New Asia Network will sell its stake in Wemade for $84 million, valuing Wemade at $210 million.

KTB Investment Group, the largest venture capital institution in South Korea, also invested $15 million in Wemade in exchange for a 5% stake in the company. Wemade also began to intensively plan the company's listing.

Wemade's valuation has soared to $300 million. It seems that KTB Investment Group is also optimistic about Park Kwan-ho's move to buy back shares from Shin-A Network.

If there is a flaw, it is that Xinya Network has not given up the joint copyright of "Legend 2". Wemade and Xinya Network still jointly own the series copyright of "Legend 2" and the derivative games developed based on "Legend 2".

Park Kwan-ho knew that Song Yi was not an easy person to deal with, so he did this in order to make Xinya Network willing to sell its shares in Wemade.

He agreed that Wemade and Xinya Network renewed the contract for the exclusive agency rights of "Legend 2", which is "Legend of Mir 2" in mainland China.

Xinya Network and Wemade have re-signed an agency contract for "Legend of Mir 2". The agency fee is US$21 million for three years, and Wemade's share ratio has also been adjusted from the previous 10% to the current 25%. In the future, Wemade will obtain more share income from "Legend of Mir 2", a popular online game.

Although it is still some distance away from the 50% share that Park Kwan-ho had in mind, he knows that nothing in the world can be achieved overnight and one must eat one bite at a time.

In early May 2003, Xinya Network officially launched the sequel of their "Legend of Mir 2", "Legend World". Unlike "Legend of Mir 2", "Legend World" adopted the operation mode of free game and paid props, which immediately attracted a large number of game players.

Park Kwan-ho and Kim Hye-jin tried out the online game "Legend of Mir 2" as soon as possible. They felt that it was indeed a game developed based on "Legend of Mir 2". The two games were highly similar in terms of game characters, game styles, career settings and game maps. It is easy for players of "Legend of Mir 2" to get started.

The arrogant Park Kwan-ho felt that the playability of the game "Legend of Mir 2" was not as good as their carefully prepared "Legend 3". When "Legend 3" was officially released, it would be the beginning of the decline of "Legend World".

In fact, in order to prevent Xinya Network from coveting the copyright of "Legend 3", Park Kwan-ho made an agreement with Xinya Network.

Both Xinya Network and Wemade own the copyright of the online games based on Legend 2, but the Legend games developed by Xinya Network and Wemade after 2002 are not included. In other words, Wemade alone owns the copyright of Legend 3, Xinya Network alone owns the copyright of World of Legend, and Wemade and Xinya Network jointly own the copyright of Legend of Mir 2.

If it wasn't for the purpose of getting Shin-A Network to give up the copyright of "Legend 3", how could Park Kwan-ho agree to buy back Wemade's 40% stake at a high price of US$84 million?

You should know that Song Yi bought 40% of Wemade's shares and the copyright of "Legend 2" from Actoz Soft for only 7.2 million US dollars.

Even if we take into account the $4.8 million that New Asia Capital invested in Actoz Soft, Song Yi only paid out $12 million. In just two years, Wemade had to spend $84 million to buy back the 40% stake, and Song Yi also retained the copyright of "Legend of Mir 2". In any case, Song Yi and New Asia Network can be said to have made a lot of money!

In order to raise the huge amount of money to pay Shin-A Network, Park Kwan-ho mortgaged his 30% Wemade shares to Shinhan Bank and borrowed 60 million US dollars from Shinhan Bank. The loan period is 3 years and the annual interest rate is 4%. In order to control the risk, Shinhan Bank asked Park Kwan-ho to provide additional collateral. After all, if Wemade fails to go public, the shares pledged by Park Kwan-ho will be at risk of depreciation. Finally, Park Kwan-ho considered again and again and decided to use the copyright of the online game "Legend 3" developed by their company as additional collateral for this loan.

Jin Huizhen was a little confused. "President, Chairman Hong Weili of KTB Investment Group is willing to lend some funds to our company. Why do you choose to go to Shinhan Bank for a loan instead of KTB Investment Group?"

Park Kwan-ho still values ​​Kim Hye-jin, his capable subordinate, very much. He patiently explained, "VC companies are like girlfriends. We can only share the good times, but not the bad times. Now our Wemade's "Legend 3" is about to be released. When "Legend 3" enters the mainland game market, it will eliminate the crude "Legend of Mir 2" and the simple "Legend of Mir 3". Hong Weili is naturally willing to do something to add icing on the cake, such as lending funds to our company."

"But once Wemade encounters operational difficulties, these VCs will turn against us and demand that our company compensate their investors for their losses immediately. But banks are different. Our relationship with them is like that of a couple, and we can share weal and woe. After all, if Wemade encounters operational problems, the first thing they will worry about is whether their $60 million loan can be safely recovered."

