Money Likes Me Too - Chapter 33



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Episode 33.

Everyone agreed.

“Then, should we start by installing CocoaTalk?”

Professor Jeffrey Compton, who will be conducting the auction, and four other participants have installed the US version of CocoaTalk on their phones.

The auction starts at 9:00 AM sharp.

Finally, after confirming the auction procedure, we dispersed to our respective rooms. From there, we could participate in the bidding in our own way, such as by communicating with the headquarters.

I also went to the top floor.

“Are you here, sir?”

Park Hyeong-do, the CEO, and Yoo Jae-hong, the head of the headquarters, were waiting for me in the living room, having set up the necessary equipment.

Mr. Park, the director, opened his mouth while waiting for me to sit down.

“The head of the headquarters and a team leader in Korea had a video chat, and it seems like the right price would be between 4,000 and 5,000.”

Less than you think.

“Is that all you can do?”

“That’s all. It costs over 50 billion won.”

“That’s why.”

Director Park shrugged his shoulders at my words and continued to speak firmly.

“I think Google and MS are likely to surrender in this section. Even if they don’t necessarily get Alexis, they will be able to carry out the project with in-house experts. They won’t overdo it. The problem is Mydu.”

I like this point. It’s sharp. He already knew that Maidu was his rival.

“So the price will go up because of Mydu?”

“That’s right. If you compete with Maidu, you should be prepared to spend an additional $50 million or more.”

“Is it worth that much?”

“Yes.”

He looked terribly worried.

“Mydu will definitely be competing at over $50 million, but will try to prevent additional spending. They have to get as close to the fair price as possible while suppressing their opponents with momentum to have a chance of winning.”

“I also agree with the president’s opinion.”

Yoo Jae-hong intervened. I nodded silently.

He’s right. He’s right. If my goal was to get the right technology at the right price.

But my case is very different.

The higher the price, the better. The excuse that it is a great technology that will change the world becomes an excuse for a high price. Now is the opportunity. It is impossible to buy it at a reasonable price.

Isn’t there a famous quote from Steve Jobs?

‘Stay hungry, stay foolish.’

It’s a story about always being hungry. How? Stupidly stupid. That’s why he’s the guru of the times. Could there be a more concise story about spending money?

“It’s nine o’clock.”

Yoo Jae-hong looked at his watch and said.

“Let’s call it $15 million.”

I said it without missing a beat.

“Huh? Starting with $5 million is too much, sir.”

“The starting price must be bold.”

I cut off Mr. Park’s words. He couldn’t disobey me and wrote down the bid price I had mentioned in the Kotok window and rang.

After a while, the cell phone rang.

[Compton] Cocoa Labs is currently the highest bidder at $15 million. If there are no bidders within the next hour, it will be awarded to Cocoa Labs.

It soon became 17 million. It was Maidu, after all.

‘It’s full of fighting spirit from the start?’

My heart started pounding. It was going to be a good showdown.

Before we knew it, it was midnight.

[Compton] The auction is paused. It will resume tomorrow at 9:00 AM with the current bid at $46 million.

I needed a break.

“The price is going up a lot more than I thought, Professor?”

His disciple Alex Murphy spoke to the old professor as he leaned back in his armchair, looking exhausted.

“I didn’t know Microsoft would fall so quickly. When Google announced its withdrawal at $45 million, I was almost ready to give up on the auction and everything.”

“The remaining two don’t seem to have any intention of quitting.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Compton sighed.

It was beyond his expectations. He had expected the auction to end at around $20 million.

It seemed like Mydu and Cocoa Labs had no intention of doing so. They raised the price as if they were waging war. At this rate, 50 million or 60 million would be out of the question.

Suddenly, something happened a few months ago.

“Cocoa should win.”

It was my true feelings that came out without me knowing. Alex nodded.

“I think so too.”

“But we have to be fair to the end, right?”

“That’s right, professor.”

However, Kang Si-hyeon was on both of their minds at the same time. They were secretly rooting for him.

