The AI in My Head Came from 600 Years in the Future
The ultra-advanced artificial intelligence from the future that flew into my head… no, the supervisory personality, Alex.
He had come from a future a full 600 years or more distant, and though he was nothing more than a bio-chip that had latched onto my brain without permission, sustaining himself by sucking down sugar and glucose, the power he carried was beyond anything I could have imagined.
> [The semiconductor market has fallen into serious turmoil lately. Ever since news broke of Ontel's optical semiconductor development, competitor stocks have been hitting their daily lows for days on end?]
> [That's right. If optical semiconductor technology is commercialized, existing semiconductors will lose their competitiveness entirely. In preparation for that, the major manufacturers have canceled their plans to expand additional fabrication plants and announced sweeping restructuring, scaling back production while scrambling to secure capital.]
The end of the silicon-electronic semiconductor era, brought shockingly close by Ontel before anyone could have predicted it. And in order to survive the future that was coming, countless companies were tearing up every plan they had ever drawn up, thrashing desperately to catch up with Ontel, which had leapt so impossibly far ahead.
> [The semiconductor industry is a high-value industry we absolutely cannot abandon. Our government is in close communication with the various semiconductor companies, and we will spare no active support or investment in preparation for the newly dawning optical semiconductor era.]
> [Even if mass production of optical semiconductors begins, existing semiconductors won't vanish from the market overnight. Ontel's production capacity isn't that large. Even if they expanded their facilities right now, it would realistically be difficult to handle the demand that will pour in from around the world over the next twenty years. Until then, like it or not, existing semiconductor chips will simply have to keep being used. Of course, they won't be the high-value industry they are now.]
Every current-affairs program, every news broadcast, every documentary was chattering about nothing but the semiconductor industry all day long. Countless experts, researchers, and politicians were discussing the situation with more gravity than ever before — and watching it all, I couldn't help but feel the irony.
"Alex, so optical semiconductors just aren't used at all in your era?"
[Optical semiconductors? Barely. They show up a little in kids' toys, or in extremely simple equipment and tools. Most people use quantum chips. Optical semiconductor tech was widely used starting in the 2200s, but once quantum semiconductor technology appeared, it was almost entirely phased out of the market by the mid-2400s.]
Alex waved it off as if it were nothing at all, as if it were utter garbage. Of all the technologies he carried, he had merely pulled out one relic of a bygone age, long since obsolete — and the entire world's semiconductor market was being completely reshaped as a result.
Economically, politically, socially, a massive paradigm shift was already underway — yet Alex, acting as if none of it mattered, was already preparing the next stage of his plans.
[Well then. Now that the world sees you as a genius scientist, Grandpa, I'd say it's about time we started moving in earnest, don't you?]
"Moving?"
[Did you forget? Our grand plan to prevent the extinction of humanity?]
When I asked what on earth he meant, Alex only looked puzzled and asked right back. And when I heard the details of the grand plan he was talking about, I frowned.
"Ah, what the hell. When did I ever say I'd swallow up South Korea?"
[Huh? I told you back then, didn't I? That I'd make sure you could take complete control of this country within five years. And after that, we'd mobilize the nation's full capacity to—]
"That's not a plan, that's a war-mongering maniac declaring war on the entire world."
Alex's insane scheme: declare war on eighty-two nations and blow up roughly half the planet. Absolutely not. I had zero intention of vaporizing half of human civilization.
[Even if it's not outright war, the nations of the world still need to be brought to vassal or tributary status. And to do that, you have to swallow this country first, and then—]
"We agreed to make money first. When did I ever say I'd do something that insane?"
I agreed with preventing the earth-exploding ending that awaited us in the future.
But for me — an ordinary man who had always pursued the life of a comfortable, slightly well-off commoner — the kind of idea that belonged to some mustache-twirling dictator brimming with ambition was a little… no, a lot unappealing.
[Tch. If you're born a man, you ought to at least attempt something grand enough to command the world. Why are you so timid, Grandpa?]
Alex grumbled that his grandfather had precious little ambition for a man. But since his demands were excessive beyond all imagination, not a shred of my pride took the hit, and I shrugged.
"Believe it or not, my childhood dream was to be a civil servant. A civil servant. You know what that is?"
[…What does that have to do with anything right now?]
"It means I'm the kind of person who pursues peace and quiet. Flipping the whole world upside down, the way you want to? Not my style."
Peace and quiet. Job security.
A life where all you had to do was collect your paycheck and handle the work you were given without incident — how comfortable and leisurely would that be? I actually thought being a civil servant would be an absolute jackpot, and for a time in my school days I dreamed of that future.
Of course, once I caught wind of the sinister reality — an endless hell of being tormented daily by nightmare complainers and incompetent seniors who did nothing but dump work on you — I walked a different path.
"Anyway, even without swallowing a whole country or going to war with the entire world the way you imagine it, I can wield plenty of overwhelming influence. I don't know what the world you lived in was like, but in this era, the most important thing, above all else…"
"…is money."
A society at the very peak of capitalism.
Everyone was supposedly equal, yet it was a world where rank was divided by the size of one's bank account — a world of immense influence. In a world like this, if I used Alex's technologies well, I could grasp a power great enough to shake the globe.