"So I can understand why Shinhan Bank asked us to provide additional collateral. In fact, I wanted to use the copyright of "Legend 2" as additional collateral. However, Shinhan Bank said that the copyright of "Legend 2" is jointly held by Wemade and Shin Asia Network, and its value cannot be accurately assessed. So I had no choice but to use the copyright of "Legend 3" as additional collateral." Park Kwan-ho explained.

Jin Huizhen finally understood, and she said caringly: "The president has really worked hard for the development of Wemade. It's not easy. But fortunately, the matter has been resolved smoothly, and we will be fine when "Legend 3" is launched."

Park Kwan-ho was very pleased to see Kim Hye-jin's concerned expression. He always felt that Wemade's valuation was underestimated. As the game developer of "Legend of Mir 2", Wemade's valuation was far lower than that of Xinya Network, the agent of "Legend of Mir 2". How could Park Kwan-ho tolerate this?

Now that Wemade has been established for three years, it will soon meet the listing requirements of the Korea Stock Exchange. In order to draw a clear line with Xinya Network, Park Guanhao also took great pains. Park Guanhao believed that as long as he bought back the shares of Wemade from Song Yi, the valuation of Wemade would increase significantly.

Now the valuation of Wemade has exceeded that of its previous parent company Actoz Soft. Park Kwan-ho will soon become another top billionaire in the Korean IT industry with a net worth of over 100 million US dollars.

Perhaps the sudden increase in his personal wealth made Park Guanhao a little too proud of himself, and he said to Jin Huizhen: "Huizhen, I have to go to the mainland of China this month to discuss the agency contract of "Legend 3" with a Chinese game company."

"You are the R&D manager of our company's "Legend 3" game, and one of the most beautiful women in our company. I have included you in the list of people going on this business trip. This business trip may take a long time, probably about a week."

"In addition to three or four days of discussing business, I also plan to use the rest of the time to have a good time in China. Do you want to tell your husband in advance and ask him to take care of the children more these days?" Park Kwan-ho said with concern.

Jin Huizhen understood Park Guanhao's subtext, and she was a little surprised. She didn't expect Park Guanhao to still want to sleep with her at this time. Could it be that the successful repurchase of Wemade shares from Song Yi, the third richest man in South Korea, boosted Park Guanhao's self-confidence?

However, the development team of Wemade's "Legend 3" received equity incentives from Park Guanhao, and Kim Hye-jin, who performed particularly well, became the second largest individual shareholder after Park Guanhao. The higher the share price of Wemade after its listing, the greater the return she will get.

Considering this, Kim Hye-jin did not reject Park Kwan-ho's proposal to go on a business trip. She was silent for a while and replied, "My husband is also busy with work, so I will send the child to my grandmother's house and let my mother help take care of him for a week, so that it will not affect my work."

When Park Guanhao heard Jin Huizhen say this, he was secretly happy. He wished he could keep Jin Huizhen in the office right now and have a good time with her. What does it mean to be awake and hold the power of the world, drunk and sleep on the lap of a beauty? It's nothing more than this.

In late May, the last SARS case in Yanjing was discharged from Ditan Hospital. All 747 close contacts in Yanjing were released from quarantine. The treatment of SARS patients in Yanjing was completed, the SARS transmission chain was completely cut off, and the number of new SARS cases in Yanjing was zero.

Zhou Shulan, Liao Yu and Song Miao flew back to Yanjing on the Tae Hee private jet. Before returning home, Song Miao was reluctant to leave her two friends Xu Zhuxian and Zheng Xiujing, and agreed to visit them in Seoul after a while. Song Miao also invited Xu Zhuxian and Zheng Xiujing to visit Yanjing.

Due to SARS, "If You Are the One" has not been released in mainland China. Now that SARS is under control, "If You Are the One" has been officially scheduled to be released in mainland China and will meet mainland audiences after July 15, 2003. At that time, the film's leading actors Cho Seung-woo, Jo In-sung, Son Ye-jin and the creator of the Chinese theme song "If You Are the One" Li Jian will also meet the movie audiences.

In early June, Liubaiben Commercial Street in Wangjing Center officially resumed business. However, there are still infrared thermometers at each entrance of the mall. Customers entering the commercial street are required to wear masks, and each entrance and restroom on each floor are equipped with disinfectant.

Song Yi brought the crew of "If Love Has Destiny" to the HugeDream Cinema on Liubaiben Commercial Street to attend the premiere of the movie. Song Yi also specially contacted Mr. He from Mango TV and asked him to fly to Yanjing to host today's premiere.

Cho Seung-woo and Jo In-sung will not participate in the next promotional activities, but Son Ye-jin and Li Jian will appear on Mango TV's "Happy Camp" again. Fortunately, Son Ye-jin's Chinese level has improved after six months of intensive training, and at least simple communication is not a problem. In Song Yi's opinion, her Chinese level is at least much better than that of Jessica Jung when she participated in "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves".

