If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 12

Chapter 2. Are You Done Reading the Room? Let’s Upgrade

〚The dollar exchange rate has hit an all-time high! As financial market instability spreads, the government has announced it is conducting an emergency review of foreign exchange reserves.〛

〚Breaking news! The government has begun consultations with the International Monetary Fund, the IMF-〛

〚Our government has officially requested bailout financing from the IMF.〛

〚Today the dollar exchange rate exceeded 1,500 won-〛

〚The financial sector has switched to emergency response mode.〛

〚The foreign exchange crisis aftermath is now moving directly to the field. Anxious citizens continue to visit bank counters-〛

The year 1997 was truly tumultuous.

In the first half, news of corporate bankruptcies began breaking one by one, then in summer the Thai baht plummeted and Southeast Asian currencies collapsed in succession, ultimately leading to the Asian financial crisis.

The only time I’d seen news about national credit ratings and such was during the 2024 martial law emergency, but having returned to the past and witnessing the IMF in real time… the scale was incomparable.

Have you ever seen bankruptcy and delisting news pouring out several times a day?

You really lose all sense of reality.

National bankruptcy!

‘How on earth did our country manage to recover?’

Just how did they pull off the Miracle on the Han River!

As someone who returned from the future, from 2026 when South Korea was at its peak, I couldn’t adapt to many things…

But anyway, I had work to do.

“Currency exchange customer number 30!”

“Next person- No, customer. Please go over there for the gold collection!”

I swallowed a sigh at the bank employees’ cries that poured out like screams.

Inside the bank was frighteningly crowded.

The situation was already chaotic, and now they’d added gold collection campaign reception desks on top of it.

Currently January 1998.

That’s right.

With the new year, that famous fleece-the-citizens campaign- I mean, the gold collection campaign had just begun.

The media was flooded with gold collection-related news almost daily, and whenever people around had gathered a bit, the conversation turned to ‘did you donate, I donated’ style talk, so how could Koreans, who are extremely sensitive to trends, hold out?

Banks of any decent size were packed without room to step, crowded with people who’d come to offer their gold like lining up for free samples.

Wouldn’t the 2020s MZ generation, with their mindset of ‘only I spend my money,’ faint if they saw this scene?

The 90s were truly different.

A mother taking out her baby’s first birthday ring from a handkerchief, a grandfather carrying his cherished golden calf, a grandmother removing the gold ring inherited from her mother, and so on…

Watching it made my feelings complicated and subtle.

Ah, people of the old days…

‘Park Min-su, are you watching this…’

As I’d expected from the start, sure enough.

Park Min-su really did completely ignore the IMF crisis.

With his regression buff, 【Quera】 appeared much earlier than in the original history and was thriving, wasn’t it?

The US headquarters must have dollars piled up and rotting away, but for some reason, when the government begged him to share some dollars, he refused.

Thanks to that, far from being a national hero, public opinion flipped like a palm and he became the nation’s most disliked man.

Of course, a country’s foreign exchange crisis isn’t something that can be solved by one person’s power alone, but still.

‘You’re not some idol story regressor, you’re an economic story regressor protagonist, aren’t you?’

But this protagonist gentleman seems to have some grudge against his homeland – far from helping Korea, he barely even visits.

Is the story setting international rather than domestic?

A Wall Street conquest revenge story? If so, I have nothing to say, but…

Anyway, the more I sensed Seoul man Min-su’s heart being not just cold but ruthless, the more firm my resolve became to hide the fact that an extra had tagged along with his regression.

I shook my head and turned my gaze. Wait-

“Mother?”

“…Huh?”

“Stop right there. Ma’am, what’s inside there?”

“Well, that’s…”

I couldn’t let my guard down.

In the moment I looked away, this woman was trying to sell off household items again.

“Confiscated.”

When I sternly held out my hand, Madam Bang Suk-yeong hesitantly pulled out a lucky pouch from her bosom.

Opening it, I found three cute golden pigs…

I was speechless and looked up at Mother.

“You see, the country needs to be strong for the citizens to-“

“We already donated both yours and Cheong-song’s first birthday rings.”

“That was your father who donated those, not me. Mother hasn’t donated yet! Among Mother’s friends, only Mother hasn’t donated!”

“Why are you going Dutch on something like this?”

Is this lady joking?

Is it okay for a married couple to be this patriotic?

It’s no wonder I struggled with poverty in my past life.

