Chapter 60: An American Outbreak
Chapter 60: An American Outbreak
Time flowed differently than it had during his office life.
A week used to be divided into weekdays and weekends.
That time, which had repeated like a hamster on a wheel, now stretched out in a busy, continuous line now that he was running a business.
- Earth Resource recognized as the fastest-growing unicorn company in Silicon Valley.
San Francisco Chronicle
Reading the newspaper article, it seemed Earth Resource had reached a market value of one billion dollars. Not that he had any intention of selling.
- Chris: Shin. Saw the article, congratulations. I never thought you’d succeed as an entrepreneur before I did.
- Kim Shin: Thanks. Aurora is a great company! It just needs time to succeed.
- Chris: Haha. Of course.
Congratulatory calls and texts poured in from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: Are you enjoying life in America? You’ve succeeded as a businessman, and you’re popular on YouTube, too.
- Jin Yoo-kyung: The drinks were so sweet. I really should have snatched you up then.
- Kim Shin: Huh?
The precious daughter of the Isung Group.
Despite that, he exchanged texts with Jin Yoo-kyung, who always had a somewhat chilling air about her.
However, perhaps because he had refused to cooperate with the coin factions, magazine and newspaper articles began to spring up one after another.
- Source Coin, the Tyranny of One Dollar
Philadelphia Journal
- Earth Resource’s Reckless Expansion, a Billionaire CEO’s Hobby?
Business Wave
- Is Source Coin Worth More Than a Dollar?
Computer Today
- Venturing into the Corporate Cloud Market. What Is the Goal?
American Times
American newspapers and magazines were fiercely critical.
He asked an employee who had studied journalism in college.
“Nora. Do you know anything about Business Wave or Computer Today?”
“Never heard of them. They’re probably online newspapers.”
“Online newspapers?”
It was a familiar model from Korea—journalists writing articles for money—but he hadn't expected to see it in the US.
Joseph Pulitzer.
The man who created the Pulitzer Prize was the very same person who had eagerly peddled yellow journalism.
Famous social media figures also posted a series of articles.
- Source Coin will not be allowed to enter the coin ecosystem.
- Source Coin is a pale imitation. The culprit slowing down your computer.
- On the subject of fair mining and computer usage rights.
An onslaught from the influencers Jim had been so proud of.
“Jong-yeop. It looks like the coin factions are targeting our company.”
“Just because we won’t cooperate with them?”
“Yeah. We had nothing to gain from joining hands with them.”
He intended to nurture Earth Resource properly.
A characteristic of internet businesses is that they transcend borders and physical limitations.
This was an era where Facebook, which started as an SNS for Harvard students, reached a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars in just 15 years.
‘Plenty of people have made a fortune with crypto. I was one of them.’
He had experienced firsthand how thrilling the windfall from crypto could be. That’s why he had learned a great deal watching the crypto market collapse in 2018.
He knew that without proper backing, it could bring misery to countless investors.
“Jong-yeop. I’m going to build a real business. Not a pump-and-dump scheme.”
“Yes. We have to.”
And yet, the attacks from the coin factions caused no significant damage.
He had worried that the number of people waiting to mine would decrease, even slightly, the next day.
When he arrived at work in the morning, he made Eddie an instant coffee mix and asked.
“What’s the mining queue at now?”
“890,000.”
“It has gone down quite a bit.”
“No, that’s because of the update.”
“The update?”
An update to prevent wasted electricity.
To stop computers from waiting indefinitely to mine, a numbering system was issued based on their place in line.
A feature was introduced that allowed users to check their status at regular intervals.
“We ran a poll on the grid first. Turns out, 98% are in favor.”
“Really?”
“Well, there are a lot of computers trying to get more Source Coin. And if they don’t want to install the grid, they can just leave the feature off.”
The President of the European Central Bank, the US Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Fed.
The coin factions couldn’t move the people who controlled the real economy.
‘Is this their limit?’
He confirmed the favorable public sentiment on the crypto forums as well.
- Seeing some bad reviews of Source Coin on American crypto communities?
- What do they know lolololol
- They’re the worst scum on earth. Just trying to pump the coins they invested in.
- How many times have they bought in early and then pumped it? They’re just mad they couldn’t buy Source Coin.
Reading the forum, he thought.
‘Surprisingly, there’s no damage.’
There was no impact on his actual business.
Even if public opinion in a fraction of the American crypto market had shifted, it couldn't stop the coin's popularity in Korea.
‘From now on, I’ll just have to show them with results.’
Earth Resource had only been in business for a month.
Once the cloud service and shopping mall were properly launched, he wouldn't need to pay them any mind.
In the first place, all the coin factions could really do was sway public opinion.
“Jason, let’s hire more bodyguards. And please reinforce the security for this building.”
“Yes. Understood.”
In a world where people were killed for a few hundred dollars.
Just in case, he was in the process of strengthening his personal security.
- Paul: We’ve applied for preliminary clinical trials for the COVID vaccine in Korea.
- Kim Shin: It’s finally starting.
- Paul: But the Korean government says they don’t know when the review will be completed.
- Kim Shin: What?
A message from Korea.
Professor Paul Lesser from Johns Hopkins University was staying at Biolife to assist with the research.
- Paul: They don’t believe we’ve analyzed the protein structure, and they say the company has no history of vaccine development.
- Paul: They said they have to verify everything from the ground up.
Biolife was a new company with no prior experience in vaccine development.
A research firm with no sales or revenue history.
