Money Likes Me Too - Chapter 89



Only Noblemtl
Read Novel Noblemtl

Episode 89.

“it’s okay!”

Kwak Dae-ho shouted.

It’s been a busy few months for Cocoa Games as the Executive Director of Battle Around development studio Hojin Soft.

It started off with 500,000 copies.

Even after that, the monthly update schedule was always hectic due to the increasing number of users. I had to check and reflect every single feedback that came in. But even that was enjoyable.

This was something unimaginable even last year.

But something even more wonderful happened.

[Cocoa Games, ‘Battle Around’ takes 1st place in PC room game rankings for the 4th week of November······ First in Korea, excluding the MMORPG genre!]

It recorded the highest PC room occupancy rate.

It was a great achievement just half a year after the end of early access and the official launch.

To exaggerate a bit, the Korean gaming market, which had been dominated by LoL and Overwatch, has finally returned to the hands of domestic games.

“This is it!”

Unable to bear it any longer, he clenched his fist and shouted.

It was a few months ago.

‘You’re saying you’ll release the game for free in Korea?’

It was at the place where I met Kang Si-hyeon. He reacted sensitively to Kwak Dae-ho’s words that it was free. It was when I first announced the free PC room policy.

‘Yes, Mr. Chairman.’

He had this look on his face like, ‘Let’s talk more.’

‘Please elaborate.’

‘The global market is dominated by Steam. In other countries, there are no sophisticated PC rooms like ours. However, in Korea, demand is divided into two.’

‘One of them is a PC room.’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

Kwak Dae-ho talked about the reality that minors, the main consumers of games, have no choice but to play games at PC rooms because they have difficulty purchasing game packages that cost more than 40,000 won. Kang Si-hyeon cut him off.

‘Then you won’t buy the game?’

‘Usually, the publisher receives a franchise fee from the PC room owner, and the user accesses the game for free.’

Franchise fee? He looked displeased.

If they sold it as a package, hundreds or thousands more copies would be sold, but it would be inconvenient to just pay a small franchise fee. Kwak Dae-ho, who was watching, added.

‘What should I do?’

Kang Si-hyeon, who had been thinking for a moment, nodded.

‘Let’s do that.’

The answer came surprisingly refreshingly.

‘The goal of the game is to get more people to play it. If more people can access it by making PC rooms free, it would be strange not to play it. However······.’

‘yes?’

‘Please charge a reasonable amount of franchise fees. It would be better not to charge any at all······.’

Kwak Dae-ho interrupted Kang Si-hyeon without realizing it.

‘Oh, thank you!’

It was a big decision.

That’s what made the current market share. In the jungle-like competition where LoL and Overwatch are holding on, ‘Battle Around’ took first place. He thought it was all thanks to Kang Si-hyeon.

The door opened.

“We are number one!”

It was Park Young-jin. The guy came in and shouted. The two hugged each other and shouted again.

It was the start of a pleasant day.

That evening, Kwak Dae-ho and Park Young-jin had a light dinner with the developers. They all took time out of their busy schedules to gather at Cafe Off Road.

“GameStop?”

At one o’clock in the morning,

Before anyone knew it, only three people remained: Kwak Dae-ho, Park Young-jin, and Han Jang-soo, the CEO of Cocoa Labs, who had suddenly come down from above.

The side dish was gone. The expression on Han Jang-su’s face as he drank his alcohol remained dark.

I wondered why, and now I know why.

“You’re not joking, are you?”

Kwak Dae-ho asked again.

“Do I look like I’m joking right now?

“You don’t mean to take over completely, do you? You’re just saying we’ll see each other for a while, right?”

“Representative Kwak. Have you forgotten our chairman’s personality?”

Han Jang-soo was shocked.

He pointed out that there was no such thing as ‘just investing’ in Kang Si-hyeon’s dictionary, and he insisted that he would buy it all at once.

Park Young-jin and Kwak Dae-ho looked at each other and coughed in vain.

“That doesn’t seem right?”

“That’s right. I’m saying you should pay for shit and eat it.”

“Right? Right?”

General Han’s face brightened. He looked like he had won a thousand troops.

GameStop,

This is ridiculous. The company has shrunk its business area to the point where it has now expanded its reach to second-hand game pack trading. It has been pushed into a corner.

