Seewoon Electronics Plaza
Fortunately, Seewoon Electronics Plaza had everything he needed. The prices, however, were steep enough to make Attorney Choi's eyes bulge. A single VGA card alone ran well over a million won. Even though it was a high-end model equipped with 1MB of dedicated video RAM, the cost still equaled two months' salary for a typical salaryman at a major corporation. The audio interface and MIDI module carried similar price tags, and the tablet was no bargain either. The microphone, at least, was relatively affordable at a hundred thousand won.
Some items proved difficult to obtain even with money in hand. C language was one of them. The biggest hit among C language packages was Borland's Turbo C, and that was exactly what Yoo Jae-won was after. It was an all-in-one package that handled compilation, debugging, coding, and even the creation of distribution installers in a single suite. The latest version was 1.5, but every copy he found turned out to be a pirated duplicate rather than the genuine article. As the head of a company that produced and sold software, he could not afford to use illegal copies. To avoid any future complications, he needed the legitimate version.
After scouring every shop's stockroom and even the distributor's warehouse, he finally unearthed a dusty copy of version 1.0. The shop owner, emboldened by the rarity, demanded a brazen three hundred thousand won. Borland's products were normally known for offering solid performance at reasonable prices; at that amount, one could have purchased a more polished, higher-grade alternative with money to spare. Yet with no other option available, he had no choice but to pay the asking price.
Unlike the clothing and meals, which had all come out of his personal funds, the components and software were charged to the company's account. It was legitimate business expense, after all. He made sure to collect every receipt. The reactions when he requested them were amusing. Some people grew angry, others tried to inflate the price, and a few attempted to fob him off with a simple handwritten note, clearly underestimating him. All of them ended up kneeling before Attorney Choi Kang-wook.
The final stop in Seewoon was the SKC distributor. SKC was a subsidiary of Sunkyung, originally known as Sunkyung Chemical. True to its name, it produced chemical raw materials extracted from petroleum. Later it began manufacturing videotapes and cassette tapes from the plastic and vinyl film it handled, and now it had expanded into diskettes as well.
Yoo Jae-won had come to SKC because he needed original diskettes to hold the master copy of Keyboard Warrior 1.0 for supply to Sambo Computer. While 3M diskettes carried a higher brand value, SKC offered a decisive advantage: its diskettes came pre-formatted. Though the 3M label looked reassuring, users still had to format them after purchase. SKC diskettes, by contrast, were ready to use straight out of the package and cost several hundred won less. Both differences were minor, yet they had allowed the latecomer SKC to rapidly expand its market share.
"Five thousand two hundred and fifty-inch diskettes? Three thousand of them?"
"We may place additional orders later. Can you handle it?"
The distributor's representative looked thoughtful. It was a massive order, and the request was unusual: the lawyer and the boy wanted a specific program copied onto every single diskette. The man had never encountered such a requirement before. He also worried that if the diskettes contained illegal copies of games or similar material, he would be aiding a crime.
Copying the diskettes themselves did not concern him much. After all, SKC's pre-formatting was already done by hand. Dozens of computers fitted with multiple disk drives performed the work manually, since the factory could not format during production. Switching from formatting to copying would actually make the process faster.
"This isn't anything illegal," Choi Kang-wook explained at a glance, sensing the man's hesitation. "This young man has developed a typing tutor that we're mass-producing. We've already signed a supply contract with Sambo Computer." As he spoke, he pulled a newspaper clipping featuring Yoo Jae-won's photograph from his bag—one of the items prepared to overcome the boy's age.
"Ah, of course! The Minister's Award! Now I remember." The SKC representative immediately recognized the story. Working in the same industry, he had seen the article.
The deal proceeded smoothly after that. A single 2DD diskette normally cost 1,600 won, but the bulk order brought the price down to 1,200 won. Negotiating the copying fee took longer, since it was not standard work and not particularly difficult. After some haggling, they settled on 100 won per diskette. The total for three thousand diskettes came to 3.9 million won. Yoo Jae-won would return in person to collect the finished product; delivery would have been convenient, but he needed to inspect the goods himself.
