Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 301

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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301. Then let’s meet in New York.

November 5th, 10:30 AM, a hillside near Changbawi Village, Yongdae-ri, BukMyeon, Inje-gun, Gangwon Province.
As the temperature plummeted and a biting wind swept across the terrain, soldiers in camouflage fatigues moved cautiously up the steep mountainside, their automatic rifles at the ready, using whatever cover they could find.
They were Special Forces Regiment troops and Special Warfare Command soldiers pursuing North Korean armed infiltrators—a remnant group that had vanished for over two weeks before being caught in an ambush by friendly forces earlier that morning, engaging in firefight before fleeing.
Won Ki-hun, a lance corporal with the Eulji Unit’s reconnaissance platoon, felt his breath catching in his throat as he climbed the treacherous slope while maintaining vigilance in all directions.

“Huff… huff… Damn these infiltrators.”

The exhaustion forced curses from his lips unbidden.
Even so, Won Ki-hun kept his finger on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment, his eyes scanning the surroundings without pause.
During the firefight that erupted early this morning, Military Intelligence Unit officers had been sniped, resulting in multiple casualties, and just two or three hours ago, six friendly soldiers had been wounded and evacuated—there was no room for complacency.
Though he couldn’t deny the fear that he might die or be wounded here, what burned more intensely was the thought that if they let these infiltrators slip away again, so close to the DMZ, they might fail to avenge the countless comrades already sacrificed—this drove everyone’s determination to a fever pitch.
Won Ki-hun felt the same, but his thirst for vengeance burned even hotter because his friend had taken a bullet to the thigh in the recent engagement.
As he advanced slowly through the bare trees, their leaves fallen away to expose skeletal branches, his rifle barrel thrust forward.
Something dark moved beneath the thorny brush beside a rock some distance away—it caught his eye.

“What?!”

The instant Won Ki-hun’s eyes widened and he tried to shout a warning, the armed infiltrator hiding in the thorn brush opened fire with an M-16 automatic rifle.

Rat-a-tat-tat!
“Ugh!”

The first and second rounds embedded themselves in a pine tree beside him, but the final shot pierced through Won Ki-hun’s body.
The violent impact to his chest tore a cry from him as he staggered backward and fell.

“Enemy contact!”
“Fire!”
Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat! Bang!

The startled friendly soldiers moved with agility toward cover and immediately returned fire.

“Damn it! Won’s been hit!”
“The brush at eleven o’clock—don’t let them escape, kill them all!”

The ROK soldiers who witnessed their comrade’s fate right before their eyes nearly lost their minds, unleashing a torrent of automatic rifle fire indiscriminately.
The crackling gunfire mixed with the deafening roar of grenades erupting, shattering the quiet mountain valley and filling it with a cacophony of violence.

Whizz! Whizz! Rat-a-tat-tat! Bang! Bang!
Kaboom!

Amid the violent hail of bullets whistling through the air with an eerie sound, Won Ki-hun, the first to fall from enemy fire, lay sprawled on the dirt ground, breathing heavily and ragged.

“Huh… gasp.”

With each breath, the excruciating pain radiating from his chest twisted Won Ki-hun’s face, and a sinister thought crossed his mind—he might die right here.
In that instant, the faces of his beloved parents and his girlfriend, who had waited for him without wearing her shoes backward until he earned the rank of lance corporal, flashed before his eyes like a lantern show, and his emotions surged violently.

“Damn it!”

It was too unjust to end his life this way.
Hot tears streamed down from his eyes as he cursed.
The sky was unusually clear and cloudless today, which only intensified his desperate desire to live.
Then a shadow fell over Won Ki-hun’s head as he lay on the dirt, and his senior, the Military Medic of the company, leaned his face down toward him.

“Won Ki-hun, are you okay? Where did you get hit?”

Seeing the blood, Won Ki-hun felt a surge of irritation—wasn’t it obvious where the gunshot wound was?—but since this was someone coming to help him, he managed to stammer out a response.

“I… I think I was hit in the chest.”

The Military Medic then crouched as low as possible to avoid the still-raining bullets and skillfully removed the body armor Won Ki-hun was wearing.
After stripping away the combat uniform jacket and undershirt beneath it, the Military Medic’s expression suddenly shifted to shock.

“Huh?!”
“Is… is it very serious?”

Seeing this, Won Ki-hun whimpered as he lay there.
The Military Medic turned his head to look at the tear-streaked face, then let out a soft chuckle.

“Yeah. Listen, you could’ve been admitted to the military hospital and loafed around for months, but with just this much of a wound, that won’t happen.”

Won Ki-hun, thinking it absurd to laugh when a man was dying, clenched his teeth in frustration.

“I look like I’m about to die, and you’re making jokes like that!”
“You’re fine if you can get angry like that.”

The Military Medic chuckled and examined his wound again.

“You’ve got severe bruising and your sternum might be cracked or fractured, but it’s not a penetrating wound, so don’t worry.”
“What? But… I was definitely shot. How is that possible?”

As I asked in bewilderment, the Military Medic gestured with his chin toward the body armor lying beside him.

“That saved your life. If you’d worn the old-model armor from the company, you’d be seriously wounded at minimum. Count yourself lucky.”

Now that he mentioned it, I remembered that the equipment had been changed just before deployment when supplies arrived.
Instead of the old-model armor used in the Vietnam War, I’d been issued and equipped with the latest U.S. military body armor with ballistic plates—I never imagined it would save my life.

