Two Giants and an Eccentric
Around the same time, inside the chairman's office of Suseong Group.
Two titans of the business world sat facing each other across the reception sofa.
One was the master of the office, Chairman Lee Chang-ryong of Suseong Group; the other was Vice Chairman Jeon Myeong-cheol, the heir apparent and de facto ruler of Hwaseong Group.
The business community had long drawn comparisons between the two.
Lee Chang-ryong was cool-headed and deliberate.
Jeon Myeong-cheol was fiery and aggressive.
Except for state functions or official galas, two men so diametrically opposed rarely occupied the same room. Today, however, was an exception.
The agenda was the next-generation advanced technology consortium proposed by Suseong Group. This meeting was called to determine whether Hwaseong would take part.
"Ha! Arrogant little upstarts. Selling battery manufacturing equipment and daring to bypass Hwaseong?" Vice Chairman Jeon Myeong-cheol spat out in irritation upon hearing about the demonstration of the Zero-Interface device, the Magician, and its seventy-two-hour countdown.
"Did you not receive an invitation?" Lee Chang-ryong asked calmly.
"If I had, I would've been there. We formally requested samples for technical verification, and when they didn't respond, I wondered what they were playing at. Turns out they were cooking up this scheme behind our backs."
Not technical verification—extortion, Lee Chang-ryong thought, swallowing the retort before it reached his lips.
Thanks to their habit of buttering up the press with cash, Hwaseong's dirty laundry rarely aired in public. But anyone who mattered in industry circles knew what kind of predatory thugs they truly were. It was painfully obvious what Jeon had intended to do with those samples, but Lee Chang-ryong maintained his poker face. Instead, he smoothly chimed in.
"Ignored Hwaseong's request, did they? They certainly don't lack confidence."
"That's what I'm saying! Those punks need their noses broken before they come to their senses!"
Lee Chang-ryong had to exert considerable effort to suppress a scoff. On the outside, he wore a genial, polished smile, but beneath it lay thinly veiled contempt.
This fool still has no idea what's happening.
Lee Chang-ryong felt genuine pity for Jeon Myeong-cheol.
The demonstration of the Magician, held before an assembly of global industrial leaders, was something one had to witness firsthand to comprehend. A miracle performed with a single thin sheet of metal. A jaw-dropping transformation that reduced interfacial resistance to a literal zero. True to its name, even if someone had told him it was literal sorcery, Lee Chang-ryong would not have doubted it for a second.
"So," Lee Chang-ryong asked, leaning forward slightly, "is the vice chairman interested in joining our advanced technology consortium?"
There was a reason it was branded an 'advanced technology' consortium rather than merely a 'battery' consortium. Interfacial resistance plagued far more than just energy storage.
Take Suseong Group's most persistent headache: its semiconductor foundry business. If the Magician delivered even a fraction of what it promised, Suseong could resolve the miserable yield rates and defect issues that had haunted their advanced nodes for years. Boosting the efficiency of their flagship non-memory chips went without saying. Add to that solar cells, thermoelectric elements, and countless other applications, and the Magician's potential became staggering.
Suseong Group planned to seize this opportunity for a sweeping overhaul of their production lines to cement their global competitive edge. It was a massive venture that would burn through a sizable portion of the group's cash reserves. Consequently, the more they could drive down acquisition costs, the better.
Under normal circumstances, Suseong would have laughed at Hwaseong's foolishness and submitted a solo bid. The only reason Lee Chang-ryong had extended a hand was leverage. By pooling domestic demand into a massive collective order, they could negotiate lower unit pricing and secure priority supply agreements. That was Suseong's objective.
Yet Hwaseong Group—or rather, Vice Chairman Jeon Myeong-cheol—showed an underwhelming lack of enthusiasm.
After a deliberate pause, Jeon gave his answer. "We'll participate. But we only need two units of that Magician gadget, or whatever it's called."
"Two units? Will that be enough?"
"It's unproven hardware. We'll run them through pilot trials, and once we're certain they deliver, we can purchase more."
Of course, his actual calculation was entirely different.
Two units are more than enough for Hwaseong's engineers to reverse-engineer and clone.
