The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 16

Becoming a Billionaire Villain – Facing the Giant Wave 03 –

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June 1982.

Though the Spanish World Cup had begun, Jung Hyun-woo wasn’t watching.

Americans had little interest in the World Cup.

You couldn’t find a single article about it on regular TV channels.

‘I could subscribe to a sports cable channel that covers soccer, but I don’t have the time.’

He was working hard to prepare for the release of Zero Space 2.

‘To think the release would be delayed by two months.’

The delay was separate from Activision’s postponement of its IPO [Initial Public Offering, the first sale of stock by a private company to the public].

Activision believed that releasing Zero Space 2 in the spring of 1982 could hurt the sales of the original Zero Space, so they asked Jung Hyun-woo to postpone the release.

‘Thanks to that, I caught a few more bugs, but…’

He was on high alert for the Atari shock [the video game industry crash of 1983] that could explode at any moment.

It would be troublesome if it exploded too soon.

‘I only used $2 million for the short selling investment.’

If it exploded now, even with a 10x return, it would only be $20 million.

Of course, $20 million in 1982 was an astronomical sum. But he thought he could make even more.

‘I need more ample funds to fight the Jung family members.’

He had no intention of swallowing Daewoon Group, but he also had no intention of backing down if they started a fight.

‘I’m going to be a thorough villain then.’

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

Twice quickly.

A doorbell sound with a different feel than usual.

Jung Hyun-woo could tell Sera’s mood just from the interval of the doorbell.

‘She seems to be in a bad mood again. Did she break up with her boyfriend?’

He didn’t even know if Sera had a boyfriend; he was just guessing.

A moment later.

Sera opened the door and came inside.

“Charlie.”

“Sera, are you okay?”

Sera put down her bag and let out a long sigh.

“Ha, I couldn’t sleep a wink all night.”

Her face was dark.

‘She even has dark circles under her eyes.’

She really didn’t seem to have slept properly.

Jung Hyun-woo turned his gaze to the monitor and asked.

“Is it exam period this week?”

Sera was a student at Boston University before she was Jung Hyun-woo’s personal tutor and business partner.

In other words, she had to take exams and submit reports every semester.

“No.”

“Then what is it? Do you have a lot of assignments?”

Sera answered sharply.

“It’s all because of the short selling.”

Jung Hyun-woo’s gaze returned to her.

“Because of the short selling?”

Was there something wrong with the short selling process?

Jung Hyun-woo frowned.

‘It would be troublesome if something went wrong.’

Sera sighed again.

“Hoo… I can’t sleep at all because I’m so anxious. My heart is racing, and my head is a mess.”

She had boldly shorted Warner Group and other companies in the game industry, but she was anxious when she thought about it again.

A lack of faith, as they say.

This was natural. Unlike Jung Hyun-woo, she didn’t know the future.

Jung Hyun-woo said in the softest voice possible.

“Sera, it’s okay if you lose all that money.”

Sera immediately raised her eyebrows.

“How is it okay?”

Even though she was from a prestigious family, she knew that $2 million was a lot of money.

‘With $2 million, you can even get into Harvard with a donation.’

The United States had a donation-based admission system, so even wealthy children with insufficient grades could enter prestigious universities.

The famous President John F. Kennedy also entered Harvard in this way.

“We still have ammunition left.”

“We bet $2 million on Warner going bankrupt. In other words, we’ve become enemies of Warner Group.”

Warner Group’s stock price was rising every day, contrary to Jung Hyun-woo’s predictions.

Sera’s words poured out like a waterfall.

“Besides, short selling isn’t infinite. You have to buy it back and repay it after a while.”

As she said, short selling meant that you had to sell the stock and repay it someday. This meant that if the time to buy back the stock was higher than the time of the short sale, you would have to take a big loss regardless of the margin.

The bankruptcy that Peter Lynch warned about could happen in this process.

Jung Hyun-woo raised his voice slightly.

“Short selling means there’s a set period to buy back the stock, right?”

“Yes.”

Sera looked depressed.

“Sera, you promised to trust me.”

She glanced at Jung Hyun-woo.

Still a very young face.

Fifteen, no, barely sixteen now.

‘I must have been crazy. To bet my life on a sixteen-year-old boy.’

The words of the brokerage firm employee that she was crazy floated around in her head.

“Sera.”

“Why?”

“We have to study.”

At Jung Hyun-woo’s words, Sera burst into a hearty laugh.

“Hahaha, Charlie is really unshakable.”

Unwavering comfort.

Suddenly, an advertisement for a bed company came to Jung Hyun-woo’s mind.

