4
# Chapter 4
## Sognatore
I acquired a villa in the Philippines to store my guns. I kept several handguns and rifles in a large safe.
Since international competitions were occasionally held in the Philippines as well, I intended to participate in them
with my own guns.
My interest in shooting had begun to fade a little. More than anything, the problem was that I had to travel overseas
whenever I wanted to do live-fire shooting.
At domestic live-fire ranges, the guns were tethered with something like a bicycle chain. I couldn't tell whether I was
actually shooting a gun or simply exercising my fingers. I found no enjoyment in it.
When I complained to the instructor at the shooting range, he gave me an answer.
“That's because after a customer who visited a live-fire range committed suicide with a handgun some time ago, the law
was amended so that the direction of the muzzle could not be turned at all.”
“Ah...”
...
I began looking for a new hobby, and airplanes caught my eye.
I set up a flight simulation cockpit at home perfectly. It cost 200 million won, but I was satisfied.
After flying through virtual skies, I wanted to fly through the real sky in an actual airplane.
The aircraft pilot's license I could obtain the fastest was the Light-Sport Aircraft Pilot Certificate.
There was a limitation of a 600-kilogram takeoff weight and two seats, but for the time being, that was enough for me.
Every week, I visited a flight school in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
I completed 20 hours of flight experience, and even finished five hours of solo flight.
My aircraft pilot's license was issued.
More than obtaining the qualification to fly, the fact that I could personally pilot my own small airplane through the
sky excited me even more.
The model I chose was the ICON A5.
Its range was only 550 kilometers,
but its wings could be folded so that it could be transported on a car trailer.
What I liked most was that, with some modifications, it could be used as a seaplane.
And
as a safety feature, the aircraft itself was equipped with a parachute. In an emergency, the entire fuselage could rely
on the parachute to land safely.
The price, including transportation costs, was less than 300 million won.
...
After a long wait,
I finally took delivery of my airplane.
I decided to keep it at Nuri Flight School in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where I had received my flight training.
I inspected the aircraft and conducted a test flight with the instructor.
“Taxi~”
“Yes, sir.”
“Throttle slowly~ Good.”
“Yes, sir!”
“This airplane is really nice! With the open cockpit and the propeller in the back, haha.”
After completing the test flight, I attempted a 'touch and go' on the flight school's runway. It was practice for taking
off again in preparation for an emergency during landing.
“Oh! You're doing well.”
I felt good hearing the instructor's praise.
After completing the test flight,
I made my first solo flight in my own airplane.
In my own airplane,
according to my own will,
cutting through the sky as I flew—
how could I possibly put that feeling into words?
Once I rose into the sky,
I came face-to-face with the horizon of the West Sea, and felt a freedom as though the entire world belonged to me.
Flying was incredibly fun, but there were severe limitations in terms of time and location when it came to enjoying it.
Then, suddenly,
'House, car, airplane... boat.'
I wanted a boat that could serve as a substitute for a house.
A boat wasn't movable property. It was real estate.
I was interested in sailing yachts, but because of convenience of operation and speed, I settled on a cruise motor
yacht.
I decided on the Ferretti Yachts 960.
Before buying the yacht, I divided the company into two and expanded its scale.
OSL (Ocean Science & Leisure)
OSLAM (OSL Asset Management)
I established two companies under those names.
I briefly hesitated because the name OSLAM sounded the same as the lamp manufacturer Osram, but I ignored it.
I decided to have the yacht built in Italy, create an office aboard it, and sail it across the ocean to Korea.
After completing my preliminary research for the yacht purchase, I sent Hyun Min-seong, Head of the Purchasing Team, and
Captain Kim Chang-gi to Ferretti in Italy.
The most important thing was customizing it so that I could conduct all my work and live entirely aboard the yacht.
I left everything else to the two of them.
The yacht cost approximately 7.5 million euros,
which came to around 11 billion won.
The problem, however, was that delivery would take as long as 17 months.
To shorten the waiting period, I offered 2 million euros to the owner of a hull that was already under construction and
arranged to take delivery of that vessel first.
While the yacht was being built,
I obtained my Powered Water Leisure Craft Operator's License,
General Operator's Licenses Class 1 and Class 2,
and then a yacht license, one after another.
I named the yacht
Sognatore.
It meant 'dreamer.'
