The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 39

39. Became a Villain of a Conglomerate Family – Gather the Geniuses 01 –

– Gather the Geniuses –

My first impression of the MIT lecture was, in a word, challenging.

It wasn’t that the level of the lecture was particularly advanced. Rather, the vocabulary and specific terms used were completely new to me.

‘I didn’t have this problem talking to Sarah, though.’

I had no problem talking to Sarah, or even negotiating with people like Robert from Activision or Lewis Nolan from JP Morgan.

But the MIT lecture was different.

Did I even understand half of it?

Jung Hyun-woo let out a long sigh after the lecture.

“Hoo······.”

As he sighed, a blond young man approached from behind. He was easily over 6’3″ (190cm) tall.

“Is something difficult?”

It was a face he had never seen before.

‘Is he just curious about a young Asian guy?’

He shrugged.

“The language is difficult.”

“English?”

“The specific terminology.”

The young man nodded emphatically.

“Yeah, it’s difficult for me too. I can’t understand even half of it.”

Jung Hyun-woo couldn’t help but tilt his head.

‘His pronunciation is a bit strange. Is he not American?’

As he tilted his head, a female student standing behind the young man stepped forward.

“His pronunciation is a bit strange, right? We’re from Finland.”

Finland.

‘Could it be? Are they related to the founders of Nokia?’

Nokia.

The legendary company that once inspired the saying that Korea should learn from Finland.

They dominated the global mobile phone market from the late 1990s until the iPhone appeared in 2007.

Of course, the pair standing in front of him didn’t found Nokia.

Nokia was a historic company founded in the 19th century, not the 20th.

“Ah, you’re from Finland. I’m from Korea.”

“Korea?”

South Korea had successfully hosted the Seoul Olympics, but many people still didn’t know its exact location or much about it.

“It’s a country between Japan and China.”

The young man nodded at Jung Hyun-woo’s explanation.

“A country in Asia.”

There was no way to know how well he actually understood the location of Korea.

Soon, the female student introduced themselves.

“I’m Yucca Laine, and this is Linus Korhonen.”

They were somewhat difficult names.

Yucca Laine was manageable, but Linus Korhonen was hard to pronounce.

‘Linus Korhonen, huh? His name isn’t as long as Russian names, but the pronunciation is tricky.’

Jung Hyun-woo also revealed his name.

“I’m Charlie Jung.”

“Jung is your last name?”

“That’s right. Just call me Charlie.”

Linus Korhonen nodded and said.

“Charlie, you can call me Lee too.”

He seemed to realize that Linus Korhonen was a difficult name to say.

His shortened name was simply ‘Lee.’

Jung Hyun-woo’s gaze turned to the blonde female student.

“I’m just Yucca.”

Yucca wasn’t a particularly difficult name. It was just her last name, Laine, that was uncommon.

“Are you two a couple?”

Yucca’s face turned red at his question.

“No. We just came to study abroad from the same country.”

“Really?”

The two became awkward at the innocent boy’s question.

‘Did I guess right?’

When a handsome man and a beautiful woman meet in a distant foreign country, a romance is bound to happen.

‘But it seems like it’s not related to me.’

A shout broke the awkward atmosphere.

“Charlie!”

It was Professor Thomas Norn from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who called Jung Hyun-woo.

“Professor Norn.”

Professor Norn approached them and said.

“How was the first lecture?”

Jung Hyun-woo answered honestly.

“The terminology was difficult.”

“The terminology?”

“I think I need to become more familiar with the terms used in university.”

Professor Norn looked at him intently.

“High school and university use different vocabulary. This is something that all students entering MIT experience.”

He looked back and forth between Yucca Laine and Linus Korhonen.

“You two were together too. How was the lecture?”

“The terminology was a bit difficult for us too.”

“I see.”

Professor Norn felt more attached to the three of them because he had personally selected them.

“Shall we have a meal together?”

“I’m okay.”

