Chapter 11. The Whole World Becomes Obsessed, Mistaking a Toy Made for Fun for a Weapon
Chapter 11. The Whole World Becomes Obsessed, Mistaking a Toy Made for Fun for a Weapon
“So then I held it up like it was a bomb and just…”
Ian was completely absorbed in my story, not even realizing that red tteokbokki sauce was smeared across her lips.
(Translator’s Note: Tteokbokki — A popular Korean dish made from cylindrical rice cakes, commonly cooked in a spicy red sauce based on gochujang.)
Had I taken a picture with my own eyes right then, it would have looked like one of those photos of beautiful women you saw on Instagram.
“That was lucky. At least you had something with you when you went in. But why were you carrying that stuff around?”
Ian looked curious about why I had been carrying materials for a homemade smoke bomb.
“Honestly, I’ve had a bad feeling lately…”
“A bad feeling?”
“Like someone keeps watching me…”
“Could it be a stalker? I’ve had a lot of people like that too…”
“What? Who? Are they still following you? I’ll make you something.”
“No, they’re gone now. Whenever I tell Dad, they always disappear. I guess he talks to them nicely.”
Ian’s father was the chairman of Toy Empire. Maybe he solved such problems with money.
[For reference, her father, Jang Seokjin, is actually the current Second Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service.]
Ian even stopped chewing and stared directly at me.
“But you’re incredible too. How did you even think about doing business in the middle of that chaos?”
Ian’s eyes widened as she asked in disbelief.
“I just threw out whatever came to mind. I was trying to calm them down first.”
“…So that’s why you didn’t reply to my messages?”
It might be hard to believe, but even when an unrealistically beautiful girl like her contacted me first, there were plenty of times when I failed to reply promptly.
As soon as classes ended, I rushed straight to the factory to run the machines, and I was constantly occupied with developing new weapons.
“No, I was just insanely busy…”
It was not an excuse. I had truly been so busy that my nose bled, and I barely even had time to sit at my desk.
“Excuse me, but I’m a little upset, you know?”
Ian pouted as she stabbed an innocent rice cake with her chopsticks.
Looking at her slightly sulky expression, I still could not quite believe that a girl like her was sitting in front of me and eating tteokbokki with me.
“That’s why I brought you tteokbokki like this. I’m sorry.”
Wait. Didn’t that exchange just now somehow look like a couple, with one person sulking and the other trying to appease them?
The sudden thought made my face burn.
Just as I avoided her gaze because I could not bring myself to look directly into her eyes—
Bzzzzzt—
My phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a message from Taeju.
“Who is it?”
When I hurriedly checked the screen, Ian looked at me curiously.
“Taeju. He says they finished hiring all the factory workers and just started mass production.”
“Do you have to go?”
Ian looked up at me as though asking whether I really had to leave.
Her cuteness was devastating, but I was far too curious about how the factory line was running to resist.
“Want to come with me?”
Science Facility Factory No. 1.
The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, the strong smell of oil rushed toward me while the energetic noise of machinery pounded against my eardrums.
Whirrrrr—
The five newly hired employees and the automated equipment were assembling drone parts without pause.
Boxes of finished drones were stacked neatly on one side.
“At this rate, meeting Toy Empire’s delivery deadline will be nothing.”
Taeju shrugged as he glanced between Ian and me.
“Compared to when the three of us had to work through the night, this is unbelievably fast.”
She exclaimed in admiration while watching the busy production line.
It had only been a short time since the three of us struggled while covered in dust, yet it already felt like a distant memory.
“Starting now, I’m completely stepping away from production. From now on, I’m only going to do development work.”
Taeju readily nodded at my declaration.
At last, we had completed an automated system that would generate money on its own.
On top of that, product manufacturing was now one less task I had to worry about.
From now on, I could devote myself entirely to the thing I loved most: developing weapons.
Ding—
At that moment, a sharp notification sounded from Taeju’s phone.