"Through Limitless, I'm going to realize world-shaking new technologies like the one we just saw. Of course, I can't commercialize all of them alone, so I'll need to form partnerships with various companies — like we did with Ontel."
Alex's technologies weren't confined to electronics, either.
Biotech, energy, space technology, defense, telecommunications, materials… literally every industry and field of science was brimming with innovations waiting to be unleashed, enough to rake in money with a pitchfork. Which was why I intended to turn Limitless into a colossal patent monster the likes of which history had never seen.
[Hmmmm…]
Alex made an odd noise at my plan, pulling a face that said he didn't like it. But he soon clicked his tongue and spoke.
[Well… there's no point saying more when you clearly won't listen, Grandpa, so I'll sit back and watch for now. But you'd do well to remember one thing.]
"What?"
[Sooner or later, you're going to revise that plan of yours from the ground up and declare to me that you're swallowing this country whole.]
"…?"
[Just wait and see.]
Alex wore a sly, sinister smile, as if he'd just discovered a fascinating new toy, and spoke with maddening ambiguity. Just as I opened my mouth to demand what the hell he was talking about, the phone suddenly began to ring, and I had no choice but to cut the conversation short.
"Who is it?"
An unfamiliar number, one I'd never seen before. But thinking it might be an important call, I accepted.
"Hello?"
> [Is this Mr. Kang Gun?]
A man's voice, one I'd never heard before. But he already knew my name, and in a flat, low tone he identified himself.
> [I work for a government agency handling science and technology protection matters. There's a matter we need to discuss, which is why I'm contacting you.]
"…?"
He claimed to be from the government and wanted to meet in person.
But it was all so out of left field that I saw through the true nature of the call almost immediately.
So it's a voice phishing scam…
Koreans' personal information had long since been scattered to the four winds like a public commodity. Thanks to my name becoming famous lately, I figured some enterprising crooks had decided to attempt this novel little con — and I answered without leaving them an inch of room.
"Not interested."
> […Pardon?]
"I don't know what you want to talk about, but I'm not interested, so don't call again. Blocking you now."
> [What on earth— hey. Wait a—]
The man stammered, flustered by my words, calling out to me. But I hung up immediately, blocked the number for good measure, and smiled a satisfied little smile as I thought:
I'd better change my phone number first, come to think of it.
The old number was already compromised beyond saving, so with the resolve to start fresh, a new number was in order.
The intelligence agency responsible for the security of the Republic of Korea: the National Intelligence Service.
It no longer wielded the vast, sweeping powers it had in the days when it was called the Agency for National Security Planning, but the men and women who gathered and synthesized intelligence from home and abroad still worked tirelessly behind the scenes of society for the sake of national security.
In particular, the NIS had been extremely active lately in response to the sharp surge in industrial technology leaks. Jung In-ho, a Grade 7 agent working at the NIS's Industrial Technology Protection Center, stared down at his disconnected phone with an expression of sheer disbelief.
"…He actually blocked me?"
The target had hung up on him unilaterally without even hearing him out, and now refused to pick up at all when he called back. Blocked before he'd even been given the chance to explain the situation, Jung In-ho let out a hollow laugh at the strange sense of defeat welling up inside him.
"No, seriously… wow…"
"Ha, these damn voice phishing crooks make this job so hard."
Personal data breaches had grown so catastrophic over the past few years that phone scams impersonating government agencies had exploded. Revealing oneself as NIS to a civilian was strictly forbidden, so every time these calls got handed around, they produced misunderstandings much like this one.
Though, admittedly, getting blocked outright like this was not exactly common.
"He doesn't even realize what situation he's in."
The intelligence agencies of the world had recently begun moving with explosive activity inside South Korea.
Not just the neighboring countries — North Korea, China, Russia, Japan — but even the distant nations of Europe and the Middle East, which were known to maintain little more than token branch offices, had for once sent in waves of suspected intelligence operatives, and the NIS was being kept thoroughly on its toes.
> - Additional Israeli diplomats dispatched. Suspected Mossad intelligence operatives.
> - Tourists suspected of including Chinese agents entering the country. Intensive surveillance required.
> - Russian black operative embedded domestically. Whereabouts unknown. Emergency tracking initiated.
> - Sharp surge in North Korean random-number directive broadcasts. Domestic counterintelligence security level raised to Stage 1.
Spies attempting to infiltrate the country, assaulting South Korea's counterintelligence net from every conceivable angle. And the NIS had identified a single individual as the cause of it all.
[National Strategic Technology — Grade 'A' Person of Interest (Presumed) — Kang Gun]
The genius scientist Kang Gun, known to have played a central role in Ontel's world-shaking optical semiconductor development.
Tentatively designating him as the target of the tide of spies flooding in from around the world had not been difficult. Spies who infiltrated South Korea almost never strayed beyond Seoul and the capital region…
Yet this time, strangely, as if by prior arrangement, they were all converging on Cheongju.
"…"
It didn't look like they were about to do anything just yet, but they couldn't simply be left alone either. So after a moment's deliberation, Jung In-ho picked up several file folders and muttered in a voice heavy with fatigue:
"Guess I'm heading to Cheongju…"
Leaving work on time, it seemed, was not going to happen.