12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

‘Most people in the world usually live with extra energy left on their own. If people have 100% power, some lazy people use 60% to 70% power, while ordinary people use 70% to 80% power. Those who hear the word “diligent” only use 80% to 90% of their energy, but they don’t live every day with 100% of their energy.

‘Living fiercely every day is stressful and makes people forget about their fundamental vitality. So people leave so much extra energy behind. But then, when a crisis comes, when they are pressed for time, people explode with extra energy to produce maximum efficiency. Even if they are stressed in the short term, they know that they should work hard at this time, which will help their life in the long run.

I’d worked harder than ever since I had found out that the end of the world was coming. ‘Some say that it needs a perfect plan, and with only a short time to do great things.’ I had both; it was a perfect plan built on the future news, and a short time where the end of the world would happen in three years.

I took the elevator down to the floor with the president’s office. When I got off the elevator, walked down the hall, and came to the president’s office, Secretary Park stood up and greeted me. “Are you here, boss?”

And at the same time, in the back, a cute woman in her twenties, with white skin and glasses, bowed with her head down, saying the same greeting in a rather trembling voice. “Are… are you here, boss?”

I said to the two, with a loosely closed fist. “Oh, yes. Let’s try our best today, Secretary Park and Secretary Lee.”

In my words, the two once again spoke, lowering their heads at the same time.

“Yes, boss.”

“Yes, boss.”

The new secretary was Lee Ji-sun, who was recently nominated as my second secretary through an open recruitment. The special feature was that she could speak English, Chinese, Japanese, and German at the level of native speakers, thanks to her residence abroad with her diplomat father. She was hired to fill Park’s weakness: he could speak only one language, just like me, even though he was perfect as a bodyguard.

“Then, first of all, Secretary Park, contact Vice President Jang and get the advertising proposal, and Secretary Lee, contact Mr. Turner to get the answer about what I asked him about last time.”

The two, once again, answered at the same time under my orders, “Yes, boss.” “Yes, boss.” before they grabbed their phones.

I saw that and went into the president’s office. It was Vice President Jang who got in touch with me first.

“Boss, I sent it by email. Please take a look at it.”

“Yes.”

———–

I received the email sent by Vice President Jang through the company email. There was an attachment that said, ‘SHH Group Advertising Proposal One.’ I downloaded it.

“With the world’s best technology.” It was Kim Jun-hyung, the star of OH Entertainment, who walking forward and putting out his hands. As Hanhanlyeong has been called off, he had become one of the top stars in the Chinese region.

Then, Oh Hyun-joo said as she walked out, “With the world’s best service.” She had recently been nominated for best actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and had started to show her face and name to the Western world.

The two global stars in China and the West took turns talking about the given lines, which were somewhat trite, but still formal lines such as “trust with customers” and “a win-win company.” Kim Jun-hyung and Oh Hyun-joo said the last line in chorus, “A New Age, A New Enterprise, SHH Group!”

I looked at it and thought, ‘Not bad. It’s kind of boring and normal, but… with Suyeon Group in such a state of collapse, it’s better to move on to the image of a model student.’

I sent a reply to Vice President Jang: “Okay, you can run the ads right away.”

‘The ads will be broadcast heavily over the air for several days on cable TV and YouTube. My SHH group will be the largest company in the country in three years. I’m going to be a new chaebol. In order to properly imprint the new name SHH, I will push ahead with this first greeting to the people.’

——–

When the matter with Vice President Jang was over, Secretary Lee contacted me.

“Boss.”

“Yes. Please speak.”

“Mr. Turner says it’s possible anytime. What you have to do is to inform them of your departure date a week or two before you come to the U.S.”

“Okay, I got it.”

It was for a dinner with his brother, Senator William Turner, which I had asked Maverick Turner for, after he had been newly named CEO of Suyeon Electronics. It was the first step into the U.S. political world.

‘Okay, his older brother is a senator. Good for me, anyway.’

As I was thinking that, Secretary Lee said, “Boss, please talk casually. You talk casually to Secretary Park, who is older than me, and it’s weird if you talk to me in a polite way.”

I listened to her for a moment, and then I answered, correcting myself. “Okay, then I’ll talk to you casually from now.”

“Yes, boss, please. That’s convenient for me.” Secretary Lee spoke in a cute, fine voice, in contrast to Secretary Park, who was rather hard.

