A Wall Street Genius's Final Investment Playbook-Chapter 325 : The 100 Billion Race (21)

"Reconciliation?"

Masayoshi Son let out a disbelieving, hollow laugh.

The very word itself was insulting.

Wasn’t “reconciliation” a term used between two parties who had fiercely fought on equal footing?

This wasn’t a fight.

Masayoshi had declared peace and stepped back, only for Ha Si-heon to drag him forcibly back into the ring through fabricated narratives and incitement, then beat him mercilessly.

Masayoshi hadn’t even managed a single proper counterattack.

And now, they were talking about “reconciliation”?

It was as if someone had grabbed an innocent passerby off the street, beaten him senseless, and then said, “Alright, let’s reconcile,” while holding out a hand.

He wanted nothing more than to storm over immediately and curse them to their face.

But the problem was—he couldn’t.

“Reconciliation… this is truly a relief!”

The employees who had heard Ha Si-heon’s proposal were cheering.

At this moment, Visionary Fund was shaking from its roots.

“Blue Ocean is considering triggering MAC!”

“Quantum’s movements are suspicious too!”

The MAC (Material Adverse Change) clause was a protective mechanism that allowed investors to withdraw their commitments if a major adverse event occurred that interfered with execution of the deal.

Simply put, it was a legal exit for investors to say, “Things have gotten too bad—we can’t proceed with the investment.”

And due to the controversy Ha Si-heon had stirred—questioning the moral decay of the tech sector—some investors were beginning to show signs of triggering this MAC clause.

As a result, ten billion dollars were at risk of being pulled out immediately.

But the real terror began there.

“We must stop that at all costs! The Long Stop Date provision…!”

Visionary Fund had a clause that stated if they failed to reach the minimum target of seventy billion dollars by a certain deadline, the fund would be terminated entirely.

Thus far, they had accumulated eighty billion dollars.

But if ten billion were withdrawn from that…

The Visionary Fund itself could collapse.

‘That must be prevented at all costs!’

To do that, they had to accept Ha Si-heon’s reconciliation proposal—no matter how humiliating it might be.

And so, the next day—

Masayoshi Son headed to Pareto Innovation.

It was infuriating to the point his teeth hurt, and he couldn’t understand why he had to endure this humiliation.

‘Just endure one day.’

All he could do was grit his teeth and bear it.

The survival of the Visionary Fund was at stake.

It was then—

Ding!

The elevator doors opened, and someone was standing directly in front of him.

A man who appeared to be a Pareto employee recognized Masayoshi and widened his eyes.

“M-Masayoshi Son…? Why are you here already? Wasn’t the meeting at two?”

“I finished business nearby early.”

It was a lie.

He had come early to disrupt their rhythm and seize the initiative.

And the strategy seemed effective.

The employee was visibly flustered.

“P-Please wait here for a moment!”

The employee hurriedly ran back the way he came, and soon, clamor began echoing from down the hall.

“What? He’s already here?”

“Hide it! Quickly!”

Driven by curiosity, Masayoshi followed the noise—and soon witnessed an unbelievable scene.

Traders were hastily trying to hide something, and that something was…

“Wax figures?”

One was an Asian man modeled after Masayoshi himself.

The other was a man in traditional Arab attire.

But the Asian figure was kneeling on the floor, desperately clinging to the Arab man’s robes.

……

This was unmistakably mockery.

It was obviously created to ridicule the fact that Masayoshi’s greatest backer, Saudi Arabia, had turned away from him.

Rage surged so strongly his mind went blank.

But Masayoshi barely managed to keep a grip on his sanity.

‘I must endure.’

Because he desperately needed this reconciliation.

Masayoshi forced a stiff smile.

“Ha ha, quite a dedicated piece of art. I can appreciate this level of humor, so no need to be so tense.”

His intention had been to show composure—that he wouldn’t be rattled by childish provocations.

However—

The employees’ reactions were completely different from what he had expected.

“We’re glad you like it! We specially commissioned it from Madame Tussauds’ headquarters!”

“The crown prince’s outfit was made by the actual supplier to the Saudi royal family!”

