[The characters, places, organizations, events, and so on appearing in this work have no relation whatsoever to reality and are entirely fictional creations of the author’s imagination.]
――――――――――
Henry immediately picked up the receiver and ordered Gilberto to look into the possibility of acquiring not only the satellite list he had instructed him on earlier, but also fashion, luxury goods, and food-and-beverage brands.
“And Gilberto, we need to put together an investment team as quickly as possible too.”
Gilberto’s voice came through, tinged with a sigh.
“…Boss, to be honest, I have no idea why you need this information. Broadcast satellites, clothing, luxury goods, doughnuts, and coffee? While you’re at it, why not look for hamburgers and pizza too?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea! Add those as well, please. And when will recruitment be finished for the Future Team’s game console division and the investment team?”
Henry could almost hear Gilberto pressing his fingers to his temples.
“Haa. The investment team you said was the most urgent received offers today, and we’re still waiting for replies. As for the game console side, we just got in touch with Tiger Electronics, as you instructed, and scheduled a visit. The patent team will go talk to them tomorrow, but… Boss, is that plastic component patent really worth one million dollars?”
“I guarantee it is. Even if we have to license the patent to that company for free, make sure we bring the patent and the developer over to our side for under one million dollars, no matter what. Contact me as soon as the team setup is complete, and send me the list as quickly as possible.”
“Bo—”
Henry coldly hung up without listening to the rest. It was obvious it would only be a repeat of the nagging he had heard when he told him to look into the satellite business.
‘Ah, but having to give every one of these instructions myself looks pretty pathetic. I need a secretary team too.’
The system was still too underdeveloped for him to even dream of having a female secretary like in the movies. He was already busy enough trying to hire other talents; Henry’s skin wasn’t thick enough to order them to start by hiring a female secretary. If he had the sort of shameless personality to go that far, he would have told them to call a call girl long ago.
‘I can decide which brands to enter after looking at the list, and what’s left is finding things worth acquiring inside Japan… But can I really not think of anything about Japan besides manga, anime, and porn? Well, it’s not urgent, so I’ll think about it while taking it easy.’
“Ah, but what should I do for fun…”
In New York in 1979, the only things one could do alone for fun were reading, watching TV, or going to the movies. Just in case, Henry opened a stack of documents on trust law that had been lying among the papers and began studying.
‘Wait a minute, fuck?! You can’t even take out a personal loan using a trust as collateral?! And… ah. I knew it wasn’t allowed, but this isn’t just a simple fine?’
As he turned the pages, Henry’s eyes filled with shock. The regulations written in the legal texts were far more intricate and ruthless than he had expected. And Henry’s second plan ran aground before it could even begin.
‘Wow… I have to separate the family office and think tank all over again! If I screw this up, it’ll get tangled with my personal assets and I’ll lose everything!’
Henry clutched at his hair and collapsed onto the desk. He had thought that becoming the head of a chaebol family would mean walking a flower-strewn path, but reality was an extreme job that required walking a tightrope between legal codes and double ledgers.
.
.
.
At six o’clock the next morning, Henry opened his eyes as always. Waking his body with a swim, having a light meal, and then enjoying a ride had become his new routine. Lately, he had been eating well in the evenings, and a strong drink before bed while planning the future had become a habit, so he had to move his body if only to maintain his figure.
As he mounted the horse and took the reins, he felt with his entire body that raising his health stat had been worth it. To attribute this simply to the youth of a man in his early twenties would be understating his recovery and stamina, which were beyond standard.
‘Does it make sense that my thighs aren’t sore the day after first learning to ride? My body has definitely gotten stronger.’
With improved athletic sense and stamina, he had only learned for a few days, yet he was already at the point where he could freely enjoy riding without an instructor. Of course, part of that was thanks to the horse that William, the riding club manager, had proudly called top-class; it was exceptionally gentle and obedient.
After finishing a refreshing shower, Henry began his morning work with a cup of Blue Mountain coffee in hand. On the desk in his office, reports transmitted by Telex were waiting for him in a pile of paper.
