The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 40

40. Becoming a Villain in a Chaebol Family – Gather the Geniuses 02 –

***

“Perfect.”

Luman wasn’t the only one who exclaimed in admiration. Yuka and Lee, who were watching from the side, were equally impressed.

“How can you do this?”

“This is a method I haven’t seen before…”

Jeong Hyun-woo hadn’t shown anything particularly amazing. It was like a Major League pitcher from the 2020s going back to 1980 and showing off a new type of pitch.

“I was able to do it because I saw Lee fixing it first.”

He had referenced Lee’s coding.

“Even so…”

It was too perfect.

Especially the clean handling without any bugs amazed Luman.

Jeong Hyun-woo couldn’t help but click his tongue inwardly at the three’s exaggerated reactions.

‘Tsk, I guess I fixed it too cleanly.’

He thought it would be better to leave some room for criticism next time.

‘Anyway, what’s done is done today.’

He couldn’t revert the fixes back to their original state.

“No wonder Stanford was interested.”

Professor Norn drove the final nail into the coffin of praise.

“Stanford was interested?”

The three people besides Professor Norn raised their eyebrows in unison.

“At that level, he could easily be on Activision’s development team.”

“MIT is truly amazing.”

Jeong Hyun-woo could only stare into space at the continuing praise.

‘They’re praising me too much from the first day.’

He knew what happened to Icarus when he flew too high.

‘If Icarus had known he would fall, he wouldn’t have flown up.’

The same was true for him. If he had known he would receive excessive praise, he wouldn’t have touched the keyboard.

‘I was just trying to get a degree appropriately.’

What Jeong Hyun-woo needed was a degree and connections, not MIT’s technology or research.

Professor Norn looked at Luman and said,

“Luman, Charlie seems to have sped up the project by three months. How should we repay him?”

Money couldn’t be the reward.

“How about giving him a good grade?”

Jeong Hyun-woo shrugged at Luman’s words.

“It’s only the first class. It’s a bit early to be discussing grades…”

It was more than a bit early.

Yuka sighed deeply after hearing his story.

“Haa, Charlie. With this level of skill, you don’t need to take any computer-related classes, do you?”

Frankly speaking, he was better than the professors teaching them. Rather, the professors should be learning from him.

“It’s not like I know all programming languages.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Lee raised his voice.

“Charlie, do you want to learn all the programs?”

He was on the verge of becoming an all-around programmer.

‘I wish someone would help me.’

Jeong Hyun-woo felt everyone’s gaze was almost scorching.

It was Professor Norn who relieved him.

“Let’s do this. Let’s allow Charlie to access the network as much as he wants.”

Luman agreed with his words.

“That would be great.”

Connecting the dormitory and the lab wasn’t difficult.

“It would be really nice to be able to access the network from my room.”

This wasn’t just empty talk.

He sincerely wanted to connect to the network.

‘I know very well what happened to the companies that led the internet.’

He had no intention of taking over Yahoo or Google’s position. But he wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

***

“How was your first class?”

The blonde beauty drinking coffee in the cafeteria was Sarah.

Jeong Hyun-woo threw his bag on the opposite chair and replied,

“It was tough.”

Sarah blinked and asked.

“Really?”

She looked surprised.

Jeong Hyun-woo couldn’t tell the long story of how exhausted he was, but he decided to explain it briefly.

“Really. I could only understand about half the words during the lecture.”

“Was it that difficult?”

“College definitely feels difficult.”

Of course, he hadn’t attended high school classes for more than a few days.

‘Because I dropped out right away.’

Jeong Hyun-woo picked up his bag and placed it next to him. At that moment, there was a thudding sound.

“Your bag seems quite heavy?”

“The textbooks are too thick.”

Even though they were textbooks for the computer science department, their thickness was comparable to a dictionary.

‘Because they have everything from COBOL to Fortran written in them.’

He wasn’t confident in getting a good score if they tested him on COBOL or Fortran [early programming languages].

‘There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of people at MIT right now who are proficient in ancient languages like Fortran or COBOL.’

1983 MIT felt like a link connecting the past and the future.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I have to endure it.”

“Charlie, the great, is going to endure?”

“It’s not like I know everything.”

“That’s inefficient, isn’t it?”

Sarah’s criticism was sharp.

Jeong Hyun-woo didn’t have time to study ancient languages to get good grades.

He still had to release Zero Space 3 and work on the project with JP Morgan.

“Then should I drop out?”

“Take a leave of absence after attending for a while.”

Jeong Hyun-woo’s eyes widened at that moment.

“Huh?”

He didn’t expect Sarah to say this.

‘Didn’t Sarah think college was important?’

She was the one who recommended prestigious universities to him when he said he would go to Boston University.

“Bill Gates did that too.”

“Ah!”

It was around this time that Bill Gates became famous.

“Didn’t Bill drop out?”

“Drop out?”

“He dropped out of Harvard University…”

Sarah cut him off.

“No. It was a leave of absence. He only needed to attend for one more year to graduate, so there’s no way he would drop out.”

Jeong Hyun-woo tilted his head.

‘Is that true?’

The rumor he heard was that Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft.

“Can I take a leave of absence in my first year?”

“If you have a clear reason, there’s no reason why you can’t.”

Sarah ordered him a milkshake after Jeong Hyun-woo settled down.

“Hey, I’m a college student now…”

“You don’t like milkshakes anymore?”

