Power (1)
The CEO’s office at JH Research.
I stared at my smartphone and let out a gasp before I could stop myself.
Mushroom clouds were billowing upward.
“Whoa, holy crap! That’s a full-on nuclear bomb.”
Among the weapons I had sent into the Nano World were arrows crafted by the staff at the Block Workshop, plus glass marbles I’d picked up at a stationery store. Every last one of them was pure toy-level junk on this side, yet in the Nano World they had become weapons of mass destruction. The way the Kongal-tan detonated, especially, was just staggering.
“Does this mean we won?”
No—this much firepower meant we had won for certain.
I had poured serious effort into the preparations, throwing money around at the Block Workshop to rush the builds out the door. Even so, the unease never fully left me. Their forces outnumbered ours ten to one. Sure, we had a knight commander on our side, but they had more. The actual fighting had to be done by Illys; all I could do was watch the smartphone.
Still, I was glad we had come out on top.
Ziiing.
The phone rang. Of course it was Illys. I hit the answer button.
“Constellation… we won… *sniff*…”
“You did well. I believed you would pull through.”
I kept my voice casual, but the truth was I had been wound tight right up until a moment ago.
“So the territory war is finished now?”
“*Sniff*… Yes. The territory war is over. The official from the capital will report the result, and then it’s finished on paper as well.”
“Oh, and looking down from above I spotted some remnants of their forces clustered on the northeastern wall.”
“Understood. I’ll dispatch the knight commander. The victory conditions for the territory war have already been met, so they won’t put up a fight.”
The victory condition: elimination of the opposing lord. That explained why Illys was crying like this. Even with my help, it had still been ten-to-one odds—kill or be killed. Who wouldn’t freeze up in a situation like that?
“So the Duke is dead. What happens to his territory?”
“In principle it becomes ours. There will be political pushback from now on, of course, but nothing we can’t handle.”
“A small domain swallowing a large one… you’re sure that’s all right?”
“Yes. We won the war. The capital is probably in quite a panic right now. Plenty of people were certain the Duke would crush us.”
As expected. There might be people throwing up roadblocks left and right, but in the end it always came down to power.
“Absorbing the duchy should mean a huge jump in troops and population, right?”
“Yes. At least ten times what we have now, I expect.”
“Don’t worry about food.”
“Thank you. With this, I should be able to carry out far more of the tasks you assign me, Constellation.”
A duchy. The picture of a tiny domain devouring a massive one. Illys would handle it well enough, but friction was almost guaranteed.
“For starters, dump food on them. You said everyone’s starving, right? Feed them first and the people’s hearts will follow.”
“Thank you. None of this would be possible without your patronage, Constellation. Once I enter the duchy I will pave it end to end as a semiconductor fabrication site.”
“Haha. Now that is music to my ears. Ah—Illys.”
“Yes?”
“I built you those walls for this war. From above they looked impressive, but how were they actually in use?”
I was curious about her real opinion of the block fortifications.
“They were astonishing. Beautiful and sturdy. And with offensive functions built in, they left nothing to be desired.”
“That good, huh? Then how about adding the same kind of fortifications to the duchy as well?”
“Ah—thank you. With those, no enemy would frighten me.”
Something seemed to spark behind Illys’s shining eyes.
“Constellation! Shall we actively gather more population?”
“Hm? Why?”
“Because we seem short-handed for the work you assign. If we spread word while distributing food, refugees should flood in. The population will grow naturally. And after this war, most territories won’t dare touch us.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. But—”
At the word “but,” Illys tilted her head.
“There’s no need to push yourself. Your safety comes first, Illys.”
She had just finished a war; I had no desire to force her into overreach.
“Constellation.”
“Yes?”
Her face in the call window sharpened into focus. Tears still clung to her eyes as she looked straight at me.
“Thank you.”
When she poured that much sincerity into such an unblinking stare, it got a little embarrassing.
“Ahem. You’ve still got cleanup to do. You’re busy—go take care of things.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Feeling suddenly awkward, I hastily ended the call with the Nano World. Even alone in the office I felt weirdly self-conscious, so I dialed the Block Workshop instead.
“Block Workshop, how may I help you?”
“This is JH. The guy who commissioned the block builds last time—the one who came in the wheelchair.”
“Ah, the president! Hello! What can we do for you?”
“The one you made a few days ago was a count’s castle, right? This time I want to scale it up and commission a duke’s castle. Can you take the job?”
“Absolutely! Should we bring in that same guy from last time?”
“The golden-handed YouTuber?”
“Yes.”
“Of course—he’s more than welcome.”
Skilled craftsmen were always welcome.
“Last time you had to rush. This time we’ve got breathing room. Think you could produce about ten times the previous volume? Three weeks should be plenty, right?”
“Perfect. That means we can prepare everything with even finer detail.”
Having worked with them once already, I trusted them. I finished placing the order for the duke’s castle and pressed the secretary intercom.
Secretary Hwang’s voice came through.
“Yes, sir.”
“The critical work is finished. You may come in now.”
The war in the Nano World had been a major event that demanded my full attention. I had locked the office door and watched every second of it alone.
“Director Jang asked to be notified once your critical work was complete. Shall I pass the message?”
“Yes.”
Knock knock.
A moment later came the knock.
“Come in.”
“Have you finished the important matter?”
I nodded and offered a light smile.
“Yes. It went very well.”
Relief washed over Director Jang’s face at my words.
“Whew. That’s good to hear.”
He had no idea what I had been doing, only that the company president had locked himself in for three straight days. Hearing that everything had ended successfully clearly eased his mind.
“Director. Aren’t you even a little curious what I was doing behind that locked door?”
His eyes went round.
“Not curious at all.”
“Come on. You are curious.”
