Chapter 75

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

As media develops, the world seems to be gradually changing into who attracts attention best.

With SNS development, even people who were satisfied with their lives suddenly became unhappy, and envy, jealousy, and fake news began to dominate.

The unfortunate thing is, looking at current trends, this is just the beginning.

And do you know who attracts attention best in the world right now?

“It finally started, the Trent Show.”

US President Trent.

From when he was a businessman, he poured out very aggressive remarks.

Paradoxically, those rough tendencies and remarks made him president.

“Since his candidate days, chaos broke out whenever he said even one word.”

His attention-grabbing ability is tremendous enough to shake the entire world.

And his unpredictable personality began clearly showing even in diplomacy.

“He announced he’ll impose 25% tariffs each on steel and aluminum, and granted over $20 billion in tariffs on all Chinese products. But this is just a signal, and they say he intends to impose tariffs worth $900 billion in a few months.”

President Trent emphasized since his candidate days that all countries worldwide are scamming America.

He even published a book about this, mass-producing followers.

What he asserted from long ago was exactly the Mexico wall and feeding heavy tariffs to each country.

This measure could be seen as opening that floodgate.

“Plus it seems he really wants to do the Mexico wall. He already started design and plans to proceed with construction.”

When Trent pledged building a Mexico wall as a promise, no one thought he’d really realize it.

But defiantly, Trent immediately started the wall construction project.

“The real problem is that Trent also opened his mouth about this semiconductor crisis.”

Steel, aluminum, China-targeting tariffs, etc.

Honestly these weren’t related to our securities firm.

But what affected us most was exactly semiconductors.

“Since Kangsung Group is involved, President Trent seemed to pretend not to see until now, but the situation is getting serious so he seems like he’ll take measures now.”

Actually even now the US government endured for long.

If not Trent but someone else was elected president, Kangsung and Gwangwoon would have been slapped with enormous penalties and the US government would have taken all possible measures.

Thanks to Trent ignoring all other chaebols’ words and incoming lobbying and moving only his way, our Kangsung and Gwangwoon could pressure companies this far.

But even that has now reached its limit.

During the so-called super cycle period, isn’t an unprecedented crisis occurring where servers can’t be expanded due to lack of semiconductors?

Also, Bitcoin’s scarcity exploded due to semiconductor supply shortage, so the price already broke through $5,000.

Because of that, our KW Bitcoin exchange was continuing tremendous growth momentum.

“This server expansion played a big part. From when we first opened the exchange, we made many servers following President’s instructions, right? And when server expansion is needed, AMC and Kangsung supply volume to us first.”

However, other companies couldn’t do that.

The large Bitcoin exchange Binance, which was rising as our biggest competitor, couldn’t expand servers so it burst unable to handle the flooding traffic.

Not only that, other exchanges also severely lagged whenever users gathered, so customers eventually all flocked to our exchange.

“This time domestically KK tried to invest heavily to open an exchange too, but they also can’t establish servers so it’s indefinitely suspended.”

KW Exchange stumbled a bit initially, but showed crazy growth momentum from after the Bitcoin craze.

Various coin trading.

Safe trading system.

Plus there was the advantage that servers don’t shake in any case.

Especially during this WannaCry ransomware crisis and large-scale hacking attacks occurring everywhere, our exchange stood firm.

Above all, being the only exchange expanding servers, even if countless people flocked at once, servers had no issues at all.

Eventually our KW Exchange trampled all rising competitors and proudly became the world’s number one Bitcoin exchange.

“Will it be hard to catch up for a while?”

“Not for a while but probably forever difficult. Too many customers already absorbed to our side. If server expansion went well and KK made a Bitcoin exchange, we would’ve lost quite many domestic customers, but they can’t even make it right now due to servers. Even if they make it belatedly, the gap is already too wide so it’ll be difficult.”

KK is the messaging app Korean people use most.

If they made and distributed a Bitcoin exchange there.. It would have been truly horrible.