Li Jian also talked about the creation process of this song, "In fact, I was very surprised when New Asia Films contacted me to create the theme song for this movie."

Li Jian noticed that his words seemed to have aroused public anger. He bowed apologetically to the audience attending the premiere and then continued to talk about his creative experience.

"I was alone in the room, watching the movie over and over again, probably about 17 or 18 times, and then I knew the plot of the movie by heart. Then I got creative inspiration, and the lyrics naturally came to me, and I wrote them all in one go. Finally, the Korean version's composer Yoo Young Seok composed the music." Li Jian continued.

At this time, the curiosity of the audience attending the premiere was aroused by Li Jian's story. At this time, the host of the premiere, Mr. He, also asked the audience for their opinions, "Teacher Li Jian has said so much, do you want to listen to this song "If Love Has Destiny"? "

"I want to!" The audience also gave him face.

Teacher He stood aside and said, "Well, today the crew of "If Love Has Destiny" has brought everyone a surprise. The next segment is Li Jian and Son Ye-jin singing the Chinese theme song "If Love Has Destiny" together."

When Son Ye-jin, wearing the white dress from the movie stills, stood up, the audience gave her warm applause.

Son Ye-jin began to sing in fluent Chinese, "Thank you everyone, I have been practicing, but please don't be offended if I don't sing well. Teacher Li Jian's lyrics are very beautiful, just like a poem."

Li Jian smiled modestly, picked up the microphone and began to sing: "When the stars appear in the sky, do you know that I am missing you again? How many loves can only be seen from afar, like the moonlight shining on the sea."

Son Ye-jin walked forward and walked side by side with Li Jian. She noticed Song Yi in the audience, smiled slightly, and continued to sing: "When we were young, we thought that people who loved each other could be together forever. When we believed that love was deep and we were together, we couldn't hear the sighs in the wind. Who knew what love was?"

When Song Yi heard Li Jian's lyrics "A brief encounter but unforgettable", he was deeply touched. The women with whom he had intimate relationships emerged in his mind like a revolving lantern, and finally stopped on Kim Tae-hee's face.

Kim Tae-hee is now pregnant, and the 54-episode "Dae Jang Geum" will soon be coming to an end. The TV series "Dae Jang Geum" has an annual viewership rate of over 45%, and over 50% at its peak. Kim Tae-hee and Lee Young-ae also became the most popular TV actresses in 2003. Song Yi even heard children imitating lines from "Dae Jang Geum" on the streets of Seoul.

After Kim Tae-hee attends the graduation ceremony of Seoul University, Song Yi and Kim Tae-hee will hold a grand wedding in Seoul.

Son Ye-jin's singing was not that good, but the mainland fans were always so tolerant and gave her warm applause. Song Yi was about to applaud when he received a text message on his phone with only "OK". Song Yi put his phone aside and applauded Li Jian and Son Ye-jin who sang together.

When the crew of "A Moment to Be" was conducting promotional activities in the mainland, Park Kwan-ho was anxiously facing the questioning from mainland game companies.

"President Park, you said that "Legend 3" is a better online game than "Legend of Mir 2". I don't deny it, but the source code of "Legend 3" has been leaked. That is to say, mainland game studios can complete the Chinese localization of "Legend 3" anytime and anywhere. By then, private servers of "Legend 3" will be everywhere. How can our company, as the agent of Wemade's "Legend 3", make a profit?" What Jiucheng Company said made sense.

Park Kwan-ho was at a loss for words for a moment, and Kim Hye-jin quickly came to the rescue of her boss, "We admit that this was our mistake, but we immediately reported the case to the Gangnam District Police Station in Seoul. This is a major cross-border, organized infringement, and the Korean police will definitely not ignore it."

"That's a good thing, but no one can guarantee that the source code leaked in South Korea will not be transmitted to our mainland. Now the gaming industry knows that your company Wemade and Xinya Network have torn their relationship apart, although you have renewed the agency contract for "Legend of Mir 2". However, you are hoping to compete with Xinya Network's "Legend of Mir 2" through the game "Legend 3" and grab the market share of "Legend of Mir 2"."

"The game 'Legend 3' has not yet been officially launched in the mainland, but it is already facing a situation where pirated games are everywhere. How do you want us, The9, to continue to fulfill our cooperation agreement with your company? If your company still cannot handle the crisis of the source code leakage of 'Legend 3', then in addition to unconditionally returning the deposit that our company paid to Wemade, you must also compensate The9 for our losses." The negotiation representative of The9 was somewhat aggressive.

After the people from The9 left, Park Kwan-ho and Kim Hye-jin stared at each other. Park Kwan-ho held his head in his hands and said painfully, "Legend 3 is still only being tested in the Korean domestic market. Why did the source code of Legend 3 leak right after we signed the agency contract with The9? Why was the timing so good?"

