There are people who pack survival bags.
People who prepare survival supplies to last them until they can evacuate in case disaster strikes.
Perhaps you could say they’re making an unnecessary fuss.
Survival supplies for a disaster? Must have absolutely nothing better to do….
But in truth, there’s no reason to see them that way.
There’s nothing wrong with people who have the means preparing for an emergency.
As long as they don’t go overboard, blindly believe false information, or start acting like they have some kind of delusional disorder.
If they’re doing what they want to do, why stop them?
What I’m doing is the same as packing a survival backpack.
The only difference is that the scale is a bit larger.
In any case, the minimum preparations are complete. I’ve now passed the first stage of a long preparation.
So now I prepare for the next stage. While watching how the world turns.
The doctor in America was still living busily, and he continued to share information with me.
The group the doctor belonged to called themselves The Prepared.
The Prepared. Those who prepare.
But when I heard that name, I couldn’t help snickering.
I mean, come on. It’s kind of… like it has that edgy middle-schooler vibe.
Maybe because of that, the professor simply called them P.
That was also, well… not entirely free of childishness, but still better than The Prepared. Or was it?
In any case, P’s activities were impressive. From the very beginning, it was a place where renowned intellectuals had gathered. The doctor was one of those people too.
So the information provided from that side was of quite high quality.
It was slightly biased data, but numbers don’t lie.
Because their perspective was fixed on “what could happen due to the explosive growth of plants,” the information P sent over looked practically like a book of prophecy.
Predictions that became reality. And with a high batting average, too.
It was only natural. They clearly understood the cause-and-effect relationships.
So it wasn’t difficult for them to predict what would happen going forward based on those things.
Things that would happen, sooner or later.
So I make use of it. It’s extremely useful information to me.
The doctor told me not to leak this information outside.
Well, I agree with that opinion too. These are things that would be hard to tell other people.
Who would believe this? Conspiracy theories and doomsday theories are what people most ignore and guard themselves against.
So any sane person would obviously snort after hearing this and let it go in one ear and out the other.
Even so, I need people.
I’m confident I can survive alone. I’ll probably live much longer than most others. I’ve prepared for that.
But surviving alone has no meaning.
What I want is to have an advantage in a ruined world and live an interesting life, not to live all by myself in lonely silence in a world where everyone else is dead.
If I wanted that, I could just go live on some remote deserted island right now. Why would I be doing all this?
So I need at least a minimum number of people. A minimal group I can use whenever necessary.
In fact, if I thought of it that way, going to P would have been the right choice. But there, I would be the lowest-grade talent with no abilities whatsoever.
I can’t be special there. I can’t take the lead and do anything either.
I don’t want to be the tail of a dragon. I want to be the head of a snake.
It seems there’s still a little time left before the world falls apart, so I should have a decent amount of time to prepare.
So I prepare while doing two things in parallel. It seems like that should be fine.
First, for that, I needed money. I had the money I’d borrowed and what remained, but that wasn’t enough.
They say money will become meaningless once the world ends, but until then, money is everything in this world.
So I have to make money. But I’m short on time.
I know the world is going to fall apart, and I know what’s going to happen next.
So there are many ways to make money using that.
The problem is, they take a long time. It’s not as if I can start a business or anything.
So I look for a way to earn money quickly and in a short period of time.
I thought about it for a long while and forced my sluggish brain to work.
The best method was stocks, after all.
A place where I could move a large sum of money and realize profits immediately.
Originally, it was a place I wouldn’t even have looked at.
I was ignorant about stocks, and I had no confidence that I could make money with them.
But not now. I know stocks that are certain to fall.
So all I need to do is figure out how to use that.
What I did was buy put options on airline stocks.
I chose the most suitable airline in the American stock market.
The place I chose was one that had been around for quite a long time. And recently, it had reduced its maintenance staff.
So I bought put options on that stock.
A stock currently at 30 dollars per share.
I entered into 3,800 contracts with a six-month maturity, a strike price of 25 dollars, and a premium of 1 dollar.
In other words, I bet about 500 million won on the airline’s stock falling below 25 dollars.
Put options are really difficult. But I boldly went for it.
A strike price of 25 dollars means I can sell that stock for 25 dollars anytime before maturity.
In other words, if the stock is 30 dollars like it is now, I’m doing something stupid.
But if the airline’s stock falls below 24 dollars after subtracting my premium cost, that’s when I start making a profit.
If the airline’s stock becomes 23 dollars, I can make 100 dollars per contract.
That’s because in put options, 100 shares make up one contract.
So if the airline’s stock price becomes 23 dollars, it means I can earn 150,000 dollars.
At the current exchange rate, that’s about 230 million won.
The further the stock price falls, the more insanely my rate of return rises.
