Chapter 681 - No Way Out

The released article of SHM was still making a huge fuss on the internet. And when the Guan Empire released their statement, instead of calming down the doubts of the public, it caused people to speculate more. 

Many individuals expressed their thoughts that the Guan Empire's statement was lacking. Their explanation was not sufficient enough.

This matter refused to die down and caused the Guan Empire's market worth to plummet. Univ One's investors were the most affected. The investors had insight and advanced information that was not out in the public yet. They knew that there would be more attacks on the Guan Empire and the chairman himself based on the trend and clues of the recent events. The identity fraud and the capital investment scandals clearly had many dubious elements.

It was obvious that Univ One was fast becoming a sinking ship, especially now that a scandal involving illegal underground trade came up. Many investors were afraid to become accidentally involved and immediately pulled out their investments and shares before the stock price fell down completely. 

This constant upheaval made Gunan busy in his newly acquired chairman's office. 

On the next day, the chairman's office was crowded. 

The board of directors ran with their butts on fire to the presidential floor. They had previously received orders from the chairman and the Guan family head that the leaders would handle the matter while the board and shareholders must quietly stay put. However, they finally snapped when they saw the stock price of the Guan Empire fall down along with Univ One in the stock exchange market and had no signs of stopping.

"Chairman! It has been days since the company stock price continues to fall! If this goes on, it will take us a year to raise it up again!"

"Chairman, this situation is very severe. We have encountered the same situations before, but it never fell down under the red line! This is way worse than the struggles we encountered more than a decade ago!" 

The elders used their experiences to intimidate Gunan.

As they had said, the Guan Empire had previously received attacks and setbacks from another strong rival company in the past. 

It was normal to face some setbacks in the industry. However, they always managed to come back on top. The worst damage they received from this kind of setback was more than a decade ago when the company fell down the red line.

A 'red line' was a bottom line they set indicating a massive damage that would compel the Guan Empire around a year or more to recover from the loss.

However, the recent series of attacks did a lot of damage on the Guan Empire. The company stock price fell fast way beyond the red line! 

And the cause of this was Univ One and the rumors regarding the new chairman.

The elders continued to nag. "Chairman, you have to take action. In this case, we have to liquidate Univ One and at least save some resources before it becomes worthless. It is better to suffer a smaller loss now than to have a bigger loss later."

Guan's eyes flickered. He looked up from the doc.u.ments and shot a murderous look at the elder who had spoken. 

"Liquidate? If we shut down Univ One, it is the same as telling the public that the rumors are true!"

The elders were not intimidated one bit. "Then are you saying it's all lies? If it is, why don't you release the details and capital investment plan doc.u.ments of Univ One? If you release that instead of the Guan Empire's statement, the public will not doubt us."

Another shareholder spoke. "That's right. The statement that the company released to the public is too vague. The masses are not fools. Such a method will only give room for people to speculate more. Don't you have any more records to strengthen Univ One's legibility?"

'.....' Gunan closed his eyes. He restrained the killing intent rising irritably in his heart.

He really wanted to kill everyone in this room right now. Their endless chattering and complaints made his head ache. He had not slept much ever since he got targeted, and now he still had to babysit these old bastards nearing their deathbeds.

He gritted his teeth and opened his eyes again more calmly. 

"Why do I need to release confidential information? If I do that, I am just doing what the enemy wants. Who knows if they have another counter for that action? What if they are trying to get some kind of information and are doing all these on purpose? I am not releasing doc.u.ments regarding Univ One."

The real reason was, his men were still working on the legibility of the faked doc.u.ments. They had to fix the loopholes in the forged doc.u.ments he had acquired before and the legal records associated with it.

When Gunan created Univ One, he made fake doc.u.ments and counterfeits through the black market that could pass many checkpoints in the development process. It was easy to make and easy to acquire in his line of business, as many companies associated with the underworld usually took these fast routes. There were naturally connected officials who would 'take care' of these and bypass many processes.

He never imagined that he would be doubted and inspected, thus, the foundation behind those illegal doc.u.ments was not totally foolproof. If the relevant departments got hold of his 'confidential doc.u.ments', then they might find out that his doc.u.ments were non-existent.

It might even sniff out the black market's involvement in it. The black-handed officials connected to the black market would not stand up for them and would definitely try their best to hide their involvement.

He needed more time to settle the forged doc.u.ments. That was why he said those words.

Gunan calmed down and looked at the people in the room. "We cannot just hand them the confidential information just because the public asked for it. If the legal department asks for it, then that is the time we can give it to them." 

However, it would also take time for the government to take action. After all, the government would think twice about investigating this matter, as it was connected to the Guan Empire which held a humongous influence in the country's economic stability. The Guan Empire could not be touched easily unless the Guan's family head gave permission. 

But once this matter reached its peak, the public would demand the government to ask the Guan Empire for the legal doc.u.ments of Univ One. Only then would the government be forced to do so.

That was what Gunan was aiming for, the window time between the matter going to the level of government intervention. 

Of course, it would be good if he could bury this matter and not bring it up again. But it seemed like it was a bit impossible to bury this under the snow now.

So all he could do was to stick to his lies and make it seem like the truth.

The people in the office who were complaining turned quiet. At least, the chairman was thinking of countermeasures.

Guan Gu Ri started to speak,

"Then brother, are the legal doc.u.ments ready? We don't know when the legal department will suddenly come knocking on our doors for an inspection. We have to be ready at all times."