From the Korean government’s perspective, it was probably baffling that they had suddenly claimed to have developed a COVID vaccine.
‘That kind of reaction is to be expected.’
A vaccine that could directly affect the human body.
It was unbelievable that a company with no development experience had suddenly created one.
If he had been a public official, he might well have told them to stop joking.
- Kim Shin: I see.
- Paul: We’ve applied for approval in the US separately. The preliminary trials themselves should start quickly.
- Kim Shin: Yes. Understood.
He was somewhat famous in Korea, but it was a shame he couldn't exert any influence on the government.
And then, another change occurred.
- Major COVID-19 Outbreak in New York
- Schools Close Across the US Amid COVID-19 Spread
- New York Governor Hints at Deploying National Guard to New York City
- Rapid Spread of COVID-19 in the United States
The coronavirus began to spread fiercely across America.
* * *
“Alright. I’m heading out first. Good work, everyone.”
Team Leader An Myeong-guk finished his work at Arcor and walked to the subway.
He had to go to Sadang, transfer to an intercity bus, and then head to his home in Gyeonggi Province.
The housing prices in Gangnam were so expensive that he had long given up on even renting a place there.
‘It’s already been well over 15 years since I started at Arcor.’
He felt he had endured well, experiencing many things at his first job after graduating from college.
He was also envious seeing Kim Shin and Lee Jong-yeop quit and do so well for themselves.
‘I used to have dreams, too.’
A colleague had set him up on a blind date, and he met a nice woman.
After a few casual meetings, they went on a date to an amusement park one weekend.
His heart fluttered as he confessed his feelings, a day he would regret for a long time to come.
‘When a woman looks that beautiful, you’re supposed to hold back.’
They got married and lived a life of bickering and compromise.
A daughter was born, then a son.
Every object, every moment in the house, was reoriented around the children.
They moved to Gyeonggi Province to provide a clean environment for raising them.
Before that, they had at least lived in a small villa in Songpa.
The comfortable sofa was removed for taking up too much space, and the bed naturally became the children’s.
The cost of baby formula and diapers, once a joke, became a harsh reality.
When the children grew older and started attending academies, he worried every month about making his credit card payments.
He worked so hard he was practically bleeding, and his monthly allowance was 150,000 won.
The life of a patriarch, feeling a sense of guilt every time he spent any of it.
‘I’m jealous of Kim Shin.’
The way he had earned an enormous amount of money, quit his job, and was now thriving seemed so incredible.
‘If I quit Arcor, could I get a job? What if I went to America...’
Hadn't he looked out for them as their senior and team leader all this time?
He wasn't hoping for some grand success, just enough to work hard and make a living. Wouldn't Kim Shin do at least that much for him?
“Honey. I need to teach the kids English. Can you do the dishes?”
“Okay.”
His wife, who had been an English academy teacher, personally handled their two children’s education.
It did save them a little on academy fees.
Nine and seven years old.
The children were at an age where they had to learn a great many things.
Art, piano, essay writing, math, Taekwondo, Chinese characters, science, soccer, roller skating, swimming, ballet.
‘Are you planning to raise them to be the IOC president or the UN Secretary-General?’
And yet, when she talked with other mothers, she would say she felt guilty for not providing more for her own children.
He had long since given up on having conversations with his wife.
If he expressed his belief that they should just live a reasonably happy life, he would be treated like the worst father in the world, one who didn't care about his children's education.
Late at night.
After 11 PM, he ordered chicken and opened a can of beer.
A quiet time the couple could spend together after the children were asleep.
An Myeong-guk spoke up hesitantly.
“What do you think about us going to America?”
“America?”
“I was wondering what it would be like to get a job and raise the kids in America.”
His wife’s brow furrowed, and her face hardened instantly.
“What are you talking about? Is this because your college friend immigrated to Canada? Are our circumstances the same as theirs? Do you know how much is left on the loan for this house?”
“That’s not it…”
“We need to be thinking about working hard and paying it off steadily. What are you trying to do?”
“I said that’s not it.”
“What do you mean it’s not? Let’s say we somehow make it to America. What about the kids’ education? Do you think they’ll adjust well after just a year or two? What happens when we come back to Korea?”
“Ah…”
“Can’t you think before you speak? As a father, shouldn’t you be thinking of the kids first?”
An Myeong-guk drank his beer and tore off a chicken wing.
‘I wish I could just fly away like this.’
At the amusement park, when she looked so pretty, and he thought she was the one.
He should have held back in that moment.
* * *
MERS, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, had a mortality rate of 38%.
In comparison, the coronavirus had a very low mortality and severity rate.
‘It’s not particularly dangerous for young people.’
The problem was that the infectious disease continued to spread, raising concerns of an economic recession.
Still, it was true that he hadn't felt it was a threat to his survival.
‘They mocked China’s quarantine measures and laughed at the spread of infections in Korea.’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.
Weren’t the people in hazmat suits always the final bosses in movies?
But with community transmission spreading in New York, it became difficult to even measure the total number of infected people.
People walked the streets without wearing masks.
COVID spread like wildfire through companies, schools, and homes.
‘They value individual freedom, so they could never lock down a city like China. And because of privacy concerns, it’s difficult to track and investigate as thoroughly as Korea.’
In the major cities of the developed nation of America.
Especially in New York, COVID was spreading unchecked.
- Ellie: I think someone on the floor below tested positive.
- Ellie: They told us not to come into the office for a while.