n

n

nChoi Gichul asked Jung Jinsup, “Hey, do you know about cryptocurrency mining?”

nJung Jinsup nodded. “Of course. It’s really popular nowadays. I heard mining graphic cards have been sold out.”

n“What if we use the mining machine Ant 7 from BitLine?”

n“As you know, many people got into mining recently. It won’t be easy.”

n“What do you know about Cloud Mining?”

nChoi Gichul had a lot of questions. Jung Jinsup opened the BitLine website on the computer and explained, “I bought Hash power from this website and used it myself. I have been getting a decent profit so far, but I made more with bitcoins.”

n“So you’re saying it’s legit.”

n“Money always gets deposited on time, so I guess so.”

n“Hmm… I see.”

n“Why? Are you interested?”

n“I was wondering how to expand our business, and I think this might be the way.”

n“I guess it’s not a bad idea.”

nWhen Choi Gichul nodded, Jung Jinsup asked, “But where will we get the money for it? The initial cost will be significant.”

n“We’ll find a way.”

nChoi Gichul smiled confidently. He had plenty of money now.

nJung Jinsup pointed at the TV where Woosung’s speech was being aired.

n“Well, Kang Woosung is deep in this industry, so I’m sure it’s safe. The faster we get started, the better.”

nOn the stage, Woosung said to the crowd calmly, “I would like to first thank my Space Dream team for making this launch into a huge success.”

nThe audience applauded.

n“And I would like to also thank the government officials who stood behind me in this project.” Woosung sighed lightly and continued, “I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about something disappointing. The experts said, with respect to space research, the US is ten years ahead of Korea and at least five years ahead of China. Korea initially put a lot of money into space research, but when the result wasn’t significant, the government reduced the budget as of recent years. With less money, many of the important researchers end up leaving the Korean space program, this of course negatively affected our chance to catch up to our foreign counterparts such as America and China.”

nLee Parksung’s face had a sudden sour turn. Woosung was clearly criticizing the government.

nHe continued, “It’s a vicious cycle. I think the government should focus on making a good environment for relevant businesses to thrive. What I mean by that are transparency and fairness. Laws need to be obeyed. This should be applied to EVERYONE. I beg our government to accomplish this goal.”

n***

nWhen Woosung returned to the private room, Jang Gwangchul said to him, “You are creating more controversy.”

n“There will be people who will disagree with me, but some will understand and support my idea.”

n“We might get investigated again.”

n“We will be found innocent again, so it doesn’t matter. If we really get investigated again, it will give me ammunition to fight back.”

n“You mean the impartial business audit team?”

nWoosung nodded. “Instead of the current national business investigation department, which is biased as it is funded by businesses themselves, this new impartial business audit team will be able to carry out a fair and objective inquiry. It will consist of foreign accountants and investigators.”

n“And at the end of this nationwide investigation, our company will be the only one proven to be clean.”

nWoosung nodded. “Most, if not all, CEOs of major companies will end up in trials for their corruptions.”

n“And we will take over these companies, which will be devalued.”

n“We will rule Korea.”

nJang Gwangchul inhaled deeply. “Do you think the government will really investigate us again?”

n“I expect so.”

nWhen Jang Gwangchul sighed again deeply, Woosung said to him, “Don’t worry. Things will work out.”

n***

n1BTC 10,400.00.

nBitcoin finally reached 10,000 dollars. Choi Gichul stood up. This was the first time ever for him to accomplish something by himself.

nWithout Daeyang.

nHe felt proud. With the current price of bitcoin, Choi Gichul’s wealth reached two billion dollars.

nTwo billion dollars.

nWith this, he could do anything he wanted. He had nothing to fear anymore. Choi Gichul looked at the monitor and laughed. Jung Jinsup saw this and looked at him worriedly.

n“Hey, are you ok?”

n“Thank you. Thank you so much. You saved my life.”

n“Hmm? What are you talking about?”

n“Without you, I wouldn’t have known about bitcoins.”

nSuddenly, Jung Jinsup’s eyes turned cold. It was time. He put his hand in his pocket and pressed a button. Via Bluetooth, a message was sent from his cellphone to a predesignated person.

nSuddenly, Choi Gichul yelled, “Huh? What? What’s happening?”

nHe paled as he watched the monitor.

n1BTC 9442.00.

n1BTC 9100.40.

n1BTC 8501.00.

n1BTC 7910.70.

nIt happened so fast. Choi Gichul started to click quickly, but the price continued to drop so fast.

n“There are too many orders at the moment. Your transaction has failed. Please try again.”

n“There are too many orders at the moment. Your transaction has failed. Please try again.”

n“There are too many orders at the moment. Your transaction has failed. Please try again.”

n“Dammit!” Choi Gichul started to swear loudly.

n“What the hell! Why is this system so slow?” Choi Gichul turned to Jung Jinsup angrily. “You better hope I sell my coins quickly.”

n“What are you talking about?”

n“Our computer system keeps failing so I can’t sell my coins!”

nChoi Gichul screamed as he threw away his mouse in anger.

nThe price continued to drop.

n1BTC 6132.00.

n1BTC 5372.00.

n1BTC 4551.00.

nIn less than an hour, the price dropped from 10,000 to 400 dollars.

nMinus 60%.

nChoi Gichul stared at the screen in shock. The media was surprisingly quiet about it. Choi Gichul got his mouse back and logged onto his BitMain and Bit Trading accounts.

n“Dammit.”

nHis balance was now only about 700 million dollars.

nFrom 2 billion dollars.

nHe put 200 million dollars from Choi Taemin and his entire 300 million dollars.

nHe still made money, but it wasn’t the same as 2 billion dollars.

n“Huh?”

nSuddenly, the bitcoin price started to go up again.

n1BTC 5142.00.

nChoi Gichul clicked the buy button by reflex. After he purchased thousands of the coins, the price suddenly dropped to 2000 dollars.

nChoi Gichul continued to stare at the screen.

n