I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 121: Dotcom Bubble (2)

[Sinking Bond Market. Investors’ Hearts Frozen Solid]

[Microsoft Boldly Claims New OS Windows 95 Will Be ‘Nothing Short of Revolutionary’...]

When a bubble pops, it means the money that had once had a direction is now wandering aimlessly.

Of course, in this capitalist society, money is often little more than illusion—most of it is literally erased.

‘A zero-sum game isn’t always a bad thing.’

A zero-sum game means someone always loses, yes—but someone else always wins. Over a trillion dollars were wiped out in the global bond market crash, and it left massive losses for nearly every investor.

Ah—except me, of course.

“How much capital do we have available right now?”

With both Lee Si-hyun and Seo Joo-eun away, the job of acting as my secretary had fallen to Choi Yeon-ha, who wiped her sweat nervously as she answered.

Maybe the room’s a bit warm.

“Roughly 10 billion dollars. Without leverage.”

Excellent.

Even back in 1992, I could mobilize 10 billion—but only if the Alpha Fund leveraged itself to the max.

Now I could pull that amount without much fuss. Granted, 300 million came from Daehwa Securities, 200 million from Russia, and 500 million from BBB. Still, it was all my money.

“We’ll need to redistribute assets again later. We’re still too dependent on the U.S. That’s why I’m asking—how’s the task of splitting Alpha Fund going?”

Choi Yeon-ha lowered her head. It didn’t seem to be going well.

“It’s... not easy. Even though Ha Yeong-il is running Alpha Fund, he hasn’t fully seized control...”

Well, I didn’t expect much anyway.

I brushed my fingers across the matryoshka doll that Si-hyun had brought me and spoke.

“We can leave the personnel as-is. It’s just the assets we’re dividing. First, increase the capital allocated to Myrian... and I’ll select a few older students from Daehwa High and send them to the U.S. Let’s boldly scale that side up.”

“Oh, so you’re shifting Alpha Fund to focus more on stability now that it’s grown so much...?”

“Exactly. You get it. I can’t control everything myself. Unless it’s an absolutely critical moment, Alpha Fund should start focusing more on stable returns than crazy yield.”

And... the aggressive investing and reckless leverage that used to define Alpha Fund would now be shifted elsewhere.

‘Good thing I went through all that hell to establish the school.’

Finally, the fruits of my talent development were beginning to show. Now that I was in my first year of high school, seniors were about to graduate—meaning there were candidates I could use even outside of Myrian.

It helped that in the U.S., launching a startup as a college student was practically a rite of passage. If not, I would’ve had to wait several more years to make use of anyone.

“For now, leave Daehwa Securities still. The investment bank division should focus on IPO prep. Once the bubble kicks in, IT companies will be itching to go public.”

“Yes. Then I’ll conduct all stock purchases under Alpha Fund’s name.”

During the dotcom bubble, it was normal for stock prices to go wild immediately after listing. Entire IPO volumes would vanish the moment trading opened. There were also tons of off-market trades.

Stock manipulation was practically routine... though not something I planned to get involved in.

–Tap.

A beautifully decorated matryoshka doll tipped over in my hand.

With a click, a smaller doll popped out from inside, and then the inner dolls all tumbled over.

“The more you stack, the more comes pouring out. So stack those stock prices high.”

And all I’d need to do is push the first domino.

***

Now then, here’s the problem:

How do you inflate the bubble?

Even someone like me can’t move the market with just 10 billion dollars.

You might say, “Isn’t 10 billion huge?” —and yes, that’s true. I could manipulate markets with just 1 million if I wanted to.

But the problem is, I can’t use that 10 billion to directly affect stock prices. It’s not ignorance that keeps people from doing it—it’s because it’s blatantly illegal.

If I bought up a ton of stock with that 10 billion and then dumped it at the bubble’s peak, that’d be textbook market manipulation. You might get away with moving 100 million under the radar, but 10 billion—especially when handled by Alpha Fund—would attract SEC scrutiny immediately.

That’s why I ordered the .com-tagged companies to be bought broadly. I’d already secured promising IT firms like Microsoft and Amazon.

And I had no plans to sell those anyway. I only bought them because not doing so would’ve looked suspicious, and my stake was still relatively minor.

