The crash, now being called the dot-com bubble collapse, kept squeezing the market tighter and tighter. As the old saying goes, the higher the mountain, the deeper the valley—and the market's plunge had gone on far past anything anyone had expected.

"I'm at a complete loss for how far the KOSDAQ might keep falling. I can't tell you how worried I am."

Chung-seop Jo sat across from Seong-ho, his face full of worry.

"If America stops, we'll stop too."

Seong-ho spoke, looking at the massive headline on the newspaper on his desk.

[NASDAQ Breaks Below 2,000]

The headline, printed in enormous letters, was more than enough to strike fear into anyone who read it—and it landed especially hard on Chung-seop.

"Representative… the index broke past 5,000 and now it's fallen under 2,000… aren't we all going to end up ruined at this rate…?"

"When things fall apart, doesn't that open up new opportunities?"

"…Will opportunities really come?"

Chung-seop asked in a hushed voice. This was, after all, exactly what he'd come to ask.

Seong-ho pushed the folded newspaper aside on his desk and spoke. "How's the push into the Chinese market coming along?"

"Getting the securities license shouldn't be difficult. As you said, given how important guanxi is in China, we prioritized courting the people who can exert real influence over license approval. They've promised to use their pull, so if we get the license within the year, we should be able to start full operations from next year."

"Good to hear. And the U.S. side?"

"That shouldn't be a problem either. The U.S. isn't especially hard to enter. But why China and America…?"

Chung-seop tilted his head, puzzled that the conversation about opportunity had suddenly turned to China and America.

"Don't tell me you mean for us to find our opportunity in China and America?"

"Exactly that."

"But Representative, however much of a rising market China may be, it's still a communist state. It wouldn't be strange at all for a company there to simply dissolve into thin air overnight."

Chung-seop went on, his expression one of frustration.

"And…