Chapter 75
Chapter 75
Translation: Godtl
With the advancement of media, it seems the world is increasingly becoming about who can best stir up controversy.
Due to the rise of social media, even people who were previously content with their lives suddenly grew unhappy, as envy, jealousy, and fake news began running rampant.
The unfortunate truth is that, judging by current trends, this is only the beginning.
And do you know who currently stirs up the most controversy in the world?
"It's finally begun—the Trent Show."
The U.S. President, Trent.
Even during his days as a businessman, he was notorious for his extremely aggressive rhetoric.
Ironically, that rough demeanor and inflammatory language were what propelled him to the presidency.
"Ever since his campaign days, just one remark from him would send shockwaves everywhere."
His ability to provoke is so extraordinary that it shakes the entire world.
And his unpredictable temperament has begun to manifest clearly in foreign policy as well.
"He announced tariffs of 25% each on steel and aluminum, and imposed over $20 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods. But this is just the opening salvo—in a few months, he plans to impose tariffs totaling $900 billion."
President Trent has emphasized since his campaign that every country in the world is scamming the United States.
He even published a book on the subject, amassing a massive following in the process.
His long-standing agenda has always been the Mexico border wall and imposing heavy tariffs on various nations.
This latest move could be seen as the first step in that direction.
"On top of that, it looks like he's really going through with the Mexico border wall. They've already started the design phase, and construction is set to begin soon."
When Trent first made the Mexico border wall a campaign promise, no one actually believed he would follow through.
But in defiance of expectations, Trent immediately launched the wall construction project.
"The real problem is that Trent has now weighed in on the semiconductor crisis."
Steel, aluminum, tariffs targeting China—frankly, none of that directly affected our securities firm.
But what impacts us the most is semiconductors.
"Because Kangsung Group is involved, President Trent has been turning a blind eye until now, but the situation is getting serious. It seems he's about to take action."
Truth be told, the U.S. government has already shown considerable restraint.
Had someone other than Trent been elected president, Kangsung and Gwangun would have been hit with massive fines, and the U.S. government would have taken every possible measure against them.
It's only because Trent operates solely on his own terms—ignoring other chaebols' opinions and brushing off all lobbying efforts—that Kangsung and Gwangun have been able to pressure other companies this far.
But even that has reached its limit.
Aren't we witnessing an unprecedented crisis where, during what's called the "super cycle," companies can't expand their server capacity due to semiconductor shortages?
Moreover, the scarcity caused by the semiconductor shortage has sent Bitcoin's rarity skyrocketing, with prices already breaking past $5,000.
As a result, our KW Bitcoin exchange has been experiencing explosive growth.
"The recent server expansion played a huge role. Ever since we first opened the exchange, we followed the Chairman's orders and stockpiled plenty of servers. And whenever we needed to expand, AMC and Kangsung prioritized supplying us first."
But other companies didn't have that luxury.
Our biggest competitor, the rapidly rising major Bitcoin exchange HiNance, couldn't expand its servers and collapsed under the overwhelming traffic.
Not just them—other exchanges also suffered severe lag whenever user traffic spiked, ultimately driving all their customers to flock to our exchange.
"Domestically, KK had been planning to make a major investment and launch their own exchange, but they've announced an indefinite postponement since they can't establish new servers right now."
KW Exchange had initially experienced a slight slowdown, but since the Bitcoin boom, it had been showing insane growth momentum.
Diverse coin trading options.
A secure trading system.
And above all, the advantage of having servers that never faltered under any circumstances.
Especially during recent events like the WannaCry ransomware attack and other major hacking incidents occurring worldwide, our exchange remained unshaken.
Most importantly, as the only exchange currently able to expand its server capacity, we experienced no server issues even when flooded with massive simultaneous traffic.
Ultimately, our KW Exchange trampled all rising competitors beneath us and proudly ascended to become the world's number one Bitcoin exchange.
"They won't catch up anytime soon, will they?"
"Not just anytime soon—it'll be nearly impossible forever. We've already absorbed too many of their potential customers. If KK had successfully expanded their servers and launched a Bitcoin exchange, they might have stolen a significant domestic user base. But they can't even establish one now because of server issues. Even if they launch belatedly, the gap has grown too wide to overcome."
