I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 235

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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 235
I knocked on Mark’s door early in the morning.
Mark stared at me with the face of someone who had just woken up.
“Sung-guk… what brings you here so early?”
“Mark, aren’t you going to work?”
“Sung-guk… it’s 6 in the morning. Work is still hours away.”
“Mark, then won’t you grab an early breakfast with me?”
“Sigh… at least come inside. Sung-guk, you have something to tell me, don’t you?”
“Well…”
“Fine, fine. I’ll get ready in ten minutes.”
Mark walked into his house with a resigned expression, and I followed him inside.
Lim Mi-mi greeted me with a disheveled face.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Lim Mi-mi, you’ve become a true American now.”
“Sir, but what’s happening so early in the morning?”
“I’m grabbing an early breakfast with Mark.”
“Enjoy your meal. I’m going to sleep for another hour.”
“Lim Mi-mi, sleep well.”
Just then, Mark emerged while pulling on a checkered shirt.
“Let’s go, Sung-guk.”
* * *
The office was still quiet.
A few employees scattered about had either arrived early or hadn’t left from the previous day.
I poured coffee and walked to an empty table.
Mark was laying out the breakfast he’d bought.
“Sung-guk… did you really have to wake me up so early?”
“Mark… aren’t you curious about what news I brought back from New York?”
“Of course I’m curious. I figured you’d tell me once we got to the office, but I never expected you to drag me out at the crack of dawn.”
“I wanted to tell you as soon as possible.”
I sipped my coffee and looked at Mark.
“Mark… anyway, we’re going to hire more employees and create that Instagram team we discussed before. And I think we need to build a YouTube team as well.”
“Was the investment successful?”
“Yes.”
“But YouTube isn’t really our thing—it’s your project, and it belongs to Google.”
I shoved a bite of breakfast into my mouth and chewed it down.
“Sung-guk, eat slowly.”
“Right. Mark, I’m meeting with Sergey tomorrow. I’ve laid down quite a smokescreen, so you need to know what’s going on.”
“What kind of smokescreen did you create this time?”
“First, Howard Page, the investment manager at Sony Music, has no interest in YouTube.”
“Then isn’t that a problem?”
“Mark, I’m going to have another mack morning.”
“I bought five of them generously. You’re a teenager growing at a scary pace these days.”
I quickly unwrapped another mack morning.
“To continue what I said earlier, Sergey probably already knows that Sony Music has pulled out of YouTube. Sergey and Google’s executives will likely consider YouTube beyond recovery… So I’m going to say that as a last-ditch effort, I’ll deploy FaceNote employees to give it a shot.”
“Sung-guk, isn’t that too reckless?”
“Instead, since we’re investing FaceNote personnel, I’ll say we need to give equity to FaceNote to avoid controversy.”
“Sung-guk, so we end up owning a stake in YouTube?”
“Strictly speaking, FaceNote will own the stake in YouTube. And we’ll consider that stake a stroke of luck two years from now.”
“Anyway, you won’t listen to reason…. How do you know what’ll happen in two years? If Sony Music has already pulled out, isn’t YouTube’s collapse all that’s left?”
“Mark….”
I finished stuffing the mack morning into my mouth before answering.
“What I want right now is for everyone to believe that YouTube will collapse immediately.”
“Anyway, I can’t figure out your intentions at all.”
“That’s why I called it a smokescreen. Anyway, don’t worry, Mark. I’ll explain to FaceNote investors that we’re investing personnel and receiving equity because we see YouTube’s potential.”
“Hmm…. Sung-guk…. But lately the media has been attacking FaceNote quite a bit.”
“What do you mean?”
Mark opened his laptop and quickly pulled up several articles to show me.
“Look here. Lately, there’s been talk among teenagers and people in their twenties about FaceNote addiction or becoming a shut-in, and the journalist has been sharply critical, saying that many people are experiencing disruptions in their daily lives because of FaceNote.”
“Actually, SNS platforms are sustained by addiction. It’s also the reason our user base is growing….”
“But if only bad articles keep coming out, the government might impose restrictions. And if a bad incident happens and public opinion suddenly turns its back on us, a sharp decline in FaceNote users wouldn’t be surprising.”
Recently, a new SNS platform had shut down after the owner’s sordid personal life was exposed and users naturally plummeted.
Public opinion was always terrifying.
“Sung-guk, you need to be careful about expanding your business too aggressively too. You never know when public opinion might turn its back on us.”
“Hmm… Mark, given the nature of SNS, these kinds of things will happen constantly. Rather than walking on thin ice every time it happens, I think it’s better to choose an appropriate response.”
“Sung-guk, do you have some response method in mind?”
I picked up the last mack morning.
“Not yet. I’ll think about it as we go.”
[Mark, even though I’m a genius in my second life, I can’t always know the right answer.]
* * *
“Now, let me introduce Jeon Min-guk’s daily life. I usually head to FaceNote at 9 AM with Mi-mi, who works in security at FaceNote and lives in the apartment next door. Mi-mi, could you say hello to the camera?”
“Hello, I’m Lim Mi-mi. By the way, I came from North Korea.”
Lim Mi-mi smiled brightly.
“Now then… next, I’ll greet you from the company office. Pop!”
Min-guk set down the digital camera for a moment.
“Min-guk, what are you trying to do with this?”
“Noona, I’m trying to upload my daily life to YouTube. Oh, would you like to see the photo I took with Michael Jackson?”
“Michael Jackson? That moonwalk guy?”
“Noona, you’re from North Korea but you know about Michael Jackson too?”
