Chapter 79
Translator: Dreamscribe
“No. I’m really fine. I’m honestly not bothered at all. And please just tell Kang Soo-ho to seriously consider the business proposal I suggested. Yep. Good-bye.”
After hanging up the phone, I let out a short sigh.
“What was that? Don’t tell me it was Chairman Kang Sung-ho again?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t he also call earlier, apologizing over and over?”
“Yes. Even though I told him I was fine, he keeps acting like this.”
It wasn’t just a day or two, it had been several days like this.
“Hehe. That man is surprisingly soft-hearted... Uwaaah!”
“...Hyung?”
I quietly stared at hyung, whose screen had gone black.
“Didn’t I just die because I lost focus while talking to you!”
“Come on. That pattern was easy enough to dodge with your eyes closed!”
Since it was a raid where we had to restart the moment someone died, I had no choice but to press restart.
-Guild Master?
-Woo woo
-Let’s make a new party?
-Died again?
-Aging curve ㄷㄷㄷ
The chat window with the guild members also blew up.
“Hyung. I’m telling you, it’s time to switch classes.”
“Tsk. I told you, that was just a mistake because I was talking to you for a second!”
Normally, hyung isn’t someone who insists on pointless pride.
He’s a person who knows how to be humble in everything, someone you can learn a lot from in terms of character.
But for some reason, he’s different when it comes to games.
He firmly believes his control is way better than the younger generation.
But it wasn’t just hyung who was like this.
Everyone in our guild boasted about being naturally gifted at games.
“What about you? You’re a potato-hands too.”
“What are you talking about? I’m the most god-handed player in our guild.”
“And that god-handed guy wiped out five times in five raids last week?”
“T-That was because the pattern RNG was unfair...”
The problem is, I’m the same.
When it comes to games, all men seem to be like this.
It’s like we have a weird pride about games.
I can tolerate being insulted personally, but I can never accept someone belittling my gaming skills.
“By the way, isn’t the Vice President going to join us?”
“I’ve tried recruiting him a few times, and he’s on the fence. RPGs are hard to get into at first. Even after starting, if you hit a certain wall, you just give up and quit.”
“And they also take a lot of time.”
“Yeah. But if we support him, he’ll level up quickly, right? These days, game companies are working hard to support newbies so they don’t quit.”
There were a few open spots in our guild, so we had been trying to recruit the Vice President, who occasionally played games.
Judging by hyung’s words, there seemed to be some interest, so maybe we’ll hear some good news soon.
“But I wish we could get one more person. Isn’t there any good pick-ups available?”
“Right? That would make our party complete and we could go for even bigger raids.”
“.......”
I thought he was focusing back on the game, but that wasn’t it.
“Doesn’t Chairman Kang Sung-ho play games?”
"What?"
“I mean, he must want to unwind when his brain’s overheated. Then he could play a light game.”
“He’s the richest man in the country, if he starts, I doubt he’ll play lightly.”
Of course, I thought hyung was joking. So I just played along.
“Exactly. That’s why you should casually ask him. Who knows, maybe a major rookie will join our guild.”
But after the conversation, it turned out hyung wasn’t joking.
I turned to look at hyung, who was controlling his character with full focus.
“...Are you serious?”
***
"No. Hyung. You really want me to do this?"
“Didn’t CEO Jung suggest doing it together?”
“Even so, are you seriously telling me to set up a joint company in collaboration with them? Why would we do that? And that meeting was just meant to connect the two of them, not to actually discuss business.”
That much was true.
It really wasn’t a meeting set up to encourage the two companies to join hands and work together enthusiastically.
“But oppa. Is it really not going to work with him and Ji-soo?"
“You know how women have that sixth sense. Ji-soo says Jung Jin-ho already has feelings for someone else. Apparently, he’s in some sort of relationship with that manager he works with.”
“That’s a shame. Hyung really wanted to bring that Jung Jin-ho guy into our family.”
“Then does it really have to be Jung Jin-ho specifically?”
“Hm?”
At Kang Mi-ra’s words, Kang Sung-ho perked up his ears.
“What do you mean?”
“I told you before, didn’t I? That Jung Jin-ho’s younger sister works at our company. She’s good-looking, works sharp and clean, and she’s perceptive too.”
In that moment, it felt like a eureka moment exploded in his head.
