Chapter 4

It was a horrific nightmare. Sweat drenched his body. Woosung woke up suddenly and exhaled down harshly.

“Huff… huff.”

Freezing winter wind cooled him down straight away. He became alert.

“That was an awful dream…”

He remembered eating steaks until he felt like he was about to burst. He then gulped down alcohol till he got drunk. He ended up in a private room and drank liquor again. He also remembered getting into Mr. Kim’s car.

“There is no way…. It must have been a dream. Murder… that’s ridiculous. Phew.”

Woosung shook his head thinking it was just a dream. He swallowed. He felt strange. He didn’t feel hung over despite all the drinking he had done last night. In fact, he felt great.

36 years old.

He worked late and weekends all the time but never exercised. This made his body weak to a point that getting up every morning was difficult.

But he felt different now.

“Woosung, get up. This is your first day of work so get there early.”

“Huh… huh?”

Woosung stood up confused.

“First day? And mom’s voice sounds younger…”

Woosung looked for his phone. Seeing it shocked him after finding it out.

It was a flip phone.

It was his old 3g cell phone he used to have before the invention of the smartphones.

***

Three family members sat around an old broken-down table. Beef soup, which was something they couldn’t afford often, was steaming. As he lifted his spoon, his father Kang Gichun spoke.

“Now that you got a job, you should work hard to succeed. You should save and get married!”

This was 10 years earlier, and so his father only had a few white hairs.

“This is his first day at work, so I don’t think he’s ready to get married yet. Eat up and go to work already. Make sure you follow instructions well. Always agree with your boss, ok?”

His mother, Kim Eunjung, added.

She was only in her late 40s but wrinkles and cracks appeared on her hands already. It resulted from her lifelong years of hard work.

“So today really is January 10th, 2008?”

Kim Eunjung shook her head frustratingly.

“Are you still asking me that? Wake up already and eat your breakfast. You’ll work better with a full stomach.”

Woosung’s hand shook as he ate.

‘This is really happening.’

He couldn’t believe it. Everything showed that today was indeed January 10th, 2008. He checked the date on his phone and news on TV. His parents, the house, and everything else proved that he has traveled back in time. 10 years.

Kang Gichun looked at Woosung worriedly.

“Are you ok? Why is your hand shaking so much?”

“I’m ok. In fact…”

He felt ecstatic.

‘God has given me the chance for a revenge against that snake.’

He now remembered what happened yesterday clear as glass. He felt himself dying. Just thinking about sinking into the darkness made him shiver in fear.

‘Wait for me, you bastard.’

Woosung stopped eating and panted angrily. Kim Eunjung looked at him in annoyance.

“Kang Woosung. Why aren’t you finishing your breakfast? You need to go to work soon. Do you want to be late for your first day?”

That’s right. Today was January 10th, 2008.

This was before the existence of the Bitcoin.

If he could buy 1000 bitcoins now, it will become 9 million dollars. If he could buy even more, as much as possible, and mine other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, he could become the richest man in the world.

If this happened, destroying Choi Gichul and Daeyang corporation will be a breeze. Woosung was thrilled and didn’t even mind his mother’s nagging.

***

On his way to work in Yeouido, Woosung organized his thoughts.

‘My first job… so that would be Daesan System.’

Daesan System.

Daesan System was a company specializing in SI finances. It comprised an approximate of 40 employees and a yearly revenue of 4.5 million dollars. He worked here for a year, then 6 years at the ST Data System. Afterward, he joined the Bitmain.

‘Bitcoin was officially introduced in October so… I should develop mining techniques and make money.’

If he remembered correctly, October 31st, 2008 was the date the Bitcoin white paper was published. While on November 9th and on January 3rd, 2009 was when the related codes were registered on Sourceforge.net, and the world mined the first genesis block. On the 9th, they released the mining program.

The world did not recognize Bitcoin as a profitable currency then. At first, they saw it as a game for developers.

There was a famous story of buying pizza with 10,000 BTC. The rise of Bitcoin won’t happen till late 2009, so there was no hurry.

‘Wait a minute… was my memory always this good?’

In the past, he had a general idea of the history of cryptocurrency, but he never knew the dates of all the events.

But it was different today. He could remember the exact dates.

‘Well, whatever. I should try to leave work as soon as possible and make plans.’

– Yeouido. This is Yeouido station. The exit is to your right.

Woosung left the busy subway.

***

Woosung exited the Yeouido subway station number 4 and looked up at the building where he used to work. It was a difficult job, but he learned a lot from it. It was a good old time.

‘It was hard but I grew a lot here.’

He didn’t have much talent in the developing department during his college years. Without any experience, he was thrown into the real world. He had no clue, and with many mistakes and reprimands from his boss, he learned about programming. He worked on HTS program, and since this was a software where customers have a direct connection, there was a lot of VoC (Voice of the Customer). Every negative feedback was for him to bear.

‘Let’s go.’

Woosung took the elevator to the 7th floor. The official start time for work was before 8 am, which was when the stock market opened.

It was only 7:30 am, but many were already at work.

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“Hey Assistant manager Kim, are you sure the HTS login test is complete? When I entered the ID and PW, there was no introductory popup and I couldn’t log in.”

“That can’t be…”

“Go check it right now. If people can’t log in when the market opens, we are doomed. You know that, right?”

Woosung was getting to his chair when he overheard this conversation. He looked at them and paused. He remembered this day.

January 10th, 2008. Today was the day the developers nicknamed “the day the gates of hell opened.” It was the first day of launching the new system.