The Ultimate Tycoon's System Audit

Chapter 11: The Scapegoat

Heavy mahogany doors of the VIP holding room slammed shut, cutting off the deafening roar of the chaotic convention hall outside.

Director Kang ripped his silk tie from his collar, his face still a dark, unnatural shade of purple. He threw his expensive navy suit jacket across the room, smashing a crystal water pitcher off the side table. Shards of glass exploded across the polished hardwood floor, but the violence did nothing to soothe his frantic mind.

"How did this happen?!" Kang screamed, his voice cracking as he turned on his chief legal counsel, who was trembling near the window. "My data was encrypted on a private military-grade server! How did a penniless clerk get his hands on my personal digital token signatures?!"

"We don't know, Director," the lawyer stammered, adjusting his glasses with shaking fingers. "The financial authorities are already freezing our domestic corporate accounts. The International Financial Regulatory Association issued a formal warrant for a full asset seizure. If we don't find a way to shift the blame within the next hour, federal prosecutors will arrest you on live television."

Hearing the word arrest, Min-ah’s mother let out a sharp, horrified wail from the leather sofa.

"Arrest?!" she screeched, clutching her designer pearl necklace as if it were suffocating her. "No! This is impossible! Kang, you are a billionaire! You have political connections! Call the Chief Prosecutor! Call the Mayor! You can't let that dirty dog Jin drag us down to hell with him!"

"Shut your useless mouth!" Kang roared, spinning around and pointing a trembling, furious finger at her. "Your daughter is the one who brought this curse into my life! If she hadn't been playing around with that psycho clerk for five years, he wouldn't have targeted my IPO! You two gold-digging leeches are completely finished if I fall!"

Min-ah didn't say a single word.

She sat completely frozen on the edge of the sofa, her hands clutched tightly in her lap. Her mind was racing, replaying the cold, terrifying look in Jin's eyes as he stood at the press microphone. He hadn't just ruined the party; he had completely dismantled an empire with a single tap of his finger. She realized with a sinking dread that Director Kang wasn't a god. He was just a man, and right now, he was a drowning man.

"Director Kang," the head lawyer interrupted, his voice dropping to a low, desperate whisper. "There is only one way out of immediate jail time. We need a scapegoat. Someone high enough in the logistics chain to take the fall for the three-billion-dollar discrepancy."

Kang stopped pacing, his chest heaving as a dark, predatory light flickered in his eyes. "Captain Park."

"Exactly," the lawyer nodded quickly, wiping the sweat from his own forehead. "Captain Park handles all the overseas shipping manifests at the main docks. We can file an emergency corporate report claiming that he and his team of accountants fabricated the freight logs to steal company fuel assets. We can claim you were entirely blind-sided by their internal corruption."

"Do it," Kang ordered without a single second of hesitation, a cruel, desperate grin cutting through his panic. "Draft the documents immediately. Pay off the auditing clerks to backdate the internal investigation files. Let Captain Park and his accountants rot in a cell for the next thirty years. Just get the feds off my back so I can liquidate my remaining hidden assets."

Meanwhile, Jin stood on the high-end glass observation deck of the convention center, looking down at the street below.

Flashing blue and red lights of police cruisers already lined the curb, blocking the main entrance. Hundreds of wealthy investors were sprinting down the steps, desperately trying to escape before the media branded them as associates of a fraudulent company.

Ding!

A semi-transparent, glowing red interface hovered quietly in Jin's line of sight, completely invisible to the fleeing crowd around him.

[ SYSTEM STATUS: ACTIVE ]

[ TARGET STATUS: KANG TAE-SUNG HAS COMPLETED A MORAL BETRAYAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST CAPTAIN PARK. ]

[ CURRENT SITUATION: TARGET IS CURRENTLY TRANSGRESSING AN ANONYMOUS CORPORATE MUTINY FROM WITHIN SOVEREIGN LOGISTICS ASSETS. ]

[ NEW MISSION INITIALIZED: SECURE THE COMMAND CENTERS. ELIMINATE THE REBELLIOUS BRANCH MANAGERS AND ACQUIRE 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL. ]

Jin watched a sleek, black luxury sedan pull up to the restricted side exit of the building.

Director Kang, flanked by his lawyers and a crying Min-ah, rushed out of the door and scrambled into the back seat, fleeing the scene like a defeated rat. Jin didn't try to stop them. He didn't call the police, and he didn't shout. A slow, cold smile spread across his face as he adjusted the collar of his unbranded grey suit.

Letting Kang run was part of the fun. The System had already granted Jin 100% legal ownership of the distressed assets of Cheonji Logistics. Kang thought he was escaping with his life, entirely unaware that he was just running straight into a corporate cage that Jin now owned.

Turning away from the window, Jin walked toward the private elevators.

It was time to visit his new corporate headquarters, clean out the remaining corrupt managers, and officially rebrand his empire.