”
“At least then we could generate some cash.”
“I heard we can't sell it.”
“Why?”
The employees lowered their voices.
“Under the contract, distribution has to go through Bongau-tang headquarters.”
“Oh...”
“Right.”
“We don't have direct contracts with the franchise stores.”
“So of course we can't just supply them ourselves.”
“Then what's going to happen to us?”
The employees' anxiety reached its peak.
“Are we all going to lose our jobs?”
“If the company disappears...”
“Haah.”
“Should I start looking for another job immediately?”
“Still, shouldn't we help the company survive this somehow?”
One employee bit his lip and spoke quietly.
“Can we even survive something this big?”
“A small company like ours?”
“...”
No one could answer.
Because every employee was thinking the exact same thing.
A large corporation might have enough capital to survive a crisis like this.
Enough strength to endure it.
But for a small company like WG Food...
One disaster of this scale could destroy everything.
In the middle of the Sales Department...
Surrounded by the chaotic ringing of office phones and people crying in despair...
There was only one person who remained calm.
Assistant Manager Choi Inwoo.
His arms were crossed.
He was quietly reading the news article on his monitor.
Everyone except Inwoo was terrified of destruction.
Yet Inwoo's heart was strangely calm.
It beat like a perfectly engineered set of gears.
It had not been long since he had eliminated the internal enemies, Jang Woojin and Lee Sejun.
Now...
Professional scammers from outside the company had thrown a massive net over WG Food.
But to Inwoo...
This crisis was not simply a disaster.
It was the greatest stage for a reversal.
A chance to crush the scammers who had ripped away the company's flesh and blood...
And seize their entire distribution network and practical control for WG Food.
Inwoo lightly patted Manager Kwon's shoulder as the man blamed himself.
Then he pulled a thick folder of legal documents from his briefcase.
“Manager.”
“CEO.”
“This isn't the time to cry.”
“It's time for the hunter to overturn the entire board.”
In the office filled with tears...
Choi Inwoo's cold, firm voice rang out like thunder.
The scammers had abandoned an empty shell.
Now...
Hunter Choi Inwoo's true counterattack would begin.
At the very peak of despair...
When everyone else believed it was over...
He was about to seize a new throne from the ruins they had left behind.
Now.
It was my turn.
Even the air inside WG Food felt frozen.
The company was saturated with despair and panic.
It had already been an hour since the breaking news erupted.
Phones were still ringing nonstop.
I stood up and walked directly toward Manager Kwon Seunghun and CEO Jeong Seonghan.
Then I spoke.
“WG Food is not going bankrupt.”
At my words...
They did not even look surprised.
They merely stared at me with narrowed eyes.
“Assistant Manager Choi.”
“What are you talking about?”
“How?”
They did not think I had discovered some miraculous solution.
They probably believed it was nothing more than the reckless optimism of a young assistant manager.
I looked between the two men.
Then slowly opened the documents.
“CEO.”
“Manager.”
“From this moment on, we need to clear our heads and move quickly.”
When I lifted the documents...
They looked at me.
“What is that?”
“It's undeniable that Han Danghyun and his people took the franchise fees and deposits before fleeing to the United States.”
“We already know that.”
“Yes.”
“But that does not mean WG Food has even one reason to go bankrupt.”
Manager Kwon frowned and raised his voice.
“Assistant Manager Choi.”
“There are hundreds of thousands of packs of Bongau-tang sauce and broth sitting in our warehouses!”
“Headquarters is bankrupt.”
“Who are we supposed to sell that dead inventory to so we can recover hundreds of millions in unpaid receivables and cover the supplier bills?”
He could no longer suppress his emotions.
He shot to his feet.
“At this rate, our company will be dragged into bankruptcy by next week!”
Manager Kwon shouted desperately.
Veins bulged along his neck.
Once he finished...
I smiled faintly.
Then lightly tapped the document in my hand.
“Look at this.”
