Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Black-Haired Investor Awakened as a Superman 021
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They could become my clients.
The moguls, institutions, and high-net-worth individuals following me are prospective clients of the soon-to-be-launched AlphaMind.
Overnight, my network expanded beyond just old alumni to the major leagues.
They were reaching out to me first.
Now, pitching them investment proposals wouldn't be difficult.
* * *
I became an asset holder with a net worth of $100 million in liquid assets alone.
That unbelievable reality became tangible with the numbers before my eyes.
[ Asset Status
• Account 1 (Day Trading):
$30,900
• Account 2 (Investment):
$57,400,485
• Account 3 (Performance Bonus):
$56,972,610
• Total Liquid Net Worth:
$114,403,995 ]
But most of it was short-term capital gains.
I needed to factor in the taxes that would be levied.
So, I directly obtained relevant laws and practical books related to tax and accounting, or downloaded them as ebooks online.
And now.
I was imprinting the letters on each page, the entire image information, into my brain.
Crackle. Crackle. Crackling.
Storing the contents of the books as images, as if taking a photograph.
Then, suddenly, the funds that had accounted for a large portion of the initial seed money flashed through my mind.
It was the consulting fee I received for providing Sofaie with a growth strategy.
I already knew that consulting fees were classified as business income, not financial income.
But the reason my attention kept getting drawn there whenever the word "consulting fee" appeared was different.
It was because I also had a place where I needed to pay a consulting fee.
I had been thinking about it steadily.
About this superhuman brainpower that had undergone Awakening.
I didn't want to think about it deeply, but.
I couldn't deny that the source of this ability stemmed from the spirit Han Gi, which had been passed down in our family.
And although I didn't know the exact reason, in my generation, the spirit hadn't descended directly, but had bloomed in a different, indirect way like now.
'Grandfather would know.'
Of course, I had no intention of digging into it, but there was something I shouldn't avoid.
Just as there's no such thing as a free lunch in the world of the living, compensation is inevitable in the world of the dead.
And Han Gi wasn't just any spirit, but a great spirit of the Korean people, judging by the name.
Behind the ability that supernaturally Awakened my brain, the presence of the spirit Han Gi stood eerily.
If I were that spirit Han Gi.
I didn't think it would just stand by and watch me.
It would demand a price, and make it unavoidable for me to pay.
I knew very well that if a spirit became enraged, it could become more terrifying than any evil spirit.
That's what I was saying.
That's why I couldn't avoid it.
'I have to pay the consulting fee.'
Before that entity revealed itself in a dangerously reckless way, it was right for me to pay a fair price first.
So, the question here was how much of a consulting fee was appropriate to pay.
As much as I had demanded from Jason and his industry colleagues?
'51%?'
Absolutely not.
Originally, I could have demanded more from them.
The choice of whether or not to accept it was at their discretion.
If they had decided to accept it, they would have been entirely dependent on me.
But this case was different.
I was different.
It all started in my head.
It was the result of combining information that I had seen, heard, and experienced.
My life.
Even Mom's life, who had dedicated herself to me.
Wasn't it the result of our mother and son's hardships melting together?
The final execution power that was applied to allow such results to be combined?
The power that acted to bring out the information contained in the unconscious?
I would acknowledge that.
It played a very important role. It led to the creation of a large profit.
That's why I was going to pay a consulting fee.
In such cases, the performance bonus for the consulting fee was 1% of the profit.
But since I had assigned a potential bonus of 3% to the report myself, I would acknowledge it even more here.
Acknowledging that the power that acted was great, I was willing to pay up to 10%.
If they didn't accept this extremely reasonable and even considerate calculation method, I would have no choice but to fight back.
'Do you understand? When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'
I finished the calculation like that.
Now, all that was left was the method of execution.
As a great spirit of the Korean people, I hoped it would be used for the Korean people.
Three directions immediately came to mind.
First, a social contribution fund.
Investing in Korean startups and small and medium-sized enterprises to help the economic growth of the Korean people through technological innovation.
Second, a community finance project.
Providing low-interest loans to self-employed Koreans.
Third, a welfare foundation.
Supporting welfare for the socially disadvantaged, including education, housing, and medical care.
With ten million dollars to pay as a consulting fee to the spirit Han Gi, I could proceed with all three directions simultaneously, even if on a small scale.
'How is it? Is this enough compensation?'
But the answer came back in a way I never expected.
In the middle of moving to Manhattan.
