Chapter 96: <Game king>

Woosung’s hired gamers with a minimum of level 80 characters lined up for an attack. The first thing they all did was PK (Player Killing).

They went around the castle killing many of Master Knight’s guild Masterpiece’s members as possible.

One by one, the Masterpiece members left the game.

“I can’t play this game anymore.”

“The Riot guild’s members are hunting us down. I am done with this game.”

“Peace out.”

“I’m leaving too.”

Eventually, only half of Masterpiece’s members remained. Meanwhile, Woosung hired more people to become members of his own guild, Riot.

Choi Gilak couldn’t believe what was happening. He tried to manipulate the game further with the master account, but he was stopped by the general manager.

“You need to stop now. If you go on any further, we may be discovered by the public.”

“But we only won one castle out of it.”

“What?”

“How many times do I have to explain? I am so frustrated.”

“I know you said it’s because of the young gamers leaving Legend. I get it, but what we need to do to fix it is to make the game more fun for them. Why are you getting angry at me?”

“Why won’t you support me? We are working for the same company.”

“Exactly. We are in the same team, and you need to do a better job in the development department.”

Choi Gilak reddened in anger. “If we don’t lower the taxes in these castles, this company is over. It’s not just Legend 1. Similar things are happening in the second version too. This isn’t a simple matter to be settled among the users. If this continues any longer, we could all lose our jobs.”

This was turning into a serious argument. The general manager tried to avoid it by replying in a calm manner.

“I understand. I will try my best to come up with a solution.”

“You better get to it fast.”

While the country panicked because of H1N1, Woosung bought and sold healthcare stocks to make money.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t making big profits.

The volumes of these stocks were too small. Woosung wanted to invest millions at a time, but all he could purchase was hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stocks.

However, it was different in the US.

There were plenty of pharmaceutical company stocks with big volumes. Woosung took long positions in many companies, especially Pfizer.

Pfizer stock was only about 14 dollars in July, but by September, it went up to 16 dollars.

Woosung earned a lot of money from this purchase, but he was still not satisfied. He obtained about 600 million dollars, but Woosung’s definition of big money was in the billions.

He made back all the money he spent taking over Tel-Tech. When he purchased the company, he arranged it so that KND “borrowed” money from him. The interest rate he set was 7%, which meant every year, he received 42 million dollars from his own company to his personal account as a form of interest payment.

Woosung also had numerous other incomes including interest rates from his bank, stock dividends, bitcoins, and his salary as the CEO.

However, this was all still not enough.

Woosung checked the MOX stock price. It was continuing to decline as he hoped.

37.10 dollars.

37.05 dollars.

He ordered his US company to take a fake short sale position on MOX stock to make it go down further.

36.50 dollars.

Once it went down, he canceled the sale order.

Suddenly, a text message arrived.

“I’ve uploaded the analysis report.”

The fight against the Master Knight was recorded and sent to the professional gamers for analysis. They all agreed on one thing.

The game was manipulated.

Woosung managed to find out from where the character was being played. The IP address indicated that it was from the MOX headquarter.

It wasn’t a hacker, it was the company itself.

The report was published online where Legend users and other gamers could see.

“This doesn’t make sense.”

“Have you ever seen the items like that before in the game?”

“How could that character cause so much more damages than any others I have seen?”

The internet game forum became filled with curious comments. Everyone agreed on one thing: what the Master Knight did was not possible, which meant the game was hacked.

“Legend has been hacked!”

“What the hell! Did the hacker take all the castles then?”

No one could even imagine the possibility of the company interfering. Then, an anonymous comment was made.

“I think I’ve seen this before. I think it might be the game company that manipulated the game.”

“Is that possible?”

“OMG, I can’t believe it!”

“We need to call the customer center.”

“Let’s go to the headquarter!”

“We need to get them.”

People went furious. MOX was flooded with angry emails. The gaming communities were in an uproar.

The news reached CS Team leader Oh Minjae. He asked the development team for an explanation.

“We are currently checking things out.”

He sent the same message many times, but every time he just got the same vague answer.

In desperation, he arranged a meeting with Woosung who gave his opinion.

“I can’t be certain of whether it is the bug or the company, but the rumors on the internet seemed legit.”

Woosung has gained Oh Minjae’s trust within last few weeks, so Oh Minjae nodded. “Hmm.”

“It would be faster if you talk to your development team.”

“That department is going through an issue right now.”

Woosung knew what he meant. Only a few in the company knew of the master account and its activities and clearly, Oh Minjae wasn’t one of them.

Suddenly, Jung Jinsup walked in. “Chief Oh, what are you doing!”

Oh Minjae looked at Jung Jinsup in confusion.

Jung Jinsup yelled again, “This isn’t the time to have stupid meetings!” His face was red. Oh Minjae stood up as Jung Jinsup continued. “Several players barged into the headquarter demanding an explanation. Take care of them. NOW!”

Oh Minjae left in shock. Jung Jinsup calmed down and sat beside Woosung.

“As you know, things aren’t going well in the company right now. Someone is messing with us.”

Woosung murmured, “You mean the character that is either being controlled by a hacker or the company?”

Jung Jinsup flinched and asked, “Yes, that’s it! Do you know what is happening?”

“Actually, this meeting was about that, and I couldn’t come up with anything solid. I’m guessing it’s a hacker.”

Jung Jinsup sighed in relief, “Really? Thank god. And thank you!”

“Haha, no problem. You look like you had a rough day. Would you like to go for a drink? I will take you somewhere nice.”

Jung Jinsup’s eyes lit up.

Woosung continued, “I found a place with some gorgeous ladies.”

“Let’s go!”

At an expensive brothel in Chungdamdong, Jung Jinsup drank heavily.

Woosung asked, “You look like you have a lot of worries.”

Jung Jinsup took another sip and answered, “Sales have gone down significantly. Stock prices too. It also looks like someone’s collecting our stocks.”

“Really?”

“It looks like a foreign hedge fund, but we can’t tell why it’s doing it.”

“Oh…”

Woosung was surprised at how much MOX knew of the situation. Jung Jinsup suddenly asked, “Are you interested in games by chance?”

“Pardon?”

“If KND could invest in our company, that would be a big help. And…”

When Jung Jinsup hesitated, Woosung urged him, “You can tell me anything.”

“We are developing a new game right now, and an investment from your company would be a huge help. You know MOX is a solid company. The stock price will rise soon and it will be very profitable for you.”

Woosung frowned and thought.

‘They should’ve had enough funds to last a while and release FPS game next year…What happened? Did they lose that much money from this controversy?’

Because of Woosung, MOX lost many users. It tried to revive the game by spending a lot of money on marketing, but it failed again.

When Woosung hesitated, Jung Jinsup said disappointedly, “How could you not say yes immediately?”

“Then, how about this? I will lend you the money with your share of the company as collateral. Interest will be 1%, but if the stock price goes down, the total credit will go down too.”

“And if it goes up?”

“Haha, then you will have enough money to pay me back and take back your shares. Remember that the interest rate of 1%. Think carefully.”

“Do you know how many stocks I own?”

“Based on my calculation, 15.5%, so about 42 million dollars.” Woosung tapped his head and continued, “I’m an analyst so of course, I should know these things. I will also buy some stocks for you too. This will make the stock prices go up, which means you’ll make money and I will make money too. It’s a win-win situation.”

Jung Jinsup licked his lips. He liked the idea. Woosung poured him another drink.

“Let’s hope the stock price goes up!”

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