Grace took a sip of her black tea and said,
"We suffered significant losses this time. Both in futures and because Royal Dutch Shell's stock price plummeted. It's safe to say that not only us, but most European financial firms also took losses."
Royal Dutch Shell is Europe's largest oil company. The Rothschild family is also known to indirectly hold shares through various investment companies.
But due to this incident, operations were suspended, and the stock price also crashed. Moreover, compensation had to be prepared for the oil spill. Since Europe has strict environmental regulations, the amount is not insignificant.
I replied nonchalantly, "Predicting natural disasters is the job of experts."
Even though many of them are wrong.
"Didn't you predict not only this time, but also the Big One?"
"That was Professor Mohan's work."
"You are the only person who believed Professor Mohan's words."
"President Ronald also believed him."
She shook her head. "No. President Ronald believed your words, not Professor Mohan's. Because no one lies when they put money on the line."
Her tone was as if she was certain.
I chuckled, sounding incredulous. "How could I have possibly known that the North Sea oil fields would turn out like that?"
"Exceptional investors always have something beyond rationality."
"What is that?"
"Well… artistic sensibility? Animal instinct? I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. But don't you know it too?"
I could understand what she was trying to say.
The investors I've met definitely had something beyond the realm of rationality.
If you judge rationally, you shouldn't buy IT stocks during the dot-com bubble, and you shouldn't buy real estate during the real estate bubble.
If you did that, you wouldn't have suffered losses, but conversely, you wouldn't have made a lot of money either. But investors who enjoyed the bubble and sensed the crisis right before it burst and got out made enormous amounts of money.
But who on earth can know when and how a bubble will burst?
I drank my black tea. Coffee still suits my taste better.
"Are you saying that such things are more important than mathematical analysis or statistics?"
"Mathematics and statistics are just things you fit in later. If smart and rational people were good at investing, wouldn't economists be the richest people?"
But reality is not like that. Even economists who predicted financial crises are mostly people who haven't made money themselves.
It might sound strange, but predicting future events and making money from it are completely different things.
Grace stared intently at me. "What I'm really curious about is this: if you knew about it, why didn't you say anything? If you had, the damage we are seeing now could have been prevented."
Her words hit the nail on the head. I also felt a pang of regret when I saw the oil spill accident.
I knew through foresight that the North Sea oil fields would be damaged. If I had warned in advance, no one would have dismissed it lightly. I wouldn't have been able to change the path of the approaching hurricane, but sufficient measures could have been taken. But I remained silent and secretly bought crude oil futures.
She looked at my face and wore an amused expression. "That was a pointless question. Because if you had, you wouldn't have made money."
"..."
What is her intention in saying this to me?
No matter how I look at it, I can't figure out what she's thinking.
She put down her cup and looked at her watch. "I should go now."
Then, she took out a business card from her wallet, placed it on the table, and stood up. "Contact me anytime."
"I have a girlfriend."
At my words, she smiled. "I know."
***
The plane we were on flew over the North Sea.
Just looking down at it made me feel coldness and desolation. And black oil slicks covered the sea.
I knew the North Sea oil fields would be damaged, but I didn't expect an oil spill accident to occur.
I muttered, as if to myself, "Could I have prevented this too?"
"You didn't know about this, though."
"I could have anticipated it enough, maybe."
If it's wrong to do things you shouldn't do, is it also wrong not to do things you should have done?
I held the business card in my pocket in my hand. The coated card was embossed with the Rothschild family crest.
Taek-gyu put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Ellie told you not to get distracted by beautiful women."
I felt a little guilty for no reason. "Wh-, why are you bringing that up here?"
"Think about it. If that woman wasn't beautiful, would you have been this interested in her?"
"..."
What does this guy take me for?
…But listening to him, he's right.
Everything is monetized in this world. Beauty that captures people's attention is also an asset she possesses. Like he said, if she hadn't been beautiful, I might not have been interested.
Having nothing to say, I counterattacked. "You think about it. Rothschild, you said. Don't you like conspiracy theories?"
At my words, Taek-gyu flinched. "Hmm, you can't leave out the Rothschilds in conspiracy theories, that's true."
***
We returned to Korea.
The spotlight was focused on Professor Kim Ho-min rather than me. A Chemistry Prize is more prestigious than a Peace Prize, and a solo award is more so than a joint award.
The media made a lot of noise about the Nobel Prize for a while. But that was only for a few days. When a large fire broke out at a shopping center in Busan, killing more than ten people, the issue soon shifted to the government's response, political debates, winter fire prevention, and the poor treatment of firefighters.
Public interest is originally bound to fade easily.
In any case, we decided to continue supporting the scientific community. It is greedy to expect sprouts to appear without sowing seeds. If we want more Nobel laureates to come from Korea in the future, we need to invest in advance.
Not long after that, Hyun-joo noona ended her maternity leave and returned to the company.
Golden Gate Korea branch employees gathered in the lobby to celebrate the branch manager's return. But they all soon regretted it. Because the branch manager started a storm of work as if to resolve the resentment accumulated from not being able to work during her leave.
Employees were tied to work without even being able to leave work, as if an emergency had been declared. Ellie was no exception, and often left work past 10 PM.
It was better when the branch manager wasn't here.
Henry took care of the child at home instead of his wife going to work, and was scheduled to get a job at Golden Gate early next year.
Henry often came to the company to meet Hyun-joo noona when she got off work. Female employees who saw him pushing a stroller liked it, saying that Western men are indeed family-oriented.
Originally, if you are handsome, everything you do looks cool. Even carrying a baby in a baby carrier looks cool.
And....
"We need to create the OTK Award."
"Huh? Are you really going to do it?"
"Heh, I'm Oh Taek-gyu. I'm a man of action."
"..."
