Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 83

Translator: Dreamscribe"How's the progress going right now?"

"Apple has also announced that they will be doing a new software update, just like our Kangseong."

"When do you think ours will be ready?"

"Probably by tomorrow, everything should be updated. Since it was made in a rush, we’ll likely need to continuously fix bugs after distribution."

Chairman Kang Sung-ho felt like his head was heating up.

Just when they were cruising along after dominating the semiconductor market alongside Kwangwoon, an obstacle appeared.

And it was something that exploded from none other than the U.S. CIA.

"Why do these bastards have to dig around other people’s houses and cause such a mess?"

An unidentified hacking group attacked the CIA of all places and leaked confidential documents, and the biggest issue among them was a document called 'Vault 7'.

This document revealed that the CIA had developed hacking programs capable of infiltrating all mobile phones currently in use by humanity, allowing them to monitor calls, texts, usage records, and more at any time.

Once this document spread across the internet, people were shocked, and all mobile phone companies scrambled to push new security updates.

Apple and Kangseong, who hold the number 1 and 2 spots globally, were the most severely affected.

Although it wasn’t written explicitly in the document, conspiracy theories were spreading that they had cooperated with the U.S. government to intentionally install backdoors.

"By any chance, we didn’t actually cooperate or anything like that, right?"

"No, we didn’t."

"Are you really sure? It’s not something I don’t know about?"

"Absolutely not. If we had made a backdoor, people would’ve found out already. Even if you hide a backdoor, it’ll eventually be discovered. Also, the hacking program made by the CIA doesn’t operate through backdoors but directly attacks the software itself, so a backdoor isn’t even necessary."

They had already put in so much effort to restore the brand image after the battery explosion incident.

But now, with a highly sensitive security issue blowing up, their hard-earned brand image was about to take another hit.

"What about the media?"

"They’ve latched onto the perfect prey. Right now, the global media is tearing this story apart. But there are rumors that this leak was intentional."

"Intentional? What do you mean by that?"

"As you know, Chairman, the Volmageddon financial scandal just broke out in the financial market. There were a lot of claims that the White House joined hands with Gold Reagan to orchestrate it."

However, none of the media is talking about Volmageddon right now.

Everyone is fixated on Vault 7 and talking about nothing else.

"Of course, it's just a rumor."

There were steady rumors going around that the White House was involved in this incident.

Everyone already knew that Gold Reagan had taken massive positions right before Volmageddon erupted.

It’s no coincidence that the current administration’s key figures are filled with people from Gold Reagan.

"Still, triggering such an issue just to cover that up is a bit..."

Chairman Kang Sung-ho didn’t really believe the White House would stoop to such a level.

But considering the remarks and actions previously shown by Trump, it was hard not to be suspicious.

Thanks to Vault 7, Volmageddon had already vanished from people’s minds.

And in the media, weren’t they pushing the blame for this incident onto investors who mindlessly put their money into XIV?

"But apparently, the place that profited the most from all this is someone else."

"Not Gold Reagan?"

"Yes. Apparently, there’s a group that used Gold Reagan as their prime broker, pulled off a massive one-time hit, and disappeared. Everyone on Wall Street is talking about it. From what I heard, they made 4 trillion won in two days by trading with 2 trillion won."

"...?"

Chairman Kang Sung-ho burst into laughter shortly after, along with the executives.

"That sounds even more like nonsense than the rumor about the White House triggering this issue to cover up Volmageddon."

Even with hundreds of billions, doubling your money in two days is not easy.

Even if you had two years instead of two days, doubling it still wouldn’t be easy.

That’s because of one thing, volume.

No matter how big the U.S. stock market is, if you're managing over 2 trillion won, you're bound to hit a volume limit.

That means the money would have to be spread out across multiple investments, and yet they supposedly made that kind of return through short-term trading in just two days.

"That doesn’t make any sense."

"Yes. But Wall Street isn’t dismissing it as a mere rumor. While Gold Reagan is keeping their mouths shut, the fact remains that a certain entity made huge profits through high-frequency trading."

Now it was clear why Wall Street was making such a fuss over this.

Even they recognized that something abnormal had happened.

"So you're saying even that was orchestrated by the White House and Gold Reagan?"

"That part we can’t know for sure. But the reason I’m telling you all this is because there’s talk that the entity is based in Korea."

"So you’re saying some Korean group raided the U.S. stock market?"

"According to talk from Wall Street, yes. The major player that came in using Gold Reagan as their prime broker is said to be from Korea."

A massive investment amount of 2 trillion won originating from Korea.

