The Genius Grandson Of The Cash King Becomes A Tycoon [EN]: Chapter 156

#156

Stepping off at Shinjuku Station, they were greeted by a dense cluster of towering buildings.

It wasn’t much different from Gangnam Station in Seoul.

Perhaps Gangnam felt even more bustling and energetic.

The biggest difference from Seoul was immediately apparent…

Everywhere they went, they saw:

Attractive women with beautifully large eyes.

The pleasant, gentle voices of shopkeepers and staff tickled Chun Jin-hyuk and Lee Byung-suk’s ears.

“Irasshaimase [Welcome].”

They offered pleasant smiles, nodded slightly, and went inside a ramen shop.

They planned to have lunch at a famous ramen shop with a hundred-year tradition.

Since arriving in Japan, they had been eating ramen for three days straight.

But they didn’t get tired of it.

Both of them were serious about Japanese ramen.

-Slurp-

-Slurp-

They finished the served ramen in less than five minutes.

Chun Jin-hyuk looked regretful that it was over so quickly.

Lee Byung-suk, who was also smacking his lips in satisfaction, looked at him.

“Hey, you too?”

“Hey, you too?”

Lee Byung-suk playfully smacked Chun Jin-hyuk on the back of the head.

“Why are you talking to me informally! [Using casual speech with someone older is considered rude in Korean culture.]”

They smiled at each other and raised their hands to order two more bowls of ramen.

-Slurp-

They quickly devoured the served ramen with expert slurping sounds.

They picked up the water cups next to the empty ramen bowls and rinsed their mouths.

They came out with happy faces, as if they had no regrets even if they died that day.

They hurried towards the character goods shop 50 meters away.

Chun Jin-hyuk bought a giant Hello Kitty doll, jokingly calling it a British girl.

“Hey, Kitty doesn’t really suit your face.”

“Huh? I think it looks better on me than on you, hyung [older brother or male friend] .”

Lee Byung-suk was holding Asuka figures from Evangelion in both hands.

He had gained a lot of weight recently, making him look like a bit of a perverted otaku [a person with obsessive interests, particularly in anime and manga] .

But Chun Jin-hyuk kept his mouth shut.

He was buying it with Shinwha Game’s corporate card,

There was no need to upset him.

“Ah, seeing this, I understand why hyung married Young-mi noona [older sister or female friend] .”

“Our Young-mi is a bit strong-willed. Yeah, she’s very strong.”

As expected, as soon as he mentioned Cha Young-mi, a call came from her.

Instantly, both of their faces hardened.

Lee Byung-suk looked at Chun Jin-hyuk.

He nodded and raised his index finger to his lips, shushing him.

Chun Jin-hyuk also nodded.

“Honey, what’s up?”

“Where are you?”

“Here? At a restaurant in front of the hotel.”

“Put Jin-hyuk on!”

He handed the phone to Jin-hyuk.

Lee Byung-suk’s parched lips became even drier.

“Haha, yes, noona, Asuka figures? I didn’t buy anything like that. What? If I buy one more, you’ll burn them all?”

Lee Byung-suk’s lips drooped severely at the chilling threat conveyed through Jin-hyuk’s mouth.

“But why did you call?”

“The Sooni server is about to explode; gather everyone and go to Sooni.”

“Go to Sooni right now?”

“Yeah, show them your skills properly.”

“Yes.”

Chun Jin-hyuk’s eyes sparkled as he hung up.

“Hyung, they said the server is about to explode.”

“Really? Got it.”

Lee Byung-suk took out his phone.

His eyes were filled with the energy of a general about to go into battle.

“Everyone, assemble at Sooni Games.”

Arriving at Sooni Games in 30 minutes, Chun Jin-hyuk and Lee Byung-suk were dumbfounded by the unbelievable situation.

The guards blocked them.

“What brings you here?”

Lee Byung-suk stepped forward.

“We came from Korea to provide technical support to Sooni Games.”

“What kind of technical support can people from Korea provide?”

