The current year, 1996, was about three years away from the peak of the dotcom bubble in 1999 and 2000.

Three years.

It’s a short span, but in the IT industry, it’s an eternity. Just considering Moore’s Law, semiconductor performance would at least double in that time. And since this was a period of rapid technological advancement, it was more accurate to say the industry would improve by a factor of ten.

Click.

Even in the middle of my busy schedule, I took a moment to play a game and nodded in satisfaction.

‘Still... this much is more than enough.’

Honestly, it was plenty.

From a gamer’s perspective, this was already a time of innovation upon innovation. After all, what drives a bubble isn’t logic—it’s madness.

Thanks to me, the very generous investor, high-budget Evangelion was able to be released, and the launch dates of many games had been pushed forward—a very rewarding outcome.

For reference, just in the past year alone, games like Resident Evil, Super Mario 64, Pokémon Red & Green, The Elder Scrolls II, Mario Kart 64, Warcraft II, Diablo, Civilization II, and Metal Slug had come out.

Even I, who gets bored of games easily, couldn’t find a moment to feel tired of the massive IPs that kept emerging. If this had happened in the 2020s, picking Game of the Year would’ve been hellishly difficult.

I tend to get tired of games quickly, but of all times, now, with all this work piling up, there just had to be a flood of masterpieces. What a tragedy.

Click.

Seo Ji-yeon flopped onto my bed the moment she entered the room and mumbled:

“Ughhh, Ji-yeon’s gonna die.”

“Oh, you’re back?”

The self-proclaimed ‘angel’ who had spent the day tossing money around Silicon Valley grumbled as she stared blankly at the screen I was enjoying.

“Uuu, Miss needs to reflect! I’m running around suffering, and you’re just here playing alone!”

Hmm.

“Then wanna try doing my job instead? Like Ji-yeon says, there’s a lot of playing involved. You know, hanging out with the bank where Seon-jun oppa works in Europe, surfing waves of money on Wall Street, splashing around in suspicious black liquid with Si-hyun in Russia, and playing hide-and-seek in Korea while dodging ANSP surveillance....”

And if you get caught during hide-and-seek... you die. It’s like Squid Game, but real. Pretty exhilarating, honestly.

“Ah—ah! Okay! I get it! It was a joke!”

“Right, right. A joke, huh? Mine was a joke too. Besides, don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it. You did, didn’t you?”

Sprawled out like a limp rag, Seo Ji-yeon grumbled a bit.

“I do enjoy it, but still... sometimes I feel like this is too much. I didn’t expect we’d be doing this much, this often.”

She was talking about IPOs and startup investments.

“Hey, Ji-yeon. You’ll be okay in the U.S. alone, right? Can I leave for a bit?”

“Come on, I’m not a kid. I’m in high school now, remember? I’m an adult.”

“...Is that so.”

Ha... she really was such a tiny thing. And now she’d grown this much.

I felt proud, and also strangely melancholic about the passing of time.

Seo Ji-yeon just tilted her head as if something didn’t sit right.

“This is all hitting me all of a sudden. I mean, you treated me like a kid, and now you’re making me do things most people in their twenties or thirties can’t even handle?”

“I did all this when I was ten.”

I jabbed at my upper chest proudly, grinning.

“...Wow, good for you. So, where are you headed?”

“Europe. Specifically, Germany.”

I had business with my dear older cousin who was currently going through hell.

***

I had two main reasons for seeing Yoo Seon-jun.

One was the dotcom bubble.

The other was the handling of BBB’s assets.

You could say they’re one and the same—but they were a little different.

“These damn IT companies are driving me nuts. It’s obviously a bubble. Ha-yeon, this is your doing, isn’t it?”

That was the first thing Yoo Seon-jun said when he saw me.

Yes, Germany too was in the middle of its own dotcom frenzy. Of course, they probably thought of it as a boom.

“Come on, I only helped a little. I didn’t think it would get this bad in Germany.”

“...Is Korea okay?”

“Hmm, as far as the stock market? You know how it is—our country’s financial system is completely jammed.”

Korea probably wouldn’t even have time for a bubble before it crashed. Without the IMF crisis as a trigger, the market would never reach a point of real activity.

But Germany, like the U.S., had already opened its market. They even had a new market specifically for startups.

It’s called the Neuer Markt. People don’t talk about it much, but the U.S. and Korea have something similar—surprisingly, NASDAQ and KOSDAQ are those new markets. Ironically, they represent completely opposite trajectories.

