Chapter 146

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Hmm.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho was staring at his monitor with a dead-serious expression.

“There’s the leak right there. No wonder the numbers were low.”

Even his Chief of Staff, who had come in to report something, couldn’t bring himself to interrupt Chairman Kang Seong-ho, who was locked in with intense focus.

“………… Hm? Secretary Kim. Weren’t you here to report something?”

“Ah. Yes, sir. You were so focused that I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt.”

“Oh, was I? Ha ha.”

“Yes. It looks like you’re reviewing some important report material.”

“Well, it’s not company stuff. Something else important.”

What Chairman Kang Seong-ho was looking at happened to be a video. Specifically, a recording of a raid he’d done with his guild members last week.

“I’m checking this to show how much value I bring to the organization. Y’know, feedback.”

Tankers and healers don’t deal damage, so you just need to check how well they heal, how effectively they apply debuffs, and how well they protect the party.

But for a dealer, damage is everything.

The tankers and healers bust their asses running around providing care for one reason only — so the dealer can deal damage properly.

If the dealer can’t deal damage, you can’t clear the raid. That’s where the DPS rankings come in.

Even though Chairman Kang was a newbie, being ranked below everyone else ignited his competitive fire like nothing else.

And it wasn’t just that.

This was a surprisingly cutthroat place where you didn’t even get treated like a human if you sucked at games. So whenever he had free time, he’d review footage like this on his own to sharpen his skills.

“Ah. If you mean that organization… the one at Gwangwoon? That secret gathering?”

“That’s the one.”

“I wonder what you did there…”

“Secretary Kim, even if you are my closest aide, there are things in this world you’re better off knowing about but pretending you don’t.”

“I-I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn.”

“Good. Don’t dig too deep into it.”

There wasn’t really any secret to speak of. He just absolutely couldn’t tell Secretary Kim that the secret gathering was a gaming guild.

Sorry, Secretary Kim!

“So what’s up?”

“The executives are waiting in the conference room.”

“Anything important?”

“Routine reports. There are one or two key items, they said.”

“Then skip the conference room. Tell them to bring just the key points here.”

“Yes, sir.”

While Secretary Kim went to fetch the executives, Chairman Kang reviewed the video once more to confirm where his damage was leaking.

Next week, he’d crush every guild member who’d mocked him as a newbie and establish himself firmly among the top-tier dealers.

“Chairman.”

“Ah. Everyone, have a seat.”

The executives filed into the chairman’s office.

“Let’s get through the important stuff quickly. I’ve got things to do today.”

“Right. Then I’ll briefly summarize the group’s status.”

The reports were straightforward.

Starting with COVID, the semiconductor market had boomed like never before.

But demand was high while supply couldn’t keep up. Factories had been forced to shut down due to COVID, making it hard to source materials.

“Not being able to run the factories was obviously a major blow, but the resulting price hikes worked in our favor. Plus, Gwangwoon prioritized vaccine distribution for our Kangsung employees, so the factories got back up and running quickly.”

“But supply is still short? What about building new factories?”

“Well, that’s where it gets tricky. We’ve already built quite a few, and once the cycle turns, all those new factories will be bleeding money.”

Semiconductors had what was called a super cycle. There were peak seasons and off-seasons.

Think of a cookie factory. Say a new cookie is selling like crazy. The company builds a new factory to churn out a ton of them.

Then, like clockwork, cookie sales suddenly drop. The factory sits idle. That translates straight into losses.

“You’re saying building new factories could lead to massive losses?”

“Yes. Very likely. Right now it looks good because of the COVID-driven boom.”

It was a tough call. And when things got tough like this, there was always a solution.

“I’ll meet with President Jeong Jin-ho and discuss this.”

Gwangwoon and Kangsung were inseparable partners at this point. Especially with semiconductors being so intricately connected, it seemed better to follow Jeong Jin-ho’s lead on critical decisions like this.

Someone might say the guy running a company shouldn’t be leaning on others. But when the other person was Jeong Jin-ho, you could rely on him for everything.

“Oh, and Chairman. While we’re at it, Gwangwoon sent over a request for our electronics division.”

“Hm? What kind of request?”

“They’re launching a new digital currency called KW Coin through KW Exchange. It can be used across all Gwangwoon platforms, and they want it to be usable at our Kangsung Electronics stores and Kangsung Marts as well.”

“KW Coin? Like a… government-issued local currency?”

“Think of it that way. Except it’s issued by Gwangwoon. Maintains its price like a stablecoin.”

He vaguely recalled hearing something about Gwangwoon cooking up a crypto project during a guild session the other week.

“They also want it integrated with Kangsung Pay.”

“Trying to make it work like actual cash, huh?”

“Yes. They said they’d cover the transaction fees. It looks like they’re trying to expand its usability as much as possible to get more people using crypto.”

There had been plenty of attempts to use cryptocurrency like cash before.

But none lasted more than a few months before they shut down. The reason was simple — maintaining price stability.

