Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Shall I Build You a Nuclear Weapon?
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I must have saved a country in my past life.
I've been given the body of a defense industry chaebol's son, and with it, military technology unimaginable in this era.
2024, the Republic of Korea's defense industry achieved remarkable growth.
From the production of 4.5-generation fighter jets to strategic ballistic missiles and hypersonic cruise missiles. And even the domestic development of AESA radar.
Ironically, around that time, the possibility of war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula at the hands of surrounding powers skyrocketed.
Concerned about the nation's survival, the government established a plan to consolidate key military technologies onto a single data chip.
"It's absurd for the state to forcibly appropriate our technology just because it's used in the defense sector."
Naturally, opposition poured in from all sectors of society.
This was especially true for companies that held proprietary material technologies.
However, the government ultimately pushed through its agenda, citing the revised National Emergency Act.
"Why insist on putting all the eggs in one basket? How do you plan to prevent potential leaks from insiders?"
As the director of the Agency for Defense Development at the time, I too was among the dissenters.
I understood the intention, but I judged the plan to be excessively reckless.
In the end, my fears became reality in just one year.
[This afternoon, there was an attempt to steal the defense industry's classified database. The mastermind, Lee Ho-joong, was the developer of the quantum encryption technology used for the chip's security. Had he succeeded in his theft, it could have led to a national disaster.]
The only silver lining was that the authorities acted quickly.
But was the process truly without sacrifice?
I, who had noticed his actions and tried to stop him... was ultimately killed.
[During the autopsy of ADD Director Kim Jun, who was murdered by the culprit Lee Ho-joong, the government discovered the data chip remaining in his stomach. It is believed he showed great presence of mind in a critical moment, and in honor of his achievement, he has been posthumously awarded the Order of National Security Merit, Tong-il Medal. With this, the whereabouts of the chip, which might have been lost forever with the culprit's death, have been confirmed secure.]
Lee Ho-joong couldn't escape death either, in the end.
Unlike him, I became a hero, but what good is a reward granted after you're already dead?
If there was any consolation, it was confirming that souls exist. I'm quite curious about what happens next.
Am I headed to the afterlife now?
Or reincarnation?
Damn it, if something like reincarnation is really possible, I hope for a more decent life this time...
***
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, a splitting headache assaulted me.
A sensation I hadn't felt once since my death.
Perhaps because of it, my fading consciousness sharpened in an instant, and my eyes flew open.
"He's alive!"
"Damn, I was shocked. Thought you died from just that one hit. Hey, you bastard. You made my balls shrivel up."
I couldn't make sense of the situation at all.
Who were these men looking down at me and yelling, and why was I sprawled out on the ground like this?
Judging by the surroundings, it was clearly some kind of bar, but I couldn't understand why I, who had been wandering the valley of the dead, was in such a place.
"What are you all doing!"
Just then, a woman rushed over and helped me up.
She was a stranger, too.
As I stared blankly, she waved a few fingers in front of my face.
"Managing Director! Are you with us?"
"...Where am I?"
The woman stared at me with a shocked expression.
It was a look of utter devastation. Then, her expression suddenly hardened with anger as she whirled to face the men, a sharp cry erupting from her lips.
"Look here. Who in their right mind smashes a bottle over someone's head!"
"Can't you see the state we're in? He's the one who started swinging a bottle first!"
The men retorted against the woman's protest.
The woman glanced between their disheveled appearances and me, then, after a moment of troubled hesitation, she suddenly pulled an envelope from her bag and handed it to the men.
"Let's settle this here. This is a bar with hostesses. If we take this to the police station, neither side is going to come out looking good."
The men who took the envelope exchanged wide-eyed glances.
Then, as if on cue, they turned and left. The woman, who had watched them go with an indifferent expression, turned back to support me and spoke.
"First, I'll take you to the hospital. Even if there are no visible injuries, you should still get checked out."
"And who are you?"
The woman's face suddenly went pale.
