LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 37
The filming team, whom I had grown somewhat fond of over the nearly four weeks we spent together, had left. I sat alone in my room, lost in thought as I listened to the sound of the main unit echoing.
Brrrrrrr─!
The reasons I mine Bitcoin are varied, but the biggest one is to keep my promise to Gyeouri.
No matter how I think about it, it seems difficult to thrive under the Glazer family’s ownership.
Honestly, the best-case scenario would be for Manchester United to be acquired by Qatari capital.
But isn’t it ridiculous that these Glazer bastards won’t sell MUFC unless it’s for 10 billion pounds?
If only I had hypnotic powers to make them sell Manchester United, but unfortunately, I don’t have such abilities.
So, I have no choice but to mine Bitcoin.
I need to buy Manchester United.
If that weren’t the case, wouldn’t the coins I mined before coming to Germany be enough?
In any case, to protect this prestigious team, which is Manchester United, from filthy oil money, the Glazer family shouted a price of 10 billion pounds.
At that time, that was an astronomical amount close to 17 trillion won, and even Qatar spat and turned their heads without any longing.
Generally, for that kind of acquisition fee, you’d think they’d acquire and grow another Premier League team instead of Manchester United.
But I’m different.
To keep the promise made with the one I love, it has to be Manchester United.
There’s no way I could just settle for Qatar’s half-hearted intentions to acquire another club.
The problem is the staggering amount of 17 trillion…
If I dump all my money and inheritance into Bitcoin and stocks that are set to soar, it seems that acquiring Manchester United might be possible.
After winning big in poker, I would somehow need to recover the losses by pillaging Manchester United’s finances through dividends, just like the Glazers did.
Well, that’s future stuff, so I can’t be sure how it’ll turn out, but first, I had to have a lot of weapons in my arsenal.
That’s why today, I work hard as a miner, mining Bitcoin.
Click.
All I’m doing is clicking the mouse.
“…This is money replication, huh?”
Money was rapidly replicating.
Well… after some time, the mining rate would gradually decrease.
But since it’s still the early days of Bitcoin, Satoshi hasn’t set a halving period yet.
So as long as the main unit is spewing heat, Bitcoin keeps pouring out.
“…But what if these Glazer bastards don’t sell at 10 billion pounds?”
As I stared at the Bitcoin piling up in my wallet, the worst-case scenario suddenly crossed my mind.
“Eh… No way.”
I quickly shook my head, pushing the bad thought away.
*
It has already been a fortnight since the SBK filming team returned home, and the premiere date of the program featuring Son Jinho was approaching.
[Son Heung-min scores his 3rd goal of the season with a multi-goal game!]
[German media praises Son Heung-min as the top talent to watch this season.]
[Son Heung-min wins Bundesliga Best Debut Player!]
As Son Heung-min began to show his prowess in Hamburg, interest in the Bundesliga was gradually growing in South Korea.
[If Son Heung-min is in Hamburg, Son Jinho is in Dortmund! Experience the vibrant life of Dortmund’s prized rookie, Son Jinho, on SBK!]
SBK aggressively promoted the program featuring Son Jinho using keywords like ‘Son Heung-min’, ‘Cha Boom-geun’, and ‘Park Jisong’ in their posts.
For the broadcasters, Son Jinho’s position as a midfielder was of no concern at all.
If it could boost the viewership even slightly, they wouldn’t hesitate to sell their souls to the devil.
[Title: insert channel name first broadcast appearance insert channel name]
[Title: Hey bros, is anyone waiting for my brother’s variety show airing tomorrow on SBK?]
With such folks gathering, naturally, promotional posts were created in the Ho-woo gallery where Son Jinho’s fans congregated.
Though they had a bit of a viral feel, for the younger siblings, the presence or absence of the virus didn’t matter as long as they had new material to fangirl over.
They simply rejoiced that new fodder to support had appeared.
[Title: At least let me know when insert show name airs, you stupid girl!]
Under the post by Kureho, comments started flooding in on when it would air.
Days later.
Finally, the show they had been eagerly awaiting began.
On Kureho’s monitor, a schoolgirl with a tense expression waved to the camera.
– “H-Hello! I’m Han Gyeouri, Son Jinho’s childhood friend!”
└ ㄴㄱㅇ?
└ Don’t know? She’s cute anyway!
└ I was gonna change channels, but I’ll stick around for now.
└ 222 same here lol
– “What’s with you? Why are you so nervous? And I’m not just a childhood friend; I’m his girlfriend! You can’t lie on air!”
└ Ho-woooo──!!
└ Did our bro show up?
└ Huh? Girlfriend, huh?
└ Damn, I’m so envious.
– “I mean, I’m a childhood friend too! And if you openly call yourself his girlfriend, what am I supposed to do when I get married later?!”
– “You were planning on marrying someone else when I’m around?”
└ What are they doing?
└ Ugh, this is so cringe-worthy ──
└ What kind of middle schooler is dating when he should be studying!
└ Aww, lol they’re so fresh and cute to watch, lol.
└ My wife used to be that fresh too…. Now she’s like a bear.
