“Boss, it’s proceeding as you set it up. We’ve acquired a law firm specialized in mergers and acquisitions.”

“It’s an organization we’ll be using for important work from here on. Please give your best to managing it.”

“Don’t worry. The salaries are higher than anywhere else. The benefits are perfect too, so everyone is thoroughly enjoying themselves.”

An American organization began with money and ended with money.

I moved in thoroughly American business style.

I’d used Robert to buy a law firm.

It’s the most useful weapon I’ll be using from here on.

“And… please buy an NPE company too.”

“What? By NPE, do you mean a patent management finance company?”

“That’s right. Buy a solid one.”

“…Understood, Boss.”

The future opens for the man who prepares thoroughly.

I know future share prices and exchange rates, but I don’t know everything.

I prepared for war on the basis of the common sense and knowledge I have.

One piece of it is the patent monster, the thing called a Patent Troll.

Starting from the time of the financial crisis, patent lawsuits grow exponentially.

Private equity funds frightened by the financial crisis went looking for stable sources of return, and that was when they used patent litigation.

They don’t manufacture goods, so they don’t need cross-licensing either.

Instead, once the IT age arrives, the problem breaks out in a blaze.

Patents are the core of future development.

“Handle this work through a different law firm you buy. It has to be done in secret.”

“NPEs are an investment target for private equity too, so nobody treats the flow of funds as significant. How wide should I set the scope?”

Robert, who had cut his teeth in the financial world, knew patent monsters well too.

The patent lawsuit of the century that a company called Rambus ran was famous.

“To start with, buy every patent covering research into internet companies, cell phone wireless business, mobile messenger function patents, AI, big data and electric cars. The budget for buying patents is unlimited.”

“What? U-unlimited?”

“Split off a few new companies and run them under an intellectual property team leader system. Link it to my other email, report the progress, and execute as soon as approval comes.”

“I’ll prepare it.”

This is what was good about Robert.

He didn’t ask long questions, and he handled the work cleanly.

The reports that came up daily were laid out clearly.

Since I could see the important accounts, I had a grip on every bit of the returns.

Approvals went through like a cell network.

That’s why the small hours were my busiest time.

The organization had expanded greatly too.

The private equity funds had grown to about twenty.

Through them the capital was built up at high speed.

Before I knew it, the people abroad who serve as my hands and feet had passed a thousand.

The reach had spread out to law firms as well as futures companies of every kind.

“This is extremely important work. You have to find people who can comb through the university research institutes too. Set the salaries at the industry’s best.”

There’s nothing money can’t do.

Once the big wave came rolling in for real, American companies started releasing their talent.

“Don’t worry. I’m in the middle of buying a headhunting firm this time too.”

“That’s Robert for you!”

I didn’t hold back the praise either.

“I only have gratitude for your unrestricted support, Boss. Thanks to you, Boss, Wall Street has started paying attention to me.”

“Hahaha. Before long it won’t be attention, it’ll be fear.”

“As it happens, they say the Hillary supporters dislike me intensely.”

“Come February, the Republicans will dislike you right along with them.”

“I’m not worried. Thanks to you, Boss, I’m under the best protection there is. The security firm we bought last month is quite usable. If you need them, say the word. I’ll send bodyguards to Korea at once.”

What do you earn money for?

Shopping for companies of this and that kind was a solid pleasure.

Businesses going cheap are everywhere you look.

Buying the security firm took less than thirty million dollars.

That was on condition of taking on the existing debts and the personnel.

It’s made up of ex-Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Green Berets and CIA men.

Around a hundred people belonged to a company going under — people capable not only of close protection for special individuals but of stealing intelligence and assassinating key figures.

The company’s head wasn’t a businessman.

He treated his clients with honesty and trust, and went under.

I took over the firm and the bodyguards both.

I left the head in place.

Management problems can be handled by sending in a staff member anyway.

Of course, I didn’t accept all of them.