“Ha, this guy……”

Lee Byung-suk wanted to say that he was the president of Sooni Games, but he held back.

He was curious to see how much they looked down on Koreans.

“Ha, are Koreans not allowed to enter?”

“Yes, most of them come to steal technology, so they are a serious security risk.”

They openly treated them like thieves.

‘These guys…….’

They’re looking at us like thieves.

“To enter, you must have an appointment in advance. And you must leave all your belongings here.”

“Hmm, I understand. Then please call Kishida Ken, the head of Sooni Games.”

“Who should I say is calling?”

“Tell him Lee Byung-suk from Korea is here.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The guard, who was pretending to be polite but secretly looked down on them, picked up the phone.

“Is this the secretary’s office? Lee Byung-suk from Korea is in the lobby. What should I do?”’

“Lee Byung-suk? Who is that?”

The secretary checked Kishida Ken’s schedule.

Lee Byung-suk’s name was not there.

“He doesn’t have an appointment. Just send him back.”

“Understood.”

“Ah, wait a minute.”

The chief of staff, who had been half-listening to the secretary’s words, asked the secretary again.

“Did you just say Lee Byung-suk?”

“Yes, he said he’s Lee Byung-suk from Korea.”

“Damn it! Don’t you even know the name of the new president?”

“Yes?”

The secretary’s face instantly hardened.

The chief of staff quickly moved and went to the elevator.

He pressed the button urgently, but it seemed like it would take a while to arrive.

He ran down the stairs to the first-floor lobby.

“He says to wait a moment. But he says you don’t have an appointment.”

“An appointment……. It’s a place where you don’t need to make an appointment.”

“Hmph, if you’re Korean, you have to have an appointment, sign a security agreement, and hand in your belongings to enter. You’re on the blacklist.”

The guard smiled confidently.

“Is that so? Let’s see. If that’s what it takes to get in.”

The chief of staff was running from afar.

The guard bowed to him.

And when he looked up again, the sight before his eyes made his heart clench.

The chief of staff was deeply bowing and apologizing to Lee Byung-suk.

“President, I’m sorry. I didn’t train them properly. Please forgive me.”

Lee Byung-suk stopped the chief of staff from kneeling.

“Ah, that’s enough. I don’t have time, so let’s keep it simple. What’s your name?”

“Tojo.”

“Try saying what you said earlier again.”

The guard couldn’t move.

Sweat was pouring down his forehead like rain.

It took superhuman strength just to stand there.

He felt like he was about to collapse at any moment.

“H-He’s the new president. Lee Byung-suk is the new president?”

“Yes, here’s my phone. And they said I have to sign a security agreement and make an appointment……”

“P-Please forgive me. I made a mistake.”

“Chief of staff, please properly educate this person about his prejudices.”

“Understood. Please come inside.”

Lee Byung-suk was guided inside.

He asked the chief of staff, who was guiding him to the president’s office, about the current situation.

“How is the LAL game that was released today?”

“I don’t think it will last until this evening.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We plan to suspend the service and increase the server capacity. After getting approval for that plan, we’ll expand the server, test it, and then resume the service. There’s a procedure to follow.”

Chief Secretary Daichi smiled slightly.

He thought it was a perfect answer.

But.

“What? Are you kidding me?”

“What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

He couldn’t understand President Lee Byung-suk’s reaction.

He thought it was a perfect plan.

If they followed this plan, they could resume the service within a month.

It would take at least two months for anyone else.

“There will be no service suspension. Let’s go to the main server room right now.”

“What? You mean you’re not suspending it?”

His face hardened at the president’s statement that defied common sense.

He couldn’t understand it at all.

Lee Byung-suk’s voice reached his ears as he stood there blankly.

“Guide me to the computer room quickly.”

“Yes, sir!”

Chief Secretary Daichi guided President Lee Byung-suk to the server room.

Behind him followed Chun Jin-hyuk and a dozen other people.