“That’s right. He does have a younger sister!”
There was no need for Jung Jin-ho himself to be connected to someone from the Kangseong side.
If his younger sister became connected to the Kangseong side, then Jung Jin-ho would naturally become family too.
“You’re treating that younger sister well, right?”
“Oh, of course. She just got promoted too. It wasn’t a forced promotion either, we evaluated her properly. Made sure it all looked as natural as possible.”
As expected, Kang Mi-ra was really good at handling things like this.
On the other hand, this youngest one…
“Why are you sighing while looking at me all of a sudden?”
“Just do what CEO Jung says.”
“Wait, seriously? You’re actually telling me to go through with this?”
“In my experience, you never lose out by listening to Jung Jin-ho. He’s the kind of guy who makes rice cakes fall into your lap even while you sleep. If you start a company together, at the very least he won’t pull any shady tricks. He only does things that are profitable for everyone.”
Working with another company to establish a new company is more complicated than it sounds.
Kang Soo-ho, like how he operates Kangseong Mart, wants full control, but in this new company, he wouldn’t be able to do that.
That was what didn’t sit well with him.
“He could become family. Treat him well in advance.”
“Tsk. Hyung, aren’t you playing favorites too much with Jung Jin-ho?”
“One thing’s certain, thanks to Jung Jin-ho, Kangseong Electronics escaped a massive crisis and was able to dominate the semiconductor market. Do you even know how valuable that is? Even if you sold everything and operated Kangseong Mart for your whole life...”
“Alright, alright. Fine, I’ll do it. At least he’s not some shady guy, right?”
“Yeah. He’s trustworthy, you can count on that.”
If the eldest hyung was vouching for him like that...
On top of that, he’d supposedly played a decisive role in helping Kangseong Electronics, and above all, this could become our future in-law’s family.
Kang Soo-ho had no choice.
Right. No matter what, it’s Kangseong. They wouldn’t do anything too unethical.
***
Thanks to the U.S. government stepping in, some of the difficulties with semiconductor supply and server expansion were being resolved.
But there was still one sector screaming in pain.
That was SNS.
There are many SNS platforms in the world today.
Some are famous, some not so much.
But none of them had any serious operational problems.
Until now.
Due to server issues, large SNS apps went down, pushing the user base to smaller platforms that previously had no major problems, and those smaller SNS apps began crashing one after another.
It was like a massive group of refugees moving from one SNS app to another, overloading and crashing the servers before moving on to the next.
Even the large SNS companies couldn’t handle the overwhelming traffic.
And at that perfect timing, our PicPic from Kwangwoon was launched.
“Kangseong intentionally blocked the semiconductor supply to other SNS companies.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Since they knew we were launching PicPic, we should see it as them helping us on purpose.”
Thanks to that, an enormous number of new users flooded in from the very first day.
“But didn’t we prepare a ton of servers in advance? We set up so many, yet the servers are still on the verge of crashing?”
Before launching PicPic, we had started by preparing the servers.
We had built the servers with as much support as possible from Kangseong, AMD, and NVIDIA, and even absorbed the servers from companies that had shut down. We had gone in after preparing thoroughly, almost excessively so.
And yet, we could see the servers starting to show signs of crashing.
“It’s not just that customers are flooding in because the major SNS platforms crashed due to server issues. More than anything, I think it’s because PicPic’s UI and the services we provide are really hitting the mark.”
ByteDance’s judgment had been right.
They had developed the UI and system method currently used by our PicPic in collaboration with Musical.ly.
If it hadn’t been for the server issues, it wouldn’t have been us launching PicPic, it would have been ByteDance.
“At first, I thought maybe users wouldn’t come because of the lack of content, but... wow. Now, we’re seeing thousands of videos being uploaded every second...”
An average of 5 to 15 seconds.
One minute at most.
It was the kind of video length you could watch in a flash, and most importantly, the size was small enough that even if many people uploaded videos, it didn’t put much strain on the server.
And because the videos were short, the biggest advantage was that users could just zone out and get constant dopamine hits.
“But the structure makes it difficult to generate profit immediately, right?”
“Yes. But with this many users coming in, we’ll have to insert ads just like other SNS platforms. From what I hear, advertising inquiries are already coming in from all over the world.”
It wasn’t time to make money with PicPic just yet.
First, we had to expand the servers and hold tightly onto the users who had already joined.
