An Investor Who Sees The Future

”’Lost Fantasy Saga - Serin’s Tower,’ as the title suggests, is a fantasy webtoon based on a license from ’Lost Fantasy.’

Just a few months after it began its official run on Neotin Webtoon—the dream platform for artists—the webtoon soared to the number one spot.

This was thanks to Lost Fantasy’s vast and well-structured world, charming characters, Min Hayoung’s artistic skill, and Oh Taekgyu’s story supervision.

On top of this, the explosive popularity of Lost Fantasy M and the online game, along with various collaborative events, contributed to its success. (This led some jealous rivals to belittle its success, claiming it was just riding on the coattails of the original’s popularity).

When her webtoon was first picked up for an official run, Min Hayoung felt like she had the world in her hands and didn’t have high expectations for the income.

However, the revenue from paid early-access chapters and advertisements exceeded her wildest imagination. Her eyes went wide when she saw the money deposited into her bank account.

Her monthly income soared past the annual salary of an average office worker. For someone who had once struggled in the swamp of a pyramid scheme, it was a complete reversal of fortune.

In return, she had to be hounded by deadlines every day without a proper holiday. But no matter how busy she was, she made sure to meet Taekgyu once a week to discuss the story.

She was living a busy but happy life, but a few months ago, something strange started to happen. The revenue from her early-access sales began to drop significantly.

At first, she worried that her story might have become boring, but judging by the readers’ reactions, that didn’t seem to be the case.This wasn’t just happening to her. While the extent varied, other artists were experiencing a similar decline in their income.

The reason was an illegal webtoon sharing site called Helltokkaeng. The site hosted not only Min Hayoung’s webtoon but also countless others from platforms like Neotin Webtoon, Lezhin Comics, and Toomics. On top of that, it even offered translated versions of adult webtoons and Japanese adult manga that were banned in Korea.

The most astonishing fact was that all of this was free!

As word spread that you could read webtoons for free that would otherwise require payment, Helltokkaeng began to grow at an explosive rate.

It even achieved the astonishing feat of surpassing Neotin Webtoon to become number one in daily users!

Hearing this, Taekgyu was shocked.

”What? They got that big?”

Taekgyu was well aware of Helltokkaeng.

In fact, there probably wasn’t a single webtoon reader who didn’t know about it. After all, if you searched for a webtoon’s title, Helltokkaeng would often appear as a related search term, or its site would even rank higher than the official platform.

Among the countless illegal webtoon sharing sites scattered across the internet, Helltokkaeng boasted an overwhelming first place. The reason was that it was run with a surprising level of diligence for an illegal site.

It had a clean UI that considered the user experience, faster updates of new works than other illegal sites (through unauthorized uploads, of course), and a mobile-friendly layout.

’Still, I never thought it would beat Neotin Webtoon.’

The content industry, including webtoons and web novels, is continuously growing, and companies are sparing no expense in investments to dominate the market.

Companies were pouring enormous amounts of money into advertising, to the point where you could easily find webtoon ads on TV, the internet, and subway screens. Yet, Helltokkaeng had gathered over 50 million in daily traffic without a single advertisement!

’Is this the power of free?’

After all, it’s human nature not to want to pay for something if you can get it for free.

Min Hayoung said, sniffling.

”S-so I...”

Unable to bear her work being illegally shared, she mustered her courage and sent an email to the address listed on the Helltokkaeng site.

[Hello.

My name is Hayoung, and I am the webtoon artist for ’Lost Fantasy Saga - Serin’s Tower’ on Neotin.

I recently confirmed that my webtoon and the webtoons of my fellow artists are being illegally uploaded on the Helltokkaeng site. A single chapter of a webtoon contains the artist’s blood and sweat, and artists make a living through this.

As many artists are suffering damages due to illegal sites, I kindly request that you delete the unauthorized webtoons.]

Taekgyu asked.

”So what happened?”

”Sob, sob, but then...”

Instead of taking down the webtoon, the operator posted her email on the site for all to see.

Underneath it, he added a mocking comment: ’The artist Hayoung is asking me to take it down, what should I do? LOL’

The comments that followed were a spectacle.

-She should be grateful we’re even reading it.

-Are we not readers if we read for free?

-Ha, that’s ridiculous. So you’re saying poor students like me shouldn’t even read it?

-I guess it doesn’t occur to her that we’re reading and promoting it for her.

-This artist’s personality is f***ing trash. Ptooey! I’m so disgusted, I’m never reading this artist’s work again.

-I heard she’s a female artist, she’s probably ugly as hell.

-LOL, even more successful artists than her are staying quiet, who does she think she is to step up?

-Now that she’s getting popular and making some money, she’s become arrogant.

-I’m going to go to Neotin Webtoon, give all her previous chapters a 1-star rating, and leave some comments~

-Ooh! Good idea. I’ll use my three accounts to give them all 1-star ratings!

-Everyone! Let’s show them the power of Helltokkaeng users!

Taekgyu looked at the comments on the phone Min Hayoung handed him and couldn’t hide his astonishment.

”No way, why are these pirates so damn shameless?”

Feeling wronged all over again, Min Hayoung burst into tears again.

”Waaaaah! I don’t know either.”

The people in the cafe started whispering.

”Looks like the guy made the girl cry.”

”The girl is cute.”

”He didn’t hit her, did he?”

”Shouldn’t we call the police?”

Taekgyu crossed his arms and nodded.

’Hmm, so a day comes when I get misunderstood like this. Right. It can happen.’

Anyway, he first comforted the crying Min Hayoung.

”Calm down. Do you want something to drink?”

”Sniffle, yeah. Something sweet, not coffee.”

