I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 245

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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 245
Chad Chun had taken refuge at Sergey Brin’s house, away from Google’s reach.
Chad Chun still bore the lingering trauma of the assault, flinching at every sound as though the attacker might return.
Unable to watch any longer, Sergey handed him a beer.
“Chad, drink this and try to relax. Our security here is top-tier, even by American standards.”
“That’s exactly why I ran here. I still can’t believe they haven’t caught that blackmailer yet.”
Chad drank the beer irritably in one long gulp.
Gradually, he felt his body beginning to unwind.
Sergey Brin leaned forward and fixed his gaze on Chad.
“But… Chad. Why did you hand over that 5% stake you were holding to Sung-guk?”
“Google considered YouTube a headache anyway.”
“That’s true, but…”
“And with all those financial publications calling YouTube a dying platform… but now that I think about it, Sergey… honestly, don’t you feel like we both got played by Sung-guk?”
“…We got played?”
“Look at how everything unfolded. The timing of those articles calling YouTube Google’s Achilles heel, the timing when Sung-guk approached me—it all seems too coincidental in hindsight.”
“Are you saying Sung-guk planted those articles? Deliberately?”
“I don’t know the details, but it’s possible. He cornered me into selling that 5% stake at a bargain price, then approached you and took the CEO position. And ever since Sung-guk took over, YouTube has been skyrocketing.”
Sergey took another sip of his cold beer.
He believed that moments like these demanded rational judgment above all else.
“Sung-guk seems to understand exactly what people want. He dramatically improved YouTube’s video quality and service speed, and now Entertainment Agencies are uploading music videos from their artists. Honestly, Sung-guk excels at that sort of thing.”
“Sergey… be honest with me. How much of YouTube’s stake is passing to Sung-guk?”
“Well… that’s…”
“According to rumors, it’s basically all his now. Is that right?”
…
Sergey took another bitter sip of beer.
If YouTube continued growing at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before it turned profitable—something it had never achieved before. When that happened, Sung-guk’s stake would reach 30%.
On top of that, he’d purchased another 10% as a condition for taking the CEO position.
Adding in the shares that had transferred to FaceNote as a condition of FaceNote funding YouTube’s operations, the total already exceeded 50%.
“Sergey, your silence tells me Google has already become powerless at YouTube. Isn’t that right?”
“Not yet.”
It hadn’t even been two years, and YouTube hadn’t yet turned profitable.
“Not yet… so soon?”
“Chad, you were the one who sold your YouTube stake and fled first. Didn’t you also see the potential as low?”
“I did. But I never imagined Sung-guk would create this much buzz and grow YouTube like this.”
At that moment, something suddenly struck Chad Chun’s mind.
“Sergey… what if this incident itself was orchestrated by Sung-guk to generate buzz? He’s even doing a live broadcast, and now everything is being streamed live on YouTube. People are logging into YouTube—which they never used before—just to see whether Sung-guk is actually being terrorized by a death threat or not…”
“Surely not…”
Sergey hadn’t thought of it that way, but knowing Sung-guk, it wasn’t impossible.
“Something feels off. Sergey… since we can’t have it anyway, should we just stir things up?”
…
Sergey made no response.
* * *
Sam was briefing me while gazing anxiously out the window.
“Sam, please focus on the briefing.”
“I’m sorry. Sung-guk…. The sun is setting. Once it sets, you’ll have to go home again… and those stalkers might show up again.”
“Sam! If you don’t focus, I’m cutting your salary!”
Sam, flustered, hurriedly scanned through the briefing materials again.
“Sung-guk, I’ll focus, I’ll focus. So there shouldn’t be any problems with tonight’s stream.”
“How many viewers maximum can we handle without issues?”
“Right now, up to 50,000.”
“Sam, starting from today, the number of concurrent viewers is going to increase dramatically. Please prepare thoroughly.”
“Yes!”
After the meeting ended, the moment I stepped out of the Conference Room, Mark immediately clung to my side.
“Sung-guk, I’m going to be working late today. Can’t you stay a bit longer before leaving?”
“No. My arrival and departure times need to be precise. It makes it easier for those stalkers to target me.”
“Sung-guk, please, just this once. I have a system issue I need to look at.”
“Mark, you work on it. I’m leaving….”
At that moment, Adam stepped forward.
“Mark… I’ll give Sung-guk a ride. I have a car, though it’s a clunker.”
In that instant, everyone looked at me with expressions of concern.
* * *
Adam’s car parked in the Company Parking Lot was… a used vehicle that looked at least ten years older than the secondhand car Mark had first bought.
Of course, even in this situation, I was live-streaming this moment on my YouTube channel.
“Adam… what about the salary I’m paying you? How did you end up buying a car like this?”
“Well… I haven’t been driving for very long. So I thought I might hit things here and there while driving around, so I bought this car to practice until I get comfortable.”
In other words, his driving skills were still inexperienced.
Countless comments flooded in in real-time.
– Sung-guk won’t die from stalkers, he’ll die from Adam’s poor driving.
– Sung-guk, raise Adam’s salary!
– Who would ever think the CEO of FaceNote drives a car like that.
– By the way, Sung-guk, why don’t you get your driver’s license?
“You’re right. Once I catch those stalkers, I should get my license first.”
I responded appropriately to the comments in real-time.
“Well then, today I’ll risk my life and leave in Adam’s car.”
Adam was so nervous his hands trembled the entire time he was starting the engine.
“Adam, I’ll make it home alive, right?”
“Sung-guk, don’t talk to me. If you talk, I might not be able to drive.”
At that moment, Lim Mi-mi and Sam came running out from a distance.
“We’re coming with you!”
[Yellow Team Members are always welcome!]
