The Korean-Style Goalkeeper
"Hello. I'm Kim Taesik, CEO of Starlink. I understand you're from the Miso Group's secretariat..."
Taesik brought up the Miso Group to test the men Miso had brought along.
"Nice to meet you. I am General Manager Park Jihong. Affiliations are determined by necessity, but I am a person of Lee Miso, not a person of the Miso Group."
After introducing himself and the two men who accompanied him, General Manager Park drew a clear line between himself and the Miso Group. Beside him, Miso watched the three men with a faint smile, seemingly satisfied with Park's statement. After locking eyes with Miso, Park spoke again.
"I was told before coming here that I should transfer my affiliation to Starlink. I heard that I need to manage assets and proceed with the UAM business, so if you give me permission, Representative, we will start working from this week."
"Hahaha. I heard you were a person personally assigned by Chairman Lee Hyundo, so there's no need for a separate test. You wouldn't have been receiving a standard manager's salary while at the Miso Group, so how should I compensate you?"
"As I mentioned earlier, affiliations are determined by necessity, so Miso-nim has already been taking care of the compensation for the three of us separately. We set up the affiliation for the sake of efficiency, so the compensation itself is meaningless."
"Then, if I hire you at your original ranks, it would be a problem since Miso-ssi is currently an employee. I should promote Miso-ssi to Executive Director, General Manager Park Jihong to Managing Director level, and the other two to General Manager level."
"Thank you for your consideration. We will start work as soon as the resignation process from the Miso Group is complete."
When General Manager Park didn't bring up the topic of this investment, Taesik looked at Miso.
"Miso-ssi. Does General Manager Park not know about this investment?"
"Yes. I was going to tell him once he earned your trust, Taesik-ssi."
Taesik sat on the sofa, offered coffee, and began explaining the details of the upcoming investment.
"General Manager Park—no, Managing Director Park! I would like to proceed with an investment in Bitcoin using my investment funds and Miso-ssi's funds."
Managing Director Park, seemingly familiar with Bitcoin, asked a question with an intrigued look in his eyes.
"I manage Executive Director Lee Miso's assets, so I can proceed as soon as the investment amount is decided, but I do not have the Representative's asset information."
As Taesik relayed his stock information for Starlink, Misung Electronics, and Aiple, Managing Director Park's eyes widened, and he focused intently on the conversation.
"I am thinking of proceeding with a $2 billion investment this time. Miso-ssi, how much will you be investing?"
After conveying his own investment scale, Taesik asked Miso, and Miso turned the question back to Managing Director Park Jihong.
"Managing Director Park Jihong. How much cash do you have on hand right now?"
"Including the dividends coming in this time, it's about 22 billion won."
"Then I will match it to $100 million by using the stocks I own as collateral."
Managing Director Park seemed to think Miso was investing more than expected.
"Executive Director Lee! Bitcoin is an investment product with higher volatility than you might think. If the investment goes wrong, there could be problems with the Miso Group stock holdings that the Chairman passed down to you. How about reducing the investment scale a bit?"
Miso smiled at Park's counter-question and replied.
"As you know, I will be marrying Taesik-ssi soon. Sometimes I have doubts about Taesik-ssi's investment methods, but from what I've seen by his side, I believe this is an opportunity. Honestly, I want to invest more money, but I've limited it to that amount because I'm worried the information might reach my brother or sister."
Taesik smiled contentedly at Miso's words and said to Managing Director Park.
"Now! The investment amount is set. We should invest a total of $2.1 billion in Bitcoin."
Managing Director Park hesitated for a moment, then seemed to have gathered his thoughts.
"Representative. The domestic market is too narrow to invest $2.1 billion. We have to proceed with the investment in the United States, but even in the U.S., if $2.1 billion is invested at once, the price of Bitcoin will inevitably rise. Listening to you, it seems you have a liquidation point in mind. Is there a benchmark?"
Taesik was satisfied with the Managing Director's question, which accurately grasped his intentions.
"At the end of this year, the Chicago Options Exchange and the Futures Exchange will begin dealing with products related to Bitcoin. You can use that as a benchmark for liquidation."
Managing Director Park was surprised by the information that Bitcoin was entering the institutional sphere.
"Representative. Where did you hear that information? If Bitcoin is officially entering the U.S. exchange market, and if the news is credible, I will go to the U.S. immediately."
"I cannot reveal the source of the information, but it is a fact that Bitcoin will be traded on U.S. exchanges around mid-December."
Managing Director Park, who had been deep in thought for a while, looked at Miso.
"Executive Director Lee! This investment is expected to yield massive profits, so it's a shame to end it at $100 million. How about proceeding with the investment by using stocks from affiliates that the other children aren't paying attention to as collateral?"
As Managing Director Park's attitude became proactive, Miso laughed.
"Calculate the amount we can invest later and let me know."
"Understood. I will wrap up the Miso Group secretariat work as of today and start commuting to Starlink from tomorrow."
After finishing his conversation with Managing Director Park Jihong, Taesik delivered a few precautions and decided to proceed with Bitcoin investments in both Korea and the U.S.
