The Tofu Kimchi Summit
The CEO's office at JH Research.
Click. Click.
I was logged into the data center from my office computer.
"Compute speed is one, ten, a hundred, a thousand… one hundred exaflops?"
An astonishing figure.
"Ten quadrillion operations per second?"
No—one thousand exaflops. That meant a hundred quadrillion calculations every second.
"How fast is that, exactly?"
Honestly, I couldn't even wrap my head around it.
"And the storage capacity… one thousand exabytes."
In other words, a thousand quadrillion bytes.
"That's absurdly huge too. At this point… you could dump basically anything in there and it'd still fit."
According to Dr. Han, roughly a thousand data centers like ours would be enough to hold every scrap of information currently on the internet. Which meant ours alone could store about one-thousandth of all existing online data.
One-thousandth.
"Still a long way to go, huh?"
Well—we'd only just opened the place.
Other companies had already built thousands of data centers scattered across the globe. If we put up a thousand of our own, we could store all of humanity's data. Of course, new data never stopped being produced, so we'd need even more than that eventually.
Data had evolved from text to photos, then from photos to video. And AI would start using cameras like eyes, memorizing the world itself. Storage demand was only going to climb.
Knock, knock.
Someone was at the office door.
"Come in."
The door opened carefully, and Manager Jang stepped inside.
"Sir."
"Yes?"
"We've been contacted by the Osung Group."
"What do they want?"
"Their chairman wants to meet you in person."
"The group chairman—not the electronics president?"
"Yes."
I couldn't help smiling.
"He says he wants a constructive partnership going forward. And the president of Osung Electronics… has been demoted."
"Demoted?"
"Yes. Transferred elsewhere. Moving from president of the electronics division to some other post is effectively a disciplinary action."
"So they punished him internally and now they're signaling they want to make peace?"
"That would be my read."
I sat with the thought for a moment. A meeting with Osung's chairman could turn into a very useful negotiation.
"Hmm… what's your take, Manager Jang?"
"We'll need to keep buying Osung's DRAM, and there's plenty of packaging work to farm out as well. Rather than keep fighting, if it's profitable to reconcile, I think we should."
I smiled.
"Fight when you fight, make peace when you make peace… is that it?"
"In business, there are no permanent enemies or permanent friends—only interests. We're going to be buying a lot of product from Osung. They've extended a hand. There's no good reason to slap it away."
I nodded.
"Fair enough. But if we meet, what do you think they'll actually say?"
"Simply put—they've already sacked the president, so they'll ask us to keep buying DRAM and keep the packaging contracts. Let's get along from now on… something in that vein."
I gathered my thoughts, then spoke.
"All right. Let's meet. But set a condition. Tell them I'm inviting High Electronics to the same table."
Manager Jang's eyes went wide.
"Pardon? High Electronics?"
"Yes. We need DRAM either way. And Osung isn't the only company that makes it."
A subtle smile flickered across Manager Jang's face.
"You're going to play them against each other."
"Exactly. Osung knows they messed up, so they won't be able to push hard. High Electronics has been sitting on the sidelines grinning while we and Osung tore into each other—they'll show up out of curiosity alone, won't they?"
"Of course they will."
Twang, da-dang, twang-dang.
The soft notes of a geomungo drifted through a high-end Korean restaurant. Gentle lighting washed over the makgeolli glasses on the table.
Only three people were in the room.
Chairman Oh of the Osung Group. Chairman Hong of the High Group. And me.
"Hong. It's been a while."
"Heh heh heh. You been well, Oh?"
Both men were well past sixty, yet they looked far younger than their years. Chairman Oh wore a black suit with his hair combed neatly back. Broad shoulders, thick fingers—he carried the kind of presence that came with running Korea's largest conglomerate.
Across from him sat Chairman Hong of the High Group: silver hair, a smile already playing on his face. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the occasion.
"This place is excellent."
It was Hong who had recommended the restaurant. They served makgeolli and tofu kimchi.
Hong picked up a piece of tofu.
"Have some while it's hot. That's when it tastes best."
At his urging, I took a bite myself.
Hmm. Delicious.
I should give some to Illys.