An abnormal strategy of high-frequency trading through Gold Reagan over two days.

On top of that, making a ridiculous 100% return without losing money.

"Wait a second."

As he pieced it all together, there was only one place crazy enough to pull something like this off.

Where had there always been abnormal investments yielding profits?

"Don’t tell me… Kwangwoon?!"

"There’s no specific name mentioned. But one thing is certain, it wasn’t a fund."

If it wasn’t a fund, then there really was no other possibility besides Kwangwoon.

What other Korean entity besides Kwangwoon could handle that kind of capital without being a fund?

And frankly, the idea of high-frequency trading with trillions of won could only come from Jung Jin-ho.

Crazy bastard.

He really has an uncanny nose for the scent of money.

"But is this even okay? Trading that kind of volume should’ve easily shaken the market. If a foreign company, not even a U.S. firm, pulled that off, there’s no way the U.S. would just sit back, right?"

"Yes. Whether what was done was illegal or not, making that kind of profit through high-frequency trading of 2 trillion won over two days would definitely have triggered some kind of response from the SEC. There’s enough grounds for a market manipulation charge."

So is Jung Jin-ho going to get arrested?

All kinds of thoughts suddenly started flooding Kang Sung-ho’s mind.

"But apparently, the SEC hasn’t taken any real disciplinary action or launched an investigation. They just pretended to go through the formalities, and then let it all fizzle out."

"They're not investigating it internally either?"

"The SEC is quite a noisy bunch. When something happens, they’re the type to react immediately. If they had any intention of investigating properly, they would've already made a scene. But since it’s this quiet… we can assume they buried it."

"What? After all that money was made through short-term trades, they just buried it?"

"My guess is that even they realized digging too deep into this would bring up names they’d rather not see."

Even the almighty SEC has names it fears.

And what name could that be?

"The White House?"

"Yes. Apparently, the timing of Gold Reagan exiting their positions and that specific Korean group pulling out was strangely identical."

Chairman Kang Sung-ho immediately showed a shocked expression.

"Th-then what."

Thinking back, wasn’t it Jung Jin-ho who had Kangseong send political funds to Trump?

On top of that, during the recent semiconductor incident, Trump had even taken the side of Kangseong and Kwangwoon.

Suddenly, all the pieces that had been bothering him fell neatly into place.

"Jung Jin-ho is really connected to the White House?"

***

The Volmageddon incident only became a hot issue for a brief moment at the time, but quickly died down after the Vault 7 document leak.

"Still, it is kind of strange. They're not the type to stop investigating just because the media isn't talking about it."

After our investment was completed, the head office mobilized the entire legal team to thoroughly examine the basis and any potential issues of our investment, preparing for anything.

Especially hyung, who even left behind a tearful message of loyalty, saying he would take full responsibility if any problem arose.

"I honestly didn’t expect there would be absolutely no news about it."

It had been ten days since the Volmageddon incident ended, but there was not a word from the SEC, let alone the Financial Supervisory Service.

There had been some reports in the media about a certain group making a massive profit by trading short-term with 2 trillion won, but even that was buried and disappeared due to Vault 7.

"Isn’t this a good thing for us? In the financial market, the best thing is to make a lot of money while drawing as little attention as possible."

"That's true, but still, this incident should be too big to just be swept under the rug."

"Couldn’t it be because of the White House? We used Gold Reagan as our prime broker, remember?"

"Don’t tell me the SEC thinks we’re actually working with the White House?"

Suddenly, the conversation started taking an interesting turn.

"The timing is just too perfect. Gold Reagan had their positions set up at the right time. The White House is filled with Gold Reagan people. Then Volmageddon erupts. And right after that, the Vault 7 documents get leaked, almost like it was all planned."

"And then some mysterious force uses Gold Reagan as a shield to rake in a fortune?"

"Exactly. Anyone would think they’re connected to the White House. That’s probably why the SEC didn’t dig deeper and just covered it up."

"Then we got lucky, huh? We’re not actually connected to the White House, but it must’ve looked like we were."

"I mean, sure, if we’re really not connected..."

In the middle of the conversation, the employees suddenly turned their eyes toward me.

"CEO-nim, by any chance, are we really..."

Do they seriously think I’m connected to the White House?

I smiled and shook my head.

"Of course not."

"......."

But they didn’t look convinced.

"What about the other investment projects?"

Before any more unnecessary talk could come up, I changed the subject.

"Ah, here’s a report summarizing the currently trending sectors and the companies within them."