There is no chance of a rebound. This is the era of smartphones.

Not only has the package market shrunk, but even if people buy them, no one goes to offline stores to buy them. There is a good alternative called Steam.

“But.”

Kwak Dae-ho thought.

This is Chairman Kang’s judgment. There is something to it. He cautiously opened his mouth.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“There’s definitely a certain nostalgia for GameStop. Go to a website like Reddit and you’ll easily find a satirical cartoon depicting Wall Street pigs shorting failing companies.”

“I guess there’s a lot of backlash.”

Han Jang-su replied.

“You say it’s just a backlash? It’s more than that. That world is also a brutal one.”

Kwak Dae-ho said, lifting the glass of beer to his lips.

“Even I personally feel very sorry about GameStop going away. It feels like an era is coming to an end. Youngjin, don’t you feel the same way?”

“Only nerds like you would. I like Steam better. Because it helps us make money.”

“Anyway, I told you this kid has no romance.”

“Yeah, it’s good that you have a romantic side. Have you already forgotten all about the times when you almost got ruined by looking for something like that?”

“Why is the story going there again?”

Han Jang-su mediated between the two.

“Let’s not fight. Anyway, that’s what you both think, right?”

Kwak Dae-ho said.

“You never know. What could happen next? Our Chairman Kang is that kind of person, isn’t he?”

Han Jang-soo made a grunting sound.

I had no choice but to admit it.

Brawl Stars, which Supercell recently flew to Finland to acquire the rights to, became a huge hit as soon as it added the tag ‘for Cocoa’. It was Kang Si-hyeon’s decision.

As soon as it was released on the App Store and Play Store, it took first place in the free game rankings.

He had the absolute support of elementary school students on his back. He still hasn’t stepped down from power.

‘Is it really so this time?’

Cocoa Games’ sales also continued to grow.

“There must be a reason behind Chairman Kang’s decision. I think so.”

Kwak Dae-ho spoke firmly. His voice was drunk, but there was a clear conviction in it.

‘Yeah. I guess so. I guess so.’

General Han nodded his head miserably. The sorrow of losing a comrade could be seen on his face.

* * *

The private jet took to the runway again. It was heading to the United States without stopping. It was to meet Jeffrey Compton.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * Baca Novel Korean * *
* * * Noblemtl dot com * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

‘I was assigned to a Pentagon project at Google. It became difficult for me to oppose the development of military AI. That’s why I left.’

At first, even Google caught him.

He set up a research institute and promised executive positions. He also offered multi-million dollar salary increases.

But it was no use.

He’s already a billionaire with $2 billion. That’s inevitable, considering the size of his fortune.

That doesn’t mean Compton is someone who is obsessed with the size of his annual salary.

It may have been natural to request an interview with Elon Musk. Musk is one of the few people who has a philosophy of good AI. AI Open is also a research institute founded on that belief.

I told Musk the story.

‘Good words. I’ll be waiting for you anytime. I have something to talk to Mr. Kang about. I have to look at the Texas property.’

The enthusiasm was no joke.

By the way, why are you taking a private jet?

There is a reason for that too.

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t go anywhere.’

I heard before. Jeffrey Compton has a chronic illness. He has a severe herniated disc. He hasn’t sat down at a desk chair in decades.

Then does that mean I can’t even get on a plane?

Half right and half wrong.

Originally, it was right that he couldn’t ride. That’s why I installed a special seat on my private plane. It’s a special seat for him who can’t sit down. I received help from Korean Air, which has a lot of experience in this. They also assigned veteran flight attendants to me, who frequently travel on private planes.

Korean Air’s service was that special.

‘Should I just buy an airline while I’m at it?’

Enough to make you not think like that.

But the foolishness remains. It’s because of Warren Buffett. He lost a lot of money on airline stocks. I can do the same. Airlines always make money (or lose money).

We traveled from the airport to downtown Toronto.

It was on a private helicopter sent by Elon.

“welcome.”

We picked up Jeffrey Compton and his assistant Alex Murphy and headed back to the airport. Their jaws dropped as they walked through the special gate to the apron.

“No way, Mr. Kang.”

Compton managed to open his mouth.

