Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Translator: Dreamscribe

As media has developed, the world seems to be shifting more and more toward favoring those who are best at stirring up attention.

With the advancement of social media, even people who had previously been content with their lives suddenly became unhappy, and envy, jealousy, and fake news began to run rampant.

What is unfortunate is that, judging by the current trend, this is only the beginning.

And do you know who is the best at stirring up attention in the world right now?

“It’s finally begun, the Trump Show.”

President of the United States, Trump.

Even back when he was a businessman, he frequently made highly aggressive remarks.

Ironically, that abrasive personality and language are what made him president.

“Ever since his candidacy, even just one comment from him would cause an uproar.”

His ability to stir up attention is so powerful that it can shake the entire world.

And his unpredictable personality was now starting to show clearly in diplomacy as well.

“He announced that he would impose a 25% tariff on both steel and aluminum, and placed tariffs exceeding 20 billion dollars on Chinese products. But this is just the opening salvo. A few months from now, he’s planning to impose tariffs totaling 900 billion dollars.”

President Trump had emphasized, even during his candidacy, that every country in the world was scamming the United States.

He even published a book on the matter, creating a massive base of followers.

One of his long-standing claims had been the construction of a wall on the Mexican border and imposing heavy tariffs on other countries.

This latest move could be seen as the start of that agenda.

“On top of that, it seems he’s really going ahead with the Mexico wall. The design has already started, and construction is expected to follow.”

When Trump first pledged to build a wall on the Mexican border, no one believed he would actually carry it out.

But, as if to prove everyone wrong, Trump immediately launched the wall construction project.

“The real problem is that Trump has now spoken out about the current semiconductor situation.”

Steel, aluminum, China-targeted tariffs, etc.

Frankly, those weren’t directly related to our securities company.

But what affected us the most was the semiconductor issue.

“Because Kangseong Group was involved, it seemed like President Trump had been turning a blind eye until now, but the situation has become serious enough that he appears ready to take action.”

To be honest, the U.S. government has already been very patient.

If someone other than Trump had been elected president, Kangseong and Kwangwoon would have been hit with enormous fines, and the U.S. government would have taken every possible measure against them.

Thanks to Trump ignoring all the other conglomerates’ words and incoming lobbying, and sticking only to his own methods, our Kangseong and Kwangwoon have been able to apply pressure on companies this far.

But that too had reached its limit now.

In what is being called the so-called 'supercycle' era, an unprecedented situation had occurred where servers could not be expanded due to a lack of semiconductors.

Also, due to the semiconductor shortage, Bitcoin's scarcity exploded, and its price had already broken through the $5,000 mark.

As a result, our KW Bitcoin Exchange had been experiencing tremendous growth.

“The latest server expansion played a big role. From the very beginning, when we launched the exchange, we had built a lot of servers as per the CEO-nim’s instructions. And when additional servers were needed, AMD and Kangseong gave us supply priority.”

However, other companies weren’t able to do the same.

For example, Hynance, which had been emerging as our biggest competitor among large Bitcoin exchanges, failed to expand its servers and couldn’t handle the surge in traffic, eventually crashing.

Not only that, but even other exchanges experienced severe lag whenever there was a user spike, ultimately driving all customers toward our exchange.

“Even in Korea, KK had planned a major investment to open an exchange, but they couldn’t establish new servers and had to suspend the plan indefinitely.”

KW Exchange was a bit slow at the beginning, but since the Bitcoin boom, it had shown explosive growth.

A wide variety of coin transactions.

A secure trading system.

And above all, the strength that no matter what happens, the servers never waver.

Especially during the recent WannaCry ransomware incident and other major hacking attacks occurring everywhere, our exchange remained solid.

Above all, we were the only exchange that was actually expanding its servers, so even when an enormous number of people flooded in at once, there was absolutely no impact on our servers.

As a result, our KW Exchange crushed all the rising competitors and proudly became the number one Bitcoin exchange in the world.

“It’s going to be hard to catch up for a while, right?”

“Not just for a while, it’ll probably be impossible forever. We’ve already absorbed way too many customers. If KK had managed to expand their servers and launch a Bitcoin exchange, they might’ve taken a significant portion of the domestic market, but they can’t even build servers right now. Even if they launch it later, the gap will already be too big to close.”

KK is the most widely used messaging app in South Korea.