Rather than being relieved that he wasn’t angry, these lunatics began proudly explaining the “artwork,” and before long—

“Wow, standing next to it, you look exactly the same! Would you mind taking a commemorative photo?”

“We were thinking of adding audio, like ‘Why are you like this? We used to be good friends,’ how about recording that line yourself? It would bring glory to your descendants for three generations—”

“Since you’re here, could you sign it personally?”

They began making outrageous demands.

Masayoshi was speechless.

How could such shameless people exist?

If he got angry now, it would contradict his statement about understanding humor.

But there was no way he could accept such humiliating requests.

Just as he was caught in this dilemma—

“Ah? Mr. Masayoshi?”

Someone appeared after hearing the commotion.

It was Ha Si-heon’s secretary.

She took in the situation at a glance and sighed lightly.

Then she looked at her wristwatch and said,

“You arrived early… without notice.”

Her voice implied annoyance.

As if this whole mess was Masayoshi’s fault for not adhering to the appointed time, twisting his gut even further.

“This way, please.”

When they arrived at the conference room, the secretary said flatly,

“You arrived too early, so the CEO is still in another meeting. You’ll have to wait.”

Once again, the nuance was, ‘If you had come on time, none of this would have happened.’

After subtly aggravating Masayoshi’s nerves, the secretary left.

Alone, he tried to organize his chaotic thoughts.

Wax figures, the employees’ mockery, the secretary’s cold response…

There was no way this was the attitude of someone seeking reconciliation.

Was this really a peace meeting?

‘It might be a trap.’

Ha Si-heon was someone who would invent facts if necessary to wage war.

There was a real possibility that all of this was a plan to lure him in with the bait of reconciliation and then humiliate him.

However…

The danger he faced now was too dire to refuse reconciliation based on suspicion alone.

After wrestling with his thoughts, Masayoshi made a decision in his heart.

‘I will decide after seeing Ha Si-heon’s attitude in person.’

If the man truly desired reconciliation, he would endure today’s humiliation.

But if all of this was merely a ploy to humiliate him under the bait of reconciliation, Masayoshi had no intention of sitting still.

At that moment, as he finished sorting out his thoughts—

The door burst open.

Ha Si-heon walked in.

Surprisingly, the very first thing Ha Si-heon did upon entering was bow his head and apologize.

“I heard something unpleasant happened outside. I sincerely apologize for causing discomfort to a guest I invited.”

His apology sounded genuine, and his manner was courteous.

Internally, Masayoshi judged that this was the attitude of someone who truly wanted reconciliation, felt slightly relieved, and answered with a gentle smile.

“Ha ha, don’t worry about it. I used to pull those kinds of mischievous pranks when I was young, too.”

“Still, it was my failure. I had instructed them to put it away in advance, but it wasn’t properly handled.”

“I said it’s fine.”

For the moment he let it go.

But as he replayed the exchange in his head, he sensed something off in Ha Si-heon’s apology.

In a situation like this, wouldn’t you normally apologize for having made such a thing?

Yet what Ha Si-heon apologized for was not the making of the figures, but the failure to put them away properly—as if the existence of those figures was a given.

He couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.

To test Ha Si-heon’s true intentions, Masayoshi asked,

“Before we begin, may I ask why you suddenly proposed reconciliation?”

“A short while ago, we surpassed our fundraising target and successfully closed the investment.”

Ha Si-heon first, subtly, flaunted his victory, then continued.

“However, one of my key investors suggested that there seemed to be a misunderstanding between us and advised that we clear the air. I thought the point had merit, so I arranged this meeting.”

“A misunderstanding…”

In that instant, the scattered pieces in Masayoshi’s mind clicked into place.

The “key investor” Ha Si-heon referred to was, without doubt, Saudi Arabia.

From Saudi’s perspective, they would not want Masayoshi to end up as a complete loser.

If that happened, they too would be remembered as fools who backed the losing side.

Their investment condition would naturally be to preserve Masayoshi’s dignity somehow and wrap this fight up neatly.

“If that’s the case…”

Realizing this, Masayoshi unconsciously loosened the tension in his stiff shoulders.

