I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 246

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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 246
Mark listened to my story in silence, then his expression shifted to one of utter disbelief.
“Sung-guk… Sergey really said he’d give you a hundred thousand dollars? Because he felt sorry for being jealous of you all this time?”
“That’s what he said, but realistically, he probably did it because it benefits YouTube. If YouTube turns profitable within the two years I’m CEO, it’s not a bad outcome for Google either. Of course, my share of the pie gets bigger in the process.”
“Hmm… I suppose that makes sense. But why would Sergey say something like that? Apologizing to someone talented, brilliant, young, and handsome because he was jealous? This isn’t a confession booth with a priest.”
I took a long sip of cola.
Honestly, I couldn’t quite figure out Sergey Brin’s psychology.
Whether in my past life or this one, I’ve always been in the spotlight, so there was never really anyone I envied. If I ever felt envious, it was perhaps when Sung-guk dominated the automotive industry? So I’ve never truly envied another person.
I stared at Mark intently.
“Mark, don’t you understand that feeling? You’ve always been by my side.”
The moment those words left my mouth, Mark’s face flushed crimson, and he shot me a glare.
“Sung-guk, right now, in this very moment. I want you to know I’m feeling like that would-be assassin.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
[He’s being overly dramatic….]
* * *
Chad Chun was staring at Sergey Brin with an expression of utter bewilderment.
“Sergey. Confessions are meant for priests, not for Sung-guk. Did you really just confess to him and hand over a hundred thousand dollars? Why didn’t you just make a donation instead?”
“Chad…. YouTube is owned by Google anyway. Right now, we hold a larger stake. Google’s corporate value is among the highest in the world…. But why do you and I both envy Sung-guk?”
“What are you talking about! I just hate Sung-guk, that’s all. That arrogant bastard!”
“You weren’t exactly humble yourself when YouTube first started.”
Sergey took another sip of beer.
Chad Chun paced back and forth in agitation, then grabbed a bottle of whiskey.
“Jeon Sung-guk just has bad luck! Fine, I admit it! He’s handsome, he’s young! I hate that smart bastard so much!”
Sergey Brin smiled faintly as he watched Chad Chun’s outburst.
Hearing Chad Chun voice his true feelings was oddly cathartic.
Perhaps that was why he’d given Sung-guk a hundred thousand dollars.
Deep down, he envied and resented Sung-guk intensely—just as Chad had said, for being handsome, young, and brilliant—but he maintained a facade of being a good person.
This situation was no different.
In his heart, he wished this incident would end with Sung-guk dead, allowing YouTube to return to his control, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud, so he offered the bounty instead.
After all, Sung-guk was walking into the lion’s den, drenched in blood.
Yet at the same time, he genuinely rooted for Sung-guk.
He wanted Sung-guk to emerge as the true victor from this brutal conflict!
* * *
Seven in the morning.
I finished preparing for work and called Sam to hurry him along.
“Sam, are you ready?”
– Sung-guk… our team members pulled an all-nighter. Today it’s sixty thousand people. This is the best we can manage for now. So please, Sung-guk, take it easy on the live stream.
“That doesn’t mean fewer people will tune in just because I go easy on them. By the way, Sam, you haven’t eaten breakfast, have you?”
– No, but… why do you ask?
“I’ll be heading to the office soon. Wait for me.”
I hung up the phone and immediately accessed the live stream on my mobile device.
The moment I logged in, the viewer count began skyrocketing exponentially.
“Hello everyone, this is Jeon Sung-guk. I’m still alive.”
Mark was waiting for me with an exasperated expression.
“By the way, Mark. Sam and the team pulled an all-nighter yesterday and fixed the server that crashed. This morning, I’m planning to stop by McDonald’s to grab breakfast for the team. Can you handle the McDonald’s drive-through?”
“What?! Jeon Sung-guk, you’re currently under death threats! And you’re telling me you want to stop by McDonald’s for breakfast instead of heading straight to the office?”
Mark was genuinely furious, completely forgetting that people around the world were watching him through the live stream.
“Mark, Sam worked hard yesterday.”
“Sung-guk, do you have a death wish?!”
The comments erupted in cheers at Mark’s genuine reaction.
I smiled calmly while watching the screen, though I was well aware that many of these viewers might actually be hoping for my demise.
“Mark, calm down. People are watching you.”
When I held up my phone, Mark’s face finally stiffened, and he abruptly stormed out.
“Well then, everyone, let’s head to work!”
* * *
I ordered thirty McDonald’s breakfast sets and distributed them to my security team who had been following me since home, as well as to Sam and the rest of the team.
During all this, Mark sighed a hundred times over, but only managed to calm down after Lim Mi-mi soothed him.
“Mark, I won’t do it again starting tomorrow. Today I was just showing off a bit since there’s a bounty on my head from yesterday.”
I tried to appease Mark.
“Sung-guk, if you do that one more time, I almost ended our friendship for real.”
“Mark, we can never end our friendship. It would have a massive impact on the business.”
“If you really can’t help yourself….”
Just then, Adam approached while scratching his head.
“Sung-guk, about what you asked yesterday.”
I had told Adam as I left yesterday that with the bounty I’d placed, there would surely be numerous tips coming in, and asked him to compile and report them to me this morning.
“Adam, did you get a lot of tips?”