Why hadn't I thought of tofu before? Plant-based protein, healthy—perfect food to show the people of the Nano World. Even in the middle of a critical meeting, one good bite and my mind went straight to the microscopic kingdom.
Chairman Oh turned to Hong.
"High must be feeling good."
"About what?"
"What else? Getting the Mvidia supply deal approved."
Shipping HBM to Mvidia. Together, Osung and High Electronics produced sixty percent of the world's DRAM. Stack that DRAM vertically and you got HBM. America's Mvidia had rejected Osung's HBM and accepted High's—leaving Osung, the perennial number one, thoroughly humiliated.
"Still just a supplier, when you get down to it."
"But at least High got a foot in the Triangle."
The "Triangle" meant Mvidia—Big Tech—AI. Mvidia made semiconductors and sold them to Big Tech firms like Amazo and Micro. Those companies used the chips to build data centers, which AI outfits like OpenAI then ran on. And Mvidia turned around and invested the profits from chip sales right back into OpenAI.
Money flowed from OpenAI to Big Tech, Big Tech to Mvidia, Mvidia to OpenAI—circling endlessly in a triangle.
"How much do they plan to make spinning that Triangle, I wonder."
"Watching America run that semiconductor carousel does make you jealous."
"High at least got a foot in. We couldn't even get that far."
"It's still just a side role."
"Hell, I'd take a side role at this point."
"Just drink your makgeolli."
At Oh's sigh, Hong glanced sideways at me.
"You tried to kick over a honey pot this solid, Oh, and you still want more? Far as I can tell, your instincts are dead."
"Ahem. My instincts are dead? They're still very much alive."
Chairman Oh insisted on the vitality of his gut sense and looked straight at me.
"I apologize for what happened."
A direct apology from Chairman Oh. A direct apology. Maybe his instincts really were still kicking.
I smiled.
"Apology accepted."
Beside us, Hong took a sip of makgeolli and needled him.
"An apology with nothing attached?"
Oh continued.
"We'll supply JH with DRAM at cost for one year."
Hong chimed in from the side.
"Pfft… that's it?"
Oh glared at him. Hong was completely unfazed. He turned to me.
"So where does JH intend to stand in the Triangle? Semiconductor production? Data centers? AI?"
Osung and High each occupied a piece of the semiconductor production slot. I was already manufacturing chips and running a data center—and I planned to take a crack at AI as well.
"JH intends to do all of it."
"Ha! I knew it."
Hong's face lit up with a bright smile.
"You'll keep buying DRAM and stacking it into HBM going forward, yes? God, the tech is artistry. Honestly, I can't even begin to guess how you do it. If Osung is offering at cost, we'll take half the market price."
I blinked.
"Half? You'll lose money."
"In return, when you grant usage rights for the data center and AI to other companies, give us first consideration. From where I'm sitting, getting a foot in with JH looks like the smarter play."
Hong grinned. Oh scowled.
"Today is my day to apologize to JH. Why are you butting in?"
"Dead instincts should sit this one out. Apologizing and offering cost price? Cost price?"
Oh spoke.
"Fine. We'll supply at a quarter of market price for six months."
A quarter of market price? That was genuinely aggressive. An apology with real teeth.
Hong, however, showed no sign of backing down.
"Oh-ho. A staring contest, is it? How about we each write a supply price on paper and flip them?"
He wanted to settle JH's DRAM price on the spot. Hong pulled two napkins from the table and handed one to Oh.
Oh snorted at the napkin.
"What is this nonsense? Just say it. A quarter."
Hong answered without missing a beat.
"Then I go with an eighth."
Oh glared at him again.
"A sixteenth."
"A thirty-second."
Oh put on an expression of pure disbelief, half-feigning anger.
"Why don't you just hand over the chairman's seat while you're at it?"
Why were these two like this?
"Gentlemen, please."
When I stepped in, Oh cleared his throat.
"Ahem! As a gesture of apology, we'll supply DRAM at a quarter of market price for one full year."
"Heh heh heh. Should've said that from the start. Then I'll supply at half market price for a year. How's that?"
"Why only half for you?"
"I want a foot in the door too. And I didn't come here to apologize, so I can charge more than you, can't I?"
"Ahem."
The tofu-kimchi summit with two conglomerate chairmen. Half price. A quarter price. We'd locked in DRAM at an absurd discount.
