Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Translation: Godtl
My younger sister was lying on the sofa, staring blankly at her phone.
It was a weekend holiday, so she was lazing around like the average office worker.
"Aren't you going out anywhere?"
"Nope. Don't have anyone to meet."
"...If even my little sister's a loner when her brother's already one..."
"That's not it! And what do you mean you're a loner? The people from Kangsung Group go crazy just hearing your name. Doesn't Chairman Kang Sung-ho meet with you all the time? I even overheard our CEO talking about it. Said it seems like you two meet every day."
"Really...? Wait. But they still don't know you're my sister over there?"
"They haven't said anything. Judging by how they treat me normally, I think they really don't know?"
I'd naturally assumed Kangsung knew my sister worked at the hotel. But since there'd been no special treatment, it seemed they either genuinely didn't know or were pretending not to.
"No. They really don't seem to know. I thought they'd done all the background checks, but apparently not."
"Well, running background checks on me would be ridiculous anyway."
As I poured water into a cup and tried to go to my room, my sister grabbed me.
"Aren't you going out either?"
"Nah. Gotta game. Been too busy with work, so I've got a lot to catch up on."
"Making real money on weekdays and game money on weekends, huh?"
"It's not really about making game money. There's a new raid that just came out, so I need to do it with my guild."
There had been a new raid, but I hadn't been able to play because of work.
I'd been grinding it hard since yesterday.
"You should get a girlfriend or something. But you need to eat too."
"Let's just order room service."
"Ugh. The room service here is ridiculously expensive. How can a single boiled egg cost 15,000 won?"
"Just eat what you want without worrying about money."
"No way. No matter how much money you make, my conscience can't accept a 15,000 won egg! I'm ordering tteokbokki today!"
"...You just wanted tteokbokki, didn't you?"
My sister grinned broadly as she searched through tteokbokki places.
"It's nice that the staff brings deliveries up here, but it's so annoying that we can't order after 10 PM."
"At least you won't gain weight."
"But sometimes I really crave chicken, you know?"
Before 10 PM, the staff receives deliveries at the lobby and brings them up to our place. But after that, they've all clocked out, so we have to go down to the lobby ourselves to get it.
And the apartment we're staying in is over 100 floors tall.
Going down and back up just to get one delivery... isn't easy.
"What about Mom and Dad?"
"They went golfing."
Our parents seem completely obsessed with golf.
Ever since retiring, they've been golfing every day.
I'm glad they're enjoying their retirement.
"Want some too?"
"I'll eat if you order."
"Wow. The world's really improved these days. Back then, you had to flip through catalogs to order delivery. Now you can just find everything so easily with an app?"
Just a few years ago, we used catalogs or flyers to order food.
Even I was still ordering by phone until last year.
But now, even at our company, employees use delivery apps more frequently, and my sister doesn't use catalogs at all anymore.
"Hey, just occurred to me—isn't the company investing in this? I don't know when this app launched, but it seems like more and more people are only using this these days."
The app, known as Nation of Late-night Snacks, currently holds the top position among numerous delivery apps.
Actually, I had also looked into a report on Nation of Late-night Snacks last year.
But back then, I didn't get any particular gut feeling, so I passed on it.
"Oppa, if there's anything you want to eat, take a look."
So, without much thought, the moment I tapped the app on my phone—
"...!"
It felt like an electric current surged from my fingertips and struck my brain with a jolt.
＊＊＊
"So, did you find out?"
"Yes. According to our investigation, it seems he isn't dating anyone."
"Really? I thought women would be all over him."
How many people in our country, at his age, have achieved as much success as Jeong Jin-ho?
"Actually, some media outlets have been digging into Chairman Jeong Jin-ho's background lately. His name has been spreading in the business world, so they must have been curious."
"And?"
"Even after combing through everything, they couldn't find anything substantial."
But Jeong Jin-ho's private life was remarkably clean.
"That's strange. If you make that much money, you'd usually be itching to spend it recklessly."
"Yes. Even on weekends, he either goes to work or doesn't leave his house at all."
Kang Mi-ra had seen enough people who became overnight millionaires or achieved great success at a young age to know their usual behavioral patterns.
Living extravagantly was a given, and scandals involving women were so frequent that they were constantly busy throwing money around to keep things quiet.
"He just stays at home, goes to work, occasionally meets with Chairman Kang Sung-ho or Chairman Hwang of Gwangun Group, or otherwise just has company dinners with his employees. Or he takes short trips with his family."
"So he's a model son living a wholesome life?"