"Secretary Yang? Get down here, now."
She seemed to make a call, and a moment later, a man with a massive build—so large he looked like he'd have trouble fitting through the door—appeared.
"Allow me, Managing Director."
"..."
The place I was practically carried out of was, as expected, a bar.
One that boasted neon signs so gaudy they felt tacky.
Come to think of it, the hairstyles of the women who glanced at me as they passed also felt incredibly dated.
'What is this...'
With a screech, a car pulled up in front of me, equally overflowing with classic charm.
What year is that Mercedes from?
The chrome-plated bumper, something you hardly ever see these days, was particularly jarring.
"Get in, sir."
As I hesitated, I inadvertently caught a glimpse of my reflection in the car window.
"Wait a minute!"
Startled, I shook off their hands and pressed my face to the window again.
I rubbed my eyes several times, but the reflection was clearly not me, but some young, healthy man.
'Hyun-seung?'
It was unmistakably his face.
My college classmate and one of my closest friends.
Just in case, I checked his forehead and saw the scar that had been his trademark.
"This is insane!"
"Oh my! Managing Director."
Her words jolted me. That's right, she had been calling me Managing Director.
Then again, a title like that probably wasn't unreasonable for the second son of Jaewoo Group, one of South Korea's leading defense contractors.
'No.'
That was when he was alive.
How could he be here, when he'd definitely died at the age of thirty-two...
"Excuse me, but what year is it?"
I ignored the woman's puzzled look and pressed for an answer.
I had hoped I was wrong, but the woman, blinking, uttered words that struck me like a thunderbolt.
"It's 1998. Why do you ask, so suddenly?"
1998 was the exact year Hyun-seung died.
On January 5th, the same day as my birthday.
I was studying abroad in the U.S. at the time and couldn't attend the funeral due to visa issues. I only later heard the news that he had died after being caught up in a bar fight.
"Don't tell me today is January 5th?"
"Yes, it is."
"..."
It seemed I had just experienced a moment of history.
Of all things, the very incident in which Hyun-seung had died.
But why.
Why was this body, which should have rightly been a corpse, perfectly fine and alive again?
And why, of all people, was I its new owner? I couldn't understand it at all.
"Are you all right, Managing Director?"
Just then, a faint memory from my time wandering the valley of the dead surfaced.
The yearning for life I had repeated over and over.
Could that be the reason?
Did someone bring me back to life to grant that wish?
"But even so, what am I supposed to do shoved into someone else's body...?"
"Secretary Yang! What are you doing? Get him to the hospital, quickly."
The woman must have thought my muttering was strange, because she yelled at the man.
I felt a brutish strength, and the next thing I knew, my body was being thrown into the back seat of the car.
'This is ridiculous.'
The streets outside the window were a perfect reenactment of the past.
Especially as we passed through Yeouido.
The moment I saw buildings that had long since been demolished for reconstruction standing there again, I could no longer doubt that it was 1998.
"We're here, sir."
We had arrived at a general hospital belonging to a foundation under the Jaewoo Group.
Compared to my recent memories, its scale was quite shabby.
The fact that this hospital would one day become the largest general hospital in South Korea was a truth only I knew.
"The MRI results show no intracerebral hemorrhage. There are no significant external injuries either, so the bloodstains on your clothes appear to be from a nosebleed."
Fortunately, there was nothing seriously wrong with the body.
It was hard to believe this was the result of an incident that had led to a man's death.
It was a moment that made me suspect the intervention of some supernatural being.
"Still, just in case, you should rest a bit longer."
Despite my assurances that I was fine, the woman insisted I lie down on the bed.
She said problems could arise later, even if there were none now.
In the end, as I lay on the bed lost in thought, a sudden commotion could be heard from outside.
"How could you let this happen?"
Bang!
Before I could even see what was happening, the door burst open.
The person who appeared was Chairman Jin Hyun-pil, the head of Jaewoo Group and Hyun-seung's father.
