Block Valley, Part 4

Block Valley launched in Korea at the same time through the Legend Games Store.

It wasn’t as explosive as it was in the United States, but it still became a runaway hit in Korea and quickly rose to become the game of choice for teenagers.

Kang Seon-woo, who had tried making a game himself with Block Studio, was genuinely impressed.

"This is fun."

Game engines were usually compared to car factories. If you wanted to build a car, you first had to learn how to run the factory. But Block Studio was more like a 3D printer.

People who make games are called developers because so much of game production is programming. That meant if you were a developer, coding was essential.

So you can make games without coding, huh.

With only a little learning, anyone could make the game they wanted without being some kind of expert.

It wasn’t as if nothing like this had existed before. Custom maps were the best example. Players would tear apart a map and enjoy it in all sorts of different ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ways, and sometimes an entirely new game would be born from a custom map someone had made that way.

But this went far beyond that. It made it possible to create completely new games from scratch, and hardly any time had passed since launch before thousands of games were already being made and uploaded.

He’d known this game would take off and invested early.

My friend, but what a monster.

What nobody knew was that his friend was none other than the owner of Continue Capital.

How much is Continue Capital worth right now?

There were already rumors that Snow Crash alone was worth more than 200 billion dollars. If you added the cash and the other companies, wasn’t it at least 300 billion?

That came to a staggering 330 trillion won.

And that colossal company belonged to one man alone.

At that point, calling him not Korea’s richest but the world’s richest wouldn’t have been an exaggeration.

Until not long ago, Kang Seon-woo had been an employee at LD Studio, but thanks to his friend, he had suddenly become the president of a game company.

The headquarters was in the Yuseong Building.

As you’d expect from a conglomerate office tower, security was tight, and there was a massive server room in the basement. For a game company, it was practically the perfect setup.

The only real drawback was the absurd rent in the middle of Gangnam, but even that wasn’t much of a problem.

Because this building is owned by Continue Capital.

SW Games had already drawn enormous attention simply by receiving investment from Continue Capital. That was only natural: after Legend Games, Block Games had struck gold too, so it was inevitable that another game company would start attracting attention as well.

When I first invested 200 million won, even emptying my credit line, I never imagined it would turn out like this.

It was less a voluntary investment than something he’d been shaken down for.

Still, Han Miru had boasted that if he invested, he’d set up a game company for him. Back then, Seon-woo hadn’t really believed it.

And yet here he was, making good on that promise so quickly, and on such a massive scale.

What the hell did that bastard see in me when he invested?

Maybe he just had too much money to know what to do with it?

No, that can’t be it.

As his best friend, Seon-woo knew Han Miru better than anyone. He wasn’t the kind of man who threw money at something that could never work. It wasn’t just about the money; it was a waste of everyone’s time.

So there could only be one reason Han Miru had invested.

Did he really believe I’d do well?

Nightlight had found success as an action TPS, and Block Valley had done the same as an open-world sandbox.

Then what should SW Games make?

Seon-woo thought back to the kind of game he had always wanted to create since he was a kid. If he had stayed at LD Studio, he would’ve had to persuade the company. But now that constraint was gone.

And he said he’d cover as much development money as I needed.

There was nothing left to hesitate over.

Gathering his employees together, Kang Seon-woo made his declaration.

"SW Games is going to develop a massive PC MMORPG built on Surreal Engine 5."

The Shinsegi Group was a distribution conglomerate founded by Yoo Hye-kyung, the youngest daughter of the Yuseong Group founder. Its core businesses were department stores, supermarkets, and shopping malls, and it also operated duty-free shops, hotels, and more.

Min Ah-reum had loved fashion since she was young, probably because of her mother’s influence. She studied the field, learned the business from working at department stores, and gradually found herself wanting to build something of her own.

But she had realized early on that she would never be part of the group’s management.

Ah-reum had been born late, more than twenty years younger than her older brother and sixteen years younger than her older sister. With that much of an age gap, she had never had much chance of inheriting control in the first place.

After all, the group’s main businesses—department stores, supermarkets, and shopping malls—were for her brother and sister. She’d be lucky if she were given even a small affiliate of her own.

Min Ah-reum understood that reality very well.

Then one day, an opportunity she had never expected came her way.

Continue Capital said it wanted to invest in her.

The amount was a full 1 trillion won.

That was enough money to build an entire conglomerate from scratch.

Ah-reum gladly accepted the offer, and the company name she chose was MFW.

Officially, it stood for Metaverse Fashion Week, but the M also carried the meaning of Min Ah-reum and MZ.

When she said she wanted to go into fashion with Continue Capital’s backing, her mother, Yoo Hye-kyung, was overjoyed and promised her support. Her older brother and sister, meanwhile, seemed relieved that one more competitor had disappeared.