Then, we would introduce ads and other potential revenue streams to recover the investment.
“And this is the proposal that came in from Kangseong Mart. It seems they took seriously what you mentioned last time.”
Chairman Kang Sung-ho apologized to me several times, but honestly, I was the one who should’ve apologized. At that time, my intuition, from hearing to smell, was overwhelming me, and I just wanted to get out of there quickly.
I later learned over the phone that Chairman Kang had arranged that business meeting to try to connect me with someone from his own family.
Still, there was one thing I managed to gain from that meeting.
“They’re planning to launch a new platform to counter Lupang, which has grown into Korea’s largest e-commerce company. They want to know how we’d like to set the equity ratio and how to handle management rights and HR authority.”
A partnership between Kangseong Mart and Kwangwoon...
Honestly, it was a combination I never would’ve imagined.
And of course, I hadn’t been interested.
But through that intentionally arranged business meeting, I was hit with an intuitive idea: a new collaborative company founded by Kangseong Mart and Kwangwoon.
“They’re saying they could use the UI of our ‘Midnight Snack Nation’ app just as it is, and that leveraging delivery riders for rapid grocery delivery is also worth serious review. But to be frank, I still don’t understand why they came to us for this partnership.”
“.......”
I already knew the answer.
That day wasn’t actually a business meeting, it was a setup for a blind date.
But I didn’t bother saying that out loud.
Besides, it wasn’t something to take negatively. Thanks to that meeting, I’d stumbled upon an idea that triggered my intuition.
“So, we provide the app UI and system that are already working well with users. And they provide the logistics, right?”
“Yes. Kangseong Mart has warehouses in the stores, of course, but I believe they also have quite a few external logistics centers. They even have their own private brand manufacturing system.”
In that case, we’d need to decide how to split the shares.
I wrote down a 50:50 split.
“.......”
There was little reaction.
Should I lower it?
After all, if we proceed with this joint venture, Kangseong Mart will have to do much more of the actual work than we will.
So I lowered my share.
“Ah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine. It’s just a sudden static shock.”
It was an unpleasant reaction.
Does that mean I shouldn't lower my own share, but rather lower the other side's?
This time, I tried lowering Kangseong Mart’s share.
As I did, a smooth feeling flowed in through the pen.
‘Oh. So maybe I should finalize it like this...’
Just as I was about to set the shares, another strong static shock occurred.
Don’t tell me I need to lower it even more?
I lowered Kangseong Mart’s share even further.
But no matter how much I reduced it, my intuition kept giving me feedback.
‘Ugh, how much am I supposed to take from them?’
After deciding on the share ratio like that, I tilted my head.
Would Kangseong Mart really accept this?
...It doesn’t seem like they would.
***
“Come on, hyung. You said you were sure. You said he wasn’t the type to pull shady stunts! So what the hell is this?!”
“......”
Kang Sung-ho slightly loosened his necktie as he looked at his younger brother, who had stormed into the headquarters early in the morning.
“Seventy-five percent! He says they’re taking 75% for themselves instead of giving it to Kangseong. I wouldn’t even say anything if it was fifty-fifty. But 75%! A whole 75%! And he even wants to use our logistics centers, and convert all the closed stores into distribution warehouses. And he’s still taking 75% of the shares!!”
Even from Kang Sung-ho’s perspective, this was a tough one to defend.
Not a 50:50 split, but 75%.
No matter how you looked at it, Kangseong Mart was going to be doing the majority of the work in this partnership.
“Don’t tell me this is because we forced that blind date last time? No, seriously how little must he think of me to offer this ridiculous share ratio...! On top of that, he wants full control over HR too!”
His younger brother had every right to be emotional.
But Kang Sung-ho remained calm and logical.
So far, everything Jung Jin-ho had done had a rationale behind it.
He wasn’t the kind of guy to make decisions impulsively or emotionally.
“Chief Secretary Kim. Did you look into it?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“What did you find?”
“Well... it’s quite subtle. That 25% offered to Kangseong Mart might actually be the maximum share they could give while still drawing us in.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“It’s because of the newly revised Distribution Industry Act by the government.”
The Distribution Industry Act.
Just hearing the name made Kang Soo-ho grit his teeth.
It’s a law that prohibits large supermarkets from operating between midnight and 10 a.m., and requires them to close twice a month.
