NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 76



Only Krnovel

Paperman (5)

A few days later.

A large auditorium located within the Chosun Ilbo building.

All the reporters and staff of the Chosun Ilbo gathered in one place at the sudden call from an executive.

“What’s going on all of a sudden?”

“They told me to gather up above?”

“Above? Editor-in-chief?”

“No, it’s even higher than that?”

“Then, boss?”

“Wow… … Our Noda lord is dead, so now his son is going to be the president or something?”

“You’re not going to be a good kid, are you? We need to establish some discipline.”

“Did he eat something wrong?”

“I think there was something wrong with the salmon sushi I ate yesterday.”

“What is salmon sushi?”

While the reporters were enjoying a pleasant conversation while mourning the death of former Chosun Ilbo president, Noda Daigami, someone climbed up onto the podium.

A bit chubby, with thick glasses and a bushy beard… … Anyone who looked at him would think he was the kind of person who would stay locked up in a press room and write all day and night.

“Who is that person?”

“Where are you from? Social Affairs? Culture?”

“It’s my first time seeing you… … . Who are you?”

Everyone showed curiosity at his sudden appearance and started to speak up, so the auditorium quickly became noisy.

Then the man on stage brought the microphone to his mouth and said.

“Ah, ah, can you hear me? If you can hear me, please keep your mouths shut and focus on what I’m saying.”

At his words, the auditorium became as quiet as a mouse.

Of course, it was never because they respected each other.

This was almost like everyone was speechless at his sudden appearance and his attempt to control the reporters, something even the governor could not do anything about.

Of course, the other person had no way of knowing that fact, so I just said what I had to say.

“Nice to meet you, Chosun Ilbo staff.”

“… … .”

“Hmm… … . It seems like everyone is quite reserved. Silence is not golden to a reporter, it’s poison.”

“… … .”

The man on the podium glanced around at the reporters, wondering what was so good about it.

Then he lifted his wrist and checked the time.

“The time is now… … . It’s 2:33 PM, so it’s been about 3 minutes since I became the president of the Chosun Ilbo.”

“???”

“Boss?”

“What? Mr. Song sold the company?”

Everyone looked up at him with expressions as if they had been hit in the back of the head by the surprising news as much as his sudden appearance.

He looked down at the reporters from the podium and smiled benevolently.

“This time, I am Kyuichi Kuroda, who took over the Chosun Ilbo. Let’s all do our best.”

And among the reporters was Mr. Hyun.

Mr. Hyun felt a strange sense of familiarity from the stranger standing on the podium.

“ah.”

And then I remembered what happened a few days ago.

I’m talking about that incident where he threw a stone at the forehead of the first person he saw on the street.

* * *

Just because the Chosun Ilbo came into my possession didn’t mean everything was over.

In any case, the whole reason I took over this company was to get close to Governor-General Saito, figure out his disposition, and at the right time, push for a bribe to get him to really get on his nerves, and then return to Japan with that concentrated anger and have him properly dance the sword dance.

‘I’m going to make some money while I’m at it.’

By acquiring the Chosun Ilbo, I was able to influence the Chosun media.

Of course, he couldn’t do anything right away because he was currently pretending to be a solid businessman who was loyal to the Empire of Japan and striving for success, but it was still the perfect position to gradually build things up.

It might be possible to provoke the journalists into revealing to the world various news that the Government-General would rather keep hidden.

‘… … Assuming that the company stabilizes again.’

So after taking over the company, I was locked in the CEO’s office for a few days and listened to the accomplishments of the former CEO, Song Byeong-jun, and every single one of them was absolutely horrible.

Song Byeong-jun seemed to have regarded the Chosun Ilbo as something like his piggy bank, so the ledgers were merely formal records, and there was no capital in the company name at all.

‘The advertising costs are terribly high, but it is difficult to expect advertising effects commensurate with the cost.’

Since Song Byeong-jun, who had been rising steadily, became the president of the Chosun Ilbo, the Chosun Ilbo’s advertising fees have been rising steeply every year.

But if you ask me whether placing an advertisement in the Chosun Ilbo is more than enough to cover the expensive advertising costs, I can’t help but tilt my head.

