WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
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◈ The Economics of an Alchemist ◈
Chapter 24
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Last night, Jang Myeonghwan called a former G-Mall teammate, a college junior he had once been close to, and asked about Valence.
His meager pride kept him from admitting that he was going in for an interview. He made the excuse that he was consulting as a favor to an acquaintance.
“Valence? Ah! They're no joke right now! Their traffic is insane. They already have over 5,000 back-in-stock notification requests.”
His junior suddenly snickered over the phone.
“Do you know who G-Mall's merchandising manager in charge of Valence is? That asshole who latched onto the nepotism-hire executive right after you left. If they secure exclusive rights to Valence, it'll be a gold mine, but they look utterly miserable because it doesn't seem to be working out. Serves them right.”
After ending the call, Jang Myeonghwan's heart began pounding again.
Someone unfamiliar with the business might scoff at a mere 5,000 requests. But his calculations, honed by years in distribution, were different.
To request an SMS back-in-stock notification, customers had to go through the trouble of personally entering their phone numbers.
From experience, the number of users who visited a product page intending to buy it was ten to fifty times the number of back-in-stock notification requests.
The Aegis Case had been on sale for less than a week. Its advertising budget was practically zero. Yet it had already received over 5,000 back-in-stock notification requests.
Once word of the Aegis Case truly began spreading among the public, its momentum would explode beyond anyone's control.
Oh-seong Trading, Shin-seong Distribution, G-Mall.
His instincts, built over a lifetime spent establishing massive distribution networks, whispered to him. Valence was worth betting the rest of his life on.
There was a condition, of course.
‘That is, if the technology isn't a scam.’
Step, step.
That was why Jang Myeonghwan could not shake his unease as he walked along an unpaved dirt road that looked haunted enough for ghosts to appear at night.
Instead of the suits and polished shoes he had worn like armor for over thirty years, he wore an outdated jumper and old sneakers. The sensation of their soles against the dirt felt strange and uncomfortable.
His wife had taken the car.
Three months after he lost his job, she had begun working part-time at a store run by her family, saying she at least had to earn the academy fees for their eleventh-grade daughter and ninth-grade son.
‘Used, then discarded.’
Jang Myeonghwan gave a bitter smile at the thought.
When e-commerce had first begun taking off, G-Mall had pleaded with him to come work for them. After building the systems that made G-Mall one of the top two companies in the industry, he had thought an executive promotion was practically guaranteed.
But his fall came in an instant.
A nepotism hire from the owner's family had arrived and openly taken the position everyone believed was his.
Jang Myeonghwan had walked out on his own two feet.
At first, he thought he would quickly find another job. He believed he was capable.
He had been mistaken.
The promises from presidents of mid-sized and small companies who had told him to come work for them if he ever left were empty. No different from saying they should have a meal sometime.
Driven by the heavy responsibility of being the head of the household, he sent out résumés every day, only to be rejected again and again. Even after lowering his standards and lowering them further, reality remained cruel.
It was an all too common story for a Korean man in his fifties who had retired. It was simply his turn.
Then, while looking through job listings, he happened to find the name Valence.
The high base salary for a startup, guaranteed statutory benefits, and reliable overtime pay drew him in as if under a spell, and he submitted his résumé.
Once the interview was arranged, he began looking into the company because he believed he should at least show basic courtesy. That was how he learned about the Aegis Case and the internal G-Mall figures known only to insiders.
Jang Myeonghwan suddenly stopped.
“...Is that it?”
An old container stood alone in the middle of nowhere. If not for the old SUV and sky-blue compact car parked in the clearing, he would have mistaken it for an abandoned container.
Jang Myeonghwan shook the dirt off his filthy sneakers.
Tap, tap.
“If they're scammers, I'll tear this place apart. But if it's real...”
I'll spend the rest of my working life here.
He swallowed the rest of the thought and approached the entrance to the container.
Knock, knock.
“Is anyone here?”
After Jang Myeonghwan waited a moment, the door opened and someone came out. A tall man with a cold impression. About 185 centimeters, perhaps?
“Mr. Jang Myeonghwan? I'm Kim Jaeha, CEO of Valence. I've been expecting you. Please come this way.”
As he followed Jaeha inside, Jang Myeonghwan observed him. He looked to be in his mid-twenties at most, perhaps his late twenties if he was being generous.
‘He's far too young.’
Jang Myeonghwan glanced at the machine producing Aegis Cases. It was about the size of an X-ray scanner at an airport security checkpoint, and it looked fairly similar too.
‘That's the special equipment that rearranges the molecular structure of TPU cases?’
His gaze moved to the young man operating the machine with a soulless expression. He resembled the CEO. They were obviously relatives.
The memory of having his executive position stolen by a suddenly appearing member of an owner's family came flooding back. Jang Myeonghwan worked to control his expression.
The equipment looked far too shabby for advanced technology, and the CEO's relative was operating it.
His unease began to grow.
“Please, have a seat.”
“Ah, yes.”
He might have walked into a den of scammers on his own. Sitting across from Jaeha at a plastic table, Jang Myeonghwan braced himself.
Unconcerned with his feelings, Jaeha began speaking in a polite tone.
“I was a little surprised when I first saw your résumé. Your credentials are far beyond what our job posting calls for.”
“That was in the past. Now, I'm simply a man in his fifties looking for work to support his family.”
“If you join us, you would have to do all kinds of menial work completely unrelated to what you used to do. Would that be all right?”
Jang Myeonghwan adjusted his glasses.