The idea is to create fair competition with traditional market vendors, but in reality, it has produced more side effects than benefits.
“The problem is that because of this law, all supermarkets in Korea, including Kangseong Mart, are unable to offer dawn delivery or express delivery. But Lupang can. Because it’s not legally classified as a supermarket.”
“So what’s your point?”
“Even if a new company is created in collaboration with Kwangwoon, that company also won’t be able to do dawn delivery.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because that too would fall under the Distribution Industry Act. The moment Kangseong Mart has equity in the new company, it could face legal restrictions.”
If Kangseong Mart holds shares in the new company, that company becomes subject to the law.
“So Lupang’s the only one having fun?”
“Yes. But if you look at the proposal from Kwangwoon, it’s clear they were considering this issue. If Kangseong holds only 25% of the shares, and Kwangwoon takes all the management and HR control, it narrowly avoids falling into the legal trap.”
“Wait. It works that way?”
“Yes. Also, their plan to directly bring over the system used in ‘Midnight Snack Nation’ to launch a new logistics system is pretty clever. If you order fresh products through Lupang, you have to wait a day. But if you use ‘Midnight Snack Nation’, delivery riders pick up the goods from nearby stores and deliver them immediately.”
As he listened up to this point, a clear picture started forming in Kang Soo-ho’s mind.
“Ultra-fast delivery is currently only active in Seoul, right? And even that is just a pilot program. But ‘Midnight Snack Nation’ already delivers all over the country. They’ve grown explosively and have a ton of delivery riders.”
“And in the provinces, there’s at least one Kangseong Mart in each region?”
“Yes. If it’s a closed store, we can convert it into a logistics warehouse. If it’s an open store, we just have to relay the goods to the delivery rider in real time. All linked with the ‘Midnight Snack Nation’ system. The government won’t be able to regulate this.”
In other words, before Lupang can roll out nationwide dawn delivery.
This is the last chance to strike first.
“W-w-wait a second.”
At that moment, Kang Soo-ho interrupted the conversation between his hyung and the Chief Secretary.
“So, what you’re saying is that Kangseong Mart needs to partner with Kwangwoon? Even with this seemingly unreasonable share structure?”
“It may look unreasonable, but it could be a golden opportunity to crush Lupang, which is rising aggressively. And we’d be free from legal regulations too.”
Seeing his younger brother blinking blankly like a fool, Kang Sung-ho let out a short laugh.
“I always told you not to judge business emotionally. If you had just looked into things a little, you wouldn’t have come running to me like this. And how many times have I told you CEO Jung isn’t someone who does shady deals?”
“.......”
His younger brother still looked dazed.
“If you understand now, then get back to work. We need to move this business forward, right?”
“Hyung. But don’t you think this is a little strange?”
“What is?”
“You said it too. That it was strange how Jung Jin-ho suddenly acquired Midnight Snack Nation.”
Kang Sung-ho nodded reluctantly.
“Yeah, I did.”
“But thanks to Kwangwoon having acquired Midnight Snack Nation in advance, if we now partner with them, the scale of this business grows massively.”
Now that he thought about it, that was true.
Even Kang Sung-ho had questioned why Jung Jin-ho suddenly bought Midnight Snack Nation. But now, it had become the missing puzzle piece that Kangseong Mart needed.
“Are you saying CEO Jung acquired that company with the intention of merging it with Kangseong Mart?”
“No. But everything fits together too perfectly. It’s like it was all planned. Even the way he calculated the share ratio, do you think that’s something you come up with in a day? This level of detail seems like it was prepared in advance. Honestly, don’t you think he already knew we’d be setting up that meeting on purpose?”
“!?”
Chairman Kang Sung-ho paused for a moment, but then forced himself to stay composed.
“Hey. If you’re going to talk nonsense, just get back to work.”
“No matter how I look at it, it’s strange-”
“Shh. Go now. Your hyung has a lot on his plate today.”
He scowled slightly, and only then did his younger brother leave the room.
Kang Sung-ho pretended to calmly go back to processing documents.
“.......”
But he couldn’t concentrate.
His brother’s words kept spinning around in his head, disturbing his thoughts.
‘Don’t tell me... he really knew everything?’
If that’s true, just how far ahead is he seeing?
Kang Sung-ho’s hand, which was checking the documents, began to tremble slightly.