The specifications of Sognatore were as follows.
Length: 29.2 m
Beam: 7.08 m
Maximum speed: 29 knots
Fuel tank: 9,000 liters
It was equipped with two 2,600-horsepower MTU engines.
I liked the four spacious bedrooms and the roomy flybridge. I also had a large Jacuzzi installed. A bar was added, along
with separate cabins on the lower deck.
Elon Musk might be launching rockets and thinking about moving to Mars.
But I like Earth.
Even if this Earth descended into chaos, I wanted to survive.
And I wanted to do so while maintaining my human dignity.
Everything I possessed was maintained through combinations of numbers and bits.
I began to think that all of it could become useless at some point.
I thought I needed to store exchangeable value in tangible assets that I could actually see.
Through OSLAM, I began accumulating gold and dollars.
I also had physical gold prepared.
I purchased 5,000 100-gram gold bars and instructed them to be stored in safe-deposit boxes at several commercial banks
and in office safes.
I also instructed them to prepare 100,000 $100 bills, totaling $10 million in cash. These, too, were to be distributed
among safe-deposit boxes at different banks, offices, and other locations.
To prevent accidents, I established a system in which multiple people drawn from different teams would handle tasks
separately in duplicate and report their work independently.
And then I got a tattoo.
On the triceps of my arm, at the location of the medial head,
I tattooed my Bitcoin private key, along with important authentication codes and passwords.
Of course, I transformed them into a sequence that only I could understand. At a glance, it looked like hexadecimal, but
I had added G as a shift key.
At the same time, I instructed them to search for islands in Korea and overseas that could be purchased or leased.
Officially, they were to be marine science stations and leisure complexes,
but I intended to use them as supply bases in an emergency.
The candidate sites reported to me were as follows.
In the Pacific,
Palmyra Atoll, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kiritimati Island, and others.
The problem was that most of them were U.S. territories, so obtaining permits and signing contracts would take
considerable time.
There were quite a few decent islands in the Philippines.
Hope Island in Palawan, Fuga Island in Cagayan, Lubang Island in western Mindoro, Semirara Island, and Tawi-Tawi Island
in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao were among them.
In Indonesia,
there were Biak Island in Papua, the small islands of the Natuna and Riau archipelagos, and Morotai Island in North
Maluku.
Taking location and feasibility into consideration, I instructed them to narrow the list down to three candidates and
report back to me.
One day, after a succession of busy days,
I received a call from Hyun Min-seong, the team leader at OSL.
“Hey~ Team Leader Hyun!”
“Representative!”
“Oh, yes.”
“Representative, your yacht, Sognatore, is apparently going to be launched soon.”
“How did they build it so quickly?”
“Ah, the owner of the vessel that was already under construction agreed to give it up. It was because of the premium you
offered, though.”
“That's great. Then I suppose we need to get ready to head to Italy right away. Hahaha.”
The good news filled me with excitement.
Since I would be sailing the yacht back to Korea myself,
the crew members selected earlier would come later, while any personnel we were short on would be hired locally.
I headed to Ancona, Italy, ahead of everyone else with Captain Kim Chang-gi and Team Leader Hyun Min-seong. I couldn't
hide my impatience.
Even by direct flight, it took more than 12 hours to get from Incheon International Airport to Ancona.
On the plane, I asked Captain Kim Chang-gi,
“Captain!”
“Yes, Representative.”
“When you sailed around the world, what kind of boat did you use?”
“Haha, it was a small sailing yacht.”
“How fast can a sailing yacht go?”
Captain Kim Chang-gi continued with a meaningful smile.
“Eight knots at best? But it doesn't really mean much. If there's no wind, you're just left floating in the middle of
the vast ocean. And if you encounter a storm, you'll be swept away at a terrifying speed.”
“Wow~ That's amazing. How long did it take you to go around the world?”
“Haha, a little over two years.”
“I see. Would it be easier with a motor yacht?”
“Well... With a motor yacht, if the engine breaks down, it's just over. Hahaha.”
“...”
“Don't worry too much. That's why it has two engines.”
After finishing our conversation, Captain Kim fell asleep, but I couldn't sleep at all.
I was more excited and full of anticipation than I had ever been when buying a new car.
Before I knew it, the airplane was gliding down the runway at Ancona Airport in Italy.