Chapter 64:

Woosung repeated what he said to Jonathan but in more details. He talked about where the smartphone industry would head in the future.

“Even if we start right now, we still won’t be able to release a product by the end of this year in Korea. We still need to get a factory, equipment, and staffs. We just don’t have enough time. So that is why I plan on buying an existing company.”

Jang Gwangchul opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. “Have you heard of Pine Tech?”

Jang Gwangchul finally chimed in. “The insiders got in and out to make money. It left the company and the shareholders in a bit of a pickle.”

“Yes. I was one of the ones who made a chunk of money too.”

“…what?”

“And I plan on buying the company with the profit I made from the stocks.”

Yoon Gihwan and Hong Soobum looked confused.

Jang Gwangchul frowned and asked. “What do you mean you were involved? Did you make your money from Pine Tech stocks during the financial crisis? Is that what you’re saying?”

Jang Gwangchul sounded upset. It sounded like he was scolding Woosung. Woosung couldn’t tell him the truth. Luckily, he already had a made-up story he could use.

“I found out about this company from the algorithm trading winning stock recommendation. The company isn’t doing bad enough to report any net losses yet. I think we need to buy it.”

Jang Gwangchul appeared to believe Woosung’s story.

“It is a PDA manufacturing company, which means we can use their existing factory as is. I found out that they also manufacture PDAs with similar capabilities with phones. If we manage it better, it will be good.”

No one commented.

“As for our phone design, I already hired a company in Silicon Valley for it.”

Woosung turned on the giant screen and showed a cell phone design with the title Blue S.

It was the exact design used in Woosung’s previous life by Daeyang.

‘Hahaha. Whoever uses it first owns the design. I already got it patented in US and Korea so Daeyang will never be able to use it.’

Woosung grinned. He loved the fact that he stole the idea from Daeyang.

“The phone was made with this design.”

“Made?” Hong Soobum murmured.

Woosung took out a cell phone that looked exactly like the one on the screen.

“Jonathan made a prototype for us. Because of the lack of CDMA in Korea, we can’t use it here, but it is already functional in America. It’s not 100% done yet though. Oh, and its WiFi connection works in Korea as well.” Woosung continued, but this time he speaks slower. “I will be releasing the news of this phone and Pine Tech purchase at the same time. We will make the announcement at Daeyang Hotel in Samsung-dong. Our company will become the hero who saved the shareholders of Pine Tech. Blue S will get a lot of attention this way.”

Woosung clicked to get to the next slide on the screen.

“The phone’s slogan will be, ‘The only friend for you in this lonely world.'”

“…”

“And…”

Woosung suddenly stopped. There was one more business he needed to mention but was having difficulty explaining it.

‘Bitcoin.’

He re-read the report on it again on his way back to Korea.

He had to continue to work on the cryptocurrency project.

Mining.

ASIC.

Cryptocurrency trading company.

ICO (Initial Coin Offering: Creating new cryptocurrency.)

There were so many things Woosung had to develop in this industry. Woosung didn’t know how to explain all this to his colleagues. When he remained quiet, Hong Soobum asked finally.

“Hmm… President. Are you finished?”

Woosung kept his pause before he finally gave a reply. “We will be expanding continuously, and I thought this office alone wouldn’t be big enough. So I bought this entire building.”

“…pardon?”

The building was a 15-story high and a 4-story basements.

The price dropped recently due to the effect of financial crisis, but it was still well over 50 million dollars. Hong Soobum and Yoon Gihwan wondered just how much Woosung made during the difficult time. Woosung looked around.

“Now you can get back to work.”

Everyone stood up to leave. Before Yoon Gihwan could leave as well, Woosung called him.

“General manager, please stay. I have to talk to you.”

Yoon Gihwan frowned nervously. Jang Gwangchul grinned at Yoon Gihwan and murmured.

“Good luck!”

They seemed like they became good friends.

Woosung looked at Yoon Gihwan in the eye. “I was just wondering, shouldn’t we bring Manager Park and Assistant manager Kim in the company as well?”

Yoon Gihwan sighed in relief. “Oh, I can tell them. Should I get them to come for an interview?”

“No. I will go to them myself. It wouldn’t be right to have them come to do my bidding because I’m a CEO now.”

“Haha, you are worrying about nothing. They aren’t some geniuses you are trying to scout. You don’t have to feel that way.” Yoon Gihwan added sadly. “I also am not worthy of your company. I know that.”

Yoon Gihwan looked lost. Woosung said seriously.

“My conditions for my employees are two things. Ability and trust.” Woosung’s words seemed to confused Yoon Gihwan. “I have to admit that if I only valued one’s ability, you may not be my first choice. But…”

Yoon Gihwan listened hopefully.

“The trust I have in you makes you an exemplary employee. When I thanked you on my first day, I meant it. Its because you did well here while I was away, I made a good money in Korea during the financial crisis.”

Woosung made over 100 million dollars in Korea while he was in America. It was the truth. Yoon Gihwan smiled in embarrassment. His ears were turning red.

“I feel the same way about Manager Park and Assistant manager Kim. I have absolute trust in all of you. You won’t play the role of genius quants, but you will work as trusted system operators.” Woosung smiled slightly and continued. “I should go see them myself. I meant to visit you to offer you a job personally, but I couldn’t because I was in America.”

Yoon Gihwan nodded. He was learning more about Woosung.

“But that doesn’t mean you can stop learning. You need to be always diligent with your studies.”

Yoon Gihwan answered with a light smile. “I understand.”

The company ran most smoothly when it consisted of smart lazy boss and smart diligent employee.

Unfortunately in Daesan System, it was made of a stupid lazy supervisor and smart diligent employees.

“Manager Park, what the hell? The winning stock recommendation success rate went down to 45.4%. I told you to increase it by today, didn’t I?”

Manager Park answered without turning around. “I told you it requires an algorithm tuning. I gave you a report yesterday. It’s a miracle it’s actually staying at that percentage still.”

Yoon Gihwan’s replacement, Hong Sunggi, shouted angrily. “How dare you!”

“I requested for a developer who could fix it from the headquarter. They sent you, General manager Hong.”

Park Junwoo said icily. Kim Yonggun also frowned.

“Y…yes. I was sent to fix it, but you guys are the ones responsible for this program. You need to give me the needed information for me to do my job.”

“I already told you so many times. Simple regression analysis was used. Independent variable x is the past winning stocks’ volume in last 5 years. I showed you the detailed formula three times already.”

Park Junwoo changed a lot in last 4 months. He was much thinner. He looked and sounded sharp like a knife.

Hong Sunggi fumed. Kim Yonggun stood up to ease the tension.

“Haha, everyone needs to calm down. Stress can kill you.”

“Just shut up!”

“Let’s go out for coffee.”

Kim Yonggun took Hong Sunggi out and winked at Park Junwoo, who shook his head. Before leaving the office, Hong Sunggi ordered Park Junwoo.

“You… you better fix everything on the bug report from today, or else, you’re not allowed to go home.”

Then as the door opened, two familiar faces appeared.

“It’s still so noisy here.”

Kim Yonggun inhaled in surprise. “W…Woosung?”

Yoon Gihwan, who was standing next to Woosung, laughed.

“General manager Hong, how’s it going?”

“Oh, I’m fine. What brings you here today?”

“I just wanted to come by and say hi to everyone.”

“Oh…”

Kwak Jungwook, who was hidden behind Woosung and Yoon Gihwan, stepped forward and asked. “Haha, General manager Hong, could we come in?”

“O…of course.”

Kwak Jungwook then stepped back and said to Woosung. “Now, do whatever you need to do and call me.”

Woosung smiled and nodded.