The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 416



Only Noblemtl

416.

Harvest Time (1)

The start of the new year 2016.

I spent the New Year’s party with Vice Chairman Han and Captain Kang at Captain Kang’s office.

“How big was the rental car company run by Captain Kang?”

“It is the largest in Korea.

“We have branches in all regions including Jeju Island, and have 250,000 vehicles registered.”

Captain Kang also had some talent for business.

Although he did not have outstanding management skills, the skills of the employees who followed him were outstanding.

When we left one business to them, they quickly expanded and dominated the Korean market.

“Let’s just collaborate with Taewoo Group’s Artificial Intelligence Center.”

“Can there be such a thing as collaboration?

“Just give me the order and I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“I’m trying to test remote control.

“It’s a system that’s perfect for rental car companies.”

“When you say remote control, are you talking about controlling it with a controller like an RC car?

“I heard an explanation about this before.”

The development of remote control technology has been ongoing for some time.

It could be said that the technology development was completed several years ago, but it was not properly applied due to regulations.

“It’s only now that the regulations have been lifted.

“Instead, if an accident occurs, the company will have to take full responsibility, but don’t worry, Taewoo Group will take full responsibility if an accident occurs.”

“How can you hold Taewoo Group responsible?

“If even the smallest problem arises, I will take full responsibility for it.”

Captain Kang still showed strong loyalty.

It was also thanks to the loyal employees like Captain Kang that I was able to focus on the Taewoo Group.

“Then, let’s apply remote control technology starting early this year.

It’s not like it’s anything grandiose, but for now we plan to apply it only to vehicle returns.”

“When you say vehicle return, is it a system where the customer parks the vehicle anywhere after using it and it is transported to the branch via remote control?”

“That’s correct.

“First, it applies to vehicle returns, and later, when renting a vehicle, it also allows the vehicle to be transported to the desired location via remote control.”

Anyone who has ever used a rental car.

You probably know how cumbersome the process of renting and returning a car can be.

If such problems could be solved through remote control, then Captain Kang’s rental car company would become even more competitive.

Of course, it wasn’t for the rental car company.

It was merely a step towards autonomous driving, and was also a means to promote the safety of autonomous driving to people.

“We will prepare to allow return via remote control immediately.”

“After rental cars, we will apply it to trucks and taxis as well.”

“It will definitely help.

I’ve heard that truck drivers who drive long distances often fall asleep on the road.

But if it could be remote controlled, that would be a huge help.”

“You only need to drive remotely from the office during a set period of time and then leave work.

“The car is driverless.”

Driverless cars.

Although it was still an unfamiliar concept, it was also a concept that had to naturally permeate society in order to achieve autonomous driving.

“We will soon apply it to American cargo companies as well.

“Vice President Han, please prepare that.”

“I already contacted David as soon as the executive meeting was over.

“When it comes to remote control or autonomous driving, there seem to be more applications in the United States than in Korea.”

In Korea, you can get anywhere in half a day.

But in the United States, a single crossing of the continent could take up to a month.

“We will truly open the era of autonomous driving.

“It is now time to reveal the technology developed at the Artificial Intelligence Center to the world.”

“I’ve heard that the Artificial Intelligence Center has a lot of technologies that will surprise the world.”

“Remote control is just the beginning.

Autonomous driving has already reached a certain level of development.”

In fact, autonomous driving systems have already been widely applied.

For example, an autopilot system that matches the speed of surrounding vehicles.

In the case of lane keeping systems and collision avoidance systems, they have already been applied to Taewoo automobiles.

But such a system was only effective as a driving assistance.

It wasn’t a technology that could be called a true autonomous driving system.

However, in the future, there were plans to unveil an autonomous driving system that could drive without a driver.

“Once autonomous driving systems are released, it will definitely help increase vehicle sales.”

“In order to capture people’s hearts, a technology that can be called innovative must be made public.”

“I have high expectations too.

“Isn’t the amount of money invested in autonomous driving systems enormous?”

Developing an autonomous driving system required a lot of information.

They were acquiring information by acquiring taxis, rental car companies, and even American cargo companies.

You’ve spent an astronomical amount of money over the past 10 years, and now it’s time to recoup your investment.

“You need to have better technology than other car companies to stay ahead of the competition.

Because Korean auto companies are latecomers.

“A latecomer must possess overwhelming technical prowess to catch up with a leading runner.”

“Taewoo Motors’ technological prowess is already recognized around the world.

As the brand image continues to improve, aren’t sales increasing in the European market as well?

And in GM’s case, it’s also recovering a lot.”

Taewoo Group owned several automobile subsidiaries.

Taewoo, Kai, and GM.

And Tesla also holds close to half of the shares, so it could be seen as a subsidiary of the Taewoo Group.

Taewoo Motors alone cannot dominate the global market.

If the auto companies in the Pan-Taewoo group had grown together through fair competition, they could have easily dominated the global market.

“Let’s stop talking about work and have a drink.

Let’s drink and die today.

Vice President Han also said, “Don’t come to work tomorrow and just rest.”

“The Chinese stock market opens on January 4th, so it can rest until tomorrow, but the financial companies in the financial tower are on standby 24 hours a day.

