271. ABC (1)
rattle-
When the restaurant door opened, the bell rang and Oliver was greeted.
I didn’t care, but I noticed that even though the restaurant was moved to a new one, the bell was still using the old one.
What the heck… It was nice. I don’t know why, though.
“You have come. Dave Mr. Sorry to bother you late at night.”
Even though it was late at night, Al did not show a sign of tiredness and greeted us with courtesy.
Even though it had been a while since we met, they were really consistent.
“No, thanks. It’s probably not because Forrest is calling you for nothing. Rather, are you okay, Mr. Al? Do you know that you work during the day?”
“Thank you for your words. But I’m fine, so don’t worry. My wages have gone up, and I’m getting extra pay. I get a lot of tips.”
Al tapped his front pocket.
“Are you joking?”
“About half.”
Al answered with a smile. Oliver nodded.
After a light greeting, Al naturally pointed his hand and asked to follow.
“If it’s okay, can I guide you? Your guests are waiting for you.”
“Ah, yes, let’s go right away.”
“thank you. Follow me.”
Oliver followed Al’s guidance through the halls on the first and second floors, and followed him to the section with a private room inside. Along the way, a familiar emotion caught my eye.
“By the way······. May I ask who the customer is?”
“This is Paul Carver from the city’s interior department.”
***
Al spoke carefully, as if in a whisper, and it wasn’t a lie.
As I entered the inner private room decorated more elegantly than the first and second floors, I could see Paul Carver, a city official.
City official Paul Carver, whom he had dealt with when he was tasked with cleaning up contaminated areas and out of town.
“Thank you for coming.”
Carver, who was eating at a table with a white tablecloth, saw Oliver and said hello.
He was eating a meat pie even though it was late, and Forrest, sitting next to him, greeted Oliver with a sip of coffee.
“Sorry for calling you late.”
“No, thanks. You can come out, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Forrest nodded, suggesting a seat across from Carver.
Oliver sat down as instructed.
“Long time no see. Mr Carver. nice to see you. How were you?”
Carver raised an eyebrow upon hearing the greeting.
“I am busy as usual, but I am doing well……. Thank you for welcoming me more than that. Usually, troubleshooters are busy frowned when they see us.”
“Is that so? Why?”
Oliver asked curiously. Forrest responded.
“Usually, the reason city officials come is to entrust them with difficult tasks.”
It was a rude answer, but Carver didn’t deny it. Rather, he spoke more bluntly.
“Yes, that’s right. The city usually comes to you to entrust you with tedious and dirty work, such as cleaning contaminated areas. Or, to entrust you with something more dirty and dangerous than that.”
Shameless but cool attitude. Oliver asked.
“Is that why you came today?”
“Yes. And closer to the latter.”
The latter is more dirty and dangerous… Somehow, given Carver’s words and emotional state, it didn’t seem like something he could refuse.
Usually the city seeks coercive cooperation, which is not particularly surprising.
“May I ask what is going on?”
“Sure.”
Carver left the half-eaten meat pie and took the papers from the bag next to him and handed them to Oliver.
The words ＜ABC Investment Company＞ were engraved on the moderately thick paperwork.
“Have you ever heard of the ABC Investment Company from Dave?”
“Yes. Isn’t this an investment company founded by Sheamus, a businessman running a leaf loan, and Landa’s female investors, Myrtle Verneu, Daisy Mulligan and Jordan Debicki?”
“It is correct. So, do you know how big the company is?”
“I do not know? I don’t know exactly. I just know that tens of billions of dollars of investment have been raised.”
“That part is a little slow. It has already surpassed hundreds of billions of units and has entered the trillions.”
Oliver was not usually surprised, but he stopped when he heard the unit ‘Jo’.
Lately, even Oliver, who touched the money, could not estimate the amount.
‘How many 100 million do you have to gather to make 1 trillion?’
Oliver compared the number zo with the largest unit he felt to understand.
In Landa, there were many people who died without being able to touch billions of dollars in their lives, but Joe had to have 10,000 of those billions to be successful.
Indeed, it was a shocking number.
“You have nothing to say.”
“Ahh······. sorry. I don’t know what to answer.”
“This is a normal reaction. A joe is actually a unit that shouldn’t normally come out. Even if you put it in a low-interest bank, at least 10 billion won a year is an amount that is printed in interest.”
“Somehow, it’s an unrealistic number.”
“This is a normal reaction, so don’t think it’s weird at all.”
“By the way, how did ABC raise money? I’ve seen it a while ago, but time hasn’t passed like that again, has it?”
Oliver asked, genuinely curious. I wondered if money could be collected in such a short period of time.
“Have you ever heard of randas fluctuating because they don’t have enough money?”
“Yes.”
“You can do it by swiping up all that churning money.”
It wasn’t easy either, but city official Carver explained how to do it right away.
The important thing, he said, was publicity and delusion.
“Publicity and delusion?”
“Yeah, when Sheamus founded ABC, he used the show and the money to get all newspapers to cover ABC, which made him a huge hit. Who built it, and who invested it.”