“Back then in North Korea, everyone did the moonwalk.”
Min-guk showed me the photo he had taken with Michael Jackson.
“Here’s Michael Jackson, and here’s my hyung.”
“Really?”
“Michael told me that at some point, he became so afraid of people’s gazes that he turned into a mysterious artist, but he thinks that made his life even more painful. He sometimes regrets that it would’ve been better if he’d remained an approachable, relatable singer instead.”
“Hmm… that makes sense.”
“After hearing that, hyung decided that approachable stars would be the trend going forward, so he’s planning to upload lots of videos.”
Lim Mi-mi nodded in agreement.
In the meantime, the car Lim Mi-mi was driving arrived at the FaceNote headquarters.
And I could see unfamiliar people standing outside the FaceNote building holding signs. What on earth was this?
* * *
“Hyung! Hyung!”
I could see Min-guk running toward me, searching for me.
Behind him, Lim Mi-mi followed with a serious expression.
“Hyung, what’s going on here? There are strange people gathering outside right now.”
“Strange people?”
“Boss, they’re holding signs that say ‘Satan, go away. Our daughter Britney met a man on FaceNote and ran away from home. Take responsibility!’ and they’re just gathering like this.”
Lim Mi-mi added on.
Satan?
It seemed some strange religious group had come to cause trouble.
“Where are those people?”
“Hyung, don’t go out. They’ve even attached your photo on their signs and written ‘Satan’ all over them!”
“Satan, of all things….”
As I tried to go out, Mark stopped me too.
“Sung-guk, in the United States, if you deal with people like that the wrong way, you could face a major lawsuit. It’s an illegal protest, but any response on our part could work against us in some way.”
“Mark, I just want to look out the window and see what kind of people they are.”
I approached the window and looked down at the people gathered with their signs.
They all had haggard faces and bizarre hairstyles.
“If you ask me, I don’t think their daughter ran away to meet a man. I think she ran away because she discovered the real world….”
In that moment, I reached for my phone.
Mark quickly stopped me.
“Sung-guk, the employees already called the police earlier. They’ll be here soon.”
“Not the police—I’m trying to contact the media.”
“What? Why?”
“From what I can see, they’re going to give us some very favorable publicity.”
I immediately contacted a prominent journalist I had some acquaintance with.
– Sung-guk!
“Caller, how have you been?”
Caller Lernik had run several in-depth articles about me, so we had some familiarity, and we’d done multiple interviews together.
Last year, he’d won several journalism awards for his in-depth investigative piece on sexual misconduct within religious organizations.
This incident unfolding right before my eyes was exactly the kind of story that would appeal to Caller Lernik.
– I’m so surprised that Sung-guk called first. I was actually thinking of requesting an interview since you’ve become the YouTube CEO and seem busy with various things lately.
“Caller, how about I do an interview with you? In exchange, I have some interesting material for a story. Would you like to hear it?”
– Sung-guk really does know how to negotiate.
“Caller, right now there’s a cult demonstrating in front of FaceNote. They’re depicting me as Satan, and they’re claiming that one of their member’s daughters met a man through FaceNote and ran away from home.”
– Doesn’t that cult’s symbol have two X’s?
I glanced out the window again.
Caller was right—there were indeed two X’s on the symbol.
“Yes, they have that marking on the signs they’re holding.”
– That’s huge! Double X! My colleague is actually covering that cult group right now. So you’re saying they’re demonstrating in front of FaceNote right now?
“Yes… Caller, I think that woman saw FaceNote and discovered the real world—not just her cult—and that’s why she ran away. What do you think?”
– We’ll have to dig into it to know for sure. We’re heading out right now.
Click. I hung up and looked out the window.
A few police cars arrived shortly, but they were overwhelmed by the growing number of cult members.
“Hmm… Even without Caller, there’ll be plenty of cameras rolling.”
“Sung-guk… but why did you suddenly call the reporter?”
“Mark, you said this morning that reporters are writing articles about FaceNote addiction concerns.”
“Yeah.”
“Then we should also give them a chance to write about the positive aspects of FaceNote.”
Mark looked at me with a bewildered expression.
“Sung-guk, what exactly are you saying?”
“Did that woman who ran away from the cult really leave just to meet some guy she found on FaceNote?”
“If not…”
“That woman clearly saw the real world through FaceNote. She saw how her peers think and act. Once she realized that, she must have also understood how utterly broken the society she belonged to was.”
Just then, a police officer rushed in.
“Who’s the representative here?”
“That’s me!”
“Me too!”
Mark and I raised our hands simultaneously.
* * *
“Hello. I’m William Chek from the San Francisco Police Department. I’m here to file a missing person report and request your cooperation.”
“What kind of cooperation?”
“One of the people demonstrating out there says their daughter ran away after meeting a man through FaceNote, and they’ve lost contact with her since. Would it be possible, with your cooperation, for us to check that woman’s FaceNote account?”
“Hmm… just a moment.”
Just then, the door burst open and I saw Caller and a fellow reporter rushing in.
I looked at William.
“William, there’s one condition.”
“Sung-guk, I don’t think you’re understanding me correctly. This is naturally information that FaceNote should be disclosing.”
I casually ignored William’s objection and continued.
“William… my condition is this. Let these reporters cover this process. Those people demonstrating in front of FaceNote right now are a cult.”
William seemed flustered.
I quickly signaled to Caller.
“Caller, turn on the camera and start the interview now.”
Caller quickly switched on the camera, and William’s investigation continued.
“So, you’ll cooperate with the investigation?”
“Yes, William. Now let’s find Britney, their missing daughter!”

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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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