12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

“What’s wrong?” My parents came to the hospital that night. I went out of the room for a while after leaving my nearly exhausted wife Ah-young to them. I thought I could clear my mind if I got a little fresh air. While I was walking the hallways, a nurse greeted me, “Mr. Chairman, hello?”

I bowed my head and received her greeting. She asked me in a bright voice, obviously not knowing the situation. “What brings you here today? There’s no charity event.”

“… it’s personal.”

I answered roughly like that, and then got out of the hospital. I had a lot of mixed emotions. I’d spent tens of millions of dollars on the Rare Cancer Foundation, but my son had that rare cancer. I looked at the sky and thought, ‘If there is a God, answer me. I didn’t ask for anything, but I’ve been working hard to split the time and the money. It’s not too much to give it back like this.’

However, there was no reply at all. I dropped my head. But I soon raised my head with my fist clenched. It was no use blaming God. I had to come to my senses. No matter how hard I thought about it, I was the only one who could solve this problem.

‘Han Sang-hoon, let’s think about what I can do now.’ I thought of my abilities once more. ‘If I call in reporters right away and have them write an article about my child, my son’s name will appear in the future news.

‘Somehow, if I edit it there…’

However, I was not sure if the probability would be supported. Se-hyun’s brain tumor was malignant and it not well positioned. Even if he had the surgery, his chances of survival would be very low.

‘There’s a very high probability of side effects. But once I edit it to something like “There are no side effects, and he managed to survive”… If I edit it that way, it might go up to 50%. I’ll have to try that for now. T

‘There is still a final grade left. When I get the next P class, there may be a way.’

I thought about the acquisition of Apple.

‘It’s not impossible to make a deal with all the remaining available money in our company. But the problem is, no matter how much Apple has fallen and is worth in the market, its market capital still exceeds a trillion dollars. Even if the money problem is solved, it will take at least a year to avoid the U.S. anti-trust laws. In a year, Se-hyun may not be alive. The same is true of companies other than Apple. It would be less burdensome to buy a small company, but it would still take months.

‘That’s not going to work… So the only way to do this is to…’

‘The only way is to inflate the value of the listed company now. In terms of our equity relationship, the parent company, Invictus Investment Holdings, is of course the highest. Of the total 3.6 trillion dollar value, it has 2.8 trillion dollars by itself, as it has not only cash, but also interests in non-listed companies in Korea and overseas.

I picked up my cell phone and tried to calculate things. The answer came soon.

‘If I temporarily raise our stock price by fifteen percent, it will work. But it is very difficult to raise our company’s stock price. It has already become the largest company in the world at 2.8 trillion dollars, and the price is very stable. No matter how great an earning surprise there is, it will only rise by three to four percent and will not move beyond that. It is natural since the market capital of our companies is more than fifty percent of the total amount of the Korean market. Even if the media were manipulated to raise its stock price, it would not move more than ten percent.’

‘Then, there’s only one way to go. Though there are some side effects, I have no choice but to use that method.’

——————–

The next day, with slightly bloodshot eyes, I called in Secretary Park and Lee first.

“Both of you, come inside.”

My two secretaries quickly came into the president’s office. I took out two pages of the document I had prepared. One was for the phone numbers of high-level officials at the nation’s banks, such as Duri Bank, Shinhyun Bank, and BK Bank, while the other was for the contact numbers of overseas banks such as City Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and Deutsche Bank. I handed over the domestic list to Park and the overseas list to Lee.

“Both of you, call each of the phone numbers you have received. Tell them I want to see the bank presidents myself as quickly as possible. It’s for a loan of billions of dollars.”

The two secretaries returned to their seats and began to work, as each instructed. The results came quickly.

“Mr. Chairman, Kim Ji-hoon, president of Duri Bank, wants to visit you in person.”

“Mr. Chairman, JPMorgan Chase will send the head of its Korean branch over this morning.”

It was a natural response. It was not a penny or two, but a chance to make money on billions of dollars. My plan was to buy back our company’s shares. It was a way to raise the market capital by repurchasing our company’s shares, which I had thought up a few years ago as a way to gain an “E” class. I could raise the price fifteen percent in a short period of time. After my purchase, the stock price would go back on track, but as I did so, it could break through four trillion dollars temporarily.

The reason I called in the bank presidents was to secure as much ammunition as possible. I had about three trillion dollars, but I only had about ten billion dollars in cash because I owned it all in stocks and real estate. It was an unimaginable amount to the public, but with just that, I couldn’t raise our company’s stock by 15%. Therefore, I was thinking of borrowing money using the stocks and real estate for collateral.

“The president of BK Bank asks when he can visit you.”

“The president of Deutsche Bank says he will send the vice president to Korea. If he gets on board now, he’ll arrive tomorrow. He’s asking if you can wait until then.”

This was going to be easy, as the bankers were impatient to lend me money. I called Lee Won-jae, the CEO of the Daewon Daily News, and arranged a meeting with him.

