12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

I clicked the mouse a few times. There were various numbers floating on the monitor.

+15.4%, +7.5%, -3.2%…

It was the earthquake theme stocks that were left behind after earning $10,000,000 yesterday. Some were trying to go further, while others were trying to get off their high.

‘Then let’s sell them out here. Or… Shall we hold them a little more? This is frankly a gamble. A theme stock is based on people’s psychology, so we don’t know when or how the stock price will move.’

I looked at the stock bulletin board.

[There’s no earthquake that comes and goes just one time. An aftershock is coming. Hold your belt tight.]

[If it hits another 6.0 today, the stock price will go up to the upper limit price right away.]

[“An aftershock is coming?” You son of a bitch! There are a lot of people who have lost their homes in Wonju right now.]

[I don’t care if there’s an earthquake or not in Wonju. I live on Jeju Island.]

‘There are people like this at all times, who want to make money. They don’t care about whether others lose their homes or lose their lives.’

I also made money from the earthquake-themed stocks, but I didn’t want an earthquake to come again.

‘I feel like I’ve become a bad person for some reason…’

I didn’t want to hold any more shares because I thought so. I slowly pressed the sell button.

‘Sell, sell… and sell.’

Around 1 p.m., I made about $7,000,000 in the afternoon. The total was $17,000,000 this time. It was a huge profit, but I ended up doing my ceremony with a light fist. These days, I had made this much profit two or three times a month, and I felt a little numb.

‘Will it be a little different if it’s more than $100,000,000?’

However, I would have to go and find it out in the future. After the sell-off, I went to the portal site and searched for ‘Earthquake Damage’.

[Houses are falling apart.]

[New one-rooms are cracked.]

[The walls of the dormitory collapsed and the students were evacuated.]

There were articles like this. It was as 12 Days After had said.

‘Despite everything, it’s fortunate that the matter didn’t go any further.’

I looked around the articles without much thought. But in the meantime, it stood out.

[Donation for victims of the earthquake in Wonju.]

If it had been like the old days at work, I could have said, “I am sorry, but I’m too busy making a living.” However, this time it was somehow disturbing.

‘I made $17,000,000 this time… Shall I donate a little to give my name to the world?’

It seemed to be a good idea. If I wanted to let the world know my name, I would like to let them know in this way. I just wanted to be someone who could share my fortune with the world rather than the luckiest good-looking man. I picked up my cell phone and called Secretary Seo.

“Yes, boss, what’s going on?”

“Oh, Ji-hoon, do you know…”

“Yes?”

“There are people who donated hundreds of thousand dollars on the news…”

“Yes.”

“How much do you think will be memorable?”

“Well, at least three hundred thousand dollars?”

‘Three hundred thousand dollars is too little. Yesterday’s sales commission alone is likely to exceed three hundred thousand dollars.’

“If you make it bigger than that?”

“Well, the more you donate, the more memorable. Especially if you get first place, they will remember. Ordinary people only remember gold medals.”

‘That’s right. First place. People pay attention to the first place in a single-viewed list.’

“Well… yeah? I get it.”

“Do you want to donate, boss?”

“… See BKS News tomorrow at 9:00.”

I lay half down on the sofa and watched the news.

[… the President urged the National Assembly to discuss the bill, saying that the bill must be handled this year.]

When I checked the time, it was about 9:40.

“It’s time to be on…’

At that moment, the waiting news came out.

[The following are the people who sent donations to our BKS News to raise money for the earthquake victims in Wonju.]

I watched it. First came the amount of money and the names of people who had sent the donations above the screen.

[$50,000 from the residents of Boram Apartment, $300,000 from all employees of Kisung Electronics, $20,000 from Kim Chan-yong, $12,000 from all faculty and students of Jisung Elementary School.]

The announcer, with well-organized bobbed hair, read out the sums for the people who sent the donations in a fine voice. I watched him for a moment. When it came to the third page, my name also appeared. I gathered my hands and waited for my name to be called.

[$3,300,000 from Invictus Investment CEO Han Sang-hoon.]

Han Sang-hoon. I felt weird listening to my name. I couldn’t believe my name was called by the public broadcaster News at 9.

“$3,300,000.”

By the way, was it my mistake? The voice of the announcer, who had been calling out other names without a wobble, seemed to have faltered slightly when he said three million, three hundred thousand dollars.

‘Because it’s more than anyone else.’

I didn’t mean to compete with the people for donations, but the $3,300,000 I had donated was the biggest sum, anyway. At this rate, someone watching this show would remember my name once.

‘And… if there’s ever been a name for a public broadcaster like this… There will be times when it’s called again. These days, the replay service is active and video clips are uploaded on YouTube.

‘These days, it is hard to hide whether it is good deeds or bad deeds. Right now it’s all over the news, but there will be times when the name ‘Han Sang-hoon’ comes up in the media.