Reading their faces from photographs, I filtered out without mercy the ones with a strong rebellious streak or the look of betrayal in them.

Robert handled the first sorting of the talent coming under my management, and the final yes came from me.

The gains from face reading, seen and unseen, were enormous.

Robert followed my choices without question too.

“Provide bodyguards to the Obama camp too.”

“As it happens, we’ve had a request. They seem to need a lot of protection preparing for the Springfield declaration of candidacy in February.”

This is the other reason I bought the security company.

The security company’s people will go into the protection detail of Obama, the future president of the United States.

The American president is a political merchant.

He can parachute the people who pushed his election into posts, as much as he likes.

Unlike in Korea, American citizens take parachuting for granted.

More than half the American ambassadors at overseas missions were appointed that way.

He’s a mighty power who can appoint the cabinet and the people in key departments without confirmation hearings too.

I had to plant one more of my hands and feet wherever I could.

Close aides like bodyguards were needed all the more.

The opportunity was just right.

Even after the declaration of candidacy in February 2008, most people believed Hillary would be elected and lined up on that side.

While nobody was paying attention to Obama, I stepped forward actively.

From here on there’s nothing left but sucking honey.

Unlike Clinton, Hillary had no luck with the presidency.

The face reading I did said the same.

The classic face of a number two.

If she had given up on becoming president, that odd Trump would never have become president in 2016, as anyone could see.

“Robert, let’s meet in Hong Kong ten days from now.”

I’m preparing a trip to Hong Kong.

It’s time to have a serious business talk with Robert.

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Haha. We aren’t lovers—looking forward to it? Let’s meet and have a light drink.”

On official matters Robert’s tone was stiff.

“The Boss is far more precious to me than my lover — there’s no comparison.”

But Robert didn’t hide his affection(?).

The uncle’s lines made my hands curl up at regular intervals.

“Your lover would be hurt to hear it.”

“A lover is only a lover, but the one benefactor of my life is the Boss alone.”

He’s an uncle who knows how to say a pleasing thing too.

A while back I got a report by email that he’s seeing a woman in her late twenties.

Robert didn’t hide even his private life.

“I… like Robert too.”

Kuh! What am I supposed to do with a line like that!

I had no choice either.

For my loyal retainer, I had to send a cuckoo or two like this. (TL Note: 뻐꾸기를 날리다 — “to fly a cuckoo”; Korean slang for sweet talk sent out to please someone, from the bird that leaves its eggs in another’s nest.)

“Thank you, Boss. Then get some rest.”

Robert knows it’s the small hours in Korea.

“Yes, Robert. Let’s talk next time.”

Beep.

The international call ended.

“Agh!”

At once I brushed down the goosebumps that had come up on my arms.

And then I pressed another number.

The time was well past midnight.

The results announcement came after midnight.

Calmly, I pressed the numbers for the automated line.

“Please select your examination number.”

Her stiff voice came through.

Following her guidance, I pressed the buttons.

And then the message came…

“Hanguk University, law department, examination number forty-four, Mr. Jang Tae-san: you have passed. Our sincere congratulations. Your entry into Hanguk University…”

“Yessss!!!”

I let out a shout at the news of passing that came down the phone.

“Jang Tae-san~ well done.”

Entry into Hanguk University law, which in the past was only possible in a dream, had come true.

A pass built with buffs from several gods, but my chest swelled anyway.

I picked up my phone and pressed the speed dial.

“Mom.”

“Yes~ son.”

My mom hadn’t gone to sleep either; she’d been waiting.

She knew today was the announcement day.

“I passed.”

“R-really!”

“Yes. I just confirmed it.”

“Honey! Tae-san says he’s passed!”

“What? Really? Hahahahaha.”

My father’s big open laugh came down the phone.

A small piece of filial duty for parents who have lived only for their children.

Passing into Hanguk University law was one of those small pieces of filial duty.

“Writer Jang, how have you been~.”

“Thanks to you, President, I’ve passed into Hanguk University law.”