“Some came in, but after you left yesterday, the police department issued a special news bulletin saying they would severely punish false informants. So there weren’t as many prank tips as expected.”
I carefully reviewed the tips Adam had compiled.
Something caught my eye among them.
“Sung-guk, you saw those people just now, didn’t you?”
It seemed Adam had noticed the same thing I did.
“Adam, one person from the East Coast and another from the West Coast each accused each other of being an Asian hate crime perpetrator. Hmm… this situation is quite interesting.”
This was exactly what I wanted.
One from Los Angeles and another from New York had each reported the other.
“Adam, what do you think? What’s the relationship between these two people?”
“Sung-guk… I might be wrong, but I think both of them could be the perpetrators. Since there’s a bounty on the line… they just reported each other.”
“That’s what I think too.”
I immediately called Barack Obama’s chief of staff.
This matter was no longer something the police could handle.
* * *
With the FBI’s arrival, the FaceNote employees watched the situation unfold with curiosity.
Two FBI agents approached me and displayed their credentials.
[Hmm… This is straight out of a movie.]
Then, like a line from a film, the FBI agent spoke.
“The President himself has issued a direct order. Asian hate crimes must be eradicated, and we must apprehend the perpetrators by any means necessary.”
“We’ll cooperate fully. However, this is an office. Shall we move to the Conference Room to discuss?”
I led the FBI agents into the Conference Room.
Only Mark and Adam accompanied me inside.
“You mentioned there was something unusual among the informants?”
I distributed the files Adam had compiled to the FBI agents.
“This is a file our staff organized from tips that came in overnight. Interestingly, there are two people who reported each other as the perpetrator. One of them lives in Los Angeles near Malibu, where Chad Chun was attacked. The other lives in New York, where Hailey Yang was attacked.”
“So, which of these two actually posted the message?”
“One of them must have posted it directly, but I’m certain these two are accomplices.”
The taller FBI agent questioned my assertion.
“Sung-guk, why do you think that?”
“Looking at the pattern of the initial attacks, they occurred in New York and Los Angeles within less than a week of each other. If there were only one perpetrator, a week would be too short a timeframe to confirm the target’s movements and travel by airplane. It would also be costly. I couldn’t imagine someone who harbors such hatred toward Asian entrepreneurs—blaming them for America’s economic collapse—would be wealthy enough to afford it.”
“So from the beginning, you suspected there were at least two perpetrators?”
“Yes. Initially, I thought there might be even more, which is why I offered the bounty. I wanted to exploit internal division. But after Chad Chun and Hailey Yang were attacked with no further developments, I honestly began to suspect there were probably just two perpetrators.”
The FBI agents took notes on my explanation.
Then the dark-haired FBI agent, who appeared to be the senior of the two, spoke to me.
“Sung-guk, we’ll do our best to ensure you can live safely in the United States without any further threats to your life. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Please do your best not just for me, but so all Asian people can live peacefully.”
We shook hands, and the FBI departed.
Mark approached with a noticeably lighter expression.
“Sung-guk, we’ve caught all the perpetrators now. The FBI’s involved, so things should feel much easier starting from today’s end of shift.”
“Will it really?”
“What do you mean? The FBI just went to catch the perpetrators.”
“Mark, are the perpetrators really just two people?”
“Sung-guk, you just told the FBI there would be two perpetrators. That they pointed fingers at each other….”
“Mark, think about it carefully. Incidents occurred on the East and West Coasts, and shortly after, a public manhunt began. A bounty was issued. But then both of them simultaneously pointed fingers at each other, publicly revealing that they were accomplices.”
Of course, what I had wanted was internal division.
But I hadn’t anticipated they would be foolish enough to point fingers at each other simultaneously.
“Sung-guk, what you’re saying is….”
“There’s definitely one more perpetrator. And the target they’re after is probably… me.”
I grabbed Mark by the collar as he tried to rush out.
“Sung-guk, we need to go find the FBI right now! But why didn’t you tell them this? They’ve probably gone to catch those two on the East and West Coasts!”
“The moment the FBI catches those two and moves to protect me from the perpetrator who hasn’t been exposed yet, the last remaining one will disappear forever among the masses and go into hiding. And I’ll probably spend the rest of my life in fear that someone might point a gun at my head at any moment.”
“Sung-guk… Then what exactly are you planning to do?”
“I won’t let anyone point a gun at my head. I’ll point my gun at theirs first.”
I had made my resolve.
* * *
Several hours after the FBI departed, a news bulletin reported that two perpetrators who had threatened and terrorized Asian entrepreneurs were apprehended—one in New York and the other in Los Angeles.
The FaceNote office atmosphere grew considerably lighter, and I deliberately exhaled a sigh of relief while bantering with the staff.
“Weren’t those criminals incredibly stupid? Blinded by greed, they turned on each other….”
Then I pulled Sam aside.
“Sam, did we boost our live stream viewership numbers?”
“Sung-guk… you’re not planning to do another live stream, are you?”
“Now that the perpetrators are caught, we should commemorate it with a broadcast tonight. And I want to check our viewership metrics while we’re at it.”
“O-okay then. I’ll do my best to make sure nothing goes wrong. Sung-guk.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
I then entered the Conference Room and pretended to work.
FaceNote had returned to its pre-incident state—everyone laboring diligently, debating passionately.
I opened the bag I’d brought that morning.
Inside lay a single handgun.

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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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