Chapter 18. “Give Us Everything You Have.” Why the British Prime Minister Sent South Korea a Love Call
Chapter 18. “Give Us Everything You Have.” Why the British Prime Minister Sent South Korea a Love Call
Jang Seokjin, chairman of the major corporation Toy Empire.
His true identity was the Second Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service, and he was also one of the most hopelessly doting fathers in history.
He had a secret and extremely important plan.
He was determined to make Ryu Hyesung his son-in-law.
Deputy Director, China is preparing an astronomical sum to recruit the VIP.
According to recently obtained intelligence, China had also fully realized Ryu Hyesung’s existence and had begun moving in earnest.
They could not afford to be late.
This was a race against time involving both the survival of the nation and his daughter’s future.
Clink.
“Ian.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
Tap.
Ian’s spoon stopped in midair.
Her pale cheeks flushed a light peach color.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden while we’re eating?”
“No, you’re a high school senior now. It wouldn’t be strange for you to have a boyfriend.”
A South Korean high school senior dating?
Jang Seokjin had no interest whatsoever in such harsh social expectations at the moment.
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Is there anyone you’re interested in?”
Ian hesitated slightly at his persistent questioning.
She moved her lips as though debating whether to say something.
“Ryu… No, why are you being so persistent today? There’s no one like that.”
“Ian, Dad wants to hold a grandchild soon!”
“Suddenly?”
Deputy Director Jang Seokjin blurted out whatever came to mind in his desperation.
In South Korea, the probability of marrying before one’s twenties was less than one percent.
Surprisingly, even the probability of marrying before one’s thirties was only around ten percent for men.
Ryu Hyesung was only eighteen years old.
Jang Seokjin, Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service, was currently engaged in an exhausting battle almost as difficult as protecting national security.
Salisbury Plain Training Area, United Kingdom.
The next morning.
I stepped onto the largest military training area in the United Kingdom.
My drones and the targets had already been positioned across the vast plain stretching beyond sight.
“Does it make any sense to spend sixty thousand pounds on one toy like that?”
The British Prime Minister looked extremely dissatisfied with the idea of spending one hundred million won on an unfamiliar defensive weapon he had never seen before.
“Our national budget is already severely limited. We cannot spend tens of thousands of pounds on an unproven weapon like this.”
“Hmm…”
The Secretary of State for Defence let out a heavy sigh at the Prime Minister’s sharp criticism.
At that moment, Minister Kingsley approached me and whispered discreetly.
“As you can see, the Prime Minister is strongly opposed. I believe you will need to personally explain the weapon and demonstrate its performance.”
The minister looked at me desperately, silently asking whether I could do it.
“Understood.”
I did not care about the United Kingdom’s domestic political situation.
However, if the Prime Minister, the country’s highest decision-maker, opposed the purchase, even the Ministry of Defence would have difficulty continuing to buy my weapons.
In the worst case, they might cancel the bulk order.
If that really happened…
We would go bankrupt immediately.
We had scraped together every last bit of available money and poured it into mass-production equipment for those weapons.
Our liquid cash had completely dried up.
If this deal collapsed now, my glorious career of weapons development, which had only just begun to bloom, would end before it truly started.
Suppressing my tension, I asked, “Minister, how many R-Type drones have been prepared as targets?”
“Ten.”
“…What? Only ten?”
I understood that destroying drones in midair was wasteful, but ten units were worth only five million won at retail price.
They were trying to save a mere five million won?
“Do you really think the Prime Minister will recognize the performance of a one-hundred-million-won advanced anti-drone weapon after watching it destroy only five million won worth of toys?”
“He is extremely strict about budgets. This is the man who cut the defense budget by two percent with a single decision.”
I swallowed a hollow laugh.
“We will cover the full cost of the damaged drones. Prepare one hundred units.”
If this demonstration failed, we would be ruined anyway.
At my firm declaration, Minister Kingsley nodded gravely.
A giant government organization that routinely approved expenditures of tens of billions of won was suddenly making a huge fuss about saving pocket change.
Administrative systems were truly impossible to understand.
A large number of additional target drones were immediately prepared.
After completing the equipment inspection, I picked up the microphone.
“Everyone, please direct your attention to the sky.”
The murmuring across the vast training ground suddenly stopped.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward me.