“Oho! So now you become my junior. Hahaha. Congratulations.”

The call came from the president of Nice Media.

I wrote whenever I rested, for amusement. The manuscripts I’d handed to the publisher had passed fifty volumes in count, and a book came out steadily every month.

Taking dictation from the text stored in my head was about the level of it, but it was pure fun all the same.

Every one of the eighteen volumes published so far had passed three hundred thousand copies.

A monster hit that never made the tallies.

Nice Media was taking over the genre market faster than it had in the past.

The president’s voice was full of energy.

But he didn’t know the paper book market doesn’t have long left now.

“Nothing unusual going on?”

“With your high-speed writing, we’re having an absolutely fantastic season. You’re Nice Media’s treasure, Writer Jang.”

The treasure isn’t me, it’s that man.

I was curious about what had happened to the writer Jang Hui-jae.

“But there’s something. Earlier this year there was a matter I didn’t tell you about.”

“What? What matter?”

“I can’t give the name, but one of the writers with our publisher brought in a manuscript called Cloud Warrior.”

“What? Cloud Warrior?”

“Good heavens… it didn’t differ from your writing by one particle. No—whatever else, there’s a limit to how far plagiarism goes. And the way he kept insisting the whole thing was his own manuscript when every sentence was copied… I gave him a serious dressing-down.”

My conscience took a sharp jab.

The writer Jang Hui-jae was going to buy a house and get married on that work…

And I’d taken all of it away from him.

If I even knew his account number I’d want to send the manuscript fees back.

It’s a disaster that happened during the little while I was making seed money to invest with.

“A-and then?”

“He says that even if it killed him he didn’t copy your work, Writer Jang. He insisted he’d been preparing the manuscript since a year ago, so I showed him every manuscript you’d given us.”

Oh no! What do I do!

I felt all over again the shock Writer Jang must have taken.

Which is what you get for not finishing the manuscript by 2020 and making a criminal out of me.

Long, and far too long.

“He must have been shocked?”

“Yes. He went back with an empty look on his face.”

“So what happened?”

“But a little while ago he brought in a manuscript again. He must be a diligent fellow after all—he didn’t despair, he brought another one.”

“A manuscript? What’s it about?”

I was curious about Writer Jang Hui-jae’s next work.

His outstanding creative ability and wit were one pillar of Korea’s genre market.

“It’s a novel called I Am a Noble!“

“What? I Am a Noble???”

Something in history has got tangled here.

I Am a Noble is the work that’s something like the beginning of the other-world raid genre.

It’s absolutely not a thing that should be born in 2008.

It’s a work that explodes into a hit along with the start of the e-book market.

“It’s a raid story of a kind I’ve never seen before… it does seem like fun, but I’m worried because the genre is still unfamiliar to readers.”

In 2008, game novels, other-world fantasy and martial arts were still the mainstream.

It felt a little early.

But if Writer Jang Hui-jae wrote a raid story, that too will be a hit.

“Publish it. That work will sell.”

“What? It’ll sell?”

President Choi asked in surprise.

“I have a feeling. Print a first run of at least five thousand copies, no question, and send it out.”

“Five thousand copies?”

President, don’t worry, just print them!

I’ll make up ten thousand for you.

I made an enormous pile of money using Writer Jang Hui-jae’s work as my stake.

If I have the minimum of a conscience, I have to give back at least a few crumbs.

“Publish it without fail. I’ll guarantee it.”

“Hahahaha. If our monster-hit writer says so, then understood. The moment the manuscript comes in, we print.”

President Choi smiled broadly.

Writer Hui-jae. I’m sorry~ when we meet later I’ll definitely slip you some rice-cake money. (TL Note: 떡값 — “rice-cake money”, the cash handed out at holidays; in Korean it is also the standard word for a quiet envelope of money, somewhere between a bonus and a bribe.)

My sincerity toward him.

One of the secrets of Heaven’s Reversal that only heaven and I know.

(End of Chapter 76)