KK is the most widely used messaging app in our country.
If they had created and distributed a Bitcoin exchange platform... it would have been truly disastrous.
But they too couldn't secure servers, leaving their exchange as nothing more than a pipe dream.
"Then the real question is how Trent will react."
"Yes. He's unpredictable. While he's been distracted by other issues and hasn't focused on us yet, there's no telling what he might do now."
Was that why my instincts had reacted to NK earlier?
'Did those guys handle the conversation well?'
This was actually beyond our control now.
But had we not already come too far to suddenly open a path for TSNC?
Even if we did open a path, it would take considerable time for the already shattered TSNC to recover.
Since solving this issue immediately wasn't within Gwangun's capabilities, all we could do was wait.
"..."
As I reviewed various reports sent by Research, many documents caught my attention—not focused on specific topics, but updates on economic events worldwide and corporate trends.
'Nothing particularly noteworthy.'
...Or so I thought.
When I flipped to the next page, one item stood out conspicuously.
"ByteDance?"
At first glance, I assumed it was Bitcoin-related.
But in reality, it was a completely unrelated Chinese social media company.
"Ah, ByteDance. They're extremely prominent in China."
"Really? This is my first time hearing about them."
"That's understandable. ByteDance operates an SNS platform called Douyin—China's most popular social media app. You know how it is—foreign SNS platforms can't enter China."
China remains completely closed off in this regard, barring foreign corporate SNS platforms.
It's a nation that only permits domestic SNS platforms under strict government censorship.
But something about this felt off.
Not gold, nor black, red, or blue—but a peculiar, indistinct blend of colors.
"Could you look into this company for me?"
＊＊＊
Kangsung Group's business operations had been progressing exceptionally smoothly.
But business is much like sailing—there are times when storms suddenly arise.
"What's the situation?"
This was precisely one of those moments.
Chairman Kang Sung-ho's voice carried palpable tension.
"Well..."
The executive delivering the report hesitated briefly before answering.
"The White House gave the green light. Kangsung, NK, and AMC—these three will cooperate to process the supply as quickly as possible. Nvidia held out till the end, but it seems the White House applied pressure. They've finally agreed to collaborate with us as well."
Chairman Kangsung Ho let out a sigh of relief.
The other executives in the room likely felt the same.
"Honestly, it's a miracle we faced no interference until now. A semiconductor shortage preventing server expansion is a critical issue even at the national level."
Frankly, it wouldn't have been strange if they'd resorted to military intervention to normalize the situation.
"But this time, it was genuinely dangerous. It's a relief Kangsung and NK joined forces quickly to handle the supply. If that hadn't happened, the White House would've taken drastic measures. Other companies are putting immense pressure on them over server expansion issues as it is."
It had been a razor-thin margin.
Truthfully, when Jeong Jin-ho had suddenly pushed for Kangsung to partner with NK not long ago, Chairman Kangsung hadn't been pleased.
The other party was NK.
The very ones threatening Kangsung's future prospects.
How could they possibly work with them?
But Jeong Jin-ho's foresight had been right.
Had he not dramatically bridged Kangsung and NK that day, the White House would've drawn its sword.
And the major U.S. corporations, seizing the opportunity, would've taken turns attacking and dismantling Kangsung and Gwangun.
"But if President Jeong Jin-ho knew things would turn out this way, why didn't he just arrange cooperation with NK from the start?"
Chairman Kangsung had found that odd too.
Upon looking into it, however, there was a clear reason.
"The biggest beneficiary of this semiconductor crisis is Gwangun. Their shipping business speaks for itself, and KW Exchange skyrocketed to become the global leader overnight, didn't it? Not to mention, competing OTT platforms can't even expand due to server issues while Enflix thrives."
"So you're saying President Jeong deliberately orchestrated this situation?"
"Exactly. He squeezed out every possible advantage before bringing NK in to stabilize things."
A man who pursued profit to the absolute limit.
When it came to extracting value, there was likely no one in the world who could match Jeong Jin-ho.
