Common Sense Can Wait, Solve the Problem First
Led by Song, I arrived at the second-floor small conference room in the production building.
Honestly, I was still mostly dazed the whole way here.
Was this really right?
Was it okay for me to get pulled into another department’s research this easily?
While I was turning those thoughts over, Song and I sat down and waited for Kang to arrive.
“You’re all tired this early in the morning, aren’t you? Here, I brought Americano. Song likes his warm, and our Baek Manager? Warm? Cold? What do you want?”
Kang, breathing a little rough from clearly having hurried over, set a coffee carrier down on the table and said that.
With an awkward smile, he kept glancing back and forth between me and Song.
“I’ll take warm. Thanks, Kang.”
“Think nothing of it. And Baek Manager?”
“Cold, please.”
“Okay. Cold it is.”
Kang came over personally, placed an iced Americano in front of me, then set the remaining warm Americano in front of himself before sitting down carefully.
Definitely... the other side was in a hurry too.
I knew the Automatic Loading Device TF was having serious trouble because the research wasn’t going properly, but it looked like the pressure on their side had already reached the point of burning through the floorboards.
As I was thinking that and taking a sip of Americano, Kang said, “Song, and Baek Manager... this is a little sudden, isn’t it?”
“Well... it is sudden, but what can we do? Your side is in a rush too.”
Song replied.
Kang gave a bitter smile and nodded.
“There are three people on the voluntary retirement list on our side. Me, and Kim Manager and Jo Assistant Manager on my team. We’ve been working on this automatic loading device for four years and seven months now.”
“...”
At Kang’s words, all I could do was smile wryly.
No matter what my own position was, I could see exactly what their team situation had to be like.
And if even Kang, the department head, was on the voluntary retirement list... then day after day must have felt like hell.
As I thought that and took another swallow of Americano, Kang continued.
“I figured I had no choice but to quit, but then those guys in Design Team 2 told me something. That Baek Manager had overturned a composite armor design that had been stalled for three years in just one day.”
“...”
“At first I thought it was a ridiculous rumor. But earlier, I was going to ask Team Leader Park for a favor, and I saw it from the railing. You bringing that five-axis machining center back to life.”
Kang swallowed hard.
“Someone like Team Leader Park has been through every kind of hardship in this company, and you solved something that would’ve broken his spirit. After I saw that, I was sure of it. Ah, if I could get help from this guy, then maybe we could solve our problem too.”
I quietly took another sip of Americano.
No matter how I felt about the situation, this was the time to wait.
It wasn’t just me and Kang here. Song was in the room too.
Had even a minute passed since that awkward silence settled over us?
Song spoke in a low voice.
“Baek Manager.”
“Yes, sir.”
“From where I’m sitting, I think helping them is the right call. Just so we’re clear, I’m not saying this because I feel sorry for Kang’s team and want you to do them a favor. As you know, this is good for you too.”
There was steel in his voice.
“Our whole business division is in crisis right now. If Kang’s team collapses here, the division itself shrinks. Even if Baek Manager gets the composite armor project over the line and proves your capabilities to the company, there still has to be a stage for you to perform on.”
“That’s true. The organization has to keep its size if the company is going to maintain the same level of resources it can pull in.”
“Exactly.”
Song nodded and went on.
“And if you help Kang’s team survive? Kang owes you a clear debt. You’d have a solid ally inside the organization. Isn’t that right?”
“Of course. If I become someone he can call on whenever he needs help, then he should be making a good impression on me right up until the day he retires.”
Depending on how you looked at it, it could be a little uncomfortable to hear.
But Kang was just looking at me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“This sounds a little funny, but if I survive, wouldn’t I be the first department head to get on Baek Manager’s line?”
“That’s a bit much.”
“I-is it?”
“I’m number one. You’re number two.”
Song said it in a teasing tone.
Only then did Kang understand, and a belated burst of laughter escaped him.
In the middle of all that, Song looked straight into my eyes and spoke in a deadly serious tone.
“Baek Manager. Someone at your level has already clearly established his standing. The exact verdict will have to wait for the results, but you’ve already put the composite armor project on the path to success, and you saved Team Leader Ma’s equipment too over the course of just a few days. But here’s the thing.”
As if his mouth had gone dry, Song wet it with a mouthful of Americano before continuing.
“Wouldn’t an engineer who saved one key project be less valuable than one who saved two? The way the people above you look at you will be completely different. You’d become a resource that can’t be replaced.”
Then Song added one word.
Super subordinate.
I felt the same way Song did.
I would be putting the period on a project that had failed to finish despite hundreds of billions of won and nearly three to five years of work.
If I moved, I would be saving tens of billions, maybe close to a hundred billion won in research funding at minimum?
The moment that became reality, it wouldn’t be me reading the company’s mood.
The company would be the one reading mine.