‘Well, I know the future.’

History was flowing as he knew it. The Falklands War had broken out, and Britain was gaining the upper hand as he knew it.

The news of Britain’s victory would soon be heard.

‘If I had known that Activision’s IPO would be delayed like this, I would have invested more in defense stocks.’

The $10,000 that Sera had invested in defense stocks was now worth $30,000.

If he had invested $1 million at the time, he would have made a profit of $2 million by now.

Jung Hyun-woo thought it was more important to lift Sera’s spirits than that.

She was his precious investment partner.

“Sera, I told you. We still have a lot of ammunition left.”

Sera stopped laughing and asked.

“Are you really going to use it all?”

“That’s what we decided.”

Sera shook her head from side to side.

“I really can’t stop you.”

She wondered if Jung Hyun-woo’s heart was made of steel.

‘In sports terms, he’s a big game hunter.’

A strong heart that is strong in big games.

These players could be excused by fans even if they were usually sluggish.

She thought Jung Hyun-woo was the same type of person as those players.

‘Yeah, I can’t judge Charlie just by his age.’

Sera saw Jung Hyun-woo as a genius.

“Do you want to play a game?”

“A game?”

“The tuning of Zero Space 2 is all done.”

Sera said weakly.

“No, I’m not good at games anyway.”

“Sera, cheer up.”

He wasn’t just saying it. He felt down when Sera was drooping.

‘At this rate, the class will be a mess.’

Jung Hyun-woo got up from his seat and asked.

“Shall we go outside?”

“What about the class?”

“One day is okay.”

“You have to prepare for 복학 [Bokhak: Re-enrolling in school after a leave of absence, common in South Korea].”

Jung Hyun-woo smiled brightly.

“You’ve already done all the freshman courses.”

“Still.”

“Get up. Let’s go see a Red Sox game.”

Surprisingly, Sera was a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox. At the word Red Sox, she raised her head.

“Is it really okay?”

“I’ll buy the tickets.”

Two hours later.

Jung Hyun-woo and Sera were sitting at Fenway Park, the home stadium of the Boston Red Sox.

The player at bat was the legendary on-base machine Wade Boggs.

When he stepped up to the plate, Sera’s eyes, a Red Sox fanatic, lit up.

“It’s Wade!”

Jung Hyun-woo didn’t know who Wade Boggs was.

‘I don’t know much about Major League Baseball.’

He was good at many sports, but if he had to choose, it would be soccer rather than baseball.

‘If it’s the Spanish World Cup, Maradona will be playing.’

He wanted to fly to Spain and see Diego Maradona, one of the gods of soccer, in person.

‘Should I really go?’

He could afford it with his current financial resources. But there were Sera and Choi Kyung-min.

‘And there’s Zero Space 2.’

He turned his gaze back to Wade Boggs.

“Is he a good player?”

“He’s the Red Sox’s hitting machine.”

Before Moneyball [a sabermetric approach to baseball] appeared.

So, in the 1980s, when classic stats were emphasized, Wade Boggs was not an on-base machine but a hitting machine.

In fact, this was not wrong. He won the batting title four times in a row and was a legend in the hitting world, breaking 3,000 hits.

“He must be a player who hits well.”

“That’s right.”

No sooner had Sera finished speaking than Boggs got a hit and got on base.

“Wade! Wade!”

People cheered for Wade Boggs’s on-base. Perhaps they were more enthusiastic because the opponent was their rival, the New York Yankees.

“What’s Wade’s batting average?”

“Wade definitely has over .300.”

“You mean he gets a hit one out of three times?”

“That’s right.”

Jung Hyun-woo said.

“Then Sera, what’s my investment batting average?”

At his question, Sera paused.

“Charlie’s batting average?”

“Yes, my investment batting average.”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t you think it’s at least .300? I guessed the Falklands War last time.”

If his investment batting average was .300, he was guaranteed to succeed in one out of three short sales.

Of course, a .300 hitter doesn’t necessarily get a hit once every three at-bats.

Sometimes he would hit several hits in a row, and sometimes he wouldn’t get a hit for two days in a row.

Sera saw through the meaning of his story.

“You’re saying that since you can get a hit one out of three times, I should trust you and wait?”

“Please think of me as a .300 hitter like Wade.”

With those words, Jung Hyun-woo reached out and took her left hand.

His hand was warm.

Sera chuckled inwardly.

‘To think I would be comforted by a boy shorter than me.’

She never imagined this would happen when she entered Boston University.

“Okay, I’ll trust Charlie.”

That evening.

Sera was able to sleep soundly for the first time in a long time.

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