Chapter 98: <Game king>

After signing the contract, Woosung and Jang Gwangchul went for a drink.

“Are you satisfied now?”

“Haha, would you believe me if I said yes?”

“No. You probably want more. What are you thinking?”

“I am trying hard not to just get up and go to Finland.”

“…”

Jang Gwangchul didn’t reply to Woosung’s odd comment. He kept drinking.

“My dream told me to go to Finland. It said there is a chance to win the world in Finland.”

Jang Gwangchul waved his hand for Woosung to continue.

Woosung took a sip of his whiskey and added, “It also said to drop by in England first. There is a man I need to meet.”

“Did it also tell you to go to the North Pole?”

“Haha, no it didn’t say that.”

England’s Deep Mind.

In the future, its AI, AlphaGo, would beat humans in the complex game of Go.

Finland’s Power Cell.

It would create a popular mobile game Clash of Clans and the company would reach a net worth of over 10 billion dollars.

These were the companies Woosung remembered from his previous life.

“Are you telling me you really saw these things in your dreams? Including the success of the League of Ancient?”

Woosung nodded. “You saw how all of my investments turned out to be successful.”

“That’s true, but…” Jang Gwangchul took another sip of his whiskey. “When I first met you, I saw you as just a smart programmer. Because I knew IT would be the way of the future, I figured you would make something big.”

Woosung listened carefully as Jang Gwangchul continued honestly.

“My estimation of your worth was at least 10 million and up to 100 million dollars. But I never imagined things would turn out like this.”

“Isn’t life more fun this way?”

“Sure, why not. So will you really go to England? Then Finland?”

“Haha, no. I don’t have enough money. I will go there next year.”

“So it’s going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars again, right?”

“Haha, probably.”

“Well, I guess you need to spend big to make big.”

“I am always appreciative of you, sir. Let’s work hard together.”

“Why are you suddenly nice to me?”

“Haha, I’ve always wanted to tell you that. Now, shall we go? We have to work tomorrow.”

“Alright. Let’s go.”

“October 27th, 2009. League of Ancient will be released in America and Korea at the same time.”

With this news, MOX’s stock continued to decline. It was now at 23.10 dollars.

“Game to be available exclusively through Coconut Talk.”

Jung Jinsup called Woosung for an explanation. Woosung gave vague answers, telling him he had no other choice and Jung Jinsup couldn’t do anything but to accept Woosung’s explanation.

On the day of League of Ancient’s release, MOX CEO Jung Hyosung called for an emergency meeting.

“The Legend operating team reported we need to close a third of the servers right away due to lack of players.”

Jung Jinsup and his colleagues in the room fell silent.

“This means the sales have decreased by a third.”

Jung Hyosung no longer looked confident. He looked angry and frustrated.

He yelled, “Choi Gilak, can you tell me what happened here?”

“It started with the new castle owners increasing the taxes. I suggested for the company’s interference from the beginning, but the development team wouldn’t accept my solution.”

Choi Gilak looked at the development general manager. Everyone followed his gaze.

“He only brought solutions that weren’t acceptable.”

The general manager couldn’t disclose the existence of the master account without getting into trouble, so he didn’t explain further on what Choi Gilak had suggested.

He continued, “So I suggested limiting the castle owners’ power over the game, but Choi Gilak wouldn’t listen.”

They were pointing fingers at each other. Jung Hyosung frowned in disgust. Jung Jinsup looked at them with a bitter gaze.

Jung Hyosung announced, “Just stop. We aren’t here to blame each other. We are here to come up with a solution.”

Jung Jinsup suddenly opened his mouth, “I think we need to release the next project as soon as possible. We lost so much of the gamers’ trust with Legend.”

Choi Gilak agreed, “I think so too. Battle Round has received an excellent overall review from the closed beta test.”

The general manager replied with a worried tone, “But we still haven’t stabilized the servers. We also had negative reviews regarding bugs and unbalanced items.”

Jung Hyosung asked, “Then are you suggesting we give up on Legend?”

“The gamers are sick of this game. I wouldn’t say we give up on it, but maintain it as is. We shouldn’t put any more efforts to it.”

Jung Jinsup continued, “MMORPG is the future of the gaming landscape. Did you see the reviews on League of Ancient? Short casual games are the new ways to go. It’s the current trend and we need to follow it.”

Everyone nodded.

After the meeting, the father and son duo stayed behind.

“So is it true you borrowed money with your shares as collateral?”

“We needed the money to hire more programmers and finish the next game sooner than we planned. Because of the decline in Legend’s sales, we were and still are very short on funds.”

“Then why didn’t you just let go of some of the unnecessary personnel? Using your company as collateral is dangerous.”

“We already had to fire so many people during the financial crisis. If we lost any more, who will run the company?”

“…I suppose. Are you sure you can trust him? Isn’t he the guy who released the League of Ancient on Coconut app?”

“You know me, dad. I’m not gullible enough to trust anyone in face value, but Woosung is alright. Besides, I got a solid contract.”

“Well, I trust you.”

“Then as we decided, I will release the Battle Round earlier than our planned date.”

“Alright. Take care of it.”

Jung Jinsup nodded.

Meanwhile, MOX’s stock price continued to plummet.

“On November 1st, the government declares a national emergency due to the H1N1 pandemic. All public schools have closed and the Korean SAT exam has been postponed indefinitely.”

Woosung turned off the TV and checked MOX’s stock price.

19.70 dollars.

It was at its 52-week lowest. As it deteriorated, Woosung continued to buy more.

He already owned 5%.

He made public disclosure of his ownership. He had Jung Jinsup’s 15.5% as collateral. Another 15% was under someone else’s name. KND as a company also owned 10%.

Woosung had a total of 45%. If he included the stocks owned by his US hedge fund, he had well over 50%. Knowing this made him unable to stop his grin.

Jung Jinsup.

Woosung couldn’t wait to see his face when he found out.

Woosung checked the reviews on League of Ancient.

“Over 500,000 users. The most popular game online. Great reviews from gamers…As I expected.”

It was going as well as it did in his previous life. Woosung remained grinning ever so broadly and continued to read the news articles.

The game was doing well in North America too.

Everything moved according to his expectations. Blue S’s sales were still rising while Coconut Talk users were ascending.

Knock knock.

Jang Gwangchul walked in.

“Sir, it’s ready.”

Woosung nodded and followed him out. Inside the main office area were two large LED display boards on the wall.

On the top board was a number, ‘5,000,000’.

It was the number of Blue S’s total sales so far.

All the employees looked at Woosung. Jang Gwangchul, Park Byungki, and Hong Soobum stood next to him.

“If you multiply that number by 600 dollars, it comes to 3 billion dollars.”

3 billion dollars.

People looked at him in excitement.

“Which means our sales have reached 3 billion dollars. This is thanks to all of you who have supported me without question.”

Woosung glanced at Jang Gwangchul, who coughed awkwardly.

“It wasn’t easy, but we finally got here, and we will go on even further.” Woosung paused and continued. “And I promise you, your bonuses this year won’t be disappointing.”

Everyone applauded. Woosung went back into his room.