“We’re okay too.”

After the first lecture, Jung Hyun-woo ended up having a meal with Professor Norn and the Finnish couple.

The MIT student cafeteria wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as fancy as Stanford’s.

‘In a word, it’s like an engineering school.’

In his previous life, he had also attended an engineering school.

‘Should I have gone to the humanities or business school this time?’

But now that he had established Victoria Corporation and chosen IT as his career path, there was no choice.

“Charlie, did you move into the dormitory too?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t your house in Boston?”

“It’s good to be in the dormitory because I have more time to study.”

Professor Norn nodded.

“I see.”

Yucca Laine and Linus Korhonen, shortened to Yucca and Lee, could sense that Professor Norn had a great interest in Jung Hyun-woo.

‘We’re just extras.’

‘The main focus seems to be Charlie.’

The two of them focused on the conversation between Jung Hyun-woo and Professor Norn.

“Charlie, are you still making games recently?”

“Zero Space 3 is scheduled to be released soon.”

“Is it already the third series?”

“That’s right.”

Professor Norn knew that the game industry had been rapidly shrinking recently.

“Is Activision doing okay?”

“Judging from the fact that they’re going public in the summer [initial public offering], it seems like it’s not the worst.”

Jung Hyun-woo answered his question without hesitation.

“I hope the difficulties of the game industry are resolved.”

Some of his students had also entered the game industry. So the slump in the game industry wasn’t just someone else’s problem.

“Are you going to continue to develop games?”

“Recently, I’ve been interested in other areas.”

Professor Norn’s eyebrows rose at Jung Hyun-woo’s answer.

“Other areas?”

“Networking.”

Jung Hyun-woo had told Professor Norn and other MIT professors that he had applied to MIT because of networking.

“Networking, huh.”

“I know that there is a data communication network between universities.”

This inter-university data communication network later developed into the Internet.

After hesitating for a moment, Professor Norn raised his right index finger.

“Would you like to come to my lab after the meal?”

“Of course.”

Professor Norn also turned his gaze to the two next to him.

“You two said you were interested in networking too, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s all go to my lab.”

After the meal, the three headed to Professor Norn’s lab.

Compared to the interview, Professor Norn’s face was brighter and his voice was more energetic.

“This is the computer I’m using.”

An MIT professor’s computer.

Its specs were different from the personal computers sold on the market.

‘Even if it’s the best specs······.’

At this point, any computer would become obsolete in just one year.

The pace of IT technology development in the 1980s was similar to that of the industrial revolution.

Yucca looked at Professor Norn’s computer and asked.

“It’s not an Intel CPU [central processing unit]?”

Professor Norn looked at her with a satisfied expression and answered.

“It’s an AMD CPU [Advanced Micro Devices central processing unit].”

“AMD?”

“They are currently licensing Intel’s CPU, but someday they will create a proper CPU of their own.”

Jung Hyun-woo had seen mentions of AMD in computer magazines.

But this was the first time he had seen a CPU they had made.

‘I heard they received large orders from the military and companies, so it seems they were also supplying to schools.’

As of 1983, AMD was a company that only those in the IT industry knew about.

But by 2020, it would surpass the market capitalization of Intel, the absolute powerhouse in the CPU market.

‘Should I just buy AMD?’

With the 30 million dollars that Victoria Corporation had, I could buy AMD and still have more than 10 million dollars left.

‘Having money makes me want to do a lot of things.’

It was while he was thinking about this and that when Lee spoke.

“The language isn’t Basic, and there are a lot of bugs.”

Lee frowned.

Professor Norn scratched his head at his words.

“That’s how it is with the first program you make.”

The bug that Lee pointed out came from the program made by Professor Norn’s team.

‘Basic in the 1980s was definitely used in many fields. But it was a slow language for handling complex tasks.’

It was only natural that MIT didn’t use Basic.

“Here, you need to fix it here.”

Jung Hyun-woo focused his attention on Lee. His eyes and hands were remarkably efficient.