From below 24 dollars, every 1-dollar drop means 230 million won. It’s an absurd amount of money.
So now what I have to do is hope something happens to the airline.
Truly… it couldn’t be more ironic.
To think I have to pray for an accident to happen, or for it to be driven to the verge of collapse, in order for me to make money.
But this is something that will happen even if I don’t do this.
The ones most vulnerable to the destabilization of weather phenomena and the mass proliferation of pollen and spores are airlines.
An accident doesn’t necessarily have to happen. Maintenance costs are already skyrocketing like mad.
An aircraft engine is an extremely sensitive object.
It has to fly that heavy body high up into the sky, so there’s nothing more important.
That means aircraft maintenance costs can’t be ignored. But airlines can’t exactly stop operating either.
Maintenance costs will surge, and profits will deteriorate. If they neglect it? That will lead to accidents.
Of course, it probably won’t go that far… but you never know what will happen in this world.
After buying 500 million won’s worth of put options, my daily life began with waking up in the morning and checking the stock price.
In truth, if I’d bought 500 million won’s worth of put options, I should have been watching the stock chart all night long. But I didn’t.
Because I know it will fall. It’s only a matter of time.
So I don’t worry. I simply wake up in the morning, check the stock price, and skim through to see if there’s any particular news.
While doing that, I prepare other things at the same time.
I need to do things besides creating my own front yard. This alone isn’t enough.
For the first time in a very long while, I called one of my university classmates.
Baek Jinho. The third son of the current chairman of Seonyang Group.
When Baek Jinho was attending university, the chairman of Seonyang Group was Jinho’s grandfather.
Maybe because of that, Jinho didn’t receive much attention during our school days.
My classmates and I knew about Jinho’s family background, but we didn’t think of it as anything particularly special.
No. There were quite a few guys who tried to leech off him, weren’t there?
It was just that Jinho kept a proper distance from those guys.
In any case, one year after we graduated from university, Jinho’s father became the chairman of Seonyang Group.
So after that, I couldn’t contact him easily. After all, a considerable social gap had formed between us.
But now I do. I have nothing to lose. If anything, I’m the one giving him an opportunity, aren’t I?
So I contact him with a light heart. Though I don’t expect it to be easy to get in touch.
Unexpectedly, I was able to reach Jinho easily. And I was even able to arrange a meeting with him.
Now then, who is the lucky one here?
Well, I haven’t even brought up the matter yet, so that thought is a little premature.
“Hey. Jeonghyeon.”
“It’s been a while.”
Yeoksam-dong, where Seonyang Group’s headquarters is located. A café nearby.
Baek Jinho appeared wearing a neat suit.
Head of Future Business Planning at Seonyang Group. That was Baek Jinho’s position.
As the third son, Baek Jinho is not Seonyang Group’s legitimate successor. So it seems he’s serving as the head of a somewhat ambiguous department, not a core business division.
“What brings this on? You contacting me like this and all. What have you been up to?”
Baek Jinho spoke in a very friendly manner.
Well, he was always like that. He was like that back in school too. Quite affable, and he never flaunted his wealth.
Maybe that’s why I contacted him. To give him an opportunity.
We talked like that for a bit, exchanging ordinary greetings and minor stories about people around us.
But that kind of conversation didn’t last very long. Because both he and I knew there was something we had to talk about.
“I didn’t contact you to borrow money or ask you for a favor. Don’t worry.”
“What? I wasn’t thinking that, you know? Though, to be honest, I did suspect it a little.”
He said that and laughed. Still with that good-natured smile of his.
“Here. This.”
I handed him a USB drive. He took it and looked puzzled.
“There should be a file inside with a password on it. I’ll tell you that password in about… three to six months. So open it then. And let’s talk again after that.”
“What is this? What are you doing that looks so interesting?”
“There’s not much meaning in telling you now, no matter what I say. It’ll probably only become something we can talk about around then.”
“No, you should at least give me a rough idea of what it is.”
“I told you. Look at it later. When the time comes, you’ll know.”
Like that, I had lunch with Jinho and parted ways.
Even until then, Jinho discreetly asked me several more times what it was.
With an intrigued expression. His face full of curiosity.
But I firmly refused to tell him now.
Curiosity has to grow. No matter how much I try to persuade this guy right now, I’ll only end up looking like a suspicious con man.
I don’t want to be treated like that. So this is better.
Now that I’ve planted the seed, all that’s left is to wait.
I’m confident when it comes to waiting. However, my feelings are a bit complicated.
The thought that I want the world to fall apart quickly, and the worry of what I’ll do if it falls apart before I’m fully prepared.
But put another way, doesn’t that mean either outcome is fine? So I change my mindset.
Whether it falls apart right away or slowly, either is fine.