Three weeks after Mahendra Investment Partners was established, Arga realized one thing.
Being an investor was far easier than building a business empire.
Until now, all he had to do was find undervalued companies, analyze their financial statements, and make a decision.
Now everything was different.
He had employees.
He had an office.
He had investors beginning to watch his every move.
And most dangerously of all, he had enemies.
Enemies whose faces he didn't know.
At 7:15 a.m., Arga was already in the conference room.
Seven company files lay on the table.
They all had one thing in common.
Their stock prices were cheap.
But not all of them were worth buying.
Arga stood in front of the screen.
"The first company."
Raka opened the presentation.
"Sentra Logistik Nusantara."
The screen displayed the financial statements.
"Market value: around 1.2 trillion rupiah. Debt: 800 billion rupiah. Revenue has declined for the past three years."
Dimas immediately shook his head.
"Terrible."
Raka continued.
"However, they own twenty-one warehouses in strategic locations and have long-term contracts with several major companies."
Nadia cut in.
"The problem isn't the assets."
Everyone turned toward her.
"The problem is management."
Arga smiled.
"Exactly."
He pointed at the screen.
"This company isn't bankrupt."
"It's being mismanaged."
Nadia nodded.
"If management is replaced, the debt structure is fixed, and the warehouses are used more efficiently, its value could multiply several times over."
Dimas asked,
"How much?"
Nadia opened her calculations.
"Its fair value could be around four to five trillion rupiah."
The room fell silent.
Arga asked,
"What's the current market price?"
"1.2 trillion rupiah."
"How much would we need to control?"
Raka answered,
"At least 20 percent to gain influence."
Arga nodded.
"Start accumulating."
Dimas stared at him.
"How much?"
"Everything we can buy without disrupting our cash flow."
Dimas smiled.
"So we've got a target."
Arga nodded.
"This is the first company."
They began buying Sentra Logistik stock gradually.
There were no large transactions.
No news.
No announcements.
Arga didn't want the market to know about his plan.
For two weeks, Mahendra Investment Partners accumulated stock little by little.
3 percent.
5 percent.
7 percent.
9 percent.
Then 12 percent.
But on the day their ownership stake reached 14 percent, something happened.
The stock price suddenly surged.
From 420 rupiah to 510.
Raka rushed into the conference room.
"Arga!"
"What?"
"Another investor is buying a huge amount."
Arga opened the transaction data.
His eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
"We don't know yet."
Nadia looked at the screen.
Then her expression changed.
"Could it be...?"
"Yes."
Arga already understood.
They weren't the only ones who had spotted the opportunity.
Someone was following them.
And that person had started buying immediately after Mahendra Investment Partners entered the market.
Arga smiled.
"Good."
Dimas was confused.
"Good?"
"It means our analysis was right."
Nadia didn't smile.
"Or they're deliberately following us."
Arga looked at her.
"Why?"
"To drive the price up."
Arga fell silent.
Nadia continued.
"If we keep buying, they'll keep buying. The price will rise. Then they can sell to us."
Dimas immediately understood.
"Pump and dump."
Arga shook his head.
"Not necessarily."
"Then what?"
"Maybe they want to see if we'll panic."
Arga stood.
"Don't buy any more."
Everyone was stunned.
"But we haven't reached our target yet," Raka said.
"I know."
"Why stop?"
Arga pointed at the chart.
"Because the game has changed."
That afternoon, Arga went to Sentra Logistik's main warehouse.
He didn't bring security.
He didn't bring an entourage.
Only Nadia.
They walked past rows of trucks coming and going.
Nadia looked around.
"So this is the asset you saw?"
Arga nodded.
"Yes."
"It looks ordinary."
"That's the point."
Arga pointed to one of the warehouses.
"It's close to the port."
Then he pointed to another warehouse.
"That one is near the industrial district."
Nadia began to understand.
"The land."
"Exactly."
Arga smiled.
"People see a logistics company."
"I see land that increases in value every year."
Nadia looked at him.
"You really are different."
"Why?"
"You don't buy companies."
Arga looked at the warehouses.
"I buy the future."
They had only walked a few yards when a man approached them.
"Mr. Arga?"
Arga turned.
The man was wearing a gray suit.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Daniel Prasetyo."
"The president director of Sentra Logistik."
Arga extended his hand.
