12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

A Rolls-Royce, driven by Secretary Park, rolled down the road elegantly. I sat in the back seat and looked out the window. In the distance, I could see a building with the word 'Invictus' in orange. We were nearly home. I stared out of the window at our building, and said a few words, "I've a bad feeling..."

Surprised by what I said, Secretary Park asked me, "Yes?"

I shook my head and said, "No, no. Drive."

"Ah... Yes."

Secretary Park kept driving after I spoke, and I turned to our building again. As I watched our building getting closer and closer, I thought of what Tak Mun-su had said to me in the Garden Royale where I had just been, 'He used to give us advice sometimes. We've been helped before, so we should help him in times of need. Don't you think?'

When the words came out, the others added a word or two.

"Yes, Chairman Tak is right a hundred times."

"Haha, I agree."

From the point of view of their dialogues, these were very good stories. When a person was in trouble, they wanted to help him. But there was something bothering me, and it was the gesture that Tak had made as he had said it, the act of hitting his wrist with the other hand. I'd never seen it in real life, but I'd seen it once in a Crow's dream, when Tak Mun-su had removed Tak Joon-gi. I thought about the hand gesture.

'Maybe it meant... to break relations.'

If Tak's words were false and his gesture was genuine, the situation just a moment ago was quite the opposite of his words.

"If you really invested your entire fortune in China and became a beggar, we would break relations with you."

"Yes, Chairman Tak is right a hundred times."

"Haha, I agree."

I thought of the atmosphere then. It wasn't even a good time to laugh, but they did. Perhaps the gesture was a code they shared among themselves, or a kind of meme made in a long relationship.

'And I was teased by what I didn't know...'

Tak Mun-su was very careful and never did anything that could damage him, including his own image getting worse. He probably did it thinking I hadn't even recognized his hand gesture. He was right. If I had really seen the gesture for the first time at the party, I probably wouldn't have even thought it was strange, just a quirk.

I would have thought, 'Every time, Chairman Tak Mun-su has a good word for me.' But there, he had made a mistake. I had seen that gesture, and I had known what the meaning of it was. So I had been able to accurately read the atmosphere of the time, the fact that he was making a fool of me by reversing his words and gesture.

'You had some bad luck. It has been perfect for you so far, but it didn't work.'

I'd always looked at him with suspicious eyes and a little wonder. He used to say and do good things in front of others, while killing his cousin behind the scenes. However, I was convinced that his image was completely trained, and he was a monstrous human being. He was respected by his subordinates, praised by the public, but it was probably the result of a perfectly made mask, a result of deception; pulling it off required great skill.

'Certainly, compared to Tak Mun-su, Tak Joon-gi wasn't enough... to fool others while managing his own image.'

In retrospect, his cousin, Tak Joon-gi, had been a very human being compared to Tak Mun-su. He showed his greed for what it was. Of course, he had tried to hide as much as he could, but when I looked at him, I could see the real him. Thus, he had been defeated and killed by Tak Mun-su.

I thought of the Crow's dream once more. There was a line that suddenly caught me. 'We were born with the DNA of victory. But you were defeated... Defeat is only for the general public. Now you're not the right person for Suyeon Group.'

Come to think of it, Tak Mun-su had that style, contemptuous of a loser. Maybe that was why he said that and gestured unconsciously when he heard I had lost a lot.

'He acts as if he's never been defeated before.'

But when I thought about it, I thought that might be true. Since he was born a legitimate successor of Suyeon Group and lived as a prince, there was no chance he could feel defeated. Tak Joon-gi was a bastard and had always lived as an underdog, so there was an inferiority complex there, but Tak Mun-su had no such thing. As a result, he might have never really suffered a defeat. No matter how many others explained it, he could not understand what he had never gone through.

'He's never been defeated before... That's Invictus... It's our motto…' When I was thinking about it, the Rolls-Royce, driven by Secretary Park, arrived at the basement parking lot of our building.

"Boss, we are here."

"Thank you for your work."

I got out of the car with that remark. I received the Rolls-Royce key from Secretary Park, separated, took the elevator, pressed "P," and then pressed the password.

"Penthouse."

The elevator carrying me headed to the top of the building. I kept thinking about Tak Mun-su on the way.