With nothing but capital F’s in this household, this family had no hope without a cheat key like a regressor.

“Currency exchange customer number 34! Are you here?”

It was our turn.

I grabbed Mother’s hand and walked briskly to the bank counter. Mother, who had been whining, tensed up and became stiff as a chicken with its neck grabbed.

“H-hello! I’d like to exchange to won.”

“Yes~ Today’s dollar exchange rate is 1,420 won. Are you exchanging the full amount in your account?”

1,420 won.

‘In the movies I saw, the exchange rate was shooting up to 1,700 won, 1,600 won and it was chaos.’

Although Park Min-su was currently giving South Korea the cold shoulder and staying silent, to foreign investors’ eyes, just the existence of 【Quera Korea】 seemed to make the Korean market not quite worth abandoning.

Thanks to that, the exchange rate became relatively milder than in the original history.

“No. Just half, please.”

“Yes~.”

The employee who had been responding mechanically paused after checking the amount in the account, but only briefly. They immediately began processing.

‘As expected.’

Right after the IMF hit, when the dollar soared to the 1,500 won range, my parents were frantic, saying we should hurry to the bank.

However, if we’d come then, the processing wouldn’t have been this smooth. We couldn’t have avoided various suspicions from the bank and government either.

The safe route was to secure cash through partial exchanges now when the atmosphere had somewhat stabilized and settled, then enter the stock market when things got even quieter.

“My goodness! The money doubled.”

Madam Bang Suk-yeong seemed incredulous. With a flushed face, she kept staring at the bankbook.

“Making money is this easy? It’s really unbelievable.”

‘Of course it’s unbelievable.’

This was a money-making method only possible with the miracle called [regression].

Taking a test while knowing the answer sheet called the future was practically cheating-

【Tutorial Complete!】

【Grading the challenger’s tutorial performance…】

…Huh?!

I was startled and looked around in all directions.

It wasn’t my imagination!

From Mother looking at the bankbook with a face mixing excitement and fear, to the people in front of the gold collection desk, to the bank employee who’d been shouting to keep order…

Everything was frozen like a still frame.

The world had stopped!

“What, what is this?”

In the stillness where not even a single strand of hair moved, the only dynamic elements were the status window blinking with its cursor before my eyes and the sound of counting bills— That’s right.

‘It’s the sound of a bill counter!’

Is it really counting money? My money?

‘Grading?’

I couldn’t help but make a strange expression.

It was the system that had remained silent ever since its first appearance when I was six years old.

I was already shocked to death by its sudden reappearance, but now it’s giving me a score in this terrifying frozen screen?

‘This mission even had a report card…?’

【Grading has been completed.】

【Challenger’s Tutorial Report Card: 62(+20)/100 points Excellent】

【Overall Assessment: You succeeded in your first investment and safely entered the mission! The choice to ride on Siwoon’s coattails seems very safe, but it’s also a prudent decision. Anyway, congratulations on successfully breaking ground.

Let’s see, you barely scraped into the excellent grade with bonus points? Considering this was diving headfirst into unknown territory, you were awarded additional ‘Beginner’s Luck’ points. Beginner’s luck only happens once, so don’t expect such fortune again.】

“It even talks?!”

And it evaluates me so rudely too!

While I was unable to contain my shock, the letters spelling [Excellent] on the report card darkened, and flower petals burst out before my eyes.

【Final Grade: [Excellent] Grade Reward】

…Reward?

I became very calm in an instant.

I didn’t really understand what was happening, but they were giving me a prize anyway. This wasn’t the time to be bewildered.

【’A Pair of Fate Dice’ has been added to the challenger’s wallet.】

I swear I’m only finding out now that I even have a wallet!

When I instinctively rummaged through the Sailor Moon bag I was carrying, there really was a coin purse shaped like a lucky pouch that I’d never seen before in my life.

I hurriedly turned the wallet upside down and shook it out.

A total of two dice rolled into my palm.

It was a matching set, transparent with an aurora-like shimmer that sparkled like pebbles, and when I held them lightly, they had a very nice smooth texture.

One was an ordinary die marked with numbers 1 through 6.

The other had the same cube shape, but the numbers written on each face kept changing, making it quite dizzying to look at.

When I squinted and peered closely, numbers like 0 or 99 flashed by. It was bizarre.

“Fate dice? How am I supposed to use these?”

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