Leonard McDouglas's Salvation
For Leonard McDouglas of the Golden Empire, 2006 was a year like a nightmare. It had started well. The plumber who had lived in Nashville, the capital of Tennessee in the southern United States, had finally succeeded in buying his own home. It was a two-story house with a garage, a lawn-covered front yard, and a backyard. It boasted a price of $240,000. Even now, thinking about the house price made him resentful. He had been eyeing the house for several years, and back then the price had not even reached $150,000. Yet even rural Tennessee had been swept up in the real estate boom, and the price had steadily climbed until Leonard had to pay $240,000 when he finally bought it. He could not begin to describe how unfair it had felt to pay that much. When the real estate agent warned him that waiting any longer would only drive the price higher, he had no choice but to stretch himself thin and purchase the house anyway.
At least there was one saving grace. Of the $240,000 purchase price, he had paid half—$120,000—with money he had saved, and financed the remaining $120,000 with a ten-year mortgage. That meant paying $1,200 a month for ten years: $1,000 toward principal and $200 in interest. Because he was not a regular employee at some large corporation but essentially a self-employed small business owner, he had been forced to borrow under a subprime mortgage rather than a prime one. Still, his family now had a home, and the children were overjoyed to finally have rooms of their own. That sight alone had given him strength.
Then disaster struck just after summer began. It was around the time rumors of Lehman Brothers' impending bankruptcy were spreading. When he first heard the news, Leonard had thought that whether a giant Wall Street financial firm collapsed or not had nothing to do with his life in Tennessee. He could not have been more wrong.
The bank that had issued Leonard's subprime mortgage was a small local bank in Tennessee. It was the same bank where he had opened his first account upon entering the workforce. That local bank had promptly sold the subprime mortgage it had issued to a major Wall Street investment firm for roughly $130,000. Waiting until maturity would have brought in $144,000, but selling it immediately for $130,000 was more profitable for the bank. Lehman Brothers, too, stood to gain $14,000 if it held the note to maturity, so it seemed like a decent deal. Yet Lehman had no intention of waiting either. It bundled several mortgages issued under similar conditions to Leonard's, sliced them into pieces, and created CDOs worth well over a million dollars. It was like watching Korean agricultural prices skyrocket every time they passed through another middleman.
Regardless, Leonard faithfully paid his monthly mortgage installments. Then Lehman Brothers actually went bankrupt, and the shockwave reached all the way to Leonard in Tennessee. Rumors flew that the dreaded margin call might arrive at any moment. Each day felt like walking on thin ice. If a margin call demanding immediate repayment came, Leonard would have no way to withstand it. Plumbing work provided a decent living, but it was never going to make him rich. And in the worsening economy, people simply endured minor inconveniences rather than calling for repairs. Service calls of any kind were expensive in America because of labor costs. That was also why the DIY market had flourished so greatly in the United States.
When Lehman Brothers truly collapsed, Leonard's world went dark. Even his longtime main bank had failed, leaving him with nowhere to turn. It was around then that he first heard the name Yoo Jae-won.
Leonard had heard the name a few times before. His eldest daughter, who had started college the previous year, had begged for an Android smartphone that Yoo Jae-won had supposedly created. He still remembered grumbling about how any single phone could cost nearly a thousand dollars. When he bought the phone as both a college entrance and birthday gift, he had ended up purchasing a subsidized contract phone instead of an unlocked one. Even so, the device itself had looked impressive. In the end, everyone in the family—including Leonard—ended up carrying smartphones. They had become essential for staying in close contact with his daughter, who was now studying at Caltech. In particular, ID Talk, the messenger that allowed photos and videos to be sent instantly, felt like a whole new world.
That same Yoo Jae-won, whom Leonard had once cursed under his breath, suddenly became far closer to his family through an unexpected event.
“Total Living Solution, huh.”
It was the launch of ID Total Living Solution. The massive mortgage company had been formed by acquiring every housing-backed security held by Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Citibank—whether prime or subprime. Leonard received notice that his own mortgage had been acquired by ID Total Living Solution. Along with it came the news that if he downloaded the Total Living Solution app, registered, and consented to provide his personal information, he would be granted a grace period on his loan repayments.
It was truly unexpected good news. He had been worried about a margin call, and now they were offering an extension. The difference in burden between paying $1,200 a month and paying only $200 was enormous. The basic grace period was three months, extendable up to a year depending on individual circumstances and credit rating. There was no reason not to sign up for the app.
Yet Total Living Solution turned out to be more than just a financial company.
“Huh? Personal business registration?”
While exploring the app, Leonard discovered an intriguing menu.
“They didn't name it after kitchenware for nothing, did they?”
Leonard had felt an odd sense of familiarity the moment he first heard the words “Living Solution.” After all, plumbers were most often called for clogged kitchen drains. When he looked into why such a menu existed in the app, he was surprised. For a small fee, users could request on-site services for electricity, carpentry, plumbing, and other household problems. The personal business registration option was for registering as a service provider who would respond to such requests.
