Damn Necromancer

Chapter 416: New Order (6)

A new order of faith where capital and power were perfectly castrated.

While the vested interests of the entire world crawled at Kim Minwoo's feet, brainwashing their own brains to survive, there were those who met their ruin earliest in this massive era of change.

The two big shots who once divided the South Korean business world and reigned without knowing the sky was high.

Chairman Jo Chunghoon of Dorim Group, which ranked 2nd in the business world.

And Chairman Choi of Joongyong Pharmaceuticals, which was in the top 30.

First, the downfall of Dorim Group's Chairman Jo Chunghoon was a sequence predicted from a long time ago.

The beginning of it all originated from his arrogant son Jo Pilwook.

In the past, Jo Pilwook approached without fear to crush Kim Minwoo's shoulder in front of a new gate.

However, Kim Minwoo ordered his stealthed summon Hayangi to strongly push Jo Pilwook's back, and as a result, Jo Pilwook was perfectly framed and branded as an unparalleled attempted murderer who pushed Kim Minwoo into the gate in front of the massive public.

Jo Pilwook, who ran wild claiming he was unfairly framed, dared to challenge Kim Minwoo to a live broadcast duel without even realizing the overwhelming difference in martial power.

And as the price for that arrogance, one of his legs was mercilessly sliced off, forcing him to rely on crutches for the rest of his life, and he was perfectly finished as the successor of Dorim.

But that was merely the prelude to the tragedy.

To cover up his son Jo Pilwook's incident and quiet the worsened public opinion in the past, Chairman Jo Chunghoon made the fatal mistake of handing over the mana stone battery division to Kim Minwoo at a bargain price in the name of saving the group.

At that time, he was inwardly relieved, calling the division a money-eating hippo.

As soon as Kim Minwoo absorbed Dorim's infrastructure, he spectacularly exploded the over-technologies, the slime battery and the dimensional cooling module, in succession.

The real hell began from then on.

An era where all industrial standards of the world were reorganized by Ilseong Group's technology.

To survive, numerous domestic and foreign companies bent their pride and bowed their heads before Ilseong.

Ilseong Group willingly coexisted with the companies that paid massive royalties and supplied them with over-technology components.

Leaving out only one place, thoroughly excluding Dorim Group, which was firmly nailed with the crime of being detestable.

"Even if you sell to all other companies, do not hand over even a single Ilseong screw to Dorim."

Why was it Dorim in the first place?

There might have been Chairman Jo Chunghoon's arrogance in trying to cover up his son's trashy atrocities with power, but Dorim was the No. 2 that perfectly overlapped with Ilseong in its core business areas and had chased right under Ilseong's chin for the past decades, vigilantly seeking to retake the No. 1 spot.

Ilseong needed a perfect example to engrave into South Korea that there would be no mercy for a company that dared to try and surpass them.

The result of that cunning and vicious check was disastrous.

In an overwhelming era where even the strongest Awakened nation, the US, bowed its head to obtain slime batteries, only Dorim could not be supplied with those core components?

It was a death sentence.

When competitors soared by equipping Ilseong's technology, Dorim's home appliances and electronic products had to use outdated components of the old era all alone.

Eventually, Dorim's flagship products began to be slowly but surely forgotten, treated as tacky and backward products not only in the global market but even in their domestic home turf.

Added to this, Dorim's lifeline was tightened even further as they were coldly rejected from the North Korean exclusive development project consortium.

Even as Dorim collapsed this much, the South Korean government did not extend a lifeline to them.

The reason was obvious.

Rather than helping a dying company now, cooperating with Ilseong, which was beginning to grasp global hegemony, was a ten million times more urgent and important matter for national survival.

Moreover, even if Dorim went bankrupt, it would not take a big toll on the national economy.

As it slowly declined, it became merely that level of significance at some point.

It was because Ilseong smacked its lips and absorbed all of Dorim's top-grade researchers and S-rank manpower pool who could not hold out and escaped from the sinking ship.