‘I can’t find any pictures or illustrations in the newspaper, and it’s inconvenient to read because it’s full of difficult Chinese characters mixed with Japanese, but what is this…? There’s nothing worth seeing.’

Perhaps because of the surveillance and censorship of the Government-General, newspaper articles mainly dealt with trivial stories that occurred in Korea or various current affairs that occurred internationally rather than articles about the Japanese Empire.

Although it seemed that they occasionally covered stories of independence fighters in the North, they wrote the articles very neutrally, perhaps keeping an eye on the Governor-General’s opinion.

‘As time goes by, we are losing out to competition from other newspapers, so our circulation and subscribers are decreasing.’

Who would want to buy and read a boring newspaper when it is so expensive?

Only those who pretended to be intellectuals remained and continued to read the Chosun Ilbo.

Of course, the number was not small, but it still seemed clear that if left alone, the company would eventually fall apart.

‘It’s none of my business if the newspaper company goes bankrupt, but at least it shouldn’t go bankrupt while I’m the president!’

I’ll go to Song Jong-heon’s house later and get the money back, but the money I spent to buy this company right now is a whopping 80,000 won.

80,000 won is a large sum of money that can buy dozens or hundreds of decent cultural housing units in Gyeongseong. In modern terms, it is equivalent to buying dozens of apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area.

But what if the company you purchased by investing that much money goes bankrupt soon after? That was all in vain.

I don’t plan on staying as the president of the Chosun Ilbo forever.

Since I am not a gentleman and have no attachment to the Chosun Ilbo, I plan to grow the company appropriately and then later, when I am done with my business in Gyeongseong, sell it at a reasonable price to recover my principal and make a profit.

So, before that, the company should not fail, and instead, the company should be grown even further than before.

To do so, one problem had to be solved first.

‘How do I get people to read the newspaper?’

It was a simple yet difficult question.

It felt like it would have been easier to storm the Government-General of Korea and take Governor-General Saito’s balls off.

Oh, of course, in reality it was easier that way.

However, our Governor-General Saito was a big shot who had donated enormous sums of money to Korea’s independence on several occasions, and he was also a noble person who would soon be taking my place and causing trouble within Japan, so I could not bring myself to do such a terrible thing.

The story has digressed a bit, but the important thing now is to get back the pie that was stolen from other newspapers.

‘As for other newspapers, most of them were the Government-General’s organs and their translations, and the only real competitor was the Dong-A Ilbo.’

The problem is that Dong-A Ilbo is currently building its reputation by actively promoting the movement to promote domestic products and the movement to establish private universities, which have spread like wildfire on the winds of cultural rule.

On the other hand, the Chosun Ilbo had shown anti-Japanese tendencies several times since its founding and was under the close surveillance of the Government-General, so it was unable to actively engage in such matters.

Moreover, he was in a position where he had to stay in hiding for the time being because he had been actively investigating the Gyeongseong ghost incident that had occurred recently and had become deeply hated.

That is why it was impossible to get on the so-called nationalistic bandwagon like the Dong-A Ilbo.

‘Um… how do we get people to buy the newspaper?’

It was a simple but difficult problem.

While I was thinking about it for a long time.

-dripping.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Boss, it’s lunch time. What are you going to do?”

The first thing I did after taking over the Chosun Ilbo was to give the secretary job to Kim Hu-dong, a former colleague who had been doing nothing, and the messenger job to Chun-sik.

The purpose is to look into the internal situation and atmosphere of the Chosun Ilbo through these two.

“I can’t do it because I have something to think about.”

“Okay, then just Chunshik and I will go.”

As I watched Kim Hu-dong leave the president’s office humming a tune, I suddenly became curious about something and called her over.

“Hey, Miss Kim.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Ms. Kim, when you read the newspaper, what do you usually look at first?”

“Newspapers? Well, I’m not the type to read newspapers… … I’m not sure, but when I read newspapers sometimes, I usually look at the pictures or drawings first.”

“A photo or a painting.”

“yes.”

Certainly, humans are more drawn to photographs and pictures than to text, which are more visually intuitive.

