CH446 | Heir

Assistant Manager Jung Young-geun of Taewoo Semiconductor’s Technology Development Team.

He held two affiliations, making him a highly likely spy.

That said, I couldn’t pressure him without any evidence, so the first step was to start a confirmation process.

For matters like this, Captain Kang was the expert.

If needed, we could even call on resources from Myeong-dong, but for now, we decided to start with a simple background check from Captain Kang.

“Run a background check on one person. Start with Assistant Manager Jung Young-geun—check his accounts and find out who he’s met recently.”

[How thorough should the investigation be?]

“Start with quickly verifiable information, then extend to everything—even distant connections and relatives.”

[I will conduct the investigation at the highest intensity. Give me an hour, and I’ll report all account activity and recent asset increases.]

It didn’t even take an hour.

Less than thirty minutes later, Captain Kang contacted me with far more information than I had expected.

[I’ve checked all of Assistant Manager Jung Young-geun’s accounts, and no suspicious transactions were detected. However, there are consistent cash withdrawals via credit card. Including credit loans, it totals over 500 million won.]

“Does anyone in his family have a serious illness or hospitalization?”

[No, both parents are healthy, and he is unmarried with no children. He also doesn’t own any apartments or buildings.]

It wasn’t something to boast about, but Taewoo Group offered top-tier salaries.

Among them, Taewoo Semiconductor gave substantial annual bonuses.

There was no sick family member, and he didn’t own property, so there was no reason to take out a loan exceeding 500 million won.

And with ordinary loans, there would be records—whether for a car or a house.

But Jung Young-geun left no such records; only outgoing money was visible.

“What could require money to go out regularly?”

[In my experience, there’s only one common reason: people addicted to gambling often show this pattern.]

“High probability, then. Initiate 24-hour surveillance. There should be traces of money received under someone else’s name. Quickly find out who received how much from whom.”

After finishing a brief call with Captain Kang, I headed to the break room where Cheon Min-jeong was asleep.

Even before opening the door, I could hear groaning. When I stepped inside, I saw her in a cold sweat, trapped in a nightmare.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Have you found anyone suspicious from the list?”

“Assistant Manager Jung Young-geun is suspicious. He may have contact with China’s Tsinghua Group.”

“The Tsinghua Group? That’s a Chinese semiconductor company.”

“We can’t move yet—we haven’t caught concrete evidence.”

“Can I look for evidence myself?”

Her eyes radiated determination. Cheon Min-jeong made it clear that she would catch the culprit herself.

“You’re not planning anything illegal, are you? If so, it’s safer to leave it to Captain Kang or other experts.”

“I’m planning to do it without getting caught. I’ll install a backdoor program through company email to monitor his PC and phone activity.”

“You know that could be considered illegal surveillance if you’re caught, right?”

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. If necessary, I’ll get help from Captain Kang.”

Honestly, assigning her to this task was a waste.

As head of the AI Center, she was central to many of Taewoo Group’s core subsidiaries.

But I couldn’t stop her.

This wasn’t just about work—it was a matter of pride.

“Then you handle internal group matters, and Captain Kang will handle external ones.”

“Understood. And if the opponent is Tsinghua Group, I can anticipate what information they might want. I’ll set traps in advance.”

Cheon Min-jeong seemed revitalized. She was ready to act, a complete contrast to the person who had been groaning moments ago.

***

After work, I went to Captain Kang’s office.

Cheon Min-jeong, together with Captain Kang, was conducting the background investigation on Assistant Manager Jung Young-geun.

When I arrived, they were already pouring out the information they had gathered like a waterfall.

“We turned Jung Young-geun’s phone into a zombie phone. We tracked everything from his recent messages to the sites he visited most frequently. And the site he visited the most was an illegal sports betting site.”

“An illegal private site?”

“Yes. We even obtained records showing that he lost hundreds of millions of won there.”

Illegal sports betting was highly addictive.

Even minor sports he normally wouldn’t care about became interesting once money was on the line.

“I also found something new. When I checked his family accounts, I found a record of 600 million won deposited into his grandmother’s account.”

“So he sold his conscience for just 600 million won.”

“Do gamblers really have a conscience? As long as someone funds their gambling, they’ll do anything, right?”

There’s a reason gambling circles have sayings like that: if you lose an arm, you gamble with a leg; if a leg is gone, with your tongue.

So it made sense he sold out for a mere 600 million won.

Yet as a Taewoo Semiconductor employee, his career was worth far more than that.

With yearly raises and the security of eventually retiring with full benefits, his expected earnings easily exceeded two billion won.

“Did you find any links to the Tsinghua Group?”

“That’s the problem. It seems he exchanged money and information through a broker. We could arrest Jung Young-geun immediately, but the Tsinghua Group is untouchable.”

“So, what if we just leave him as he is?”