‘If I tried manipulating blue chips, I’d be handing them my head on a platter.’

The real selection—the genuine curation—would happen at the bubble’s floor. That’s when I’d buy, while prices were discounted.

“...So, you’re saying you’re going to trigger the bubble yourself?”

Now in high school, Seo Ji-yeon looked at me curiously. Her looks had matured nicely too—though not as much as mine.

“Yeah. That’s why I took over Microsoft Korea. I’m hosting an event with Pigmalion Soft.”

Microsoft Korea had been established as a joint venture between MS HQ and Pigmalion Soft. Which meant that, as the owner of Pigmalion Soft, I could contact Microsoft HQ directly.

“Seriously... I don’t get it. You founded that company just to play games, and now it’s this important.”

Seo Ji-yeon shook her head. She pretended to like subculture stuff for my sake, but she never really did. Her tone always carried a hint of something under the surface.

My inner weeb self raged—but I held back. It wasn’t like she was the only person in this country who disrespected cultural industries.

‘Hmph. I’ll make you pay later. Cosplay, photo shoots—the works...’

Maybe this is why Seo Ji-yeon didn’t like subculture in the first place... The thought flashed by, but I ignored it.

Because there’s no way anything I do with Miss Yoo Ha-yeon could ever be boring.

.

.

.

–Ding.

“Anyone here?”

Stepping into the office building, Seo Ji-yeon looked around, puzzled.

Pigmalion Soft was a software company—one of the more “well-known” ones at that. Even someone like Ji-yeon, who didn’t care about these things, had heard the name more than once.

“...Why is no one here? Isn’t this Pigmalion Soft headquarters? Or... maybe just a branch?”

So it was only natural that she stepped back and glanced up at the sign, confused.

“Yep, this is HQ. And yeah, it’s empty.”

“...Why?”

“Well, because it’s just me and Myrian doing all the development.”

Smile.

I pulled Ji-yeon closer by the shoulder with a grin.

“My little Ji-yeon, you know how to code, right?”

“W-Wait...!”

She flailed, trying to escape—but it was pointless.

No matter how much Ji-yeon grew, she was still inside the palm of my hand.

***

Wearing her high school uniform, Seo Ji-yeon hugged her arms around her shoulders, pretending to be mad as she grumbled.

“Tch, you’re so mean, young lady. You didn’t have to drag me in like that... Don’t you trust me?”

“I trust you. It’s your coding I don’t trust.”

It wasn’t really fair. The comparison pool was either the elegant super-genius Miss Yoo Ha-yeon, or a shut-in genius male programmer with a weeb complex. Ji-yeon was smart in her own right.

“That’s contradictory! I admit I can’t code, but then why are you giving me something this important? This ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) isn’t some hobby project—it’s an official Microsoft event!”

I nodded.

She was right. There were plenty of talented people out there, but to be frank, Ji-yeon wasn’t one of them in this particular field.

The fact that Lee Si-hyun could do secretary work, run companies, bury people, and act like a mafia boss—it was pure luck that she happened to be a universal genius.

Most people, if tossed into Russia like she was, would just stammer and get shot.

“It’s fine. You’re not here to code. You’re here to play the role of a regular person.”

“...Huh?”

I explained the upcoming Windows 95 launch event to Seo Ji-yeon in detail.

“You know how we’ve been working on that game since middle school?”

“Right. I even studied computers—something I never thought I’d do.”

The results weren’t great, and I had to overhaul most of it, but still.

“Be honest. It was fun, wasn’t it?”

Ji-yeon hesitated, then answered truthfully.

“It was fun... but also really... niche. I feel like only shut-ins playing games in their rooms would enjoy it. I’m not saying we made a bad game—compared to others, it was really deep, but...”

I didn’t listen to the rest. It was bound to be some bland excuse.

“...Why.”

–Grit.

I ground my teeth and glared at Ji-yeon. But even though she flinched, she didn’t stop talking.

“I mean, come on. Orcs, elves... Normal people don’t like fantasy stuff like that. Sure, the system’s user-friendly, but the feel is way too niche.”

“....”

So this clueless normie couldn’t recognize the brilliance of my sophisticated, future-oriented, subculture-infused masterpiece.

...Which meant other normies using Windows 95 wouldn’t get it either.

Ha.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss