Chapter 550: You’ve Worked Hard, Now Take a Break

The sound of the café door opening echoed through the room.

"Hey! You're late!"

Elon Musk raised his hand in mock annoyance at the person entering.

"We still have ten minutes until the meeting starts."

Turning my head, I spotted a typical Caucasian man walking in.

'Jeffrey Brian Strobel…'

Sure enough, the Tesla logo was already catching Musk's eye.

Strobel looked our way and immediately asked,

"James Han?"

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm James Han."

"Honor to meet you. I didn't expect to meet a Wall Street genius in a place like this. I'm Strobel."

Strobel shifted his gaze toward me.

"And who's this…?"

I promptly extended my hand.

"Charlie."

"JB Strobel."

Elon Musk introduced me, saying,

"This is the guy who decided to invest $200 million in SpaceX."

"$200 million?"

Strobel's eyes widened even more, already large to begin with.

"Right. $200 million."

"That's no joke!"

Strobel whistled and took a seat next to Elon Musk.

Musk took quite some time explaining just how brilliant Strobel really was.

I already knew this, of course.

There's no way to discuss Tesla's success—or the success of electric cars—without mentioning Strobel's name.

He was the one Musk recruited the moment he invested $6.5 million and came onto the board.

"I thought about bringing him on board at SpaceX, but he wanted to pursue different interests. So I called him here to introduce Charlie and James."

"Is that so?"

I nodded, pretending to be nonchalant.

Elon Musk finished his sentence when the lawyers returned to our table after reviewing the contracts.

"Now, you'll just need to sign the investment contract."

In a flash, the signatures were done, and the contracts exchanged hands. That was that.

"Tell your brother to transfer the funds."

Han Gyeong-yeong immediately stood up, pulled out his phone, and stepped outside.

The lawyers also took the contracts and bowed before following Han Gyeong-yeong out.

"Now we're comrades on the same ship."

Elon Musk said with a smile as he extended his hand.

I casually shook his hand and replied,

"Absolutely. There's a company I'd like to invest in with you."

"Investment? You mean together with me?"

I laid out the prepared materials on the table.

"Take a look. It'll be interesting."

Elon Musk, looking bewildered, picked up the documents. As he flipped to the first page, he stared at me in shock.

"Tesla?"

"Yes, it's a company that's been established for less than a year. But I think it has a bright future ahead."

Elon Musk quickly read through the papers. After a long silence, he put the documents down and smiled.

"Tesla is a company I'm also watching closely. In fact, I was going to suggest investing in Tesla today. I wanted to know if you'd be interested in investing too."

I feigned ignorance, smiling as I answered.

"Really?"

"Yes. That's why I wanted to introduce this friend to you today. He's someone who can improve the battery, the core of electric vehicles."

I looked at Strobel, who only offered a faint smile and remained silent.

"Everhard and Mark Taperning are talented engineers. But batteries are a whole different realm."

Right now, the only electric vehicle around was a golf cart, thanks to battery limitations preventing broader applications in cars.

Sure, there were some options, but they could only travel about 100 kilometers on a single charge. Charging took a long time, and general consensus was that they couldn't replace internal combustion engines yet.

Even though electric vehicle development had begun quite a while ago.

"This guy is an expert in batteries. He's a genius who can turn my ideas into reality."

Strobel was discarding conventional hydrogen batteries to develop a lithium battery for electric cars.

Everyone knows how crucial batteries are for electric vehicles.

"So I was actually going to propose investing in Tesla today. I never expected to receive a proposal from Charlie."

Elon Musk laughed in wonder.

"Everhard came to see me recently, asking to invest in his company. It sounded far-fetched, but his engineering skills are genuine. Mark Taperning is the same."

I nodded, listening to Elon Musk's words.

"They have dreams but no funding. They came to see me after watching me sell PayPal and establish SpaceX. Their plans inspired me."

"Inspired you?"

"I believe internal combustion engines will soon disappear, and that electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles will take their place."

"I see."

"Tesla was a great opportunity for me. If Everhard, Mark Taperning, and Strobel, here, come together, it'll no longer just be a dream."

Tesla unveiled its completed electric vehicle within just three years after its establishment.

While commercializing might take longer…

"They said they plan to fund about ten million dollars."

Ten million dollars was an amount Musk could easily cover with his personal wealth.

"Ten million dollars?"

"Yes. How about I invest five million, and Dream High invests the other five million?"

Yet the only reason he wanted to invest with me was fairly simple.

"You need the Dream High name, don't you?"

"Hahaha. Yes, that's right. Being affiliated with a brand like Dream High makes for an appealing promotion. The packaging can make a huge difference, even for the same project."

I returned Musk's friendly smile with one of my own.

"You can't complete an electric vehicle with ten million dollars. You know that, don't you?"

"This is stage one of fundraising. They're in such a tight spot, they told me they don't have funds to proceed with development yet."

"Really? Is the financial pressure that severe?"