“The TP-C prototype will be machined today. If we want it to pass the production team’s internal inspection and then quality’s nondestructive testing, we’re looking at at least a week with no movement.”
“Yes. Rather than sitting around for that week doing nothing... it’d be better to do something, like you said, sir.”
A week’s gap.
Using that time to stack another result and strengthen my position as the “irreplaceable fixer” who crossed departmental walls was much more profitable.
I looked at Kang and said, “Understood. I’ll take a careful look at it as much as I can before our side’s prototype inspection results come out.”
“Oh, thank you. Really, thank you, Baek Manager. I won’t forget this debt, I swear!”
Kang, who had been swallowing hard and listening to the conversation with a nervous face, sprang to his feet.
Then he grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously, almost frantically.
I gave him an awkward smile.
And in the middle of it all, I could see Song looking down at us with a faint, meaningful smile on his face.
*
I followed Kang to the corner of Production Building 3, to the Automatic Loading Device TF’s lab.
The moment I stepped through the entrance, I was hit by the sharp smell of machine oil and the heavy, defeated atmosphere hanging over the people inside.
Even though it was only morning, not long after they had come in for work, there was no sign of anyone gathering in little groups to talk.
They were just sitting in their places, staring blankly down at their phones.
What’s more, the researcher standing in front of the massive loading-device prototype was sighing over and over with dead eyes, like a man half buried already.
“...It’s not in great shape, is it?”
As if he had noticed my gaze, Kang came over and said that.
When I gave an awkward smile, he called out to the people around us.
“Attention. Everyone, take a look over here for a second.”
At Kang’s voice, the researchers turned their heads with no energy at all.
Their faces were still lifeless.
“Introduce yourselves. This is Baek Gunwoo, the Baek Manager we’ve finally managed to bring in from Design Team 1. You all know the rumors about him and the composite armor project, right? He volunteered to help our project, so give him the situation report.”
Even after Kang’s introduction, the response was cold.
“...From the design team?”
Then a man who had been hammering at a laptop beside the prototype turned his head.
A sharp face, and eyes that looked hollow, as if he hadn’t slept properly in days.
But the eyes themselves were still alive, burning with a fierce light.
Kim Sunwoo, the true ace of this Automatic Loading Device TF, a manager scouted to Hanseo Defense after working for Rheinmetall, the German defense manufacturer.
“Sir. Do you honestly think this is a reasonable situation?”
Kim Manager’s voice was razor-sharp.
“The three of us have been killing ourselves to get this done, and we still can’t find a solution, so we’re already at the point of packing our bags. And now you want the guy who was working on composite armor to come in and do what, exactly?”
“Hey, Kim Manager. Baek Manager isn’t some ordinary manager. You’ve heard the rumors too, haven’t you?”
“Rumors are rumors, sir. You need to face reality.”
Kim Manager snapped the laptop shut irritably.
“We didn’t fail because we lack skill, sir. The project was finished the moment the company cut the budget and forced us to use low-grade parts. Even if Rheinmetall’s chief engineer came here, he couldn’t fix this state of affairs.”
Bitterness and frustration clung to his words.
It wasn’t that he lacked technical skill. It was that the company environment had failed to support him, and he was being punished for it.
Assistant Manager Jo, who was standing beside him, looked helplessly from him to me and back again.
“M-manager... even so, he’s our guest...”
“What use is manners when the whole thing is already over?”
“What, you punk?”
Just as Kang’s face reddened and he was about to shout something, I gently stopped him.
“It’s fine, sir. We can’t start with a fight before we’ve even begun. Let me take a look.”
“Ha... all right, fine. I’ve got no face to show you, Baek Manager. Sorry.”
“Think nothing of it, sir.”
The man had practically just said he’d follow my line from now on.
This much I could laugh off.
With that thought, I walked toward the equipment.
“...Hmm.”
The machine filled my field of vision the moment I got close.
A bustle-type automatic loading device.
A robotic-arm mechanism that took shells out of the ammunition rack behind a tank turret and shoved them into the chamber.
The pure essence of precision machinery, built from thousands of interlocking parts.
I looked toward Kang and said, “Could you run it for me once?”
“Huh? Oh, sure. Operator! Start it up!”
Whirrrr-!
The motor spun, and the robotic arm began to move.
Clack, clunk.
The moment the automatic loading device began its sequence of gripping the round, moving it, and stopping, the first thing that caught my eye was the servo motor, the heart of the machine.
A stable current, precise control signals.
Wrapped around the motor housing was a calm, faint blue light.
When the control signal ordered a stop, the motor halted instantly, like a blade snapping to a perfect line, and the blue light settled quietly.
The motor was normal. It was innocent.
The problem was the reducer, which came next and was supposed to receive and transmit the force.
I could see the reducer’s issue clearly.
The motor-side gear had stopped, but the output shaft gear meshed with it was unable to overcome inertia and was slicing through empty space.
The empty gap between loose teeth.
