Translator: Khan

  Editor: RED

  The Wednesday that followed, Dongbo Construction and Yurim Industries, which were $910,000 each, showed 28 percent and 22 percent gains, respectively, today. I didn’t get greedy and I sold them here.

  ‘Sell, sell, sell…’


  Of course, it could go up further here. But I decided not to be greedy.

  ‘The political theme stocks are laughably down when the election is over. The setting of their fantasy world, where magic used to be, is broken and comes back to the real world together, like going home now that the king of demons is dead.

  ‘At this time, all political theme stocks, including those in which the politicians involved are elected, will plummet. It’s easy to find out when you look at past presidential stocks. Even when it comes to rising, it is likely to soar even more when he or she becomes president, but in reality, it ends in a collapse. No wonder. They are originally stocks made by words in the election. When the election is over, it has to find its place.’


  Now, we had about three weeks before the vote.

  ‘It will shake once more before and after the election, but then it really becomes a hard-to-win slot machine. The answer is not to gamble with low expectations. It’s wise to stay out of it now.’


  [Sell order is completed.]

  [Sell order is completed.]

  [Sell order is completed.]

  A series of messages came up. After selling all the shares, I looked at the stock price for a while from the standpoint of a bystander. Dongbo Construction and Yurim Industries continued to flutter as if they were going to hit the upper limit price, and Endo Biologics didn’t think of moving from the low limit price.

  ‘Some must be blinded by madness and some must be filled with grief.

  ‘Even I, who had just been in that scam, am a little nervous. Whoever wins, those stocks will return all their gains and find their place after the election. It will be four years before that magic takes place again. It seems silly, but even then, it will repeat the grand finale and the great fall just because someone is close to someone.

  ‘Then I’ll see you again in four years, friends.’


  I said my last goodbye and then deleted the political theme sector altogether, not to be seen any longer. I turned to my account balance instead. The total amount including the cash credit had reached $2,200,000 just before, but it was closer to $1,500,000 after excluding $700,000 spent in credit. To be precise, it was $1,556,832.

  I looked around the office. Everyone was busy with their work. No one was looking at me. I was feeling as if I had hit a home run, raised both hands, then clenched my fists and shook them quietly for a while, but violently twice.

  ‘Good! $1,500,000! $1,500,000!’


  ‘How many people have ever deposited $1,500,000 or $500,000 in cash in their lives? There will be very little. Most Koreans die without exceeding $300,000 in assets. There are quite a few middle-class people with assets exceeding $500,000, but most of them have one apartment. There won’t be as many people with the money I do now.’


  ‘I thought I’d never get out of the mudslide for my whole life. Is this a reality or a dream?’


  I thought I was walking a little over the clouds. I felt like I had become a golden alchemist.

  ‘I’m really rich now.’


  “Mr. Han Sang-hoon.”


  At that time, associate manager Jung brought me back to reality. I looked at him.

  “I sent a file on the business messenger. Please do me a favor today, too.”


  I nodded for now. I came back and saw the monitor. I took the file from Jung and tried to work. By the way, $1,500,000 glimmered on my empty monitor. I could not type well. I took my hands off the keyboard and looked up at the company ceiling for a moment. To be honest, I seemed to have lost my motivation to work.

  ‘I didn’t even check my paycheck. I used to check my account every payday ffrequently.’


  When I was working at the company under extreme stress, even the only hope I had now seemed to mean nothing. I opened the drawer and took out my resignation letter. I had hesitated to resign for several reasons, but now that $1,500,000 was in my account, I didn’t have to think about it anymore.

  ‘It would be a hundred or a thousand times better to collect information at that time and think about how to make better use of the news of 12 Hours After. It’s good for the company because I am not motivated anyway. It’s really time to quit.’


  I thought of going to Heo with my resignation letter. However, when I tried to do so, two faces came to my mind.

  ‘Oh, my parents……’


  Thinking of my parents, it would be too much to leave the company right now. I put the resignation letter back in the drawer.

  ——————–


  I had no overtime today. As soon as it turned 5 p.m., I got out of the company right away.

  Then, Choi waved at me. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”


  I nodded. “Yes!”


  I crossed the crosswalk to the subway station as I always did. Instead of going into it, I decided to walk to Gangnam Station. I wanted to think for a moment of what to say to my parents, and it was my habit to walk this little bit when I was thinking of something. I walked slowly toward Gangnam Station. I saw a flashing Lotto ad next to me.

  ‘Yes, that’s what I saw. I was going to do a Proto…… It would have been better if it had been Lotto.’