"Are there not one or two companies like that? They're everywhere in Silicon Valley. A lot of businesses have great ideas but end up failing without securing investors, and it's common to see ten such companies collapse every day."

"We agree on that point, then."

"What a coincidence that we've both been keeping an eye on the same company. Investors often share similar perspectives."

Just then, Han Gyeong-yeong walked back in through the door.

"The funds have been transferred."

"Oh, I'll just check on that quickly."

Elon Musk moved to the corner and began making a phone call.

Meanwhile, I spoke to Han Gyeong-yeong.

"Elon Musk has been keeping an eye on Tesla too. When I showed him the documents, he was shocked."

"Really? What a surprise!"

"We agreed on investing five million each. Just handle the details from your end."

"Don't worry."

A moment later, Elon Musk returned to the table after finishing his call.

"You can discuss Tesla's investment matters with James. I have to return to Korea now, so I'll take my leave."

"It was a pleasure, Charlie. See you next time."

Elon Musk grinned and greeted me before taking his leave. It seemed he had left a pretty good impression with the Tesla proposal.

Though unexpected, I gained a great opportunity to invest for the future.

Smiling, I waved goodbye to Elon Musk and exited the café. It was time to go back to Korea.

* * *

The joint speech draft for the Korea-U.S. summit had spurred quite a debate in Korea.

Since the U.S. officially declared Dokdo as Korea's territory, most citizens welcomed the outcomes of this visit.

However, the most contentious issue was the dispatch of troops to Iraq.

The opposition party attacked the government persistently for this, while there were voices of concern even within the ruling party, perhaps due to the upcoming general elections.

Due to negotiations between Korea and the U.S., they couldn't disclose information about the assailants involved in the recent middle school student trampling incident.

They had agreed to make public declarations when the first trial commenced.

Yet President Yoon Chang-ho was pushing hard.

― Our government decided to dispatch troops to Iraq. The purpose of our military is to maintain stability and support peace in the southern region of Iraq.

They didn't disclose anything about the mercenary contracts.

The mercenary contracts were conducted through the National Intelligence Service, with funds funneled to them through the agency's budget.

The National Assembly passed the bill approving the dispatch of troops to Iraq. At the same time, the military hurried to establish a unit for the Iraq deployment.

Protest groups vehemently objected and filed constitutional complaints against the decision.

I distanced myself from all the commotion.

It was around that time that Eva visited Pyeongchang-dong.

"Boss, it's been a while."

"How have you been?"

The exhausted-looking Eva briefly hugged me before taking a seat.

"The dissolution of Il-sung Group is finally over."

"Oh? You wrapped it up early?"

"The Korean government helped a lot. Il-sung Group didn't have a union, remember? So there wasn't any opposition from unions."

Il-sung Group had always refused to allow unions, which had been their management policy since the beginning of its establishment.

Instead, they treated their employees better than other companies. They used both carrots and whips.

"That's one thing I can appreciate."

When selling a company, you always had to watch out for labor unions, and there have been many cases where the deal was aborted due to union opposition.

The first thing I emphasized when acquiring Jungwoo Group was the dissolution of the unions, so it was hardly surprising.

Eva pulled out the documents she had prepared and handed them over. It detailed which Il-sung subsidiary was sold to which group.

As promised, most of the companies were sold off to chaebols.

"Il-sung Life and Il-sung Card were acquired by Taesan?"

"Due to the separation of finance and industry laws, no chaebols could acquire those, so they went to Taesan Financial."

I nodded and set the documents down.

"You transferred the department store and distribution to Seo Hee-kyung as well?"

"Yeah, a promise is a promise. But the more significant news is that most of the proceeds from the sale went into Seo Hee-kyung's hands. Technically, it'll be split according to their shares, but considering Seo Yong-geon and Seo Jae-hoon's current situations, you know? If they die, then Seo Hee-kyung is the sole heir. What do you think we should do?"

"It's fine. Without the Il-sung name label in Korea, Seo Hee-kyung is just a rich nouveau riche."

At one time, Il-sung Group ranked second in the hierarchy of the Korean business world.

It was originally supposed to have surpassed Daehyeon Group to become number one by now. Instead, because of me, it's dropped to fifth place.

Still, it was by no means a small group even then.

It was a task to break it into pieces, and without the Korean government's tacit approval and Eva's efforts, it would have been impossible.

"You've really worked hard. Now you should take a break. You can take about a year off now."

"Really?"

I nodded, chuckling.

"For the time being, there's nothing for me to do here in Korea. You can take a break as well. Go to a Greek island or travel around Europe. Do whatever you like."

Eva had never truly had a chance to rest until now.

"I still have a few things to finish up. Once I wrap those up, I'll take a break from everything for a while."

"Good thinking, Boss. You need a break too."

The expression on Eva's face brightened as she pondered her options.

* * *

Time flew by quickly. As autumn passed and people began wearing thicker clothes, I received a call from Jang Seong-taek.

― All preparations are complete. Kim Mu-hyeok, sir.