Joseon’s Area 51 (4)
As Choi Hyeong-do vanished outside the warehouse, kicking up a cloud of dust, a chill silence once again settled over the noisy courtyard. Yi Si-woo stared for a moment at the spot where he had stood, then shifted his gaze to sweep over the dim interior of the warehouse. While the former Left Counselor—now Slave No. 1—mobilized his Hanyang connections to scrape together materials, the Gigi-cheong had to prepare the vessel to receive them. It was the massive power source to restart Joseon's stalled clock: the waterway project that would open the Han River's lifeline at its heart.
Exactly seven days had passed since Choi Hyeong-do's departure. In that time, Si-woo hadn't rested for a single moment, analyzing the bedrock floor and meticulously refining ten strike points.
"Man-seok."
"Yes, my lord. Standing by."
"Order the laborers. Have them drill exactly one jang—about three meters—deep at the ten points I've marked. They'll need to use the steel chisels we forged yesterday instead of wedges and hammers. The rock down there has been scoured by river winds; ordinary iron won't even scratch it."
At Si-woo's command, Man-seok drove the laborers to work. The damp, moldy scent of the riverbank soon gave way to the shrill screams of metal biting into stone and the acrid sting of rock dust in their nostrils. Amid the chaos, Yak-yong unflinchingly cross-checked measurements against the blueprint Si-woo had handed him.
"Si-woo, this placement of the Thundernails you've designed is truly ingenious. Normally, you'd cluster gunpowder to maximize force, but why space them out so finely? I'm worried the power might scatter and barely graze the surface."
Si-woo knelt on the floor and sketched wave patterns with charcoal in response to Yak-yong's question.
"Yak-yong, just as overlapping sounds amplify each other, so do the vibrations from gunpowder. But if you offset their peaks and troughs to interlock, they cancel each other out. These ten points I've calculated are designed so the explosion's shockwaves bypass the warehouse pillars and strike straight down into the bedrock below—right at its vital spots."
Yak-yong traced the curve of the waves Si-woo had drawn with a careful finger.
"Using vibration to suppress vibration... Taming brute explosive force to focus solely on shattering rock. I can never guess what world exists inside that head of yours."
As the two conversed, the drilling wrapped up. The laborers wiped sweat from their brows and carefully received the metal cylinders—Thundernails—that Si-woo pulled from a crate. Each one, as thick as a grown man's forearm, contained high-purity black powder that Si-woo had refined since Onseong, plus a copper funnel to direct the blast force downward. Unlike ordinary powder that scattered power everywhere, this was the birth of a piercing explosive chisel aimed solely below.
"Insert one into each hole. I'll connect the fuses myself, so if you so much as touch them wrong, assume today is your funeral."
At Si-woo's warning, the laborers gulped dryly and embedded the Thundernails. They didn't know exactly what they were, but the primal pressure in Si-woo's eyes as he handled them said enough.
Once all the Thundernails were set into the ground and Si-woo and Yak-yong had arranged the tangled copper fuses at precise intervals, the air inside the warehouse grew heavy, like the eve of a storm.
"My lord, preparations complete! All laborers have withdrawn!"
Man-seok's booming shout rang out, and Si-woo pulled a pocket watch from his belt. Tick, tock. The precise metallic clicks synced with his heartbeat.
"Man-seok, take the laborers and fall back a hundred paces outside the warehouse. Tell them to huddle behind the wall, plug their ears, and open their mouths. Unless they want their guts twisted by the earth's rumble and spend life bedridden."
The laborers fled the warehouse like startled rabbits before Si-woo even finished. Inside the empty space remained only Si-woo, Yak-yong, and the ten Thundernails slumbering underground.
"Yak-yong, you go too. I'll handle it from here."
"No—should I miss this historic moment, hearing it only as distant noise? I want to see this miracle of gewu with my own eyes. Whether those vibrations you've calculated truly split solid bedrock."
Si-woo flashed a brief smile at Yak-yong's stubbornness and gripped the fuse.
"Then hug the pillar tight. His Highness wouldn't want your precious head dusted with rock powder, nor would I."