“This isn’t a flight just for the three of us, is it?”

It couldn’t be. It was because of the signature color of cocoa. It was too conspicuous. There couldn’t be two planes like this in the world.

“That’s right. This.”

On the way to Texas,

“It’s amazing.”

From a full-size kitchen and living room to a private room for guests, it is packed with amenities. There is even a parking lot on the lower dock. As we walked around the inside with him, Jeffrey Compton kept exclaiming in admiration.

‘You can buy it too,’ I thought to myself.

He had $2 billion in his hands. It must have been unwanted money. It was all because of me. It would have been hard to spend it all. That must have been why he left Google. I felt sorry for him in such a difficult situation.

But that’s it.

Sympathy is forbidden. This is all Compton’s fault.

furthermore,

‘Hey, mister. I’m worth over a hundred billion dollars.’

In front of me, crying over a mere 2 billion dollars? It’s not easy for me to accept it.

I returned to my seat and sat down.

Compton climbed onto the bed I had prepared specifically for him, so we could lie down and talk. After telling him that it was okay and smiling as I apologized for my rudeness, I looked at my tablet.

A message was floating. It was a message sent by ‘Director In Sang-mu’ at the right time.

“Elon is already at the Texas construction site waiting for us.”

“okay.”

“It’s just a few hours’ flight away.”

The topic of conversation naturally shifted to work.

“We plan to create a new autonomous vehicle research center under KAA in consultation with Park Hyung-do, CEO of Kakao Global Corporation.”

That was Compton’s words.

“Please do so.”

“But the problem is not simple.”

The problem is complex, but the answer is always simple. That’s my rule.

“Why is that?”

“There is a bit of a problem with the supply and demand of human resources. This area is already very active in job transfers, and the core members of the Google Shopper project that my disciple worked on spun off and founded a new company called ‘Waymo’······.”

This was especially true in the field of autonomous driving.

The demand for human resources was skyrocketing, and it wasn’t just Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Nvidia doing research.

It was no different for automobile manufacturers.

Both General Motors and Volkswagen were preparing for the future. It was a matter of life and death for their companies.

By the way, who are the people from the Google Shopper project?

Money is not the issue.

They had to hire them even if it meant asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual salary. Otherwise, they would have often ended up starting a new startup like Waymo or Aurora.

His story was along those same lines.

“You can just buy it.”

But my answer was simple, just like before.

“yes?”

“Just buy it. Not people. Companies. Why bother going back? Waymo? Aurora? How much does that cost?”

“That, that’s it.”

Just as Alex Murphy was about to answer, “The calculations have been completed.” It was the clear voice of Director In, who was waiting for an opportunity.

– The current potential market value of Waymo, a self-driving software development company under Google, is approximately $5 billion, or 6 trillion won. The current market value of Aurora, a self-driving software development company, is approximately $50 million, or 60 billion won. Do you need anything else?

Then I repeated it again in English, for the two people who don’t know Korean.

Is that all you can do?

“It won’t take long.”

To be honest, I was a little disappointed. Compton was looking at me with a tired expression. I didn’t care.

“Professor Compton?”

Our business is not over yet.

“······yes?”

“Is there really nothing else you need? I can buy you Damien Hassabis’ Alphamind right away if you need it.”

It didn’t matter if it was more than Alphamind, as long as I had the money to spend. I was still hungry.

It was then that Director In opened his mouth again.

– Elon Musk just tweeted something new. Do you see it?

“good.”

I leaned back comfortably in the seat. A Twitter feed appeared on the display. The plane was big, so the screen was big.

——

Elon.musk ··· 1 minute ago

I am waitin’ for @Kokoa, with Mr. Governor.

(Waiting for cocoa. With the governor.)

——

“pasha?”

“Oh my god.”

Two sighs rang in my ears.

The scale has grown again.

Musk’s words that the cocoa name was starting to be accepted by the federal and local governments were true. I was worried before I was happy.

‘No, Elon. Please.’

Surely there is no malicious intent? Like a subsidy or tax exemption.

It was a nightmarish memory.

Of course, I know Musk is not that kind of person. But I couldn’t help but feel PTSD. I was nervous.

Read Novel Noblemtl
Read Novel Noblemtl