Chapter 43
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Bitcoin
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I spent a few days doing nothing at home, just resting.
My broken body was recovering little by little,
but the mental wounds weren't healing easily.
Physical exhaustion was something I could endure.
But the mental stress from fighting with my family every day was truly unbearable.
If they were strangers, I could've vented with some harsh words and been done with it,
but because they were family, our emotions were all tangled up, making it even more frustrating and painful.
Coming back to my parents' house eased my body,
but I missed the freedom of living alone.
I even thought about moving out again,
but right now, I had no income.
After years of lavish spending, the money I'd scraped together during recovery was barely 50 million won.
That was just enough for a life of renting a cheap place.
I muttered to myself.
"How did my life end up like this...?"
I just sat in front of the computer all day, playing games or watching internet streams to kill time.
The fake laughs and light jokes online filled the void in my human connections.
The close friends I could really open up to had all scattered to other regions,
and I'd cut ties with many after my master agent days.
At 34 years old, making new connections wasn't easy.
That's how I spent my lonely, isolated days.
After holing up at home for days on end, I started feeling eyes on me.
Every morning, seeing my parents head to the store filled me with embarrassment.
But moving out to live alone again? That wasn't an option either. Everything outside cost money.
Even just breathing cost money in reality.
In the end, there was no choice.
I had no option but to wander through internet streams all day, killing time.
I stared blankly at the streamers' light jokes and laughter as the day slipped away meaninglessly.
"Ah... If I had a ton of money, I'd build a big house in a place with clean air and just live like this, doing nothing... That would be perfect."
I muttered to myself.
I meant it. During my master agent days, greed for bigger money blinded me, leading to my downfall.
Maybe because of that memory, I no longer craved making big bucks.
My dream was simply to live leisurely in a quiet place away from people, undisturbed by anyone.
All day, my body felt at ease, and emptying my mind while watching streams made time fly.
Having played enough in my master agent days to last a lifetime, I didn't even want to play anymore.
I had no ambition to achieve anything either.
These days, the only thing I truly enjoyed was internet streaming.
I loved the clear give-and-take: pay money, get reactions and attention from streamers.
At least these relationships had no lies or betrayals.
Back when I was a master agent, I'd installed an iron safe in my parents' room.
I used it to store office contracts, important documents, and a few million in cash, but after that incident six years ago, I hadn't opened it once.
Then one day, my mother cautiously brought it up.
"Jin-seong, about that safe. Could you sell the jewelry I put in there for your sister's wedding and my own? I'll give you 500,000 won, so sell it for me."
It wasn't useful anyway, and there was nothing valuable inside, so I agreed readily.
I took 500,000 won from Mom, handed over the safe key, and reset the password.
Then I started sorting through the contracts and old items inside one by one.
I tore up the contracts without a second thought and threw them in the trash.
But sensitive items like burner bank accounts and burner phones, I drove to a deserted riverbank and tossed them far away.
Then there were several USB drives left.
Probably member info and settlement data from my master agent and headquarters days.
With nothing else to do, I plugged in the USBs after a long time and checked their contents one by one.
As soon as I opened the files, old memories flooded back.
Weekly settlements, master agents' personal info, member databases—all packed in.
"Wow, I was really raking it in back then..."
I muttered to myself while looking at the old data.
As I went through them, one unidentified USB caught my eye.
"What's this?"
I stared blankly at the USB, pondering, when suddenly a face flashed in my mind.
"Ah! It was the one Young-jin gave me..."
I'd completely forgotten.
With the headquarters betrayal and Young-jin's death all hitting at once six years ago, I hadn't even had the luxury to remember this USB I'd entrusted.
Now, cleaning the safe, it finally came back to me.
"What did Young-jin say back then...? Something about the price going up... Ah, right! It was a coin?"
Young-jin had called it Bitcoin, I think.
Honestly, I had no idea what it was.
Vaguely thinking it might be worth something, I turned on the internet and searched.
"Why is there so much...?"
Coin info overflowed online.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, hundreds of others filled the screen.
