When Lee Hyun-woo returned to Korea, news of the share exchange between three companies broke out.
The world, and especially the financial market, was shocked.
- “Jungle is exchanging shares with Macro Soft at a 1:1 ratio?”
This news immediately affected the over-the-counter market, i.e., the unlisted stock exchange.
Just then, Shin Dong-woon, the head of the financial department, reported the current situation to Lee Hyun-woo.
“The stock price has surpassed 80,000 won per share. After calculating, the market capitalization is 11.5 trillion won.”
He was visibly excited.
And rightly so, because after preparing for the IPO for nearly a year and with the IPO scheduled for early next year, it showed signs of a big hit.
Although Lee Hyun-woo kept a calm expression, he couldn’t hide his joy inside.
‘It’s a smooth road. My goal of early retirement might not just end as a dream.’
If it truly exceeds 11 trillion won, it would rank within the top 5 in market capitalization as of 1998.
Of course, they would have to wait and see, but for now, the good news kept coming.
Soon, Jungle USA’s IPO was coming up, and judging by the current atmosphere, it seemed they could raise quite a lot of funds.
Shin Dong-woon also mentioned this.
“With things like this, I’m curious to see the result of Jungle USA’s IPO. I wonder how much it will be.”
“Yes, I’m curious too.”
“There are even talks of 50 billion dollars.”
“Could it really reach that much?”
“It’s true. And they say that’s not even the high estimate.”
50 billion dollars is almost 50 trillion won in our currency.
With Jungle’s stake being about 15%, it means they’d instantly hold a stock valuation of 7.5 trillion won.
Jungle had already become a stock giant with Jungle Japan.
And about half of Jungle’s shares belonged to Lee Hyun-woo.
‘Wow, if what this guy says is true, I’ll end up with more money than I thought.’
Let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.
Thinking this to himself, Lee Hyun-woo tried to calm his voice.
“The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Let’s just wait and see.”
“Hahaha, yes, understood. I’ll deliberately lower my expectations. Then the surprise and joy will be doubled.”
“Yes, hahaha.”
Lee Hyun-woo laughed off Shin Dong-woon’s words.
But not long after, looking at the funds gathered for Jungle USA’s subscription, he couldn’t hide his astonishment.
A whopping 200 billion dollars, i.e., over 200 trillion won in our currency, was stacked up as deposit money.
After some time passed, it finally got listed, and even on the first day, it rose record-high.
『Jungle USA surpasses 75 billion dollars in market capitalization on the first day!』
A 75 trillion won IT company was born.
Lee Hyun-woo was taken aback, and Shin Dong-woon rushed to the CEO’s office to show off his calculation skills.
“The stock valuation our company holds is a whopping 11.25 trillion won!”
“Haha…”
“I’m a bit hesitant to say this, but… congratulations.”
“Yes… thank you…”
If Jungle’s stock valuation was 11.25 trillion won, about half of that belonged to Lee Hyun-woo.
In other words, he instantly became a 5.625 trillion-won asset owner.
Adding the shares of Jungle Japan, Lee Hyun-woo held about 7 trillion won.
Lastly, Jungle Korea was not yet listed, but when the IPO day came.
‘It would be over 10 trillion won at the very least.’
There was a high chance that the richest person in Korea would be born that day.
Inside, Shin Dong-woon offered congratulations, but after work, his girlfriend Kim Ah-young was as happy as if it were her own achievement.
“Hyun-woo, you really became an incredible rich person.”
“Yeah, life is going well.”
“It’s like we have our own Billy Kates in our country.”
“I was lucky. We are completely in an era of bubbles now.”
“An era of bubbles?”
“Yeah. In fact, telecom stocks are valued too highly compared to their performance. Someday, the bubble will burst.”
“That’s… a scary thing to say. But you say it so casually.”
“Did I…?”
But it was true. Even though he wished his past life and this life wouldn’t replay the same history, it was impossible to prevent such bubbles.
‘But I shouldn’t talk about it so casually.’
Realizing she made Lee Hyun-woo uncomfortable, Kim Ah-young quickly tried to make up for it.
“I made a mistake. Obviously, it’s not like it doesn’t matter.”
“……”
“Yeah, just last year, you were worried about our country facing the foreign exchange crisis and entering the IMF regime. To warn people, you even created Nostradamus’s blog.”
“I did…”
So should he bring out the temporarily retired Nostradamus again to warn about the dot-com bubble?
‘No. I can’t do that every time.’
The IMF foreign exchange crisis and the dot-com bubble couldn’t be compared.
The former was a much bigger shock than the latter.
And there were still card crises, financial crises, new corona, and other huge economic tsunamis to come, and dealing with each would take all his time in his second life.
‘I stopped one big thing, so I’ve done enough. Yes, indeed.’
Thinking this to himself, Lee Hyun-woo smiled at Kim Ah-young.
“I just said it because it looked too much like a bubble, so don’t worry.”
“Ah…”
“More importantly, we should focus more on our story now. Right?”
Kim Ah-young also smiled. By ‘our story,’ Lee Hyun-woo meant their marriage.
