Winter, 22 years old.
My long military life is over.
"Loyalty! Sergeant Kang Jin-hoo has been ordered to be discharged! "I am reporting this!"
After reporting my discharge to the battalion commander, I realized that I was finally being discharged. Officers and unit members followed me to the guard post and saw me off.
The commander tapped my shoulder and said,
"It was a lot of hard work. Even when you go out into society,Be as healthy as you are now."
"······yes."
My health is a mess.
My healthy body came here and became seriously ill.
* * *
I got on the bus and headed home.
While I was in the military, my house changed several times. The current house is a semi-basement studio in Heukseok-dong with a deposit of 5 million won and monthly rent of 400,000 won.
When I went down the stairs, opened the front door, and entered, the humidity and musty smell took my breath away. I opened the window to ventilate.
I wondered who would live in a house like this, and it ended up being me.
Compared to this, isn't the quarters better?
I put my luggage down and looked around, and there was a small folding table on one side of the kitchen, with a tablecloth on top of it.
I opened the tablecloth.
Along with the covered dishes, there were five 10,000 won bills and a cell phone. And there was a note on top of it.
"It looks like you went to work today too."
A few months ago, I heard from someone I knew that she worked at the customer service center at Gangnam Lite Department Store. She can't be away just because her son is discharged from the military.
I sat down on the floor and ate cold rice and cold soup.
* * *
When I was young.
My family lived in a two-story single-family house, and on the weekends we went out to eat in a luxury sedan.
Even though i wasn't very rich,I seemed to have lived a life that was enviable.
My father was the company president. It was a small factory with about 10 employees. It was a business he started with his bare hands and built throughout his life.
My father told me to take over the family business, and I went to Korea University to major in business administration.
After graduation, I planned to help my father grow the company.
Things changed towards the end of first year.
The company was in crisis when the main contractor suddenly canceled the delivery contract. His father went to great lengths with his employees to save the company.
Although it is difficult to grow a company, it is easy for it to fail.
Final bankruptcy processing day.
My father was so shocked that he collapsed from cerebral hemorrhage on the spot.
When there was a scene in a drama or movie where a prosperous family suddenly collapsed, I thought it was someone else's problem.
I had no idea our house would turn out like that.
From the company's bankruptcy to my father's illness. I don't even know how time passed after that. The house and car I lived in were auctioned off one after another.
Despite several surgeries, my father was never able to wake up and closed his eyes in the hospital.
There was no way I would be able to get tuition since I had to worry about living expenses right away.
In times like this, men have two options.
One is studying abroad, and the other is military. Studying abroad was impossible for me as I had no money and was unprepared. However, the military of the Republic of Korea accepts you even if you have no money and are not prepared,It will accept you as long as you are in good condition.
So I took a leave of absence and joined the army.
* * *
After I finished eating, I washed the dishes and lay down in my room.
The cold rising from the floor stabbed my back. After removing the bathroom, kitchen, and a few pieces of furniture, the empty space in the studio was less than 3 pyeong(9sq meter).
I have mixed feelings about living with my mother in this small place.
I felt more at ease when I was in the military.It fed me,gave me where to sleep, and even gave me a monthly salary, albeit a small amount.
But after I was discharged from the military, my eyes were dark.
At this age, I can't keep spending my pocket money. First you have to make money.
I turned on my cell phone and called Minyoung, a hypermotivator.
Too-too-too! Click!
[hello. who are you?]
"is this you Minyoung? "I'm Jinhoo."
Then, the voice of the person on the other end of the phone became more welcoming.
[Hey! How long has it been since? Are you on vacation?]
"No, I was discharged today."
[Oh oh! Congratulations!]
I got to the point right away.
"Can you find a tutoring position?"
Among the part-time jobs for college students, tutoring is by far the best part-time job with the highest hourly pay. The problem is that there are so many competitors that it is not easy to find a position without connections.
In fact, even if you find it, it's a problem.
Because being in the military completely formatted my brain. I have forgotten everything I learned in elementary, middle, and high school, so I need to get tutoring.
Still, Korea University is the most prestigious university in Korea. Regardless of teaching skills, signboards are worth it. In Korea, signboards are more important than skills.
Once I find a place, won't everything work out?
[well. Because we are in a recession these days.]
"Please take a look. "I need you to do me this favor."
[okay. Let's have a drink sometime soon to commemorate the discharge.]
"okay."