***

The next day came. Morning dawned.

‘You little leech.’

However, the face of Maidu Senior Researcher Liu Xiaojun was not bright. This was because he did not sleep well last night.

The limit set by headquarters was 5,000.

He also thought that would be enough at first. When MS dropped out early and Google gave up at 4,500, he thought he had already won.

Before I wrote 4,600 like I did in Cocoa.

It was like a seasoned poker player who just called and ran his opponent over. He was inducing his bet. He had a bad feeling. If Cocoa kept coming like this, he would have to give up.

I didn’t want to do that.

‘Regardless of the restrictions, let’s first get the winning bid.’

He was determined to cross the line. In common parlance, that means to the fullest. It was a simple logic that forgiveness was easier than permission.

If it were Google or MS, they wouldn’t have gone this far.

But the opponent was Cocoa Labs. A Korean company. He was broadly interpreting this issue as a matter of pride between Korea and China.

“What should we do?”

Mike Wong asked, looking at the monitor. It was just nine o’clock in the morning. Compton’s Kotok had arrived.

“Are you going to quit?”

“why?”

“I don’t have any money now.”

“It’s not that I don’t have money. It’s that I don’t want to spend the money I have.”

Isn’t that what it means? That was the thought that came to Wong’s eyes. Liu Xiaojun pretended not to know and spat it out.

“UP!!”

Anxiety appeared in Wong’s eyes.

“Is that okay?”

“That’s okay. Up! $47 million.”

“It’s not a good idea to go to the limit. It’s psychologically debilitating.”

“It’s noisy.”

It didn’t take long for it to reach $60 million. Liu Xiaojun’s eyes became bloodshot.

Now it was the limit.

Suddenly, regret came over me.

Cocoa, who was thought to be overpaid and would be kicked out if it was raised by only 100 to 200 million from 50 million, was still alive and well. It was actually her own side that wanted to be kicked out.

I had to exit.

The method is easy. Just don’t bid. If you endure the humiliation for just one hour, you can return home smiling.

‘But I don’t want to do that.’

I didn’t want to take the easy way out. When I thought of Kang Si-hyeon’s face, I felt angry.

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I glared at Wong. His feelings were clearly visible in his eyes.

“why?”

He had an idea for him to do. Wong was the best programmer and hacker he knew. It was good that he brought him.

“mike.”

Called secretly.

“why?”

“Can this (KakaoTalk) be hacked?”

“Well, this is not what it looks like, so you won’t know until you try it.”

It was an unexpected question, but the answer was not important.

“Try it.”

Liu Xiaojun blurted out.

“Why is that?”

“Don’t ask me why. I’m not asking you to disassemble something weird. Just try to see if it’s possible or not.”

A bitter smile appeared on his lips.

‘Kang Si-Hyeon, you bastard, you thought I’d let you go so easily, right?’

His plan was this:

He attempts white hacking (hacking, not a crime) on the CocoaTalk app. After succeeding, he calls together the auction participants. He shows them evidence of the hacking and makes a fuss about how he cannot accept the results since he conducted the auction using such an unreliable app.

In simple terms, the idea was to invalidate the auction itself.

30 minutes have passed.

“Are we there yet?”

Half the time has already passed. There are only 30 minutes left to bid.

“This won’t work?”

Wong, who had been struggling with his laptop while sweating profusely, finally declared surrender.

“no?”

“Yes, it’s a well-made code. It can’t go into the backbone, and the app itself is flawless. It’s hard to do in 30 minutes. But why are you doing this?”

“Don’t ask that. So you’re saying it’s not okay?”

“yes.”

There was one more way.

“Then, I guess I could make something like a touch macro?”

“Five minutes will do.”

“Okay. Then create a macro that sends the bid amount to KakaoTalk a few nanoseconds before the end of the bidding.”

The demands became increasingly absurd. But Wong complied without complaint. He was a nobleman at that level. As I followed him around, I experienced even more absurd things.