“Wow… This is insane.”
Taeju’s mouth fell open as he stared at the screen.
“What happened?”
“We just got a direct order from the UK. Two hundred units.”
We had only mentioned overseas exports in passing, yet Taeju had already quietly arranged everything behind the scenes.
As always, his ability to smell money and immediately set things in motion was incredible.
“Two hundred units means one hundred million won, doesn’t it?”
The scale of the money entering our bank account had changed entirely.
It still felt unreal that hundreds of millions of won could change hands in an instant.
“You really won’t have any time to rest…”
Ian quietly murmured as she looked at me.
As she watched the factory operating at a frantic pace, a faint trace of disappointment crossed her face.
“What the hell are all of you doing?!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Russian Minister of Defense pounded his fists against the desk so violently that it seemed ready to break, his face flushed crimson.
The military leaders and officials lined up inside the conference room did not dare make a sound. They could only watch him cautiously.
“You failed to bring back one high school student? What are you going to do now?!”
“Minister, well… even without him, perhaps we could begin domestic production…”
“You idiot!!”
Crash—
The Minister of Defense hurled an ashtray at the official who had misspoken.
“The entire balance of warfare around the world is being overturned depending on whether countries can secure the weapons made by that Korean, and you still don’t understand the situation?”
The minister’s furious assessment was correct.
Modern warfare was a war of attrition in which enormous amounts of capital were poured into the battlefield.
Ultimately, the size of a country’s defense budget determined victory or defeat.
However, the abnormally cheap, high-performance weapons emerging from South Korea had put the entire world on edge.
Russia had taken a reckless gamble because it feared the overwhelming efficiency those weapons provided at absurdly low prices.
“Immediately… find a route around the restrictions somehow and buy up every Korean weapon you can get your hands on. Understood?”
“Yes! Understood.”
It would not be easy under the West’s tightly woven economic sanctions.
However, Russia now had no choice but to purchase Hyesung’s weapons by any means necessary.
It had to survive this insane war of cost-effectiveness.
Russia’s obsession was not over.
“Taeju, hurry. Come to the factory office. Hurry!”
Hyesung’s urgent voice erupted from the phone.
There was not even a hint of laughter in the voice of the normally playful young man.
A strange tension crossed Taeju’s face.
“What happened? Is the factory on fire or something?”
“Whatever you’re doing right now, drop everything and run over here! I don’t have time to explain.”
“Got it. I’ll be there soon.”
Click.
Realizing that something serious had happened, Taeju immediately caught a taxi and raced toward the factory.
The scene in front of the factory was completely different from usual.
Several large black sedans blocked the entrance, while burly men in suits were stationed throughout the area, standing guard.
“What the hell…? This… Something really must have happened.”
Taeju swallowed dryly and was about to rush inside the factory when an enormous man suddenly appeared and blocked his path.
“What business do you have here?”
“What business do I have? That’s what I should be asking. This is my factory.”
The man stared intently at Taeju’s face before speaking.
“…Are you CEO Choi Taeju?”
How did he know his name?
Before Taeju could resolve that question, a short electronic tone came from the man’s radio.
—Beep. Let CEO Choi Taeju through.
“You may enter.”
The man stepped aside.
It was absurd that Taeju needed permission to enter his own factory.
However, this was not the time to argue.
Panting for breath, Taeju ran toward the office.
Bang!
Taeju violently threw open the door and froze at the utterly unbelievable sight before him.
Hyesung sat anxiously on the worn-out faux-leather sofa, his leg shaking uncontrollably.
And sitting on the sofa across from him was—the President of the Republic of Korea.
“So you are Co-CEO Choi Taeju. Please, have a seat.”
The face Taeju had only ever seen on television news programs smiled kindly and gestured toward an empty seat.
My legs are shaking. When is this bastard going to get here?
Bang!
The office door flew open violently, and Taeju rushed inside.
