“Is there anywhere good?”

“Somewhere about a hundred children from a home can live… this is a hard one. In town, everyone will object that it drives house prices down… and too far out on the edge, there’s the problem of the children’s school…”

I’d gone to see Mr. Yu at Happiness Real Estate, where I’d bought my apartment.

He was a realtor born and bred in the area, so he looked likely to come up with a solution.

I’d have liked to buy the land itself right now, but the owner had already sold it to the construction company.

And it isn’t time to touch them yet.

It’s a concession deal with the district’s Assembly member and a big company’s power brokers joined at the hip.

For a third-year high school student to step out in front of that, my strength falls short.

I had money by the bucket, but money alone can’t take on a society’s entrenched class.

One step back is the right answer for now.

“Is there a closed-down school anywhere, by any chance?”

“A closed school… ah! As it happens, there’s a good one!”

“There is?”

“Yes. Ten minutes from the town center. The school was merged and shut down last year. The buildings are in decent condition, and the sale is confirmed, so it can be bought at once. There aren’t many farmhouses around it, so no worries about complaints from neighbors either.”

“Is that so?”

He brightened at a question I’d thrown out on impulse.

“The price is on the steep side. The facilities are usable, so the education office put a high number on it.”

“About how much?”

“One moment.”

He went onto the internet and looked it up.

“One billion five hundred and thirty million won.”

A reasonable price.

For a place where a hundred people will live, that price is on the cheap side.

“You’re saying it can be bought right away?”

“There are dealers circling, but they’re waiting for the price to come down. Around next year the education office will probably put it back up at a thirty percent discount. Come over here and have a look. There are photographs of the school.”

I went over beside him and looked at the closed school.

The education office’s notice of disposal for the closed school was posted there.

It’s in good shape.

The classrooms and gymnasium in the pictures were recently built, not old.

If it hadn’t been for the sudden merger, it looked like it could have been used another few decades.

“It’s a modern school with no asbestos. The window frames are double-glazed, so all you’d need is underfloor heating work and a few bathrooms put in. There’s a small mountain behind it too. One look and it seems like the perfect spot. The lunch hall is nice and big too.”

The view of the school posted on the site looked fantastic even to me.

Clearly an opportunity handed down by heaven.

“Please buy it right away. And buy that mountain behind it too, if you can.”

I didn’t want to drag it out.

And when I saw the mountain, I wanted it badly.

If we planted fruit trees up there, it would be just the thing for the children’s fruit, or for a vegetable patch.

“What? Right away? And the mountain included?”

“I’ll buy it in my mother’s name and donate it. Please handle the tax side too.”

“My word, you’re a remarkable young student!”

Mr. Yu at the agency knew what I was like from when I bought the apartment.

We were on nodding terms whenever we ran into each other.

Remarkable, nothing. It’s a trade that leaves me ahead.

We’d grilled pork belly until we were fit to burst.

Fifty kilos of pork belly, gone by that evening.

We drank cola with the kids and sang songs.

Truly simple-hearted children.

With food stacking up in the storeroom, the director was hugely pleased too.

My friend Hyeong-seok hugged me warmly and thanked me.

And I acquired a tremendous amount of karma points.

I still remember the ring of it.

— Karma points acquired in great quantity.

It wasn’t given as a figure, but a jackpot had clearly landed.

My parents smiled broadly too, at the bright faces of the children at the home.

The middle and high schoolers who needed part-time work arranged to help pick apples at the weekend.

And so I plunged into business(?) for real.

The great business of trading a human’s cash purchases for points in the world of the immortals. (TL Note: 현질 — gamer slang for spending real money inside a game, built from 현금 (cash) plus the suffix for doing a thing.)

“It can be bought right away, yes?”

“Of course. Prepare a few documents and the title can be transferred. If you buy a closed school at this price, you’ll be welcomed.”

“I’m counting on you.”

“Goodness, it’s me who’ll be counting on you from here on.”

Mr. Yu knew I was young and never once dropped into casual speech with me.

If this one deal goes through cleanly, his income from it will be tidy.

I went outside.

“Sir, it’s Jang Tae-san. Have you been keeping well?”

The moment I got outside I picked up my phone.

The builder who had remodeled and repaired our house perfectly last year.

“Haha. Keeping well, are you? Our admirable student~.”

He’d learned it was me who commissioned my parents’ house, and he’d called me the admirable student ever since.

“Sir, would you take on one job for me as a rush order?”

“A rush order?”

“Yes. I want a closed-down school converted into living quarters in a hurry, to be used as a children’s home.”

“Hmm… a children’s home, you say?”

“Yes, they’re being evicted from their facility at the end of the year. Don’t hold back over money—I’d like it done fast and perfectly.”

“Understood. If it’s a request from you, of course I’ll take it. I’ll send Team Leader Jeong over, so give me the address.”

“Yes~ thank you.”

“Thanks for what, when I’m being paid~ you’ll have blessings coming to you, Tae-san.”

“Me?”

“That’s right. You honor your parents, and now you’re taking care of a children’s home too—who would heaven give blessings to, if not you?”

“Heh heh. You think so?”

I laughed like an innocent high schooler.

Praise never sounds bad, no matter when you hear it.

“And meeting a builder like me is a blessing too.”

That was true too.

The work had been finished so perfectly that in a year there hadn’t been a single thing to repair.

That’s why I trusted him and called.

This too is a tie heaven allowed.

“Yes~ I’m counting on you this time too.”

“Right, understood. Just trust me.”

And so the builder was lined up too.

But I didn’t rest.

On the way home I pressed another number.

“Well now, what brings the busy CEO Jang to me~.”

“Attorney, why are you like this.”

