ICTU 01

Chapter 1

I Got 30,000 Bitcoins Through a Used-Goods Deal (1)

Choi Hyuk looked up at the ceiling of his old one-room apartment and let out a long, deep sigh.

Perhaps because it was winter, the mold-covered wallpaper looked even more damp.

“……Seriously, how did things end up like this?”

In truth, he had done nothing wrong.

More precisely, he had done so little wrong that he felt it was unfair.

Last month, the company had laid people off under the name of restructuring.

And the very first person to be fired from his department was none other than him.

‘Manager Choi Hyuk? It was a decision from the higher-ups…….’

‘There was an opinion that his personality was…… a little problematic.’

‘Anyway, I’m sorry.’

That expression on their faces as they kicked him out while spreading some strange rumor and saying it was a decision from the higher-ups.

Even now, thinking about it made his blood boil.

Of all times, he had been fired when he was in his mid-thirties, with no marriage, no house, and no car.

His father was in the hospital, and his mother was in a nursing home.

He had no debt, but his savings were already almost gone.

In the end, all he could do was live a life similar to a part-time job, reselling things he had bought secondhand.

That day was the same.

He had clicked on a post on an online used-goods site because the words ‘business closure sale’ caught his attention.

[PC parts for sale. Several hard drives. Everything for 10,000 won.]

10,000 won.

Honestly, it was the kind of price that some people would ignore just by looking at it.

But Choi Hyuk was different.

“These things can make money.”

He was desperate enough to grab even at a straw.

The seller had said it would be a quick deal, so Choi Hyuk simply grabbed his coat and left home.

Today as well, he had to earn every single penny.

He started going around in person.

That afternoon, he headed to an old PC café building on the outskirts of Seoul to buy the items.

Since the sun had already gone down, the entire building felt strangely cold and empty.

“I heard you were selling hard drives, so I came here.”

“Ah, yes. You’re the person who said you were buying those hard drives?”

A middle-aged man who seemed to be the owner of the building pushed a dusty box toward him.

How should he put it?

The man did not look like a PC café owner at all.

He was wearing traditional Korean clothing, with a long beard.

He was even wearing a traditional hat.

“You’re the PC café owner, right?”

“Yes, for now.”

“For now?”

Something felt very uneasy.

After doing used-goods deals several times, Choi Hyuk had met all kinds of strange people.

Trying his best not to offend the man, he asked him about the post he had uploaded on the secondhand trading site.

“You said you were selling hard drives. I came to buy some.”

“Hard…… what? What is that?”

“…….”

Had he made a mistake coming here?

A deep sigh escaped Choi Hyuk’s mouth.

“No. I’ll just leave.”

It was a waste of time.

If he wanted to make enough money for a meal today, he had to hurry, buy the items, check what was inside them, and then go to his next deal.

So Choi Hyuk was about to turn around without hesitation.

That was when it happened.

“Are you talking about these?”

There were fifteen hard drives.

At first glance, they all looked like junk.

But if even one of them worked properly, he could repair it and sell it.

If he posted it on a used-goods site, he could easily get 20,000 to 30,000 won for one.

He could make quite a bit of profit from this alone.

“How much?”

“Just give me 10,000 won.”

“……Really?”

Choi Hyuk was dumbfounded by the strange price negotiation.

The man asked Choi Hyuk,

“Is that not the price you expected?”

“Ah, no. 10,000 won…… Thank you.”

Choi Hyuk handed him 10,000 won with an awkward expression.

Even so, this was a very good deal.

But the words the man said as he handed over the hard drives stayed in Choi Hyuk’s mind for quite a long time.

“Now your misfortune will end, and your happiness will begin.”

“What?”

“You were lucky. You have gained enough luck in this one used-goods deal to win the lottery ten times over.”

“I don’t really understand what you mean.”

“Just think of it as an old man talking to himself. Hoho.”

“…….”

He looked too young to call himself an old man.

Because of the man’s strange way of speaking, Choi Hyuk only wanted to get away from this place as quickly as possible.

When he returned home, he turned on his laptop and connected the first hard drive.

Click.

“It works…… That’s a relief.”

The second, third, and fourth.

Most of them were old models, but they worked.

He plugged the USB adapter into the final hard drive.

Click, clack.

It made a strange sound.

“Is it broken?”

Five seconds later.

A message suddenly appeared on the monitor.

[Please enter your password.]

“Password?”

It seemed the old external hard drive had been password-protected.

Just in case, he tried everything he could think of.

[0000]

[1234]

[1111]

[9999]

All of them failed.

“What is this?”

Then he suddenly noticed the writing on the label.

[BTC Wallet – 2012]

“What is this?”

Below the password input window, there was one suspicious file.

[wallet.dat]

His heart sank.

“Could it be…… Bitcoin?”

His head went blank.

If it was 2012, Bitcoin had been worth only a few thousand won per coin.

People who mined Bitcoin back then sometimes saved their wallet files like this.

He entered another password.

[root]

[pass]

[0001]

Failure after failure.

Then, one last time, he entered something without giving it much thought.

“Calm down. Calm down. The password must be…… Ah!”

With a hopeful feeling, he entered four numbers.

[2012]

Beep.

The wallet opened.

At that moment, the laptop screen lit up brightly, and a number appeared.

[30,048.42219 BTC]

It took him five minutes to understand what he was seeing.

After staring blankly at the monitor for a long time, he suddenly stood up and shouted.

“……30,000 Bitcoin? 30,000 coins?”

The laptop was working perfectly, and it was showing the balance exactly as it was.

He took a deep breath and slowly, very slowly, asked himself,

“……Is a number like this really possible?”

He had once seen something in the news.

Before Bitcoin became popular, there had been an American who had mined coins and stored them on a hard drive, only to later throw that hard drive away at a junkyard.

After realizing that Bitcoin had become popular, he searched every junkyard he could find.

But he ultimately failed to find it.

Choi Hyuk had heard that unbelievable story before.

He searched like a madman, linked the account, and checked the blockchain.

[Current balance of this address: 30,048.42219 BTC]

It was real.

There was even a private key, meaning that if he wanted to, he could use the Bitcoin at any time.

After staring at the screen in silence for a long time, he covered his face with both hands and collapsed to the floor.

A man who had been fired from his company.

A man who had barely been breathing in an old one-room apartment.

A man who had been going around looking for anything useful to resell.

In that man’s hands.

There was now more than 3 trillion won worth of money at the current market price.

His life was completely turned upside down at that moment.