The world does not end easily.
It’s unfortunate, but that is the truth.
Just because a ship has a hole in it, you don’t immediately abandon ship and escape, do you?
The normal thing is to plug the hole and keep sailing.
This world is the same.
Even if a problem arises and a massive threat descends, the world doesn’t go boom! and collapse like a streetlamp toppling over.
People will struggle to overcome it somehow. That’s normal.
Inertia.
No matter how tattered the world becomes, it has the momentum it’s been rolling with, so it will keep turning.
So for that kind of world to come to a complete stop, something equally shocking has to happen.
Something powerful enough to overcome inertia. Or a series of events on that level would have to erupt one after another.
I came into more than three billion won.
To someone, that might be pocket change, but to me it was an astronomical sum.
The kind of money that made me wonder whether I would ever have been able to touch this much in my lifetime.
But this is only the beginning. The fall of the airlines will continue from here on out.
That said, I can’t keep buying airline put options.
The plunge has already begun, so the premiums are expensive. It won’t be easy to make a profit from them now.
So I need to buy put options on stocks that haven’t fallen much yet, but will fall even further from now on.
Fortunately, since I know the cause clearly, I look for the next targets. A balanced spread of them, at that.
Choosing the sectors is similar.
Airline stocks were the first choice because there was the major issue of plane accidents.
There was also the fact that aircraft engines were vulnerable to the acidic spores.
So now I buy put options on what comes next.
Shipping, power, automobiles.
What they all have in common is that they contain a great deal of iron. They are things that will be exposed long-term to the threat of acidic spores, and there are a lot of them.
So those are absolutely going to have problems.
Shipping through vessel accidents, power through blackouts and the like, automobiles through things like recalls.
By the time the problem is discovered, it will already be too late.
Once an accident happens, it won’t be something solved in the short term, but the beginning of a long nightmare.
So now I divide things evenly and buy put options on them.
A total of two billion won’s worth of one-year options.
I pour a large amount of capital into the wager that within a year, those things will turn into a complete mess and bring about great chaos.
And so I enter another period of waiting.
Time will pass quickly anyway. I have more than enough to do.
I looked into other mountains near the one I bought.
They couldn’t be too far away. They had to be reasonably close and reasonably deserted. That way there would be fewer troublesome matters.
So I bought another small mountain. And I build another structure.
With a different company from last time. Using the same one would be too risky.
The fewer people who know that I’m building these things, the better.
Best of all would be to make sure it doesn’t remain in their memories at all.
Since I’d done it once already, the work wasn’t that difficult.
This is why experience is good. Once you’ve experienced something even once, you can act like you know all about it.
So this time, a much better house than the one I live in will probably be built.
Of course, as long as those construction bastards aren’t thugs.
Like that, I make another place similar to where I’m living now.
A place about two kilometers from my house by road. If you cut across the mountain, it’s closer than that. Around… seven hundred meters?
This distance is good. Too far is a problem, and too close is a problem too.
If what I’m thinking is right, this is best. The problem is if I’m wrong.
Busy days pass.
I stockpile antihistamines and watch the house being built.
On top of that, I also bought an excavator. Not some small thing, but a huge bastard.
When the time comes, I’ll have to cover my house and the one being built now with earth, so an excavator is absolutely necessary.
So whenever I have time, I practice operating the excavator and burying things with soil.
And so, three months.
At last, another accident happens. This time, it’s a blackout.
Electrical facilities are extremely sensitive equipment. And when those things become a problem and cause an outage, the damage is immense.
A world where you can’t do anything without electricity.
Even if the power is out for only ten minutes, that sense of emptiness is no joke.
To exaggerate a little, I become so adrift I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.
And then I’m left dumbfounded when I realize there is less I can do than expected.
Since two of the results I wanted have appeared, it’s about time to contact Baek Jinho.
There’s no need to make a grand gesture. I only have to send one text.
The password to the files on the USB. I send that and wait.
Not long after I send the text, a call comes in immediately.
What? There’s no way he should be calling this quickly.
There should be time needed to check the materials. Time needed to verify their authenticity.
On top of that, when I answer the call, his voice is strangely calm.
Baek Jinho immediately tells me we should meet.
It’s the reaction I expected, but… for some reason, it feels unpleasant. Is it because it’s not the reaction I wanted?
In any case, we meet. It’s not like there’s any problem with that.
Jinho says he’ll come near where I am.
So I set the meeting place near the studio apartment in Seoul that I haven’t disposed of yet. Giving us a bit of leeway.
Then, when the appointed time comes, I head there. And I meet Baek Jinho.
“Hey. You’re here.”
He greets me warmly when he sees me.
Ridiculously enough, the first thing I do is look around to see if he brought anyone with him. Just in case he might try to kidnap me or something.
Maybe I’ve fallen into paranoia. But the information I have is worth that much.
Of course, what I gave Baek Jinho was only an extremely small portion and merely a summary, but if he believed the information I gave him one hundred and twenty percent, then he had more than enough motive to do something like that.
