Chapter 2
After quitting his job, Yi Yeon immediately headed to Texas, United States. He started working without a moment to rest.
Ironically, after Stephen had his accident, his channel's subscriber count skyrocketed. The image of a medieval knight in plate armor tumbling over a wild boar had captivated people's attention.
The two did not miss this opportunity and immediately decided to produce the next content. The nature of YouTube was that long gaps would cause subscribers to leave. As Stephen discussed the next content with Yi Yeon, he tilted his head curiously and asked, "Should we start with a baby chick hatchery?"
“Yeah.”
“Why? We could just buy some chickens and raise them.”
“Your channel prides itself on hyper-realism. So, we need to show the hatching process from the very beginning.”
“That sounds good, but how are we going to build a hatchery right away? There are so many things we need.”
The automated technology for mass-producing baby chicks was developed surprisingly late. The research that began in the late 19th century was only completed in the early 20th century. “Temperature? We can use a metal thermometer, but what about humidity?”
“We can use Hanji.”
“Hanji?”
“Yeah. Paper made and used by ancient Koreans. It automatically regulates humidity.”
“Really?”
“Of course…”
Stephen made Hanji based on the materials Yi Yeon had prepared, baked bricks from clay, and even built an ondol floor with flat stones. But they failed at hatching the chicks. They placed water jars on the hot ondol floor, adjusted the temperature with a metal thermometer, and maintained a constant temperature. However, turning the eggs frequently was extremely tedious. “Damn it! Is there no way to automatically turn the eggs?”
“What about using water?”
“Water?”
“In the 15th century, Koreans used water to create a self-regulating water clock called a jagyeolru. It was incredibly accurate.”
“Really?”
“Of course…”
The two created a device using water to automatically turn the eggs every six hours. It was crude compared to the jagyeolru, but it worked. At first, subscribers were amazed. However, as the episodes grew longer, comments began to appear. >What are they doing?> >After getting hit by a wild boar, his head must be messed up. >Based on what they’re doing, it’s possible.
On the other hand, there were also comments like >They said they would hatch chicks using 15th-century Korean technology, so let’s wait. >How long do we have to wait? >They said 3 weeks, so it should be next week.
Subscribers, who had been eagerly waiting for Stephen to make gunpowder with chicken poop, were now confused. The community comments exploded. Because they had installed a camera in the hatchery and showed the live process in real time, many subscribers were constantly checking the site. >It’s here! >Wow…! Is this real? >But why does it look like that? It’s so ugly. >That’s normal. After a while, it will become the yellow chick you expected.
It was a massive success. Even though they only hatched 100 eggs and got just over 70 chicks, the birth of life was awe-inspiring, interest skyrocketed, and donations poured in. Next, Stephen built a large blast furnace and mined iron ore to produce large quantities of cast iron. “Why are you making so much of this?”
“Molds.”
“Molds?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“For the slamfire shotgun, we need cartridges.”
“Oh… So you’re making jigs to produce cartridges.”
“Correct.”
“But the quantity is too much, isn’t it?”
“We also need cylindrical molds to make steel pipes for the slamfire shotgun.”
“Cylindrical molds?”
“Yeah. If you pour molten metal into a cylinder and rotate it, you can get structurally strong steel pipes.”
Making steel pipes wasn’t easy. Even though cast iron had a much lower melting point than steel, it was still higher than copper and had low fluidity, making it difficult to extrude. So Stephen decided to make cylindrical molds for mass-producing steel pipes. “Can’t we just hammer them one by one?”
“I thought about that, but I changed my mind.”
“How?”
“We’re going to mass-produce them and sell them.”
“Cast iron is fragile, right? Won’t that be a problem?”
“There won’t be any breakage. We’re making it with nodular cast iron.”
“Nodular cast iron? Isn’t that too advanced for the times?”
If you add magnesium and calcium to cast iron with high carbon content that’s hard but brittle, you can get a strong and tough nodular cast iron with superior corrosion resistance and tensile strength. It’s also called ductile iron. The manufacturing method was discovered in the late 1940s and is still used in various fields today. “What does it matter? As long as I can make it with my own hands, that’s all that counts.”
“That’s true. But calcium can be easily refined without adding it, but what about the magnesium we definitely need?”
“That’s the problem. What if we add dolomite, which is rich in magnesium and calcium?”
“Of course.”
“We can’t use electricity either… Is there no good way?”
“Of course there is. Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks. Bro!”
“Don’t mention it. We’re business partners.”
After Yi Yeon joined the team, Stephen’s channel grew remarkably. Unlike before, it featured everyday items like soap, perfume, candles, ink, bowls, pencils, and matches that could be used in real life. It also showed the difficult process of making a steam engine. In addition, it included funny edited videos of failed attempts, making it a channel everyone loved. Two years later…
The two officially founded Stephen & Kite Brothers. They invited subscribers to a party and began selling slamfire shotguns and black powder substitutes. The slamfire shotguns they made were different from previous models. They now included safety devices and cartridge ejection mechanisms. Because of this, SKB-marked slamfire shotguns sold like crazy. Unlike other guns, they were incredibly fun to shoot. Most buyers bought the $59.99 version made by cutting steel pipes, but the custom-made ones using nodular cast iron saw a surge in orders. Even at the expensive price of $599.99, reservations kept piling up. Since production was very limited, they became targets for gun collectors. The two bought barren land wherever their profits took them. They planned to turn some of it into hunting grounds powered by solar panels for the future. One day, while wandering the purchased land during their free time…
“Stephen!”