“It’s been a long time, CEO Lee.”

“Yes, boss. No, you’re the chairman now, aren’t you? Mr. Chairman, why did you call me?” He also did not seem to know much about my son.

I spoke in plain language, “My second child is now hospitalized at Gangnam Hospital with a malignant brain tumor.”

“What? A brain tumor? Oh, my God.”

When he was muddling his words, I said right away, “Please send some reporters to cover it.”

“Yes?” Lee Won-jae was quite surprised at my words.

I didn’t want my family to be on other people’s tongues, so I’d completely blocked them from being exposed to the media. Because of that, he just found out that Se-hyun had a brain tumor.

“Do not directly cover Se-hyun or my wife, so that they are not exposed to the media, but cover the person in charge of the hospital or the doctor. Let them announce that the son of the nation’s richest man has a brain tumor.”

“Yes… but why?”

I didn’t want to spend any time explaining it. “Please just do it. Okay?”

As I said it grimly, he answered, “Yes. I’ll do that today.”

“And one more job you have to do is…”

“Yes?”

“Please spread a rumor gently and modestly for investors to notice in three days.”

“What rumor?”

“Please spread a rumor that I’ve decided to buy back our company’s stock, and that I will buy back between thirty and a hundred billion dollars’ shares.”

“Oh, yes, I see.”

After I finished the phone call, I went on to call my wife Ah-young.

“Oppa? What?” Ah-young answered my call, clearly exhausted.

I spoke to her in a confident voice, “Ah-young, don’t worry too much. I’ll do everything.”

A few days later, news about Se-hyun began to emerge from the various media outlets, including the Daewon Daily News.

[Chairman Han Sang-hoon’s son is battling a brain tumor.]

[Bad luck for Han Sang-hoon, the luckiest man in the world.]

I searched for Han Se-hyun in People Search. Tragic news about my son came out. [CEO Han Sang-hoon’s son ends up dying during a brain tumor operation.] However, I took it in and played scissors with the Edit skill.

[Han Se-hyun, the son of CEO Han Sang-hoon, eventually died after surgery for a brain tumor. CEO Han Sang-hoon, who has usually made a large donation to the Childhood Cancer Foundation…]

I quickly began editing it in the direction I wanted, [Han Se-hyun, the son of CEO Han Sang-hoon, has revived dramatically after surgery for a brain tumor. Surgeons saved Han Se-hyun’s life by performing a clean operation on a dangerous tumor, amazingly without any aftereffects.]

However, the probability was six percent. I revised the article again, [Surgeons managed to save Han Se-hyun’s life.]

The probability rate to succeed while leaving behind the aftereffects was twenty-three percent. This was far short of fifty percent. It couldn’t be edited. No, before being edited, the possibility was too low. ‘Is the surgery’s success rate this low?’ I was desperate.

I finally decided to try the second method.

‘After achieving the final grade… if not, when the chances are high that the surgeon will be able to make the most of his life, I will make this edit. That would be the best way. Even if Se-hyun is more likely to die.’

———————

A week had passed since Se-hyun had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He had stayed in the hospital room.

After my wife heard the doctor’s advice to operate as soon as possible, she told me, “Let’s set the date of the operation as soon as possible.’

However, I dissuaded her saying, “Let’s put it off for a week.”

My wife, who had never objected to my opinion, couldn’t agree with it this time. “What the hell? We have to do it as fast as we can, so there’s a better chance of a successful surgery.”

It was natural since our son’s life was at stake. But I still put off the surgery by a week if I were to pin my hopes on the last grade. In the meantime, the loans had been executed. I had President Jang’s team buy back our company’s shares from my personal window as soon as the money came in, an amount in the billions of dollars.

A company with a market capital of 3.8 trillion dollars had begun to move at my direction. One percent, two percent, three percent, the fact that our company’s share price rose three percent meant that the total value rose nearly a hundred billion dollars, similar to when the former Suyeon Group back then.

– What’s this? Why is the Invictus Investment so high?-

– Isn’t there something hidden in there?-

People reacted like that, but there wasn’t any really good news.

However, it had just risen by force for my goal. The next day, it also went up three percent. Now, people were starting to think about it, ‘Let’s buy it; they must have some good news.’ The ants joined the chase. The rumors which the Daewon Daily News had spread might have been in the ears and mouth of some investors. Rumor had it that I was buying back our company’s shares with a hundred billion dollars. The next day it rose three percent again.

When it rose three percent each day for three consecutive days, I ran an article through the Daewon Daily News. [It is true that CEO Han Sang-hoon is buying back the company’s own shares. The amount has yet to be decided, but it will be close to a hundred billion dollars.]

When the article was printed, the next day it jumped by seven percent, even if I didn’t spend my money. Finally, with more than four trillion dollars from the share price of the company I owned, I got the final grade in my hands.