Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Bet
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“You should’ve at least told me ahead of time if you were coming. I had to throw this together in a rush, so it’s not even properly prepared…”
A middle-aged woman spoke with a regretful expression.
But contrary to her words, the table was laden with a hearty spread of Korean dishes, including kimchi jjigae.
“This is more than enough. When’s Dad getting home?”
“Your father’s late every day these days. God knows what keeps him so busy—he won’t be back until way after dinner.”
Mom seemed to think Dad had way too much free time on his hands.
‘Still, he’s the president of Oseong Electronics’ North American branch. He’s got to be busy.’
In the future, Oseong would become one of the world’s top global conglomerates, and its North American president was Seon Woo-hyuk’s father.
He’d originally planned to move to the US alone, but soon decided his son needed to see the wide world too, so the whole family relocated.
Thanks to that, Seon Woo-hyuk was able to graduate high school in America and enroll at Caltech.
“So, what’s this really about? You don’t even come home during the semester.”
“I have something to tell you and Dad.”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing big.”
“Alright, then eat first.”
Mom clearly didn’t buy my “nothing big” line—turns out a middle-aged woman’s intuition really is uncanny.
Urged to eat before talking, I sat at the table, savoring Korean food after so long, all while racking my brain for the gentlest way to break the news.
“So, you applied for a leave of absence?”
“Yes. Submitted the form yesterday, so it should process sometime this week.”
“Then maybe it can still be reversed.”
Seon Woo-jin had sensed something was up the moment he got home from work and saw his son there.
He wasn’t the affectionate type himself, but his son Seon Woo-hyuk was even quieter, to the point where he worried the boy even had friends.
A son like that coming home on a weekday—not the weekend—definitely meant something was going on.
“Even if it could be reversed, I have no intention of doing so.”
“You just finished your junior year. Next year’s graduation. Why take a sudden leave now?”
And sure enough?
The moment he changed out of his work clothes and sat on the living room sofa, his son casually dropped the bombshell—like it was some joke—that he was taking a leave from college.
“If not now, it’ll be too late. Honestly, college doesn’t mean much to me anymore.”
If some ordinary kid had said that, Seon Woo-jin probably would’ve kicked his butt and told him:
-Cut the nonsense and go beg the university on your knees tomorrow to withdraw the leave!
‘But this kid doesn’t pull stunts like that…’
Still, Seon Woo-hyuk wasn’t your average son.
Brilliant since childhood, he’d proven his talent was far from ordinary right here in America.
「Code Optimization for 16-Bit Systems: A New Approach to Speed and Memory Efficiency」
Incredibly, that was the title of the paper Seon Woo-hyuk had written and presented as a high school freshman at a US student competition.
The judging professor introduced it to academic circles, and soon Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, and Caltech—all the top universities—were offering full scholarships and early admission.
‘This child is humanity’s treasure! Please entrust him to me!’
Caltech’s Jonathan had even shown up at their house in person, trying to persuade them every single day.
‘I’ll go to Caltech. It’s close.’
Seon Woo-hyuk chose it simply because it was nearby.
“Even so, it’s just one more year to graduation. Feels too hasty. More importantly, what’s so urgent you have to do it right now?”
“I started a company.”
“What?”
“Actually started it about a month ago. Now I’m getting serious about running it.”
Seon Woo-jin’s head spun at his son’s words.
‘Started a company?’
If his son had said he wanted to study something else or take a break, that would’ve been understandable.
But starting a company? Impossible to believe.
Separate from his academic genius, the boy’s social skills were practically nonexistent.
Hell, the only friend Seon Woo-jin knew of was the neighbor kid, Rogers.
“Wh… what kind of company?”
“A game company. Well, it’s just me for now, so not much of a company yet.”
“A game…?”
The shocks kept coming.
He’d sent his son to study computers, and now he’d started a company making games.
Seon Woo-jin was starting to wonder if this was reality or just a dream.
“You want to build a company like Nendo? Hyuk, that’s impossible! Even Oseong sees the potential in that market, but there’s no room to break in—Nendo and Seton own it.”
“That’s exactly why it’d be fun, right?”
“Fun?”
“The tighter the fortress looks, the easier it is to breach.”
Seeing his son’s confident expression, Seon Woo-jin was at a loss for words.
Oseong, one of Korea’s top conglomerates.
