Chapter 18: Countdown to Collapse"

In the end, I gave up on trying to sleep and got up. At that moment, Taek-gyu opened the door and came out.

"You weren't sleeping either?"

"I just woke up."

He was probably wrestling with the same thoughts as me.

"Want to grab a beer?"

Taek-gyu nodded.

"Sure."

We headed to a convenience store nearby. Given the late hour, there wasn't a soul in sight.

We each grabbed a 500ml can and sat down.

The cold air seeped through our clothes. My heart was already heavy, and the weather was just miserable.

As I sipped my beer, Taek-gyu asked, "Do you think Seosung Electronics will go up again?"

"I don't know."

Typically, investors worry about a drop in stock prices, but we were concerned it might rise.

No one could predict if the stock would rise or fall tomorrow. If they knew, they would have bought or sold in advance.

All I knew for sure was that the L6 was going to be discontinued.

We had bought put options and short-sold in a strategy entirely focused on the decline of Seosung Electronics' stock price.

Originally, options were intended for risk hedging, not for all-in bets.

Our predictions were wrong, and the stock price moved in an unexpected direction. We had already lost tens of billions.

I looked at Taek-gyu and asked, "Aren't you resentful of me?"

He lifted his head and looked at me.

"Why would I resent you?"

"If I hadn't made those predictions, none of this would have happened."

Taek-gyu chuckled at my words.

"What are you talking about? I'm the one who suggested we invest. If it wasn't you, I would've lost everything during the Mountain Hill bankruptcy."

"That's true, but…"

Just because he helped me back then didn't mean he could accept our current losses.

The L6 was Seosung Electronics' premium smartphone and a cash cow for their IM division. They wouldn't easily discontinue a product like that, even if issues arose.

Had I been too naive from the start?

We drank in silence for a while until Taek-gyu broke the quiet.

"And it's not over yet."

"Huh?"

"Do you really think recalling will resolve all the issues?"

Seosung Electronics announced that the cause of the explosions was faulty batteries. They believed replacing the batteries would solve all problems.

But what if it wasn't just a battery issue?

They had calmed public outrage with a drastic move by recalling all products. If recalled products exploded again, discontinuation would be the only option left.

Then, wouldn't my predictions still hold?

The problem was time.

There wasn't much time left until the options expired.

Despite the recall announcement, L6 explosions continued.

Seosung Electronics advised users to stop using the L6. As a safety measure, they implemented a forced update limiting the charging level to 60 percent.

Until the recall was completed, they offered substitute phones through service centers and telecom stores. They even promised refunds for consumers who wanted one, requiring only the main unit to be returned without returning the freebies.

Surprisingly, despite the continued explosions, the demand for refunds was low.

The premium phone market was tightly split between N-phone and Seosung Electronics. Thus, most consumers chose to wait for the recall instead of opting for refunds. Only 2 percent chose refunds.

To meet the recall schedule, Seosung Electronics even forwent holidays to ramp up production.

One week after the recall announcement, the process finally began. The new L6 units were identical to the previous ones, except for the battery color displayed on the screen, which changed to green.

In a media interview, CEO Jo Dong-jun expressed gratitude, saying, "I sincerely thank our consumers who believed in us and waited. We will repay you with the best products and services."

With the recall, resales began.

The demand that built up during the sales suspension flooded the telecom companies. On that day alone, 30,000 new contracts were opened in the country.

Consumers who received new replacements and new buyers expressed satisfaction.

As the recall and resales proceeded smoothly, eliminating uncertainties, the stock price of Seosung Electronics, which had stagnated, began to rise again.

The stock price, which had hovered in the upper 1.6 million won range, increased by 4.1 percent, surpassing 1.75 million won. Meanwhile, our losses ballooned to over 9 billion won.

Taek-gyu stared in shock at his account balance, mouth agape, while I sighed.

"We're completely done for."

Out of the initial 13 billion won, only 3.6 billion remained. We had lost 70 percent of our principal. To recover that, we would now need to generate a return of 250 percent.

Thankfully, we had done some short selling, or if we had gone all-in on put options, we wouldn't have anything left.

The put options, which had cost tens of billions, were now worthless. As it stood, they couldn't be sold at all.

Taek-gyu mumbled in a daze, "Easy come, easy go, but who knew the money I made from venting my emotions would disappear so quickly?"

"..."

I had nothing to say.

Even if I pointed out that we still had 3.6 billion left, it wouldn't provide much comfort.

I had lost around 600 million myself.

Just thinking about it made my mind go blank, and my stomach felt like it was burning. If I felt this way, how much worse was it for Taek-gyu?

Only a week remained until the options expired. If nothing happened by then, it would truly be the end.

