The Crazy Mercenary Commander Goes to Work in the Entertainment Industry

Translator: Dreamscribe

LN Entertainment. A major corporation ranked among Korea's top 5, it had recently extended a recruitment offer to Kang Jae-ha. For most people, meeting right away would have been nothing unusual, but since Kang Jae-ha's interest amounted to nothing more than digging up a little intel on a competitor, he'd put off the date of the meeting.

In any case, Kang Jae-ha gave a brief greeting to the female director from LN Entertainment, a company that was a rival not only to Leon Entertainment but to 'MEG' as well.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Kang Jae-ha."

The woman, who introduced herself as Director Kim Joo-hee of LN Entertainment, smiled with an easy grin.

"Shall we sit down first?"

Even as he took his seat, Kang Jae-ha scanned the people across from him. The LN Entertainment side numbered three in total, including the hard-faced Director Kim Joo-hee.

'Director Kim Joo-hee is the main one, and the rest look like ordinary staff.'

Kang Jae-ha had come here not out of any interest in being recruited but simply to fish for a bit of information. So his energy wasn't particularly high. He tended to be dry and flat to begin with, anyway. Perhaps sensing this, Director Kim Joo-hee smiled and tilted her head.

"Manager Kang-nim, you seem awfully calm. Or are you just putting on an act?"

"I'm usually like this."

"Ah-ha. Indeed, just what I'd expect from the manager who's been the talk of the town lately."

Keeping her smile, Director Kim Joo-hee went on.

"I mentioned it over the phone beforehand, but let me say it again, officially. Manager Kang Jae-ha-nim, our CEO has taken a great interest in you. So much so that he brought up the recruitment himself."

Jae-ha murmured the name of the CEO she'd mentioned.

"You mean CEO Seo Hyun-su."

"That's right. CEO Seo Hyun-su is famous enough that I don't really need to explain him, do I?"

"That's fine."

There was no need to hear it, and no point either. Still, hearing Jae-ha's reply left Director Kim Joo-hee a little put off. It wasn't that it was outright rude, but something about Kang Jae-ha's tone and manner just grated on her.

'This kid behaves coldly, that's for sure. He's like winter. Chilly and dry. Did making a bit of a name for himself go to his head? Or maybe he's just faking it. Probably some petty little scheme to drive up his price.'

There were plenty of them, the types who played tough to jack up their asking price.

Left to her own temperament, Director Kim Joo-hee would have snapped at him on the spot, but she held it in, since she was under royal orders from LN Entertainment's CEO Seo Hyun-su to bring Kang Jae-ha in no matter what.

'Well, I'll let it slide for now. Once you've come over to our LN Entertainment, I can mess with you all I want.'

Kang Jae-ha had read the voice in her heart. Director Kim Joo-hee's eyes and expression were giving it away, after all.

'Looks like I'm getting on her nerves. Well, no need for me to worry about her feelings.'

Counting her chickens before they'd hatched, Director Kim Joo-hee spoke again.

"I've been watching you all the way back from BIFF, and you've clearly got it. Honestly, for me you're just... okay, but the CEO seems to think the world of you."

"I see."

".....So, do you have conditions you'd want for the recruitment?"

"If you've prepared something, I'll hear it."

Around this point, Director Kim Joo-hee's mood soured further. But once again, she held it in.

"Mm, to start, if you come over to LN Entertainment, you'll begin right away as a General Manager. On top of that, your salary will be double what you're getting at Leon now. And of course, there'll be a gift, too. The CEO told us to grant whatever you want. How does that sound?"

On the terms alone, it was quite generous. An immediate promotion to General Manager, double the salary. A gift on the side. For an ordinary manager, it was more than enough to accept on the spot. More than anything else, double the salary was huge.

But to Kang Jae-ha it was nothing more than trivial.

'I don't even bother getting promoted at Leon because it's a hassle, so General Manager my ass.'

Aside from the temporary Team Leader post tied to the 'Kisera' rebuild, being an ordinary manager suited Kang Jae-ha just fine. He deliberately wasn't getting promoted. Whatever the case, Kang Jae-ha gave a slow nod and asked.

"I'd like to hear about LN Entertainment, starting with the management teams. How are the teams structured?"

Kang Jae-ha began shaking down LN Entertainment, a top 5 domestic agency and a competitor, for information. The answers came not from Director Kim Joo-hee but from the staff who'd come with her.

"Our LN Entertainment management teams go up to Team 5, and there's nothing like the Team 4 you're currently in. And......"

