SHIT

"Excuse me."

Early in the morning, Robert entered the café where he had met the boy named Kang Seth and his mother, the owner of the establishment, the day before.

"Oh, if it isn't the young man from yesterday, come on in and have a seat."

Emerging from the kitchen, a woman named Anna Jin greeted our protagonist with the same calm demeanor as the day before.

Or so she seemed to convey.

"What will you be ordering today?" - the woman approached and handed him the menu.

"The same as yesterday, except today I'll skip the poached eggs and go for the daily special." - the young man replied with a small smile.

After taking note of his order, the woman gave him a friendly nod and went back into the kitchen to prepare the food.

However, our protagonist noticed a detail.

'Hmm... it seems like she's putting on a friendly act today. Could it be because her son isn't here? Looks like I arrived earlier than yesterday.'

The young man realized that Anna, despite wearing a friendly expression, had a look in her eyes that spoke differently.

The gaze she had at this moment was not one you would typically find in an ordinary housewife.

'Well, I guess it's time to find out what—'

"Excuse me."

Suddenly, just as our protagonist was about to use his system on the woman to gather more information, the door to the café swung open and two men dressed in black suits, resembling bodyguards, entered and scanned the place.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to do this? Either leave or stay by the door, please."

When the eyes of those two individuals, hidden behind sunglasses, focused on our protagonist, the voice of the boy named Seth came from behind.

"Mom, I'm here." - suddenly, Anna emerged from the kitchen and greeted her newly arrived son with a genuine smile - "make yourself comfortable, I'll be with you in a moment."

"Good morning, Mom." - Seth greeted his mother, who returned to the kitchen just as her gaze crossed with our protagonist's.

"Hey, hi again." - Robert greeted casually - "I guess this time I beat you here."

"Yeah... I can see that." - Seth responded in a flat, careless tone.

A silence fell over the café, which might have been uncomfortable for anyone else in the place, but both Seth and our protagonist were lost in their own thoughts.

'Interesting... now it's clearer to me that this woman really cares for her son.' - Robert picked up his phone and pretended to start reading something - 'Let's see what kind of family this is.'

'System, scan the target.'

[Analyzing target, locking on]

[Kang Seth - Human race: He is the protagonist of the manhwa 'Boss in School.' He is the heir to Sunshine Corp., one of the largest companies in the country, founded by his late father Kang Sun, who achieved this through his incredible strength and connections to organized crime. Currently, Seth attends a special school for athletes where conflicts and fights are everyday occurrences.]

[Age: 17 years; MP: 10; HP: 20; STR: 28; AGI: 20; VIT: 50; INT: 10; PERC: 15]

'Wow, this boy is quite something.'

Our protagonist was surprised by the amount of strength young Seth possessed!

It wasn't the best he'd seen in his time in this world, but considering his age and nature, it was impressive for him to reach this level of strength.

Having strength that exceeds nearly three times that of an average human was nothing to scoff at.

Even if he wanted to, armed with good weapons, this boy could take on one of those wolf-like beasts Robert faced as soon as he arrived in this world.

Was this due to him being a protagonist?

It could be, but the fact that the boy named Hyun, protagonist of the manhwa 'Silent War', was weak seemed to refute this premise.

Was it due to the type of story they came from? That could be the most likely explanation.

"Now, another interesting thing about this boy is his past... a past typical of a gangster story, I could say. However, him being the heir to Sunshine Corp... that's the best news today."

Our protagonist was grateful for this new information he had just obtained, as it aligned with his plans.

In all his time in this world, Robert searched extensively online for information about the type of world he had arrived in. After the military higher-ups gave him many facilities to gradually integrate into this reality, he started reviewing everything that could serve as a reference for his new world.

He already knew he was in a world where several manhwas converge, but he wanted to understand how different this new world was from the reality of his past life. He began gathering information online from everything he could find, analyzing news, forums, movies, and all kinds of content available on the internet.

From all this, he could conclude one thing: This world was as ordinary as his previous life, at least that was his impression for now. Historical events here were the same. From the most prominent military events to the growth and development of industrialized countries, as well as various regional and global crises.

Everything he could review online was similar to what had been his previous world. It was as 'normal' as his previous life, without superheroes or monsters coming out of portals and attacking humanity. This excluded several manhwas and webtoons that focused on such themes. After all, this didn't benefit him much since he knew almost nothing about these types of stories.

So, knowing that this world was one without crazy things, similar to his old world, he needed to know who or what entities were leading the reins of the capitalist system in this reality. His research focused on the economic world of his current home country, South Korea.

In the 1950s, after the Korean War, South Korea's economy, severely affected, relied heavily on agriculture, lagging behind the industrial boom flourishing throughout the Asian region.

To remedy this situation, the government developed policies to encourage the country's industrialization by supporting companies that would form conglomerates, better known as 'Chaebol' (family business), with investments in various sectors of the economy.