If they had launched and distributed a Bitcoin exchange through that platform... it would’ve been a nightmare.

But even there, they couldn’t build servers, so launching an exchange was completely out of the question.

“Then the problem is going to be how Trump responds.”

“Yes. He’s unpredictable. They say he couldn’t focus on our side because of other issues so far, but now, who knows what he’ll do next.”

Maybe that’s why my instincts reacted to the NK situation.

‘I wonder if those guys managed to talk it through properly.’

This was already beyond our control.

And it wasn’t like we could suddenly open the way for TSMC, they had already come too far.

Even if we did decide to open the way, TSMC was already shattered, and it would take a long time before they could recover.

Since the solution to this issue didn’t lie with our Kwangwoon, all we could do was wait.

“.......”

So, I was reviewing various reports sent by the Research Team.

They weren’t focused on one specific topic, but rather a wide collection of data on economic events happening around the world and trends among companies.

‘Nothing particularly noteworthy.’

...Or so I thought.

As I turned the page, something suddenly caught my eye.

“ByteDance?”

At first, I thought it was a company related to Bitcoin.

But it turned out to be a Chinese SNS company, completely unrelated to Bitcoin.

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

“Is that so? It’s my first time hearing about it.”

“That’s understandable. ByteDance runs an SNS called Douyin, which is the most popular social media platform in China. You know how foreign social media can’t enter the Chinese market.”

China is a completely closed country in this area, where foreign SNS platforms are not allowed to enter.

Only domestic SNS services, under strict government censorship, are permitted.

But something about this company stood out.

It wasn’t gold-colored, nor black, red, or blue.

It had a strangely mixed tone of various colors, like a subtle blend of everything.

“Can you look into this company for me?”

***

The business of Kangseong Group was proceeding very smoothly.

But business is like a voyage, there are times when storms hit.

“How did it go?”

Right now was exactly one of those times.

Chairman Kang Sung-ho spoke in a slightly tense voice.

“Well...”

The executive who was giving the report paused briefly before answering.

“The White House gave the OK. Kangseong, NK, and AMD, those three will cooperate to handle the supply volume as quickly as possible. NVIDIA held out until the very end, but it seems the White House exerted some pressure. In the end, they reached a final agreement to cooperate with us.”

Chairman Kang Sung-ho let out a sigh of relief.

The same was likely true for the executives in the room.

“To be honest, it was strange that we hadn’t been checked until now. Not being able to expand servers due to a semiconductor shortage is a serious issue even at the national level.”

To be blunt, even if military force had been used to normalize the situation, it wouldn’t have seemed strange.

“But this time, it was genuinely dangerous. It’s a relief that Kangseong quickly joined hands with NK to handle the volume. If not, the White House would’ve taken some drastic measures. Other companies are putting immense pressure right now because of the server expansion issue.”

It was a dangerously close call.

In fact, when Jung Jin-ho suddenly arranged a meeting the other day and pushed for a partnership with NK, to be honest, it didn’t feel good at all.

The other party was NK.

They were the ones threatening Kangseong’s future income source.

How could we possibly join hands with such a group?

But Jung Jin-ho’s foresight was right.

Had he not dramatically connected NK and Kangseong that day, the White House would’ve drawn its sword.

And major U.S. corporations, having seized a solid case, would have attacked Kangseong and Kwangwoon one after another, aiming to crush them.

“But if CEO Jung Jin-ho knew things would unfold like this, wouldn’t it have been better to push for cooperation with NK from the start?”

In fact, Chairman Kang Sung-ho also found that a little strange.

So, he looked into it, and of course, there was a reason for everything.

“Kwangwoon has been the biggest beneficiary of the semiconductor crisis. No need to even mention shipping, and KW Exchange shot up to global number one in no time. On top of that, OTT platforms launched to compete with Netflix can’t even enter the market right now because of server issues.”

“So, you're saying CEO Jung Jin-ho intentionally targeted this situation.”

“Exactly. He milked it for everything he could, then brought in NK to contain the fallout.”

You could say he was someone who pursued maximum profit to the extreme.

When it came to the ability to extract money, there probably wasn’t anyone in the world who could compete with Jung Jin-ho.

“And this cooperation with NK might not be such a bad choice after all. We can allocate some of the workload that’s piled up on our side and adjust things that way.”