'The one who despises the loser... But then... if he becomes a loser, what kind of expression will he have?'

In any case, after today, I decided not to attend the Garden Royale meeting again.

When it turned out, 'Han is not doomed, but has become the richest man in Korea,' an invitation would come, but I decided not to go. After this last incident, I felt once again that I was an external man and a unique species that came from the outside. I didn't mean to mix with them in the first place, but I thought I had been polite meeting with them two or three times. However, I was very offended by the message, 'Without money, you can't play with us any more.'

After all, it was not me who didn't have real money, but them.

-----------------------------

On January twenty-eighth, I went to work at 8:30 early in the morning. It was the day when the final report was released.

I told Secretary Park on my way to work, "Tell Vice President Jang that I'm here."

"Yes, boss."

After I said that, just five minutes later, Vice President Jang came to the president's office.

"As I said before, we closed the last deal in the U.S. market early this morning. As the details are complicated, I'll e-mail them to you. It's like this if I just report the results."

He put forward the thin report he had in his hand. It must have been impressively complex to have left the thick report unread. That was great. I was not interested in the details anyway.

"Yes, you did well."

I nodded and read the short report. The amount of money written in the accounts the company earned was around 36.7 billion dollars. My assets now stood at 45 billion dollars, including the money I originally had and the profits from my personal accounts. With this, I became the richest person in Korea at once. There was an overwhelming gap of nearly thirty billion dollars to second place. I was really at the pinnacle of money, the god of investment in Korea.

After looking at the report for a long time, I raised my eyes and said to Vice President Jang. "I see... So... What I told you about last time, searching for a new M&A..."

"Yes, boss."

"Let's go on slightly more relaxed conditions. We've earned this much, we don't need to be frugal."

'Looking at the future news, the prices of assets in Korea, regardless of real estate, have neither gone down further nor gone up over the next year. They walk sideways while at the floor. Of course, if we drag it on a little longer here, it's painful for the troubled companies, but I don't think we can afford to buy them very cheaply. So, I have decided to buy now to achieve the Grandmaster Class. If I get it, I can even get the news 12 Years After, so I can plan and manage investments in the longer term.'

"If you think so, I'll find out right away." Vice President Jang bowed to me.

"Yes, I hope you'll take care of it well."

After Jang left, I thought about the Grandmaster Class. 'Twelve years from now... Then I can predict the next economic crisis and make another leap forward.'

Before the Chinese financial crisis, there had been a rumor circulating in the stock market a few years ago: 'The economy is in a 10-year cycle: the South American financial crisis in 1984, the East Asian financial crisis in 1998 and the global financial crisis in 2008. The global crisis comes about every ten years, and it hit China in 2021.'

If I knew the news in twelve years, I would know when I could make another big bet.

'By 2030, I'll have two hundred billion dollars and make a thousand billion dollars in the next crisis. Then maybe I will be the richest person in the world, or perhaps the richest man in human history… the king of investment, the historic rich man who makes his name in history, such as Mansa Musa, the king of gold; Andrew Carnegie, the king of steel; and John Davidson Rockefeller, the king of oil; I'm really living in history now. My name will now appear in the textbooks.' My heart sped up when I thought about it.

'Of course, to do that...' I turned my eyes to the bottom right of the monitor and checked the time. It was 8:52. The future news was already here. I looked at the future news and searched for my name as usual, just in case something would happen. No matter how rich I was, it would be over if my plane crashed or I got cancer. I would be invincible if I prevented it in advance. Fortunately, the search results were no big deal.

[CEO Han Sang-hoon of Invictus Investment is on a roll.]

That was my daily routine; it was about winning every time. I nodded and thought about the remaining slots. 'I will search for Joo Sung-won with one slot; what about the other one?'

I stared at it without much thought, and suddenly I searched the name that came to my mind… Tak Mun-su!

But, strangely, there was a piece of funny news. [Suyeon Electronics acquired Ullim Electronics, Chairman Tak Mun-Su's leadership will be tested for the first time after being on the front line of management.]

I saw it and said, "Oho!"

I had not yet tried to fuck him over, but now I had a chance. I picked up the phone and said to Secretary Park, "I'm sorry, but call Vice President Jang back to my office."