The people who had been selected from Korea were online game maintenance experts.

Their faces were full of confidence.

***

Sooni’s game division was spun off into Sooni Games and became a subsidiary of Shinwha Games.

Kishida Ken’s position was changed from General Manager to Vice President.

It might be a demotion, but the Korean president is in Korea.

Lee Byung-suk, the president of Shinwha Games, is also serving as the president of Sooni Games.

Kishida was reading the report that had been submitted in the morning.

It had been 20 days since the release of Play Ground 3.

But already 500,000 units had been sold in Korea and 2 million units in Japan.

They hadn’t even tallied the numbers for the United States and Europe.

President Yoon Jung-hoon was right.

He turned his chair and looked out the window, thinking.

‘Well, with that kind of insight, he must have built the great Shinwha Empire.’

He had to admit it.

It was his complete defeat.

As he was lost in thought, the intercom on his desk rang.

“Vice President, the situation is serious.”

Ah, the online game officially launched today.

He had forgotten about it for a moment because of the explosive sales of Play Ground 3.

“How many users have gathered?”

“Five times more than expected. And it’s still increasing.”

“Heh.”

A hollow laugh crossed Kishida’s face.

“I’ll go to the computer room.”

“Understood.”

What caught Kishida’s eye when he arrived at the computer room was the staff running around in confusion.

Everyone was experiencing this situation for the first time.

He had to step in and sort things out.

“Is it still increasing?”

“Yes, the number of users flowing into the server is increasing too much. I don’t think it will last even two hours.”

After thinking for a moment, Kishida shook his head slightly.

“There’s no choice. I can’t increase the server without the president’s permission. Besides, if the server goes down, it will cause problems for other games as well. Prepare to shut down the service.”

“Yes.”

At that moment, the door burst open.

“President Lee Byung-suk. What brings you here?”

Without responding to Kishida’s greeting, he went straight to the point.

“What’s the situation?”

“More users are flowing in than expected. So, we’re planning to suspend the service.”

“Are you crazy? Suspend the service? There is absolutely no service suspension.”

Lee Byung-suk glared at Vice President Kishida with a cold expression.

Then he looked at the faces of the computer room staff.

The staff’s expressions were completely rotten [meaning they looked terrible and defeated].

They couldn’t cope properly because it was a situation they were experiencing for the first time.

“What? Then what do we do? We have to suspend it, make a plan, and start again.”

“No. If we suspend the service today, users will never come back. There’s a Korean saying, ‘Strike while the iron is hot.’ Increase the server and do your best to maintain the service. No one can leave work until the game is stable.”

A staff member who appeared to be a deputy manager stood up.

“What? I have a class reunion tonight.”

“Then pack your bags and leave.”

He was telling him to quit.

‘Ha, crazy Korean president, is he crazy?’

Embarrassed by Lee Byung-suk’s words, he sat down with a flushed face.

“First, secure the servers you can use. Make an urgent request to Korea. And everyone, watch closely how the Korean staff solve the problem.”

Lee Byung-suk then instructed them on what needed to be done urgently.

Kishida, who had been hesitating, cautiously said.

“The instructions you just gave require approval.”

“I am the approver. Increase it.”

“Then I’ll make the approval documents right away. Please stamp your approval.”

‘Ha, this crazy stamp country [referring to the Japanese practice of using personal seals (hanko) instead of signatures].’

“From today, Sooni is banning the use of stamps. Signatures are mandatory.”

“What? Understood. Then I’ll make those approval documents as well. Please stamp your approval.”

Lee Byung-suk glared at the vice president.

Kishida had to step back because of Lee Byung-suk’s cold gaze and expression.

“Okay, everyone, focus. People from Korea have come here to help you. It’s not difficult. If we work together, we can solve it.”

The people dispatched from Shinwha Games took over the computers and started typing.

Everyone was amazed by their skills in solving problems in an instant.

The Sooni staff, whose pride was hurt, had no choice but to stand by their side and stare blankly.