All of this is thanks to Miru.

Min Ah-reum thought of Han Miru.

He was nothing like the chaebol men she had met before. He never cared what anyone else thought, and once he decided to do something, he saw it through.

The connection between them had started from something incredibly small.

Her close younger friend Sung Yoon-ah had asked her to arrange a meeting between a colleague from work and Chairman Yoo Jae-ho.

It was the first time Yoon-ah had ever asked her for a favor because of a man, so out of curiosity, Ah-reum had gladly arranged the meeting for her.

She never imagined she’d receive such an enormous return for it.

If she had turned that favor down, what would have happened?

Then I wouldn’t have been able to get close to Miru, and I never would’ve gotten this chance.

The global fashion industry is as huge as the IT industry.

Luxury brands like LVMH, Richemont, Hermès, and the Swatch Group had already built impregnable fortresses so entrenched that it was difficult even to get in the door.

Breaking into that market was no easy thing.

But that didn’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mean there was no chance.

As incomes rose worldwide and emerging markets grew, new designers launched all kinds of masstige brands, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and contemporary labels began setting trends of their own.

They drew attention with fresh, sensory designs that traditional luxury brands simply didn’t have.

If you invested early and helped brands like that grow, it was possible to make a huge profit.

Fortunately, Min Ah-reum had the eye and the connections to choose those brands well.

With backing from both Continue Capital and the Shinsegi Group, MFW quickly began to stand out in the fashion industry.

Orange County, California.

Huntington Beach, located here, was known as a sacred site for surfers.

Every year, major surfing competitions were held there, and when surf season came around, surfers from all over the world gathered on its shores. Surf shops lined the beach in long rows.

Jeff Sanford and his younger sister Katie Sanford were both professional surfers and the operators of a surf shop.

Katie liked to surf in a bikini.

But if you surfed in an ordinary bikini, you might as well be putting on a nude show. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for both men and women to get into the water once, come back out, and find that their swimwear had somehow vanished.

To stay on through rough waves, you needed a snug fit and a flexible fabric.

So Katie made a suggestion to her brother.

"What if we made it ourselves?"

"Huh?"

"There are plenty of cute regular swimsuits, but surf wear always looks awful. So wouldn’t cute swimsuits and suits sell well?"

"I guess so. A lot of people really do skip buying it just because the design sucks."

Katie handled the design, and Jeff took the drawings to factories.

After years of hardship, the swimsuits and suits they created became an enormous hit.

The siblings improved the weak points of existing surf wear and placed orders themselves, then named the brand QuickShaka after their shop.

The surfwear they made sold better than expected, and it became especially popular among female surfers.

Just as they were thinking about how to grow the brand, they received a call from an investment firm.

The person who appeared before the siblings was an attractive Asian woman.

She handed them her card and introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you. I’m Min Ah-reum, representative of MFW."

"Hello."

"I’ve heard a lot about you."

Jeff apparently hadn’t expected her to be such a beauty. He cleared his throat awkwardly and blushed, while Katie jabbed him lightly in the side to tell him to get a grip.

"W-Well... after we got your message, I looked into MFW a little. I heard it was founded with investment from Continue Capital."

Min Ah-reum smiled and nodded.

"That’s right. We invest in a variety of fashion brands."

"Are you really thinking of investing in our brand?"

"Yes. QuickShaka is already pretty well known among surfers."

"Haha, is that so?"

Right now, ocean sports were growing rapidly worldwide.

General sportswear was already dominated by Nike and Adidas, but the ocean sports market was a completely different story.

That was why Min Ah-reum had set her sights on it.

"I think QuickShaka could eventually expand into mainstream beachwear as well."

"But surf wear is still our core business."

In fashion, branding was what mattered.

Depending on how the public perceived a brand, its price and sales would change.

It wasn’t for nothing that Nike and Adidas spent huge sums on sponsorships, backed sports competitions, and dressed sports stars in their own products.

"If the image spreads that this is the clothing worn by the best surfers, the general public will start liking QuickShaka too."

Min Ah-reum explained the vision and potential she saw in QuickShaka.

She also explained how MFW could help them digitize sales, promotion, and inventory management, as well as support overseas expansion into Korea and beyond.

Fortunately, the investment negotiations went smoothly without any major problems.

"Please take good care of us, Representative."

"I look forward to working with you as well."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

After finishing the contract, Min Ah-reum got into her car.

Compared to before, she was far busier and more exhausted than she had ever been, but her heart felt happier than it had in a long time.

Because this is my business.

People naturally work hardest when they’re working for themselves.

Her flight was tomorrow.

She was planning to sleep at the hotel and head out in the morning, when her phone rang.

After checking the caller ID, Min Ah-reum cleared her throat once and answered.