“That can’t be true… It was definitely Bitcoin… It was definitely Bitcoin!”
Baek Ho-chan was barely eating his meal.
Seeing this, Ah-rin whispered in my ear.
“But Na-me, isn’t 200 million a huge amount of money?”
Overhearing this, Baek Minwoo slapped Ah-rin on the forehead.
“Baek Ah-rin! We’re being scammed here…!”
“Why are you hitting someone who’s eating well!”
Bam!
“Grahhh!”
Ah-rin slapped Minwoo’s temple with an Aura.
Minwoo rolled on the ondol floor, groaning.
Even in this chaotic situation, Professor Cheon was carefully picking out the thorns from the fish and placing the flesh on top of my rice.
Rumble—
The sliding door opened, and Baek Hoon-jang sat down in front of the table.
After seeing his fierce glare, he finally spoke up.
“I just realized that I forgot the Bitcoin was in a different account.”
“…!”
Baek Ho-chan, who had been unable to hide his gloomy expression, suddenly regained his vitality.
“Ho-chan, bring me my glasses.”
“Yes, here they are, Grandpa!”
“Hey now, don’t get too excited.”
He took a good look at his phone and then turned the screen towards us.
[My Assets]
[5.86182 BTC (Bitcoin): ₩147,508,011]
“Huh huh huh, if we add it all up, that’s 340 million! Ho-chan! It’s even more than your debt! Hwahahaha!”
Baek Bong-gon revealed that he had accidentally bought Bitcoin Gold back then and later created a new account to buy Bitcoin.
However, even back then, Bitcoin prices were quite high, so there were only about 5 coins left in his digital wallet.
“Actually, since then, I’ve become interested in cryptocurrency and made a few trades. But I quickly got frustrated and quit.”
340 million won.
While Baek Ho-chan’s company couldn’t be revived, it was enough to barely avoid personal bankruptcy.
Even though it was quite a sum, Baek Bong-gon generously gifted it to his grandson.
“I’m sorry, Ho-chan. At first, when you kept saying 200, I thought you meant 200 million, but later I found out you meant 200 billion.”
Misunderstandings arose during communication due to the differences in currency units.
Baek Ho-chan was a young man who had lived longer in America, while Baek Bong-gon was Korean to the bone.
“No… I’m sorry, Grandpa. I think I’ve been blinded by money all this time.”
After a night of deep reflection from both sides, the morning arrived with the crowing of a rooster.
Wait, a rooster…? Was there a rooster here?
“Why is there chicken soup from the morning?”
With a completely relaxed expression, Baek Ho-chan started moving the ladle vigorously.
“I talked to Grandpa yesterday. Thinking it over, what good would 20 billion do? It’s not even money I can spend right now.”
Just by gladly offering 300 million, he realized how great his grandfather was.
“Na-me, I don’t know what you told me yesterday, but my grandfather seems to have changed a bit.”
“How so?”
“He acknowledged my dream as it is. Anyway, I have to start from scratch, but just being able to start over gives me hope.”
And Ho-chan didn’t forget to apologize to the kids.
He suddenly knelt down on the floor, bowing deeply.
“Minwoo, Ah-rin, I’m really sorry for making you suffer… As a man, I promise I won’t take back my word of gifting you each 10 billion won. I will definitely succeed and repay you both.”
He pulled out a document from his black bag and presented it to the kids.
“Kids, I’m really lacking as a person. I’m over 30, but sometimes when I look at my grandfather, I wonder if I’m really an adult.”
Minwoo’s eyes widened when he received the paper from him.
“Uncle, is this for real?”
At the very top, it read ‘Adoption Consent Form’ in bold letters.
“So, it was a long 10 months, but the time spent with you was the happiest for me. This is truly from my heart. So… Can I officially adopt you both, even as a flawed uncle…?”
After a long silence, Minwoo returned the paper.
Baek Ho-chan, misunderstanding it as rejection, quietly accepted the paper.
Then, with a smile, Minwoo said.
“Then I should call you Dad instead of Uncle? That’s a bit strange.”
“Mi…Minwoo!”
“Ah, why are you saying that!”
Baek Ho-chan, unable to shave for several days, brushed his scruffy beard against Minwoo.
Minwoo, horrified, tried with all his might to push him away, but couldn’t overpower the strength of an adult male.
Meanwhile, Ah-rin was alternating her gaze between me and Baek Ho-chan, on the verge of tears.
“If I get adopted… will I not be able to see Na-me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Uncle is going to America, right? If you go to America, I’ll have to part with Na-me again…”
Baek Ho-chan waved his hands in denial.
“Why would I go to that cursed land! I will live in Seoul, Ah-rin.”
“Really?”
“Of course! And, you know, these days, the Korean government is investing heavily in startups. Do you know how much tax they’re pouring into startup support?”
“Hmm, I don’t know… is it around 400 billion?”
“What are you talking about!”
He held out five fingers wide open.
“5 trillion?”
“5 trillion!”
“Really that much?”
“Yes! And that’s every year!”
Compared to the time Baek Ho-chan spent running around the U.S. gathering investors, starting a business in Korea seemed quite easy.
“Isn’t it too easy to think about starting a business?”
“Although it has its limitations compared to the U.S., the entry barriers are much lower. And I still have core technology in my head! Even if it’s not like before, I can start a company of a similar level.”
Ah-rin simply wanted to live close to my house.
Baek Ho-chan accepted this, and Ah-rin happily signed with a pen.
And I quietly observed the whole situation with a lukewarm expression.
“By the way, Baek Ho-chan, I never promised to give you 300 million won, you know?”
