Bound by Destiny
After returning home, he reported the progress to Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok — that Prince Aziz intended to invest in JW Dive In, and that beyond dramas and films, they wanted to adapt Arabic content into video and serve it as well.
Like every young person of his generation, Jung Jinwoo had grown up on web novels. Except for the two years he'd spent in the business program at Seyeon University, he had never once let them go.
If you asked him for the representative web novel platform... one name rose immediately to mind.
"Whoa, so this is Jinwoo's company?"
They had talked it through the day before. For any number of reasons, he was living as if he were just an ordinary office worker.
"Aziz, is your stomach okay?"
"Yeah! Jerome bought me ox-blood hangover soup. Completely settled my stomach!"
Behind Aziz, Jerome gave a thumbs-up.
Muslims aren't supposed to eat food made from animal blood... but at this point, it wasn't even surprising anymore.
"You came without bodyguards or attendants?"
"I can't show up at a friend's company with a whole entourage trailing behind me. Jerome said we should just go, the two of us."
"Korea is safe! Don't worry!"
It was safe enough, true. But Jerome and Aziz were the sort of men who drew every eye in a room. If some lunatic decided to make trouble...
As it was, the company's security team and every employee walking past were already staring. Security watched them with wary eyes; the women, with undisguised admiration.
"This way — the elevator's over here."
Visitors were normally supposed to sign in, but he couldn't very well hold these two up and make them write their names. Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok had apparently given special instructions to the security team.
They were waiting for the executive elevator to take them up to the twenty-fourth floor when it arrived.
Three people were already inside. The same faces from last time — the one called Director Hwang, and two other directors. The car was spacious enough for ten, but still.
"Oh, sorry! We got on first. Take the next one up."
Director Hwang said it as he reached to close the doors.
They'd been told last time to use the two elevators separately — one for JW Dive In staff and the vice chairman, the other for the executives. And the elevator standing open in front of them was, without question, the one reserved for the vice chairman and Dive In employees.
If I'd been alone, I might have let it go... but I have two guests with me. And not just any guests — globally famous, critically important ones. VVIPs on the level of a head of state, if not higher.
Jung Jinwoo caught the closing door with his hand.
"Wh-what? What do you think you're doing?"
"Everyone. Get off."
"What?"
Director Hwang and the other directors bristled and glared at Jung Jinwoo.
"If you don't want to get fired, get off right now!"
Who do they think they are, riding someone else's elevator and acting like they own it? When VVIP guests have arrived, no less.
"This guy... has he lost his mind... w-wait!"
Director Hwang looked at the man standing behind Jung Jinwoo, and his mouth fell open.
"A-Azi... g-get off..."
"What's going on?"
"Get off, now. Come on, get off!"
Director Hwang shoved the other two executives out of the elevator.
"Let's go..."
At Jung Jinwoo's word, Aziz and Jerome stepped inside.
"Jinwoo! You're not mad, right?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Sorry for the commotion..."
Until the moment the doors closed, Director Hwang was still glaring at Jung Jinwoo.
Once the doors shut and the elevator began to rise, the two executives turned on him.
"What's with you, Director Hwang? What the hell was that? Why are you taking orders from that insolent punk?"
"We had to get off. Did you see? Those two foreigners just now? One of them was Prince Aziz."
Prince Aziz — whenever messy situations arose on the Arab side, wasn't he the VVIP that Korean corporate chairmen and high-ranking government officials all went to meet?
"Oh, come on, that's ridiculous. Someone who looks like him, maybe. If Prince Aziz had come to Korea, the news would've gone crazy first."
"That rude bastard... was his name Jung Jinwoo? Who the hell is that guy, throwing his weight around like he doesn't know his place? Is he something to Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok?"
"Didn't he just bark orders at us? 'If you don't want to get fired, get off right now!' Unbelievable, really..."
The two executives grumbled on, but Director Hwang said nothing. He only blinked.
A moment ago, it had felt as if a massive wave had swept past him. The kind of wave that, if you got caught in it, you had a feeling you wouldn't make it out in one piece.
"There's a specialized web novel platform in Korea called Munpia. We're going to build a Munpia in every country. So when someone posts an interesting story, you can immediately watch it as a webtoon and a video. Of course, that won't be a free service. And we can't just leave it all to AI. At every important scene, people need to step in and make it more dynamic."
