The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 90

90. Billionaire (1)

“Ugh.”

Jung Hyun-woo woke to the flickering lights and a sharp voice.

‘What’s going on?’

He opened his eyes with difficulty.

“Charlie! Charlie!”

The owner of the sharp voice was Sarah.

Jung Hyun-woo took a deep breath to calm himself and rubbed his eyes.

“Sarah?”

Sarah’s voice remained sharp.

“Do you have any idea what month it is?”

Jung Hyun-woo scratched his head and replied.

“It’s February.”

“And what do you think will happen if you sleep in the office like this in February?”

The office wasn’t even properly heated.

Considering it was the middle of winter, sleeping in the office wasn’t a good idea.

Jung Hyun-woo also felt a scratchiness in his throat.

“But it’s okay because I have a sleeping bag.”

The sleeping bag was a familiar comfort to him.

‘The office is much better than a winter training exercise.’

He was, after all, a former special forces non-commissioned officer. Winter bivouacs [temporary camps without tents] were nothing new.

Sarah took off her coat and raised her voice.

“What if you catch a cold like this? You have to take care of yourself! Charlie is the alpha and omega [the beginning and the end; the most important part] of Victoria Corporation.”

Jung Hyun-woo listened to her nagging and thought, ‘Could she have been my older sister in a past life?’

“Um, what time is it?”

Judging by her being at work, it seemed to be past 9 a.m.

“It’s 7:30.”

Jung Hyun-woo scratched his head and burrowed back into his sleeping bag.

“Ah, I’ll sleep for one more hour.”

His voice was weak, like an ant that had lost its way.

Sarah put her hands on her hips and exclaimed.

“Ugh!”

She sighed as she watched Jung Hyun-woo fall asleep again.

“Hoo… He doesn’t even go home and seems to sleep here every day.”

Sarah crossed her arms as she looked at the humming computers.

“He couldn’t have fallen asleep in the early morning, could he?”

That was exactly right.

Jung Hyun-woo had been testing the next version of JP Service until just a few hours ago. Before the conflict with JP Morgan, JP Service already had over a million subscribers. He believed that JP Service should never be handled carelessly.

“I can’t stop Charlie.”

Sarah sat on the edge of the desk and looked at Jung Hyun-woo sleeping.

‘He looks like a little kid like this.’

She saw Jung Hyun-woo as perpetually young, but the two were actually only four years apart.

How much time had passed?

Jung Hyun-woo woke up, scratching his head.

“Ugh.”

“Here’s coffee.”

He accepted the coffee Sarah handed him and closed his eyes.

“I’m still not awake.”

“How many hours did you not sleep?”

“Probably not enough.”

“I shouldn’t have woken you up so early.”

Jung Hyun-woo took a sip of coffee and said.

“But I have to get up before the employees come to work.”

“Working like that is a good way to ruin your health.”

“Sarah also works while cutting back on sleep.”

Both of them were not getting more than 5 hours of sleep a day.

“I know, I have my own issues.”

Sarah honestly admitted that her life cycle was a mess.

“Was New York okay?”

“So-so?”

“It seems Bank of America listened to our request?”

“Only half.”

Jung Hyun-woo took another sip of coffee.

“Only half?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Miss Marine said that you can’t always get everything you want.”

“She handled it on her own without informing the higher-ups.”

Sarah nodded.

“She wouldn’t bother Chairman Giannini [likely referring to A.P. Giannini, founder of Bank of America] for something like this.”

Chairman Giannini was her maternal grandfather, but he wasn’t someone to be trifled with. Therefore, she didn’t ask him for anything unless it was something she considered truly important.

Jung Hyun-woo nodded at Sarah’s words.

“That’s true.”

Sarah sat on the desk and asked.

“You didn’t even sleep at home for one night?”

Jung Hyun-woo turned his head slightly.

“Did you go home?”

“I still try to sleep at home.”

“But it doesn’t seem like Sarah slept at home either?”

Sarah sighed briefly.

“Ha, I arrived this morning.”

She went straight to the office from the airport after a quick stop at her house.

“If you arrived this morning, Sarah also pushed herself while cutting back on sleep.”

“I told you. I have my own issues.”

There was a coffee cup with Sarah’s lipstick on it on the desk. Jung Hyun-woo thought it looked quite alluring.

‘My younger siblings said that my older sister sometimes looks pretty; is this what they meant?’

He averted his gaze and asked.

“So, you just dropped off your luggage and went straight to work?”

“Your carrier is still there.”

Jung Hyun-woo scratched his head at her words.

“I didn’t have time to unpack.”

He had been staying at the company without opening his bag since returning from Korea.

“I heard you went to Washington?”

Jung Hyun-woo turned his gaze to her and asked back.

“Did Anne say that?”

“The thing you said in Las Vegas that you couldn’t talk about yet is Washington, right?”

Jung Hyun-woo nodded obediently.

“That’s right.”

Sarah asked again.

“So, did it go well?”

“That went unexpectedly well.”

Justin Balmer [likely a fictionalized version of a prominent figure] was a difficult person, but he wasn’t narrow-minded. He listened to Jung Hyun-woo’s story and decided to take action for the future of American finance.