"What I want is zero defects. When I come to collect them, I'll randomly pull thirty diskettes for inspection. If not a single one fails, I'll pay you an additional bonus of one hundred thousand won."
It was a form of sampling inspection. Passing a random check of thirty units would be sufficient guarantee of quality. Spending one hundred thousand won upfront to prevent customer dissatisfaction was a worthwhile investment.
"Leave it to me!" The promise of a personal bonus made the distributor's voice noticeably louder.
The contract was drawn up on the spot. It included not only the agreed terms but also the bonus clause and, at Choi Kang-wook's insistence, a strict security provision with heavy penalties to prevent leakage of the Keyboard Warrior program. Although Yoo Jae-won had already built internal safeguards, having the clause explicitly stated was far better.
Thus Yoo Jae-won's first trip to Seoul concluded without incident.
"You really didn't need to come all the way here," Yoo Jae-won said.
Choi Kang-wook had accompanied him all the way to Deokjin-ri. They had taken an intercity bus from Seoul to Yeoju, then a taxi from the terminal to the village.
"With the daily rate I'm getting, this is nothing."
Yoo Jae-won had originally planned to part ways at the Seoul terminal, but Choi Kang-wook had insisted on seeing him home.
"The world's a dangerous place. Kidnappings happen in broad daylight. A well-dressed child wandering around alone with expensive equipment—who knows what could happen."
Yoo Jae-won realized he had never once considered public safety. In 1988, Korea was at the height of organized crime's power, and violent offenses were common. Major kidnapping cases had repeatedly dominated television and newspapers. Caution never hurt.
Thanks to Choi Kang-wook helping carry the load, Yoo Jae-won stopped at the butcher in town and bought meat—Korean beef short ribs, along with tenderloin and sirloin cuts that were usually too expensive. It was for a celebratory meat feast to mark the successful launch of ID Technology.
"Jae-won!"
"Good heavens, Attorney, you've worked hard too!"
When the intercity bus reached the terminal, Yoo Jae-won had called ahead. His parents had come out to the edge of the village to meet them. Even though he had mentioned traveling with a lawyer, they had still been anxious. Learning that the business trip had succeeded only added to their joy. The whirlwind of excitement swept Choi Kang-wook along as well. He had intended only to drop off the luggage, but found himself drawn into the lively meat feast.
Relatives, including his uncle from the main house and others who happened to be nearby, gathered. Over traditional Korean barbecue and rice wine, Choi Kang-wook quickly warmed to the group. His vivid recounting of the negotiations with the chairman of Sambo Computer was especially captivating. The parents and relatives were far more impressed by the lawyer's calm, detailed narrative than by the simple claim that their son had casually secured fifty million won in sales. Without knowing the future strategy Yoo Jae-won had shared only with Choi Kang-wook, the outcome looked modest—turning down a five-hundred-million-won deal for a mere fifty million. Yet everyone praised the decision.
Yoo Jae-won was content either way. Success shared with family felt better than success alone. It was also ample reward for the patience and preparation of his regression. To spread that joy further, he prepared a brief report on the day's achievements and sent it to the shareholders of ID Technology.
The next day, Yoo Jae-won sat before the computer with sleepy eyes. He had woken around his usual time of seven in the morning, yet sleep still clung to him. He had gone to bed very late the night before—not only because of the feast, but because he had spent hours past midnight installing the VGA card, audio interface, MIDI module, and tablet purchased in Seewoon. Even after correctly seating the cards in the motherboard slots, they refused to work. IRQ and DMA conflicts, both hardware and software compatibility issues, had to be resolved. The manual explained that each expansion card required unique IRQ and DMA settings, which meant carefully positioning jumpers—an unfamiliar and frustrating task. He had longed for plug-and-play functionality. Through sheer determination he had eventually installed everything, and now it all worked perfectly. The Borland Turbo C he had paid triple the normal price for was also installed without issue. Though he had been overcharged, he was now fully armed with genuine S-class paid items.
It was time to build the weapon that would challenge the ultimate market—the United States, the single most powerful purchasing power on Earth, far larger than Korea.
"Let's take it by storm!"
With renewed resolve, Yoo Jae-won launched Turbo C and began coding at a furious pace.