Listening to the staffer's explanation, Jae-ha was fairly focused, filing LN Entertainment's information away in his head. He went on to ask about this and that, and the LN Entertainment staff answered as appropriate. When roughly twenty minutes had passed, Director Kim Joo-hee looked as though she couldn't take it anymore.

'Why does he have so many questions? There's a limit to dragging things out to pump up his price. Tsk.'

She cut off the staffer's explanation and broke in.

"Manager Kang-nim? You certainly do have a lot of questions, don't you? If you've heard enough, I'd appreciate it if you'd give us an answer now. You do realize there's no offer this good for an ordinary manager, right?"

A trace of contempt had crept into the way she dealt with Kang Jae-ha. Looking at the hard-faced Director Kim Joo-hee, Jae-ha sized her up roughly. Well, maybe she'd been dragged here against her will, or maybe she just didn't take to him.

'In any case, LN Entertainment, not all that impressive. Is the only reason they're sitting in the top 5 right now just sheer money?'

CEO Seo Hyun-su's background as part of a chaebol family. That was probably the biggest factor. Having more or less reached his conclusion, Kang Jae-ha checked the time. He'd gotten everything there was to get, and figured it was about time.

"Director."

"Yes, Manager Kang. I'll speak to the CEO about getting you a bit more on the salary, so just tell me when you can start coming in."

"I won't. Coming in to work, that is."

"......Excuse me?"

To Director Kim Joo-hee, who blinked both eyes, Kang Jae-ha answered flatly.

"I'm saying I have no intention of coming to work at LN Entertainment."

"Huh??"

"I'm declining the recruitment offer."

"Hold on! Wait, wait! Manager Kang Jae-ha, are you serious?? If this is you driving up your price, I think you can stop now."

What was this woman on about. What price-hike was she talking about. Jae-ha let out a short snort of a laugh.

"Can you give me 25 billion won?"

25 billion won. That was, of course, the total sum of the Pension Kang Jae-ha had collected while working at Leon, not counting things like 'additional perks'. For Jae-ha, just breathing and showing up at Leon got 700 million won deposited into his account every month, like clockwork. And double the salary? That was pocket change.

At this, Director Kim Joo-hee's eyes went wide in bewilderment.

"W-what did you say?"

"Just take it as a no. I'll have my meal separately. Goodbye, then."

Kang Jae-ha stood, and Director Kim Joo-hee couldn't stop him. What had just happened was so far beyond anything she'd expected.

'W-what is that crazy bastard saying? No, more than that, a rejection?? He's turning down this offer??'

In that instant, the view in front of Jae-ha, who was about to leave the room, flickered with a creeping sense of familiarity. It was the prelude to 'Deja Vu'. Soon, what Kang Jae-ha saw was not the present but something else.

『A space with artwork displayed here and there. It looked like some CEO's office. There were two people facing each other in that office. One was Director Kim Joo-hee, her gaze cast down at the floor. The other, glaring at her as if to kill her, was CEO Seo Hyun-su. His belly bulging grotesquely, he speaks coolly.

"So you're telling me that bastard Kang Jae-ha turned down the offer?"

"......Yes, CEO-nim."

"Unbelievable. He's got the nerve to disrespect me? What did he say when he turned it down?"

Director Kim Joo-hee explains in detail.

"And he said he had no intention of coming to work at LN Entertainment... and on the whole, he seemed to look down on our LN Entertainment quite a bit."

"This fucking son of a bitch. Ha... It'd piss me off too fucking much to just let it go. Is it because he's one of Han Tae-sung's guys??"

CEO Seo Hyun-su, whose rage and irritation erupted as laughter, abruptly ground his back teeth with a crunch.

"If he won't come to my LN, I'd rather just cripple him. Hey, Director Kim."

"Yes, CEO-nim."

"Stick a tail on that bastard Kang Jae-ha. Shake him down until something falls out, and that Yoon Da-yeon and An Ji-hee he's raising? Dig into them too. From their pasts to right now. If there's anything that could be a problem, collect every last bit of it."

"Understood."

"Those bastards need to be dragged down to rock bottom and through hell itself before they'll come to their senses. And while we're at it, hit Leon and Han Tae-sung's side too."』

At this point, Kang Jae-ha's vision swam once more. The 'Deja Vu' in which Director Kim Joo-hee had been the central figure vanished, and Jae-ha was back in reality in no time. Before him, the LN Entertainment staff, Director Kim Joo-hee included, were still in view.