Si-woo struck the fuse. Sssst—! A red spark snaked along the copper lines, sucked into the dark holes.
Si-woo fixed his eyes on the watch's second hand. 3, 2, 1.
In that instant, the warehouse floor writhed like a living beast. A chilling vibration rose from the earth's depths.
——Boom-boom-boom-BOOM!
It was a heavy, precise chain of shocks, like a giant beneath the ground pounding war drums in relentless rhythm. Outside, the laborers huddled with ears plugged felt their bodies lift as eerie waves rippled through the earth.
A normal blast would have ruptured eardrums with thunder and blown the roof sky-high. But Si-woo's Thundernails were different. The ten flashes detonated at split-second intervals, their waves' peaks and troughs interlocking as designed, devouring each other's sound. The terrifying destructive energy didn't scatter outward but bent straight down, stabbing sharply into the earth's vitals.
"The earth... the earth itself is screaming! How can a few lumps of powder unleash such monstrous power?!"
Yak-yong, sheltered behind the pillar, gaped wide-eyed. He felt the tremor start at his feet, lightning-fast along the bedrock's grain, plunging deep underground. The precise curves Si-woo had sketched in charcoal were now pulverizing millennia-hardened rock beneath their feet into dust.
It borrowed gunpowder's might but tamed its violence into a refined chisel. Breath held, Jeong Yak-yong witnessed the awe-inspiring sight.
Si-woo was first to step into the warehouse thick with falling dust like snow. At the center, where the ten Thundernails had been embedded, yawned a massive, smooth hole three cheok across. And from that pitch-black abyss came a satisfying rumble.
Groooar—!
"Water... the water's bursting through! My lord, it's rising!"
Man-seok cheered, rushing to the hole. A fierce gust laden with the Han River's cold moisture spiraled upward like a whirlwind. Right above the pulse where the river's torrent hid beneath the bedrock—Si-woo had shattered the earth's seal with Thundernails, forcibly drawing the dormant water pressure into the warehouse.
Soon, the river water erupted through, shooting like a fountain and flooding the pre-cleared underground channel with raging waves. The parched warehouse basement thrummed with the Han River's vital force.
"Truly... you split this deep bedrock in one precise blast, without a single misfire?"
Yak-yong staggered forward, knelt by the hole, and cupped the surging cold current, staring blankly. His calculated figures, once theoretical, had become reality, harnessing nature's might within these narrow walls. He rejoiced.
Si-woo, ignoring Yak-yong's joy, impassively watched the gushing flow and snapped his pocket watch shut. Flow rate, pressure, channel bend angle—everything matched his Onseong exile simulations under oil lamps, not a fraction off.
"This is just the beginning, Yak-yong. This wild waterway will turn the heart of the Joseon we'll build. The first beat to change people's lives with the power of nature, not human muscle."
At that moment, creaking wagons rolled into the courtyard beyond the main gate. It was Choi Hyeong-do, back in a week after shaking down Hanyang's power brokers for materials. Midway through dismounting, caked in dust, he froze at the earthquake-like rumble and water roar from the Gigi-cheong, then bolted inside. In his hands: the high-purity copper ingots and precious refined iron Si-woo had ordered.
But his gaze locked, transfixed, on the massive hole at the warehouse center and the fountain surging from it.
"Left Counselor, you're back sooner than expected."
Si-woo slowly turned, facing into the misty river wind.
"As you see, the waterway's open perfectly. With the parts you've brought, our first power source to light Joseon's nights will be complete. What are you waiting for? Don't tell me a fifth-grade Left Counselor's dignity is too precious for porter duty?"
Choi Hyeong-do nearly dropped the copper in a daze. This overwhelming manifestation of power defied all scriptures and rites he'd studied his life.
Is that bastard even human? Unless he's a ghost, how could he so easily seize the earth's pulse!
He gulped unwittingly and gingerly set the materials down before Si-woo.
"Left Counselor, stop standing there slack-jawed and fetch tools. We've seized the waterway; now we turn this flow into power."
Si-woo's eyes lingered beyond the surging torrent, on the empty space awaiting the massive waterwheel.