The next morning.

Even though it was still very dark outside, I woke up and left the house using Blink with zero cooldown.

Then I carefully landed on the roof of a black van parked not far from, nor too close to my house. And I could hear voices coming from inside the van.

The car doors and even the windows were completely closed, but I had no problem hearing the conversation inside.

“Man, I’m so bored.”

“What should we do? We just have to follow our supervisor’s order.”

“By the way, why didn’t he tell us the reason? We were told to just watch him. I have been in this business for ten years already, but I’ve never heard this kind of stupid order.”

“I haven’t, either.”

They were chatting in English. So it seemed that they were not Koreans.

But that wasn’t important to me, so I shoved my hand straight into the roof of the thick van.

At the same time, I tore the roof apart to both sides as if it was a piece of paper.

At first glance, I could immediately recognize it was no normal vehicle due to all the strange equipment inside. And the two men inside were looking at me in shock with pale faces.

So I said softly, “What business has brought you here?”

“…”

“…”

But they didn’t answer.

Of course, I didn’t expect they would respond quickly. They were so shocked that they did not know what to say.

At that moment, a voice came from the machine on the other side instead of them who were still trembling.

Nice to meet you, Juyoung Hong. We aren’t approaching you with bad intentions. I was going to see you soon anyway. Before that, I wanted to check out the situation a bit. I didn’t intend any harm to you at all.

But the owner of the voice didn’t introduce himself.

So I responded right away, “Who the hell are you?”

My name is Anderson, the Director of US National Intelligence Service.

“Um… okay. Then I’ll see you exactly at this time tomorrow. I’d like you to come in person if possible. And I don’t like people who don’t keep their promises.”

Sure, no problem.

I ended the conversation with him.

To be honest, I was planning to visit the United States or a Middle East country sooner or later.

***

There is no question that Myongjin is one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea.

Myongjin maintains several subsidiaries under its umbrella, and among them is an oil refinery called Myongjin Refinery.

But that company has been the biggest headache for Chairman Sangman Hong these days.

In the conference room of the Myongjin Group headquarters.

“So you don’t know when our nine detained tankers will be released?”

When Chairman Hong asked, the head of Myongjin Refinery, Jungchol Yang, cautiously replied, “No, sir. Of course, we have been raising objections to the Iranian government’s position from various channels. In addition, Mirae, Daesung, Hanil Energy and Maseok Caltex are also working together with our government to urge them to release the detained tankers as soon as possible.”

Refined crude oil makes up hundreds of chemical products such as LPG, gasoline, kerosene, diesel and lubricants as well as fertilizers, detergents, plastics, and asphalt, so oil imports were essential to not only the oil import companies but also the national economy.

In a broader context, the oil refinery business is one of the backbone industries.

Aside from the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the current problem is not a dispute among companies, but the involvement of the giant oil producer Iran.

Because of that, President Yang told Chairman Hong that he was working with other oil companies and the Korean government to find a solution, but Chairman Hong did not like that kind of perfunctory reply. But he didn’t rebuke President Yang.

This was not the first time that Iran had imposed the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and there was no proper solution whenever it happened. The only solution was for Iran to surrender under the intense pressure of the United States.

But this time, there was another reason why Chairman Hong was worrying about the situation immensely.

“What about Saudi Arabia?”

“Currently, its daily production of crude oil has fallen below 70% of its previous production. Moreover, the Saudi Arabian government has deployed military units to guard other oil fields and facilities in case of another terrorist attack. So we expect its oil production to fall further than 70% for the time being.”

“Then what about their recovery efforts?”

“Well, Saudi Arabia is the self-proclaimed hegemon in the Middle East, so they prioritize revenge on the terrorists over restoring their oil facilities. So we have no idea of when they will finish repairing the damaged facilities…”

“Damn it!”

Chairman Hong usually did not express his emotions before his deputies, but this time he could not help but swear despite himself because of the messy situation.

Then he asked, “How much crude oil does Myongjin Oil Refinery have in stock?”

“If we process crude oil at the current rate, it looks like we will run out of it in 15 days.”

“Aside from Saudi Arabia, Iran’s detention of our nine oil tankers is really painful to us. As you know, it is these tankers that have to load and unload oil, but they have been detained and we don’t know when they will release them…” Vice President Hongsan Lee said cautiously.

“…”

Anyway, they were in the worst situation right now, so Chairman Hong had no choice but to keep silent.

Then he said in a low voice, “Okay. Let me sum up what is happening so far. Currently the supply and demand of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked, and our only alternative, Saudi Arabia, cannot export crude oil to Korea for the time being, right?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

When Chairman Hong asked, all the executives could not respond properly.

More than 80% of South Korea’s crude oil, including Myongjin’s, came from the Middle East. Since the Strait of Hormuz was blocked, the only solution was to mobilize an oil tanker large enough to carry a huge amount of crude oil at one time. Because of that, it was inevitable for them to import oil from the Middle East, which led them to be dependent on Middle East oil as time went by.

Even if they tried to diversify oil suppliers in case of emergency, they had to take into account the additional transportation costs. Moreover, their original suppliers had been decided a long time ago, so they needed to bet more money to be able to secure their new suppliers.

But there was another problem which was more serious than anything else.

We have been trading stable and smooth crude oil with you for decades. If you need more oil, isn’t it good manners for you to talk to us first? I wonder if you ignore our capabilities.

Saudi Arabia’s blatant warning was a clear signal that Chairman Hong should be more dependent on them. Besides, Chairman Hong and Myongjin Oil Refinery had no choice but to give up their efforts to diversify oil suppliers because of their blatant threat that they would cut off crude oil supply the moment Myongjin found other suppliers. If Saudi Arabia cut off oil supply to Myongjin right now, it would be impossible for them to secure a new oil supplier. Even if Myongjin secured a new oil supplier, it would be far inferior compared to Saudi Arabia..