Tock. Tatatak. Tatatatatak.

He read the code at a rapid pace.

Professor Norn didn’t seem to mind at all, even though he was not only reading the program code but also modifying it.

Jung Hyun-woo carefully watched the parts he was modifying.

‘He’s not touching the core structure, just trimming the peripheral elements.’

I could tell just by looking at it from the side.

Lee’s skills were genuine.

Tock. Tatak.

Lee straightened his back after hitting the last enter.

“I fixed a few, but I can’t say I fixed them all.”

Professor Norn looked at him with satisfaction.

“To fix it all in that short amount of time, amazing.”

He turned his gaze to Jung Hyun-woo.

“How did Charlie see it?”

He hadn’t missed the fact that Jung Hyun-woo was carefully watching Lee and the screen.

Jung Hyun-woo scratched his head and answered.

“He’s skilled. He didn’t touch the core structure, just trimmed the peripheral elements.”

“Trimmed?”

“Should I say he fixed it by deleting parts that could be problematic rather than modifying and supplementing them?”

Professor Norn was surprised by Jung Hyun-woo’s skills, but Jung Hyun-woo didn’t think it was a big deal.

‘I’ve been in the field for 15 years, I’d be in trouble if I didn’t have this much insight.’

It wasn’t just Professor Norn who was surprised.

Yucca and Lee couldn’t help but be impressed when Jung Hyun-woo accurately pointed out the direction of the modification.

‘I thought he was just a smart kid, but he accurately sees this work.’

‘The saying that he develops games wasn’t just a bluff.’

Professor Norn clapped his hands and said.

“Excellent. You’re both the best.”

When he raised his voice, a young man stood up from the window.

“Professor, have you arrived?”

“Ah, Lumen! Come here and take a look.”

A young man named Lumen was a graduate student who formed a research team with Professor Norn.

He was wearing jeans with messy hair.

‘A typical MIT genius.’

Lumen carefully looked at the part that Lee had modified.

“Amazing.”

He nodded while adjusting his glasses several times.

“Here······.”

Lumen’s voice gradually faded.

Professor Norn tilted his head when his voice faded.

“Is something wrong?”

Lumen nodded and answered.

“The bug is fixed, but one of the program’s functions has stopped. This is not a good modification.”

Even if there is a bug, the function must be kept alive. That’s what he thought.

“I’ll try to fix it.”

The person who stepped forward was Jung Hyun-woo.

Lumen looked at the Asian boy and immediately shifted his gaze to Professor Norn.

“Who is this boy?”

“He’s a freshman.”

“Yes?”

It was rare for Professor Norn to bring a freshman to his lab.

“He’s also a developer at Activision.”

Activision’s developer.

The moment Lumen heard those words, he unknowingly opened his mouth.

“A, Activision’s developer?”

Activision was a company where many of his seniors and developers worked.

‘There’s no way this boy is at the same level as them.’

He thought something was off.

Professor Norn nodded and accepted Jung Hyun-woo’s request.

“Then Charlie, try to fix it.”

Jung Hyun-woo accurately understood the structure of Professor Norn’s team’s program.

‘This is a kind of scheduler.’

It was a program that could be considered crude by the standards of the 2020s.

But in 1983, this level was already advanced.

‘The part that Lee deleted is the part where the day of the week automatically changes when the month changes.’

He first caught the bug and then created new code to supplement the function.

Lumen couldn’t help but be shocked to see Jung Hyun-woo’s skills from the side.

‘He’s completely familiar with it!’

Like a fish swimming freely, Jung Hyun-woo was freely manipulating the code.

Jung Hyun-woo felt that the language used by Professor Norn’s team was similar to C.

‘Now that Java is not available, C can be said to be the best of the best.’

Java, one of the two major pillars of programming languages, appeared in 1995, and Python, which regained the top spot in the 2020s, appeared in 1991. In other words, C was king now.

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