The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 475



Only Krnovel

475. Buy at the low point (5)

Lee Young-han’s abilities were beyond imagination.

In just two days, I brought the person I wanted to Korea.

“I am a researcher in charge of light vehicle quality at a Toyota subsidiary.”

“How did you recruit them?”

“It’s an industry secret, so I can’t tell you. But I never did anything illegal or committed any violence.”

It certainly didn’t seem like I was dragged in.

However, the researcher kept looking around and wiping away cold sweat as if he was so anxious.

I looked straight at the researcher’s face and checked the details, and was able to obtain quite a bit of information.

“Are you Mr. Kenji Sato? Nice to meet you.”

“What is my name?”

“We also know that there was cheating on the safety tests.”

“How about that?”

This was information confirmed through detailed information.

Although it was stated in the special notes that there was safety test cheating.

I continued to talk to him, gently teasing him, not knowing exactly how he had committed the misdeed.

“I bet it’s been hard for you. I know you’ve tried to report me several times.”

“I didn’t report it to the police, I just kept it to myself. I never told anyone about it, so how did you know? No, who are you?”

You probably didn’t tell anyone.

But I was able to read through the details to get a sense of his situation.

“I am someone who can help you.”

“Are you saying you’ll give me money?”

“Of course I can give you as much money as you want. But wouldn’t it be difficult for a whistleblower to survive in Japan? I can also provide a foundation for you and your family to settle down and live in the country of your choice.”

The problem of whistleblower protection was also serious in Korea.

In the case of Japan, they were even less protected than in Korea.

There were many cases where they were branded as traitors and buried in Japanese society.

“Can you protect me?”

“I’m sorry for the late introduction. I’m Kim Min-jae from Taewoo Group.”

“Taewoo Group? Are you Chairman Kim Min-jae?”

“That’s right. I will protect you, Mr. Kenji, and your family. And I can make you an honorable whistleblower for the interests of others, not a traitor.”

It was Kenji whose pupils were shaking violently.

I’m sure you have a lot on your mind.

The guilt of having to betray the company I had worked for for decades.

And the anxiety of being involved in something illegal.

Finally, the greed for money.

If I had been an employee at Toyota headquarters, I wouldn’t have been short on money.

He was affiliated with a small automobile company under the Toyota Group.

“What should I do?”

“Just tell me how you’ve been manipulating safety tests so far.”

“We didn’t do anything grandiosely illegal. We just adjusted a few values ​​during the safety testing process.”

Kenji spoke more casually than expected.

Or they don’t know how serious the crime they committed was.

Or maybe it had been going on for so long that I had become numb to it.

“So you mean you manipulated the numbers?”

“That’s all I did.”

“It seems like you know more. Please tell me everything.”

“I have witnessed tests being conducted with vehicles that were tuned to produce higher safety test numbers.”

“So you’re saying that you tuned the car to improve its performance?”

“Yes.”

This act violated the purpose of the crash test.

If you create a separate vehicle specifically for crash testing and manipulate the data, the data for mass-produced vehicles will naturally be contaminated.

“Do you know how the car was tuned?”

“There was a risk that the door panel could stab the driver in the event of a side impact when the airbag deploys. That’s why we passed the test by installing a better panel or adjusting the angle only for the experimental vehicle.”

Do you really have to go this far?

In fact, this incident started out simply as a recall of automobiles that used Japanese steel company products.

Despite Taewoo Motors conducting a recall.

Japanese automakers have consistently denied any knowledge of the matter, and investigations have been conducted to pressure them.

But I had a feeling that there was a bigger scandal hidden than I had expected, and that the stakes could get even bigger.

“Was it only Kenji’s company that did this? Or was the same thing happening in other places too?”

“I don’t know everything, but from what I’ve heard from higher ups, it seems like similar things are happening elsewhere.”

It didn’t seem to be a problem with one affiliate.

It was something that could have spread to the entire Japanese automobile industry.

The problem could have grown to a point where it couldn’t be solved by recalling a few vehicles.

***

The next day.

I went to work at the parts research lab, not the headquarters.

The director of the research lab greeted me with a disheveled look on his face, as if he had been conducting experiments all night.

“Chairman, you’re here! We’re conducting various experiments in various places. Not only in the lab, but also in Taewoo, Kai, and GM, we’re securing data by dividing them into parts.”

“Has anything come out?”

“There are some areas that are questionable, but we still need to conduct more experiments to get more accurate data.”

The experiment was being conducted in a laborious manner.

Although it was the best method, it was time-consuming and labor-intensive because there was no information.

The only way to save time was through information, and I told the director of the lab what I knew.

“We got information from a whistleblower. He said that they rigged the side impact tests.”

“Really? I was skeptical, but did they really tamper with the safety tests?”