Their eyes followed my finger.
“The special provision.”
I immediately began explaining.
“You think the sauce in our warehouses is dead inventory?”
“Not even close.”
“Then what is it?”
“At this exact moment, that sauce is the most valuable and expensive cheat key in South Korea.”
“Customers were lining up outside all 130 Bongau-tang branches nationwide.”
CEO Jeong sighed deeply.
“But those customers won't be there anymore.”
“Yes.”
“Because there are no ingredients.”
I raised and lowered my shoulders once before continuing.
“They can't operate because they have no sauce and ingredients.”
“That doesn't mean the demand for the brand's taste disappeared.”
CEO Jeong's eyebrows rose.
“Keep going.”
“Look at this document.”
“When I originally signed the exclusive supply contract with CEO Han Danghyun...”
“They were so arrogant that they stamped this supplementary agreement without even properly reading it.”
“It covers deferred settlement of overdue logistics payments and immediate transfer of distribution rights.”
CEO Jeong accepted the document with trembling hands.
My finger moved down the carefully written legal language near the bottom.
“Article 14, Paragraph 2.”
“If headquarters fails to pay the manufacturer for seven or more business days, or intentionally initiates bankruptcy or ceases operations...”
“The manufacturer assumes Bongau-tang's exclusive nationwide franchise logistics-distribution rights and trademark-distribution rights without requiring a separate court trial.”
As I read the clause...
The expressions in CEO Jeong's and Manager Kwon's eyes began to change.
“Han Danghyun failed to pay us by six yesterday evening.”
“Then he filed for bankruptcy and ran.”
“The moment that happened, this special provision became fully enforceable.”
“Holy shit...”
Their eyes shook violently.
“What does that mean...?”
“Then...”
“Are you saying that from this moment onward, WG Food is the real owner of Bongau-tang's distribution network?”
“Exactly.”
I pulled another backup USB from my briefcase and placed it on the desk.
“Han Danghyun and his people assumed that if they formatted headquarters' main server before running away...”
“All evidence would disappear.”
“And the franchise distribution network would collapse.”
“But I have everything.”
“What exactly is on that?”
“On Monday night, I separately backed up the detailed addresses of all 130 franchise branches.”
“The franchise owners' contact information.”
“And the average sauce-consumption data for each store.”
Only then...
A faint smile began appearing on CEO Jeong's face.
“Han Danghyun and his people abandoned nothing more than a useless ghost corporation.”
I looked directly at him.
“But the real substance of the franchise...”
“The practical distribution-control rights over all 130 stores nationwide...”
“Those are already completely in WG Food's hands.”
“Assistant Manager Choi...”
“Inwoo...”
Manager Kwon stared at me with his mouth hanging open.
His entire body trembled.
“Did you know from the very beginning that Han Danghyun was going to run?”
“How else could you possibly have prepared all this?”
He seemed to be replaying everything I had done over the past several weeks.
He slowly shook his head in disbelief.
“Manager.”
“This isn't the time for that.”
“Right.”
“Then what do we do first?”
I clenched my fist.
“Now we tear apart the scammers' masks inside the hell Han Danghyun created.”
“Then WG Food becomes the new headquarters of Bongau-tang and takes the real throne in the restaurant industry.”
I continued firmly.
“First, we're immediately calling all 130 franchise owners nationwide together.”
“From this point forward, they're going to become the people we build the future with.”
After hearing my declaration...
CEO Jeong and Manager Kwon finally seemed to wake up.
Their expressions of despair disappeared.
They immediately began preparing to take control of the crisis and overcome it.
WG Food was trapped deep inside a crisis.
So were the 130 franchise owners.
Now it was time to pull all of them out of that pit of despair.
The ones who belonged inside that pit were not WG Food.
Not the franchise owners.
But Han Danghyun and Team Leader Oh.
And throwing those scammers into the pit themselves...
Was the final part of my plan.
