The Black Hole's First Spark
ID High Tech had always been a somewhat special organization within the ID Group from its very inception. Its original purpose was to prevent Russian nuclear experts from being lured to North Korea amid Russia's economic crisis and being forced into nuclear weapons development. Because its founding objective carried a somewhat unconventional flavor, the activities of High Tech also differed markedly from those of ordinary corporate research arms.
Typically, a research institute under a corporation would concentrate its personnel on fields expected to generate the company's next major revenue stream, working day and night to produce quick results. High Tech, however, prioritized the research its own scientists actually wanted to pursue. When the Russian scholars were recruited, they had been promised a level of freedom and research support far beyond anything they had experienced in Russia, and Yoo Jae-won had kept that promise to the letter.
More than three percent of the ID Group's total net profit was allocated as pure research funding for High Tech, with no pressure to deliver immediate results. This led some executives to privately refer to High Tech as a "golden black hole"—a voracious consumer of funds that produced no visible returns. Yoo Jae-won nodded at their concerns but refused to cut the budget. Instead, he simply told them to wait; once they reached the singularity, the returns would be extraordinary. He did, however, accept some of their suggestions and implemented measures to ensure the allocated funds were neither embezzled nor wasted.
At first, the researchers and scholars at High Tech found Yoo Jae-won's unconditional support and trust unfamiliar. Now, however, they had fully adapted. Meanwhile, High Tech's reputation in Russia had grown steadily. Mikhail Ivanov no longer needed to wear out his shoes scouting talent in Moscow. These days, the scholars came knocking on High Tech's door themselves. Russia's economy continued to deteriorate, but the ID Group's presence had grown so dramatically compared to a few years earlier that far superior talent was now flocking to them. After rigorous screening, only the most capable were accepted into Moscow High Tech, and from there, only the very best were allowed to transfer to the Redmond High Tech Research Institute in the United States.
Yoo Jae-won had expected capable people to produce results, but he had not anticipated them arriving quite so quickly.
"I can't wait any longer. I need to go see it myself."
Yoo Jae-won rose from his seat and called for Kim Dae-seok. Though the sudden trip to Redmond might have warranted questions, Kim Dae-seok simply began preparing for the journey without comment.
"Will this be a same-day schedule?"
"Hmm, probably not. We'll need to stay overnight at least."
The timing was awkward. It was already afternoon; flying to Redmond and returning the same day would be too tight. Depending on the drone's performance, they might even need to stay longer. Kim Dae-seok booked both the flight and a hotel. A year ago, this would have required numerous phone calls, but now everything could be handled from a computer. In the United States, the cutting edge of IT was Silicon Valley, so booking flights, rental cars, and hotels had become possible with a single computer. Of course, not every company had adopted online systems yet—only those partnered with online agencies or that had implemented such systems themselves.
"Everything is ready."
At Kim Dae-seok's words, Yoo Jae-won simply grabbed a small, inexpensive travel bag and left the house. He deliberately kept his expectations for the drone as low as possible. If he arrived with high hopes only to show disappointment, the researchers at High Tech would be devastated. At the same time, the thought of acquiring a private jet crossed his mind. With so much travel ahead, relying on online booking sites risked missing critical opportunities. For solo travel, reservation sites would suffice, but Yoo Jae-won already had a large entourage. Even now, his executive secretary Kim Dae-seok and two bodyguards were accompanying him. For major business trips, executives would also need to travel together, making last-minute ticket procurement difficult.
"Please get me a quote for a business jet. Priority order: safety, range, and passenger capacity. Price is not a concern."
After organizing his thoughts, Yoo Jae-won gave the order.
Yoo Jae-won and his party arrived in Redmond, Washington, roughly three hours later. The flight itself took only about an hour and forty minutes, but considerable time had been wasted at the airport waiting for departure. After checking into the hotel they had booked that same day and dropping off their luggage, they headed straight to the High Tech Research Institute.
"Mr. Chairman, welcome!"
Andre Shailov, the director of the institute, was waiting at the entrance to greet him. His expression carried a hint of déjà vu—the same mixture of tension and mild panic that Joseph Wilson had shown during the surprise visit to the Coyote City data center. It was understandable. Only a little over four hours had passed since he had emailed the report with the short video file announcing the drone's completion. Yet here stood the highest-ranking person in the entire company.
Such a thing had been unimaginable back in Russia. When a high-ranking official came for an on-site inspection, chaos would erupt at least three days in advance. If it were a national leader, preparations would begin a full month earlier—and even that was often insufficient. Every detail had to be flawless, and creating materials and objects worthy of the leader's attention required enormous time.
When he sent the email, Andre had entertained the faint possibility of a visit, but he had assumed at least several days' notice. After all, the chairman of the ID Group surely had an impossibly packed schedule. This same-day arrival shattered his expectations completely.
"Hello, Director Shailov! It's been a while. I'm glad to see you looking well!"
Yoo Jae-won approached with his usual easygoing manner and shook hands.