* * *
With Mark absent, Lim Mi-mi and Sam pressed themselves firmly against my sides.
Adam’s old car proceeded toward my home escorted by security vehicles front and back, crawling along at 40 kilometers per hour.
As a result, every vehicle around us shot past us like arrows.
“Adam….”
“Yes, Sung-guk?”
Adam turned his head to answer me, causing the car to lose its direction and swerve.
Adam, startled, quickly gripped the steering wheel again.
“Adam, no matter how much I call you, don’t answer. Just focus on driving.”
“Okay, Sung-guk.”
This entire situation was being broadcast live on YouTube.
The comments seemed almost hilarious, with everyone rolling around laughing.
“Restaurant Owner, I risked my life escaping from North Korea, but I’m not going to die in a car accident in the United States, am I?”
Lim Mi-mi asked teasingly, and the comment section erupted even more.
– So there are defectors with the world’s highest difficulty level… What kind of company is FaceNote really?
The drive home at 40 kilometers per hour took thirty minutes.
I directed a question at the screen.
“Should we do a Q&A while we head home?”
The comment section cheered, and I began reading the comments. Of course, they were scrolling up so quickly that it was difficult to read them properly.
– Sung-guk, are you really 17?
“Yes, I’m 17 in American age. I’m 19 in Korean age.”
– What about your last relationship?
“I haven’t even had my first relationship yet. And I don’t plan to date for a while.”
– What’s your ideal type? By the way, I’m eight years old.
“There’s no chance that someone who is eight years old right now will become my ideal type.”
– Sung-guk, aren’t you scared right now?
“Not at all.”
– How do you have such nerves of steel?
“Because I’m never going to die.”
I answered calmly, and the comments continued to pour in relentlessly.
– Sung-guk, how much is the YouTube CEO’s salary?
“One dollar.”
Comments saying that made no sense streamed in.
“Look up the article. When I accepted the position of YouTube CEO, the one-dollar salary was included.”
At that moment, someone posed a very sharp question.
– Sung-guk, this is all rigged, isn’t it? You orchestrated this to pump up YouTube, didn’t you?
I paused for a moment to collect myself.
Such absurd rumors needed to be nipped in the bud from the start.
“If everything I did was really rigged, then who was the assailant who went to Chad Chun’s house? And who was the assailant who attacked Hailey Yang? Are you saying they’re all people I hired with money?”
However, the comment section still had a considerable proportion agreeing that it was all rigged.
There was no choice but to play my final card now.
“I mentioned this morning that I’d make a bombshell announcement on my way home from work, and now seems like the right timing. I will not negotiate with any terrorist who claims that Asian entrepreneurs stole American jobs and caused the economic crisis—I stake my life on that. And I will catch that terrorist. Starting now, I’m placing a $100,000 bounty on the head of any terrorist targeting me and other Asian entrepreneurs!”
The moment I finished speaking, the server crashed.
* * *
Chad Chun, who was watching Sung-guk’s YouTube broadcast, took another sip of beer.
“Chad, you wrote that comment, didn’t you?”
“Of course. You saw it, right? Everyone’s agreeing with what I said. When you really think about it, Sung-guk’s got enemies on all sides.”
“Isn’t that just proof of how popular he is?”
“Sergey, what are you talking about?”
Sergey drank his beer slowly, then continued.
“I was never a standout kid in school. Just a smart kid. A quiet kid. That’s all I was. Later, when I founded Google and went to my high school reunion, none of my classmates even remembered me properly. But… I spent all of high school envying someone. Not just kids who were smarter than me. I was jealous of the quarterback who was crazy popular with girls… I even hated the guy who always played Romeo in the drama club.”
“What are you rambling about?”
“Having many enemies probably means you have just as many people who like you, don’t you think? Chad, aren’t you actually jealous of Sung-guk?”
“Sergey… why would I? Why would I be jealous of some kid?”
“He’s younger than you, but he’s capable and handsome. That’s reason enough for why you’re so obsessed with Sung-guk.”
Snap—Chad closed his laptop.
“Sergey… are you drunk?”
“I’m only on my second beer.”
Sergey shrugged his shoulders.
“I should probably go get some sleep…”
Then Chad Chun suddenly stopped.
“But Sergey… where is Sung-guk getting money to put up a $100,000 bounty? YouTube pays him monthly, and I heard he invests all his FaceNote salary… and he spent most of his savings buying YouTube shares…”
“I told Sung-guk I’d cover that money.”
“What?!”
* * *
Late at night, I heard Mark rush in hurriedly, and he stared at me calmly eating pizza.
“Sung-guk, you really put up a $100,000 bounty?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have that money? This morning you said you’d only put up about $30,000?”
This morning, I had indeed told Mark that. The truth was, I only had about $30,000 in immediately liquidatable funds.
“Someone agreed to sponsor $100,000.”
“Who?”
“Sergey Brin.”
“Sergey Brin?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?!”
Right before I left work, Sergey Brin had called me. His voice sounded quite serious.
– Sung-guk, I’m asking as the CEO of Google and owner of YouTube. Is this situation, this issue—is this something you orchestrated to pump up YouTube?
“Sergey. I don’t tell lies that are that easy to see through.”
– Then what’s this bombshell statement you’re supposed to make this evening?
“I’m planning to put a bounty on the terrorist’s head. That way, he’ll be caught quickly.”
Sergey Brin fell silent for a moment, then spoke.
– I’ll cover that bounty. Let’s raise it to a hundred thousand dollars.
“Sergey, why are you offering that bounty? There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.”
– After all, Sung-guk is risking his life for YouTube anyway…. And…. I’m sorry to that person who was talented, brilliant, young, and handsome—someone I was jealous of.
And then Sergey hung up the phone.

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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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