It was not striking the neck in a single breath, but a perfect starvation operation that slowly dried up the blood to death, using the No. 1 company's overwhelming infrastructure monopoly as a weapon.

And the final blow that followed, the Earth 2.0 update.

In the midst of the company helplessly declining, a large-scale gate exploded right in the middle of the prime real estate and massive production factories owned by Dorim Group of all places.

Trillions of won in assets turned into monster nests overnight, and the stock price plummeted into the abyss.

It was the inevitable result born of this cruel capitalistic lynching that Chairman Jo Chunghoon, whose cash liquidity was completely blocked, declared bankruptcy and chose to flee in the night.

Eventually, Dorim Group faced final bankruptcy.

Chairman Jo Chunghoon, who once commanded the South Korean economy and dreamed of retaking the No. 1 spot, was now reduced to a penniless beggar running away to avoid mountains of debt, creditors, and monsters.

The downfall of Chairman Choi of Joongyong Pharmaceuticals was also only different in its texture; its end was incredibly miserable.

In the past, Lee Seoyun had spewed out a bone-deep hatred toward the Joongyong Pharmaceuticals Chairman who had driven her life into a perfect gutter.

The 2nd-generation chaebol who had run over and killed her mother with a car in the past and wiped his mouth clean with a paltry settlement.

Due to the shock of that accident, her father became an alcoholic and beat her every day, and eventually running away from home, she had to roll like a beast in the hellish back alleys and get blood on her hands to survive.

The culprit of all that tragedy was exactly Chairman Choi, who brazenly inherited the company.

—I want to cut off his fingers and toes one by one, tear his limbs apart, and make him crawl on the floor like a bug. Without a single place to complain even if he dies, in the most miserable way.

However, Kim Minwoo's method was different.

Tearing the physical body to death in pain was far too merciful and one-dimensional.

—Dying cleanly as the noble Chairman of Joongyong Pharmaceuticals, versus becoming a nameless homeless person and freezing to death in a back alley. Which of the two do you think would be more miserable?

Kim Minwoo actively utilized the network built by Liang Xiaojun, the Bishop of the Death Cult.

The astronomical scale of fraudulent accounting ledgers and illegal slush fund creation details offered to his lord by one of the cult's blind high-ranking believers, who was also a core director of Joongyong Pharmaceuticals.

Kim Minwoo did not detonate that fatal bomb, neatly containing even the political and business lobbying list, all at once.

Over about half a year, he mobilized Ilseong's massive financial power and slowly, terribly, and tenaciously choked Joongyong Pharmaceuticals' cash flow.

Chairman Choi had to shed tears of blood while watching his company's lifeline slowly dry up and wither before his eyes. The more he struggled, the deeper he fell into the quagmire, and he poured in tranquilizers every night amidst the pain of his blood drying up.

And half a year later.

At the perfect timing when Joongyong Pharmaceuticals had thoroughly become an empty can, Kim Minwoo indiscriminately bombarded the media and prosecutors with the corruption bomb he was holding.

The solid walls of Joongyong Pharmaceuticals burst from the inside. Stock trading was immediately suspended, and amidst the disregard of political circles cutting their tails, the company miserably went through the delisting process.

Chairman Choi also had his entire fortune seized overnight and was thrown onto the streets as a wanted man.

A half-year-long drying up to death.

The extreme fear and pain Lee Seoyun had wanted, watching the Tower of Babel built by the enemy himself collapse, was perfectly achieved.

The two chaebol heads who commanded South Korea.

Their splendid empires were caught in the perfect trap designed by the capitalistic Necromancer and collapsed without leaving even dust.

＊ ＊ ＊

The bottom of an underground sewer on the outskirts of Seoul vibrating with a musty smell.

In the darkness, two men were tangled together and rolling around like beasts.

"H-hand it over! You rat-like old man! Do you know who I am? I'm the Chairman of Joongyong Pharmaceuticals!"

"Don't make me laugh! You punk whose blood hasn't even dried yet, how dare you! A guy who couldn't even meet my eyes when my Dorim was fine! Hand it over! This is the bread I picked up first!"