"After watching the video you sent, I simply couldn't contain my curiosity about the real thing. Skip the lengthy reports—we'll go straight to the site!"
Having experienced both military service and large-scale business in his previous life, Yoo Jae-won understood well how burdensome an unannounced visit from a high-ranking executive could be. So he made it clear from the outset that he had come only to see the drone.
"Yes, sir! I'll escort you right away. However, it will require some travel."
"That's fine."
Even so, Andre Shailov could not fully relax as he guided Yoo Jae-won toward the laboratory. As he had said, the drone team's lab was located quite far from the main High Tech research building. Ten kilometers east of the Redmond High Tech Research Institute main building, the population thinned dramatically. The city had been built along the coast, and to the east lay a golf course. Beyond the golf course stretched undeveloped, densely forested land. The drone team's laboratory was situated there.
As they traveled, Yoo Jae-won repeatedly tilted his head in puzzlement. For security reasons, testing should have been conducted inside the lab. Moreover, since the drone was still in its early development stage, its stability would be low; testing indoors would minimize wind interference. Yet they were heading into such a vast forest.
"Here we are."
Ah. The "forest" description needed revision. From a distance it had looked like forest, but once inside, a clearing the size of three soccer fields appeared, covered end to end with grass so pleasant to walk on it lifted the spirits. In contrast, the drone team's research facility consisted of container-style temporary buildings. It wasn't a single container; several had been stacked to create a reasonably large structure. In front of the building stood eight people who had evidently been notified in advance.
"This is Dr. Anton Shifatov, leader of the drone team."
Director Shailov introduced the team leader and members to Yoo Jae-won one by one. Of the eight, four—including the team leader—were Russian, while the other half were American. Not all were white; three were of Asian descent (Indian and Japanese), and only one was genuinely Caucasian. Though their nationalities and backgrounds varied widely, their teamwork appeared excellent. They had only been researching for less than a year, yet they had already produced a prototype capable of flight.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Team Leader Anton. Thanks to you, I couldn't resist coming in person."
"Ah, not at all. Your idea was so excellent that we were able to complete it quickly. Not just me—every researcher has been working diligently."
As Anton said, the quadcopter concept had come from Yoo Jae-won. He had even compiled a collection of ideas for items expected to create large future markets and sent it to Director Shailov as reference material. That had been back when the High Tech Research Institute had just begun operations. However, the ideas were not extremely detailed—only a few lines of explanation per item, more like memos than full proposals. This was because, in Yoo Jae-won's master plan, commercialization belonged to the companies under ID Technology. High Tech, by contrast, had been founded with a somewhat unconventional purpose: to check North Korea's nuclear development. This fact was known only to Yoo Jae-won himself.
Publicly, High Tech was presented as conducting fundamental and cutting-edge research that might not generate immediate profit but was nevertheless essential. In simple terms, if he suddenly produced smartphones or drones, people would view him as someone wielding a magic wand. By channeling such developments through High Tech, he could demonstrate that foundational technologies were being researched in advance. The institute was fulfilling both roles admirably. Its existence had almost completely blocked the outflow of Russia's top minds to North Korea, severely hampering North Korea's nuclear development capabilities. Instead of the intense nuclear development that should have been underway, North Korea was now scrambling due to a lack of experts. The mood of inter-Korean reconciliation that North Korea had been cultivating since the 1990s was essentially Plan B after hitting a wall in its nuclear program. Unaware of this, President Kim Young-sam's civilian government was proudly touting North Korea's softened stance as their own achievement. Yoo Jae-won could only suppress a wry smile. Still, for now, it was tolerable. The civilian government, which had contributed to intense reforms from the very beginning, was steadily keeping its promises. As part of historical rectification, it had decided to demolish the former Japanese Government-General building and relocate the National Museum of Korea. Naturally, this had received overwhelming public support in Korea, while Japan had urgently contacted them claiming they would move the building to Japan themselves. Of course, none of it swayed President Kim Young-sam. Riding this momentum, the government had recently issued a special statement on inheriting the spirit of May 18 and restoring the honor of its victims, officially defining the December 12 incident as a "coup." This was a preliminary step toward holding the two former presidents with military backgrounds accountable alongside historical rectification. In addition, the purge of the military was proceeding smoothly. The Army Chief of Staff and the Commander of the Defense Security Command appointed by President Roh had been abruptly dismissed, and individuals with no ties to military factions had been swiftly promoted. Subsequently, more than fifty generals had lost their positions—far more than the roughly forty Yoo Jae-won had originally expected. Naturally, removing fifty generals alone would not dismantle the Hanahoe faction. Its roots were too deep and its membership too numerous. A second round of purges was already underway, and Yoo Jae-won was monitoring the process. If it faltered, he was prepared to apply pressure immediately.
"Mr. Chairman?"
"Ah! I'm fine."
At Kim Dae-seok's call, Yoo Jae-won pulled his wandering thoughts back into focus. Whether it was the Memory Palace or a side effect of regression, once his mind began to wander, he found it difficult to control. Still, High Tech was performing even better than expected.