“Heh heh, a third-year who isn’t busy—that makes no sense. Well, what’s happened? Are the thugs swaggering around the neighborhood again?”

I’d called Attorney Jo, who handles the corporation, right away.

We were close enough to throw jokes around.

And he was a man I trusted.

I’d read his face, and this gentleman’s fortune is the real thing.

In the Joseon era it’s a face that would have run the constabulary.

That’s why he rose to a senior post among the prosecutors.

Not only that—a great run of office looked to be coming to him soon.

The feeling is exactly… Assembly member material.

“Attorney, please handle a civil complaint for me.”

“A complaint? Have you caused trouble?”

“Trouble, nothing. I’m only a practitioner of action for the realization of a just society.” (TL Note: 정의사회 구현, “the realization of a just society,” was the official slogan of the Fifth Republic under Chun Doo-hwan; Koreans use it now the way one uses a slogan nobody believed in the first time.)

“A practitioner of action for the realization of a just society? Pwahahahaha. Right. It isn’t you causing the trouble, it’s society causing it.”

Attorney Jo laughed his big open laugh.

This is why I was comfortable with the attorney.

He didn’t sort people by age before dealing with them.

“So, what’s the case?”

“A friend of mine lives in a children’s home, and city hall is trying to break it up without providing anywhere to move to. The official in charge and the mayor are suspicious, so put a reasonable amount of pressure on them.”

“Hmm… the mayor, is it… senior civil servants this time? You aren’t asking for a lawsuit, are you?”

He seemed to be thinking of an administrative suit.

But that isn’t what I want.

I didn’t want to poke men blinded by the money-sickness. (TL Note: 돈독이 오르다 — for the money-poison to rise in someone; Korean treats greed as an illness that gets into a person and spreads.)

“Dress it up as pro bono work, say the children’s home brought you a complaint. Nothing else is needed—just lay the ground so they come out as cooperative as possible about the new place the home is moving to.”

“That much, certainly.”

City hall was bound to pick holes, since they plainly had something to hide about the relocation.

At that point, leaning on them just enough to get their cooperation is already a success.

There’s nothing more frightening than corrupted administrative power.

If they pick at the home’s relocation over this and that, the thing could drag on for years and fall apart.

While an administrative suit ran, the children’s home would be smashed to pieces.

But using the attorney widens the room for a settlement by that much.

That is exactly the game that only gets played between large powers.

It’s also the reason I pay hundreds of millions a month to keep a major law firm.

“I’ll send the details of the case by email.”

“Yes, sir! I’ll have the attorney in charge finish this one off cleanly!”

“Come on~ why are you like this again.”

“Loyalty! I really am going to ride in a private jet.”

“To him who believes, a jet shall be granted.”

“Heh heh heh heh. Right. Thank you.”

And so the call with Attorney Jo ended too.

The entrance exam is almost here.

With money there was nothing that needed dragging out.

Giving instructions like this and then taking reports was enough.

The magic that money works makes everything possible.

“Hyeong-seok’s back at school too… well, this much is excellent.”

It had all come together as smoothly as I’d expected.

But a big piece of homework was still left to me.

Now comes the real war, the one with my actual profession.

“I have to clear it out starting tonight. Drag your feet for one more bite and you’ll pay for it badly.” (TL Note: 큰코다치다 — to get your big nose hurt; Korean for coming off far worse than you bargained for.)

The FX margin trade I’d buried last spring.

Time to close out the US dollar against the Canadian dollar.

My heart was pounding.

At the thought of opening the super compound-interest account I’d kept buried all this time, endorphins surged up.

I’d kept reinvesting the profits I made along the way.

One fall, then a second crash on top of it, and the profit that came out was enormous.

The honey pot I’d hidden away so carefully.

Tonight is the grand opening! (TL Note: 개봉 박두 — “the opening is at hand,” the line Korean film posters ran before a premiere.)

“Beautiful!!!”

I let out a cheer at the monitor.

Google, invested in through my personal account, had come near the share price I’d aimed at.

Four hundred billion won had become three trillion.

Truly an enormous return on the investment.

Compared with my other investments it isn’t that spectacular a profit, of course.

But I was satisfied.

American stock, bought to fool the eyes of the relevant authorities.

Google is still the lead stock on the NASDAQ in the year I died.

Later the Alphabet shares were split all the way to Class C.

Alphabet Class A shares, with one vote per share, are the ordinary stock.

Alphabet Class B shares, with ten votes per share, are the special stock the two founders hold.

Later still, Alphabet Class C shares were issued with no voting rights at all.

That’s an event that happens about seven years from now.

“A shame…”

I clicked my tongue.

Four hundred billion invested had come to nearly three trillion, and I wasn’t satisfied.

It’s my own clean personal money, with nothing legally wrong with it.

“Bye-bye to Google stock for a while too~.”

Once the financial crisis comes, Google stock will fall too.

With so much to sweep up, there’s no need to leave anything buried in Google. But Amazon, Google and apple stock I intend to sweep up at the next opportunity.

Tadak tadak.

I started putting the sell orders in for real.

The top price is still a few days off, but I began selling in slices.

And then…

I dumped everything into the enormous wall of bids propping up the bottom.

Whoever they were, they’re finished today.

“Whew!”

A short battle was over.

My selling, coming to three billion dollars, rocked the price for a moment, but it started climbing again.

It has the staying power you’d expect from an American stock.

This is why you can’t help investing in the big names.

“This one’s done~ and the next fellow is…”

The most nerve-racking moment arrived.

This was the one that had taken four billion dollars of starting capital, no less.

I’d averaged down and averaged down again.

Heart shaking, I put in the account password.

And then!

Fwaaaash!

A beam of light suddenly wrapped itself around me.

“Wh-what is this!”

(End of Chapter 68)