There was an insurmountable difference in skill.

The computer room was filled only with the sound of keyboards.

***

“Takeru, eat your food!”

“I don’t want to eat.”

He kept clicking the mouse.

The LAL game that was released today.

It was so fun that he couldn’t come to his senses.

The speed of the LAL game, which he had been enjoying for a while, suddenly slowed down.

If you stop the game at times like this, you can’t get back in. So, despite the slow response speed, he kept clicking the mouse and playing the game.

The game was lagging and moving like slow motion.

“Damn it, I was really happy to be able to play online games in Japan. But it’s so slow!”

Maybe it’s because it’s the first time, but the service was a mess.

The game speed slowed down drastically due to the poor server.

This was because the number of users had increased rapidly.

But he was grateful.

To think that the long-awaited online game service would start in a place dominated by console games.

It was an unexpected gift.

After 7 o’clock, everything suddenly became normal.

The movement and response speed of the character were all normal.

He thought it was a strange thing.

He tried to think about the reason and guess, but he couldn’t.

This was because he was so engrossed in the fun of the game that he was out of his mind.

That evening, Japanese netizens poured praise on the LAL game.

-How long have I been waiting for this game.

-Japan can finally play online games.

-Wow, daebak [Korean slang for “awesome” or “jackpot”], Sooni has changed so much. Is it because of the acquisition?

-Shut up, Joseonjin [derogatory term for Koreans]. This is the power of great Japan. Koreans can never catch up.

-How did they save the server?

***

The next day, despite the number of users increasing 100 times more than expected, the game was serviced normally.

The Sooni Games computer room staff, who had fought all night, all had haggard faces.

They couldn’t leave work, so their bodies smelled stale.

But their hearts were refreshed.

They fought against an unexpected obstacle and won.

Since the old days, when problems like this occurred, they would suspend the service, make a plan, and solve it step by step.

They had never solved it in real time like this.

The new Korean style gave them a thrilling pleasure.

The entire staff of Sooni Games felt like they had grown one step further.

Confidence was evident in everyone’s expression.

Similarly, Kishida, with a haggard face, leaned back in his chair and dozed off.

President Lee Byung-suk placed a warm coffee on the desk in front of him.

“Here’s some coffee.”

“Thank you, President.”

He took a sip of the hot coffee and regained his senses thanks to the caffeine.

He remembered his promise.

“I have completely lost to the Chairman. I will do anything from now on. President.”

“Just a moment.”

President Lee Byung-suk handed Kishida the phone.

“This is Yoon Jung-hoon, Mr. Kishida.”

Kishida, who had jumped up from his seat, answered the phone with his back bent in half.

“I have committed a crime worthy of death. Please forgive me just once. I will be loyal from now on. You are really amazing. The Chairman’s predictive ability is an amazing ability that shines even in the entire universe. From now on, this Kishida will…….”

“Stop!”

Jung-hoon cut him off because of the embarrassing praise.

“Let’s conquer the world with imagination. It’s possible if Sooni and Shinwha join forces.”

“I will risk my life. Chairman.”

Jung-hoon hung up the phone.

Anyway, those guys are too much.

***

The LAL craze of Light Games and the success of Shinwha Games’ own games led to an explosive increase in sales.

And the online game market also grew rapidly in Japan, expanding the sales of Sooni Games.

Jung-hoon was looking at the documents with his arms crossed and a satisfied smile.

It was fun to look at it again and again.

The intercom rang.

“Chairman, Eun-soo and her friend are here. Shall I let them in?”

“Eun-soo and Eun-soo’s friend?”

“Yes.”

There was no appointment.

‘Did she get discharged from the hospital? Who is her friend?’

After thinking for a moment, he said into the intercom.

“Tell them to come in.”

Eun-soo opened the large door of the chairman’s office and came in.

And Cha Bo-ah followed behind her, hesitating.

“Oh, Cha Bo-ah!”

The Genius Grandson of the Cash King Becomes a Chaebol.