“Not in the slightest.”
If I were in his shoes I would have been dying to know. Honestly, I was a president with far too many secrets. Who designed the LPU, where the Blue Tower HBM was manufactured, why and where the broken LPU units were taken—I never explained any of it. Ordinary people might shrug it off as corporate confidentiality, but Director Jang worked right beside me. It would have been impossible for him not to find it strange.
“Mr. President.”
“Yes?”
“I’m a former lawyer, if you recall.”
“That’s right.”
“The law is a line drawn between people.”
“A line?”
“This far is allowed; beyond this is not. A lawyer’s job is to explain those invisible lines that people have agreed upon.”
“Hmm. I see.”
“Which means I am exceptionally good at respecting a line.”
“Heh. Is that so?”
“Absolutely. Your secrets, Mr. President, are a very clear line. The Chinese tried to cross it and got themselves arrested. If I crossed it, Black’s team would pick me up before I got very far.”
“Oh, come on.”
“I’m serious. Rumor has it Black used to run the underground facilities under Namsan. Whatever you’re handling is on the level of the LPU and Blue Tower—state-level secrets. I’m a humanities major; even if I looked I wouldn’t understand, and I have no reason to poke at secrets of that magnitude.”
I was left speechless.
“State-level secrets?”
“Of course. Didn’t you see the Minister of Science and Technology trembling last time? You, Mr. President, are a walking state secret.”
“Haha. All right, all right.”
I was a state secret? Well, if Director Jang was determined to protect my privacy like this, I could only be grateful.
“I’ve neglected company business for a few days. Let’s hold an all-hands meeting.”
“The staff have been waiting for exactly that. I’ll call the meeting.”
A short while later, in the conference room.
After several days I sat down with the employees again. The sales team leader began the reports first.
“Mr. President. We’ve compiled OpenAI’s requirements.”
He looked proud. Scanning the faces around the table, I saw that everyone seemed in high spirits. Someone had once told me not to try handling everything in secret and to take care of the staff’s sense of pride as well. I hadn’t fully related to the advice, but once I started handing out major projects the atmosphere had improved noticeably. And by now I was genuinely too busy to do everything myself. It made sense: I would manage the Nano World while the employees handled the real world.
The sales team leader opened his notebook and continued.
“OpenAI wants fifty thousand LPU chips. Purpose: next-generation AI training servers for a massive data center. Offered price is forty thousand dollars per unit, for a total of two billion dollars. Additional condition: the first ten thousand units need accelerated delivery.”
Two billion dollars—roughly three trillion won in our currency. Even while presenting, his voice carried clear excitement. In other words, we had just received a three-trillion-won order. Seeing the figure laid out like that made the scale feel real.
“Next is me.”
Manager Han, who had handled the Amazon negotiations, rose from his seat. Tension and thrill mixed in his voice.
“Result of talks with Amazon: they requested three hundred thousand LPU chips. Purpose: cloud-server optimization, especially for video streaming and e-commerce traffic distribution. Unit price is…”
He paused for effect.
“Fifty thousand dollars each.”
Oh-ho. Amazon had bid higher than OpenAI.
“Total contract value: fifteen billion dollars. However, they want a long-term agreement for continuous supply over ten years.”
A murmur swept through the conference room. Fifteen billion dollars was well over two hundred trillion won. A ten-year mega-deal. All we had to do was produce and the money would roll in. I could almost see the pride swelling in the shoulders of the people presenting.
Next, Assistant Manager Choi stood.
“We received contact from Future Motors. They want LPU chips dedicated to autonomous-driving AI. Price: ten thousand dollars per unit, total seven hundred million dollars. But it isn’t a simple purchase—they proposed jointly establishing a next-generation automotive semiconductor research lab with us.”
In short, Future Motors wanted to go into business together.
All eyes then drifted naturally toward the intern. She bit her lip and rose slowly from her chair.
“I-I will report on the call with the Vice President of the United States.”
Her voice trembled, but her eyes were serious. Silently I cheered her on.
“The United States is demanding construction of a factory on American soil to secure a stable LPU supply. They offer subsidies of up to ten billion dollars if the factory is built. The condition, however, was crystal clear: the plant must be erected on American land.”
Build a factory in the United States? That made no sense to me. I folded my arms and looked around at the staff.
“Why do you think the U.S. Vice President wants us to build a factory?”
“It does seem odd. We’re a fabless company. Hard to understand why.”
It was the obvious reaction, yet also a bizarre demand. We had no factories of our own. The LPU was manufactured at TSMC in Taiwan. Illys designed it, produced the masks, and handed them to the Taiwanese fab for production. The Vice President of the United States surely knew that. Something felt off.
Knock knock.
A knock sounded and Secretary Hwang entered.
“Mr. President.”
“Yes?”
“Mr. Joke is requesting a direct call. This is already his fifth attempt.”
“Joke from the Ice-Bucket Challenge?”
“Yes. He insists on speaking with you.”
Joke was American, head of one of the top one or two big-tech companies in the United States. If anyone would understand the Vice President’s intentions, it was him.
“Hello?”
A familiar, joking voice came through the line.
“Oh, Jiho! Please take my money. Please. Can you just give me some LPUs?”
I let out a dry laugh.
“The quantity just isn’t there. We’ve barely cleared twenty thousand units, and the calls keep pouring in from every direction.”
“Then take my bank account.”
“Haha. I’ll keep you in mind, Joke. But I’ve got a question. The U.S. Vice President contacted us and wants a factory built in America. What is that about? I don’t even have a factory in Korea.”
A deep sigh traveled through the receiver.
“Haa… He’s at it again. He pulled that on you too?”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“The Vice President is an isolationist.”
An isolationist?
I leaned in and listened carefully as Joke began to explain.