“I would have answered, ‘That would be fine,’ if I hadn't learned that Valence made the Aegis Case, and if I hadn't heard G-Mall's internal figures from a junior at my former workplace.”
He believed he had made a decisive move.
It was the maneuver of a veteran trying to seize the initiative by assessing the company's value from the position of an interviewee. He expected his opponent to show some sign of being flustered.
But.
“...”
Jaeha did not react at all.
He merely watched him with calm, steady eyes. The air inside the container suddenly grew heavy.
It was strange.
Jaeha was clearly young enough to be his nephew. And they were sitting inside a shabby old container at the end of an unpaved road.
Jang Myeonghwan had spent his life working for major corporations and dealing with countless owners and executives. He had thought he would never lose a battle of wills to anyone.
Yet for some reason, sitting across from this young man sent a chill down the back of his neck and filled him with an odd urgency.
Only then did Jang Myeonghwan realize that he was the only one being thoroughly evaluated at this table.
“So.”
Breaking the silence, Jaeha asked in a low, firm voice.
“Could you tell me what you heard from your junior at G-Mall? And why it changed your answer?”
Jang Myeonghwan swallowed hard before speaking.
“When I first applied to Valence, I intended to quietly support my family and take on any menial work, as long as I was hired. But yesterday, when an acquaintance at my former workplace, G-Mall, told me that the Aegis Case had surpassed 5,000 SMS back-in-stock notification requests, my blood began to boil again. I know in my bones what that number means. The number of users who visited G-Mall intending to buy an Aegis Case must be at least ten times that.”
Maintaining eye contact with Jaeha, Jang Myeonghwan shifted in his seat.
“Last week's article said A-phone 4 sales had surpassed one million units.”
It was an article Jaeha had seen as well. He continued listening to Jang Myeonghwan.
“Once you add the Aegis Cases released so far, which are only compatible with the A-phone 4, and those who have effectively reserved one through back-in-stock notifications, more than ten thousand A-phone 4 users will be using an Aegis Case.”
Jang Myeonghwan's eyes gleamed sharply.
“You may think that is only one percent. But when you consider that it all began with a single influential blogger's review, it is an astonishing achievement. Once full-scale marketing begins, it will take no time for the Aegis Case to become the standard case for the A-phone 4.”
His voice grew more forceful.
“The A-phone 4 is only the beginning. Countless smartphones will follow, including Oh-seong's Cosmo. And every time, people will have the same concern. What if my phone breaks? Aegis won't just be a case brand. It will be the standard.”
After rapidly pouring out his words, Jang Myeonghwan paused and took a breath. Then he continued in a calmer tone.
“Of course, I know that even without me, Valence's Aegis Case will expand beyond the domestic market and into the world. But, CEO Kim, if I join Valence, I am confident that I can reduce the countless mistakes you may make along the way. So please use me not as a simple field worker, but as Valence's sales manager.”
It was confidence born not from arrogance, but from thorough analysis. Meeting his calm yet burning gaze, Jaeha slowly opened his mouth.
“Recently, G-Mall has been demanding exclusive distribution rights from us. Between exclusivity and non-exclusivity, which would you choose, Mr. Jang?”
Jaeha's sudden question did not fluster Jang Myeonghwan. He answered immediately.
“If the exclusivity you mean is the usual long-term contract of at least one year, then we should naturally choose non-exclusivity. It makes no sense to confine the explosive potential of the Aegis Case to G-Mall alone.”
A cynical smile appeared on Jang Myeonghwan's lips. He knew how massive platforms hunted new companies.
“Right now, major open marketplaces, including G-Mall, are fighting bloody battles to steal even one more customer from each other. When those bastards find a promising new product, their routine is always the same. They'll say they'll put it on the main banner and lower the commission, so sell exclusively through them for one year.”
“Unwary owners will hear that they'll receive strong support and immediately stamp the contract.”
Jaeha quietly picked up Jang Myeonghwan's words.
“That's right. But before long, hell begins. The banner they promised disappears as if by magic, and they force you into deep-discount promotions under every excuse imaginable.”
“And if you don't listen, they push your listing further down while quietly raising the commission?”
A deeper light entered Jang Myeonghwan's eyes.
Valence's CEO was not some naïve technician who only knew how to make products. He understood the dirty ecosystem in which massive distribution networks controlled fledgling companies.
“Precisely. Since you cannot flee to another shopping site for a year, they bleed you dry and drag you around. That is how massive platforms put a leash around a new brand's neck.”
“Our case may be a little different, though?”
“Yes. Given the impact of the Aegis Case, things would be somewhat different. G-Mall would not dare throw its weight around carelessly. They might even beg us not to leave. But...”
“We have no reason to hand them the leash first.”
A faint smile appeared on Jang Myeonghwan's lips.
A thrilling pleasure ran down his spine as the conversation meshed together perfectly, like gears turning without the slightest error.
“Then you are saying that we should reject G-Mall's exclusive offer and go with non-exclusivity.”
“Yes. But not yet.”
“...Because of logistics and customer service?”
When Jaeha hit the heart of the matter after a brief silence, Jang Myeonghwan nodded firmly.
“That's right. With Valence's current workforce and scale, can you handle the logistics and customer service of other platforms at the same time? For now, just preventing G-Mall from running out of stock will be overwhelming. Even if you add stores everywhere, without enough inventory all you will get are shipping-delay complaints, and the platforms will not give you even one free main banner.”
“Then what do you think is best, Mr. Jang?”
At Jaeha's question, Jang Myeonghwan's lips twisted cruelly.
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