Taekgyu ordered two peach smoothies and then examined the Helltokkaeng site in detail.

At first glance, it didn’t look much different from other webtoon sites. It was neatly organized by day, new releases, and platform, and completed works were separated.

’If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was an official webtoon site.’

The only difference was the string of ads for various adult and gambling sites on the side. That made some sense.

’Well, it’s not like they’re running this for free.’

Min Hayoung said, as if complaining.

”When I upload a preview chapter, it’s up on Helltokkaeng in less than three minutes. Does that even make sense? Why are the people pirating it so damn diligent?”

This diligence was the secret to their success, allowing them to beat other illegal sites and even Neotin Webtoon to become number one!

”How much has your paid revenue decreased?”

”Mine is about 30 percent. I heard some artists have had their income cut in half.”

The damage was much greater than he had thought. No, at this point, it was a serious problem.

A Neotin Webtoon artist’s income comes from three main sources: the manuscript fee from Neotin, paid early-access sales, and ad revenue from the webtoon.

Traffic is directly linked to ad revenue. If the current trend of traffic flocking to Helltokkaeng continues, the ad revenue will naturally decrease as well.

While the operators of Helltokkaeng were profiting, the artists who drew the webtoons and the platforms that provided the service were suffering enormous financial losses.

”Have you reported it?”

”Neotin Webtoon filed a complaint with the police directly, but they said there’s nothing they can do because the site is operated overseas. Even if they block the site, it’s only temporary, and they just change the domain and continue their business.”

”Hmm.”

It was a classic tactic of illegal sites. Adult and gambling sites operated in a similar way.

”So what are you going to do?”

”What can I do? There’s no way.”

Min Hayoung wiped her tears with a tissue, blew her nose, and said.

”I just said it because I was frustrated. Phew, but I feel a little better after talking about it.”

She had cried so much that her round eyes were as red as a rabbit’s.

If he hadn’t known, he might have let it go, but now that he had heard the story, he couldn’t just stand by.

Taekgyu looked for an email address on the site, but it seemed to have been removed, probably because of protest emails.

”You still have the email address you sent it to, right? Give it to me.”

”Huh? What are you going to send?”

”Just wait a minute.”

Taekgyu sent an email.

[I’ll find you, and I’ll kill you.]

Taekgyu looked at the sent email and thought.

’Oh! I’ve always wanted to use that line.’

Just as he was about to get up after slowly finishing his smoothie, his phone notification went off. Surprisingly, a reply had arrived.

[Good luck!]

Taekgyu let out a short laugh.

”Heh, look at this bastard.”

***

The fact that OTK Company and SpaceZ, and that I and Allen Eberhardt, had joined hands was quite a hot topic.

I am renowned as an investor, and Allen Eberhardt as a developer and businessman. When we announced that we would create a joint venture subsidiary, expectations for the commercialization of electric airplanes rose significantly.

To reiterate, small electric airplanes, flying cars, electric helicopters, and manned drones have already been created.

Prototypes have been released, and some have even completed test flights.

However, for commercialization, several problems need to be solved, such as price, safety, flight range, and charging infrastructure.

When asked about this by reporters, Allen Eberhardt replied, ”They said the same thing when I first said I was going to make an electric car.” In any case, he was a man of action.

For the establishment of the subsidiary, Allen Eberhardt would serve as CEO, and the board of directors would be composed of an equal number of members from both sides.

As I was continuing to discuss this issue with SpaceZ, Taekgyu returned from his meeting with Min Hayoung.

”What did you talk about?”

”A serious problem has come up.”

”What is it?”

”Helltokkaeng took the number one spot.”

”...Huh?”

What was that supposed to mean?

Taekgyu explained what he had heard from Min Hayoung.

”It seems the piracy problem with webtoons is serious.”

Piracy, the illegal use of software that is not genuine, has a long and storied history.

Even before the internet was widespread, there were people selling VHS tapes and CDs in places like the Yongsan Electronics Market, and bookstores brazenly sold illegally translated books called ”pirate editions.”

Then, with the dawn of the internet era, the golden age of piracy began. Illegally copied software moved freely through LAN cables.

Taekgyu said bluntly.

”Pirates are the axis of evil. Because of bastards like them, great game companies go bankrupt, and genuine users like me suffer!”

As he said, the game industry has suffered a lot of damage from piracy.

If sales decrease, the company has no choice but to raise prices or reduce the volume of the game. In the case of foreign games, if they didn’t sell well, they would release the Japanese or English versions as they were instead of creating a Korean translation, or they would withdraw from the Korean market altogether.

Ironically, these problems began to be solved as the internet and technology developed further.

The emergence of online games made piracy impossible, and as content payment and streaming became easier, the number of users increased and prices decreased.

The launch of OTT services like Netplay and Faceit made it cheaper to subscribe and pay than to search for illegal files.

In the end, piracy will gradually disappear over time.

...or so I thought, but seeing a site like Helltokkaeng take the number one spot, it seems that’s not necessarily the case.

”We can’t just let these bastards who suck the blood of creators get away with it.”

”But you said the server is in a foreign country, right? What are you going to do?”

Taekgyu thought for a moment and then asked.

”The operator of this is obviously Korean, right?”

”Probably.”

The Helltokkaeng site uploads Korean webtoons and Japanese manga translated into Korean. It’s unlikely that a foreigner is running such a site.

”In the end, if we find this guy, it’s all solved, right?”

”So?”

Taekgyu crossed his arms and said.

”We have to find him. Find him and kill him.”

He was full of useless motivation for the first time in a while.

”Are you done with work? Let’s go somewhere with me.”

”Where?”

”Neotin headquarters.”

”...Huh?”