These companies benefited from protectionist policies, as the government expropriated foreign businesses and prioritized Korean manufacturing and distribution. Financially, they received substantial subsidies and had greater ease in obtaining credits compared to other companies.

As a result, these private enterprises rose to the top of the South Korean economy, becoming true giants that dominated not only South Korea's industrial market but almost the entire Asian region by innovating in growth, technological development, and diversification, placing the country among the "Four Asian Tigers."

Some examples of original 'Chaebol' companies were Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Lotte, SK Group, SW Group, and Uju Corp. Among these, Uju Corp and SW Group stood out the most nationally due to their strong relationships with the government at multiple levels, both civilian and military.

But the most prominent of these two was Uju Corp. This company, like SW Group, engaged in a multiservice sector with investments in various commercial branches such as entertainment, finance, construction, sports, hospitality, etc. However, Uju Corp had always positioned itself as the better of the two.

Since its inception, Uju Corp had become a major player in the nation's stock market, competing in net assets with giants renowned both nationally and internationally.

Uju Corp not only enjoyed state backing but also had control over everything related to the fashion industry, entertainment, hospitality, etc. It encompassed everything related to the socio-economic part of the country.

And what did this have to do with this boy named Kang Seth? Well, the answer lies in the company his late father founded.

Since the economic crisis of the nineties, an unknown company had been cautiously growing, delving into businesses historically belonging to Uju Corp.

Slowly but steadily, that small company grew in a dizzying race to reach the pinnacle, so much so that by the time it became the center of attention, it had already established itself solidly.

Taking advantage of the American crisis of 2008, that company made an exponential leap in terms of financial assets, offering several services at better deals than its direct competitors and presenting a much more attractive market landscape, causing its investments and revenues to skyrocket.

That company was Sunshine Corp., founded by Kang Sun, the father of Kang Seth!

Uju Corp., which had long been one of the nation's top companies, was strongly affected by the emergence of another commercial giant, sparking a kind of 'cold war' between the two institutions for control of the national market!

Even SW Group was affected by Sunshine Corp.'s growth, being relegated to third place!

While the Uju group had the state in its favor, Sunshine Corp. had a dark history that could even keep its closest rival in check.

Therefore, although Uju's executives tried to find the weakness of their competition, even in collaboration with tax authorities, they could never find anything illicit that linked Sunshine to rumors about its origins.

And the blow Sunshine returned for this type of attack was something Uju Corp. did not expect, as they managed to find information about the tastes and peculiarities of their top executives, which began to cause a great scandal regarding the historic company.

However, a year ago, the entire stock market shook with a fateful news.

The president of Sunshine Corp. had died during a visit abroad!

Everyone in the business world thought that with this news, the Sunshine group would collapse like a house of cards and that finally the Uju group would prevail.

However, even with the news of the death of Kang Sun, its president and founder, the Sunshine group never faltered, but rather seemed to gain great momentum, so much so that they had the luxury of appointing the founder's unknown son as the new president!

This brought about many more resentments between the two business groups.

And these resentments were not only at the commercial level, but also on a personal level.

The sad stories of those unfortunate places where the VIPs of both companies coincided were well known, disaster awaited them.

"Here's your order, enjoy your meal."

Suddenly, Robert was pulled out of his thoughts when Anna, Seth's mother, placed breakfast on the table.

"Oh, thank you very much," our protagonist replied with his usual smile and began to eat, while returning to his thoughts.

"It is vital that I relate to this kid, so I can have direct contact with one of the largest companies in the country."

Robert was already forming an action plan to live comfortably in this new world and, according to the words of the old man who sent him here, fully enjoy his life.

"Wait, I forgot to see what the mother's past was."

It was only now that he remembered being interrupted when he was about to see Anna's past, who at the moment was cheerfully attending to her son.

"System, scan the target."

[Analyzing the order, fixing the target]

[Anna Jin - human race (exp): This woman is one of the main characters of the webtoom 'Boss in School'. She manages a small cafe as a facade, but actually manages Sunshine Corp. In her youth, she was a powerful martial artist and helped her husband unify and control the world of crime, thus achieving the foundation of the large conglomerate. She lives in hiding as a powerful master of Chinese martial arts is after her life, suspecting that this individual was responsible for her husband's death, so her greatest desire right now is revenge.]

[Age: 38 years; MP: 70; HP: 70: STR: 90; AGI: 80; VIT: 100; INT: 50; PERC: 50]

clangk *

When Robert saw these statistics, his chopsticks fell from his hand to the floor, attracting the attention of those present.

"Hey, are you okay?" Seth asked, seeing how our protagonist remained unusually quiet.

"This... yeah, I'm fine," with a gesture of apology, our protagonist quickly reacted and bent down to pick up his chopsticks.

"Here, you shouldn't use those that are dirty," Anna, who apparently looked a little worried, handed him clean chopsticks.

"Thank you, sorry for the trouble."

With a slight smile on his face, Robert replied. However, in his mind, there was only one word.

"Shit..."