I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 167

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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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Chapter 167
I arrived at the office, opened the windows, and let in fresh air.
And for the first time in this life, I brewed coffee.
The aroma of coffee began to fill the empty office where no one had yet arrived.
Everything was silent, and I could only hear the faint sound of wind from outside the windows.
This was a moment I had truly loved in my previous life as well.
Whenever troublesome matters arose, I would arrive at the office earlier than anyone else and spend this quiet time thinking.
I finally took my first sip of hot coffee in this life.
The familiar yet strangely unfamiliar bitter taste slid down my throat.
[Hmm… so this is how one becomes an adult again….]
Knock. Knock.
At that moment, a knock broke the silence.
Who could it be?
When I turned around, Charlie Jobs poked his head through the door crack.
Charlie Jobs, who was recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery, had lost considerable weight compared to before.
“Sung-guk, since when have you been drinking coffee?”
“Starting today.”
I answered calmly.
Charlie Jobs smiled faintly and entered the room.
“Would you pour me a cup of coffee too?”
“Of course, Charlie. How are you feeling?”
“The doctors always tell me to do this and that, but the clear fact is that I’m still alive like this. Sung-guk, I’ve always lived thinking I would die soon. I believed that was the only way to give my best effort to any choice. But now… when I think that I might actually die, I realize I can’t waste even a single moment until the very end.”
“Is that why Apple employees are working through the night right now?”
“How could I release a ridiculous machine into the world and then die, Sung-guk?”
That stubbornness of Charlie Jobs.
That very stubbornness created Apple, and it also drove him toward death.
I handed the coffee to Charlie Jobs.
“Sung-guk, is there some kind of problem?”
“I rejected Yahoo’s acquisition proposal, and it seems Yahoo is trying to spread false rumors.”
I spoke honestly.
Charlie Jobs had been in this industry longer than me. He must have experienced situations like this multiple times before.
“Jerry Chang from Yahoo?”
“Yes.”
Charlie Jobs smiled slightly and took a sip of coffee.
“For coffee brewed by someone drinking it for the first time, this is quite excellent.”
[Charlie, I’ve even purchased coffee farms in Brazil to obtain my own beans. Hmm… though that was in my previous life.]
“Thank you.”
I brushed it off casually.
Charlie Jobs continued speaking.
“I think I have a rough idea of what you’re going to do.”
In other words, he was saying that he knew what he would do in that situation.
I knew all too well what Charlie Jobs would do.
“Charlie, I intend to repay Yahoo in exactly the way they tried to treat us.”
Charlie Jobs’s lips curved upward slightly.
“I like that.”
We smiled and sipped our coffee simultaneously.
“By the way, Sung-guk. I think it’s time we discussed this… If we can handle this situation well, I’d like to become one of the investors in FaceNote.”
It was a future I had anticipated.
Until now, the company had managed well enough with just Peter’s investment and Mark and Lim Mi-mi, but that was no longer possible.
It was time to pursue aggressive investment.
The key was to maximize my and Mark’s shareholding while establishing a system where no single investor monopolized control.
“Charlie, does that mean you’ll only invest in FaceNote if we overcome this crisis?”
“Sung-guk, ever since I got cancer, I’ve become increasingly afraid of taking risks.”
Charlie was being dramatic.
“But you’re going to change the history of phones, aren’t you?”
“I suppose I should.”
Charlie smiled faintly.
The iPhone hadn’t been released to the world yet.
Charlie held iPhone meetings every day, but he constantly complained that he still hadn’t found a design he was satisfied with.
Charlie gazed at me intently.
“Sung-guk, will you live by compromising with the world?”
“Charlie… we’re people who can never do that. That’s why Apple’s phone hasn’t come out yet.”
“That’s right… We push through to the end with our convictions. We’re simply the type of people who can’t help but do that.”
Charlie smiled with satisfaction.
“By the way, FaceNote has to overcome this crisis on its own, but that doesn’t mean I won’t help at all. Remember that, Sung-guk.”
“Thank you, Charlie.”
“It’s worth the coffee. That was excellent. I’ll be asking for your company often.”
“Of course, Charlie.”
Charlie left with his coffee, and I took time to organize my thoughts.
* * *
Mark’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw me drinking coffee.
“Sung-guk! Are you drinking coffee right now? Not some herbal medicine you eat in Korea or something?”
“It’s coffee. I’m an adult now, after all.”
[Of course, I’m still far from the legal drinking age.]
Lim Mi-mi, who had just brought bread, stopped in her tracks, astonished.
“Boss, are you drinking coffee right now?”
“Lim Mi-mi, I’ll enjoy the bread you brought. By the way, you all want coffee too, right?”
“Um…”
“Me too, boss.”
I skillfully handed the brewed coffee to Mark and Lim Mi-mi.
Lim Mi-mi tore open the croissants she’d bought, and the meeting began naturally.
Our meetings always unfolded this way. Whenever problems arose, we exchanged opinions freely, anywhere and anytime.
“Mark, Lim Mi-mi… FaceNote seems to have encountered its greatest crisis since its founding.”
“Sung-guk, what are you talking about?”
“Jerry Chang, furious over the acquisition rejection, sent a company-wide email to all Yahoo employees forbidding the use of FaceNote. And Bill contacted me… apparently he leaked to journalists that FaceNote has such sloppy security that it’s vulnerable to personal information breaches.”
“That’s absurd, sir!”
Lim Mi-mi, our security chief, was the most outraged.
“Even when I was hacking, FaceNote’s security wasn’t that terrible. And with me here now, this is absolutely ridiculous!”
