Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 93

Translator: Dreamscribe"It would have been nice if you had just contacted me anytime."

"I was going to. But the situation turned out unintentionally."

"Are you saying there was no malicious intention?"

"Yes. Why would I want to torment Tesla?"

"......."

With a reluctant look, Milon Tusk shook hands with me.

"I received the documents well. You said you wanted to create a new subsidiary in Korea and run World Link as a pilot here?"

"Yes. As far as I know, only two satellites have been launched so far. But instead of only launching from the U.S., wouldn’t it be faster if we launched together from Korea and filled the sky?"

"What about the technology?"

"We’ll have to use what’s in Space T. It’s a strategic partnership, after all."

Milon slightly furrowed his brow.

That was understandable. Though we called it a strategic partnership, in reality, we were simply setting up a local company in Korea and using the satellite technology from Space T to launch them.

Well, we would pay some money for it, but once the strategic partnership is formed, the other party would also get a stake in the new company we’re going to establish, so they wouldn’t be able to rake in huge profits through royalties.

In other words, no matter how much we dressed it up as increasing productivity or speeding up the rate of satellite deployment, it would be a loss for Milon Tusk.

That’s why I had already prepared an amount that might move Milon Tusk’s heart, along with several other options.

Even though it wasn’t my intention, somehow it now looked like we were using batteries to blackmail him.

Along with that, I thought if I proposed several options, Milon Tusk would open his heart enough, but.

"I understand. Please send detailed documents to our headquarters. If you’re going to set up a local subsidiary in Korea, tell us specifically how much equity you’ll transfer to us. I’m not asking for 50:50, but you’ll at least give us 30%, right?"

"......?"

It was simpler than I expected.

Was he really that desperate for batteries?

"I saw clearly how you took down Nissan and their Chairman Carlos Ghosn this time. If it can’t be done with money, push them out with power... it’s aggressive, but in this society, it seems to be the most reliable method."

"You’re seriously misunderstanding something. Chairman Carlos Ghosn got what he deserved because he committed crimes. It has nothing to do with me."

"Yes. Carlos probably dug his own grave. But for something like that to happen right at the time you were starting your acquisition process, don’t you think that’s a little too much of a coincidence?"

He seemed to have a strange misunderstanding, but I didn't bother to explain further.

It seemed like this misunderstanding was actually helping the negotiation move along smoothly.

"I don’t think it’s a complete loss for me either. As you said, if we launch satellites not only in the U.S. but also in cooperation with Korea, we’ll be able to build the communication network faster. But you have to remember, it takes a long time for commercialization."

Some people said this.

Right now, we communicate from the ground through base stations, but one day, everyone will communicate through satellites floating in the sky.

But no one had yet tried to start satellite communication services.

That’s because base stations had already been laid out all over the world, and launching expensive satellites to build a new communication network cost too much.

"The biggest issue is traffic resolution. Even if we cover the entire sky with satellites, when communication takes place in densely populated areas, traffic problems will inevitably occur. To solve that, we have to address technical issues, and above all, AI-based traffic control is essential..."

As I was listening with interest.

Milon Tusk suddenly stopped talking.

As if he had realized something, he spoke.

"So that’s what it was."

"Huh?"

"That’s why you made a large purchase of Close AI shares. To solve satellite traffic control through AI development. That was the most critical task, and CEO Jung had already identified the problem."

I'm from the liberal arts, so even if you say it like that, I don’t understand.

But it was thanks to Milon Tusk that I realized how closely the two fields were connected.

"Investing in an AI company with high growth potential in advance, then detonating Japan’s YCC and simultaneously blocking battery supplies so that we’re forced to release World Link technology ourselves... Just where did you start planning all this from, CEO?"

Planning, huh.

It might not be a simple misunderstanding. Maybe it really was planning.

And it could be a plan crafted by my intuition.

That’s why I started to wonder myself.

Just where did my intuition begin its planning, and how far ahead is it looking?

"Silence means consent, as they say."

But the face of Milon Tusk, which had been stiff until just now, was now smiling.

"I don’t know about anything else, but today I’ve definitely learned one thing. If I stick with you on friendly terms, at the very least, I won’t suffer a loss."

Then he reached out his hand to me.

"If you ever need anything, please contact me directly on my personal number. I’ll cooperate as much as I can. Seeing how interested you are in my business, it must mean things are going to go really well. Haha."

Until now, whenever I looked at Milon Tusk’s face, my intuition would occasionally show me a swirl of madness.

But the moment he and I shook hands.

"......!"

It was as if something about the future had changed.

His face, which had been full of chaos, now seemed to return to normal.

This was a first.

Until now, whenever my intuition flickered on like a light, I had never seen it change to another color.