After the formal meeting between families, both parents had been in frequent contact.
Recently, Kim Ah-young’s mother, Jang Hee-jin, had subtly asked about finalizing the wedding date.
Lee Hyun-woo felt the same way and continued the conversation on that topic today.
“How about April?”
“April? It’ll be warm. Not bad.”
“Where would you like to go for our honeymoon?”
“Well, do you have any specific place in mind?”
“Hmm, I haven’t decided on a place, but I’d like the duration to be about two weeks.”
“Two… two weeks?”
“Yeah, like my brother, I think I’ll feel satisfied with 14 nights and 15 days.”
“Ah…”
“Why? You don’t like it?”
“No, it sounds good.”
Kim Ah-young began to feel a sense of reality.
Lee Hyun-woo mentioned the wedding date and even the honeymoon.
‘Compared to Hyun-woo, I haven’t achieved much.’
When she first met Lee Hyun-woo, Jungle was a very small start-up in the information and communication industry.
But now, it had become a leading innovative company in Korea and might even rank within the top five in market capitalization.
‘It’s not like I haven’t worked hard.’
No matter how much she thought about it, Lee Hyun-woo seemed to know how to succeed too well.
Indeed, Jungle USA’s record-breaking IPO was continually driving up Jungle’s stock value in the over-the-counter market.
The next day, Shin Dong-woon excitedly reported again.
“It surpassed 100,000 won. At this rate, it might easily break Jungle Japan’s record on the listing day.”
For reference, Jungle Japan’s first-day market capitalization record was 1 trillion yen, i.e., about 10 trillion won.
“Mr. Shin.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“You don’t need to report the over-the-counter stock trading results to me every time anymore.”
“Oh… yes… understood.”
“It’s not because it’s bothersome. Just that too-high expectations can lead to great disappointment later. There is still time until the listing, and we don’t know what variables might come up, so let’s save the excitement for later.”
“Yes, yes, understood, haha…”
Only then did Shin Dong-woon realize he had gotten carried away in his excitement.
‘Indeed, the CEO is right. If I get too excited in the middle, the joy I would feel later would be less.’
On the other hand, Lee Hyun-woo was realizing that the snowball he started had grown much bigger than initially expected, and the more he rolled it, the bigger it would become.
Of course, the snowball represented Jungle.
‘But can I control all of this?’
Humans are neither machines nor gods. There were limits to what one could handle.
Although talents were continuously joining Jungle, and they were quickly finding their places after a few trials and errors, Lee Hyun-woo thought it was still far from enough.
‘I am just one person, but there’s too much I need to pay attention to.’
Then what would be the difference from his past life?
Even a 14-night, 15-day honeymoon seemed impossible to enjoy comfortably.
‘This won’t do. I shouldn’t take on more work.’
From now on, just managing what was already in place seemed like it would consume a lot of time.
This premonition was not wrong.
Indeed, a tsunami of work began to approach him.
“This Saturday is the finals of Space War. The broadcaster insists that you must attend… What should we do?”
“Of course, I should go, right?”
“Yes, I will inform them accordingly.”
As soon as one Saturday schedule was set in a conversation with Han Se-jin, another one came up.
“CEO Hyun Chang-soo is also asking for some time on Sunday. What should we do?”
“CEO Hyun? Why?”
“It seems to be about the new office move that was mentioned last time. He wants you to come and grace the occasion…”
Now that he thought about it, Kim Yoon-sun, Clones, and Hong Yo-han from Perfect Pitch had also contacted him recently.
Since Hyun Entertainment was moving to a bigger place, they wanted him to come.
It was a hard thing to refuse.
Hong Yo-han was his synthesizer teacher, and Kim Yoon-sun and Clones were also friends who came to Jungle’s new building’s opening ceremony.
“Yes, then I will stop by on Sunday.”
Thus, his entire weekend was gone.
And that was not all. Shortly after, Hwang Do-hoon, the head of the external cooperation department, came by.
“Do you know that the Chinese Minister of Commerce is visiting next week? Originally, he was only going to meet the Prime Minister, but he contacted me about setting up a meeting with you. It seems we might finalize the Beijing expansion during that meeting.”
“Ah, yes, then… I should definitely meet him.”
Entering the Chinese market was not something to be taken lightly.
Since Macro Soft had dominated the computer operating system, their portal site could easily come in first.
‘Wow, my schedule filled up so quickly.’
And the bigger problem was that this wasn’t the end.
Soon, Lee Hyun-woo’s phone rang.
(This is Chairman Park Jin-yong from Samjin Computer.)
“Ah, yes, Chairman.”
(I think you’ll need to make some time next week. It looks like the e-book reader will be completed.)
Since it was the first device that Jungle was going to release, he couldn’t just leave the final decision to the working-level staff.
“Okay, I’ll make time.”
After hanging up the phone, Lee Hyun-woo realized.
‘Success always comes with a price.’
In this case, the price was his free time.
It was clear that he would soon feel overwhelmed.
‘I need to find a solution.’