From the day after the meeting, his workload had exploded due to recruitment and the reassignment of the existing family committees. Because the HR team had yet to get on track, every decision pointed back to Henry, the proposer of the organization. At the time, concepts like a “family office” or “think tank” were not as established as they would be in the future, so the working-level staff had no choice but to ask Henry’s intentions on even the smallest matters.
If yesterday’s work had mainly been personnel placement, what filled today’s Telexes were the résumés of recommended candidates. Each document seemed to be asking Henry, “Which of these people would be good as a manager?”
Scanning through ten-page résumés packed with universities, former workplaces, and impressive job titles, Henry let out a hollow laugh.
“How am I supposed to know just from this whether this guy is any good or not?”
It was impossible to grasp a person’s character or abilities one hundred percent from documents alone. In the end, he would either have to interview them himself or place someone trustworthy in the position, but right now, Henry had far too few people around him he could trust.
‘Ah, I seriously need clones. Clones! I already need three people: one bastard child insurance policy, one figurehead president to run things locally in Japan, and even a talent who can wield personnel authority. Tsk… points. Haa, taxes. As things stand, there really is no way.’
Henry shoved the résumés roughly to one side and searched through the pile of documents, wondering if the list he had ordered yesterday had already arrived, but came up empty. A sigh of disappointment escaped him on its own. He did not need it immediately, but it was perfect for understanding this era.
Had Gilberto seen him, he would have protested, “How are we supposed to investigate hundreds of companies you ordered after three in the afternoon yesterday in half a day!” But Henry could not help looking forward to it all the same.
Even when he looked over the résumés again, the careers were all solid, but he still could not judge how well they would actually perform in the field. It would have been nice if, like a game, their possessed skills were visible in numbers, but this was reality, and in his previous life he had been, at best, an assistant manager on a marketing team. Naturally, he had no HR experience whatsoever.
After briefly considering whether he should conduct the interviews himself, Henry decided to shove the matter onto the elders who possessed the vibe that came only from long experience. It seemed far more reliable for seasoned veterans to filter them out than for a complete novice like himself to clumsily read faces. A large part of him also thought, What chairman of a major corporation personally interviews every working-level employee?
Henry immediately picked up the receiver.
“Good morning, Gilberto. I reviewed the materials you sent, but rather than having me decide, send these to the elders first and have them conduct an initial screening. I’ll meet each candidate at the final interview and decide then.”
“Understood, Boss. The list of satellite businesses will be organized by this afternoon. I’ll report the results on the Tiger Electronics patent by phone as soon as they come in. Ah, and Boss. Have you perhaps heard of ARF Electronics in Manhattan?”
Henry quietly murmured the familiar name and searched his memory.
‘ARF Electronics? That’s the company the novel’s protagonist swallowed up early on. Wasn’t it the place that overextended itself and later went under during the Yatari Shock? It was listed, so acquiring it was troublesome, and it was full of debt, so the best development was to just pluck out the engineers and patents right before it collapsed.’
“I know it. Isn’t that the company about to release a new game console soon? Are you suggesting an acquisition?”
“No, Boss! An acquisition? Of course not. That company pulled in cash recklessly for mass production, and they’re already two months behind on salaries. Thanks to that, it’s become very easy to poach their technical staff. If we seize this opportunity, we can put together the game console team within two days.”
“Good. Then start setting it up today. I have a building under my name, don’t I? Use that as the office, and establish the corporation under my personal name as well. For the initial operating funds, proceed in the direction of taking out a bank loan under my name.”
“…Why have you been insisting on using your personal name since yesterday? You’re not yet at an age where you need to worry about inheritance, and there’s no practical benefit when it only increases the taxes.”
At Gilberto’s reasonable point, Henry clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘I don’t want to either! The system is telling me to, so what am I supposed to do? And the early records absolutely have to be clean. Once I succeed later on, there’ll be swarms of bastards digging into my past like dogs, and it’s best not to give them any opening in the first place rather than suppressing them with power afterward.’
“Whew, that isn’t all. Since we’ve decided to move under my personal name, we’ll also have to separate the family office and the think tank we were originally going to place above all subsidiaries. Establish them jointly under my personal name and the trust’s name, divide the shares exactly fifty-fifty, and have the advisory fees paid under my personal name as well. Name it Devenger Asset Management Services, and structure it with the office and think tank beneath it.”