Nor had I ever seen things return to normal.

But now, it had.

"Oh right. This is something I wanted to tell you privately-"

Even though there was no one else around, Milon Tusk lowered his voice unnecessarily.

"It’s about Bitcoin. What exactly is going to happen with it?"

"Bitcoin?"

"It’s dropped all the way to five thousand dollars now. Is it going to fall further from here? Or..."

Unfortunately, I don’t check Bitcoin prices in real-time.

I just receive reports from time to time.

That’s because I already know how far Bitcoin is going to rise.

"Do you invest in Bitcoin?"

"I- no, I don’t. But everyone around me does. And with the price the way it is lately, they’re all crying about it."

"Just tell them to wait."

"......Not sell?"

"Yes."

Even without using my intuition, I know this.

Tusk seems to be completely caught in Bitcoin right now.

***

"He's really strange."

His impression of Jung Jin-ho's was like that.

The face he saw today, how to put it?

He looked so docile.

But today, once again, he painfully realized the lesson that you shouldn’t judge a person by their appearance alone.

Who is Jung Jin-ho?

Whenever a major financial incident breaks out, if you guess Jung Jin-ho is involved, you’re usually right, he is at the core of global economic events.

With that innocent-looking face, he brought down Japan’s YCC without batting an eye, solely to execute his plan.

As a result, Japan is now facing an economic collapse far worse than during its bubble era.

At this level, Japan, enraged to the top of their heads, might as well want to kill Jung Jin-ho, but they couldn’t.

Instead, they joined hands with Jung Jin-ho and handed over even the remaining shipping companies just to resolve their shipping volumes.

And that’s not all.

He created a major alliance and even managed to throw Carlos Ghosn, who had built an automotive empire in Japan, behind bars.

It wasn’t about acquiring Nissan’s technology or taking over the company to sell cars.

Just one reason.

To use batteries to pressure Tesla, so that Milon Tusk would willingly come to the negotiation table.

"How can a person plan something that meticulously?"

No matter how intelligent someone is, the fact that he could make such detailed plans and carry them out, it’s hard to understand, no matter how many times he thought about it.

That’s why even Milon Tusk gave up.

Because he realized, by watching Jung Jin-ho, that no matter how hard he struggled and how much money he made in his life, there would always be someone above him.

Even if you work hard, in the end, there are those who are simply born ahead, that’s just how the world works.

“.......”

But how should he take this?

"$4,000......."

Milon Tusk's average buy-in price was $3,000.

After watching Bitcoin climb to twenty-eight thousand, he had thought it might really reach $50,000 and had held on without selling.

But what's this?

As the major players pulled out, the price had dropped all the way down to $4,000 before he even realized it.

Soon it would reach $3,000.

It was about to hit his buy-in level.

He hesitated for a moment.

Should he sell now?

“No, wait. He told me to wait."

But on every forum and across all social media, people were shouting.

They were saying the era of Bitcoin was over.

People were raising toasts saying the long, dreadful scam had finally come to an end.

“Ah, no! Not $4,000 too!”

The price even broke below the $4,000 mark.

In the end, Milon Tusk couldn’t hold on and dumped all his holdings.

“Whew. At least I didn’t take a loss.”

Having barely managed to settle everything, he let out a sigh of relief.

He regretted not selling when it hit twenty thousand.

But what use was regret now?

It was already over.

And there was no sign of Bitcoin ever recovering again.

“Then why did he tell me to wait?”

If Bitcoin kept dropping like that, people would lose interest in crypto, and that would directly harm KW Exchange.

Was that why he told me not to sell?

To keep at least a few more suckers hanging on?

“......Hm?”

Then some time passed.

“Uh- what, what the hell? What’s going on?”

Suddenly, Bitcoin’s price was skyrocketing like crazy.

He had thought it was truly the end, but was it actually just a build-up for a bigger leap?

“That can’t be.”

Not long after, he found the reason.

“Libra?”

Libra Coin, suddenly announced by FaceWeb.

Based on major currencies like the dollar, euro, and yen.

It was a new concept coin launched by FaceWeb.

Owning this coin meant it could be used across all platforms provided by FaceWeb, and it could be exchanged anytime for the aforementioned currencies.

In other words, a new blockchain coin to be circulated through FaceWeb had been born.

“Was this what he meant by ‘wait’?”

But wasn’t Kwangwoon and FaceWeb on really bad terms?

As far as Milon Tusk knew, FaceWeb had tried various means to suppress PicPic, which was growing rapidly in size.

The scary part was, the moment FaceWeb launched their attack, a major data breach incident suddenly erupted, and in the end, it was FaceWeb that collapsed instead.