KOSDAQ’s index right now is higher than it was right ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) before I died in my past life. What the hell did they do for 20—no, 30 years?

Still, it’s some comfort that Germany won’t completely collapse like KOSDAQ did. That’s something.

“Phew... I never thought I’d be relieved by that. But yeah, Germany’s a mess.”

“Come on, you helped inflate this bubble too, didn’t you? You kept pouring money into startups. Germany’s gotten just as bloated as the U.S.”

Smack.

Yoo Seon-jun swatted me on the head, offended.

“You brat, you’re the one who told me to do it. I kept wondering what the hell I was doing getting involved in all this crazy stuff....”

“But you did it because your cute little cousin asked you, right?”

I winked and hugged my cousin tight.

“...Get off. The kid’s watching. And let’s be honest—it was more of a command than a request.”

Yoo Seon-jun pursed his lips and pushed me away, then lifted a child into the air.

“Waaaah!”

The wide-eyed toddler laughed and raised both arms gleefully.

“Alright, alright. What a good kid.... Our little Jae-yeon....”

Yoo Jae-yeon. A four-year-old boy, smiling brightly with perfect innocence.

...Adorable.

I reached out, almost entranced, and touched his cheek. It was soft.

“...”

For a moment, I felt guilty. Could I really stand in front of something so pure and innocent?

I’d just been strategizing ways to destroy countless households, and now I was here—getting healed?

“Here, say hi to your auntie, Jae-yeon.”

Yoo Seon-jun lifted his son’s hand and waved it for him.

“Hi! Aunty!”

Round eyes, chubby cheeks.

Looking at him, I suddenly didn’t care anymore.

“...Yes, hello to you too, my cute nephew.”

Hehe. Too cute.

I cleared my head of all distractions and played with the baby like it was the only thing that mattered.

“Airplane~!”

“Waaah!”

He clapped his pudgy hands in excitement. They made no sound, but it didn’t matter.

Yoo Seon-jun grimaced as if he’d seen something scandalous.

“Ugh... well... whatever. As long as you’re happy.”

Why was he looking at me like that?

And seriously, if he had such an adorable little creature around, he should’ve told me sooner. Typical selfish family.

Should I play with my nephew for another hour...?

.

.

.

That evening.

I rubbed my sore arms and suddenly jolted awake.

“...Ah.”

Right.

What was I doing? I used up too much time entertaining my nephew—when I had so much to do.

“...”

I looked at the sleeping child beside me and let out a bitter smile.

‘Sigh... I didn’t expect kids to be this addictive.’

No regrets—but time was short.

“Oppa.”

Yoo Seon-jun squinted at me through half-lidded eyes, reclining lazily.

“What.”

“So... I’ve got a job for you.”

“Knew it. I was wondering when you’d finally get to it. So, when’s the bubble going to pop?”

Had I not told him that yet?

As I fixed my disheveled clothes from playing with the baby, I answered quickly.

“Well, that can wait. I’ll tell you later. It’s not urgent, and honestly I don’t have a precise read yet—I'll send the paperwork later. It'll be more accurate.”

“Then...”

“Oppa, you’ve processed the BBB assets, right?”

My voice dropped, suddenly serious. Yoo Seon-jun’s face tightened slightly as he nodded.

“...Yeah. Are you finally expanding into banking?”

“Mm-hmm. Planning to set up branches in East Asia. I need a company that can keep close contact with local power brokers and provide fast updates.”

Tap, tap.

Yoo Seon-jun drummed his fingers on the desk before asking:

“By local power brokers, I take it you don’t mean Korea or Japan. Where is it?”

Long-term, I did plan to expand there and then into the U.S. too—but not yet.

Right now, the best options were...

“Hong Kong and Thailand.”

***

It wasn’t unusual for major banks to expand into East Asia—especially in this period.

Take BBB’s predecessor, Barings Bank. It went bankrupt because of huge losses triggered from its Singapore branch. East Asia was a rising market.

[Berlin-Bearings Bank Establishes Thai Branch! The Sleeping Giant Awakens]

Our firm also had a track record. Even though the Berlin Bank had cleared our debts through acquisition, the scars of opaque and dangerous investments still lingered.

As long as the old Barings staff remained, the only way to erase the stigma was by doubling down on safety and stability.

[BBB Reopens Singapore Branch. Despite Exceptionally Stable Metrics, Concerns Remain]

So, even if credit ratings and the global outlook worsened slightly, it would not be “strange” at all for investors to start pulling out.