Liu Xiaojun gritted his teeth as he looked at Wong.

‘Let’s wait and see. Kang Si-hyeon.’

It was an anger of unknown origin.

***

When the bid reached $61 million, the call came.

“What’s going on?”

– This is Jeffrey Compton. All auction participants have been called to a meeting to announce an announcement from Mydu. The auction will be suspended for a moment. Please come to my room immediately.

“all right.”

I hung up the phone.

“What’s going on?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

I went up to room 702 with Yoo Jae-hong. Alan Davis from Google and Daniel from MS were also there.

“We came because you asked us to, but do we really have to be here?”

“That’s right.”

At that moment, the door opened. Liu Xiaojun arrived slowly, walking with a stately gait.

“The reason I have brought you all together is because I have discovered a serious flaw in the auction process.”

He looked around at everyone and said.

“yes?”

Everyone was surprised.

“I have discovered a flaw in the CocoaTalk app that cannot be overlooked. Therefore, I think this auction should be invalidated. What do you all think?”

The claim was so surprising that everyone was speechless.

“Could you please explain?”

Liu Xiaojun showed everyone his screen as if he had been waiting for it. There was a tablet connected with a cable.

“Look.”

It was a proud voice.

“I sent my bid exactly 10 nanoseconds before the bidding time. Given the transmission speed, it must have reached your phone just a little past the bidding deadline. If you measure it in milliseconds, microseconds, or even less. It was over the time limit.”

“······?”

“I should have been considered abstained. But the organizers didn’t do that. They had no choice. The time displayed on the CocoaTalk app must have been before the bidding deadline.”

“So what are you trying to argue?”

Compton asked.

“I am saying that the auction results cannot be trusted. I am demanding that the auction be re-run in a different way.”

Alan and Daniel were gossiping.

‘What are you talking about? Now?’

‘So you can’t trust the app, so you can’t trust the auction itself?’

The one who opened his mouth at that time was Yoo Jae-hong.

“I think differently.”

Everyone’s attention was focused on it.

“yes?”

“Our app has the ability to check the arrival time of messages in milliseconds and nanoseconds. So what Mr. Liu Xiaojun said is wrong.”

“What?” Liu Xiaojun’s face turned pale.

He approached Compton.

“Can I check for you?”

“As much as you want.”

He ran a hidden extension with administrator privileges in front of Compton. Soon the arrival time of the message was displayed, down to the nanosecond.

“Why on earth is this function······.”

“Because CocoaTalk respects the US market. It is a function created to reflect the rapidly changing situation in units of 1 second, no, 1 nanosecond. Although the market share is still low at around 1%, we sincerely wanted to create a messenger that the market truly needs. This is the result.”

Yoo Jae-hong explained.

“There’s nothing more to see now.”

Compton nodded, his expression filled with emotion.

“I never intended to get rich off of Alexis from the beginning. I just wanted to find a price that would match its value. I think I would be happy to entrust Alexis to a company like this. I would like to declare the auction closed here, considering it a successful bid. Do you all agree?”

‘No, already?’

I haven’t even started.

Liu Xiaojun was the one who made the mistake, but I was the one who suffered the damage. It’s only $61 million now. I didn’t intend for it to end here.

But no one asked my opinion. Everyone nodded. In the end, the ownership of the deep learning algorithm ‘Alexis’ was transferred to Cocoa.

Meanwhile, Liu Xiaojun stood there dumbfounded.

“Please leave.”

Compton said. He left the room, leaving behind a few unintelligible words of Chinese.

“We almost had a big misunderstanding.”

It was Alan from Google.

“As you live, things like this happen.”

“Oh, by the way. Do you have any plans for tomorrow morning?”

Suddenly changed the subject.

“doesn’t exist.”

Alan smiled broadly at those words and made an unexpected suggestion.

“Then how about having a cup of morning coffee with me? I have someone I’d like to introduce you to. I have a feeling that our Mr. Kang would like that too.”

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