Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Translation: Godtl
The prolonged delay in graphics card production due to the semiconductor shortage was causing massive ripple effects—starting with graphics card manufacturers and spreading to every company that relied on TSNC semiconductors for their products.
While Ample and Queencom had already rushed to Kangsung Electronics to reach settlements, Nvidia and AMC still hadn't found common ground.
And AMC, already teetering from internal and external crises, saw its stock price plummet below $1, bringing it to the brink of delisting.
"Thank you once again for rescuing AMC, Chairman."
With its controlling shares scattered chaotically without a dominant stakeholder, our Gwangun Group had acquired a 51% controlling stake in AMC for a bargain price.
With the stock price having plunged through the floor into the basement, we gained complete control over AMC for a mere 500 billion won.
"Moving forward, we will demonstrate to everyone here the innovations through which AMC will achieve transformation."
AMC's CEO Lisa Wu and her executives had all flown to Korea.
In truth, they had come to meet the person who now held their fates in his hands.
They seemed anxious, likely wondering if they were all about to lose their heads.
"..."
But I had no such intentions.
Especially not toward CEO Lisa Wu—hadn't her profile picture practically glowed with a radiant halo?
Meeting her in person, that brilliance was even more striking.
'...Though not everyone is like that.'
The problem wasn't Lisa Wu—it was the other executives.
Some executives showed favorable auras without major issues, but others were shrouded in thick darkness. Alarmingly so, in fact.
'And their business plans are a mixed bag too.'
Their flight to Korea had been primarily to secure their own positions.
A change in ownership meant a shake-up among the employees beneath them.
They wanted to survive—to prove AMC's vision and secure their places.
But my intuition was telling me something else.
That aside from a few projects, the rest were just money pits.
"I've heard enough."
After reviewing the proposals and presentations submitted by AMC's executives, I circled only the ones that resonated with my intuition.
I also finalized the list of executives.
Those whose faces were so clouded in darkness I could barely make them out—I marked them all with an X.
But announcing this in front of everyone wouldn't do.
"Could everyone except CEO Wu please step out for a moment? I'd like to speak with her privately."
The moment the words left my mouth, the conference room emptied.
CEO Lisa Wu, her face tense, was the first to speak.
"Chairman... I'm well aware that in my three years as CEO, I haven't delivered any notable results. But if you'd just believe in me this once, I promise to show you something worthwhile."
She must have thought I was about to fire her.
"I believe in you, CEO. I'm sure you'll do well. So I hope you'll continue to hold your position firmly."
"...!"
"The reason I asked you to stay behind was to give you this."
I handed her the marked proposal and the executive list.
As she took them, Lisa Wu's pupils trembled.
"Please focus only on the projects I've checked. And as for the executives... I trust you'll handle the necessary adjustments."
"O-Of course. But the investment amount here is..."
"For the first round, it's $1 billion as written. If you need more, just let me know. We'll review and provide additional support."
"N-No, this is more than enough! You're giving us ten times the amount we proposed."
Even the $1 billion wasn't a figure I'd arbitrarily decided.
It was simply the amount my intuition had settled on.
"I look forward to working with you, CEO."
"Yes. I'll do my absolute best to restore this company to stability."
I shook hands with CEO Lisa Wu.
The halo shimmering behind her grew so bright it was almost blinding.
＊＊＊
"..."
On the flight back to headquarters, Lisa Wu reviewed the files Jeong Jin-ho had handed her once more.
Perfect.
So he really did know this industry well after all.
Lisa Wu had honestly been skeptical when she heard that Gwangun Group, out of nowhere, was acquiring AMC.
Why would a company with absolutely no connection to computers want to acquire AMC, which was on the verge of collapse?
But after meeting Chairman Jeong Jin-ho, that skepticism had dissolved.
Just looking at the projects he had selectively included in the proposal made it clear.
New graphics card and CPU development, along with technological collaborations with other companies.
Above all, technological cooperation was the top priority.
She'd heard that Gwangun was on friendly terms with Kangsung.
Could they be counting on a technological partnership with Kangsung?
"And even $1 billion..."
Lisa Wu had set the minimum investment amount at exactly $100 million.
She thought Gwangun would refuse if she asked for more than that.
But it seemed her worries had been unnecessary.
Without even questioning or negotiating, Chairman Jeong Jin-ho had offered ten times that amount—$1 billion.
Just what had he seen in Lisa Wu? What potential had he recognized in AMC to justify spending such an enormous sum?
"There's just one condition, though."
All the executives marked with an X had to be fired.
That was Jeong Jin-ho's demand.
The problem was, some of them were key figures at AMC.
But she couldn't argue against it.
How should she put it?