  I was going to leave the company after winning the lottery through Life/Culture, so that my parents wouldn’t be surprised.

  ‘I wanted to quit when I got Lotto winnings, and was going to start a business.’


  I had given them a hint on purpose. But I was not able to get the Lotto winning numbers. I thought I would just have to resign. I had $1,500,000 anyway. I imagined my parents’ reaction when I announced my resignation for a while. As my dad was on my side, no matter what I did, he would get over it.

  ‘If you really want it, do it.’


  The problem was on my mom’s side. My mom, who had always been worried, worried, and more worried about her children, would be surprised if I told her I quit the company. It wasn’t something she would understand. But my mom’s friends used to talk to my mom.

  ‘My son has been out of work for years.’


  ‘My daughter has been studying for a government office for ten years.’


  They used to say suchthings, so my mom was happy and satisfied with the fact that I got a job. My mom respected my will, but she would worry that I wouldn’t be able to take care of myself.

  ‘What are you going to do after quitting your job in a world like this?’


  What if I showed her $1,500,000? If I showed my bank account, she would listen to me then, because $1,500,000 was not a small amount of money. However, she might say, ‘No matter how much money you’ve made, isn’t this a fluke? Isn’t it best to work in a company?’


  Well, from my parents’ point of view, it would be a natural response. I used to listen to people who easily made a lot of money from stocks and Bitcoin, but those people often ended up losing all the money when I listened to their stories a few years later. It was because those who made easy money by gambling could not forget the taste, and ended up gambling it away.

  ‘Easy come, easy go. Those who have lived soundly all their lives, like my parents, know it well. They have lived much longer than I, and they have seen countless such cases.

  ‘But I…… It’s not a temporary fluke.’


  Surely, I was far from such a temporary fluke. Considering how I earned $1,500,000, they were all made by rational reasoning through information from 12 Hours After. The first was through Yuhwan Securities, the second was about the acquisition of Jiwoo Entertainment, and the third was the political theme.

  ‘My money is going to swell up in a very logical way. My parents may think that even this $1,500,000 will be gone like a bubble tomorrow, but it is not. $1,500,000 will be $15,000,000 and $150,000,000, in a few months or years. But to convince them, I have to let them know about 12 Hours After.’


  ‘Then, shall I show them 12 Hours After?’


  ‘I don’t think so. 12 Hours After is like a Narnian world that exists beyond the closet, so it’s kind of bad for me to let my parents know. Even if they are my parents, it would somehow be dangerous to announce the existence of 12 Hours After now. It is only to be kept secret. It’s my own secret.

  Even if I thought like that in my mind, I couldn’t find an answer.

  ‘I don’t know. Let’s go to my parent’s home this weekend, talk about it in person and say that I will start my own business. Then I will respond to the situation. There’s $1,500,000, and I am not going to have a big problem with my parents.’


  I came to a conclusion like that. After concluding, I arrived at the intersection of Gangnam Station. There were countless people coming and going at the intersection of Gangnam Station.

  ‘I’ve heard from someone before that if they have more than $1,000,000, the world shows interest in them, and if they have more than $10,000,000, they feel like everything is working to themselves. I don’t think so yet.

  ‘Well, I have not spent a penny, even I have $1,500,000.’


  I looked at the road for a moment. There were foreign cars of various makes on the road. When I was a high school student, I lived in a rural area, the three German carmakers like Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi were very rare, but in this Gangnam area, one did not even look at them. It was so common. Instead, low-body Lamborghini and Porsche were certainly noticeable. I could see some on the road now, yellow Lamborghini, black Porsche. I was watching them and suddenly thought.

  ‘How much are they?’


  Then, I was surprised at myself that I had such an idea.

  ‘What should I say, Han Sang-hoon? You’re really rich.’


  If it were the past, I’d look at those cars with the thought, ‘Who is he, driving that car? He’s probably the youngest son of a chaebol family.’


  I was envious. I couldn’t believe I was thinking about how much it was. This seemed to be the power of $1,500,000 in the account. The world would pay attention to me in a little while, and it would be centered on me in a little while.

  ‘All right, well, let’s earn more until then.’


  I picked my cell phone thinking that way, to say that I would go to my parents’ home on the weekend. Right at that time, I got a call from my mom!

  I pressed the phone in slight surprise. “Oh, Mom, I was going to call you.”


  “Is there something wrong?”


  “No, it’s not a big deal. I’m coming home this weekend.”


  “Really? Sure.”


  “What did you call about? What’s going on at home?”


  “No, there’s nothing wrong at home. It’s not that. I have a good story to tell you.”


  A good story? I was getting interested and I listened to my mom.