“I’m glad you’re aware of the legal risks, Boss. But are you truly going to do that?”
Gilberto’s voice was mixed with deep concern.
“It hasn’t been established yet, so changing the structure won’t be a problem. But the moment you divide the shares, at least five million dollars of debt will be created under your personal name, Boss. All services provided to you from now on will also have to be meticulously recorded in the books, and you’ll have to pay full price for them. Of course, it will become transparent enough to stand proud even if an investigation comes in, but the personal burden on you will be far too great.”
“Congratulations, Gilberto. Thanks to you, the trust’s cash has been very firmly protected.”
Henry swallowed a hollow laugh and continued.
“Apply for a loan under my name at Chase Manhattan Bank. I don’t care whether it’s a bridge loan, something like a startup loan, or a loan secured by trust beneficiary rights. Let’s make the amount forty-five million dollars. If we account for the five million dollars in initial investment for Devenger Asset Management, as well as the initial operating costs of the game console company and investment company we’ll be establishing, we’ll need to borrow about that much.”
“Boss, do you really have to go this far? If the businesses perform poorly and you can’t even pay the interest, it will be a serious disaster!”
“I know, that serious disaster! Haa… But I have to do this. There’s no helping it. Proceed with a one-year bullet repayment at a fixed rate. I don’t care if the interest rate is fifteen percent, so contact the bank first and inform me immediately. Since it’s a personal loan, I’ll have to go in person. I’ll decide the name of the game console company and let you know before lunch. Then, good work.”
Henry hung up before hearing Gilberto’s reply. He felt like shit. Because he did not have a single excuse to offer in response to the question, “Why go out of your way to suffer under your personal name?”
As the owner holding full authority over the trust, he was already in a situation where he could freely handle the trust funds, so taking on separate personal debt to run a business was something even an idiot would not do. But it was not as though he could tell the truth and say, “I have to pay taxes to earn points!” Everything had been twisted because of those damned points.
The one saving grace was a single sentence embedded in the trust’s articles.
[Ensuring personal safety shall be deemed a necessary expense for preventing the depreciation of trust assets.]
Thanks to this clause, the fact that Devenger Shield guarded Henry for free could at least be recognized as a legitimate service. If he had also had to pay security expenses out of his personal pocket, Henry might have seriously hurled curses at the status window.
‘Right, let’s consider it fortunate that at least my body is comfortable. Now I just have to think about how to grow this forty-five million dollars.’
Henry let out sigh after sigh and calmed his disordered mind. It was time to decide the name of the game console company that would soon be established. He had considered preemptively snatching the name of a famous game company that would rule the world in the future, but since this was, nominally, the first company he would found under his own name, he decided to put some care into it.
“Joybox and Enjoy. These two both sound good and roll off the tongue. But considering future expandability, ‘Enjoy’ is definitely better. To enjoy, to savor. The meaning is perfect too.”
For a moment, Henry thought of the far future, when in Korea this word would take on a strange meaning, but he soon shook his head.
‘Well, I can just secure it in advance now and dominate even the Korean market. By then, the standard definition of the word Enjoy will be my company.’
Having decided on the company name “Enjoy,” Henry immediately called Gilberto.
“Gilberto, I’ve decided the game console company’s name will be ‘Enjoy.’”
“You mean Enjoy Electronics?”
“No, no. Cut out the unnecessary parts and make it clean, one word only. Just ‘Enjoy.’”
“…Mm, understood, Boss. I’ll handle it as best I can.”
“Ah, right. Don’t establish the corporation immediately. If someone nitpicks later, it’ll be a hassle, so get the loan approved first and then proceed. We have to establish Devenger Asset Management Services through joint investment first, then move after that. And put some desks and chairs into the empty building under my name so we can use it right away. Anyway, I’m counting on you!”
After hanging up, Henry collapsed onto the desk and muttered.
‘I really am that stupid bastard, fuck… Haa, all I can do is sigh.’
With a golden mountain called the trust beside him, he was stuck in the pitiful situation of deliberately taking on personal debt and even having to take care of office furniture piece by piece. Henry’s sighs showed no sign of stopping.