Even as he met the eyes of the stunned Director Kim Joo-hee, Kang Jae-ha, recalling the CEO Seo Hyun-su from the 'Deja Vu' he'd just seen, smiled faintly.

'The Pig Bastard's going to be a pain.'

In that moment, he revised his blueprint.

Later that same afternoon, the CEO's office at LN Entertainment.

CEO Seo Hyun-su and Director Kim Joo-hee sat facing each other. CEO Seo Hyun-su, his belly bulging grotesquely, wore an expression like he'd just eaten shit.

"So you're telling me that bastard Kang Jae-ha turned down the offer?"

Here, the 'Deja Vu' Kang Jae-ha had seen in advance was unfolding.

"Unbelievable. He's got the nerve to disrespect me? What did he say when he turned it down?"

The setting, the dialogue, the atmosphere, not one thing was different. Director Kim Joo-hee explained about the Kang Jae-ha she'd met, and CEO Seo Hyun-su, his rage boiling over, ground his back teeth. And then CEO Seo Hyun-su, declaring they'd make a 'cripple' of him, ordered investigations into Kang Jae-ha first, then Yoon Da-yeon, An Ji-hee, and the rest.

From the start he'd harbored jealousy and envy toward CEO Han Tae-sung and Leon, and since Kang Jae-ha, raised by that very CEO Han Tae-sung, had turned down the recruitment offer, he'd blown up.

Director Kim Joo-hee's fanning of the flames had played no small part in that explosion.

After all, she'd egged CEO Seo Hyun-su on by making up things that had never even been said.

In any case.

"Those bastards need to be dragged down to rock bottom and through hell itself before they'll come to their senses."

CEO Seo Hyun-su looked dead serious.

Meanwhile.

Having left Leon Entertainment, Kang Jae-ha headed straight for 'MEG'. By the time he arrived at 'MEG', the office staff had long since gone home, and Lee Chan-hoo was nowhere to be seen.

At 'MEG', exactly one person was waiting for Commander Kang Jae-ha.

"Commander... you got here faster than I figured."

It was Cha Chung-hyeon, yawning and oozing boredom. Normally he too should have clocked out and gone to bank some sleep for using his 'Ability'. But today he hadn't. The Commander had ordered him to wait, after all.

Scratching his chin with a listless air, Cha Chung-hyeon rose from his seat and walked over to stand before Kang Jae-ha.

"Anyway, is something going on? There's no way the accounting's off. By any chance... did you check the stock info again??"

"No."

Kang Jae-ha gave a short reply and pulled out a chair from the six-seater table to sit down. Cha Chung-hyeon took a seat across from him, and Jae-ha, legs crossed, looked at him and tipped his head slightly.

"Start with whatever you've got to report."

Cha Chung-hyeon nodded and, fighting back yawns, rattled off his reports. Mostly it was talk about money. The staggering profits from 'House of the Daytime Moon', taxes, tax optimization, the money made from the stocks he'd flipped, and so on. Of course, the money from the subsidiaries they'd acquired was included too. How much had been earned, how much had been spent.

If Kang Jae-ha had done all this himself, it wasn't that he couldn't have, but it would have eaten up a considerable chunk of his time.

Reminded all over again that bringing Cha Chung-hyeon on board had been a nice call, Kang Jae-ha opened his mouth.

"Let's wreck an agency."

Cha Chung-hyeon tilted his head slightly.

"Mm... that's sudden. An agency? Which one? Leon??"

"No."

Kang Jae-ha showed him something he'd searched up on his phone and spoke again.

"LN Entertainment. An agency ranked in the country's top 5."

"Ah, I know them, LN Entertainment. But what's with the sudden urge to go beat up on them?"

"Figured the Pig Bastard's going to be a pain. So I'm getting the first strike in."

Cha Chung-hyeon didn't quite grasp what that meant, but he just took it in stride. Well, if it was something the Commander had cooked up, there was bound to be a reason. Part of it was also his own personality, laced as it was with laziness.

"He's pitiful... that Pig Bastard. Of all people, to get caught by the Commander."

Cha Chung-hyeon was sincerely mourning on his behalf, and Kang Jae-ha, calling Cha Chung-hyeon's 'Ability' to mind, gave his orders.

"From now on, map out the entire flow of LN Entertainment's funds. Tax evasion, slush funds, paper companies, anything that looks like it could be a problem, find every last bit of it, trace it, and bring it to me."

It was an order to strip the major corporation LN Entertainment bare. Cha Chung-hyeon gave a leisurely smile and shrugged.

"Sure, that kind of thing is, well... easier than blowing my nose."

*****

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