I never thought my wrong predictions would lead to such a disaster...

If I hadn't engaged in options trading, I could have avoided these losses. I remembered what my senior, Sang-yeob, had said before we parted: "If you mess up options trading, it can all go south in an instant."

It felt like we were truly on the verge of losing everything.

I crossed my arms and fell deep into thought.

Was my prediction wrong, or had I missed something?

Taek-gyu kept mumbling to himself.

"I should have gone all-in during the OPEC production cut meeting..."

If I had done that, I could have easily made hundreds of billions. Opportunities often seem much clearer in hindsight.

Taek-gyu ruffled his short hair and said, "Ah, it doesn't matter. I was living well even when I didn't have that money."

"..."

Still, having that money would have made life easier.

I picked up the L6 sitting on the table. It was a replacement that Taek-gyu had received from the telecom company during the recall. I had touched it several times, but there was nothing noticeable.

But then, at that moment, something flickered in front of me, almost visible.

I clenched my teeth and focused my mind.

Once the expiration date passes, the options would turn to worthless paper. What happened to Seosung Electronics after the L6 was discontinued or their stock crash wouldn't matter to us.

When was it going to be discontinued?

Show me something! Please!

Suddenly, a hologram appeared before my eyes.

What in the world...?

"Jin-hoo Kang!"

I snapped my eyes open at the shout. Taek-kyu's face came into view.

Zzzz!

A ringing in my ears echoed as my brain vibrated.

I clutched my head and staggered.

Taek-gyu shouted in surprise, "Hey! Are you okay? Jin-hoo!"

"Shut up...!"

Having him yell next to me made my head throb even more.

It took a while for the ringing to settle down.

Taek-gyu, eyeing me cautiously, asked in a small voice, "What did you see this time?"

"Four days from now."

"Huh?"

"It'll be discontinued in four days."

Taek-gyu looked stunned.

"Really?"

I nodded.

"If this is real psychic power, then that's what will happen."

While I was resting on the couch, Taek-kyu suddenly shouted while staring at the L6.

"Whoa!"

"What's wrong? Did you see something too?"

Could psychic powers be contagious?

Taek-gyu shook his head.

"No, it's not that... The replacement exploded."

I was taken aback.

"Turn on the computer."

We sat in front of the computer and began searching the news and online communities.

Surprisingly, there had been two more explosion incidents.

"One was in Canada, and the other was in China."

China was a secondary launch country, and the recall had started the same day the pre-orders were activated. Right on that day, a post with a photo of an exploded L6 appeared on the Chinese portal site Baidu.

Seosung Electronics announced that they would collect the products for investigation and suspected that the fire had been deliberately caused using a microwave.

After that, the informant who posted the article deleted it and disappeared without rebuttal.

The next post came from Canada. When Seosung Electronics announced they would collect the product for investigation, the informant only mentioned compensation but refused to return the product.

They also couldn't provide the place of purchase or product serial number, raising suspicions of a hoax.

And now, it had happened in Korea.

After receiving the replacement, the user had put it in a case and plugged in the charger when it suddenly caught fire. Seosung Electronics stated that they were currently collecting the products for detailed investigation.

I closely examined the photos the informant had posted. They didn't seem significantly different from the ones that had been shared before.

Just two hours after the products were collected, Seosung Electronics released their investigation results as breaking news. This was an unusually quick response.

"They said it was caused by external shock."

Seosung Electronics revealed that a large scratch on the back of the case matched the point of ignition. They released CT and X-ray images as evidence to the media.

Within moments, dozens of comments flooded in.

"Isn't this just a scheme to get compensation?"

"Could Seosung have fabricated this?"

"Isn't it strange how they made an announcement just two hours later?"

"Mine is perfectly fine; why does it keep exploding?"

"Yours will probably blow up too."

The following article mentioned that they would request an investigation from an accredited external agency and that any media outlet could observe the investigation process if they wanted.

"Unless they're exceptionally confident, they wouldn't go this far."

So was it truly an external shock that caused the ignition?

In any case, it was clear that the explosion incidents continued to hinder the L6 even after the recall. Consequently, Seosung Electronics was doing everything they could to manage public sentiment.

Taek-kyu looked at me and said, "Doesn't this suddenly remind you of a quote by Yogi Berra?"

"...?

"Who is Yogi Berra?"

Isn't it Yogi Vera?

I knew the name was wrong, but I understood what he was trying to say.

"Are you saying it's not over until it's over?"

Seosung Electronics had stated that the cause of the explosions was the Seosung SB battery. As a result, all replacements were equipped with Chinese BTL batteries.

But why had there been another explosion?

Could this also be a hoax, or was there another issue at play?

I raised two fingers.

"We have two days left."