The two people who once controlled the South Korean business world.

The white-haired old man Jo Chunghoon and the middle-aged Chairman Choi were having a filthy scuffle grabbing each other's collars over a rotten piece of bread half-eaten by rats rolling in the corner of the sewer.

The reason they hid in the bottom of this smelly sewer was clear.

Chairman Choi, who had a nationwide wanted order issued due to the fraudulent accounting and illegal slush fund incident.

And Jo Chunghoon, who sat on astronomical mountains of debt and chose to flee in the night.

Their ages and generations were different, but the two were currently the most famous public enemies in South Korea.

The moment they went outside, being handcuffed by the police would be a relief; it was obvious they would be torn to death by investors who lost their entire fortunes and angry mobs.

So they had crawled all the way into this rotten sewer rat hole where not even sunlight entered.

"Heok, heok……. Look here, old man Chairman Jo……. Let's not do this and split it in half. I've really starved for three days and feel like I'm going to die……."

"Shut up! It wouldn't be enough even if I sucked your blood dry…… Keuk!"

It was when they were glaring at each other, panting heavily in the mud, forgetting even their age difference.

Wiiiing—.

A faint mechanical sound was heard from the corner of the dark sewer, and a micro stealth drone the size of a fly flew over and stopped above the two men's heads.

Paaaat—!

A blue light poured from the drone, and Mary's hologram wearing a purple ribbon elegantly popped up over the mud.

[What a truly miserable sight. Former Chairman Jo Chunghoon. And Former Chairman Choi.]

"Y-you are Mary……!"

"Th-the Death Lord's artificial intelligence!"

The two stuck in the gutter freaked out and backed away. Mary glanced down at the rotten piece of bread half-eaten by a rat and gave a mechanical smile.

[A life competing for food with rats. Isn't it a far too shabby end compared to your splendid fame in the past. There is a life just a little bit better than the bottom of this gutter, would you care to try it?]

"A better life……?"

"A-are you saying you will let us board the mothership?"

The dull eyes of the two men became bloodshot.

Mary nodded her head lightly.

[Yes. The mothership's waste disposal squad. It is the position of special penal cleaners wiping the very bottom area. It is a grueling position where you must process all excrement and wastewater generated on the mothership directly by hand.]

The faces of the two that had flashed with hope instantly hardened stiffly.

[However, the conditions are certain. We will provide you with enough nutritional sludge so you won't starve to death, and we can provide a place to sleep.]

After Mary's proposal rang out in the sewer, a heavy silence settled down.

At the words 'waste disposal squad', their petty pride instantaneously reared its head, but the gazes of the two soon turned to each other's disastrous appearances and the rotten piece of bread that had fallen into the mud.

Trembling, bony hands.

The underground cold piercing deep into their bones. Above all, the extreme hunger gnawing at their reason as if squeezing their stomachs.

Having starved for three days straight, pride was already a luxurious word to them.

"……I, I'll do it. I'll clean up the waste, the crap buckets, all of it, so please just take us."

The first to open his mouth was Jo Chunghoon.

Chairman Choi also lay flat on the mud floor and desperately nodded his head.

Having starved for three days straight, their petty pride as chairmen of large corporations had crumbled long ago.

[An excellent choice. Even though you are penal cleaners, you need a minimum of faith to board. Put that desperation into your prayers to the Lord.]

As soon as Mary's words ended, the two men smashed their foreheads onto the sewer floor.

"L-long live the Death Lord! Please just give us one bowl of rice!"

A desperate and shallow blind belief crying out while deceiving their own brains to survive.

Before long, the faith orbs in their arms spewed a blue light of F-rank that was miserably faint.

Paaaat—!

Along with Mary's hand gesture, a pillar of light wrapped the two old men and they disappeared from the sewer without a trace.

It was the short yet perfect moment of downfall where chaebol heads who had commanded an era were reduced to bottom-feeder penal cleaners wiping other people's waste just to survive themselves.

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