└ Hang in there, bro! ㅠㅠ
As the warm exchanges melted the viewers’ hearts, the main story drew to a close, and a preview video played on the monitor.
– “Jinho? He’s the future of our Dortmund!”
– “If I score, I’ll run over, so let’s celebrate together.”
– “Olé, here comes the BVB!”
└ Ugh, what’s this! Why are the fans cheering?!
└ Who scored? Was it our bro?!
└ No, give us the next episode now!! Did my bro score or not!!
└ Ho-woooo──!!
*
Son Jinho’s broadcast wrapped up relatively successfully.
Though as a pilot program consisting of 4 episodes, it received a pretty decent allocation, averaging 6% viewership.
As Kim Hyun-deok PD had confidently claimed, it didn’t become a huge hit, but it also didn’t flop.
It became a talking point among football fans and parents wanting to send their children abroad for football education.
However, since they boldly requested to send him to Germany, a written apology and some explanation were in order.
“Everyone! What makes us different from other broadcasting stations? It’s that we receive precious license fees from the public, isn’t it?!”
“Our SBK must fulfill the value of those license fees by investing in the future, not just the present! Can you imagine how valuable this footage will be when Son Jinho becomes a sports star not just for South Korea but for the whole world?!”
With his fantastic tongue work, PD Kim Hyun-deok once again succeeded in surviving unscathed.
*
December 24, 2010.
Park Kwang-rae, the coach of the South Korea National Team, announced the final roster of 23 players for the upcoming Asian Cup in January.
[Park Kwang-rae’s team! Declaring the return of the king, the final roster for the Asian Cup confirmed! Hamburg’s rising star Son Heung-min is also included!]
└ Is our bro on there?
└ Why are you looking for your brother here, idiot?
└ But why isn’t Son Jinho on there?
└ Son Jinho is only 15 years old; isn’t that too early for the national team? ;;;
└ And where would Son Jinho fit in anyway?
└ It’s Park Jisong in the central role, and you’re looking for Son Jinho?
└ Our bro is great at defense too! He can play as a defensive midfielder.
└ But Son Jinho is a promising rookie; the senior stage isn’t the same as the youth league, right? ^^
└ Ki Sung-yueng isn’t great at defense either… but he’s decent enough…
└ Sigh, the moms of Jinho are already making a fuss here, tsk tsk. It doesn’t make sense for someone who hasn’t even debuted professionally to join the national team already, right?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t called up for this Asian Cup, and I completely understood the situation.
Even Han Gwang-jong, who was being pushed forward by the Korea Football Association, faced all kinds of controversy when calling me up to the U19 national team.
It wasn’t even the U23 national team, and I hadn’t shown enough to join the senior national team yet.
If only I had at least debuted in the Bundesliga, but regrettably, I hadn’t reached that age yet.
In any case, I put my disappointment aside and dedicated myself to the present. I diligently followed the training schedule tailored to my body, devised in collaboration with the coaching staff of Dortmund.
And as I spent Christmas on a date with Gyeouri, before I knew it, the year had passed, and I finally turned 16 years old.
Thanks to my future knowledge and the efforts of the Dortmund coaching staff, my height had grown a bit faster than before.
With proper weight training and the synergy of my growth spurt not hindering my development, my body changed drastically every day.
“…Son Jinho has grown huge.”
“Alright, now who’s the younger one here?”
“…Tch.”
I gently patted Gyeouri’s head as she pouted and carefully called out to her.
“Gyeouri.”
“…What?”
“Can you grow a bit taller? It’s so inconvenient to pat your head.”
With height comes this kind of inconvenience, huh? I teased Gyeouri with a playful smile.
“Ugh─! This is so humiliating!”
Han Gyeouri balled her fists and trembled.
I wanted to tease her about her chest size, but like the famous saying goes that the leader must be serious.
Gyeouri was serious.
Anyway, even though I had turned 16, my daily life didn’t change much.
I was still playing in the U19 team without being promoted.
Not because I wasn’t good enough, but because my age didn’t allow for more.
Dortmund also lamented my young age.
Having annihilated the youth league, they proposed to the German Football League Federation (DFL) to lower the age limit to 16.
However, it’s true that it takes time before results come from such proposals.
I wasn’t worried about the proposal passing.
For that reason, I had scored 14 goals and made 6 assists in eight matches in the 2010/11 season’s Bundesliga U19 West League.
In particular, these stats were noteworthy not for their accumulation against weak teams, but for consistently generating attacking points in every match.
It became proof that I had already surpassed the U19 league level.
In any case, I waited with bated breath for the DFL’s decision.
Well, it would take at least three months, no matter how fast.
*
April 5.
Three months had passed since Dortmund requested to change the age limit with the DFL.
[DFL rules in favor of Dortmund! The age limit is lowered from 16 years and 6 months to 16 years! ‘This is a result reflecting the opinions of other Bundesliga teams as well.’]
[Cheers for the DFL’s decision from Dortmund! ‘The DFL’s decision is a wonderful one that can assist in the immediate development of young players!’]
[The first beneficiary of the DFL’s age limit change policy, Son Jinho! Promoted to Dortmund’s first team!]
News that would make South Korea rejoice poured out from Germany.