I felt that the combination was good.

‘I’d better use Secretary Lee when I deal with others a little bit more gently. I will use Secretary Park when I deal with them a bit harsh.’

I told her, thinking about it. “Okay, then, could you ask Kim Min-chul, president of View Box, when the Chinese report will be ready?”

“Yes, boss.”

I had decided to contact the Chinese political side through the subsidiaries of SHH Construction, which had been making inroads into the Chinese consumer market for twenty years. China had a structure in which politics and the economy were closely aligned with. Doing business in China and expanding was almost the same as getting close to Chinese politicians.

So, anyway, the electronics side was in the United States, the construction side in China, and I began to touch both political circles. Of course, if I got close to them, I would not be able to say something like “Don’t fight!”

The conflict between the U.S. and China was not something that could be controlled by individuals. The fight between the U.S. to maintain the Pax Americana empire and China to emerge as a new one was a historic trend. I was only trying to prevent the conflict from escalating into a war. Of course, it would not be easy to influence it directly.

Even if I was holding the leash of President Joo Sung-won, I could not command President Joo Sung-won to reorganize the Capital Defense Command or buy more fighters or upgrade the missile defense system, since the lives of its people depended on the national defense.

However, even if I failed to do so, it was my opinion that if I were to be close, I might find some way to stop the war through Crow. Crow’s ability was the best one to play against the two superpowers.

————————-

I focused on creating cash through Invictus Investment by making SHH Group a hub for networking in global politics, like an investment company. My direct futures trade team created not long ago through Vice President Jang became the cash-generating leader. The trading team, which moved according to my guideline, ‘Buy oil, sell dollars,’ had produced tremendous results during the first month.

“Mr. Kim Tae-gon, you’re at the top of this month’s earnings rate of return. We’ll pay you $387,000 in bonus depending on your records.”

“Thank you, Mr. CEO!”

The incentive was 1%, so the money he had earned this last month was 38.7 million dollars. Even if there was a guideline based on the future news, it was obviously a huge achievement. The other nine traders also made profits, whether big or small. There was not a single person who lost money, so the total money earned was close to two hundred million dollars. It was a level of profit that a middle-size business could make in a year.

If the other company saw it, they would say ‘How did they do that? Aren’t they gambling?’

It was a tremendous yield. But I decided to push ahead with it, regardless of others’ envy and jealousy. I felt like I was in too desperate a situation to care about someone’s eyes right now. I mainly focused on buying new companies with the money I had earned. Based on the news of 12 Years After, which only showed three years later, I had purchased companies that could grow rapidly after one to two years.

“Director Chung, I’ll give you a budget of two billion dollars for Koryo Shinyak. Go ask them.”

“Director Kang, could we take over EastAgent, with about four hundred million dollars? Go talk to them.”

That was how I did. ‘Most things that cannot be solved by money are solved by more money.’ No matter what would happen in the next three years, whatever Crow brought back, I prepared so that I could put a lot of money into it.

I would fulfill the condition of the next class, XXX: Twenty listed companies and a market capital of four hundred billion dollars, if possible, in the process. I didn’t know what new technology would come out of XXX, but once I leveled up, I could have Crow investigate twice a month.

Crow was now working hard every month, going to and from the United States and China. If the number doubled, the chance of stopping a nuclear war would also double.

———————–

As I was busier than ever, my wife gave birth to our daughter Seo-hyun safely in May, 2023.

“Congratulations, Mr. CEO. The mother and child are both healthy.”

I was overwhelmed with joy. There had been times when I had earned billions of dollars a day, but I had never been so happy and emotional like this. I became a doting daddy for my daughter just a day after she was born. I thought I could do anything for my daughter. If I could spend all my money on my daughter, I wouldn’t mind spending it at all.

‘How can she be so pretty?’

I fell in love with my daughter Seo-hyun, enough to forget for a moment the company which I had been so eager for. But that didn’t last long, either. As much as I loved my daughter, I was worried that her future might disappear.

‘That’s what everyone does. Everyone has two feelings about what they value. The first is pure love, and the second is to be afraid that the love will disappear.’

However, I bravely decided to face the unrest. ‘Yes, I can make it.’ I made up my mind with my daughter in my arms; I would give my daughter a bright, hopeful future!