"And this collaboration with NK might not be such a bad choice after all. We can share the workload we've accumulated and use that to regulate the market."
"We take the top market share but use NK to prevent being crushed under the volume?"
"Correct. We're building semiconductor plants as fast as we can, but it takes time. And now that even the U.S. has backed us, TSNC has no way to survive. Kangsung will dominate the market, but handling the entire supply alone would be impossible in the short term."
In short, it was like setting up a similar restaurant next to a thriving one.
NK would help stabilize the market by absorbing Kangsung's excess supply.
And the power to control that supply? That remained in Kangsung's hands.
"So... I should actually be thanking President Jeong for this?"
"Yes. Thanks to him, we not only overcame this crisis but also secured long-term market stability. And keeping NK on a leash is just an added bonus."
Ah.
To think he'd doubted Jeong Jin-ho.
Every move he made was calculated.
I had been too focused on the immediate gains right before my eyes, failing to consider what lay beyond.
Was this why Chairman Hwang had said Jeong Jin-ho operated on a different level?
'What if I had refused him back then...?'
Even if Jin-ho had outwardly claimed it was fine, who knew what kind of retaliation might have followed?
Just the thought of it sent a chill down my spine.
＊＊＊
With the rise of social media, countless new ventures were emerging.
Currently, NewTube dominated the video-sharing space.
But even they were keeping a close eye on the evolution of social networking.
Especially now that uploading short personal videos—not just text posts—was becoming increasingly trendy.
"...But this isn't just about uploading personal videos, is it?"
"No. The company's policy is to keep videos between 5 to 15 seconds, or at most, under a minute."
I was personally checking out the social media app ByteDance was running.
The videos really were short—some as brief as five seconds, and even the longest didn't exceed thirty.
Honestly, they weren't anything special, but I found myself mindlessly scrolling through them anyway.
"This is ridiculously addictive."
"Yes. This kind of platform is new to me as well. Short-form video isn't a completely novel concept, but this one has far broader appeal."
However, my instincts weren't reacting to ByteDance itself.
"Actually, they're in serious trouble right now. As you can see, they're struggling with server issues at the moment. That's why ByteDance tried to acquire Musical.ly—an app popular in the U.S. and Europe—to expand globally."
Musical.ly was a trending app among American users.
"It's known as the 'SNS for teens.' The problem is, it's too focused on teenagers, making it impossible to grow beyond that demographic."
"So they partnered with ByteDance?"
"Yes. They even pre-developed an app together. Its name was... Tik Tok? Or was it Tok Tok...?"
At that, I felt a slight reaction.
And the direction of that reaction pointed straight to Musical.ly.
"This one has a cleaner UI. Plus, it already has a solid user base. ByteDance wanted to acquire it because they needed a different operational approach from China—taking over an already well-rooted platform."
ByteDance had planned to acquire Musical.ly for a billion dollars.
But since they couldn't even resolve their domestic server issues, overseas expansion was out of the question.
They had already collaborated with Musical.ly to finalize the app, but without server expansion, launching it was practically impossible.
And right then, a powerful intuition began surging through me.
It wasn't pushing me to acquire ByteDance.
It was telling me to take Musical.ly—the very platform ByteDance had abandoned due to server problems.
'But... a social media platform?'
They say all young people these days are on social media.
But I've never used it myself.
Back when I was unemployed, I barely kept in touch with friends—why would I have had any social media?
That hadn't changed even now.
"Why not give it a try now?"
"...Do you use social media, Manager?"
"Even though I'm the oldest in the Prime Department, I'm still young at heart. Haha."
To me, the only 'social media' I knew was gaming.
Like occasionally chatting with people in the game's world chat?
Or bragging when I got a good item drop.
"But isn't it dangerous if the CEO starts his own social media?"
That's when Hye-rin quietly chimed in.
"Why?"
"What if you become famous on social media later, and just one careless comment sends stock prices skyrocketing or plummeting? You could get arrested for market manipulation. You are the CEO of a securities firm."
"Gasp."
Come to think of it, that really could happen.
But then again, no sane person would be crazy enough to manipulate stock prices through social media... right?