Still, I Will Live As The Son-In-Law Of A Conglomerate [EN]: Chapter 215

215. 61st. The Great Impact (1)

Several months passed as Shinseong Group initiated a grueling legal battle with citizen groups clinging to unfairly compensated Shinseong Life insurance subscribers.

Whether my in-laws on the other side of the world were fighting legal battles with those gangster-like civic groups or not, I was doing a final check backstage at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“System operation, no problems, right?”

Perhaps it was because of my unusually fierce gaze, but Haedong Electronics employees were frozen stiff, unable to open their mouths. Shin Ho-jin, who was behind them, stepped forward.

“Don’t worry, Chairman. Everything is working normally, from the QWERTY keyboard to notepad writing, photo shooting, image editing, internet access, and games developed by game companies, haha.”

Hearing Shin Ho-jin’s hearty laughter, I felt relieved and noticed the frozen expressions of the Haedong Electronics employees.

“I’m sorry. I was so nervous without realizing it…”

Today’s event was attended by Park Tae-jin, Go Seung-ju, Seon Hae-cheol, Claire, IT industry workers and reporters from all over the world, and Wall Street giants including Triumph Capital, Chase Manhattan, and Standard Capital.

Realizing I was too sensitive, I offered an apologetic smile, and the Haedong Electronics employees waved their hands.

“No, Chairman. Isn’t today the first launch of our Aqua Wave? We can’t afford to make any mistakes, no matter what, haha.”

“These guys are nervous because it’s their first time on such a stage, Chairman. I hope you can relax too.”

I smiled at Shin Ho-jin’s encouragement.

“Thank you, Uncle.”

Laughing heartily while looking at Shin Ho-jin, I was reminded once again that the man in front of me was a great man from a different angle than my grandfather.

‘I didn’t know Uncle would develop the ‘Aqua OS’.’

Shin Ho-jin joined the Haedong Group when Central Square was incorporated as an affiliate during the foreign exchange crisis [the 1997 Asian financial crisis].

Upon joining the group, Shin Ho-jin, who was in charge of program development for the group’s computer system and e-commerce business, received a request from me while I was promoting the Aqua Wave project.

[You’re asking me to develop the operating system to be installed on Aqua Wave?]

[Please, Uncle. Aren’t you the only one among our group’s executives who has worked with software?]

[Hmm…]

I asked him, inspired by the fact that Shin Ho-jin had created Central Square’s computer system alone in his previous life, and this time he was also directing the development and management of our group’s computer system. Shin Ho-jin, who was groaning at my unreasonable request, opened his mouth.

[Okay, Director Lee. I’ll try my best.]

[Thank you, Uncle. The operating system to be developed this time is…]

Shin Ho-jin developed ‘Aqua OS’ based on Linux according to the guidelines I presented. Its performance was so stable that my mouth dropped open.

‘I knew Uncle’s family was full of monsters, but I didn’t know it was this much…’

I knew that all of Shin Ho-jin’s siblings were flying geniuses, but Shin Ho-jin’s software development skills were enough to make Andy Rubin [co-founder of Android] cry. Perhaps Shin Ho-jin’s talent had spread its wings while working with me and my family.

Shin Ho-jin asked me, who was immersed in admiration.

“Is something wrong, Chairman?”

“No, Uncle. More than that.”

I paused for a moment and gave an awkward smile.

“Speak comfortably. Aren’t we close enough not to stand on ceremony?”

Even though he was someone my late father treated like an older brother like Go Seung-ju, Shin Ho-jin shook his head with a smile.

“Even backstage, it’s still an official setting, Chairman. We have to keep what we have to keep. Besides, isn’t it all thanks to you, Chairman, that I was able to develop Aqua OS? Haha.”

Seeing Shin Ho-jin’s easygoing appearance, I felt proud, sorry, and grateful.

Starting with the Central Square development project, he has formed a deep relationship with me and my family and returned to the business world, but now isn’t Shin Ho-jin, as the chief development officer of ‘Aqua OS’, about to debut on the world stage?

When I was also staring intently at Shin Ho-jin’s eyes, who was looking at me with a warm gaze, a staff member approached.

“It will start in 3 minutes!”

“It’s starting soon, haha.”

“I think I’m going through all sorts of things thanks to you, Chairman, haha.”

Shin Ho-jin and I laughed heartily and moved towards the stage.

***

Shin Ho-jin and I, who went out on stage, waved our hands to the people, smiled, and started the presentation.

“Until now, we, who are called Homo Ludens [people who play], have not been able to enjoy the pleasures we want from time to time. Isn’t that right, Mr. Shin?”

“That’s right, Mr. Lee. Thanks to the MP3 player, we can listen to music anytime, anywhere, but other than that, comic books were the only entertainment, haha. Isn’t that right, everyone?”