“None of that matters to Jerry Chang. Once the articles flood the media, our startup’s corporate image will be destroyed… and then Jerry will come back with a lower acquisition offer than one billion dollars.”
“What a bastard!”
Mark shouted in an agitated voice.
“Mark, don’t get too angry. We’ve only just entered the Silicon Valley jungle. We’ll face countless schemes like this ahead.”
“I’m just furious. What’s so great about Yahoo anyway! They’re already losing ground to Google. That’s exactly why they need a company like FaceNote!”
“Mark, you’re absolutely right. But right now, Yahoo is far more powerful than us, and we’re just a startup.”
“Sigh….”
Mark barely managed to suppress his anger.
“Bill said he’d come straight to our office this afternoon. Let’s discuss this together.”
“Sung-guk, Bill helping us won’t come cheap, will it?”
“He probably wants to invest in FaceNote.”
“So in the end, the FaceNote we protected ends up in investors’ hands?”
“Mark, I’ll prevent that no matter what. And right now, we need someone like Bill—someone who can outmatch Jerry Chang of Yahoo.”
“That’s true….”
It was a fact Mark couldn’t deny.
To overcome this crisis, we needed the help of the strongest person in this world.
I took a sip of coffee.
[I hope I can find a breakthrough before Bill arrives….]
* * *
Skipping lunch, I reviewed FaceNote again and again.
Before Bill arrived, I needed to have some card to play myself.
Mark and Lim Mi-mi also skipped lunch, consuming only bitter coffee.
Then, I suddenly recalled the contents of Bill Gates’s message.
[Jerry Chang sent an email to Yahoo employees completely banning FaceNote usage, right!]
I immediately began searching FaceNote for tags related to Yahoo.
Instantly, countless FaceNote accounts of Yahoo employees appeared.
From just a few searches, Yahoo employees were expressing outrage over the company-wide email that arrived at dawn.
– Are we really living in a free democratic United States? They’re telling us not to use FaceNote?
– Jerry must be modeling himself after Kim Il-sung of North Korea.
– If I’m using FaceNote, does that mean I’ll be fired? Can I collect unemployment benefits?
– If Yahoo fires all employees using FaceNote, will Yahoo even function properly?
I jumped up from my seat.
“Mark! Lim Mi-mi!”
Mark and Lim Mi-mi turned to stare at me in surprise.
“Sung-guk, what’s wrong?”
“I finally found the solution!”
I quickly showed Mark and Lim Mi-mi my laptop screen, which displayed the FaceNote posts from Yahoo employees.
“The allegations of FaceNote leaking personal information are clearly false, but I was so worried they might spread through the media that I overlooked something crucial. Jerry Chang sent a company-wide email to all Yahoo employees at dawn, telling them not to use FaceNote. And he even warned that any employee using FaceNote from now on would be fired immediately.”
“Wow! Sung-guk, the personal information leak they’re trying to feed to the media has no evidence anyway, but this is real.”
“And right now, employees are posting screenshots of the email they received from Jerry on FaceNote, as if they’re verifying it.”
Lim Mi-mi quickly searched for the verification photos from Yahoo employees on FaceNote.
“Boss, there are unbelievably many of them. And on top of that, people are pouring out massive criticism about Jerry’s attitude that they’ve been holding back all this time.”
– Jerry, you sent the company-wide announcement email at dawn again? Please, I don’t want to think about work outside business hours.
– Someone please tell Jerry to work on US standard time. Not Japan time, where Yahoo is thriving.
Mark pointed to one post while laughing.
“Sung-guk, there’s a really great post here.”
“What is it?”
“Seeing Jerry making a fuss about not using FaceNote, FaceNote’s future looks incredibly bright. If FaceNote starts recruiting, I’m switching immediately.”
“This post has an enormous number of likes!”
Lim Mi-mi added.
I smiled faintly and cracked my knuckles.
“Mark, Lim Mi-mi. Should we like some of these posts too?”
“Sung-guk, even for conscience’s sake, let’s only like the ones about not using FaceNote, not the ones insulting Jerry. How about that?”
“Sounds good!”
I went through each FaceNote post from employees who had verified and shared the email Jerry sent to Yahoo employees last night, liking them one by one.
Then I sent messages to Charlie Jobs and Bill Gates.
– I’ve found the solution to break through this incident, but I need a little help. Let’s meet at the office at two o’clock.
* * *
Charlie Jobs and Bill Gates arrived at the office simultaneously at two o’clock.
Charlie and Bill weren’t actually on very good terms.
And that was precisely why I had called them both together.
The two of them would be intensely wary of each other.
Bill looked at me with an uncomfortable expression.
“Sung-guk, what exactly is this solution you discovered?”
“The solution was actually very close by. It’s FaceNote.”
I began showing Bill and Charlie the verification photos and posts from Yahoo employees that had appeared on FaceNote.
“Jerry lost his mind at dawn and sent a threatening email to Yahoo employees, saying he’d fire anyone using FaceNote immediately. That’s a clear violation of human rights. Angry employees read that email, verified it, and started posting it on FaceNote.”
I paused to collect myself and looked between the two of them.
“Charlie, Bill. I believe we need to break this story to influential media outlets before Jerry spreads false articles touching on FaceNote’s personal information leak allegations!”
“You’re saying we should leak this fact to influential media outlets we know, Sung-guk?”
Charlie asked back.
“Yes!”
I answered firmly.
Bill and Charlie—with the influence those two wielded, they could saturate the news cycle with this story immediately.

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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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