I slowly looked through the report prepared by the Research Department staff.

Now that we’re dealing with capital in the trillions of won, unless there’s a major financial event like Volmageddon, there aren’t many ways to significantly grow our funds.

So the best methods are either acquiring companies like private equity funds to generate profit, or diversifying across multiple investments to receive dividends.

Or doing partial sell-offs when the stock price rises.

"......."

As I continued looking through the list,

Something caught my eye.

"AI?"

AI.

It’s true that since the end of last year, expectations for AI have been rising and investments have been increasing.

But AI technology is still in a very crude state.

That’s why some people remain skeptical.

Will technology ever really reach a point where AI and humans can have natural, everyday conversations like in movies or novels?

There were far more people with a negative outlook than a positive one.

Some even mocked the idea, saying it would take at least another 20 years for something that could even be called AI to come out.

So AI stocks weren’t exactly considered a hot sector.

There was a generally skeptical atmosphere about its real-world, daily-life application.

Even now, when people hear 'AI', don’t most still think of it as a dumb machine that can’t even properly understand what we’re saying?

"Wasn’t it that movie, Her? In that, they talk with the AI and even fall in love, right?"

"But is that even possible right now? At least 10 years. No, not even just 10, way longer. And even if that technology develops, do you think regular people will be able to use it?"

That kind of conversation among the employees reflected the typical opinion of the general public.

"......."

But when I actually started looking into AI-related stocks, only my intuition was flashing in the direction of AI, while none of the stocks on the list really caught my attention.

This conveyed one clear message.

I should invest in AI, but among the current stocks, there's nowhere I feel confident putting my money.

"Could you ask the Research Department to review the AI stocks again and submit a new report?"

"Ah, yes."

Looks like it's going to take a while to read through another report later.

Sometimes I wonder about things like this.

Will there ever come a day when I can toss a report to an AI and have it neatly summarize everything on its own?

***

"CEO-nim. Here’s the new report. As you requested, the Research team compiled only AI-related stocks. Much more than last time, apparently."

I felt a bit dizzy looking at the thick report, but I nodded.

"Alright. I’ll review it."

If there’s one thing to be grateful for, it’s this: I may not have an AI that can quickly summarize reports for me, but I do have the ability to determine, just by reading them, whether a company is worth investing in.

I began reading through the report quickly, almost scanning it with my eyes.

"......."

But no matter how much I read, nothing stood out.

At the very least, something should’ve caught my eye, but instead, I was just roughly cramming data into my brain without any of it triggering my intuition.

Was I reading too carelessly for my instincts to respond?

Just as that thought crossed my mind.

"Close AI?"

It was a nonprofit company founded two years ago.

In other words, it wasn’t created for profit.

They were developing AI, and this was the only place where my intuition was responding.

I requested additional information from the Research team.

Before long, a Research Department employee came down in person and handed me a report.

"This is the detailed information on Close AI that you asked for."

"The founders... there are several of them?"

"Yes. Among them is a person named Milon Tusk, one of the world’s top 100 richest individuals."

Milon Tusk.

With an estimated net worth of around 22 trillion won, he runs an electric vehicle company called Tesla.

"Currently, Close AI is a nonprofit company and hasn’t gone public. However, the reason it’s on the list is because, as mentioned earlier, Milon Tusk is putting his stake up for sale."

"His own stake?"

"Yes. It’s about 45%, and it's said that hundreds of millions of dollars went into the company in its early days. But now that it’s overlapping with the AI business being developed at Tesla, he’s pulling out."

And he’s currently looking for a buyer.

The problem is that the company is a nonprofit, and its size is quite small, with only a few dozen employees, so no one is really interested in buying.

"He’s trying to sell his 45% stake for 200 million dollars?"

"Yes. From our estimate, he’s invested even more than that. But since no buyer has come forward, the price naturally dropped. More importantly, Close AI hasn’t produced any meaningful results so far, which is a critical drawback."

In short, it wasn’t an attractive place to invest.

To make matters worse, it was a nonprofit company, making it hard to expect any profit.

‘But then why...’

The more I talked with the employee, the more that light became vivid in my mind.

Even a strange symbol, like several blades spinning in a fan, was radiating through that light and etched itself deeply onto my retina.

"!?"

"...CEO-nim?"

"Ah. Thank you. I’ll read through the material carefully."

"Yes, then."

I looked down at the report again.

The symbol I just saw lingered like an afterimage, floating over the report.

As if urging me to act.

"Yeah. Just buy it."

Then Milon Tusk...

Should I start by meeting this man?