But that place also can’t make servers so exchanges are beyond dreams.

“Then the problem is how Trent comes out.”

“Yes. Because he’s unpredictable. Until now he couldn’t focus attention on us due to other problems, but now who knows how he’ll come out.”

Is that why my intuition reacted to NK?

‘Those uncles, did they talk well?’

This was actually beyond our hands.

But to suddenly open the way to TSNC, haven’t we already come far?

Even if we open the way, TSNC that’s already smashed will take quite some time to recover.

Since the method to immediately solve this problem isn’t with our Gwangwoon, we could only wait.

“…”

Like that I was checking various reports sent from research.

Not investigating specific topics, but also much data informing about economic events occurring worldwide or companies’ trends.

‘Nothing particularly notable.’..Or not?

Turning the next page, there was something particularly eye-catching.

“ByteDance?”

At first I thought it was a Bitcoin-related company.

But actually it was a Chinese SNS company completely unrelated to Bitcoin.

“Ah, ByteDance company. It’s very famous in China.”

“Really? I’m hearing about it for the first time.”

“You would. There’s an SNS ByteDance operates called Douyin, which is China’s most popular SNS. Don’t you know? Foreign SNS can’t enter China.”

China is a completely closed country in this area, so other companies’ SNS can’t enter.

Because it’s a country only allowing domestic SNS receiving thorough censorship from the Chinese government.

But the color here was unusual.

Not golden, but not black or red either, nor blue.

How to say, a feeling where colors are subtly mixed?

“Could you look into this company?”

***

Kangsung Group’s business was flowing very smoothly. But business is like a voyage, where storms sometimes hit.

“How did it go?”

Now was exactly that period.

Chairman Kang Seong-ho’s voice was somewhat tense.

“Well..”

The reporting executive paused briefly then answered.

“The White House gave the okay. Kangsung, NK, and AMC. These three places cooperated to process volume as quickly as possible through discussion, and though Amvidia held out until the end, pressure seems to have come from the White House. They also finally agreed to cooperate with us.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho breathed a sigh of relief.

That would be the same for executives here too.

“Actually it was strange there was no check until now. Not being able to expand servers due to lack of semiconductors is serious even from a national level.”

Frankly speaking, even if military force was mobilized to normalize it, it wouldn’t be strange.

“But this time was really dangerous. Fortunate that Kangsung quickly joined hands with NK and processed volume, otherwise the White House would have taken special measures. Because other companies are putting tremendous pressure now due to server expansion issues.”

It was a razor-thin timing.

Actually when Jeong Jin-ho suddenly arranged a meeting last time and urged joining hands with NK, honestly the feeling wasn’t that good.

The opponent is NK.

Those bastards threatening Kangsung’s future meal ticket.

How can we join hands with such bastards?

But Jeong Jin-ho’s foresight was right.

If he hadn’t dramatically connected NK and Kangsung that day, the White House would have drawn its blade.

Also, US major corporations who properly caught the charge would have attacked and tried to topple Kangsung and Gwangwoon in sequence.

“But if President Jeong Jin-ho knew things would turn out like this, wouldn’t it have been better to have them cooperate with NK from the start?”

Actually Chairman Kang Seong-ho also found that a bit strange.

So investigating separately, there were reasons for everything.

“Gwangwoon gained the most from this semiconductor crisis. Shipping goes without saying, and KW Exchange also achieved global number one in an instant, right? Plus OTT sites that came out to oppose Enflix also can’t advance due to server problems.”

“Then President Jeong Jin-ho deliberately aimed for this crisis.”

“Right. You could say he squeezed out as far as possible then pulled in NK to extinguish the fire.”

Really a guy pursuing ultimate profit.

No one worldwide seems able to match Jeong Jin-ho in money-extracting ability.

“And this cooperation with NK might be a not-bad choice. We can control it by distributing the work piled on our side.”

“We eat market number one, but use NK so we don’t die crushed by volume?”