“What…?”
Upon hearing this shocking news, Baek Ho-chan’s eyes widened in fear.
The funding given by Baek Bong-gon was now integrated into my account.
Where did he jump to conclusions from?
“Isn’t it the performer that does the work and the owner who earns the money?”
It certainly won’t be like that.
*
The romance of the countryside is usually shattered by living there directly.
First, there aren’t many enjoyable things like in the city, second, in summer, bugs swarm, and the weather swings to extremes, and third, you have to endure the local residents’ territorial behavior.
But if you have a servant, the story changes.
They provide entertainment on their own, spray to exterminate bugs, and fan me wherever I go.
And above all, there were no residents here because it was an uninhabited island.
As the wind began to weaken, I waved my hand, pretending to be hot, and Baek Ho-chan began fanning vigorously again.
“40%.”
“No, Na-me. A startup isn’t just a hole-in-the-wall shop I operate by myself; it’s a really complicated ecosystem involving multiple institutional investors.”
“40%.”
“When running a business, you have to give equity to angel investors through paid-in capital increases, and every time your funding is insufficient, you need to allocate additional shares.”
“40%.”
“Plus, 40% means you can pass special resolutions independently. If my share drops below yours, what will other investors think of our company?”
“40%.”
“Alright, fine! I’ll give you 40% of your shares! Is that okay? Is it done?”
“Okay, thank you.”
“So now you’re sending me money, right?”
“Until the equity ratio is specified in the shareholders’ agreement, dream on.”
“You stubborn… Alright! I got it!”
Breathing heavily, Baek Ho-chan started preparing to leave the island.
I was about to get tired of this rural life.
It was to the point where I started to miss a concrete building forest.
But Baek Ho-chan was quite fast at adapting to reality.
What difference does it make to cling to money that was never there in the first place?
Businessmen shouldn’t consider sunk costs.
You should only think about how much cash flow you can generate in the future.
And I quite liked his business-like attitude.
“Hey, Baek Ho-chan. Can you consider entering the pharmaceutical business as well?”
“Do you even know what pharmaceuticals are?”
“I do.”
“Pharma and bio startups are the graves for founders. Even big corporations spend astronomical amounts and fail; how would an individual handle that?”
He pursued safety over profitability.
So, he chose to work in the field of cellular observation and disease diagnosis, which has less loss when a company fails.
“Is that so?”
“Just think of it as a kind of lottery. Some people definitely succeed and make a fortune, but it doesn’t always happen to me.”
“A lottery… what if you knew about 5 out of 7 numbers ahead of time? Would you try to take a shot?”
“What do you mean?”
The molecular formula that underpins the treatment for Multiple Sclerosis in my Akashic Records.
If only I could somehow realize the next-generation interferon beta, which now exists only as magic, in reality.
Before leaving Duri Do, I expressed my opinions as a prospective major shareholder to the professional manager.
So, we were set to sail in the same boat.
Maybe even Adella would join us.
*
While the company is being established, the tasks increase exponentially.
I’m not unaware of that.
But…
“Ahhhhh! I declared I would write first! Minwoo Oppa played a lot of games yesterday anyway!”
“You were the one who suggested deciding the order with rock-paper-scissors. Baek Ah-rin, isn’t it a bit late to throw a tantrum?”
“Na-me! Hurry and scold Minwoo Oppa!”
“Hey, wait! That’s a foul…!”
During summer vacation, Baek Minwoo and Baek Ah-rin decided to stay at our place.
He said he would focus on the company work, sleeping at the office for a while, but I couldn’t help but wonder what that statement meant when adopting him.
But since the kids really liked Ho-chan, I refrained from nagging.
“Minwoo Oppa, you should concede.”
“No… Hah! Okay…”
“Yesss!”
“And Minwoo Oppa, come to my room. We’ll finish middle school 2nd-grade math today. Did you finish the homework I gave you yesterday?”
“Na-me, where does it say we should go through one unit a day? This is real child abuse.”
“…? Are you serious?”
I pointed back and forth between us.
[I’m in 2nd grade, you’re in 2nd year of middle school.]
So, child abuse doesn’t apply here.
At first, Minwoo scoffed at my offer of tutoring, but now there was no trace of that relaxation.
“The topic we’ll learn today is probability. If you keep resisting like this, what’s the probability of me slapping your forehead?”
“What…? Uh… about 800?”
“The answer is 1. Because the minimum probability is 0, and the maximum is 1. Now, hurry and put your forehead out.”
Now, just seeing my bent middle finger made Minwoo experience PTSD.
I gathered Aura at my fingertips and gradually cornered him.
Thud—
“Na-me? Did you finish preparing?”
Professor Cheon asked as he opened the door.
“Yes? Are we leaving already?”
“The time is 2:45; I think we should be getting ready soon.”
“Oh, okay! I’ll change quickly and come out. You should be grateful.”
“You don’t even call me Oppa anymore. Truly, life is…”
July 10, 2051, Monday.
The day I began a university life that wasn’t in my fate.
*
[Korea University Everytime]
[Free Board]
[What? I think I just saw NoName at school?]
[NoName is at Korea University, LOL! Is this real?]
[If you’re in the summer semester class, I highly recommend it, LOL! Starting with me.]
[Does anyone know where NoName is right now?]
[Is NoName at the office?]
[Is NoName really at school? Why?!]
[I missed NoName in front of the dorm! 😭]
[Wow, this is crazy, LOL!]
[Can you please share NoName’s coordinates? Please, I’m begging you!]
[Why does all the fun happen on the days I don’t go to school? Ugh…]