That night, I dove deep into the internet, learning the basics of coins one by one.
What seemed complicated at first started making sense, and I realized I needed to check the real value of whatever coin was on this USB.
I spent hours frantically researching what this USB was and how to use it.
After endless Googling, it seemed this was a cold wallet—an offline cryptocurrency storage device.
"Cold wallet? Ah, this is a Ledger, right?"
Following the blog posts, I connected the Ledger to my computer and installed Ledger Live.
Step by step as instructed, a number appeared on the screen.
The initial screen had no separate password set; it just showed the coin amount plainly.
"30,000 BTC."
I rubbed my eyes. Thinking I'd misread, I checked again and again.
"30,000? Is this... real?"
I hurriedly looked up how to set a password, set my own quickly,
then scoured the internet again for the current Bitcoin price.
At first, I'd only figured out the wallet's existence and usage, not even thinking about market price.
Searching 'April 2021 Bitcoin price', the result popped up immediately.
「1 BTC = 80,000,000 KRW」
Seeing that number, my mind went completely blank.
"Wait... 80 million won...?"
I pulled out my phone calculator and punched in the numbers again.
『80,000,000 × 30,000 = 2,400,000,000,000』
"2.4 trillion won...?"
I said it out loud, but the scale didn't feel real.
My hands started shaking uncontrollably.
My head spun, and my limbs went weak.
The 400 million I'd given Young-jin—no, given up receiving—had returned after six years as 2.4 trillion.
"Is this... really legit...?"
To calm my excitement, I kept taking deep breaths.
Sweat poured from my whole body.
But what I needed to do next was clear.
"How do I cash this out...?"
I started learning from the basics: how to trade Bitcoin, exchange sign-ups, withdrawals, everything.
I stayed up nights studying via internet and YouTube, and soon my room was filled with Bitcoin-related materials.
For a full week, I obsessed like a madman over every scrap of Bitcoin info.
The world of money I'd sworn off forever was pulling me back in at an irresistible scale.
Based on my studies, I signed up for the largest domestic exchange.
I mastered sign-up, deposits, withdrawals, buying and selling—everything.
But I couldn't sell all at once.
Dumping 30,000 would crash the market price for sure.
So I transferred just 10,000 to the exchange wallet first and planned to sell slowly.
I thought about market price, but changed to a limit order: 10,000 won above current price.
People bought my supply bit by bit, hundreds a day, unaware.
Days later, checking the screen, 5,000 had sold.
『Cash Balance: 400,000,000,000 KRW』
I couldn't believe my eyes at the number on screen.
"Fuck... 400 billion?"
I stared at the screen intently.
My heart pounded wildly.
My body trembled, hands shaking.
'I actually cashed this out...?'
I tried calming my excitement, but it felt unreal—like a dream.
Even in my master agent days handling tons of cash, I'd never imagined seeing a number like this in my account.
5,000 BTC remained unsold in the exchange wallet.
The price had dipped a bit, so I decided to wait for it to rise again.
Regardless, I resolved to withdraw as much cash as possible now.
No taxes yet, no regulations—perfect timing.
I started transferring hundreds of billions daily from the exchange to my main bank account.
Watching billions hit my bank app daily, I swallowed hard, mouth dry.
After days of non-stop withdrawals, on the last day, the bank's head office even called to verify.
"Is this Kim Jin-seong himself? Your deposits have surged dramatically recently, so we're calling from the bank to confirm..."
"Yes, it's me. I handled the trades myself. It's legit money, no worries."
The bank rep sounded flustered.
"Understood... In that case, sir, we're sorry, but please visit a branch sometime when you can."
"Sure, got it."
I answered casually and hung up.
After the call, I opened the bank app again. The number was clearly there.
"400,000,000,000 KRW"
My heart pounded once more.
My spine tingled, breath quickened.
"This is... really my money?"
My legs shook.
Just digits on a screen, but an astronomical sum that could upend my entire life.
I leaned back in my chair and let out a long sigh.
From now on, the world would look different.
This was the moment I truly felt my life had flipped completely.