“Yes. We’re diligently making semiconductor factories now, but it takes time. And since even America raised their hands for us, TSNC has no way to survive, right? If so, the overwhelming market number one will be our Kangsung, but immediately processing all the flooding volume will be difficult.”

In other words, it’s like setting up a similar restaurant next to a well-doing business.

NK will process excess volume from Kangsung and help market stabilization like that.

Plus controlling that volume is also in Kangsung’s hands.

“Then should I rather thank President Jeong Jin-ho?”

“Yes. Thanks to President Jeong Jin-ho we not only overcame this crisis, but looking long-term, it’ll greatly help market stabilization. Putting a leash on NK is also a bonus.”

Right. I dared doubt Jeong Jin-ho.

Everything he does is calculated.

I momentarily saw only the profit in front of me and didn’t think about what comes after.

Is this why Chairman Hwang expressed that Jeong Jin-ho has a different caliber?

‘If I had refused then..’

Even if Jeong Jin-ho said outwardly it’s okay, what retaliation he would’ve done behind.

Just thinking about it makes my knees weak.

***

As SNS develops, various attempts continue.

Currently the video side is firmly held by NewTube.

But they’re also watching SNS development.

Especially the situation where uploading one’s own short videos, not just text, is gradually spreading like a trend.

“..But this isn’t simply uploading one’s own video?”

“Yes. Usually they make videos end within 5-15 seconds, or company policy is not to exceed 1 minute even if long.”

I was directly checking the SNS app operated by ByteDance.

Really the videos are all from 5 seconds to at most not exceeding 30 seconds.

Honestly nothing special, but I find myself unconsciously scrolling and watching continuously.

“This is seriously addictive.”

“Yes. I’m also seeing this kind of platform for the first time. Using short videos isn’t the first attempt, but this place has much wider versatility.”

But what my intuition reacted to wasn’t ByteDance here.

“Actually their situation is serious too. As you can see, they’re also in chaos now due to server problems. So ByteDance tried to acquire a place called Musical.ly to open the app worldwide centered on America and Europe.”

Musical.ly was a popular app in America.

“It’s called SNS for teenagers. The problem is it’s too concentrated only on teenagers so it can’t grow beyond that.”

“So they’re joining hands with ByteDance?”

“Yes. They even made the app in advance. That name was PikPik.. Or was it TokTok..”

There a brief reaction occurred.

And where that reaction headed was Musical.ly.

“The UI here is a bit cleaner. Plus there are quite a few existing members. The reason ByteDance tried to acquire here seems to be because they need to operate differently from China, so they tried to bring a place already well-rooted.”

The cost ByteDance tried to acquire Musical.ly for was $1 billion.

But in a state where they can’t solve server problems even in their own country, overseas expansion was naturally impossible.

Though they already completed the app by collaborating with Musical.ly, opening is practically impossible because servers can’t be expanded.

And exactly there intuition strongly started shaking my entire body.

It’s not pushing me to acquire ByteDance.

It seemed like it was saying to bring Musical.ly that ByteDance tried to acquire but gave up on due to server problems.

‘But SNS?’

They say young people these days all do SNS.

Yet I’ve never done it once.

Living as unemployed, naturally barely contacting friends, so there’s no way I’d have SNS, right?

That’s still the case now.

“Try it this time?”

“..Manager, do you also do SNS?”

“Even though I’m the oldest in the prime department, I still live young. Ha ha.”

To me, SNS meant only games.

Like occasionally chatting with people through game world chat?

Well, bragging when good items come out.

“But wouldn’t it be dangerous if President makes SNS?”

That’s when Hye-rin quietly interjected.

“Why?”

“President, what if you later become famous on SNS and stock prices fluctuate at every word, you might get caught for stock manipulation. Since you’re a securities company president.”

“Gasp.”

Thinking about it, I really felt that could happen.

But would any sane person try to manipulate stocks through SNS? That’s crazy.