With the Time Shop, I Too Am the Greatest Conglomerate of All Time

Episode 197. The beginning of it all.

late July 2006.

Chinese display manufacturer VOE headquarters meeting room.

President Wang Shuo was listening to the report of the sales team leader with a stiff face.

“As soon as a 40-inch panel for TV was released from the 7th generation line completed last month, TM Display drastically lowered the price of the same size panel. As a result, the operating loss has grown even bigger, reaching a deficit of 2.1 billion yuan (350 billion won) in this month alone…”

Wang Shuo, who had been contemplating for a moment, spoke in a calm voice.

“This makes it clear that TM Display is targeting us.”

The sales manager made a face that he couldn’t understand.

“..That’s right. But compared to today’s TM, we don’t even look like growing sprouts, but I have no idea why we’re doing this at the cost of such great damage. We didn’t really do any damage to that side…”

At that, Wang Shuo laughed bitterly.

“…Jaewoon Kang, he already knew we were going to be our biggest competitors in the future. It will be difficult to deal with after they grow a little, so they must be doing this to trample them from the time they sprout…”

“..I can’t believe it…Now that all 4 lines have been built, is it possible to predict the future by looking at it?”

“Because he is capable of such a thing, he has grown the company on such a large scale. You cannot think of Kang Jae-woon as being in the category of ordinary people. According to rumors floating around, his fortune, who is still under 30, has already exceeded 5 trillion yuan (850 trillion won). Do you think such a thing would have been possible if that person was an ordinary person?”

The sales manager nodded.

“…the boss is right. It is an achievement that is absolutely impossible for ordinary people.”

Wang Shuo opened his mouth with a determined expression on his face.

“Now there is only one way.”

“What…how are you talking about?”

Wang Shuo spit out each letter as if chewing it.

“Jung. Myeon. Win. Boo.”

“..Then you want to go ahead with the original plan..?”

“No, I need to advance the plan a bit.”

The sales manager asked in surprise.

“Are you moving forward?”

“okay. We will start the construction of the 8th and 10th generation lines that we plan to build later.”

“Um…other than anything else, the construction cost alone will cost more than 200 billion yuan (34 trillion won). Didn’t you plan to build the line sequentially because of that cost?”

“Of course it was. But she doesn’t have time to sit still. At this rate, instead of knocking down TM Display, the deficit will snowball like a snowball, and if the period to support the funds becomes longer, the government will eventually withdraw. It’s because our displays aren’t the only fields we need to apply for… We’ll have to see the match before that.”

“..how are you going to finance the construction?”

“How can I arrange it, just borrow it from the People’s Bank of China, as we have done so far.”

“Have you never borrowed such a large amount of money at one time before? Will the loan be approved? Besides, the management situation is not so good…”

At that, Wang Shuo pointed a finger upward.

The sales manager saw this and looked at him with surprise.

“Are you sure you want help from the State Council?”

“okay. With a word from the State Councilor, the loan will be instant. That’s how I ate the money, so I’ll spend it at a time like this.”

“I will pay for the line construction, so you focus on securing customers who will buy our panels. How much market share can be eaten by TM Display will be the key to this match.”

Kevin, the head of the AI ​​development team, was briefing the research results.

“Artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles is currently 50% developed. Objects that are fixed off the road, such as traffic lights and signs, can be recognized relatively accurately, but it is still difficult to clearly distinguish whether a nearby object is a pedestrian, a car or a bicycle.”

Two things were needed to make a fully autonomous vehicle.

One is a sensor that can recognize the surrounding situation like the human eye.

Usually radar and lidar do that.

And the other is artificial intelligence that can make human-like judgments based on the surrounding recognition information obtained by sensors.

A lot of unexpected things happen while driving.

Because if AI misses even one of those situations, it can lead to a major accident.

The conditions that artificial intelligence for self-driving cars had to pass were quite difficult.

“When do you think Kevin will finish development?”

“Hmm…this is my prediction, but it’s getting better day by day, so it should be possible in three years at the latest.”

3 years…

It’s 2006, so 2009?

Even taking into account actual testing, it could be released in the early 2010s.

It’s amazing… In my previous life, it was only possible to commercialize it after 2020.

Kevin was looking at me with innocent eyes, not knowing the meaning of what he had just said.

I said with a smile.

“By the way, you said you recently received the Loewner Prize?”

Loebner Award.

The prize is awarded to the winner of an artificial intelligence competition jointly created in 1990 by inventor Dr. Hugh Loebner and the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Research.

The judges have a conversation with the AI ​​submitted by the contestants, and then select the AI ​​closest to a human and award the prize.

Even if only 1 or 2 out of 10 committee members could get recognition, it was difficult to pass the judging enough to win.

However, the artificial intelligence ‘Uni’ created by Kevin was recognized by as many as four people and renewed the all-time high score, right?

Kevin scratched his cheek with a humble face.

“It’s nothing. To be honest, I thought I could be recognized by at least 5 people, but there are only 4 people… It was a good opportunity to realize that my skills are still a bit lacking. Since then, I have made up my mind again and have been studying properly.”