After I ended the call, I sighed.
"ha."
Should I work part-time at a convenience store or a PC room until I find a tutoring position?
I was checking my phone and there were dozens of missed calls. It's all one number.
Oh Taek-gyu, whom I first met in middle school, was my best friend. Since his parents worked alot,he often came to my house to play or sleep over.
Why has this guy been making so many phone calls?
Tiriring!
I made a call.
"Hey, Oh Taek-gyu."
Taekgyu spoke as if he had been waiting.
[Now I can finally contact you. Have you been discharged?]
"How did you know this number?"
[Your mother told me.]
"okay?"
It seems that my mother opened the cell phone and gave Taek-gyu my number.
[More than that, we are in bigger trouble now.]
"······."
The voice coming over the phone was serious.
The moment I heard it, I knew something was up.
Is this a bad thing?
"What's going on?"
[You know I received a Bantcoin before, right?]
In middle school, Taek-gyu quit playing MMORPG, which was popular at the time, and disposed of his characters, equipment, and gold.
However, the online game item trading site they normally used suddenly began regulating transactions, and to avoid the regulations, some users traded using virtual currency that only circulated on the Internet.
That is Bant Coin.
According to Taekgyu's explanation, there is no management entity for Bantcoin. It is said that issuance and trading are done on a P2P manner through the network, and cannot be controlled by any specific individual or organization.
Bantcoin can be split to 9 decimal places and is usually expressed as BNT.
Although I've heard it explained a few times, it's not an easy concept to understand.
Anyway, the BNT coin Taekgyu received at that time was 11,000 BNT. At the time, 10,000 BNT was worth 90 dollars, so it was a little over 100,000 won.
However, around the time I entered high school, the value of Bantcoin suddenly soared.
100 BNT was close to 500 dollars, and the Bantcoin, which was only 100,000 won, became 50 million won!
Taek-gyu, who thought he had made a windfall, tried to get 50 million won by selling off Bantcoins. But there was one problem.
Strangely, he lost the encryption key to access the Bantcoin account!
To use an analogy, it is like putting money in the bank and losing your account number and password. In the case of banks, accounts can be found with just the name and resident registration number, but with Bantcoin, nothing could be found without the encryption key.
'Ahh! My 50 million won! 'My money!'
He shed tears for several days, lamenting that it was as if he had thrown his winning lottery ticket in the trash. And after that, he completely lost interest in Bantcoin.
"Why is the guy who started to cry by just mentioning the 'half' character of Bantcoin suddenly talking about it?"
[Don't be surprised and listen.]
"What?"
[I found the encryption key.]
"······what?"
An explanation came to me as I was confused.
A few days ago, while cleaning the figure cabinet,he found a USB that had fallen backwards. When he dusted it off and plugged it into his computer to see if it contained important data, he found that it contained the Bantcoin account encryption key.
I was shocked.
"Really? "it isn't a fake?"
[No it's real.]
Then isn't it totally awesome?
Even if I shout, it won't be enough. But Taek-gyu seemed more shocked than happy.
"What is the Bantcoin price now? "Hasn't it gone higher since then?"
[As of yesterday, it is $1,120.]
1,120 dollars is about 1.23 million won.
"If 100 BNT is worth $1,120, it has more than doubled compared to before. It was 50 million won at that time... Wow! Then 100 million?"
Taekgyu said to me who was surprised.
[It's 1 BNT.]
"huh?"
[1 BNT is $1,120, not 100 BNT.]
"······."
I was speechless.
After a while, i came to my senses and spoke.
"Don't lie."
[If you don't believe me, I'll send it to you, so you can see it with your own eyes.]
Tiring!
I took my phone away from my ear and checked my chat. The price of Bantcoin was shown along with a graph depicting an upward curve.
As of yesterday's date, it was exactly $1,122.
I put the phone to my ear again.
"You had 11,000 BNT..."
I did some rough calculations and opened my mouth wide.
"Wait, it can't be... 13.5 billion?"
[I don't know if this is a dream or reality. It is now registered on the exchange.]
It was that moment.
Something appeared before my eyes like a hologram.
"······."
Why am I seeing this? What on earth is Mountain Hill?
I asked urgently, just in case.
"Where is the exchange?"
[huh?]
"Where? "Speak quickly!"
I heard an answer.
[It's a place called Mountain Hill.]
what?
I said it as if I was yelling at the guy.
"Sell that right now!"