They recognized the console market’s potential but deemed overtaking Nendo and Seton impossible, so they stuck to importing for now.
His son charging into that market with zero foundation? From a father’s perspective, it was suicide.
“Running a company isn’t easy. Even the space—you’ve only got your room and the garage here.”
“Oh, forgot to mention: I got a building. In Redwood City, close to home so I can drop by often.”
“Redwood City? You got a building there?”
“Yeah. Buying outright cost a bit, but the location’s prime—solid investment too.”
Seon Woo-jin wasn’t even surprised anymore.
Not Silicon Valley, but Redwood City was still a prime spot in California—buildings there started at hundreds of thousands of dollars minimum.
And his son spoke of buying one like it was ordering delivery pizza.
“Where’d the money come from?”
As president of Oseong’s North American branch, Seon Woo-jin was well-off and gave generous allowances, but not building-buying money.
“The game I made did pretty well. Got a $1 million advance, and royalties coming in should hit about $3 million.”
At those words, Seon Woo-jin stopped thinking altogether.
‘Less opposition than I expected?’
When I told my parents about the leave, I’d braced for getting kicked out of the house. But they surprisingly just said okay and let me go without a fuss, so I left with peace of mind.
‘If you need help, just say so. There’s plenty I can assist with.’
Dad even encouraged me warmly to give it my all.
‘Not now, but when we expand to Korea later, I’ll lean on you big time.’
Someday we’d enter the Korean market, and Oseong’s support would be a huge boost.
Knock knock.
“Come in.”
Lost in thoughts of the future, I’d arrived at my destination.
I knocked on Professor Jonathan’s office door, and a gruff voice replied right away.
“Sit.”
Jonathan pointed to the chair across the desk with a stern face, no greeting.
“Now, spit out what’s bothering you.”
“No complaints at all, Professor.”
“Then why the hell are you taking a leave?!”
‘Didn’t expect the professor to block it after my parents already approved.’
The moment he heard about my leave, Professor Jonathan blew up in fury and staunchly opposed it. I had no choice but to come convince him in person.
I could’ve ignored him and gone ahead—the processing would still happen—but it was hard to brush off a professor who’d looked out for me in so many ways.
Even the top-of-the-line IBM computer I was using now was a gift from him.
“Starting a game company? You have no idea how the world works! Just last time, one of my students came begging me to build a game engine!”
…Guess I was too honest in the leave reason.
Professor Jonathan had always viewed games unfavorably, so hearing I was dropping out to make them only fueled his anger.
“Professor, have you ever played a game?”
“Me? No time to waste on such frivolities!”
“Frivolities… Fair point.”
Games were indeed frivolities.
They were born purely for enjoyment, after all.
“Programmers write code for those frivolities. Designers draw graphics. Story writers craft narratives to deliver the tale effectively.”
“What’s your point?”
“Ironically, isn’t it fascinating how creating mere entertainment demands nearly every technology humanity has?”
“Nonsense! Are you seriously claiming games drive technological progress?”
Professor Jonathan’s face was beet red now.
Like a man betrayed, he glared at me with fury and disappointment mingled in his shout.
“You’re a genius! Not some fake like the mediocrities—a real genius!”
So worked up, he machine-gunned his words, paused to catch his breath, then continued.
“A genius like you, researching computer science—what achievements you could make, what contributions to humanity, no, to the world’s future… I can’t even imagine.”
Watching him shift to a gloomy expression like a bipolar patient, I felt a twinge of guilt.
‘He’s not a bad guy. Just stubborn.’
Professor Jonathan was the quintessential scholar.
Driven by a mission to better the world through his research, stubborn but sincere. He hoped his students would pour every ounce of talent into their work.
“Professor, want to make a bet?”
“A bet?”
That made him all the more appealing to me.
He easily cleared my strict, high standards. If he joined my side…
He’d be a massive asset in building the perfect virtual reality game.
“Two years. In two years, I’ll prove right in front of you that games can drive real technological advancement.”
“And if you fail?”
“I’ll return to college without a word, graduate, join your lab, and do whatever you say.”
“You mean that?!”
His eyes lit up, a smile breaking across his face at the promise of me in his lab.
“But… if I win, you join my company.”
My follow-up brought a moment of silence.
Professor Jonathan fell deep into thought.
But soon, he nodded.
“You’d better keep your word.”
“Of course.”
And with that, Professor Jonathan accepted my proposal.