He understood that to pull off this “reconciliation,” his own “cooperation” was necessary—in other words, he had leverage in this room.

With a newly found ease in his voice, he continued,

“So then, what sort of form do you have in mind for this reconciliation? You’re not planning to end it with words alone, I trust?”

“Of course not. Words without action have no meaning. I’d like to show you a sincere gesture of reconciliation.”

“A gesture?”

“Yes, our Cure Fund would like to invest ten billion dollars in the Visionary Fund.”

For a moment, Masayoshi froze.

Ha Si-heon… was offering to invest in his fund?

This was an entirely unexpected proposal.

“Sure, it’s a good thing… but…”

He had been burned too many times to not be suspicious.

The counterpart was that Ha Si-heon.

There was no way he would hand over money without a reason.

There had to be another agenda.

“Would there be conditions attached to this investment?”

“The word ‘conditions’ sounds a bit heavy. Rather, I don’t intend to just put in money; I’d also like to share my experience and network.”

“Share experience and network.”

On its face, it sounded ideal.

But Masayoshi instantly grasped the true meaning behind the words.

“This is… a declaration that you intend to involve yourself in my fund.”

Alarm bells rang in his head.

Concealing his suspicion, he asked again,

“Specifically, what experience and network would you be sharing?”

“As you can tell from my track record, I have a knack for sensing risks that others fail to see in advance. I’d like to alert you to those risks ahead of time.”

In other words, as with the recent Uber incident, he would warn them in advance when trouble was brewing.

At first blush, it sounded favorable to Masayoshi’s side, but he didn’t let his guard down.

“Would you ‘only’ be alerting us?”

“Ah, I would like to, of course… but the problems I point out tend to be hard to believe at first, so even when I warn people, they often miss them.”

With a troubled shrug, Ha Si-heon continued.

And the conversation took a foreboding turn.

“Therefore, I think institutional safeguards are necessary. For example, when I judge that there is an issue with a particular investment, you would reconsider that investment.”

Masayoshi’s fist clenched under the table before he even realized it.

Nicely wrapped as it was, the meaning was clear.

“So you’re asking for the right to block investments—essentially a veto—so that we cannot invest in targets you deem problematic.”

The smile vanished from Masayoshi’s face, replaced by a chill in the air.

In a much lower, quieter voice than before, he asked,

“Is that… the condition you’re putting before me to accept right now?”

***

“You called me here just to shove such terms in my face?”

The gentlemanly expression Masayoshi wore moments ago turned cold as his voice rose.

Clearly, he didn’t like my proposed “investment veto.”

I tried to reassure him as much as possible.

“I’m not going to tell you where to invest. I’m only saying I’ll dissuade you from dangerous places.”

“How is that any different!”

Strictly speaking, Masayoshi wasn’t wrong.

A veto might be called a veto, but practically it was the same as having decision-making power.

For example, if I exercised the veto by saying, “Everything except this one place is dangerous, so don’t invest,” then funds would inevitably flow only where I wanted them to go.

“So with ten billion, you want to swallow a hundred-billion-dollar fund whole. This isn’t reconciliation—it’s a proposal to turn us into a colony, isn’t it!”

He kept striking right at the heart of it.

Because that was, in fact, the true purpose of the setup I’d designed.

To create a sort of colony.

My Cure Fund’s one hundred billion would go to healthcare, and Masayoshi’s Visionary Fund’s one hundred billion would go into the tech sectors I need.

Move both massive funds according to my intentions.

“I didn’t think you’d accept it meekly, but…”

The resistance was stronger than I expected.

Masayoshi shouted in a heated voice,

“Isn’t it shameless to demand such authority for a mere ten billion! And that money isn’t even yours!”

Even his final jab was, in fact, correct.

The ten billion I proposed to invest in Masayoshi wasn’t my own money.

I was simply passing along the additional funds I’d received from Saudi.

In other words, I was trying to rule someone else’s kingdom with someone else’s money, without putting in a single dollar of my own.

Masayoshi seemed enraged, but honestly, I didn’t understand why.

‘Why the surprise now?’

Wasn’t Wall Street–style investing always done with other people’s money?