As expected, Taeju apparently could not process the situation. He stood frozen in place with his mouth hanging open.
Hey, close your mouth. You’re going to start drooling.
I scolded him inwardly, but the truth was, I was losing my mind too.
The actual President of the Republic of Korea was sitting right in front of me.
It had started with an ordinary phone call.
—The VIP wishes to meet CEO Ryu Hyesung.
The VIP…? Who is that?
The man on the other end answered without the slightest hesitation.
—That is classified information and cannot be disclosed over the phone. The meeting itself is also classified as top secret, so you must maintain absolute confidentiality.
And a few hours later, that “VIP” turned out to be the President.
He had arrived at our rundown factory office accompanied by his security detail.
Why had he come?
Was it because of that insane stunt where I waved something around and pretended it was a bomb in front of those Russian soldiers?
Clink.
The President placed his teacup on the table and broke the silence.
“I have been receiving regular reports about you, CEO Ryu Hyesung.”
“About me?”
“I was told that you developed technology by yourself that even the United States and China have not yet achieved. And you did it at home, no less.”
“It wasn’t technology that had never existed anywhere in the world.”
“That is true. However, no one else in the world has achieved that level of performance at such a low unit cost.”
I suppressed a hollow laugh.
I had been a penniless student, so I had desperately scavenged whatever cheap components I could find and built cost-effective toys.
I never imagined those toys would be enough to move the President himself.
How had things grown this serious?
“CEO Ryu. CEO Choi.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
Taeju and I answered simultaneously.
“As of today, your company will receive special approval as a South Korean defense industry company.”
“What?”
The defense industry was the pinnacle of restrictive regulation.
Not only would an eighteen-year-old high school student never normally receive approval, but even wealthy conglomerates often struggled to enter the field because of regulatory barriers.
“Your company is now a valuable national asset. Ah, do not misunderstand. I am not saying the government intends to take your company away from you. I mean that the country intends to protect it with everything at its disposal.”
“Then… does that mean we’re really allowed to manufacture and sell actual weapons?”
Taeju asked as though confirming the privilege we had just been granted.
“That is correct. However…”
The President paused, then lowered his voice by a degree, as though everything from this point onward was the true heart of the matter.
“On the surface, this company must remain an ordinary toy company. Both of you must also continue living as ordinary high school students attending school.”
The reason was that public attention would become overwhelming if people learned that a student was manufacturing and selling weapons.
“And CEO Ryu Hyesung. You…”
The President looked directly into my eyes.
“From this moment onward, you are a Level 1 National Security Protection Subject.”
“What? Me?”
A Level 1 National Security Protection Subject.
That meant I would receive the same level of security protection as a nuclear power plant, one of the nation’s core strategic facilities.
“From now on, the Republic of Korea will take responsibility for protecting your life and safety.”
Rather than feeling reassured by the President’s firm declaration, I was overwhelmed by a deeper question.
Why were they giving us such extraordinary treatment?
“Um… may I ask why you’re going this far for us?”
As though he had been waiting for the question, the President calmly began explaining the situation.
“The current international situation is extremely unstable. New wars are breaking out in various regions, crude oil prices are soaring, and consumer prices are fluctuating wildly.”
“Yes…”
I knew that much.
Every time I turned on the news, reports of armed conflicts in foreign countries poured out.
“I do not know whether we should laugh or cry about this, but… requests for South Korean defense products are flooding in from around the world.”
The President looked directly into my eyes as he spoke.
“However, most of the weapons we ourselves currently use are American-made. We have no choice but to purchase them at absurdly high prices, and even when they malfunction, we cannot open them up and repair them ourselves. We cannot even upgrade their software freely.”
“Ah…”
“CEO Ryu Hyesung, I am asking for your help. Please domestically develop equivalents of advanced foreign weapons.”
The President looked at me with an earnest expression.
How in the world had things ended up like this?