“Did you even look at it properly? You contacted me this fast?”
I hate beating around the bush, so if I have a question, I ask it bluntly.
At that, he gives a small laugh and says we should order drinks first. He says he’ll pay.
Come on, what’s with the big show over buying a 4,000-won Americano? A guy with all that money, too.
But his reaction feels like he’s trying to buy time.
Like he’s trying to dodge the subject a little.
After we get our drinks, Baek Jinho takes a sip of his iced Americano and lets out a deep sigh.
Then, with the face of someone who has made up his mind, he looks straight at me and says,
“Hey. I’ll be honest with you. The materials you gave me half a year ago. The truth is, as soon as I received them, I cracked the password and read the contents.”
At those words, a faint, incredulous laugh slips out of me.
Ah. I was stupid. Why didn’t I consider that he might be able to crack that password?
“Is that so? Then this conversation will be easier.”
“What? You’re not angry? I was actually worried you’d be disappointed.”
“What’s there to be angry about? The problem is me for not even thinking that far.”
When I answer calmly, Baek Jinho actually looks more sheepish.
Then he lowers his body slightly, drops his voice, and asks seriously,
“Hey. That… what is it? Is it real? Is the world ending?”
There is no despair or lamentation in Baek Jinho’s expression.
If anything, it is filled with something like anticipation, as if he is hoping for something. Just like me.
Seeing that, I actually feel relieved.
Ah. I chose the right person. This guy isn’t sane either.
Truthfully, it was because I thought he might react like this that I did this with him.
The third son of one of the country’s leading conglomerate families. However, the succession structure has already been decided. There’s a big age gap too.
So no matter what happens, Baek Jinho can never become the head of the company.
He will remain the eternal third in line. And as time goes on, that ranking will only be pushed further back.
“Judge it based on the materials I gave you. The judgment and decision are yours. I can’t give you an answer like, ‘It’s certain.’”
“Ah, you bastard. Are you saying that because you think I’ll make you take responsibility? I won’t. So answer me, man. Give me certainty.”
“You already know too. If you opened it as soon as you received it, you must have looked into it as much as you could by now.”
At that, Jinho lifts his head, straightens his body, and leans back against his chair.
His face looks somewhat hollow. He hasn’t heard a definite answer, but the situation is no different from having heard one.
“Why did you send that kind of material to me? You must have wanted something, since you shared information like that.”
“What I want? I do want something.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
“When the world ends, I should at least have one place I can lean on.”
“For that reason?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I don’t think it’s that strange.”
“Hmm…”
Baek Jinho sinks into thought. He looks as if he is trying to find the meaning behind my words.
But there’s no need to think that complicatedly. It means exactly what it sounds like.
“I’ll prepare at least enough to keep myself alive. But I can’t prepare everything. Should I give you a simple example? First, what if I get sick? What if I come down with an illness serious enough to require surgery? Should I prepare doctors and medical equipment for all of that?”
“I get what you’re trying to say.”
“There are areas I can prepare for, and areas that are impossible. And I don’t want my preparations to go wrong because of those impossible things. So I’m taking out insurance. If you, who can procure several times more capital than me, prepare those things, then I’ll be able to pick up some scraps from it too.”
“If that was the case, why didn’t you suggest we prepare together from the start?”
“I don’t want that either. I don’t want to live while rubbing shoulders with people.”
“Why? Ah. Never mind. I think I know.”
Baek Jinho nods as he answers.
That’s a relief. I don’t have to explain too much.
“Since the old days, you’ve always drawn a strange line between yourself and other people. Honestly, it did look wise. It looked like a decent way of handling yourself.”
“What handling myself? I was just annoyed. I’m not diligent enough to react to every joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure other people have.”
“That’s what being wise is. These days, it’s an era that forces you to do that, isn’t it? Do you know how troublesome that is?”
Saying that, he gives a faint laugh and takes another sip of his iced Americano.
“So. What do you want me to do? Prepare for the end of the world and build an ark or something? It doesn’t seem like a flood is coming.”
“Not an ark for a flood. Instead, when that situation comes, you’ll need facilities capable of saving many people, like an ark.”
“Hmm…”
“Food, medical care, and the minimum amount of force. Those are important. And a system capable of commanding them too. But let me ask you one thing. If you saw the materials half a year ago, aren’t you already preparing things like that?”
“As if. What am I, that I could prepare something like that? I’ve just been looking into various things.”
True. He is only a member of a conglomerate family, not someone with a great deal of his own money.
So he probably can’t spend funds as he pleases. There would have to be a legitimate reason for it too.
“Figure it out yourself. But I’d like you to prepare to some extent. That way, I benefit too.”
“Ha. You think that’s so easy? Sigh.”
He says that, but his expression is not disappointed or discouraged.
On top of that, this guy isn’t stupid. I know that, having watched him throughout our university days, even if we weren’t close.
After that, I discuss a few more matters with Baek Jinho and we part ways.
One thing is certain: his expression was bright when he left.
That’s enough. If he’s like that, then he’ll do something.