Daniel smiled.
"I've wanted to meet you for a long time."
Arga raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
"Because you're the first person to buy our stock when everyone else thought we were going bankrupt."
Arga didn't answer.
Daniel continued.
"I know you're accumulating stock."
Nadia immediately became alert.
"You've been monitoring our transactions?"
Daniel gave a quiet laugh.
"It wasn't difficult."
He looked at Arga.
"But I want to offer you something."
"What?"
"Come to my office tomorrow."
"For what?"
"I'll show you something that has never appeared in the company's reports."
Arga stared at him for a long moment.
"What?"
Daniel smiled.
"The real reason Sentra Logistik nearly went bankrupt."
That night, Arga couldn't sleep.
He opened Sentra Logistik's report once again.
Nothing seemed strange.
The debt was indeed high.
Margins had declined.
But cash flow was still healthy.
That meant the company shouldn't have been on the verge of collapse.
Something had been left off the books.
At 1:12 a.m., Nadia sent him a message.
**I found something.**
Arga called her immediately.
"What?"
"This company used to have a subsidiary."
"Which one?"
"SLN Property."
"Why isn't it in the latest report?"
"That's the problem."
Nadia sent him a document.
"SLN Property was sold three years ago."
"To whom?"
Nadia was silent for a moment.
"Orion Pacific."
Arga sat bolt upright.
"How much did they pay?"
"Only 70 billion rupiah."
Arga fell silent.
"What was the value of its assets?"
"According to the old documents..."
Nadia drew a breath.
"...around 600 billion rupiah."
Arga clenched his fists.
They had found something.
Sentra Logistik had sold assets worth hundreds of billions to a company connected to Orion Pacific at a ridiculously low price.
And it hadn't happened only once.
There were six similar transactions.
Total assets transferred:
**4.7 trillion rupiah.**
Arga stared at the screen.
"So this isn't a bad company."
Nadia replied,
"They're stripping it bare."
The company had been deliberately made to look weak.
Valuable assets were transferred out.
The debt was left behind.
The stock price fell.
Investors walked away.
Then someone bought the company cheaply.
Arga smiled coldly.
"And now they're doing the same thing to Sentra Logistik that they did to GNT."
"Exactly."
"But this time, we know."
The next day, Arga met Daniel.
They sat in a conference room with only one window.
Daniel closed the door.
"I know you've found SLN Property."
Arga wasn't surprised.
"How many assets were lost?"
Daniel sighed.
"Four point seven trillion."
"And who ordered it?"
Daniel fell silent.
Arga looked at him.
"Mr. Daniel."
"I can't answer that."
"Why not?"
"Because the person who gave the order still has influence in the company."
"Who?"
Daniel glanced at the door.
Then he said quietly,
"The chairman."
Arga frowned.
"His name?"
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Then he spoke a single name.
"Richard Wijaya."
Arga didn't move.
So Richard wasn't just a player in GNT.
He was also behind Sentra Logistik's destruction.
But something made Arga even more suspicious.
"Why are you telling me this?"
Daniel looked at him.
"Because I've been trying to fight them for three years."
"And?"
"They destroyed my career."
Daniel opened a drawer.
He took out a folder.
"Here's the proof."
Arga took it.
Inside were contracts, transaction account records, and several photographs.
But one photo made Arga freeze.
It showed his father.
With Daniel.
And another man.
Arga recognized him.
Richard.
The photo had been taken fifteen years ago.
Arga stared at it.
"What happened here?"
Daniel answered,
"The three of us used to work together."
Arga looked at him.
"You're saying my father worked with Richard?"
"Yes."
"For what?"
Daniel drew a breath.
"To build an investment network."
"Orion Pacific?"
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
Arga waited.
Daniel looked at him gravely.
"Its real name was the K Consortium."
Arga's heart pounded.
The symbol he'd seen in his father's video.
The letter K.
"And who was its leader?"
Daniel lowered his head.
"I never saw his face."
"Why not?"
"Because even Richard had never met him in person."
Arga fell silent.
"Then who gave the orders?"
Daniel pointed to a document.
"All the orders came through one person."
"Who?"
Daniel looked at Arga.
"His name was Leonard Hartono."
Arga froze.
The name wasn't unfamiliar.
Leonard Hartono was one of the biggest tycoons in Southeast Asia.