But how can I rest?”

“What difference will it make if I wait before the market opens?

“You can prepare from January 3rd.”

The Chinese stock market has not yet opened in January.

That’s why financial institutions were anxiously waiting to see how January would start.

But I knew.

The Chinese stock market is set to get very hot from the start in 2016.

***

The long-awaited January 4th.

I went to work and immediately looked for the financial tower.

I waited for the opening of the Chinese stock market with Vice Chairman Han.

“Have you secured enough short selling volume?”

“We have invested all available funds into short selling.

“That’s over $200 billion.”

“It’s about 270 trillion won.

But is that all there is to it?

“I thought it would be more, but it’s less than I thought.”

“It is 270 trillion won just from Taewoo Securities, and if you add the funds from fintech banks, it easily exceeds 400 trillion won.

And if you add up all the funds in the financial tower, it amounts to 700 trillion won.”

It was certainly a huge amount of money.

In the case of Taewoo Securities and Fintech Bank, they were able to invest 400 trillion won because they had gradually filled their coffers.

In the case of financial companies in the financial tower, they literally scraped together all their assets and invested them in the Chinese market.

“This will go down in history as the world’s largest short sale.”

“It’s hard to compare because we’re shorting the entire Chinese stock market rather than a single company, but it’s clear that this is the first time in history that we’ve seen short selling of this scale.”

Dozens of financial firms bet everything at the same time.

There have been many instances where several Wall Street financial firms have joined forces.

This is the first time that dozens of financial firms have put everything on the line at the same time.

“The market will start soon.”

“I feel strangely nervous.”

“Don’t be so nervous.

“Just do it according to plan.”

The Chinese stock market has finally opened.

At the same time, financial companies in the financial tower simultaneously threw away the short sales they had been holding.

“Mr. Chairman!”

“The Chinese stock market has started to decline rapidly!”

“I guess they can’t handle the volume of the financial tower.”

“I have been short selling since December, but it has been defensive so far.

But this time, strangely enough, the defense is not working.”

“It seems that individual investors have also given up hope on the Chinese stock market.”

The Chinese stock market is literally falling at an incredible rate.

Every employee in the financial tower threw their weight without blinking an eye.

Everyone was concentrating beyond their limits, and this concentration was bound to not last long.

But I wasn’t worried.

Because the circuit breaker has been implemented since this year.

“The circuit breaker has been triggered.

“The stock price fell 7% in one hour.”

“They give us a 30-minute break.

“Tell everyone to get some rest.”

A whopping 7% in just one hour.

Considering the size of the Chinese stock market, this means that close to 700 trillion won was lost in just one hour.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as these were financial tower financial companies that had recorded huge profits in just one hour.

“I never expected it would plummet like this from day one.

“We expected that the short selling attack would have to last at least a week before the breakwater collapsed.”

“I guess we were relying too much on the circuit breaker.”

“I think the world situation also has a big impact.

“The unstable situation in the Middle East, including the severance of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, appears to have had a significant impact on the Chinese stock market.”

“No matter how difficult the world situation was, if the Chinese economy had been doing well, it would not have declined to this extent.

“Everyone is anxious, especially since the Chinese manufacturing industry is sluggish.”

It’s not just for a day or two that the Middle East has been unstable.

Did Saudi Arabia and Iran cut ties and cause the Chinese stock market to fall?

Although it may have had some impact, that doesn’t explain the current downward trend.

“It seems that the problem was that the Chinese government hid the poor indicators in the second half of 2015.”

“Even if the government hides the indicators, everyone will eventually find out.”

“It’s time to lift the circuit breaker!”

It’s already been 30 minutes.

People who had taken a short break relaxed their wrists and returned to their seats.

Fueled by caffeine and nicotine, they threw themselves back into the mix as soon as the circuit breaker was lifted.

The Chinese stock market could not handle such a massive offensive.

They ended up declaring surrender in just one hour.

“Mr. Chairman!”

Chinese stock markets have announced a halt to trading for the day!”

“They declared a halt to trading just before lunchtime.”

“It was down 7% in the morning and then the circuit breaker was lifted and it fell another 7%.

“It fell a whopping 14% this morning alone!”

The voice of one vice president served as a kind of signal flare.

Simultaneously, huge cheers erupted from all the financial institutions’ offices.

[Wow!]

[How much did you eat today?]

[Even if you leave now, it’s at least 50%!

[Wow!]

If the first circuit breaker was a sigh of relief,

Now that trading has been halted for the day, cheers of victory have filled the financial tower.

“Today alone, the profits earned amount to tens of trillions!”

“It’s too early to say I like it.

Now it begins.

“Continue shorting until mid-January.”

“Shouldn’t it be time to get out of here now?

Although the Chinese stock market decline continues, it may be difficult to liquidate profits if the market falls too late.”

“First of all, for this week, don’t think about liquidating your profits and just think about attacking.”

In order to liquidate the profits, the amount that was eventually thrown had to be purchased again.

If a huge amount of buying continues, the stock price will naturally rise.

But I have already told you to do that.

Because the Chinese stock market was already in a frenzy.