“Please check the airbag part carefully. The data you get will be completely different from the safety test results.”

“Let’s conduct a more detailed experiment using a laboratory dummy.”

There’s a reason crash tests cost so much money.

In particular, the dummies that replaced drivers cost over 100 million won each, and high-end dummies sometimes cost over 1 billion won.

So who would do such an experiment?

It may be possible to test your own product, but it is rare to spend billions of dollars testing another company’s product.

Besides, we weren’t just investigating one vehicle.

The cost was in the hundreds of billions of yen, as numerous vehicles from Japanese automakers were being tested simultaneously.

“Where are the exhaust gas and engine experiments being conducted?”

“Exhaust gas emissions are being tested by Taewoo Motors, and for engines, Kai Motors and GM of the United States are conducting tests simultaneously.”

Even flaws had their importance.

The largest part of a vehicle is, of course, the engine.

It’s not for nothing that the engine is likened to the heart. If a defect were found in the engine, it could create the best situation beyond achieving my desired goal.

“When can I expect the results to come out?”

“Because this is such a sensitive issue, we are investigating from various angles. Even if we hurry, it will be difficult to obtain results before the end of this month.”

“Are you testing all the engines on all your vehicles at the same time?”

“There are quite a few vehicles that share the same engine, so we are only conducting experiments with a few types of engines.”

That’s why the engine was one of the key factors in this incident.

For other parts or areas, it varies depending on the vehicle type.

In the case of engines, several vehicles were using the same specifications.

So the moment a flaw occurs.

It seemed like several car models were having problems at the same time.

“Let’s increase the research budget. Increase it by 10 billion won.”

“A total of 40 billion won will be invested.”

“Instead, try to shorten the time as much as possible. I will only trust you, sir.”

The Ace of Spades came in first.

But how could we not raise the stakes?

***

After finishing all the work, I headed to Captain Kang’s office.

After a long time, I drank beer along with the ramen that Captain Kang made for me.

“After all, the ramen that Captain Kang cooks is the most delicious.”

“Me too. I would hire you as a chef in the cafeteria.”

Vice Chairman Han also praised Captain Kang after finishing a bowl of ramen.

Only when we were satisfied did Captain Kang take off his apron with a satisfied smile.

“I mastered how to boil ramen during my military service.”

“Be sure to teach your successor how to make ramen. This taste must last forever.”

“That’s right. This ramen should be designated as an intangible cultural asset!”

For a while, we played around and joked around like middle school students.

The moment we drank a glass of water, we returned to our serious looks and talked about work.

“Are you still looking for the whistleblower?”

“We are recruiting researchers from Toyota affiliates along with Myeongdong. We have already recruited five researchers and have confirmed how data manipulation is taking place.”

It could have been the biggest scandal ever, if only it had been properly uncovered.

It could have spread to something incomparable to the Japanese steel company data manipulation incident, so they were using the power of Captain Kang’s organization, Myeongdong, Taewoo Group, and even the financial tower.

“We are also investigating Japanese automakers at the Financial Tower. We have also obtained some evidence related to data manipulation.”

“The evidence will be overwhelming. According to the director of the institute, this has been going on for at least ten years.”

“But the Japanese industry is more closed than I thought, so not many people are stepping up. I think we need to put in a little more effort.”

The fact that he had been manipulating it for a long time also meant that he was confident.

Since we planned it perfectly from the beginning and paid close attention to security, we shouldn’t have had any problems so far.

“How is the situation with Japanese steel companies progressing?”

“The reaction has already begun to cool. Stock and corporate bond prices are still falling, but not as dramatically as before.”

“I guess you’re slowly starting to think this is the low point.”

“So there are quite a few investors looking to buy at the low point. And in the case of Japanese automakers, there are already signs of an uptrend.”

Investors tend to find good news in bad news.

I was thinking that the stock price would rise now that the bad news was over and was about to buy.

“Vice Chairman Han, do you think it is time to buy at a low price?”

“If I didn’t know about this, I would have thought it was a low-price buying opportunity and started buying.”

That’s why information was important.

Everyone is probably thinking that now is the time to buy at the bottom.

We knew there was bigger trouble ahead, which is why we knew the current price was a high, not a low.

“This bomb will be completed next month. We can control the timing of its detonation. It will be detonated as soon as the financial tower is ready. The explosive power of the bomb is still unknown, but it will not be low.”

“Many people think that this is the bottom, so it has become easier to secure short selling volume. It is a bigger game than the Japanese steel company incident. It is a scale that many financial companies in the financial tower can eat their fill.”

The size of the financial tower was enormous.

They were devils who wouldn’t get full even after tearing apart a company.

But the Japanese automobile industry was worth hundreds of trillions of dollars, enough to satisfy the hunger of the devils.