‘It would have been difficult if he hadn’t moved.’

He expected Justin Balmer to exert influence in some way.

“That’s a relief.”

Jung Hyun-woo took a sip of coffee and looked around.

“Hmm, everyone came to work early.”

Sarah slightly raised the corners of her lips.

“It’s not that they came to work early, it’s that Charlie woke up late.”

“Really?”

Jung Hyun-woo turned his head and checked the clock on the wall. The short hand was well past 9 o’clock.

“Ah……”

The two hands of the clock were pointing at 10:20.

“Tsk, I was only going to sleep for an hour.”

Jung Hyun-woo narrowed his eyes like someone who had lost something valuable.

Sarah shrugged and responded.

“I was going to let you sleep more, but I had to wake you up because of a phone call.”

Jung Hyun-woo held the coffee cup with both hands and asked.

“Was the call from Robert?”

“No.”

“If it’s not Robert, then who is it? Maybe Miss Marine?”

Bank of America was now an important ally.

Sarah crossed her arms and answered.

“Sean Luke called.”

Sean Luke was the head of JP Morgan’s technology division.

At her answer, Jung Hyun-woo put down the mug of coffee.

Clunk.

“That means JP Morgan has made a move.”

“They asked to set a meeting date. Did something good happen in Washington?”

A woman’s intuition was sharp.

“I met some people.”

Sarah swept up her long hair and asked.

“Someone with influence?”

She thought it was likely that the person Jung Hyun-woo met was a political figure.

‘Borrowing the power of the political world is not ideal, but I can’t help it because of who we’re up against.’

JP Morgan was too big to deal with using their power alone.

Jung Hyun-woo nodded and answered.

“That’s right.”

Sarah shrugged at his answer.

“You’re like a gentle lamb today. You obediently tell me everything.”

“Was I ever sharp?”

“You were sharp plenty of times.”

“Not at all.”

Jung Hyun-woo straightened himself up and came out of the sleeping bag.

“What are you going to do now?”

“We have to meet.”

The fact that JP Morgan proposed a meeting first was likely due to Justin Balmer’s pressure.

‘I can’t miss the opportunity that Justin Balmer gave me.’

As soon as he came out of the sleeping bag, a wave of cold air enveloped his body.

‘Ugh, should I have turned up the office heat?’

February in Boston was cold, though not as much as in Korea.

“Put on a jumper [sweater or jacket]. You’ll catch a cold.”

Jung Hyun-woo put on the jumper Sarah handed him and sighed briefly.

“Hoo, I wouldn’t have to wear a jumper in the Wall Street office, right?”

“They use heating like crazy over there.”

“They’re really spending money like water.”

“We can afford heating too.”

Jung Hyun-woo raised the zipper of his jumper and said.

“Sarah, there are a lot of computers here, so it’s good to keep it a little cool.”

“Is that so?”

The heat generation of computers in 1984 was not high enough to negate the need for heating. Nevertheless, Jung Hyun-woo didn’t really welcome excessive heating.

“I think it’s good to only heat the winter enough so that your fingers don’t stiffen.”

Sarah sided with Jung Hyun-woo on everything related to computers.

“Then I can’t argue with that.”

“So, what does Peter say?”

One of the things Jung Hyun-woo entrusted to Sarah was a meeting with Peter Lynch [a famous fund manager at Fidelity Investments].

“Which should I tell you first?”

Jung Hyun-woo tilted his head as she asked back.

“Which what?”

“There are two things.”

Two things.

Something else had been added to the work Jung Hyun-woo had requested.

“It seems there’s another story besides the one I asked for.”

Sarah nodded and said.

“Starting with the other story, the profits from Japan have exploded.”

Jung Hyun-woo slightly raised his voice, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Real estate?”

The Magellan Fund had invested in Japanese real estate for only about half a year.

‘Did it pay off this quickly?’

He couldn’t help but be surprised by the growth rate of the Japanese real estate bubble. But Sarah’s answer was different from his expectations.

“No, stock prices have soared thanks to rumors that Japanese companies posted huge profits in the fourth quarter of last year.”

Good performance of Japanese companies.

It didn’t seem like the Japanese real estate bubble had fully inflated yet.

Jung Hyun-woo clicked his tongue inwardly and asked.

“How much did it go up?”

“About 70% more than when we invested?”

A 70% return in less than a year.

If Jung Hyun-woo had been solely focused on Wall Street, he would have become famous for his excellent investment returns.

“Then that’s roughly $7 million in profit.”

$7 million was more than the total amount he had earned with the Zero Space series, but thinking back to the LA days when he confidently projected $10 billion, it felt like small change.

‘My ambitions have grown.’

He realized that his confidence had increased without him even noticing.

Sarah continued the investment story as if she didn’t know his thoughts.

“If you combine the money earned from Apple and the profits from real estate, the investment profit for last month alone is close to $15 million.”

As Jung Hyun-woo claimed to Lyra Marine, Victoria Corporation’s investment return was better than that of a professional fund manager.

“So, what does Peter say?”

“He suggested that we run a fund instead.”

“Quit JP Service?”