No matter how I think about it, it seems like he's starting a pointless endeavor, but what can I do if the Deputy Director wants to do it?
There are countless awards in the world. There are awards officially given by the government, and there are awards casually created by private organizations, schools, academies, etc.
What matters is whether everyone recognizes the award or not.
For example, in the case of the Nobel Prize in Economics, it is strictly speaking not a Nobel Prize but the Swedish Central Bank Prize, but for economists, it has the same authority as the Nobel Prize.
On the other hand, when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Chinese dissident (from the Chinese government's perspective, at least) Liu Xiaobo, a private organization in China created the Confucius Peace Prize in protest, which caused great laughter around the world. It's rare for an award to be embarrassing for both the giver and the receiver.
"What should we do to create a prestigious award?"
The awarding body, the background of its creation, the purpose of giving the award, transparent and fair selection of winners, etc. But above all, what is most important is....
"It's the prize money, isn't it?"
No one in the world dislikes money. Therefore, the amount of prize money and the authority of the award are closely related.
"We should give at least $1 million, right? Awarding in a total of five fields: novels, manga, anime, games, and movies (only subculture-related movies)."
Saying it's $1 million sounds good, but awards giving this much prize money are rare worldwide. Let alone in the subculture field.
"First, we need to form a committee. Carefully selected from all walks of life to avoid fairness controversies."
He's unusually full of enthusiasm. Thanks to that, only Public Relations Team Leader Jung Gi-hong, who can be called the Deputy Director's right-hand man, became busier.
It was better when the Deputy Director wasn't here.
It was decided to establish a separate department within OTK Company to handle anime and games, and to pursue investment in parallel. Of course, the person in charge is Oh Taek-gyu.
What else would you use money for if not for earning it? To spend on your obsessive fandom activities.
When the official announcement was made, anime and game sites, etc., were buzzing.
– What's this? They're going to create the OTK Award?
-ㅋㅋㅋ No surprise, they are Otaku Company after all.
– I heard Deputy Director is pushing for it, not Kang Jin-hoo.
– $1 million prize money! Total $5 million for five fields! Isn't this the largest ever?
– Wow! Class in spending $5 million on obsessive fandom activities!
– How many years will they do it? Won't it just disappear quickly after a year or two?
– With OTK Company's budget, they could probably do it for a thousand years.
– Do they have money to burn? They're doing all sorts of crazy things.
– If they have that much money, they should give some to me ㅜㅜ
– Starting today, I'm starting a light novel serialization online. Don't stop me. The title is Me, a Loner, Leveling Up at Double Speed to Become an SSS-Class Wizard.
– ...Someone please stop him.
***
December is a month when several events overlap in the financial world. As the year's profits and losses are finalized on December 31st, financial companies were moving busily.
Governments of each country were also closely watching the foreign exchange market, ready to intervene at any time.
December is also an important month for us. Because CarOS' electric vehicles are finally being released.
I received real-time progress reports every day.
The mass-produced car released was not significantly different from the concept car previously unveiled at the North American International Auto Show. Equipping cameras instead of side mirrors to reduce air resistance was also kept as is.
Inside, a large display controllable by hand gestures, voice, and touch was installed, and a facial recognition sensor recognized the driver's identity and behavior. These were technologies used in Seosung Electronics' smartphones transplanted into vehicles. And level 5 autonomous driving technology capable of unmanned driving and 150kWh and 175kWh OTK batteries capable of driving 1,000 kilometers on a single charge were installed.
Compared to other electric vehicles that mount batteries of 80kWh or less due to internal space and weight issues, the battery capacity is twice as large.
The only problem is, of course, the price.
The electric vehicles AD3 and AD4 were $20,000 more expensive than the previously released cars. It's only this much thanks to establishing a mass production system. Autonomous driving modules, as well as high-capacity batteries, are installed, so it's a natural result.
CarOS started taking pre-orders through its website after the unveiling. To prevent phantom reservations, a deposit of $3,000 had to be pre-paid by credit card.
Vehicles would be shipped in order of payment, and refunds would be given for cancellations. This was the same method used by Nikola.
Reservations started at midnight Detroit time, where CarOS headquarters is located, and we watched anxiously.
"What happens if this flops?"
Sales forecasts varied slightly among automotive experts. Most said it would be a hit, while others said that demand might not be as high as expected due to the high price.
In the case of electric vehicles, subsidies are provided by each country to promote the spread of eco-friendly vehicles, but the total amount is limited. The key is whether they can draw out demand beyond that.
If AD3 and AD4 don't sell as much as expected, future strategies will also be disrupted.
"Then we'll have to tighten our belts too."
Should we abolish the OTK Award first?
Chairman Im Jin-yong would also be just as anxious. Batteries made by the joint venture TS Company, as well as Seosung Electronics components including AP, RAM, and sensors, were heavily loaded.
From Seosung Group's perspective as well, they had poured all their efforts into it.
We logged in as administrators and watched the real-time reservations.
The result...?
***
[CarOS Electric Vehicles Surpass 500,000 Reservations in Less Than a Day!]
[Reservations Exceed 1 Million in Three Days!]
[30 Billion Dollars in Revenue from Reservation Deposits Alone]
[Now, the Key is Production Capacity and Quality]
[Seosung Electronics, Second Leap Forward with Automotive Electronics Business.]
[The Beginning of Change Brought by Driverless Electric Vehicles...]
Several states in the United States have allowed unmanned driving on some roads, including highways. There were conditions attached, such as the driver must be on board and able to stop in case of an accident due to autonomous driving technology errors, but this was a major shift towards driverless cars.
President Ronald flew to Detroit and stood on the football stadium where he had campaigned during his candidacy. And there, he declared as if proclaiming,
"Now America is once again the center of the world's automobiles!"