“Yes, I know. But, if it’s true, isn’t there a problem? . . . Or is the article fake?”
“Well, that would be nice, but no. Everything in the article is true. Investors, investment funds, profits all… Thanks to this, in less than a week since its establishment, over a thousand people have entrusted their money. The tiers are also different. From ordinary workers to self-employed people, professionals, business people, and even banking institutions.”
“Incredible······. But, is it possible to raise a trillion dollars by adding a thousand people?”
“After that, one after another, famous denials entrusted their money, and each time, citizens flocked to them like ants to deposit their money. Today, the number has exceeded 10,000. Please check the documents if you wish.”
Oliver checked the documents as instructed.
On the page Carver said, investment records such as the date, number of investors, and amount of investment were neatly organized.
The well-known wealthy made their investments at regular intervals, as Carver said, and the number of people grew exponentially each time.
It was like a snowball rolling down a hill.
“We are getting investments from not just the Landa people, but beyond. Through the agent, not only the surrounding small towns, but also the capital of the kingdom and there Northland.”
Oliver turned the paper over again. As Carver said, the investment flow of Sheamus was clearly marked. Similarly, the cobwebs were dense and systematic.
Zora got a sense of how the unrealistic numbers came together little by little.
‘It’s not realistic though.’
pallang. pallang. Palang…
Oliver quickly scanned the papers and asked a question.
“The investigation is very well done. But, I don’t know the point of this story. Why are you talking to me about ABC Investments?”
“Because the job to commission is to get behind this nonsense company.”
“··································································································· Why are you saying it doesn’t make sense?”
“Because, literally, it’s a nonsensical company.”
***
City official Paul Carver confirmed and explained why.
It wasn’t long before Oliver realized that the statement was unfounded.
Carver pulled out a pen and paper and, right before Oliver’s eyes, made an estimate of how much money ABC could raise in the future.
Looking at the appearance and speed of writing the numbers, it was clear that he had already calculated it several times.
“If you just follow this flow, you will be flocking to the ABC of investment beyond the money you have collected. At least two to ten times more.”
“… 10 sets of ten?”
Oliver was not quite astonished at the absurd amount. Carver, on the other hand, was calm.
“Yeah, that’s what human greed and madness are… However, no matter how much money Landa has, there is always an end to it. The investment will start to decline gradually.”
Carver drew a graph of gradually fading on a white piece of paper.
“However, on the other hand, the amount of investment that ABC has to pay increases exponentially. They also segmented investment products to see if they were worried about it, but in the end, it’s just a matter of time. It will reach unacceptable levels.”
Carver again drew an exponentially growing graph on a piece of white paper.
The two graphs showed enormous gaps and imbalances, which caused a great deal of ominousness. Even Oliver was embarrassed.
“There comes a time when you can’t pay money no matter how much you give it. Even if it’s as convenient as possible.”
“I’m saying I don’t understand, because ABC is an investment company, can’t we just pay it with the projected proceeds? It is said that ABC never fails in investing.”
“When the word “absolute” comes up in investing, it is an absolute scam.”
Carver affirmed once again. When I saw the emotional state, it wasn’t just words, it was the sincerity.
“I don’t know exactly what the World Tree is, but I do know that it’s bullshit that you never fail in an investment market filled with human greed and madness. The story of even the greatest wise men investing and failing is famous. That is reality and history. Do you really believe in such nonsense, Dave?”
“It’s hard to believe, too, but I don’t know if there are people with abilities I didn’t even think of, so I try not to make assumptions.”
“·················ogue.”
Carver didn’t say anything, illuminating his absurd emotions.
In the midst of silence, Oliver spoke. There was one thing I was worried about before.
“I have a question.”
“What is?”
“If it’s that suspicious, shouldn’t the city have to investigate on its own, not a fixer like me?”
“It’s so true, I don’t have anything else to say. Dave is right, but I couldn’t afford it, so I brought it here.”
Oliver felt ominous once again in Carver’s words.
“I don’t quite understand what you mean.”
“Before I came here, some people had raised suspicions about Sheamus’ business. Mathematicians, as well as economists, even the Moirai.”
The Moirai School was a school that specialized in world trees.
Although it has a short history and scale along with the Life School and Spatial School, its potential and growth is one of the most powerful schools in Mato.
“But, why doesn’t the city do research?”
“The proper investigation is not being done because of the officials and city councilors who look after Sheamus. Still, I did my best to investigate, but nothing came of it. In particular, the issue of the world tree cannot be decided by the city.”
“ah······.”
“Thanks to that, most of the investigations went to a halt, and the public officials and city councilors who took money from Sheamus gave only the cause to protect them. To make matters worse, the citizens bring more money to Sheamus.”
“After all, investment is a personal choice, wouldn’t it be okay to leave it alone?”
asked Oliver, who values personal will.
It’s a pleasure to gain money from investing, and even if you lose, it’s your choice, so it’s not bad.
But Carver only shook his head.
“I am a city official. Fraud is happening right in front of your eyes, and you can’t just get over it.”
“·················ogue.”
“The reason is that . The very existence of Landa would be jeopardized if it was left alone on this scale.”