‘So this is how it’s done… Let’s increase the money again. If I want to pay $10,000,000 in monthly subscription fees and make a profit, I shouldn’t let the money rest.’

I turned on the calendar application. Four days from now, on the timetable, was written ‘TRETUP.’

“Taegwangbangjik’s Real Estate Trading hits the upper limit price.”

Five days from now, Taegwangbangjik would sell its forty-year-old golden land. What was regrettable was that its market capital was only $180,000,000 in total. Now I had earned $17,000,000 from $40,000,000, I donated $3,300,000 and so had $53,700,000 left. If I invested this much money into the stock market, it would be a great disaster and a sudden declaration that I was engaging in hostile M&As.

‘I have met the most difficult section again.’

Before paying $30,000,000 to Invictus Investment last time, I felt it when I ran $60,000,000; my country’s market faced a glass ceiling at the $60,000,000 barrier. In this section, there was an unearned stretch of no further increase. This was the point where returns no longer increased with money moving on the KOSPI KOSDAQ.

Of course, thanks to 12 Weeks After and 12 Months After, the opportunity to make more money increased. With the $50,000,000 I had now, I could take full advantage of the news. So even if my assets were $100,000,000 or one billion dollars, I could invest only $50,000,000.

‘Well… I will have got to get into another market after all.’

I sat on the computer and moved the mouse to turn off the screen saver and found a folder located on the right top. There was a folder that plainly said “Study.” I double-clicked it all. Inside there were many categories.

[Hong Kong Hang Seng]

[China Shanghai]

[Japan Nikkei]

[U.S. Dow]

[U.S. Nasdaq]

[Gold Futures]

[Oil Futures]

[FX Trading]

‘All of them are large markets far above the KOSPI’s trading volume. The Korean stock market is no different than my playground now. If I want to raise the money I have now, I have no choice but to raise it in a larger market. It’s time to get into the world-class stage.’

The first reason I had been reluctant to enter was that I was not familiar with these markets compared to KOSPI and KOSDAQ, and secondly, with only the world news of 12 Hours After and 12 Days After, it was not efficient for me to challenge. Now that I had the news of 12 Weeks After and 12 Months After, it was worth challenging the world markets.

‘But I am afraid that this time is a little ambiguous. Is it going to be good?

‘Every country has a different time to open its stock market. It is usually set during the day, and it is natural. If the stock price fluctuates during the night, investors will not sleep comfortably. But the email of 12 Hours After comes only at the time set for Korea.’

‘Wherever you go, it will be sent at Korean time,’ Customer Service had said.

‘If you enter the US market … the email coming at 8:55 am will be night news, and the email coming at 8:55 pm will be daytime news. I will have a little trouble with the time difference. I have to sleep at night.

‘With this time difference, is it going to be okay?’ Suddenly I had a thought, ‘If I am worried about the time difference, I can do an experiment now.

‘If I go abroad, I will have a time lag in Korean stocks. If I experiment with this, I may be able to adapt to overseas stocks.

‘Yes, I’ve never been abroad to make money. Let’s not go to a very far country, but one very close…’

I was thinking about it when the phone rang. It was Secretary Seo. I picked up the phone and answered.

“Congratulations on your debut on the broadcast.”

“Oh, yes, thank you.”

“$3,300,000… it was overwhelming, and the announcer seemed a little surprised.”

I thought it was a mistake, but it seemed real.

“Really? Well, yes, by the way.”

“Yes, boss.”

“I’ve been thinking of traveling somewhere for about two nights and three days… You want to come with me?”

“Well, I’d appreciate it if you could take me.”

“So, where do you want to go? I don’t like it too far, but I love it close.”

“Isn’t it nice that Japan is well?” he said. “It’s close, clean, well-guarded, and they have good food. The yen’s been cheap lately.”

“Japan?”

‘Good. I like sushi and ramen. But, just thinking about it a little, Japan is not good because we are in the same time zone. Korea and Japan have no time difference at all.’

“Oh, no Japan.”

“What? Why?”

I couldn’t say there was no time difference. I thought about it and got something good to excuse.

“Oh, the radiation, I don’t want to be exposed.”

“Oh, really? I’m a little bit reluctant, too.”

I chose the closest of the study lists, where there was a time difference.

“Hong Kong, let’s go to Hong Kong.”

“Hong Kong? Good. When will you go?”

“Tomorrow, right away.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes, find out what flight we can be on.”

“But it’s a little expensive—”

“I’ll pay all the expenses.”

“Yes, sir!”

When I finished the call, I put down my phone and looked back at the Study folder.

‘I’m going to the global market if my assets exceed $100,000,000.’

‘I need at least $100,000,000 for the subscription fee and to increase the capital of Invictus Investment. It will be done soon. Frankly, the KOSPI and KOSDAQ are now my personal pockets. I can get $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 at any time from them.’

I put Taegwangbangjik on the watchlist. I would buy it in Hong Kong tomorrow.