“So we take the market’s top position, but use NK so we don’t get buried under the volume?”

“Yes. We’re working hard to build semiconductor factories, but it takes time. And now that even the U.S. is on our side, there’s no path left for TSMC to recover. This makes Kangseong the overwhelming market leader, but handling the full influx of volume immediately will be difficult.”

In short, it’s like setting up a similar restaurant next to a busy one.

NK will help stabilize the market by handling the surplus volume coming from Kangseong.

And even the control over that volume rests in Kangseong’s hands.

"So then, I should actually be grateful to CEO Jung Jin-ho?"

“Yes. Thanks to CEO Jung Jin-ho, not only did we get through this crisis, but in the long run, this will significantly help with market stabilization. And we get the added benefit of keeping a leash on NK.”

Right. I had the audacity to doubt Jung Jin-ho.

Everything he does is calculated.

I had only been looking at the immediate gain, without considering what lay beyond.

Maybe that’s why Chairman Hwang once said that Jung Jin-ho was in a different league.

‘If I had refused back then……’

Even if Jung Jin-ho had smiled and said it was fine on the surface, who knows what kind of retaliation might’ve followed behind the scenes.

Just imagining it made my legs feel weak.

***

With the advancement of social media, various new attempts are being made.

Currently, the video sector is dominated by YouTube.

But even they are closely watching the development of social media.

Especially now that it’s becoming a growing trend to post not only text, but also short self-shot videos.

“……But this isn’t just about posting personal videos, is it?”

“No. The company has a policy to keep videos between 5 to 15 seconds, and even the longest ones don’t go beyond one minute.”

I was directly checking the social media app being operated by ByteDance.

Most of the videos were really short, around five seconds long, and rarely exceeded thirty seconds.

Honestly, they weren’t anything special, but I found myself mindlessly scrolling and watching more and more.

“This thing’s insanely addictive.”

“Yes. This is my first time seeing a platform like this. Short-form video isn’t a new concept, but this one has far more versatility.”

But what my instincts were reacting to wasn’t ByteDance.

“Actually, things are quite serious on this side as well. As you’ve seen, there’s chaos here too due to server issues. So ByteDance has been trying to acquire a company called Musical.ly in order to launch their app globally, starting with the U.S. and Europe.”

Musical.ly was a popular app in the United States.

“It’s often referred to as an SNS for teenagers. The problem is that it’s too focused on teens, so it can’t grow beyond that demographic.”

“So they’re teaming up with ByteDance?”

“Yes. They even went ahead and pre-developed the app together. I think the name was TikTok... or maybe TokTok...”

That’s when I felt a flicker of response.

And the direction of that response pointed toward Musical.ly.

“This one has a cleaner UI. Plus, it already has a decent user base. I think the reason ByteDance wanted to acquire it is because they need to operate differently from how things are done in China, so they wanted a platform that’s already well-established.”

ByteDance was prepared to pay $1 billion to acquire Musical.ly.

But since they hadn’t even resolved their server problems domestically, expanding overseas was completely out of the question. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel_fіre.net

They had already completed the app through their collaboration with Musical.ly, but due to the inability to expand servers, they were effectively unable to launch it.

And that’s when a powerful instinct began to shake my whole body.

It wasn’t telling me to acquire ByteDance.

It felt like I was being pushed to acquire Musical.ly, the company ByteDance had tried to acquire but gave up on due to server issues.

‘But… social media?’

These days, young people are all into SNS.

But I’ve personally never used one.

Since I lived as an unemployed bum and barely kept in touch with friends, of course I never had SNS.

And even now, that hasn’t changed.

“Why not give it a try now?”

“......Department Head, do you use SNS?”

“Even if I’m the oldest in the Prime Department, I still live young. Haha.”

To me, SNS was nothing more than chatting in games.

Occasionally chatting with people in world chat, that sort of thing?

Maybe showing off when I got a good item.

“But wouldn’t it be dangerous if the CEO made an SNS account?”

That’s when Hye-rin quietly cut in.

“Why?”

“What if you become famous on SNS, and just one comment from you causes the stock price to fluctuate wildly? You could be charged with stock manipulation. I mean, you are the CEO of a securities firm.”

“Gasp.”

Now that she mentioned it, it really did sound possible.

But then again, no sane person would try to manipulate the stock market through SNS, right?