Chapter 17
“Okay, I’ll accept the terms……huh, what?”
As if he hadn’t expected my refusal, he wiped the smile off his face and looked at me with puzzled eyes.
I turned to him and explained once again.
“I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I have to decline.”
“……You’re really going to decline, does that mean you don’t need our agreement form?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that……I’d like to make you another offer.”
“Another……offer?”
I pull out my cell phone and dial the number at the top of my recent call log. After two beeps, you hear a voice.
“Han Seo-joon, did you get that?”
-Yes, I’m waiting outside the door right now.
“Come in.”
-Okay.
As I ended the call and put the phone in my pocket, the stale door we had entered through opened and Han Seo-joon walked in.
“Young master, here you go.”
Placing two briefcases on the desk in front of me, Han Seo-joon bowed and headed straight out the door. The board games club president, who had been watching the scene in disbelief, let out a hollow laugh at Han Seo-joon’s departure.
“……What’s with that guy?”
“Does it matter?”
I unlocked the lock on the briefcase without turning around.
Inside the open bag lay numerous files. Pulling out a few of them and scattering them over the board game box, I looked at the president and started talking.
“Board game club. Bronze ranked, located on the basement floor of the club hall. The ten million credits that come out once a month are not enough to buy all the board games that come out every year, so the amount of money borrowed through the economic club at rates close to loan sharking has piled up and piled up, and has now swelled to fifty million…….Is that right?”
“Wait, how can you, a freshman, know that…….?”
“You do realize that’s not the point, right? Besides, last year there was talk of an adjustment to the base grant because there were no new members……You really are off the deep end.”
“Oh, no, that’s not……!”
“Well, that doesn’t matter anyway, what really matters is why I’m telling you this.”
I snapped my fingers and refocused his attention and he stared at me, wide-eyed, as if realizing something.
“……No way, you’re buying the agreement. Is this it?”
I grin at him.
“That’s right.”
“Buying a consent form with money, what kind of nonsense is that───.”
“───Fifty million credits.”
“What?”
Thump.
Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The other briefcase opens and bills spill out of it.
The club president could only stare open-mouthed at the sight that defied common sense.
“Uh, uh…….”
“I’d like to make a proposal to the board game club.”
Not just any proposal, an offer they couldn’t refuse.
“I have fifty million credits here right now. Warm, hard cash that I just withdrew from my account.”
“Now……what are you talking about…….?”
“Oh, by the way, the debt the board game club owes right now is also fifty million credits. Isn’t this a wonderful coincidence that you can pay off all of their debts by handing me an agreement form?”
Slowly, I lean down and whisper in the club president’s ear.
“Isn’t that wonderful?”
If the person doesn’t take you up on your offer, give them the money. If they still refuse, ask yourself if you didn’t give them enough money.
I don’t know who said this, but it’s a great quote.
The club president, who had been looking at me with a blank expression, reached a trembling hand toward the desk.
At the same time, he pulls the stack of bills towards me and looks at me with pity in his eyes.
“In the end I’ve decided the fate of the club just because of money───”
“Hmm, I’m disappointed if you think so. Do you see this as mere money? What I’m offering you is an opportunity, a chance for the board game club to survive.”
Oh, and by the way─
I stared down at him with a nonchalant expression.
“Don’t even think about negotiating. If you don’t accept this offer, I’ll just go to another club and that’s that.”
Violence wasn’t the only way to intimidate people.
You can use the situation and the psychology of the other person to make them realize what a great opportunity this is, and what happens if they don’t take it.
That’s how you make someone fear you, not with violence, but with context and atmosphere.
“Can I just fill out this agreement……?”
“Yes. Then you can take this bag and go pay your debt.”
“……Wait a minute. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes, I’ll be waiting here slowly, so you don’t have to be in a hurry.”
When I finished talking to the president of the board game club and returned to the kids, everyone was looking at me blankly.
“……Why are you all looking at me like that?”
I’m sure I didn’t make a mistake or anything, but why are they doing this?
“Uh…… Mr. Eugene was a nicer or scarier person than I thought.”
“Boss, you almost lost me…….”
“I can’t believe you’re thinking about buying……the agreement form with money.”
The kids, watching my methods from behind, had different reactions.
“At first, I thought you were just blackmailing them with money……but if you think about it, it’s a no-lose proposition for the board game club. Fifty million credits is a lot of money, is it really okay to spend that much?”
“……Big money?”
Fifty million credits is about 50 million won in Korean won.
Maybe it’s because the average cost of a single piece of equipment in the game is 100 million credits, but I didn’t feel any loss when I handed over 50 million won to them.
Most of all…….