“Hahahaha!”

We continued the presentation while watching the audience respond with laughter.

“So, our Haedong Group created Aqua Wave so that you can enjoy music, movies, novels, comics, and games anytime, anywhere.”

People’s eyes widened when they saw the sleek Aqua Wave, about 10 inches in size, that Shin Ho-jin and I took out of the envelope.

“As you can see, this sleek Aqua Wave has no separate keyboard. Instead.”

I turned on the notepad application and showed the QWERTY keyboard that appeared at the bottom of the screen.

“We have introduced a capacitive touch screen jointly developed by Haedong Electronics and GK Display, eliminating the disgusting button-type keyboard. So, when typing is not necessary, you can use the entire large screen.”

Stopping the presentation, I tapped the keyboard on the screen. A cameraman came and filmed the scene, and the appearance of the alphabet being written smoothly on Aqua Wave’s notepad was broadcast live on the large screen.

“Unbelievable!”

“Wow! Awesome!”

Exclamations poured out from everywhere, and after finishing typing, I smiled at the audience.

“As you saw on the screen, the sentence ‘I love my wife, my queen, and… my love, indefinitely’ was written as smoothly as water. It’s easy, right? Haha.”

“Wahahahaha!”

The launch show site instantly turned into a sea of laughter.

Unlike Seon Hae-cheol and Claire, who were sitting in the front row and laughing so hard that their belly buttons were falling out, Park Tae-jin and Go Seung-ju couldn’t lift their heads, but so what?

“In addition to this, if you download using Aqua Software’s Aqua Store, you can enjoy music, movies, comic books, and novels with just one Aqua Wave. Isn’t that right, Mr. Shin?”

“No. Aren’t you missing the most important thing, Mr. Lee?”

Shin Ho-jin, who took over the baton, turned on a game with the Aqua Wave he was holding.

“This is ‘Highway’, one of the games we developed in cooperation with Korean game companies. I’ll give it a try.”

Holding both ends of the Aqua Wave, Shin Ho-jin turned it left and right as if driving a car, and the car on the screen turned accordingly. Before he knew it, a cameraman was behind Shin Ho-jin, showing the screen of him playing the game.

“Oh oh oh!”

Even in the midst of the exclamations pouring out from everywhere, Shin Ho-jin concentrated on the game. When he tilted the top of the screen forward, the speed of the car increased, and when he tilted it backward, the speed decreased. When he pressed the booster button, the car that was accelerating rapidly ran on the springboard and spun around in the air before crashing into the wall and shattering.

“Oops! I guess I can’t control it because of my age. Please don’t ever imitate it in real driving, haha.”

Shin Ho-jin’s witty comment turned the launch show site into a sea of laughter once again.

“Like this, Aqua Wave will be the best friend to relieve your boredom anytime, anywhere. Finally, I will take a picture to commemorate today’s memories.”

Shin Ho-jin and I stood with our backs to the audience, put our arms around each other, and took a selfie. I sent the photo taken by the cameraman so that we and the audience came out on the large screen, and I smiled at the audience.

“The Aqua Wave launch show we had together today will be remembered forever.”

With my comment as the last, Shin Ho-jin and I waved our hands and walked towards the back of the stage. While listening to the applause behind our backs.

***

That evening after the launch show.

We were having a party in the banquet hall prepared at the Palazzo Hotel, an affiliate hotel of Las Vegas Sands, along with the Sands Convention Center.

“How is it, Uncle?”

“Wow, I didn’t know our Seong-min would make something like this?”

The man standing in front of me now, holding a champagne glass in his hand and making a fuss, is Oh Hyun-seok, head of GK Marine Insurance’s US branch.

This man is also my uncle, even though he is my fifth cousin, but since all my uncles in my large maternal family have loved me since I was a child, I asked Oh Hyun-moo to attend as the representative of the GK Group and brought all the employees from New York.

“I didn’t make it alone. My uncle Hyun-jun worked so hard to make the display.”

“Well, when I call Hyun-jun, he says he doesn’t have enough bodies because of you. He’s so busy taking care of semiconductors and displays, haha.”

Oh Hyun-jun has been twice as busy as usual since GSMC was launched. Furthermore, after receiving $30 billion in funding from me, Henry, and Isaac a few months ago, he was full of fighting spirit in the semiconductor chicken game [intense competition], aggressively increasing the memory factory in Icheon.

“Mi-hyun and her brother-in-law would have been really happy if they were alive. You’re running your family and business so well, haha.”

“I don’t know. My father said he would make me run the Incheon warehouse after I graduated from college, so I sometimes dream of working at the Incheon warehouse.”

When I told him the story of my father that I heard from Lee Myeong-jin, Oh Hyun-seok exclaimed.

