Chapter 8

#8. The Age of Silver

On October 6, 2010, Instagram was born. Six years earlier, in 2004, Facebook, which would later acquire Instagram, was born in a Harvard dormitory.

Around the same time, Cyworld became a nationwide sensation in South Korea.

However, by 2012, Cyworld had essentially failed, and Facebook from the United States had taken over the SNS market.

"What if Cyworld had been born in the United States?"

[Would it have been very different?]

"Similarly for YouTube. There were many video platforms in Korea similar to YouTube, like Cyworld."

At my words, Sera, in her holographic form, tilted her head.

"Instagram and Facebook were able to dominate the world because they started in the United States. YouTube also became what we know today because of the power of the United States and Google."

[Should we start a business in the United States now? We do have an empty office in the U.S. through SR Investment, right?]

"Antitrust laws exist in the United States. And there is invisible racial discrimination. Discrimination against Asians will only get worse. Would they let me dominate the market? Would they let me expand my business like an octopus?"

They might let a few businesses slide. If I can't dominate the market and am just racking up losses, they might laugh and let me have 10 or 20 businesses.

But what if they start turning a profit one by one? What if they start to dominate the market?

The FTC and antitrust laws would come after Microsoft and Amazon.

Eventually, they will come after me, and that's when Korea will be the fence to support me. That's why I want to start a business in Korea.

"You're right. That's why YouTube is out. Twitter is a money pit, so pass. Smartphones and mobile OS are tempting, but if I go after them, I'll be targeted not just overseas but also domestically."

[We need a business that can gather cash and power while avoiding as much attention as possible, right?]

"Exactly, we need a business that is highly profitable and influential but often overlooked."

[Ah, that's why our CEO has been focusing on game development for the past two years!]

"There's no better industry to grow big while being overlooked than games. It's not called the 'orchestra of IT' for nothing."

[I agree. There's nothing better than games for simulating various social, economic, and military phenomena.]

The 280 billion won from the Mega Millions. It's a lot of money, but considering what we need to do, it's woefully insufficient.

Of this, 100 billion won has been invested in stocks, real estate, and overseas mining shares.

I could have focused on buying coins, but I didn't, because of the butterfly effect.

If I were to sweep up all the coins, a completely different coin might skyrocket, unlike the original historical path.

I decided to be content with mining coins from the warehouse.

Now, I need to start a business with the remaining 180 billion won.

However, businesses like semiconductors, robotics, chemicals, biotech, and space all require enormous capital.

Not only capital, but also power and manpower are needed to sustain the business.

Even if SR comes up with a groundbreaking patent or product, it won't be able to protect it. It will be devoured by domestic conglomerates, let alone in the United States.

Therefore, to avoid being seen as an easy target, SR needs to grow in size.

That's why our first 'product' from SR Industries is a game.

It can achieve the highest efficiency with the least amount of cost and time.

Moreover, because we are in Korea, we need to start with this.

Korea is one of the few countries in the world where gacha games are popular.

* * *

Kim Tae-joon, a landlord who operates five commercial properties in Suwon, recalled what day it was.

"Is that game opening today?"

The game that had monopolized all internet ad banners in the past two weeks.

The ads that had appeared ad nauseam on terrestrial, cable, and YouTube.

The game whose ads had made him repeat the lines without even realizing it.

The game that had plastered every place where people gathered, from buses and taxis to subways and squares.

It had even managed to secure three top-tier S-class celebrities as its ad models.

"SR Industries? I've never heard of it."

It looked like a new company, but where did they get the money?

In any case, the game is opening today.

"It's not for Kakao?"

It's a rule in Korea that mobile games are launched through Kakao. But this game wasn't.

Instead, there was an event where you could get items and gacha tickets if you pre-registered 1 million times.

"Whatever, it has to be fun."

A game that had only been hyped through ads and hadn't even had a closed beta.

Kim Tae-joon installed the game on his phone, made by SR Industries.

"There's even a PC client app? That's interesting."

While the game was installing, he went to the official website and saw that there was a PC client.

He thought he might install the PC client if the game turned out to be fun.

Finally, the game installation was complete, and the opening sequence began.

"Wow...!"

The animation quality in the opening was incredible, and the game's OST was great.

-A hero named Roniath defeated the evil emperor.

-The Dark Empire retreated, and the Dark Age ended.

-The continent was liberated from the empire's rule.

-People called this era the Age of Silver, as it continued the old Golden Age.

The grand opening sequence ended.

-The Age of Silver-

The game title appeared on the screen with a majestic OST.

The first impression was a pass.

'No server lag or queue?'