I took another bite of tofu kimchi.
Mmm. Delicious.
Two days later.
DRAM boxes arrived from Osung and High at the same time. Combined, they numbered forty thousand units—but each chip was so small that the total volume wasn't much. Just two truckloads.
I planned to move them into the CEO's private cleanroom and send them to the Nano World whenever I had a free moment.
In the cleanroom prep area, I pointed finger-guns at the DRAM laid out on the table.
Bang.
Sponsorship function has been used.
Whoosh.
The DRAM on the table vanished. After the sponsorship transfer, I returned to my office and called Illys.
"Illys."
"Yes, my Constellation."
"I just sent two kinds of DRAM. Compare them for me."
"Understood. I'll check them right away."
I asked Illys to evaluate and critique the DRAM I'd just sent—Osung's and High Electronics'.
"My Constellation, I'll analyze them with the craftsmen."
"Thank you."
Illys summoned the dwarf Ralph and others to compare the semiconductors from Osung and High. A mage and a dwarf putting them under scrutiny—no matter how world-class those companies were, dodging that kind of review would be hard.
Illys spoke first from the magical angle.
"There's no dramatic difference between the two chips. Comparatively, though, Osung's has superior mana conductivity. The mana—that is, the current—flows well, but the accumulation rate is slightly unstable. The interlayer thickness is thin, so if mana builds past a certain threshold, the structure will start to waver."
"And High's?"
"The opposite… the mana flow is slower, but deeper. Accumulation rate is high and stable. The substrate's mana grain is thick, so it won't rattle under external interference."
"So in the end, one chose speed and the other chose stability?"
"Yes. That's a fair way to put it."
Beside Illys, Ralph was getting ready. On the large display, his thick thatch of hair filled the frame. Being a dwarf, the muscle and the fur both stood out even more. Ralph tapped the wall of a semiconductor with his hammer.
Tong. Tong.
A thin vibration ran along the metal surface.
"My Constellation. This one's well lightened, but they sacrificed rigidity. And the finishing work looks shoddy in places."
"This other one—thick walls, deeply cut wiring, insulation cores sunk in all over. Heavy. Solid. But some sections are stacked thicker than they need to be."
"So for building HBM, which one looks better?"
Illys and Ralph thought for a moment, then offered a proposal.
"You're going to stack the DRAM upward either way, aren't you? It would be best to alternate the two kinds—one layer of each, crossed."
Alternating Osung and High DRAM?
"Really?"
"Yes. That way we can take both the speed and the stability."
"Interesting."
Have White Dragon Tech stack Osung and High DRAM in alternating order, then turn those fake HBMs into the real thing inside the Nano World. That could work.
"All right. Let's do it that way. How are the territory's people, by the way? Managing the work okay?"
Illys answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Of course. Everyone is extremely satisfied. When we first told them to work in three shifts, they were all quite flustered."
"Why?"
"When they heard 'three shifts,' they assumed it meant their original labor, semiconductor work, and sleep—three shifts of that. What we actually ordered was work, rest, and sleep. The people of the territory have never lived a day so full and so peaceful."
Their original labor… farming, probably. So they'd thought the cycle would be farming, chip work, then bed. Life must have been hard for them before this.
"How many of the territory's people are working?"
"About fifty thousand."
"That's basically everyone in the territory who can work, isn't it?"
"It is."
I started thinking about how to allocate the work. Fifty thousand laborers in the Nano World—out of a hundred thousand residents, every able-bodied person was already on the job. The tasks I'd given Illys were LPU repairs and HBM fabrication. The volumes alone meant the Nano World already had more than enough to do.
"We'll need careful coordination."
"Yes. I'll pay closer attention to how we distribute the territory's labor."
It wasn't only Illys who needed to think about coordination. I did too. And the coordination that mattered was between reality and the Nano World.
Heavy, large-scale, mass-production work stayed on Earth. Small, precise work went to the people of the Nano World. The hardest problems went to the mage Illys and the dwarf Ralph.
Optimizing the efficiency between Earth and the Nano World.
A few days ago, the chairman of High Electronics had asked me what position I intended to take. Thinking it through carefully, I realized my position was coordination itself.