Through that gap, the chunk of metal that had slipped across was slamming straight into the teeth of the opposite gear.
In that narrow gear gap where the impact occurred, a deep red haze was bursting up as if it were screaming.
...Was this it?
Unlike the motor, which had gone cool and blue, the gears inside the reducer were grinding each other down and letting out red screams every time they stopped.
As long as that empty gap remained, no matter how good the control was, the machine would keep shaking.
“The reducer is the problem.”
The moment I spoke, Kim Manager’s brows twitched.
“You used a domestic product. A relatively cheap one.”
At my words, Kim Manager’s expression hardened.
“...You looked at the drawings?”
“No. I could see it from the rattling. I heard you were developing this based on German equipment, but the backlash is too large. Was the budget cut, and the parts that were supposed to be made in Germany replaced with low-cost domestic ones?”
Kim Manager’s eyes shook.
I had struck the nail directly on the head.
“That’s right. The backlash is about three times larger than the original design. I tried everything I could to compensate with control, but...”
He bit his lip.
“It’s a physical limit. It’s like asking someone to run a hundred meters in slippers. How is that supposed to be possible?”
Kim Manager’s despair was justified.
The most miserable moment for an engineer is not when you lack ability, but when you have to blame the tools.
I stared again at the gap in the gear, still rippling red.
The problem was that blackish-red empty space, where the gears kept slicing through nothing every time they stopped.
The gears couldn’t bite down fully on each other, so they were dancing around instead.
I couldn’t replace the parts right now.
Nor could I eliminate the empty space itself.
Then...
If it was shaking because of the gap, wouldn’t it be enough not to let the gap have room to open?
The principle of mechanical engineering was simple.
Backlash meant there was still space left for the gears to move freely.
That freedom was what created vibration.
So.
Couldn’t I just take that freedom away by force?
What do you do when a loose doorknob rattles?
If you hold the handle tight to one side, it stops shaking.
The machine was no different.
If you pulled hard from behind on something trying to move forward, the gear teeth would have no choice but to stay pressed tightly against one wall.
Right.
All I had to do was keep the tension.
Efficiency would be ruined, but the vibration would disappear completely.
The conclusion was set.
In a voice full of conviction, I said, “If you can’t take off the slippers, then glue them to the soles of your feet.”
“Pardon?”
I looked at Kim Manager and said, “Apply back pressure. Pull it from behind with hydraulics.”
For a moment, Kim Manager’s expression went blank.
Kang, standing beside him, blinked and jumped in.
“Back pressure? Wait, Baek Manager. You want to pull a machine trying to move forward with hydraulics from behind? That means... you’re telling us to step on the accelerator while holding the brake down, doesn’t it? How does that make sense?”
The moment Kang finished, Kim Manager shot back, “He’s right. It doesn’t make sense. That would double the load on the motor. It would generate heat, reduce efficiency, and chew through the motor’s lifespan. It’s basically suicide.”
Kim Manager’s face flushed red.
It went against every bit of common sense and every textbook principle an engineer learns.
But at this moment, that didn’t matter at all.
With that certainty in my chest, I said, “Kim Manager. Are we doing a durability test right now, or a performance test?”
“Huh...?”
“What we need to show the higher-ups isn’t a machine that lasts forever. It’s a machine that moves accurately right now. If you’re wearing shoes that are too loose, you stuff the inside with socks and make them fit tight.”
At that, Kim Manager’s mouth fell open.
“W-well, that’s true, but...”
His eyes were wavering.
Efficiency, proper method, durability.
In his head, the engineer’s common sense he probably treated like holy writ was being shattered piece by piece.
If backlash made it rattle, then it was enough to artificially force it shut and remove the slack.
It was the very height of inefficiency, but weapons were like that from the start.
If they couldn’t function properly, your allies died.
Defense equipment was the kind of gear that mattered most not when it was ideal, but when it could at least keep working in the moment it broke.
“This is... honestly a crazy idea, but...”
Kim Manager muttered.
“Like Baek Manager said, theoretically... the vibration will disappear. Because tension will be applied.”
Kang was looking at me with a blank expression too.
“Huh... come to think of it, yeah. It’s only a prototype, so it doesn’t have to be perfect, right? We’re not shipping it today. We just have to show the higher-ups that it’s possible, then tell them there’s potential here and ask them to give us more budget...”
Kang slapped his own forehead.
“Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Because it’s nonsense.”
Kim Manager let out a laugh soaked in self-mockery.
“It’s the kind of inefficiency an engineer should never, ever consider... so I never even thought about it.”
Of course.
In fact, if I hadn’t gained this ability, I probably wouldn’t have been all that different from Kim Manager or Kang.
I used to be exactly the same.
With that thought, I held out my hand to Kim Manager.
“Put common sense aside for now and bring me the hydraulic circuit diagram. Let’s add one valve and choke this machine’s breath a little. We need to solve the problem first.”