Kim Tae-joon was surprised by the game's optimization and completeness.

Usually, on the first day of launch, the servers should crash. It's also common to get the three legendary swords. But this game didn't.

It felt like it was saying, "Come on! Come on! Come on in!" with confidence.

He then entered the character creation screen.

'Is this a pixel art game?'

Kim Tae-joon couldn't help but be amazed again.

The in-game graphics didn't feel like pixel art at all, thanks to the detailed pixel work.

It felt like a well-made 2D illustration.

The UI, character design, and every motion exuded a sense of luxury and made you want to keep looking.

'This is going to be a hit!'

He chose the 'Common Knight' class and entered the game.

'Fully voiced? No wonder the file size was so large...'

He was amazed again. Every line was fully voiced.

'I like that there's a skip button.'

Although he instinctively pressed the skip button, which he felt sorry for the voice actors, the game's luxury from the full voice acting was a pass.

"Yes! There's an auto-hunt feature!"

He cheered at the auto-hunt feature.

While some people look down on games with auto-hunt, Kim Tae-joon was glad to see it.

He was getting older and couldn't sit in front of the computer all day like he used to.

"..."

But Kim Tae-joon's expression suddenly stiffened.

"Are these guys crazy? The class is a gacha? Skills and items are also obtained through gacha?"

The initial choice of the Common Knight class had no real significance. You had to 'transform' to get a higher-tier class.

The same went for skills and items.

You could easily get up to the 'Advanced' tier in the game, but it was a different story from 'Hero' onwards.

Of course, items and skill books of 'Hero' tier and above could drop in the field, but the probability was extremely low.

Moreover, pets and transformation classes could only be obtained through gacha.

"What kind of business model is this?!"

What made him even more frustrated was the condition to obtain legendary items and skills.

You couldn't just get them through gacha. You had to gather materials through gacha and then craft them. This system is known as 'complete gacha.'

"Wow, really..."

He let out a hollow laugh at the pay-to-win system.

He first tried the free gacha given as a reward for reaching 1 million pre-registrations.

A beautiful gacha screen played, one that he could watch over and over.

"The game is really well-made..."

In the gacha screen, a girl with black hair and blue eyes, wearing a robe, was petting an orb.

Suddenly, the orb she was petting emitted a green light.

The magic girl who saw the light sneered. Her sneering face was truly annoying.

A few seconds later, Kim Tae-joon understood why she was sneering.

Over a dozen transformation classes appeared, all of which were white or green. Classes like priests, mages, and archers, which were far from knights, appeared.

"Really! If only common and advanced classes come out, she sneers, huh?"

After a few more free gachas, he finally saw the girl not sneer.

"It came out!"

Finally, a rare blue class appeared.

"Nice!"

It was even the 'Knight' class he wanted.

A rare Royal Knight, two tiers higher than the basic Common Knight, was definitely better, so he changed to it.

When he transformed from common to rare, his character's attack speed and damage noticeably improved.

"..."

Kim Tae-joon stared at his character, who was auto-hunting.

All he had to do was press the quest accept and complete buttons, and everything was automatic.

But strangely, he kept watching. The more the character grew by completing quests, the more he felt a strange addiction.

He could now access the auction house as his level increased.

'You can sell items in the auction house to get diamonds?'

Kim Tae-joon was impressed by the boldness of the game 'The Age of Silver.'

In this game, you could get diamonds, the premium currency, by selling items you picked up in the field.

'This will lead to a surge in bot farms.'

While hunting, blue and green items occasionally dropped in the field.

He was worried about bot farms.

'But so far, there are no accounts that look like bot farms.'

There were only user accounts, and even if there were bot accounts, they disappeared in a few seconds.

'If they are thoroughly cracking down on bot farms...?'

Regardless of the business model, he felt that this game was worth investing his gaming life in.

While he was mindlessly auto-hunting...

Suddenly, a user started attacking his Royal Knight.

"This guy?"

He quickly turned off the auto-hunt mode and manually fought the PK.

"Got him!"

When he caught the user who attacked him, he felt his heart racing. Dopamine started to surge in his brain.

Conflict and hatred in a mobile game! It had been a long time since 'Lineage.'

'That guy! He'll definitely come back for revenge!'

His heart was pounding. He couldn't stay like this.

He quickly opened the shop screen and bought all the packages available.

Each time he opened a package, he felt his character getting stronger, which made him feel good.

'What's this collection?'

He then pressed the collection among the numerous menus.

"Phew... I can't even swear anymore."

The smell of highly toxic pay-to-win.

Tae-joon felt dizzy.