I recognized him instantly, partly because I'd met him in person a few times, but also because he was such a public figure.
"Tsk, tsk. Look at the trouble you cause."
"..."
His gaze was impossibly cold.
His tone, too, was far from what you'd use with your own flesh and blood.
Even though I wasn't Hyun-seung, I couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment.
"So, what's the situation?"
"Fortunately, they say there's nothing seriously wrong."
"Hey, Secretary Kim. Do you really think that's what I'm asking about?"
"Ah! I've placated the other party and sent them on their way, so there won't be any problems."
A sense of futility washed over me as I listened to the exchange between the Chairman and the woman.
Was this why?
I began to understand, just a little, why Hyun-seung had detested his family so much.
"In any case, the press must not find out about this. Do you have any idea what kind of times these are... If rumors start to spread, you'll all have to be ready for the consequences."
Without another glance in my direction, Chairman Jin turned and left.
Perhaps feeling sorry for me, the woman quietly approached and offered some comfort.
"Please don't be too upset."
"It doesn't matter."
Despite my words, I was worried deep down.
After all, I now had to live the rest of my life in this body.
Anyway, now that I've witnessed Chairman Jin's attitude firsthand, I'm starting to think that Hyun-seung had actually been quite patient for a long time.
"If it's 1998 now, did it start three years ago?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah, never mind. I was just talking to myself."
It was probably less than four years.
The time when he started to fall apart.
After his biological mother's death, he changed drastically. From then on, he ignored his friends' pleas and began to sprint toward a cliff's edge.
"Um... I'm sorry, but are you really all right?"
"..."
"It's just that you keep using formal speech with me."
The woman asked, her expression worried.
A detail I hadn't considered.
In that moment of panic, I felt something stir in my mind, and memories connected to the woman flashed before my eyes.
"Why are Hyun-seung's memories..."
"Pardon?"
I must have mumbled, as she didn't seem to hear me properly.
So, she was his personal secretary.
Even so, it was surprising that a secretary was responsible for handling such shameful incidents.
"Secretary Kim."
"Yes, Managing Director. Do you recognize me now?"
"You've been my secretary for three years now, haven't you?"
"Yes, but why do you suddenly ask...?"
"I was just thinking it must have been difficult for you."
"..."
"Anyway, I'm fine. So let's just go home for now."
"Wouldn't it be better to rest at the hospital today?"
"If I'm going to rest, I'd rather be at home. Please have the car ready."
I was rushing things out of impatience.
Since I had returned in Hyun-seung's body, I wanted to adapt as quickly as possible.
In that sense, the various traces left in his house would be quite helpful.
***
'So this is what it's like to be a chaebol, huh?'
Hyun-seung's house was located in Cheongdam-dong.
It was quite large, even for a townhouse complex said to be inhabited only by the ultra-elite.
As if that weren't surprising enough, the garage was filled with no fewer than five luxury sports cars and sedans.
"Well then, I'll be going. Please call me immediately if you feel like anything is wrong."
"Alright. Thank you for your hard work."
Secretary Kim turned to leave, her expression still unconvinced.
The moment I was finally alone.
What I had to do now was turn the whole house upside down to gather every last piece of necessary information.
I froze.
On my way to the living room, I happened to see my reflection in a mirror.
I had a feeling I needed to change my priorities.
The caked-on blood was one thing, but that completely disheveled hair was really bothering me.
'Hm?'
As I was taking off my watch to take a bath, I discovered a tattoo on my wrist.
He used to say tattoos were just a way to hide weakness.
The thought that this was a complete contradiction to his claims made me tilt my head in confusion.
'Is this even a tattoo?'
It felt somehow... alien.
The slightly raised skin. And the shape, which looked exactly like a semiconductor chip.
This felt less like a tattoo and more like something had been forced under the skin.
[Please enter the configured password.]
Just then, a voice suddenly echoed in my head.
While I was still reeling, a rectangular window suddenly popped up before my eyes.
"..."