A genius like Kevin decided to work harder…

I’m very excited to see what the results will be!

“Kevin, you may not be satisfied, but congratulations on winning! Thanks to that, our company image has improved, so I want to say thank you as chairman.”

Kevin bowed his head.

“Thank you for the congratulations. Mr. Kang.”

“yes. Please continue to do the same in the future, and if you have any difficulties in your research, please tell Vice-President Jang Dae-won. They will fix it right away.”

#March 1, 2007.

Finally, the last day of repayment of the loan I borrowed from the Time Store came.

I slipped the card into the payphone, slightly nervous.

As with the previous repayment of 119, press 1 to complete the loan repayment.

“Your last loan payment is complete! Thank you for your sincere repayment. sir.”

drop!

“..what? Did it just end like this?”

A moment of unexplained disappointment and relief.

A male voice came from behind him.

“Hey, Mr. Kang!”

Looking back, I was shocked just like when I first returned to the past.

I called out his name with my lips open, which I couldn’t separate.

“..Uncle Han?”

Just before returning to the past, when Mr. Yoo, who I was working with, died.

The uncle Han, who shared a glass of wine at the funeral home and lamented, was making a mischievous expression in front of my eyes.

“Have you forgotten me yet?”

“Absolutely. But, did you come back too?”

At that, the old man laughed out loud.

“What? return? haha. ha ha ha.”

Seeing him like that, I suddenly felt a strong sense of incongruity.

“By the way, your age is the same….”

It wasn’t just age.

Even the shabby clothes and thick hair we had when we had a drink were the same.

At that moment I realized everything.

“..maybe you were the seller at that time?”

He made a ‘click’ sound by rubbing his thumb and forefinger.

“answer! I am the time shop manager and the one who gave you that payphone card.”

Come to think of it, I can’t even remember where or how I first met Mr. Han.

At the time, I thought we were working together…

The only thing that came to mind was that we had a drink together at Mr. Yoo’s funeral.

“..Then you are the devil?”

“haha. By human definition, it’s close to the devil. Because it is a being that takes human souls and puts them in pain. But it’s not 100% identical to the devil either. Unlike the demons in the story, I at least give you a chance to get out of hell. And you made the best use of that opportunity in the end. Congratulations, Mr. Kang. As of today, you are free!”

freedom! in one word of his.

I felt the chains in my heart that had been holding me tight until now, knowingly and unknowingly, were torn apart.

“..are you really free? Do I no longer have to worry about losing all of this?”

“Sure. Because you passed the exam. Ownership of the soul is already returned to you.”

I glanced at him and said.

“Can I ask you something?”

He shrugged.

“Originally, I don’t take questions, but I’ll answer just one question and anything. Thanks to you, I have been happy for 10 years, so this is an award.”

After thinking for a while, I opened my mouth.

“Why me?”

It was a question with many meanings.

Uncle Han answered immediately.

“Because you wanted it the most. It was amazing that he was alive without committing suicide, so he had a lot of regrets about his life. So I gave you a chance. I was quite curious about how you would live if you were to go back to the past.”

“…if that was the reason, at least to me you were an angel and not a devil…”

“haha. you can think of that Then I’m alone It was fun during that time. Kang!”

As soon as those words were finished, Uncle Han suddenly disappeared in front of my eyes.

I knew I would never see him again.

I was relieved and sat down on the spot.

“It must have been Mr. Han who started all of this… ha ha. I really didn’t even think about it…”

Although I did not know that the time seller would appear in person.

Anyway, that damn loan repayment is over.

Now there was nothing more holding me back.

The only thing left to do is enjoy the life of doing what you want to do.

I was talking with CEO Chan-myung Kim about the LCD chicken game.

“You mean that VOE has started operating up to the 10th generation line?”

“yes. So, as the chairman said, we lowered the price by 40% to 70-inch or larger large panels produced in our 10th generation line, but the VOE side is selling it again at less than half that price.”

“Are you going to be half again from the price we lowered?”

“yes. It seems to be an operation to lower our panel prices further and make us operate at a loss… That’s almost the same as distributing panels for free, so the monthly deficit alone will probably be more than 2 trillion won. Besides, the Chinese government is also supporting such crazy things… It’s a country I can’t understand.”

“There is no other Chinese version of kamikaze…”

“We are making 500 billion won a month from our OLED line alone, so we can just hold on until we fall out of the way, but let’s push forward a little more aggressively.”

“What method are you thinking of..?”

“Let’s launch a 3D LCD display!”

3D LCD.

Literally, it is an LCD display that allows you to view images in three dimensions.

It is an unfortunate display that appears and disappears for a while due to the inconvenience of having to wear glasses.

At least it was a fresh item that could be quite interesting at this time.

Especially because I knew that the movie ‘Avatar’, which will be released next year, will raise the public’s interest in 3D movies.

It was planned to release the 3D LCD panel to coincide with the release of Avatar.