The next day, Taesik headed to the West Coast test site to conduct the evaluation of the Korean-style Goalkeeper. Upon arriving, he saw the employees of Starlink Defense moving busily.
As Taesik's vehicle arrived, CEO Park In-tak approached and greeted him.
"Representative. You've arrived."
"Where is the Korean-style Goalkeeper we developed?"
"If you go to that pier, it's installed on a barge."
"A barge...?"
"Yes. Since the performance evaluation hasn't been completed yet, the Navy says they will mount it on an Aegis ship once the performance is proven. And since it's a weapon system independent of the ship's radar, there's no major problem with installing it as an independent system on a barge."
"How do the specifications of the Goalkeeper we developed compare to the imported ones?"
"The overall size is similar, but the externally protruding shape is different because of the radar."
As Taesik headed to the pier guided by CEO Park In-tak, the Korean-style Goalkeeper developed by Defense began to appear between the large steel structures on the barge.
"The Goalkeeper is bigger than I thought."
"Yes. Because of the 30mm Gatling gun ammunition feeding system, the height is over 6 meters. We are conducting a final check before the evaluation, so it's difficult to see it up close."
Taesik watched the employees checking the equipment from afar, and the employees moved without rest, inspecting the equipment they were in charge of.
A moment later, an engineer who appeared to be the person in charge sounded a siren and began the broadcast.
"We will begin the final inspection. Employees on the barge, please come out."
Along with the announcement, the employees came out of the barge with their equipment. The engineer acting as the controller sent a radio message immediately after receiving confirmation that all personnel had evacuated.
"Before the main test, we will begin the final performance check using a drone. Drone launch!"
In accordance with the controller's signal, a 1-meter class drone was launched into the sky, and at the same time, the controller began the broadcast.
"Three, two, one, start operation!"
With the broadcast, a whirring sound was heard, power was supplied to the AESA radar, and faint noise began to be heard. As the system boot was completed, the AESA radar seemed to have detected the drone immediately, turning the turret toward the drone, and the controller's broadcast was heard.
"Drone detected! Automatic fire!"
Since the 30mm Gatling gun was not yet loaded with shells, the sound of the ammunition feeding system operating was heard along with a rattling noise, and the barge caused a slight vibration. Soon after, the controller announced the inspection results through the broadcast system.
"Radar and ammunition feeding system function check results show no abnormalities. Gatling gun personnel, please begin loading the Gatling gun into the feeding system."
With the broadcast, the faint whirring noise disappeared, and the workers climbed onto the barge and began loading the prepared Gatling gun through the feeding system.
Once the inspection was over, CEO Park In-tak immediately guided Taesik onto the barge and began explaining the Korean-style Goalkeeper developed by Defense.
"Representative. The Korean-style Goalkeeper we developed is 6 meters high, 3 meters wide, and weighs 10 tons. The 30mm Gatling gun can carry 1,150 rounds. Instead of a mechanical radar, we mounted an AESA radar, significantly increasing detection performance compared to the existing one."
"The Gatling gun is the same product as the existing one, right?"
"Yes, that's correct. Domestic technology couldn't support it yet, so we had no choice but to import it."
"Then, if we use the existing Goalkeeper's Gatling gun and only change the radar and control system, performance upgrades would also be possible, right?"
"Yes. That's why the Navy is showing great interest. If we pass this performance evaluation, we have decided to sequentially upgrade the Goalkeepers mounted on existing Aegis ships and mount the newly developed Goalkeeper on new ships."
Taesik approached the radar section of the Goalkeeper and looked at the AESA radar he had designed himself.
"You used my design exactly."
"Except for the radar placement, we used the existing system as is. The space is wider than on an aircraft, so there's no big difference other than reinforcing the cooling system. The detection system is more efficient than the existing Goalkeeper, so it can be improved further as long as it's not a Gatling gun range issue."
"Applying the AESA radar means the detection part is fine, but how did you apply the S/W for the target processing part?"
"We developed it through our own S/W and handed it over to CEO Cha Youngjin of Deepmind, and he improved the module based on artificial intelligence, so the processing speed and accuracy increased by more than twice compared to the existing one."
"CEO Cha Youngjin is doing his part properly..."
"We are planning to apply the target tracking and analysis system developed this time to high-power lasers as well. The artificial intelligence analyzes the target and identifies the type of enemy attack missile, which is a great help in interception. We have no worries about the domestic Haeseong missile interception we will conduct today, and we even judge that supersonic anti-ship missile interception is possible."
Taesik laughed while listening to CEO Park In-tak's confident words.
"Hahaha. CEO Park! Aren't you too confident?"
"Today's performance evaluation is just a rite of passage. Once this performance evaluation is finished, I plan to hurry up with high-power laser and missile development."
As the two men talked and got off the barge, a tugboat approached and began leading the barge equipped with the Goalkeeper out to sea. The two men prepared to welcome guests while moving to the location for the Defense Research Institute's test observation, and the employees climbed onto fishing boats and moved busily to prevent problems that might occur during the towing process.
After a simple meal, Taesik toured the Defense Research Institute's test site to see if there were any facilities or equipment to adopt at Starlink Aviation's launch vehicle test site, and as it passed 1:00 PM, guests began to arrive.