And even more shocking...
The man had once been Arga's father's close friend.
That afternoon, Arga returned to the office.
Nadia was waiting for him.
"How did it go?"
Arga placed the folder on the desk.
"We've got a problem."
Nadia opened it.
A few seconds later, her expression changed.
"Leonard Hartono?"
Arga nodded.
"He's involved."
"How deeply?"
"We don't know yet."
Nadia read further into the documents.
Then she stopped.
"Arga."
"What?"
"This isn't our biggest problem."
She showed him one page.
It contained a list of old transactions.
One of them bore the name:
**MAHENDRA CAPITAL — 51%**
Arga stared at it.
"That's your father's company."
"Yes."
"And look at the date."
Arga looked.
Fifteen years ago.
Right before the K Consortium was established.
Nadia looked at Arga.
"If this is true..."
Arga finished her sentence.
"...my father wasn't someone hunting the K Consortium."
The room fell silent.
"He was one of its founders."
Arga closed his eyes.
Everything he believed collapsed in a single second.
All this time, he'd thought his father was a victim.
Maybe his father had actually once been part of the same group.
But then Arga saw a small note beneath the document.
His father's handwriting.
Just one sentence.
**I built this monster to destroy it from within.**
Arga opened his eyes.
Nadia looked at him.
"So your father..."
Arga stood.
"...betrayed the K Consortium."
And that might have been the real reason his father had to die.
That night, Arga made the biggest decision of his life.
He wouldn't just buy stock.
He would take over a company.
Not just Sentra Logistik.
He would build a corporate network capable of rivaling the K Consortium's network.
He opened the company account.
Total capital remaining:
**53 billion rupiah.**
Arga stared at the figure.
Then he smiled.
"Starting now, we're done being small-time investors."
Nadia asked,
"Then what are we?"
Arga looked at the board covered in company names.
"Owners."
He wrote:
**20% SLN**
Then:
**51% PRIMARY TARGET**
Nadia frowned.
"What company is that?"
Arga looked at her.
"A company with access to data from the entire national logistics network."
Nadia fell silent.
"If we control that..."
"We can track the movement of their goods, companies, and money."
"And that could become a weapon."
Arga nodded.
"Exactly."
But before they could begin putting together a strategy, the office door suddenly swung open.
Dimas entered, his face pale.
"Arga."
"What?"
"The police are here."
Arga frowned.
"Why?"
"They have a search warrant."
"What case?"
Dimas looked at him.
"They're accusing Mahendra Investment Partners of market manipulation."
Arga fell silent.
Nadia immediately stood.
"Impossible."
Dimas shook his head.
"It gets worse."
He handed over a document.
"Every transaction they consider suspicious..."
Arga read it.
Dates.
Times.
Amounts.
Everything was recorded with meticulous precision.
And every one of those transactions had been conducted through their company accounts.
Arga looked at Nadia.
"It's a setup."
Nadia nodded.
"And someone wants to destroy us before we have a chance to grow."
Arga looked toward the office door.
The sound of footsteps began to approach from outside.
Then came a knock.
"Mr. Arga Mahendra?"
Arga stood.
"Yes?"
"We're with the police. We have a warrant to conduct a search."
Arga looked at his entire team.
No one spoke.
Then he smiled faintly.
"Come in."
The door opened.
Several officers entered.
But before they began searching the room, Arga's phone vibrated.
A message came in from an unknown number.
**You've found too much.**
A second message arrived.
**Now it's our turn to find your weakness.**
Arga stared at the messages.
Then a photo was sent.
A photo of Nadia.
Walking home from the office.
Beneath the photo was a single sentence:
**Stop now, or the next person to die won't be your father.**
Arga's smile vanished.
For the first time, his enemies were no longer attacking his money.
They were attacking the people around him.
Arga slipped his phone into his pocket.
His eyes turned cold.
He had already made his decision.
If they wanted war...
then war was what they would get.
But this time, Arga wouldn't merely defend himself.
He would strike back.
And his first move would be to take over **51 percent of the company that served as the gateway to the entire K Consortium network.**
The company was called:
**Nusantara Data Exchange.**
Its current value was only 900 billion rupiah.
But Arga knew something the market didn't.
Within six months, the company would become one of the most valuable assets in Asia.
And he intended to own it.
No matter what it took.