"Yes. So wholesome that I had to double-check multiple times."
The reason they had looked into Jeong Jin-ho was actually because of Kang Sung-ho.
At first, she thought it was just a joke, but she soon realized Kang Sung-ho genuinely wanted to bring Jeong Jin-ho into the family.
So, if he was someone who might really become family, shouldn't they know what kind of person he was?
But who would've thought he'd be such a straight-laced man?
Listening to what her brother said about Jeong Jin-ho, he was by no means someone to take lightly.
How should she put it? Just hearing about him made it seem like he could see far into the distant future.
But when they actually dug into him, his daily life was surprisingly ordinary.
"But, CEO. While investigating Jeong Jin-ho, an unexpected name came up."
"An unexpected name?"
"Section Chief Jeong Yun-ah from the Strategy Team."
"Section Chief Jeong Yun-ah?"
She was a talented individual who, despite her young age, had risen quickly to the Strategy Team due to her exceptional skills.
"Why Section Chief Jeong?"
"She's Jeong Jin-ho's younger sister."
"...!?"
Kang Mi-ra froze in place for a moment.
Section Chief Jeong was Chairman Jeong Jin-ho's younger sister!?
Then, all this time, Jeong Jin-ho had been keeping an eye on Baekje Hotel through his sister, right under their noses?
"H-how did we only find out about this now?"
"Well, we had been solely focused on Chairman Hwang until now. But once we realized that Jeong Jin-ho is the true core of Gwangun Group, this information naturally surfaced."
"..."
Her brother's words about Jeong Jin-ho meticulously preparing for the distant future were right.
Just when had he planted his sister in Baekje Hotel?
And not just that—his sister had already made her way into the company's core department.
"Then, could it be that he already knows we've been investigating him...?"
"If that friend really entered this company under Jeong Jin-ho's orders, then she must have been receiving internal company information from all over. Probably... she's already noticed, don't you think?"
Kang Mi-ra tightly shut her eyes.
Her brother had sternly warned her never to make an enemy of Jeong Jin-ho.
"What should we do? Maybe we should call her in and talk..."
"That won't do. It'll only invite even stranger misunderstandings. We need to choose another method."
"Another method, then..."
"If the other party knows we've been investigating them, then we should show them an attitude of apology, shouldn't we? To make it clear that we're on their side. Bring me Section Chief Jeong's performance evaluation."
"If we fire Section Chief Jeong or demote him to another department now, it would be tantamount to openly declaring war."
After all, wasn't the Gwangun Tower, which currently generates the highest revenue for Baekje Hotel, already in Jeong Jin-ho's grasp?
"Ugh. My heart's pounding."
A thought flashed through her mind—perhaps it wasn't just Jeong Jin-ho's younger sibling they had to worry about.
Could Jeong Jin-ho's people already be so deeply entrenched everywhere that they couldn't be touched?
Today, more than ever, her late father's words seemed to echo in her ears.
If someone is too dangerous to keep as an enemy, you must make them your ally.
＊＊＊
"So, this is... an app jointly developed with ByteDance, correct?"
"Yes. Originally, it should have launched long ago. But due to global server issues, it was effectively abandoned."
ByteDance had planned to release a new app globally under the name "TokTok" while acquiring Musical.ly.
Due to Chinese regulations, they couldn't operate the same SNS platform both domestically and internationally.
So, they had partnered with Musical.ly, developed a new app, and were simply waiting for the launch date—until the global semiconductor shortage and server expansion issues forced them to abandon the project entirely.
"We've thoroughly researched the market and developed the first-ever AI recommendation system that ensures users can watch content comfortably without getting bored. We've also significantly improved UI convenience. Once people enter our app, they can zone out for hours."
The app's greatest strength was its AI recommendation system.
Short-form content, consisting of brief videos, could already be found on other SNS apps. But this one introduced an AI system that automatically recommends videos tailored to the user's preferences.
Once you picked up your phone, it would keep you glued, endlessly watching the videos it served.
"So, what does everyone think?"
"Honestly... I'm not sure. Do people these days really watch this kind of thing? Such short videos?"
"More than anything, there's too little content. There aren't enough videos for me to judge. Though the AI system does look promising."
Most of our team members were skeptical.
"What about you, President?"
"As for me..."
I had already made up my mind.
Ever since they introduced the app, my intuition had been screaming at me.
"I'll need to hear the price first."
But I couldn't outright say I was interested.
They say the position makes the person.
Now, I had become someone who haggled.