That predatory intention was written all over his face. Internally, Chairman Lee Chang-ryong clicked his tongue.
Well, that blows our leverage out the window...
He had expected Hwaseong to be reckless, but not to this degree.
Vice Chairman Jeon has misjudged his opponent to a catastrophic degree.
A single missing invitation that Arcane Technology had withheld was snow-balling into a total strategic blunder by Hwaseong, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea behind Suseong and Taeyang.
It derails our original plan, but is this necessarily bad for us? I feel for Vice Chairman Jeon, but that's business.
Capitalism was cold and unforgiving. Lee Chang-ryong ran the mental arithmetic and nodded smoothly. While their collective bargaining power for lower unit prices would diminish, this outcome held a distinct upside for Suseong. Let Hwaseong wander blindly into the dark and fall behind. In the meantime, Suseong would roll out next-generation solid-state batteries and snatch the throne of the battery industry right out from under Hwaseong's nose.
"Understood. Two units, then. Suseong warmly welcomes Hwaseong to the consortium."
With entirely different calculations running behind their eyes, dreaming completely divergent dreams, Lee Chang-ryong and Jeon Myeong-cheol clasped hands in a firm, polite handshake.
After storming out of the meeting room, Hyung-jun and I hurried back to our hotel suite, our faces taut with lingering irritation.
The instant the door clicked shut behind us, both of us exhaled a long, frustrated sigh in unison.
"Seriously, what the hell is wrong with people like that?"
"Tell me about it," Hyung-jun muttered, rubbing his temples. "I always heard horror stories about how unbearable Chinese state delegates could be, but I never imagined it would be this grotesque."
It felt like we had just endured the complete, deluxe gift set of diplomatic harassment. That fat bureaucrat Ding Xuexiang's screeching still echoed in my ears. I felt like scrubbing the inside of my auditory canals with soap.
Just then, Da-hye poked her head out from the living room.
"You guys back? Looks like... things didn't go so well?"
"Something like that," I replied dismissively. There was no need to burden her with every foul detail of the encounter.
Hyung-jun and I grabbed bottled water from the mini-bar and chugged it down. The icy chill raced down my throat into my stomach, cooling my overheated temper. Collapsing onto the sofa, Hyung-jun looked over.
"What's the play now?"
"What do you mean, what's the play?"
"We blew up the negotiation and walked out. If they request another meeting, are you going back?"
"Of course I am."
Wasn't that obvious?
"If they're paying top dollar for our machines, they're esteemed clients. Clients throw temper tantrums sometimes. It happens, especially when they're about to write a massive check."
"And if he starts spouting the exact same garbage?"
"Then he ceases to be a client, and we walk out again. It's not like we don't have better things to do with our time."
Hyung-jun let out a dry chuckle. "Classic Park Elementary."
"Thank you for the glowing compliment."
Watching our banter, Da-hye tilted her head with a thoroughly baffled look. "...Was that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Think too hard about it and you lose," I told her.
"Right. Sure. Whatever you say."
Shutting Da-hye down with a single line, Hyung-jun and I turned back to the situation at hand.
"Well, that might be our stance," Hyung-jun said, his tone turning serious, "but there's no telling how Beijing will react. Those people aren't exactly known for playing by the rules."
"That Ding fellow was the president of the China Investment Corporation, right? A top-tier state cadre personally stepped up and got humiliated on the spot. He won't take that lying down."
"Hmm... considering their national 'Battery Renaissance' is a core state directive, they're going to try and get their hands on the Magician no matter what."
"Any guesses on how they'll come at us?"
Hyung-jun shrugged helplessly. "There are so many dirty tricks in their playbook that it's hard to narrow down. First off, they'll attempt reverse-engineering counterfeit knock-offs. Then they could levy diplomatic pressure, hit us with trade sanctions, freeze supply chains... and they probably have even nastier cards on the table."
"Nastier cards?"
"Planting industrial spies inside our company would be the baseline. In the worst-case scenario, they could attempt physical coercion or harm against us, or even our families."
"Now that's a real problem."
Industrial espionage didn't worry me in the slightest. Frankly, how were they going to steal magic? Good luck trying to reverse-engineer mana with an electron microscope. But physical violence was an entirely different beast.