“What?”
“Come over here!”
Stephen, wearing a cool cowboy hat and riding an ATV instead of a horse, approached. Yi Yeon pointed to a sedimentary layer. “Look over there.”
“Where?”
“There.”
“Huh? There’s a clay layer.”
Stephen immediately ran over, scooped up some clay with his pickaxe, and tested it by touching it with his finger. He then smiled brightly at the approaching Yi Yeon and said, “Kite! This isn’t salt!”
“Then what is it?”
“You’ll know after investigating, but it looks like we hit the jackpot.”
The two collected samples from various spots in the clay layer and took them to the university lab to have them analyzed. While analyzing the results in the university lab after a long time away, Yi Yeon swallowed hard. The results were shocking. Stephen, watching from the side, couldn’t hold back and asked, “How was it?”
Yi Yeon pulled out the analysis chart, shook it while turning around, and smiled widely. “Stephen?”
“What?”
“Aren’t you surprised?”
“Wait, just a second.”
Stephen shook his head and calmed his breathing. Because this was the first time Yi Yeon had spoken like this, it felt like something enormous had happened. Stephen carefully took the chart and his eyes widened in disbelief. “It’s real?”
“Of course! I’ve tested this multiple times.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. This is much higher in concentration than what was found in Nevada.”
“Wow…”
The two hugged each other tightly and danced as if they couldn’t bear to watch. It was difficult to hide their excitement. This discovery site was unlike Nevada; it was on their private land. Since there were no indigenous people nearby, it could be developed immediately. Moreover, the lithium content per unit area was extremely high. The two, who had hit a white oil jackpot, went to the law firm. Since the jackpot was so enormous, they wanted to hide their identities. Like in the US, those who win the lottery or a windfall quickly attract flies. Unlike Korea, it involved kidnapping, so they had to thoroughly hide their identities. Three months later, news articles about the lithium they discovered appeared worldwide. “Lithium has been discovered again in the United States!” “An exploration team composed of Lithium USA, a multinational mining company, and researchers from Texas State University has found a lithium clay layer of about 23 million tons.” “This amount is said to be equal to the reserves of the world’s largest known lithium brine lake in Bolivia, with a value of around 800 billion dollars.” The two, who suddenly became immensely rich, decided to hand over all rights in exchange for shares in Lithium USA. Since money would continue to pour in just from breathing, they decided to enjoy the rest of their lives instead of running the company themselves. As Yi Yeon watched the news, he asked Stephen, “Are you going to keep running the company?”
“Yeah. Even if I stop YouTube, I want to keep running it. What about you?”
“I’m planning to go back to Korea. I need to rest.”
“That’s too bad, but we have no choice. Let’s have a drink, then?”
“Sure…”
Because they had been busy producing YouTube content and running the company, the two had lived without having a proper moment to drink together happily. That was why they drank a lot today and talked freely. “But why did you suddenly make swords? And that too in the old way?”
“Curious?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait a moment.”
Stephen brought a thin leather box from the shelf. Stephen took out a flat circular object with feathers from the box and shook it while asking, “Do you know what this is?”
“A dreamcatcher?”
“Right. But the person who gave this to me said it was a soul transfer device.”
“A device that moves souls?”
“Yeah.”
Stephen had gone to Sedona National Park in Arizona looking for a strange stone. There, he met an elderly indigenous person in a gorge with no return path. “While carrying the injured man out of the gorge, the man gave me this and said it could move souls across space and time.”
“You believed that?”
“Yeah.”
“Holy crap…”
Yi Yeon, tongue-tied in shock, was met by Stephen, who spread his arms in embarrassment. “Think about it. We were talking while carrying him, but when we arrived at the car, there was no feeling at all.”
“Did it disappear?”
“Yeah. So I believed it. That it would take me to the desired space and time.”
“You’re not mistaken, are you?”
“No. I had it in my hand.”
Stephen still looked bewildered at the soul transfer that looked like a dreamcatcher. Yi Yeon watched for a long time before casually saying, “So you went back to the medieval era to become a conqueror?”
“Yeah. But how did you know?”
“Your channel name.”
“Ah! Damn it. I must have drunk too much. I asked such a stupid question.”
Stephen scratched his head, feeling embarrassed. Seeing this, Yi Yeon smiled faintly and asked again, “Why did you want to become a conqueror?”
Stephen hesitated for a moment, then poured out all the thoughts he had been hiding in a murmur. “…” “So, I wanted to eliminate war from this world.”
“How?”
“At first, I thought of making large quantities of steel swords and plate armor in the medieval era to conquer. But after being hit by a wild boar, I realized it was futile.”
“So you came up with the slamfire shotgun?”
“Exactly. If we had a easy-to-make slamfire shotgun, we could conquer the world, even if it wasn’t the Middle Ages but the early modern period.”
“To become a conqueror, we have to fight wars, right?”
“That’s unavoidable. But if we conquer everyone, we can get rid of the army, and no one would be able to fight wars even if they wanted to.”
“If there’s no army, people would fight more, right?”
Yi Yeon’s question was met with Stephen taking a high-end whiskey from Lithium USA in one gulp, tensing his eyes, and saying, “There won’t be any of that. I’ll be the only one with an army.”
His serious expression prompted Yi Yeon to pour a drink and raise it. “To the medieval conqueror!”
“To the medieval conqueror!”
“To the early modern conqueror!”
“To the early modern conqueror!”