‘Well, should we add illustrations to the newspaper? But then the printing cost will go up again… ‘

And even if they added illustrations, there was no guarantee that it would significantly increase the newspaper’s circulation.

The story was that there was a high possibility that you would spend money in vain and not see any benefit.

“And also, newspaper articles are often so long-winded and complicated in their explanations. So sometimes I wish someone would just summarize them.”

“okay?”

My ears perked up at Kim Hu-dong’s words.

She said it without thinking, but it was quite a stimulating thing for me.

‘If it’s an illustration that can be seen as a picture and summarize the newspaper content… … then I guess I can put in a cartoon.’

Cartoons are something that could be found quite often in Joseon since long ago.

In the West, it was not difficult to find places that actively inserted cartoons into their newspapers, so the story goes.

The problem, however, was that it was unlikely that this alone would significantly increase newspaper circulation.

‘It’s difficult to gather people together through cartoons and see meaningful results in the short term.’

What’s important now is that this incident did not happen because people did not trust the Chosun Ilbo.

Externally, the government-general of Korea had too much control, and internally, the owner’s family, including Song Byeong-jun, were at odds with reporters and spreading shit here and there, which was why it was like that.

Another problem was that general readers had lost interest in newspapers and articles that were too boring and stiff by today’s standards.

‘What is this… … . Should I completely rip the newspaper apart?’

The top priority now was to make it possible for readers to buy and read newspapers every day or every week.

In order to do that, I had to increase the pure fun of the newspaper itself… …. But when it came to actually trying to do something, I was at a loss.

‘If it were a magazine instead of a newspaper, wouldn’t it have been better to publish gossip that people would like or serialize cartoons or novels to pique people’s interest? … ?’

When I think about it, there are endless ways.

‘Yes! If you serialize a comic or novel, wouldn’t people buy the newspaper every day just to be curious about the next part?’

They could also print cheap newspapers on low-quality paper to target the poor, lower-class population.

However, the problem is… … .

‘Is there any novelist or artist in the world who would want to work under a pro-Japanese collaborator?’

Since this was a situation before the Japanese had infiltrated the art world, the art world in general was not cooperative with Japan.

But this too was soon over.

When the Japanese military runs wild, overthrows the government, and starts to stir things up like crazy, everyone, except for a few people, will either follow the Japanese or become a cult that praises their actions.

‘If there’s someone who doesn’t feel aversion to me right now and would be happy to come running to me if I just give them money… … maybe someone like Lee Kwang-soo??’

As of now, the only person who had some degree of fame and was likely to actively cooperate with the Government-General was Lee Gwang-su.

As I was organizing my thoughts like that, I suddenly burst out laughing.

“I guess this is why I really am a pro-Japanese.”

Just a few weeks ago, they killed Song Byeong-jun, who could be called the leader of pro-Japanese collaborators, and before that, they blew up the entire Geumchon Station, causing great damage to the military and police, and now they are collaborating with the Government-General to try to revive the Chosun Ilbo… … It is truly amazing.

I felt like I had no time to be bored in life.

-dripping.

Just then, someone knocked on the door again.

“Miss Kim, I told you I’m not eating lunch?”

I answered that reflexively, but what I heard from the other side of the door was not Kim Hu-dong’s gentle voice, but a rough voice like someone who had had a few drinks.

“Sir, I’m Hyun Jin-geon, a reporter from the social affairs department. I’m here on a short business.”

“Hyunjin Geon?”

Now that I think about it, it’s a name I’ve heard recently.

I still remember it vividly because I was walking down the street at that time and suddenly got hit in the head with a rock.

‘Yeah, you said you were a reporter here… … You also said you were writing some kind of novel.’

If we’re going to do it, I thought it might be better to use the resources within the Chosun Ilbo rather than dragging in Lee Kwang-soo, who is unnecessarily uncomfortable, like Dahongchima.

And it doesn’t even cost money.

“Come in.”

I spoke to him as he entered the president’s office hesitantly.

“Just do one thing with me.”

“?”

NIS Agent Tears the Japanese Empire Episode 77