“Really? Our brother-in-law was a tough guy, hehe.”

While Oh Hyun-seok and I were talking about our deceased parents, Jobs came looking for me.

“Excuse me, but can I talk to Johnny for a moment?”

Oh Hyun-seok’s eyes widened at Jobs’ polite request.

“Aren’t you Mr. Jobs? You are a major customer of Haedong Electronics, so of course I have to step aside. See you later, nephew.”

“Yes, Uncle. I booked a hotel room for you, so please rest comfortably.”

“Okay, haha.”

Oh Hyun-seok patted me on the shoulder and walked towards the people at GK Marine Insurance’s US branch.

“Who is that easygoing man?”

“He’s my uncle.”

“Uncle?”

“Yes, Steve. My maternal family is GK Group, and he is the head of GK Marine Insurance’s US branch, haha.”

After that, I told him about the family structure of the GK Group, and Jobs’ mouth dropped open.

“Amazing, GK Group. All those people are taking care of company matters and there hasn’t been a single fight.”

“So it’s okay to entrust iMac production to GK Group. The employees are taking care of each other like family.”

In manufacturing, it is important to manage a large number of skilled workers well. In that regard, even if our group and GK Group evaluate workers based on performance, they take good care of basic salaries and welfare, so they are no match for China.

“Okay. If there is a labor cost problem, we can move the consignment factory to Vietnam…”

As always, Jobs, who filled his champagne glass with apple juice instead of champagne at the banquet hall, smiled at me.

“I didn’t know Johnny would develop Aqua Wave. I didn’t know it would be music, movies, books, and even games.”

“I just gave the concept, Steve. Mr. Shin and the other developers did all the hard work, haha.”

I waved my hands because I was embarrassed by Jobs’ praise, but Jobs smiled at me.

“That’s all, what. I just set the concept, Jonathan does the design, the engineers do the development, and the team does the production management, haha.”

“Still, you are the icon of Apple. So we still have a long way to go to catch up, haha.”

While we were giving each other gold paint [praising each other], a silver-haired middle-aged gentleman approached.

“Excuse me, but I would like to talk to Johnny about business… Can you spare some time?”

“…I will.”

Jobs reluctantly answered because he was annoyed by the man who had interrupted, and then said to me.

“Congratulations, Johnny. We’ll make something as good as Aqua Wave soon, so look forward to it, haha.”

“If you develop that, we’ll take care of the consignment production neatly, hehe.”

“Okay, hehe.”

I sent Jobs away with a smile and gave a bitter smile to the silver-haired gentleman.

“You’re having a hard time, Isaac.”

“I can’t help it. It’s important not to be seen by people, haha.”

Isaac, who was extremely reluctant to reveal his identity, came in disguise as he did when we first met.

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s a good product. I’m disappointed that Aqua Software participated in program development, but I think something important is missing…”

Isaac smiled as he trailed off.

“I’ll look forward to it because you, a master, wouldn’t reveal all your resources, haha.”

It seemed to be true that he got an MBA from the Ivy League at the age of twenty-one. I also smiled at Isaac’s smile.

“There’s something more important missing than that, haha.”

I smiled at Isaac’s blinking eyes.

“I’ll show you at next year’s launch show. Please wait until then, Isaac.”

That’s how our September 10th was flowing in a pleasant atmosphere. Only I knew what kind of accident would happen the next day.

***

Next day morning.

[Breaking news! At 8:25 a.m. local time in New York, the World Trade Center…! The World Trade Center…!]

What was coming had finally come.

Those crazy al-Qaeda terrorists finally crashed a plane into the World Trade Center.

I turned off the TV, took a deep breath, and called the desk.

“Excuse me, are Oh Hyun-seok and his party still checking in?”

The reason I deliberately called Oh Hyun-seok was because GK Marine Insurance’s US branch was located in the World Trade Center. Unlike his easygoing appearance, he was a workaholic, so I was worried that he would go back to New York right after the event, so I made the people at GK Marine Insurance’s US branch drink all night….

The employee’s answer came to me as I swallowed hard.

[I just called the room and they just woke up. Is there a problem?]

“No. He’s my uncle, and he’s Korean, so I thought he might need something to relieve his hangover. Thank you, haha.”

I put down the phone after ending the trivial answer and let out a sigh of relief.

“I eliminated the possibility of my great-uncle shedding tears of blood…”

I picked up the phone again and made a call.

“It’s me, Henry.”

[I was going to call you anyway, but you were on the phone. Did you see the news?]

“Yes, Henry. I’ll come see you as soon as I’m ready. With others.”

Now that I have succeeded in saving Oh Hyun-seok, it is time to take care of business. I called Park Tae-jin, Seon Hae-cheol, and Go Seung-ju, and then headed to Henry’s room.