Strictly speaking, in this life, I was an unprepared, reincarnated second-circle mage living in a mana-depleted world. I couldn't even say with absolute certainty whether my defensive wards could stop high-caliber firearm rounds yet. Should I start taking defensive measures? Once this business trip wrapped up, I needed to plunge straight into rigorous magical training. While resolving to formulate a list of practical low-circle combat spells suited for modern warfare—
Rrrring—!
The suite's landline phone rang with a piercing chime.
What now?
I glanced at Hyung-jun. He gave a short nod, stepped over, and lifted the receiver.
"Hello? Oh, glad to—"
His casual greeting cut off abruptly. His eyes widened in genuine astonishment. After listening intently for a few moments, Hyung-jun lowered the receiver and turned back to us. The expression on his face was utterly bizarre.
"Who was that? Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?"
"Nylon Musk."
Musk had attended our demonstration the day before yesterday, so a direct phone call wasn't completely out of left field. "What does he want? Did he finish his offer and want to start negotiations?"
"Not quite..." Hyung-jun's expression grew even more peculiar. "He wants to grab lunch right now. Said he just witnessed quite an entertaining spectacle, and now it's time for an interesting conversation."
"An entertaining spectacle...?"
"He's talking about our disastrous negotiation with China just now. Almost certainly."
Hyung-jun grimaced with a wry smile. "Ding Xuexiang was practically screaming at the top of his lungs down the hall, so it would be stranger if people didn't know. The United States keeps its antennae permanently tuned to Chinese movements. Especially with Musk serving as a cabinet-level government advisor rather than just a private tech billionaire, it's no surprise he received raw intelligence before anyone else."
"Fair point. Then what's this 'interesting conversation' supposed to be?"
Hyung-jun shook his head vigorously. "I have no clue. Not even an inkling."
"Whoa. There's actually something the Pride of Mount Gwanak, Kim Hyung-jun, doesn't know?"
"Do I look like a shaman or a psychic to you? How am I supposed to know what's in a man's head before he even opens his mouth?" Hyung-jun snapped back irritably before continuing. "If he were an ordinary American CEO, I could formulate a ballpark guess. But this is Nylon Musk we're talking about! How on earth is anyone supposed to predict a guy world-famous for bizarre, eccentric antics?"
Hmm. He's not wrong.
Still, the timing was immaculate. Calling us the very second we walked out on the Chinese delegation? It was an overt, blatant whisper: Need us to back you up?
Hyung-jun asked, "What do you want to do? Are we going?"
"Let's go," I nodded without hesitation. "Honestly, my curiosity is piqued. It's Nylon Musk. I want to see what he has to say to us face-to-face."
"Fine. Let's meet him. He's an industry force we were bound to cross paths with eventually anyway; there's no reason to duck him. But keep your guard all the way up. The man does whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases. If we don't stay sharp, we'll be dancing entirely to his rhythm."
"Understood."
I gave a firm nod, then turned to Da-hye. "Da-hye, want to come along?"
"Huh? Me?" she blinked in surprise.
"It's lunch. Leaving someone behind to starve while we go eat is bad form."
"No, I'm good," Da-hye waved her hands dismissively. "I'm just a junior staffer. From the sounds of it, you two are going to be having sensitive, high-level corporate talks. Having me tag along would just make things awkward. I'll hold down the fort here like I'm supposed to, so you two go ahead and knock 'em dead."
"All right, fair enough."
"Just don't forget you promised to buy me a Birkin bag!"
"Sure thing. Even if you demand we rent out an entire Hermès boutique for an afternoon, I'll make it happen."
"Really? You promised! No backing out!"
She really was simple to please.
Leaving Da-hye practically bouncing on the carpet behind us, Hyung-jun and I adjusted our suit jackets and straightened our ties. Right after China came Nylon Musk. Heavyweight contenders were stepping into the ring one after another.
Nylon Musk.
What kind of man was he behind the headlines? Would he match the eccentric, visionary persona painted by the public, or was he something entirely outside our expectations?
Anticipation set my pulse thumping against my ribs.
...He isn't going to ask us to pack our bags for Mars, is he?