* * *
Around October 8th of last year.
An armed robbery occurred here in Brooklyn.
Two robbers disguised as police officers.
Broke into a home.
Handcuffed the family members, immobilizing them, and two others kept watch.
Eventually, they were arrested on 44th Street, but by then, the victim's family had already suffered terrible injuries, both mentally and physically, that could not be erased.
For me, who had risen to stardom on Wall Street, security was now a necessity, not an option.
24-hour doorman, security system.
CCTV, private elevator, etc.
As I prioritized security, the monthly rent entered the ten thousand dollar range.
But skimping on expenses there would be a foolish act.
Because it was a matter of our mother and son's safety.
[ Unit 3A, The Olcott, 27 West 72nd Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY 10023 ]
I sent Mom a message with the address of the new house where she would come after work.
A thick voice next to me asked.
"You must be happy. You seem to have succeeded greatly. May I ask what you do?"
I was in the passenger seat of the moving truck driven by the moving company employee who introduced himself as Alain.
"Let me guess. Are you in the IT industry?"
Seeing an Asian mother and son moving from an old apartment in Brooklyn to a luxury condo in Manhattan was the most realistic scenario he could think of.
The reason he didn't give the most obvious answer, Wall Street, was because of my skin color and the movers' handling of our belongings.
Because we only loaded a lot of simple items.
I smiled faintly and turned my gaze out the window.
Compared to other states where there was a strong backlash against wearing masks, this side was relatively better.
The number of people wearing masks was gradually increasing.
I felt the employee's gaze checking me out.
"Bill Gates says that the coronavirus won't end until two years from now. Do you think that makes sense?"
I pretended not to know and replied.
"Did he?"
"This mess will all be over by summer. Two years, that's a curse."
He continued in a genuinely annoyed voice.
"Have you heard the rumor that Bill Gates spread the coronavirus? It sounds ridiculous, but I've been hearing it too much lately. But seeing him curse us with two years or whatever, it doesn't seem wrong."
I nodded.
"Well, everyone's frustrated and wants to blame someone. Conspiracy theories spread better at times like that."
"But the other person is Bill Gates. That guy is serious about the coronavirus."
"Still, I don't think the statement that it will take two years to end is wrong."
"Hey. Don't say things like that. It's terrible just to imagine."
Thump.
At that moment, the truck thumped again as it went over a speed bump.
As it had been doing, his family photo hanging on the rearview mirror shook along with it.
In it, the traces of an immigrant family could be seen.
The jewelry around his wife's wrist was a Congolese beaded bracelet called Masamba.
Alain's wife was from Congo, but Alain himself was likely from Gabon.
Because Gabon bordered Congo and used French names and a French English accent.
Nevertheless, the two people from Central Africa had the same starting point in that they had started a new life here. Now they also had a daughter.
A girl who looked about four years old was posing quite charmingly with her Mom.
The lawn and background where the mother and daughter were standing matched the scenery near a small playground on the west side of Prospect Park.
The girl was holding a small figure in her hand, which was a promotional product from a kids' event at Christina Bread in Brownsville.
Brownsville was famous for having a high poverty rate even within Brooklyn.
Unlike usual, both parents had taken the time to play with her, and after eating the snacks they bought her, she received this cute figure, so the child must have felt like she was flying.
With that happy heart, they even went on a picnic to the park.
'How happy she must have been.'
The girl's lively pose in the photo explained everything.
So much information was contained in just one photo.
A family's past and present, and even the small stories melted within it.
The Congolese beaded bracelet Masamba, the small playground in Prospect Park, Christina Bread located in Brownsville. And the kids' event there.
I would have to check when these pieces of information were exposed to me.
Thanks to it, I was able to fully empathize with this family's happy day.
Then, in an instant.
'Wait, hold on!'
A sudden sense of tension enveloped my entire body.
I quickly fixed the shaking photo with my hand.
Because something had caught my eye.
There was no way the latest photo would have already faded.
The girl's pupils were tinged with a faint yellow color, as if covered with a thin film.
But because that color was so faint, it could be mistaken for just looking a little tired unless you looked closely.
However, the very subtle greenish-brown ring found around her eyes decisively proved that the girl's jaundice was not just due to tiredness.
Once again, my heart thumped and sank.
"That's my wife and daughter."
Ignoring the words coming from next to me, I stared intently at the photo.
'No doubt about it.'
A genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the ATP7B gene.
It was a sign of Wilson's disease.