Cheon Min-jeong and Captain Kang looked at me simultaneously.

After all the effort collecting evidence, they couldn’t hide their shock at the suggestion of letting it slide.

“Are you saying we should just act as if nothing happened?”

“Would the problem end once we dealt with him? It might be better to create a spy we can actually control.”

“A strategy to keep the enemy closer, I see.”

“And if we deliberately feed Jung Young-geun corrupted information that he can access and send it to the Tsinghua Group, they’ll waste both money and time.”

The Tsinghua Group’s Chairman, Zawei, whom I had met in person, was a man full of greed.

He would do anything to achieve the goal of semiconductor dominance, and catching a single spy wouldn’t make him cautious—it would only make him act more aggressively.

“Chairman, shall we send malicious code along with the corrupted information? If they take our data, we should take theirs too, to keep it fair.”

“As long as they don’t know it was us, anything goes. Confident you can do it?”

“With the server we set up in Southeast Asia, the encryption program, and the AI-based VPN, no one will ever know who did it.”

Actually, I wasn’t particularly interested in the information Tsinghua Group held.

But to let Cheon Min-jeong release her pent-up anger, retaliation was necessary.

“Do as you see fit, Director Cheon.”

“I’ll execute it perfectly. And I’ll analyze Tsinghua Group’s internal information to see if there are any other industrial spies.”

“But Chairman, Tsinghua Group is supported by the Chinese government. If something goes wrong, it could escalate into an international dispute,” Captain Kang said with concern.

Oddly enough, his worried words made me resolve something.

“We’ll break the strong ties between Tsinghua Group and the Chinese government.”

“In Korea, yes, but alumni connections in China are also very strong.”

“The stronger the bonds, the easier they are to crack with even a small shock.”

Tsinghua Group was at the center of China’s semiconductor drive.

Put another way, if we could topple Tsinghua Group, China’s semiconductor ambitions would fail.

Previously, I hadn’t paid much attention to China’s semiconductor push.

No matter how hard they tried, I was confident Taewoo Semiconductor would stay at least one step ahead.

But now my thinking had changed.

We had to kick away the ladder so no latecomer could get close.

They had targeted us first; it was only natural to respond in kind.

“Chairman, I have another concern. Could there be more spies besides Assistant Manager Jung? Lately, I even worry that every employee might be a spy.”

“Run background checks on all employees at Taewoo Semiconductor and the AI Center through private channels. That way, you won’t waste time doubting anyone unnecessarily.”

There’s no “private channel” per se.

The only way was to use my own ability to check each employee’s detailed information one by one.

It was far faster and more precise than involving Captain Kang or any other organization.

The downside was that it ate up a lot of my personal time.

But if it meant dealing with those trying to steal Taewoo Group’s technology—developed with our capital and time—I was more than willing to sacrifice my own time.

***

It was the final month of 2016.

At this time of year, I usually called all the subsidiary presidents for an end-of-year executive meeting. But this time, I only summoned Lee Jong-su, the president of Taewoo Trading, which had been running large deficits, for a year-end review.

“Thank you for all your hard work this year. I feel like I’ve placed too heavy a burden on you, and I’m always sorry about that.”

“Not at all. Everything that happened is due to my own shortcomings,” he replied.

“If it weren’t for you, Taewoo Trading would be in an even worse state. Just a little more patience, and we’ll get through this.”

The meeting began with words of encouragement. Executives in the group were all on contracts, and poor performance made contract renewal difficult. Presidents, in particular, faced intense pressure from results, which was why Lee Jong-su kept his head low, almost like a guilty man.

“Really, it’s fine. And what about the underground resource operations? Has revenue increased?”

“Production in Mongolia and South America has gone up. But infrastructure construction will continue until the year after next, so most of the revenue has to be reinvested,” Lee said.

“That’s fine. Once the construction is complete, it will become Taewoo Group’s cash cow.”

Developing underground resources was no easy task. It required enormous time and capital, but if done right, it could generate decades of profit.

“The problem is Rocket. This year, it posted a deficit of nearly two trillion won. Although we secured over six million subscribers, significant funds went into expanding logistics centers and infrastructure,” he added.

“Once Rocket settles in, there will be no problem. We just need to endure two more years. Any other issues?”

Lee sighed. The new burdens I had given him were clearly heavy.

“Taewoo Shipping is also a problem. The shipping alliance is causing many issues. We’re trying to reduce the deficit, but it’s not easy.”

“Is the shipping alliance intentionally obstructing you?”

“They can offer lower transport costs within the alliance, so many companies prefer alliance-affiliated shippers,” Lee explained.

“Don’t worry. That problem will be solved soon.”

Trump’s inauguration was just a month away. By then, the shipping alliance issue troubling President Lee would be resolved. I planned to reorganize the alliance with Taewoo Shipping at the center.