Jin Huizhen looked at Park Guanhao's painful expression and felt a little bit of pity in her heart. "Obviously, this was done intentionally by our competitors. There are only a few people who can access the source code of "Legend 3". There must be a traitor in our Wemade company."

Park Kwan-ho certainly guessed this, and this was the source of his pain. The game "Legend 3" was developed by Park Kwan-ho and the old people who left Actoz Soft with him. These people have had working friendships with him for many years. Park Kwan-ho also regarded these friends as his confidants, but who knew that among these people he trusted the most, there was actually a traitor.

Kim Hye-jin also felt sad for Park Kwan-ho. Park Kwan-ho came to the mainland market with great ambitions to make a fortune, but now he has to return to the Korean market in disgrace. This huge psychological gap is really hard for Park Kwan-ho to accept.

"President, what should we do now? According to 9City, they can indeed claim compensation from us. Although the compensation amount is not high, there is not much liquid funds in the company's account. Not only that, New Asia Network has also stopped the monthly share of the income from "Legend of Mir 2". They said that in the future, the share of the income from "Legend of Mir 2" will be changed from monthly to semi-annual, and the reason is to cooperate with the work of the mainland tax authorities." Jin Huizhen was worried.

It was really like when it rains it pours. Park Guanhao heard Kim Hyejin say, "Song Yi is a bastard. He must have heard something, so he didn't forget to add insult to injury. Damn it, I can just make the source code of "Legend of Mir 2" public, and we can all perish together!"

Jin Huizhen kindly reminded Park Guanhao, "President, Xinya Network just changed the previous point card payment model of "Legend of Mir 2" to the current prop payment model this month. Even if we disclose the source code of "Legend of Mir 2", it will not affect Xinya Network much. Moreover, "Legend of Mir 2" has already migrated most of the game players from "Legend of Mir 2" to their independently developed "Legend of Mir 2" through the first charge benefits of the game. Moreover, "Legend of Mir 2" is not developed using the Delphi language, and the encryption level is obviously higher than the previous "Legend of Mir 2". It seems that Song Yi has already prevented this."

However, the bad news brought to Park Kwan-ho during this period was far more than that. In mid-June, KTB Investment Group transferred their 5% stake in Wemade for US$6 million.

Two months ago, KTB Investment Group bought 5% of Wemade's shares for $15 million. In just two months, KTB Investment Group sold Wemade's shares for $6 million, which means that South Korea's largest venture capital institution is no longer optimistic about Wemade's development prospects. Wemade's valuation has shrunk sharply to $120 million.

KTB Investment Group's sale of Wemade shares at a bargain price naturally triggered a series of reactions. Shinhan Bank, as the biggest victim, was the biggest victim of the "Legend 3" source code leak.

Shinhan Bank previously provided Park Kwan-ho with a loan of US$60 million, using Park Kwan-ho's personal 30% stake in Wemade as collateral, and provided the copyright of "Legend 3" as additional collateral.

Now that the source code of Legend 3 has been leaked, the copyright of Legend 3 is naturally not suitable as a supplementary collateral. In order to stabilize Shinhan Bank, Park Kwan-ho had to mortgage the 40% equity he bought back from Shin-A Network to Shinhan Bank.

Shinhan Bank said that if Park Kwan-ho could not find a way to resolve the source code leak crisis of "Legend 3", Shinhan Bank would not rule out selling the 75% of Wemade shares pledged by Park Kwan-ho to a third-party financial institution to alleviate Wemade's debt crisis.

Park Kwan-ho desperately tried to find money all over Korea, but all the major financial institutions shunned him. Many employees of Wemade had already chosen to change jobs and leave, but Kim Hye-jin remained loyal to Park Kwan-ho.

He knew that Song Yi had interfered, so Wemade's financing was so difficult. He tried to ask Samsung or Lotte for help, but they were not interested in saving Park Guanhao who was in debt crisis.

On June 28, Park Kwan-ho agreed that Shinhan Bank would sell his 75% mortgaged shares in Wemade to a third-party financial institution from the mainland for US$60 million.

On June 30, the mainland's Xinya Network announced that it had bought 75% of Wemade's shares from a third-party financial institution, plus the 5% they had previously bought from KTB Investment Group. Xinya Network holds a total of 80% of Wemade's shares, and Xinya Network General Manager Li Yu announced the appointment of Jin Huizhen as the new CEO of Wemade. At this point in the story, Park Guanhao learned that all this was just a joint scheme by Song Yi, KTB Investment Group and Jin Huizhen, forcing Park Guanhao, who was in debt crisis, to give up control of Weamde. 　Li Jian's "If Love Has Destiny" is really nice, and it feels much better than the Korean version.

(End of this chapter)