“So the risk is real. If this collapses under external attacks like Luna Coin did…”

“But Gwangwoon is backing it. Their financial power is the strongest in the country. And if it doesn’t collapse like Luna and keeps its value?”

“Then it’s a different story. If it can truly maintain a stable price and function properly as currency, many are calling it the currency of the new generation. The world Bitcoin always dreamed of is finally arriving, thanks to Gwangwoon.”

It meant it could be a game changer that flipped the entire playing field.

“With anyone else, we’d be skeptical. But if Jeong Jin-ho is behind this…”

And if Kangsung refused? The backlash that would follow was terrifying just to think about.

“Cooperate as much as possible. Something about this coin project doesn’t feel ordinary.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Though… come to think of it, this couldn’t possibly become a currency that replaces the dollar, could it?”

“I don’t think that’s possible?”

Right, logically speaking, it was obviously impossible. How could a currency emerge that replaced the dollar?

But somehow… he had a strange feeling about it.

After all, Jeong Jin-ho had always made the logically impossible become possible.

***

“President. FTX has filed for bankruptcy.”

Another shocking event had shaken the history of Bitcoin. The world’s second-largest exchange, FTX, had filed for bankruptcy.

“It looks like they took a direct hit from the Luna Coin fallout. Companies tied to FTX lost everything in Luna Coin.”

Up to that point, it was manageable. FTX wasn’t really the type of institution that should collapse from Luna Coin. The real problem was the bank run.

Trust in Bitcoin had been severely damaged, and with the news that FTX took a direct hit from Luna Coin, everyone panicked and pulled their money out.

“The problem isn’t just FTX. Major Bitcoin exchanges under FTX are triggering bank runs one after another. It’s absolute chaos right now.”

Luna Coin had shattered trust in Bitcoin. A staggering $40 billion had vanished into thin air.

And now with FTX gone too, people could no longer believe in Bitcoin. Every exchange was getting hammered because of it.

“How are we doing?”

“We’re fine. We don’t just handle Bitcoin — we’re also in the US stock market. Plus, distributing a trillion won worth of KW Coin has had a massive effect. Being able to use various platforms at cheaper prices seems to have really resonated.”

KW Coin was swimming against this trend. There were definitely concerns about it becoming a second Luna Coin, but having Gwangwoon Group behind it seemed to provide that trust.

On top of that, being able to use the coin across multiple platforms was groundbreaking.

“And the fact that Kangsung Group matched us step for step with full integration really helped draw in more people.”

Kangsung Group’s cooperation was huge. The explosive growth in domestic users was thanks to the Kangsung Pay integration.

“With FTX gone, for a while — no, maybe forever — no Bitcoin exchange will surpass KW Exchange.”

“But we can’t stop growing.”

“Yes. As you said, we do need to keep growing, but there’s one problem. Our ceiling is blocked.”

It wasn’t because KW Exchange had grown too much.

“Because of China?”

“Yes. China banned all Bitcoin trading at the end of last year. They’re planning even stricter regulations this year.”

40% of Bitcoin’s production comes from the US. The country right behind that, producing 20%, is China.

But Bitcoin was completely banned in China. Yet 20% of the world’s Bitcoin supply was still being produced there.

The Chinese government had announced it would intensively monitor and crack down on facilities secretly mining or producing Bitcoin.

“If we could just crack open the Chinese market, we could make another massive leap. It’s really a shame.”

“And on top of that, while blocking the Bitcoin market, the Chinese government is planning to issue its own digital currency.”

Blocking Bitcoin trading but issuing their own government coin instead. Truly a bizarre country, no matter how you looked at it.

“But the situation in China right now is quite serious. Their population is huge, and hygiene standards are low, so COVID keeps spreading. There are talks that the Chinese government, having declared zero-COVID, might take drastic measures this time.”

China was still suffering under COVID. In Korea, it felt like things were somewhat under control, but in China, COVID cases kept pouring in.

“So they’ve placed another massive vaccine order with us.”

“Didn’t China say they were developing their own?”

“Yes. But this is basically them admitting they’ve hit a technological wall. And since our vaccine has the best preventive performance available right now, they probably realized they had no choice.”

One of China’s mistakes had been not relying on our vaccine and instead trying to develop their own. That led to infections spreading even faster.

“Can we expedite the vaccine supply?”

“That’s… realistically difficult right now. If China had made the proposal earlier, maybe, but we missed the timing. With their massive population, it’ll take time to produce enough vaccines.”

They’d missed the golden window. While we produced vaccines, China’s infection numbers would skyrocket far beyond where they were now.

“Tell them to produce as fast as possible. Saving lives comes first. And adjust the shipping schedule if needed — get the vaccines to China the moment they’re ready.”

“Yes, President.”

COVID had been tormenting humanity for far too long. Even though our Gwangwoon had amassed enormous wealth from it, saving lives had to come before making money.

“President. Also, NASDAQ dropped again. The bubble that inflated from the COVID boom seems to be deflating all at once.”

From the Korean stock market to global markets, everything had shot up thanks to COVID. People stuck at home flooded into the stock market, creating that surge.