Chairman Jeong Jin-ho seemed gentle on the surface, but when he spoke or gave orders, there was an unshakable conviction behind his words.
And she got the distinct impression that she should never try to break that conviction.
That was probably what they called the charisma of an exceptional leader.
"It's going to be insanely busy right from the start."
She had to clean house and launch the projects outlined in the proposal.
Ever since becoming CEO of AMC, these were likely going to be the most exhilarating days of her life.
＊＊＊
"What? All of them?"
"Yes. After returning from Korea, every single person we planted was fired."
Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles—or so the saying went.
To do that, you had to infiltrate the enemy's ranks with your own people.
It had worked in the past, it worked now, and there would never be a better strategy in the future.
That's why so many corporations still planted their people in rival companies even today.
Nvidia was no exception.
They embedded agents in their biggest competitors, keeping tabs on their schemes and sabotaging them when necessary to protect their own company.
But now, every single operative they'd placed in AMC had been fired simultaneously.
"Where did the leak come from? It's suspicious that only our people were fired without exception."
Unless there was a leak from within, it was impossible to selectively target and fire only Nvidia's people.
Tony Hwang grilled his executives, but no matter how long he interrogated them, there would be no answers.
"We'll discuss that later. For now—when exactly is this situation going to be resolved? If shipments still aren't moving, when the hell are we supposed to manufacture our graphics cards?"
Tony Hwang slammed his fist on the table, shouting at his executives.
He usually tried to keep his temper in check, but right now, it was impossible.
Not only was the AMC situation infuriating, but now logistics issues had piled on top of that.
"Yes. The entire system is down, so ships can't move. Everything from the raw materials we were trying to send out to the products we received from other clients—it's all frozen. The system crash has left Rusk completely paralyzed."
All they had to do was ship the materials to Taiwan through Rusk.
But right before that could happen, a massive cyberattack struck.
And of all the companies hit, Rusk had suffered the worst damage.
"Just launch the damn ships! What's the problem?"
"The system isn't functioning, so we don't know whose cargo goes where, who owns what, or anything else. Even if we try to ship raw materials to Taiwan, we don't know what's supposed to be delivered."
Modern society runs entirely on computerized systems.
That's why, when the central system gets hacked, even the simplest tasks become impossible.
"Then tell them to release it immediately! I heard if you send a certain amount of money in Bitcoin to those hackers, they'll unlock it?"
"Yes. Rusk was in such a hurry that they already paid the full ransom demanded. The problem is, even after sending the money, the hackers aren't releasing the encryption."
Truth be told, there are countless ransomware and viruses in the world.
But this was the first time a ransomware attack had been carried out simultaneously on such a massive scale.
Moreover, once infected by this ransomware, there was no way to break free.
The reason? This virus was actually developed by none other than the U.S. National Security Agency, the NSA.
"Are the U.S. government officials out of their minds? What were they thinking, letting something this dangerous leak?!"
To be clear, the NSA didn't directly spread the ransomware themselves.
A hacker group had breached the NSA and stolen several of their tools—one of which happened to be the core component of this WannaCry ransomware.
Originally, it was a weapon meant for cyber warfare, but once it fell into the hands of hackers, indiscriminate bombings began across the globe.
"It's an attack tool that exploits vulnerabilities in Windows. If they had consistently applied security patches, it could have been prevented. But Rusk didn't do that. There are still plenty of companies using outdated Windows systems, aren't there? They don't pay much attention to security updates as long as things keep running."
The U.S. government had issued warnings that the leaked ransomware could lead to attacks.
Of course, even they hadn't anticipated it would escalate to this scale.
IT companies like Nvidia never miss a single security update whenever a new one is released. Thanks to that, even if they were attacked, the damage wouldn't be severe.
But older companies like Rusk are sluggish when it comes to security patches.
Simply because they'd never experienced an attack of this magnitude before.
"Rusk can't even begin to estimate the extent of their losses yet. At the very least, we're talking billions of dollars gone."
If goods aren't delivered within the agreed timeframe, they'll have to pay hefty penalties.
Even if the breach was due to hacking, had they just kept their security updates in check, the damage wouldn't have been this catastrophic.
"Are you saying Rusk might actually go bankrupt over this?"
"Yes. It seems they overextended themselves, signing all sorts of contracts to wrest market share from Gwangun Shipping. But now, with everything collapsing, the penalties alone will be impossible to handle."
"What about the raw materials? Shouldn't we send them through another company?"
"That's not easy either. Haven't China and Gwangun seized control of all the major ports leading to Taiwan? The issue is, they're demanding additional fees for shipping vessels heading to Taiwan—either slapping on surcharges of up to five to ten times the normal rate or outright blocking them from entering the ports. Shipping companies are at their wits' end."