“Even so, FaceWeb went and did this?”

This was a godsend, like a miracle that brought Lazarus back from the dead.

Wasn’t Bitcoin’s price soaring right now?

This was practically FaceWeb directly helping KW Exchange.

“Which means-”

Even FaceWeb had ended up joining hands with their sworn enemy, Jung Jin-ho?

Whether it was voluntary or by force, he didn’t know.

“Ah... I shouldn’t have sold.”

To think the moment he sold off was actually the perfect buying opportunity!

Today, Milon Tusk learned a huge lesson.

Never again would he doubt the words of Jung Jin-ho.

***

“Why did FaceWeb suddenly decide to make a coin?”

“They say the plan had been in place since the Bitcoin craze. Already, twenty-eight companies have agreed to cooperate.”

At one point, Bitcoin had tried to exceed $30,000, but when it fell to $3,000, there was a lot of noise, not only outside, but also within our company.

We didn’t trade or manage Bitcoin ourselves, but a falling Bitcoin price meant the public’s interest in the market was collapsing.

That meant KW Exchange’s profits would drop as well.

So even I had been a little uneasy.

My intuition clearly said that Bitcoin would rise endlessly, but when you see the price hit $3,000, it's only natural for your resolve to shake.

But surprisingly, the one who breathed new life into Bitcoin was none other than our competitor, FaceWeb.

Out of nowhere, FaceWeb announced that it would launch its own exclusive coin, and Bitcoin’s price shot back up, surpassing $10,000.

"But ever since FaceWeb announced the launch of their coin, governments in Europe and the U.S. have started expressing concern. Above all, they say there are issues with financial stability, money laundering, and consumer protection."

Although Bitcoin already exists, the fact that FaceWeb itself would issue another coin was something that seriously irritated governments.

Bitcoin is, by nature, priced by the market and, as originally intended, not controlled by any central authority.

However, the coin that FaceWeb was trying to launch could be controlled by FaceWeb.

And on top of that, the company had recently lost public trust due to a massive data breach incident.

"Not just one or two, but almost every government is opposing it, and it seems even FaceWeb is shaken internally. The companies that agreed to cooperate are now waiting for the right chance to back out one by one."

Suddenly, FaceWeb ended up doing nothing but good for our KW Exchange while taking all the heat themselves.

What can I say?

At this point, they felt less like a rival and more like an angelic company secretly supporting us behind the scenes.

They brought smiles back to the faces of our KW Exchange employees, who had been completely down.

"And this is a report summarizing the recent domestic issues."

Reading reports that compile recent incidents had become a hobby of mine.

Because reviewing them all at once is not only entertaining but also stimulates my dopamine in a unique way.

“......?”

And sometimes, like now, my intuition would activate and light up over something.

"NX Rangers?"

"Ah, unlike other professional baseball teams, the NX Rangers are only sponsored by NX. They don’t manage operations at all, they just put their name on it for sponsorship. But this time, the Rangers’ company CEO was sentenced to prison for embezzling, and the KBO has permanently banned him. They’ve made it so that he can never work in baseball again."

I already knew about the incident through the news.

It’s been making a lot of noise lately.

It was discovered that the baseball team’s CEO had embezzled all the money that should have been used for the club.

And with how many baseball fans there are, it was bound to cause a huge uproar.

“So he stepped down from the CEO position but still holds shares?”

“Yes. That’s why it’s still quite controversial. Even if he stepped down as CEO, as long as he holds shares, he still controls the company. So the KBO is hoping the Rangers will be acquired by another company, but the problem is no company is interested in buying.”

On top of that, NX pulled out completely due to damage to their brand image.

In short, unless the Rangers find a new buyer or sponsor, it will become difficult for them to continue operating as a team.

“The home base is in Seoul, so that’s a plus. But the issue is... the fanbase is small. The Rangers aren’t the only Seoul-based team. And with that insane CEO and his executives doing whatever they wanted behind the scenes, the team couldn’t even recruit good players. That led directly to poor performance.”

“......Manager Lee, you seem to know a lot of detail. You even sound angry.”

“Ah, s-sorry. The truth is, I’m a Rangers fan.......”

In our country, baseball is the most popular among sports.

Didn’t it draw 8.4 million spectators just last year?

And with Korea winning the gold medal at the Asian Games, the popularity of baseball surged even more.

“CEO-nim, don’t you watch baseball?”

“Me? I.... watch it occasionally.”

But I didn’t have a specific team I supported.

I've never been to a baseball stadium either.

And yet, my intuition, which hadn’t reacted to anything else, was now screaming solely about this Rangers company.

Which could only mean one thing.

‘Are you telling me to acquire the baseball team?’