The Scandal-Proof Producer

Late that night, Han Yoo-jin sat alone in the sterile silence of his small apartment. Sleep was a distant country he had no visa for. Every time he closed his eyes, he didn't see dreams; he saw the glint of a steel pipe under the dim lights of the parking garage. The painkillers dulled the sharp, throbbing ache in his ribs, but they couldn't touch the cold, unsettling fear that had taken root deep inside him. It wasn't a fear for his own safety, but a profound fear for his team. He had led them into this war, and the enemy had just demonstrated a brutal willingness to escalate beyond the boardroom.

On his coffee table, the sleek, black burner phone Director Yoon had given him sat like a dark temptation. It was a panic button, a direct line to a powerful, shadowy force that could make his problems disappear. He could pick it up, make one call, and Director Kang's thugs would likely vanish into a legal black hole so deep they would never be heard from again.

But he didn't touch it. He stared at it, his jaw tight with resolve. Using that phone meant sinking deeper into his debt with Chairman Choi. It meant becoming more reliant, more entangled. It meant admitting that he couldn't protect his own people, that he needed a more powerful predator to save him from a lesser one. It was a form of surrender.

He pushed the phone to the far end of the table. He would not be a pawn. He would become a player.

A grim epiphany began to dawn on him. The bodyguards he had just hired, the CCTV cameras, the encrypted firewalls—they were all just defenses. They were shields. They were reactions to threats that had already been made. But shields don't win wars. They only prolong the siege. To truly be safe, to truly have power in this ruthless world, he needed more than protection. He needed leverage. He needed a deterrent. He needed his own nuclear option.

He needed to know his enemies' secrets, the same way they were so desperately trying to dig up his.

In that moment, sitting in the dark of his apartment, Yoo-jin made a conscious, critical decision. His ability, the Producer's Eye, which he had always viewed as a creative and protective tool, was about to be weaponized. He had used it to find hidden talent, to nurture artists, to foresee and avoid scandals for his own team. Now, he would turn its gaze outward, not to build, but to dismantle. He would no longer just look for [Overall Potential] and [Key Strengths]. He would now actively hunt for [Scandal Factor] and drill down into the ugly, hidden details. His goal was not to become a blackmailer or a gossip monger. He would not leak the information. He would collect it. He would curate it. He would build a vault of secrets so devastating that the mere threat of its existence would guarantee the safety of his people.

He opened his laptop, the bright screen a stark contrast to the darkness of his new resolve. He created a new, heavily encrypted folder on a secure external hard drive. He named it simply: "Insurance."

His first target was the most immediate threat: Director Kang Min-hyuk. His wounded animal. Yoo-jin began a systematic, almost forensic, deep dive into Kang's entire public history. He pulled up every article, every industry photo, every television appearance from the last ten years. For hours, he sifted through the digital footprint of the man who wanted to break his bones.

He found a photo from a lavish business dinner two years ago. Kang was smiling, shaking hands with a man Yoo-jin recognized as a mid-level official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. A perfectly normal photo. But as Yoo-jin focused on Kang's face, his ability laid the truth bare.

[Kang Min-hyuk - Scandal Factor: 82%] -> [Drill Down: The man he is dining with is a key member of the broadcast content review board. The dinner is a front for the finalization of a bribe to ensure Stellar Entertainment's music videos receive favorable age ratings, allowing for primetime broadcast without edits. Transaction completed via a shell corporation.]

Yoo-jin's hands moved swiftly. He took a high-resolution screenshot of the photo. He cross-referenced the date with public records of the official's activities. He saved all the data into a sub-folder titled "Bribery" inside his "Insurance" vault.

He moved on. He found an old group photo from a Stellar Entertainment company retreat in Jeju Island five years prior. It was a cheerful, corporate-mandated picture. He zoomed in on Kang, who was standing in the back row. He pushed his ability.

[Details: Currently engaged in an illicit, ongoing affair with a junior marketing employee also present in the photo. Said employee was promoted to a team manager position two months later, despite being under-qualified, leapfrogging more senior colleagues. The relationship is a severe violation of Stellar's internal HR policies and could trigger a major corporate scandal if exposed.]

Another screenshot. Another file saved. The vault was growing.

After hours of work on Kang, Yoo-jin turned his attention to a much larger, more dangerous target. He couldn't just have leverage on the attack dog; he needed it on the dog's master, and on his own new, dangerous "ally." He needed insurance against Chairman Choi.

This was far more difficult. Chairman Choi was a titan, a man who operated on a level where his tracks were expertly covered. But Yoo-jin was relentless. He watched old shareholder meetings on YouTube. He read dense, jargon-filled financial reports. He analyzed society photos from charity galas, looking at not just the Chairman, but the people he was with.

Finally, he found a thread. A photo from a press conference announcing a new international film fund, a joint venture between Top Tier Media and a vaguely named investment group based in Macau. In the photo, Chairman Choi was shaking hands with the fund's primary foreign investor. Yoo-jin focused on the investor's face, then on Choi's. He pushed his ability harder than ever before, feeling a dull throb behind his eyes. The system responded, and the information it revealed made his blood run cold.

[Chairman Choi Tae-hwan - Scandal Factor: 95%] -> [Drill Down: The foreign investor is a known proxy for a powerful Macau triad. The international film fund is a sophisticated, large-scale money laundering operation. Top Tier Media's legitimate production costs are being inflated, and the difference is being used to 'clean' hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit gambling and trafficking profits. Chairman Choi is a willing and compensated participant.]

Yoo-jin physically recoiled from his laptop screen. This was far beyond the petty corruption of the entertainment industry. This wasn't about bribes or affairs. This was major, international organized crime. This information wasn't just leverage; it was a live grenade. If this ever came out, it wouldn't just end Chairman Choi's career; it would send him to prison for the rest of his life and could potentially destabilize the entire Korean stock market.

He saved the data, his hands trembling slightly. He encrypted the file with a password so complex he had to write it down on a piece of paper that he then burned, committing it to memory. His "Insurance" folder now contained secrets that could topple empires.

He closed his laptop, the darkness of the apartment enveloping him once more. He had crossed a profound line tonight. He was no longer just a CEO trying to make good music. He had become an intelligence operative in a silent, unseen war, a spymaster of his own small, embattled nation.

The burner phone from Director Yoon still sat on his coffee table, untouched. Yoo-jin looked at it, then back at the spot where his laptop had been. He didn't need that phone anymore. He didn't need Chairman Choi's protection. He had his own power now, a power far greater and more terrible than bodyguards or corporate alliances. He held the secrets that could ensure his enemies would never touch him or his people again.

The question that hung in the quiet, dark room was no longer "How will I survive?" It was a much heavier, much more dangerous question. "When, and how, will I use this?"