It's baffling how such thuggish tactics are even possible.
But China had already secured port operation rights along key routes for their Belt and Road Initiative.
The real problem was Gwangun's involvement in this.
On top of that, China was openly condemning Taiwan's new administration, using every means at their disposal to pressure them.
And now, innocent shipping companies were caught in the crossfire, suffering the consequences.
"So there's absolutely no way to send the raw materials to Taiwan?"
"If it weren't materials bound for TSNC, it might be possible. But if it's for TSNC, you'd have to pay over ten times the current shipping fees. Rusk, being the second-largest shipping company in the world, could have managed that, but other shipping companies simply can't..."
Their last hope, Rusk, had collapsed.
Tony Hwang clenched his eyes shut.
"This ransomware crisis... You don't think Gwangun and Kangsung orchestrated this, do you?"
"Those two corporations would undoubtedly deny it, but the circumstances are highly suspicious. This happened right when Rusk was about to ship a full load of raw materials to Taiwan. And isn't it convenient that Gwangun just so happens to run a Bitcoin exchange? The same Bitcoin the hackers are demanding as ransom."
These lunatics.
They'd launch a massive cyberattack just to stop raw materials from reaching Taiwan?
They carried out indiscriminate infections as a smokescreen while focusing their attack on Rusk, completely paralyzing its systems.
"Just how long have they been preparing all this?"
Monopolizing the shipping market.
Securing port business rights through China's Belt and Road Initiative.
These weren't plans that could be conceived overnight.
They'd been working meticulously from the ground up for a long time.
All without Tony Hwang and the other whales of the IT industry noticing a thing.
Gwangun.
Those bastards had been designing and executing this grand scheme for ages.
And all to restructure the semiconductor market!
As a result, production had already halted at countless companies dependent on Nvidia and TSNC.
The most terrifying part was there being no telling how long this chaos would last.
"If this continues..."
Tony Hwang rubbed his suddenly chilled nape.
He could feel the blade someone was swinging drawing perilously close to his throat.
＊＊＊
Today was a historic day for Enflix.
"Wow. 100 million. This is truly staggering. Who would've thought so many people would use Enflix..."
Enflix had surpassed 100 million subscribers.
Even when they'd struck their first major hit with Mysterious Story, concerns about retention had immediately surfaced.
With subscriptions renewing monthly, there were worries that customers would leave en masse after finishing Mysterious Story.
That's why they'd quickly begun production on Season 2, but they needed something to hold people over until its completion.
"And that something was Paper Tower. I never watch foreign dramas unless they're in English, but I binged this one overnight even though it's in Spanish!"
Paper Tower, following Mysterious Story, became another smash hit.
Despite the limitation of being a non-English drama, it proved that if a show is entertaining enough, language isn't an obstacle.
"Chairman, Enflix sent over various merchandise for Mysterious Story and Paper Tower. They also made a trophy commemorating the 100 million subscriber milestone."
"..."
"Don't tell me you still haven't watched those two..."
"I haven't."
"Gasp."
Are they really that good?
I should make time to watch them properly someday.
"Honestly, these seem like excuses. I think the real reason is this."
Sure enough.
What Enflix had sent was a list of projects currently filming or under consideration.
"They prepared quite a diverse list this time. Since non-English dramas have seen such success, they seem to have focused heavily on that category."
Frankly, reading synopses to find good dramas is more tedious than you'd think, but when you see Enflix's stock soaring and the dividends coming our way, those complaints vanish instantly.
What do we have this time?
The moment Director Seo handed me the list—
"...?!"
A powerful premonition struck my entire body so hard I dropped the file.
"Oops. Sorry. My hand must've slipped."
"No, no. It was my fault."
I've reviewed countless reports from Enflix and others, but never before had I felt an intuition this bone-shakingly intense.
Even after picking the file back up, my hands kept trembling so badly they went numb—it was maddening.
What on earth could be inside?
"..."
Feeling continuously electrified, I barely managed to flip through the pages.
Truthfully, spotting it wasn't difficult at all.
"...Mugunghwa Game?"
And it was even a Korean drama.
"Since Gwangun is Enflix's largest shareholder, they seem to want to invest more in Korean dramas. Apparently Mugunghwa Game has been seeking investors since 2008. It's received funding several times and even entered production before getting canceled repeatedly. There must be reasons for that, right?"
A so-called "wandering project."
'Estimated investment: 30 billion won. Estimated production period: 2-3 years.'
I tentatively reached out to touch the title Mugunghwa Game, which seemed to glow so brightly I could barely look at it directly.
"!?"
Then a dopamine storm surged through my entire body, nearly knocking me unconscious.