“It’s just a little bit of pocket money, so it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s ……?”
It’s really just pocket change for me, Eugene Han Corleone.
The Corleone family is one of the world’s most powerful underworld families. Thanks to them, my bank account was richer than I could have ever imagined.
Best of all, the fifty million credits I spent this time was a fraction of what my father paid me for dealing with the Blunts, so it’s hard to say that my wealth has actually diminished.
These guys who couldn’t possibly know that just stared at me in disbelief, not knowing what I was talking about.
“Freshman.”
When he was done filling out the consent form, the president approached me with a briefcase in hand.
“Here,” he says, “is the bronze club agreement you were talking about.”
“You did it faster than I thought, thank you.”
I take the envelope from him and casually hand it over to Jin-woo.
“Since you’re spending so much money to get us, a bronze club, to sign an agreement, I’m guessing you’re serious about……?”
“Yes. Just as you think.”
The president chuckles at my answer.
“I never thought I’d see the sight of a freshman forming a club again in this school, and although I can’t say anything about giving you the agreement form in this way……since you took our club’s agreement form with you, do your best.”
Saying that in a sincere voice, the president extended his hand to me so I took his hand and nodded my head.
“I’m sure you won’t have to worry about it.”
That was the end of our work here.
After leaving the board game club behind, we headed straight to the first floor, the lobby of the hall.
“I didn’t think it would be so easy to get a bronze agreement, but…… how are you going to get the silver agreement?”
Kim Young-jae asked.
It had taken me less than an hour to get the agreement form for the board game club and I still had plenty of time, so I said, pacing slowly.
“The silver club should be easier.”
“Huh?”
“Well, you’ll see.”
Our next stop, the silver club, was located on the fourth floor of the clubhouse.
“Wow, it’s definitely a different level up here. This place is so clean, it’s gleaming.”
Jin-woo was the first to get off the elevator, looking around.
“Boss, what club are we going to this time? We took out the board game club, so we’re going to the archery club or the shooting club? What is it?”
“No, it’s not a big club like that. I’m going to…… a business club.”
“Business club?”
As we exited the elevator and turned the corner to the right, the first thing we saw was a luxurious black door with a sign next to it that read, “International Trade Club.”
“International Trade Club? What is this place?”
“I’ve heard of it!”
Kim Se-ah raises her hand as she’s heard something about this club.
“It’s the club that delivers overseas products that aren’t available in the Academy or the surrounding market through their own routes, quickly and accurately… There’s nothing they can’t get for money, right?”
“Huh? How do you know that, let alone the boss?”
“I heard that they pay a good salary here too, so I looked into it.”
Seeing Kim Se-ah’s unexpected appearance, Jin-woo let out an exclamation of admiration. I smiled and said,
“It’s not exactly everything, but it’s a place where you can get most things.”
As Kim Se-ah had said, this [International Trade Club] was a kind of trading post, a place where you could get anything for money.
In the game, it serves as an accessible shop inside the Academy, but there’s one thing you’ll learn about the International Trade Club while traveling the Academy route.
“Don’t waste any time, let’s go in.”
“What? Just like that?!”
Kim Se-ah is confused as I walk straight into the door without any prior preparation.
As we open the door and step inside, we are greeted by a huge space with an office-like atmosphere and cold air blowing through the air conditioner.
No, it was a cold atmosphere that greeted us.
“I told you to bring in the real thing, but you brought in the fake, what are you going to do about this damage!”
“I’m sorry, president!”
“Sorry? Sorry? If you’re sorry, you’re out of the club, I’ll pay for the loss from your salary, do you understand?!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
A shrill voice was heard as we walked in the door and as if sensing our popularity, the woman who had been berating the club member turned to us with a sharp glare.
“……What are you doing here? It’s not club opening time yet.”
This is her way of telling us to leave.
“I’m not here to buy anything.”
“What?”
“I’m here to see the president of the International Trade Club.”
“What? Wait, by the color of your nametag, you look like a freshman…… Hey, do you know what you’re doing here? Is our president some kind of dog that has to come when you call?”
“Not a dog.”
“What?”
I smirked at his confusion and made a gesture of shaking the bell.
“Can you look at me for a second?”
“What are you doing───?”
Then, pushing past the club member who was about to yell at us, the woman approached with the bell.
The woman, dressed in a black suit and a cadet uniform that had been modified to create a similar atmosphere, approached me with an expressionless face.
“It’s been a while. Right?”
“……?”
The beautiful woman’s hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing a stark white neckline.
She stepped in front of the bewildered club member, leaned down toward me, and spoke in a calm voice.
“President of the International Trade Club. Lee Haru sees the young master.”