“So it mediates between people who use this app.”
Although Leonard had not been using a smartphone for long, he was no stranger to IT. He had used computers for years, and the Android mobile operating system was intuitive enough that he adapted immediately. The Total Living Solution app was no different.
“Should I give it a try?”
His service calls had already dropped sharply. Whether this little app would actually help remained to be seen. Still, registration was free, and so were the fees for the time being. The idea grew more appealing.
“Let's do it.”
Once his mind was made up, action followed quickly. The moment “maybe” became “let's try,” his body moved like the wind. Preparing the necessary documents for business registration took considerable effort—business registration number, criminal background check, setting residence and service areas, and registering an account for settlements. It took an entire day just to handle the paperwork. Fortunately, not a single customer had requested his plumbing services that day, so he had the time.
After submitting everything and waiting one more day, an approval notification arrived. Leonard wondered whether calls would actually come through Total Living Solution.
“Even one a month would be nice.”
It was a modest wish. Only when Nashville residents who had joined Total Living Solution experienced plumbing problems and opened the app to request service would they be connected to him. A few days passed.
Surprisingly, Leonard's time spent in his office vanished. On the first day after registering, he received no alerts at all. The next day brought one. From the day after that, multiple alerts arrived, and soon he was fully booked. It made sense—plumbing problems were constant, but people had simply endured them because of tight finances. Now, after installing Total Living Solution, they could receive comprehensive home maintenance solutions for just twenty dollars. When they hesitantly called, actual professionals showed up and fixed the issues. Satisfied customers left reviews on the internet and app store, causing the number of users to explode. The only catch was that requesting the same maintenance service more than twice within a month changed the service from free to paid, with additional surcharges.
For Leonard, nothing changed except that he had far more work and a different settlement method. Previously he had collected payment immediately after finishing a job. Now he simply received a signature through the Total Living Solution app, and the settlement amount appeared in his account the next day. His account, which had nearly hit zero, soon accumulated thousands of dollars.
That was not the only power of Total Living Solution.
Leonard McDouglas's credit rating evaluation has been completed.
Your rating has been upgraded from C-grade to B-grade.
Interest rates will be adjusted downward accordingly.
They had said they would re-evaluate credit ratings using artificial intelligence, and Leonard's rating had been adjusted to reflect reality. The interest he had been paying—$200 a month—dropped to $160, a twenty percent reduction.
“Good heavens!”
When Lehman Brothers collapsed, one wrong move could have sent the home he had worked so hard to buy to auction. Now not only had he survived the crisis, but his interest rate had also been lowered. On top of that, he had gained a stable income through the Total Living Solution app. It was a complete reversal of fortune.
Leonard’s luck did not end there. As the number of Total Living Solution users grew, more plumbers registered in Nashville as well. With a population of around 600,000, the city had hundreds of plumbers. Some, like Leonard, had joined because their mortgages had been acquired by Total Living Solution. Others had joined later after hearing rumors of its success. Yet among them, Leonard—who had registered first—was becoming even busier, thanks to the benefits given to the earliest members: likes and review counts.
Total Living Solution allowed customers to leave recommendations after receiving service. They could simply tap a thumbs-up icon or write longer reviews with photos. When people searched for plumbers, they naturally chose Leonard, who had more likes.
“Long live Yoo Jae-won!”
The cheer finally burst from Leonard’s mouth.
Total Living Solution has surpassed ten million subscribers.
Individual business owners are joining rapidly.
The response is excellent. Especially thanks to our first member, Mr. Leonard, who has performed beyond expectations.
Inside the monitor, the upper bodies of a dozen or so people floated, each taking turns speaking during an active discussion. They were the core managers of the Living Solution division at Total Living Solution. Upon its founding, Total Living Solution had become the largest subsidiary within ID Group. Its capital alone stood at $240 billion, and the company's actual value exceeded $400 billion. Through analysis by AI Gold, rotten apples had been quickly identified, allowing the undervalued mortgage-backed securities to regain their proper value. That was why the financial division was by far the largest business unit within Total Living Solution.
Yet Yoo Jae-won had handed the financial division over to Vincent Greenhill. The area he personally commanded was the social network platform division of Living Solution. That was precisely why he had insisted on attaching the words “Living Solution” instead of simply calling it Total Financing. While the platform business was currently operating at a loss, once it took root there was no more solid business model. At the same time, just as Frederick had foreseen, it was beginning to produce ardent followers. If Total Living Solution could firmly establish itself, it would become the unshakable foundation of an empire that no one could challenge—an empire built entirely of gold.
Most importantly, there was no such thing as arrogance or complacency in Yoo Jae-won's dictionary. His grip on innovation never loosened. After sending off the turbulent year of 2006, Yoo Jae-won made that fact crystal clear from the very beginning of the new year in 2007.