A moment later—
"Oh!"
Yoo Jae-won finally saw the drone in person, having previously only viewed it through a small video. At the same time, he understood why the field test site had been prepared here. The video attached to the email had contained no reference points for scale. It was merely a ten-second clip showing the drone resting on the ground before hovering in the air, with no people or objects visible. Size was relative; if there had been a tree, he might have gauged it, but there had been none. As a result, Yoo Jae-won had imagined the compact drones common in the twenty-first century.
"It's much larger than I expected!"
Yet the machine before him had propellers nearly fifty centimeters long. As a quadcopter, it had four such propellers connected by a frame and body, easily exceeding one meter in total size.
"Huk! Is this considered large?"
At Yoo Jae-won's words, Dr. Anton Shifatov swallowed hard and quickly asked in return.
"It's enormous, isn't it?"
Dr. Anton's pupils trembled as if experiencing an earthquake. After all, buoyed by the successful flight of Prototype No. 1, which he had just revealed to Yoo Jae-won, he had already begun designing Prototype No. 2—twice the size of the first, with propellers reaching one meter each. This was because Dr. Anton had assumed his creation would carry a human passenger. Carrying a person required powerful lift capable of raising over 100 kilograms, which in turn demanded larger propeller blades. Hearing Yoo Jae-won say the opposite—that it should be smaller—naturally caused his pupils to quake. The misunderstanding had arisen because the idea had been presented too concisely. If Yoo Jae-won had used the word "drone" instead of "quadcopter," Anton would have immediately recognized it as an unmanned aerial vehicle. Even then, some trial and error would likely have occurred, as there were many types of unmanned aircraft.
"In any case, this one works, right? Can we fly it?"
At Yoo Jae-won's question, Dr. Anton immediately began preparations. This time, instead of trembling pupils, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Summer was still two months away, so the heat was not to blame.
"Of course. However, for safety reasons, you should stand at least thirty meters back."
Thirty meters? Yoo Jae-won complied without complaint. The sun was already beginning to set; any delay would plunge everything into darkness, making flight impossible. Once they had moved to the required distance, four members of the drone team carried the drone Yoo Jae-won had seen and placed it in the center of the clearing. They pulled the cord attached to the engine on the main body to start it. An engine? From the sound, it appeared they had installed an ultralight gasoline engine rather than an electric one. After confirming that all four propellers were spinning, the team members also retreated to the safety zone. Dr. Anton took hold of a controller resembling an RC transmitter and began operating it.
The engine, which had been making a rattling sound, increased its output with a loud whirring noise. As the sound grew stronger, the drone began to shake, though it had not yet lifted off the ground.
"Ugh!"
Eventually, a strained groan escaped Dr. Anton's lips. His fingers moved busily over the controller, and with each movement, the drone lurched violently from side to side. Dr. Anton was not deliberately making it sway—he was desperately trying to control the drone's erratic movements with the controller. After about a minute, the shaking drone gradually stabilized and finally rose into the air. The large drone hovered roughly ten meters above the ground, just as it had in the video.
"Whoa!"
Everyone except Yoo Jae-won let out exclamations. Someone even mentioned a new record. From Yoo Jae-won's perspective, it had taken over a minute of struggling on the ground just to get airborne, yet they called this a record. Upon inquiry, he learned that the ten-second video sent to him had not been intentionally shortened—it had been their previous best record. Because Yoo Jae-won was watching, Dr. Anton had exerted superhuman effort, doubling the flight duration. Moreover, the flight was still ongoing, so no one knew how far the record would extend.
"Impressive!"
Yoo Jae-won applauded belatedly and praised Dr. Anton, who was sweating profusely. He had almost forgotten—it was not the twenty-first century, but 1993. Without that context, the flight would have seemed trivial, but remembering the year made it truly remarkable. The prototype lacked any flight safety systems. Twenty-first-century drones maintained stability in the air regardless of user input by sensing environmental changes and automatically adjusting propeller output. This prototype, however, required a human operator to manually control the output of all four motors. It was like the propeller-driven aircraft of World War I, where the pilot had to directly manage engine power along with the elevators and rudder.
Thud!
The drone, which had been flying steadily, suddenly flipped over and crashed onto the grassy ground. Even a slight misstep in controller adjustment caused it to lose balance and plummet. Sighs erupted from all around. The critical flaw of the prototype had been exposed right in front of the chairman, and the atmosphere froze instantly.
"This won't do."
When Yoo Jae-won finally spoke, tension spiked sharply.
"Honestly, I only intended to see the drone in person and leave, but I can't do that now. I'll participate directly in the improvement work!"
Although the prototype differed significantly from the drone Yoo Jae-won had envisioned, there was ample room for improvement. Of course, he had no intention of revealing all twenty-first-century drone technology. He would implement the best possible improvements using only the technology currently available. By clearly demonstrating how terrifying it could be when mechanical devices were fused with IT technology, they could accelerate drone development while simultaneously opening the eyes of High Tech's members. It would truly be killing two birds with one stone.