“So… so I’m not going to die? I can see Mi-hye again?”
“Who’s Mi-hye? Your girlfriend?”
“Sniff. Yes.”

As I answered with a sniff, the Military Medic teased me for thinking of my girlfriend even now.

“That’s right. But your ribs might be broken, so don’t move. Just stay lying down.”

The firefight continued with sharp gunshots and explosions ringing out in succession, but Won Ki-hun, who had thought he was dying helplessly, shed tears of joy at being alive.

* * *

[The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that as of 5 PM yesterday, all operational units deployed in the operation to eliminate North Korean armed infiltrators who penetrated the Gangneung Region on September 18th have been returned to their original units and ordered to resume normal unit operations.
With this, the armed infiltrator elimination operation that began with the discovery of a North Korean Shark-class submarine has effectively concluded 51 days after the infiltration.
During this elimination operation, 13 North Korean armed infiltrators were killed, 11 were eliminated, and 1 was captured, while our forces suffered 5 casualties including 2 officers of colonel rank, 1 non-commissioned officer, and 2 enlisted men, with 19 wounded.
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that one of the remaining infiltrators whose whereabouts have not yet been confirmed…]

Seok-won, who had been adjusting his tie to prepare for work, turned up the volume with the remote when the news came on, and his expression relaxed with relief.

“The operation has finally ended.”

Though one of the 13 armed infiltrators aboard the stranded submarine still hadn’t been captured, considering the inconvenience and economic damage the people had to endure during the elimination operation, it was right to wrap it up at this point.
Looking at the casualty figures that followed, I muttered to myself.

“I was worried about how much help it would actually be. I’m really relieved we could reduce casualties by two compared to the original history.”

Compared to the tens of millions of dollars spent purchasing new body armor and airlifting it to Korea, saving only two lives could be seen as a poor return on investment.
But human lives couldn’t be calculated so simply in terms of money.
When I heard from the Ministry of National Defense that several soldiers who nearly lost their lives had been saved thanks to the new body armor provided through Executive Director Yun Ki-hun, I felt I had spent the money very wisely.

“Now that the armed infiltrator elimination operation is complete, I can head to the United States with a much lighter heart.”

As I muttered this, my cell phone on the table rang.
I checked the number on the display and answered, and Landon Shore’s voice came through immediately.

[Good morning, boss.]
“Isn’t it nighttime in New York?”
[But it’s morning in Seoul, isn’t it?]

I chuckled at his cheeky response.

“Your voice sounds bright—it seems the negotiations with Apple went well.”
[Yes. I’ve reached final agreement with Steve Nolan to issue 200 million dollars worth of convertible bonds with a 5-year maturity and 8% interest.]

Steve Nolan, supported by me as the largest shareholder as he desired, had pushed out Jeff Collier at the board meeting held a few months ago and returned as Apple’s CEO.
In turn, I kept my promise and lent Apple 200 million dollars to help with their difficult financial situation, giving Steve Nolan renewed strength.

“At maturity, what price per share did you set for the stock conversion?”

A convertible bond, or CB, was a type of bond that gave the debtor the right to convert it into stock rather than cash if desired.
Knowing full well from the start how brilliantly Apple would stage its comeback, I had always intended to convert the CB into stock without hesitation.
Because of this, the conversion price mattered far more than the interest rate.

[You can convert to stock at 7 dollars per share in five years.]

The Apple stock price that Steve Nolan had sold to me at 15 dollars per share had continued its downward trajectory and eventually plummeted to 8 dollars per share as the company faced bankruptcy.
In my eyes, it felt like a golden treasure was being traded at the price of waste paper.
Once Steve Nolan reorganized the company and launched new Apple computers, Apple’s stock price would soar along with the impending IT bubble.

‘And if we release the secret weapon—the MP3 player—Apple’s stock will literally skyrocket.’

Having secured the right to convert Apple stock that would rise several hundred percent in five years at the bargain price of just 7 dollars per share, I smiled with satisfaction as I held the phone to my ear.

“You’ve done well.”

[No, sir. Considering Apple’s precarious situation, I could have pressed for better terms, but I followed your instruction to reach an agreement at a reasonable point.]

Landon Shore seemed slightly disappointed.

“We’ll be working together for a long time ahead. There’s no benefit in either of us harboring resentment. These terms are more than satisfactory.”
[I’m glad you’re pleased with them.]

Landon Shore asked again in a brighter tone.

[So you’re coming to New York this week as planned?]
“Yes. It looks like I’ll be staying quite a while this time.”
[Then I won’t have to lose sleep over these calls anymore, which is good for me.]

Seok-won chuckled and responded to Landon Shore’s joke.

“By the way, you know I’m bringing several of our staff members with me, right?”
[Of course. I’ve arranged accommodations for the employees as you instructed, and I’ve already told Andrew to teach them well about how Wall Street operates during their stay.]
“They’re the talent who will handle trading operations in Korea going forward, so make sure they receive thorough instruction.”
[Understood.]
“Then I’ll see you in New York.”

After ending the call, Seok-won lowered his phone from his ear, and the 1996 desk calendar with only a month remaining came into view.
Seok-won stared at the calendar with heavy, sunken eyes, then murmured with complex emotions.

“An enormous tsunami is about to engulf Asia, and there’s really not much time left.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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