“It’s not that, but shouldn’t we be drinking coffee at a cafe?”

“It’s okay.”

Sarah smiled incessantly, as if she was in a good mood.

“You seem to be in a good mood. Did JP Morgan send you the contract fee?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“I found a good building.”

A building.

Jeong Hyun-woo and Sarah were looking for a building to become the headquarters of Victoria Corporation.

“Really?”

“A building near the station came out cheaply.”

“How much is it?”

“It’s a 10-story building for $800,000.”

10 stories for $800,000.

If it was near the station, $800,000 wasn’t that expensive. But it also didn’t feel as cheap as Sarah said.

“Is that really a good price?”

“Because it’s newly built.”

Newly built with 10 stories.

Jeong Hyun-woo imagined a building with the Victoria Corporation sign in his head.

‘It’s a bit early, but…’

The headquarters building he had in mind was a small 3 or 4-story building.

’10 stories feels like a mid-sized company.’

If Victoria Corporation moved in right now, 95% of the building would be vacant.

‘It feels too empty, doesn’t it?’

He didn’t think that was good.

“So, how much of the building is vacant?”

If it was a newly built building, the entire floor could be vacant.

“30%?”

“Huh?”

“The rest are all occupied. We can receive rent.”

Jeong Hyun-woo sighed briefly.

“Haa… Sarah, you liked it because of the rent.”

“We don’t need to use all the floors.”

Floors 1 and 2 were enough for Victoria Corporation until the business grew.

“And I’m hiring some people.”

“People?”

“You said a few days ago that it would be good to have a sub-developer.”

Jeong Hyun-woo nodded at her words.

“I did.”

There was a limit to developing alone now.

‘Especially to develop a program to connect to the network.’

Sarah had told him that it would be good to hire people from MIT.

“So, have you gathered some people?”

“I received applications. About five?”

“Already?”

“The support wasn’t as enthusiastic as I thought.”

Sarah was thinking of about ten people. She wanted to keep about three of them.

“How are their skills?”

“Their specs are good, but I can’t know their real skills.”

She meant that Jeong Hyun-woo should see and decide for himself.

“Can we hire everyone if they have good skills?”

Sarah was planning on three people, but she wasn’t the type to skimp on money in this area.

“Of course.”

“Then we need to buy the building before interviewing them.”

“I want to do that if possible.”

Jeong Hyun-woo nodded at her words.

“Then do it.”

The permission of the CEO of Victoria Corporation, which had $30 million in assets, fell with the arrival of the milkshake.

“Really?”

“I think Sarah can just decide on that much.”

“$800,000 isn’t a small amount of money.”

“30% of the shares are Sarah’s.”

$9 million out of the $30 million in assets was the same as Sarah’s.

“Still, I think I should consult with Charlie if it’s over $100,000. Conversely, I hope Charlie will consult with me for amounts over that.”

Sarah was thorough in this regard.

“Okay. Then I’ll spend less than $100,000 without consulting each other.”

“However, let’s agree to tell each other when the sum of those expenses reaches $100,000.”

Sarah liked her meticulous side.

“I will.”

Jeong Hyun-woo liked her meticulous side.

‘By the way, am I going to have a headquarters in two years?’

It was still enough to have a garage, but he thought he was building a foundation for the future.

‘Soon, Victoria Corporation will be using all 10 floors.’

He was confident that Victoria Corporation would become a company representing Boston.

***

Jeong Hyun-woo, who returned to MIT, learned a little more about Bill Gates.

“Bill is already doing well in Silicon Valley.”

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were already celebrities enough to be interviewed by the media.

He frowned as he read the articles in the magazine.

“It might be hard to catch up with those two.”

He was only 7 or 8 years behind. Nevertheless, those 7 or 8 years felt like a difficult gap to close.

“Hoo…”

He took a long sigh and placed the newspapers and magazines with Bill Gates’ interviews on the desk.

Thud.

If there was internet, he wouldn’t have to search the library. But the internet was impossible in 1983.

“Am I too impatient?”

There were definitely many opportunities in 1983.

“Because even Microsoft and Activision haven’t been listed on NASDAQ [National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations] yet.”

But he felt a sense of frustration.

‘Could it be because I don’t have a cell phone?’

He didn’t even want a smartphone. He just wished he had a cell phone that could make real-time calls.

“Come to think of it, I heard there are cell phones now.”

In 1983, there was a cell phone made by Motorola. But it was too big to carry around freely.

‘The cell phone side is also worth exploring.’

Thinking of Yuka and Lee’s home country, Finland, made him even more interested.

‘When it comes to cell phones, it’s Nokia, and when it comes to Nokia, it’s Finland.’

He frowned and clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, let’s not be greedy.”

If he tried to do everything, he couldn’t do anything. In particular, he had already experienced that in his previous life.

“First, let’s finish Zero Space 3.”

He wanted to finish Zero Space 3 before the full-fledged assignment season returned.

Thud. Thud. Tatatatat.

It was when he was typing on the keyboard like a possessed person.

Tuk. Tuk. Tuk.

Someone knocked on his door.

Jeong Hyun-woo didn’t have a roommate, so if someone knocked on the door, it was likely someone related to the dormitory administration.

‘Who is it?’

He tilted his head and got up from his seat.

“Who is it?”

A familiar voice came from outside the door.

“It’s me, Luman.”

It was Luman, Professor Norn’s student and a graduate researcher, who had come to find him.

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