The problem was that this created an absurd bubble in tech stocks. And that bubble was finally bursting.

“Amvidia, our AMC — everything related to tech stocks is tanking regardless of actual performance. The Luna Coin fallout is playing a part too.”

People say Bitcoin and the stock market are separate, but the two are actually connected.

Wasn’t every major securities firm selling Bitcoin-related products?

With Luna Coin and FTX’s bankruptcy, dozens of investment firms collapsed in a domino effect, and that shockwave was sweeping through NASDAQ.

“………..”

Sure enough.

Checking the list, every NASDAQ stock was glowing red.

Finding a stock that was up in this environment would be difficult… hm?

“………… How’s Faceweb doing right now?”

“Ugh. It’s a mess over there too. Faceweb went hard on the metaverse push last year, pouring in heavy investments. Now they’re getting hammered for it being a failed venture.”

“Yes. Their market cap has dropped enormously. PikPik’s competitive pressure really did a number on them.”

Faceweb was forecast to post its worst performance ever this year.

But something strange was happening.

Right now, his intuition was painting the name “Faceweb” in gold.

***

Faceweb’s market cap had once surpassed $1 trillion. It felt like just yesterday they were throwing a party about joining the trillion-dollar club.

Now Faceweb’s market cap had plummeted to $300 billion.

It had crashed a staggering 70%.

“Shareholders are furious right now. Some are even pressuring the US government to step in and investigate.”

An executive’s words made Faceweb’s founder and CEO, Markus Berg, furrow his brow.

“The stock dropped and that’s my fault? Why would the US government investigate?”

Faceweb’s stock decline was partly due to COVID. While COVID had increased Faceweb’s user base, advertising revenue had actually fallen.

This happened because companies were forced to shut down. Where did 97% of Faceweb’s revenue come from? Advertising.

Users were up, but the companies that would pay for ads had disappeared.

“Furthermore, PikPik’s emergence has been devastating. Currently, our Faceweb user base exceeds 3 billion, but PikPik, despite having fewer registered users, has higher actual usage rates.”

PikPik’s signature short-form video content had created a phenomenon and seized control of the SNS market.

Faceweb had quickly built its own short-form video platform to counter it, but it had already stumbled against PikPik multiple times.

“And the most devastating blow is that China just locked down Shanghai.”

“What? Wait, the entire city of Shanghai? Is that even possible?”

“Yes. Shockingly, they suddenly imposed a full lockdown on Shanghai yesterday, and everyone inside is trapped with no way out.”

“It’s not just Shanghai. Shenzhen, Jilin Province, and more — the number of fully locked-down cities is growing, and partial lockdown orders have been issued for a total of 87 cities. All in the name of zero-COVID.”

Only China could do this. They rolled in tanks and troops and sealed off the massive city of Shanghai entirely. And they didn’t stop there — they declared zero-COVID and locked down 87 cities.

“Those crazy bastards.”

Someone might wonder why he was reacting so sensitively to China locking down cities. But for Faceweb, China was critically important.

Why? Because most of the companies advertising on Faceweb had factories in China.

In other words, if Chinese cities got locked down like this, all those factories would shut down. That would lead to reduced production for those companies.

And companies that couldn’t produce couldn’t spend money. They couldn’t run ads. That was the system that dealt a direct blow to Faceweb.

“That’s exactly why the stock is dropping further right now. At this rate… it could fall from $300 billion to $200 billion.”

They needed something to break through this crisis.

“But sir, apparently Gwangwoon is buying up large quantities of our stock right now.”

“………… What? Out of nowhere?”

“Yes. It’s not just a rumor. Gwangwoon has officially disclosed to funds holding large stakes in our stock — telling them to sell their shares.”

Markus blinked.

Why would Gwangwoon suddenly buy up a competitor’s stock?

“China just locked down Shanghai and other cities, didn’t they? The shock from that will hit our Faceweb performance even harder, and the stock will drop further.”

“And?”

“Doesn’t that seem odd? If China had received sufficient vaccines, COVID wouldn’t have gotten that bad. Every other country has mostly gotten it under control.”

“You think Gwangwoon deliberately delayed the vaccine supply?”

“The rumor is that China tried to develop their own, but Gwangwoon dragged its feet on distribution. That’s what people are saying.”

Which meant Gwangwoon had deliberately delayed supply to paralyze Chinese cities?

“In reality, China requested supply, but Gwangwoon said it would take time. Meanwhile, they changed shipping schedules, reducing the semiconductor shipments that should have come to us. This will cause problems for our servers too.”

That was when Markus realized something was off. China’s shocking decision to lock down cities had hit Faceweb, which would push the already-crashed stock down even further.

And at the center of this situation was Gwangwoon — using vaccine supply as an excuse to adjust shipping schedules and control the semiconductor shipments flowing to Faceweb.

“On top of that, Gwangwoon is buying up our shares. And they recently launched something called KW Coin, raising enormous amounts of capital.”

And where all these seemingly separate fragments converged was one place.

“I think Gwangwoon is targeting our Faceweb.”

“!?”