The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 28

The Making of a Billionaire Villain – The Haven of Geniuses 01 –

– The Haven of Geniuses –

“Father is just worried about me.”

Jeong Hyun-woo said, sipping his milkshake, agreeing with Sarah.

“Of course, I know. What parent would sincerely entrust their college-aged daughter to a high schooler who just drinks milkshakes?”

The two were out in a bustling shopping mall in Houston. Their eyes were fixed on a game shop called MCP.

“How does it look?”

Sarah turned her gaze to the memo in her hand and replied,

“It’s hard to say exactly because there’s a difference between cities, but I don’t think it’s as good as last year.”

Last year.

That is, during Black Friday last year, the two visited the store to check the number of customers and sales.

At that time, it was to check the game industry prior to the release of Zero Space rather than short selling [betting on a stock’s decline].

“That’s a little disappointing.”

“That it’s selling so-so?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“I was thinking that if we had released Zero Space 3 during Black Friday this year, it would have sold well.”

Jeong Hyun-woo couldn’t focus on game development in the second half of the year due to the high school equivalency exam and other things.

“But you released Zero Space 2 this year.”

“That was in the first half of the year.”

He felt like he had been wasting time in the second half.

‘I ended up using up the second half because of school issues.’

1982 wasn’t over yet, but Jeong Hyun-woo had lost the motivation to do anything.

He thought it would be good if he could resolve the school issue before 1982 ended.

“Stanford is a good university.”

Jeong Hyun-woo didn’t even turn his gaze at Sarah’s words.

“Isn’t that something everyone knows?”

He knew that Sarah didn’t say that to recommend Stanford.

‘She probably wants confirmation.’

Support for her.

Furthermore, trust and responsibility for Victoria Corporation.

She seemed to want to confirm such things.

“With Laura’s recommendation, you can really go to Stanford.”

Jeong Hyun-woo said, putting his hands together.

“Does Sarah think I’m greedy for a college degree?”

“It’s not that, but…”

“I’m going to draw the future.”

Drawing the future.

Jeong Hyun-woo established Victoria Corporation for that purpose.

Sarah smiled at his words.

“I made another mistake.”

“Pardon?”

“I evaluated a genius based on the standards of an ordinary person.”

A good university, a high salary, a career that others envy.

For geniuses like Jeong Hyun-woo, these could not be goals.

They had their own world, and they wanted to be the best in it.

‘Maybe Laura is the same.’

Sarah wondered if she was stuck between two geniuses.

‘I’m envious.’

She felt jealous of the two.

‘What kind of world do geniuses live in?’

At least they wouldn’t spend their days worrying about earning a living like she did last year.

“Sarah.”

Jeong Hyun-woo pulled her out of her sea of thoughts. She turned her head and tilted it.

“Yes?”

“Do you know what?”

“What?”

“Geniuses are immersed in one thing.”

Sarah nodded.

“That’s right.”

“So their field of vision is narrower than others. If someone doesn’t hold them back, they will be deeply immersed in their own world and won’t be able to get out.”

Hold me back.

There was sincerity in the boy’s words.

Sarah reached out and took his wrist.

“Is this how you hold me back?”

Jeong Hyun-woo nodded silently.

‘If I overdo it, Sarah will hold me back.’

He thought that his knowledge of the future might cause him to run wild.

***

After Thanksgiving, Sarah and Jeong Hyun-woo returned to Boston.

Choi Kyung-min greeted them as usual, but Jeong Hyun-woo felt a sense of distance.

‘Maybe it’s not him who created the wall, but me.’

The feeling that he wasn’t *my* person must have created the wall.

He sighed inwardly at his small-mindedness.

“I’m going to visit Sarah.”

Jeong Hyun-woo now went out alone often.

“Please don’t be too late.”

Choi Kyung-min didn’t stop him. He was no longer a troublemaker.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back before dinner.”

Jeong Hyun-woo’s house and Sarah’s house were not far apart.

This was very important.

Because Sarah chose him as her tutor because she could save time and transportation costs.

A small house next to the pharmacy.

Jeong Hyun-woo headed for the emergency stairs, not the front door of the house.

Tak. Tak.

As he climbed the emergency stairs with familiar steps, a small door appeared.

Tuk. Tuk. Tuk.

A small wooden door.

He often worried about whether this door could stop robbers and violent criminals.

“Sarah? It’s me.”

“Charlie?”

“Yes.”

Sarah opened the door and greeted him.

“Welcome.”

She was renting the second floor of the small house. The owner of the house allowed her to use the emergency stairs, fearing that their paths would overlap.

“Shouldn’t you move to a new place now?”

He had paid her a considerable amount of royalties.

“It’s okay here for one person.”

“Sarah.”

“Besides, it’s close to Charlie’s house.”

Jeong Hyun-woo shrugged.

“If this goes well, I should get a proper office. And buy Sarah a house nearby.”

“Buy a house, does Charlie plan to settle in Boston?”

Jeong Hyun-woo replied calmly.

“I decided to go to MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology].”

He was aiming for MIT. Of course, MIT had not sent him any signals.

“I really hope Charlie gets into MIT.”

Jeong Hyun-woo didn’t care if it was MIT or not, but Sarah wanted him to go to MIT.

“The coffee Sarah makes is really delicious.”

“It’s not high-end coffee beans?”