“If it’s a Vanguard Fund or a Magellan Fund level, JP Morgan and Bank of America won’t be able to look down on us so easily.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Half joking, half serious?”

Jung Hyun-woo hardened his voice and said.

“That’s a sweet temptation. I’ll refuse such a temptation.”

He was satisfied with the investment side as it was now.

‘This side will be fine until the real estate bubble bursts.’

He was planning to make a bigger bet after the Plaza Accord [an agreement between France, West Germany, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom to depreciate the U.S. dollar relative to other major currencies].

“The second thing is the work Charlie requested.”

Jung Hyun-woo had asked Sarah to ask Peter Lynch about the market value of Victoria Corporation.

Sarah lowered her voice slightly.

“It took three days to calculate.”

Jung Hyun-woo’s voice rose for a moment.

“Three days?”

It was unexpected that it took three days to calculate the value of Victoria Corporation.

“Peter complained that even after calculating for three days, it wasn’t enough to properly measure the company’s value?”

Jung Hyun-woo crossed his arms at her question.

“It seems he calculated it very carefully.”

“Peter seems to have calculated it assuming that the Magellan Fund would acquire Victoria Corporation.”

Peter Lynch treated this as a special request from a VIP customer, not a request from his younger colleague who knew him well.

“So, how much did he say?”

Sarah sighed briefly and answered.

“Hoo, $1.42 billion.”

Jung Hyun-woo unfolded his arms and narrowed his brows.

“That’s stingy.”

The amount Peter Lynch calculated was considerably less than he had expected.

“Peter is a conservative investor.”

“Isn’t he stubborn?”

“Anyway, even with Peter’s calculation, our company’s value exceeds $1 billion.”

If the value of Victoria Corporation calculated by Peter Lynch was accurate, Jung Hyun-woo and Sarah could already be considered young billionaires.

“You’re not satisfied with being a billionaire?”

Jung Hyun-woo nodded at Sarah’s question.

“To be honest, I thought it would be more than $3 billion.”

Sarah raised her voice again.

“Because of the value of JP Service?”

“Peter knows our investment performance well.”

“Ah, come to think of it, that’s right.”

Peter Lynch acknowledged their investment ability to the point of joking about offering him a fund manager position. Nevertheless, he valued Victoria Corporation at less than $1.5 billion.

“Peter must have valued JP Service at less than $1 billion.”

Sarah thought that could be the case.

“We can’t help it. Peter is from the generation that traded stocks in the trading room.”

With the advent of JP Service, the atmosphere at JP Securities was quite different.

Customers no longer came to the brokerage trading room, checked stock prices with JP Service, and then called their agents. Then, they had the agents trade on their behalf.

In other words, JP Securities’ phone trading began to explode.

“Peter doesn’t like phone trading?”

Sarah nodded and answered.

“Peter said that you have to be in the trading room to accurately gauge the market atmosphere.”

“That’s unexpected.”

“What Peter considers important is not just the trading room. He also visits the company directly.”

Peter Lynch could be said to be an extreme value investor.

“Sarah, thank you for your hard work.”

Sarah took her butt off the desk and asked.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“Yes?”

“I’m talking about the meeting with Sean Luke.”

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

“Please set the date, Sarah.”

“How many people?”

“Wouldn’t it be enough for Sarah and me?”

That meant Robert would not be attending.

“Hmm, is it because Robert wielded the whip this time?”

Robert was in charge of pressuring JP Morgan according to Jung Hyun-woo’s instructions.

“No. Robert has a lot of work to do.”

He thought that collaborating with Commodore [a computer company] was as important as the work with JP Morgan.

Sarah briefly accepted the words as if she understood.

“Okay.”

It was the moment she was about to open the door and leave.

Jung Hyun-woo called her.

“Sarah.”

As he called, she turned her body and asked.

“Are you asking me to have lunch together? Or should I buy you toast?”

Sarah was going to buy him breakfast even if Jung Hyun-woo didn’t say anything.

Jung Hyun-woo scratched his neck with his hand and answered her question.

“No. I’m talking about last month’s profit. How much is it?”

Victoria Corporation was making millions of dollars in profit every month through JP Service.

“$5.2 million combined from JP Service and the game side.”

“Put all $5.2 million into Apple.”

“Into Apple?”

“Apple will go up more.”

Jung Hyun-woo trusted the success of Apple and Macintosh.

“Are you sure? If you put it all in, there won’t be any available funds.”

Sarah thought that investment was good, but there should be some liquid funds.

“You can sell stocks if something happens.”

“That’s true.”

“And, please also look into the data center side.”

Sarah realized that Jung Hyun-woo was seriously thinking about the data center.

“Are you really going to do it?”

“When I have more leeway than now.”

“Okay. I’ll get a quote for that side too. Do you have a region in mind?”

Sarah thought it would be inefficient to build a data center in downtown Boston.

‘The land price is expensive in the center.’

Jung Hyun-woo thought for a moment and then answered.

“Wouldn’t it be good between Boston and New York?”

“Not the outskirts of Boston?”

“New York is still the center.”

The place where JP Service’s customers were most concentrated was New York. He wanted to prioritize the convenience of his customers rather than his own.