"From what I know, ByteDance had prepared $1 billion to acquire Musical.ly. Is that correct?"
"Yes. That's right."
ByteDance had valued Musical.ly at $1 billion.
At the time, given its growth potential and the developers' technical expertise, that price seemed reasonable.
"What's your current valuation?"
Brol, Musical.ly's representative, answered immediately.
"$800 million."
I waited a moment.
No gut feeling.
Meaning, the number was absurd.
"$800 million?"
At that, Deputy Chief Seo raised his voice.
"Isn't that a shamelessly high price? Everyone knows Musical.ly will shut down soon if no one acquires it. And you're trying to walk away with $800 million?!"
"W-well, then $700 million...!"
I remained silent.
"$600 million?"
"..."
"$300 million!! That's the limit. At $300 million, you'd barely recover the development costs."
At that, my closed eyes snapped open—a gut instinct locking into place.
"Let's do $300 million."
The Musical.ly team exhaled in relief.
If even we turned our backs on them, Musical.ly would truly have no choice but to shut down.
"I look forward to working with you all going forward. Although the ownership structure has now shifted to our Gwangun, I hope you'll all continue to hold your positions. And let's expand the server capacity as quickly as possible so we can release the app globally."
With this, all of Musical.ly's shares were transferred to us, making their technology and app the property of our Gwangun.
"Yes. But you'll need to change the app's name."
"Ah, the name..."
"We've brought some potential name candidates. Would you like to review them?"
I scanned through the naming list they'd prepared.
They say naming characters is the hardest part of game development, don't they?
But this time, I didn't need to agonize over it.
"Here's the first page, and the next section has—"
"Let's go with this one."
From the numerous naming options, I pointed to the one prominently displayed in the center.
The only name that seemed to glow with its own radiance.
[PicPic]
"Oh, that's a good name. In Korea, it could imply 'flipping through pics,' while internationally it might carry the connotation of 'selecting' something."
The employees seemed pleased with it too.
Yet even after finalizing the name, I couldn't shake the same thought I'd shared earlier with Director Seo.
Would there really come an era where people would sit around mindlessly watching short videos?
＊＊＊
"Why did Mi-ra go and do something so unnecessary?"
"But I believe it's better to know than not. Especially if you truly wish to legally bind President Jeong Jin-ho to Kangsung as per the Chairman's intentions."
"Hmm. But that's easier said than done. Even when I try to arrange meetings, he refuses."
"It seems President Jeong prefers more... organic encounters."
"Right. I suppose I'll have to set the stage for such 'organic encounters,' but even that won't be simple."
Kangsung Chairman's project to make Jeong Jin-ho part of Kangsung was still underway.
But this man, Jeong Jin-ho...
He wasn't easy.
At least he wasn't morally corrupt in his personal life, so that was something.
Yet every time we tried to arrange something, he stubbornly refused.
If we pushed too hard, we might just end up irritating him, leaving us stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"Well, I have some separate thoughts on that matter, so let's move on. What was this request from Gwangun about?"
"Ah, yes. Gwangun is planning to launch an SNS app soon."
"Hmm? SNS? Suddenly?"
"It was originally an app a Chinese company planned to launch globally, but server expansion issues derailed it. It seems President Jeong Jin-ho acquired it. Now they need large-scale servers urgently, so they're requesting priority supply."
"Well, that shouldn't be difficult. Accommodate Gwangun's needs as much as possible."
Trent is currently swinging his sword with gusto.
Countries caught in Trent's dance of tariffs are all scrambling to impose retaliatory tariffs—but this is the United States we're talking about.
No one emerges unscathed when facing America.
That's precisely why Chairman Kangsung felt even more grateful to Jeong Jin-ho.
Had Jeong Jin-ho not preemptively built bridges with NK, Kangsung might have been cut down by that very sword dance.
"Wait a minute. Speaking of server issues—how are other SNS platforms handling this?"
"Currently, the U.S. government is prioritizing supplies to facilities dealing with urgent national security matters. So while other requests are being pushed back, they should be resolved soon."
"I see. Is it that urgent?"
"They're managing traffic for now, but all platforms need server replacements. If this drags on much longer, operations will become difficult."
"...Is that so?"
Suddenly, Chairman Kangsung had an idea.
They say when you receive a kindness, you should return it in kind—that's just human decency.
"Find out when Gwangun plans to launch their SNS app."
"...Should we delay supply allocations to competing SNS platforms?"
At his secretary's words, Chairman Kangsung smirked.
"That's why I like you—you catch on quick."