“Isn’t coffee all about the touch?”

Sarah smiled.

“Here’s your coffee, I have a promised call, so please wait a bit.”

Jeong Hyun-woo nodded as he received the coffee.

“With Sarah’s coffee, I can wait as long as I want.”

The person Sarah promised to call was Activision. As soon as she returned from Houston, she called Activision and asked them to check the Black Friday sales of the Zero series.

And Activision promised to call her back in two hours.

Ring.

The phone rang, and she quickly picked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

Jeong Hyun-woo waited, drinking coffee until her call was over.

‘If sales are good, the Atari shock isn’t here yet.’

A moment later.

Her call ended.

Sarah raised her voice as soon as she put down the receiver.

“It’s as expected!”

Again, Jeong Hyun-woo calmly responded to her words.

“You mean it’s sluggish?”

“That’s right!”

Jeong Hyun-woo shrugged.

“Sarah, our company’s main product is struggling, but you look too bright?”

Sarah didn’t erase her smile at his remark, but made it even bigger.

“Because I’m about to make the gamble of a lifetime.”

“Didn’t we already roll the dice?”

“We did, but confirming the numbers on the dice is now.”

Jeong Hyun-woo sighed lowly.

“Hoo…”

Sarah erased her smile at his sigh.

“Why? Am I being excessive?”

“No. I just remembered Peter’s words.”

The market can sustain the bubble longer than expected.

Jeong Hyun-woo knew well what Peter Lynch’s advice meant.

‘The bubble could last beyond this year into next year.’

He put his hands together and asked.

“Sarah, how much more money would it cost to carry the short selling volume for another year?”

Sarah let out a long sigh, no less than Jeong Hyun-woo’s earlier sigh.

“Haa…. That’s really not good. No, it’s a situation I don’t even want to think about.”

Short selling wasn’t just about putting up a margin. Borrowing stocks was like borrowing money, so you had to pay interest. And in 1982, the interest rates in the United States were at their peak.

“But we still have to prepare.”

Sarah stared into space.

“Ah, ah, I really don’t want to think about it.”

“Sarah.”

“Okay. I’ll calculate it.”

Only after Jeong Hyun-woo urged her did Sarah begin to calculate the interest.

After about 3 minutes of calculation, she raised her head.

“If we endure for another 12 months, we’ll need at least 3 million dollars.”

3 million dollars meant we had to sell 600,000 more Zero Space series.

‘Considering taxes, we’ll have to sell 1 million more.’

Jeong Hyun-woo released his clasped hands.

“I think we can manage that much.”

We can manage that much.

Sarah could read his intentions.

“Charlie is thinking of making Zero Space 3?”

“I think we have no choice now.”

“The bubble will burst soon.”

“That would be good.”

Jeong Hyun-woo calculated that he could last another year with Zero Space 3.

‘It would be troublesome if the bubble lasts longer than that.’

If possible, he didn’t want to use the ideas of the masters. If the Atari shock didn’t happen even after another year, he would have no choice but to use the ideas of the game masters.

‘It’s better to be indebted to the masters than to go bankrupt.’

He organized his thoughts and turned his gaze to her.

“Sarah.”

“Why? Do you have a separate request?”

“Can you contact our tax office?”

Sarah tilted her head at his words.

“Tax office?”

“The office that handles our taxes here. If not a tax office, then an accounting firm?”

“We don’t have either?”

Jeong Hyun-woo couldn’t help but widen his eyes at Sarah’s answer.

“Pardon?”

“I’m handling everything.”

Jeong Hyun-woo couldn’t help but feel doubtful.

“Sarah hasn’t graduated from school yet.”

“But I have a CPA [Certified Public Accountant].”

“Sarah has a CPA?”

“Is it strange?”

“Yes.”

The difficulty of the US CPA was lower compared to the Korean Certified Public Accountant exam.

Moreover, the difficulty was even lower before the 2008 financial crisis. Because of this, graduates from 2-year colleges could easily obtain a CPA.

4-year.

For Sarah, who was attending Boston University, which belonged to the top tier, a CPA was not a difficult course.

“My major here is finance.”

“Still.”

As Jeong Hyun-woo continued to think it was strange, she slowly explained the CPA acquisition process to him.

After listening to her explanation, he shook his head from side to side.

“I didn’t know the CPA process was so different from Korea.”

“What’s it like in Korea?”

“It’s so difficult that it’s called a ‘gosi’ [higher civil service examination].”

“Is it that hard?”

“If you pass, it’s a job that others envy.”

The status of CPA in Korea and the United States was not as different as heaven and earth, but there was a difference between the sea and the river.

“But why did you ask about taxes?”

Jeong Hyun-woo replied.

“I wanted to know how the taxes on short selling work.”

Sarah said, raising her right index finger.

“Short selling is also a stock transaction. So you have to pay capital gains tax. But the point where profit occurs is not the point where we short sell, but the point when we repay the stock, so if a year passes from the short selling point, you can get a long-term holding discount.”

In the United States, if you hold stocks for more than a year, the capital gains tax was reduced to a maximum of 20%.

This structure worked favorably for the short sellers. So the Clinton administration prepared a bill to supplement this. However, in 1982, such a bill did not exist.

In other words, the US tax system was also favorable to Jeong Hyun-woo and Sarah.