"So we'd be cultivating writers, webtoon artists, and video producers?"
"Yeah. We'll provide graphics tools so that even amateurs can work easily."
"And then attach Dive In so people can jump in and experience the dramas and films firsthand?"
"Yeah. They'll be connected, but Dive In will need to be structured separately."
After Oh Gong-tae had let Jerome and Aziz experience Star Wars, Jung Jinwoo laid out the business concept he'd been turning over. The biggest vulnerability was how much human involvement there could actually be in the webtoons and videos.
Aziz wanted large numbers of people to become web novel writers, webtoon artists, and video developers. The problem was that artificial intelligence had already expanded its reach so far there was barely any room left for a human being to squeeze in.
The alternative was to provide separate tools for webtoon artists and video producers — graphics tools that could exaggerate impact with special effects, or push contrast and camera angles to extremes. Tools that let a person step in and create more dynamic, effects-laden images.
"Hmm... the scalability on this is enormous... If you take a video based on a novel you wrote on Munpia and connect it to Dive In, you could travel through the world of a novel you created yourself."
Jerome had pinpointed the exact heart of it. Not just anyone could sit as chairman of the Council of 20.
"Truly remarkable. The scale of the business you three have conceived is so vast I can barely imagine it."
Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok was smiling with genuine pleasure.
"And the hardware is just as important as the software. If we can produce and sell HMDs and simulators cheaply... that market won't be small either."
Oh Gong-tae jumped in as if he'd been waiting for his cue.
"Don't worry about that! I've already thought it through."
He'd had something in mind ever since experiencing Star Wars last time. The HMD Oh Gong-tae used was made by Pineapple, and the simulator came from Metaworks, an American startup.
"It would need to be a proven company with a global supply chain..."
Oh Gong-tae said it like a man who was already worrying.
As it happened, the optical sensors in those HMDs were Saengsong's, and the displays were MG's. Having the core components meant they could make whatever they needed, whenever they needed it. If they entrusted parts production to Saengsong and MG going forward, they could turn out high-quality products at low cost — and as global electronics companies, both already had supply chains running through factories all over the world. When it came time to sell, they'd fold in JW Dive In's margin and still hit a reasonably competitive price.
"We've already got it! Don't even worry about it."
Lee Jinho of Saengsong and Koo Hyunghoo of MG were already lining up for a piece of the action anyway — one call and they'd come running. Production at the desired price and quality would be entirely possible.
"Korea is truly amazing. Jinwoo! I'd only heard about it from Jerome, so I didn't really know... but seeing it in person... I have no words. Thank you for being my friend! I think I've met a truly good friend."
"I'm even happier. I get to have a remarkable person preparing for the post-oil era as a friend."
It was a genuinely good gathering. Everyone was marveling at each other's ideas, pooling their thoughts, and unearthing a new industry together.
Ko Yoon-seok, who had been watching quietly, opened his mouth.
"Prince Aziz... do you happen to remember?"
"Pardon? Remember what..."
"It would have been about twenty years ago. You went on a yacht trip toward the Indian Ocean, didn't you?"
"Ah! Yes — our whole family went on a yacht trip then. I caught malaria and nearly died."
"And a cyclone that formed out of nowhere meant neither a doctor helicopter nor a rescue ship could take off."
"How do you know that? If two Koreans hadn't come on a motorboat with malaria medication, I might have died then."
At Prince Aziz's words, Ko Yoon-seok smiled with a kind, fatherly face.
"You've grown up well and healthy. It's moving."
"What? Then... the ones who came then..."
"Yes. I was one of those two people. And the one who climbed onto the yacht with the malaria medicine, holding onto a rope, was Jung Jinwoo's father."
"What?"
"What?"
Jung Jinwoo's face was just as stunned as Aziz's.
"Good heavens... is that true? Where is he? He's the man who saved my life... I should thank him in person... They said if he hadn't come then, I would have died."
"He passed away... three years ago."
"Ah..."
Aziz lowered his head, the regret plain on his face — then suddenly threw his arms around Jung Jinwoo.
The hands that had been wrapped around Jung Jinwoo rose toward the heavens as he offered praise to his God.
Aziz's eyes had grown wet.
"Yeah, Aziz... I'm truly glad too."
Wasn't he supposed to be a fake Muslim? He ate pork and soju like it was nothing — ox-blood hangover soup, even. But at the decisive moment, he calls on God.