Their expressions were full of suspicion, wondering why a young Korean boy was standing on the platform of one of the British military’s most important training grounds.
“From this moment onward, I will show you why HPM drones are indispensable in modern warfare.”
Snap!
I lightly snapped my fingers.
At the signal, one hundred R-Type drones waiting inside a container poured out like a swarm of bees.
“On my way here today, I saw dozens of enormous C-17 transport aircraft sitting defenseless on the runway. Let us assume that dozens of Russian-made suicide drones like these suddenly attack your airfield all at once.”
The officials lined up behind the ministers began murmuring.
As expected, an example needed to hit painfully close to home to draw people in properly.
“Will you shoot them down with rifles? Or will you fire surface-to-air missiles costing billions of won per shot?”
Clap!
I brought my hands together loudly and spread both arms wide.
At the signal, the one hundred drones in the air began flying wildly in every direction.
Whirrrrrrr!
“Now, can you still hit them? A drone costing only two million won is currently destroying your C-17 transport aircraft worth three hundred billion won.”
Their irregular flight paths were difficult even to follow with the naked eye.
Trying to shoot them down was like trying to hit a swarm of flies with a handgun.
The mouths of the military officials slowly fell open.
The Prime Minister, who had dismissed my weapon as a “toy” earlier, was no exception.
Good.
Now.
“HERMES, activate the HPM drone. Engage at the most effective distance.”
I quietly issued the command into my smartwatch.
The moment I finished speaking, the missile-shaped HPM drone shot upward at tremendous speed and plunged directly into the center of the hundred targets.
Crackle!
With a chilling electrical burst, invisible high-power microwave energy erupted in every direction.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
In an instant, the hundred drones filling the sky lost power and fell simultaneously like a swarm of flies struck by insecticide.
A heavy silence settled over the training ground.
“My God…”
“Hah… All of them with one attack…”
“Ah, so this is why Ukraine was desperate to get them…”
The officials gasped in shock.
Only Minister Kingsley wore a satisfied smile.
“Now then, ten million won worth of drones has just become recyclable waste in an instant. And my HPM drone—”
Whirrrr—
Before I had even finished speaking, the HPM drone gently landed at my feet.
I had deliberately instructed HERMES to time it perfectly.
Presentation was everything in demonstrations like this.
“—can be reused, as you can see.”
Boris Kovalenko, Deputy Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, who had been watching the demonstration while holding his breath, could no longer suppress his admiration.
“Prime Minister. Ukraine needs… needs those South Korean HPM drones immediately!”
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
At that moment, applause from the British Prime Minister broke the silence.
His previously stingy, dissatisfied expression had vanished.
His face was flushed red with extreme excitement.
“Excellent! A hundred explanations could not make me understand, but that demonstration showed me perfectly why we need to buy this weapon.”
Only then did a relieved smile appear on Minister Kingsley’s face.
“Secretary of State, did you say earlier that the budget was insufficient?”
“Yes, Prime Minister. Since the defense budget was cut, we were trying to procure weapons that were as inexpensive and effective as possible…”
“For the purchase of those Korean drones, I will authorize a special budget under my executive authority. Submit the approval documents immediately.”
“Y-Yes! Understood!”
The staff lined up behind them erupted into murmurs.
Such an extraordinary statement had come from the notoriously stingy Prime Minister himself.
“What did you say your name was?”
The Prime Minister stared directly at me.
“Ryu Hyesung.”
When I answered, an aide beside him quietly whispered into his ear.
“Prime Minister, this is the person MI6 submitted that emergency report about previously…”
“What? Why are you only telling me that now!”
The Prime Minister barked briefly, then cleared his throat awkwardly.
“The United Kingdom will purchase an additional two hundred units.”
The surrounding area became noisy again.
The original order was one hundred twenty units.
With two hundred more added, sales worth thirty-two billion won had been confirmed in an instant.
“How long will delivery of all three hundred twenty units take? Can you complete delivery within five years?”
Europeans really were relaxed about time.
Especially at moments like this.
“Four…”
“Four years? Hah, they said Koreans were hardworking, and it seems that is true.”
“Four months will be enough.”
The proud British politicians immediately began murmuring in shock.
“What? It takes a year just to get an appointment at the local hospital…”
“It took three months for my vehicle registration certificate to arrive.”
“Do Koreans not sleep?”
At that moment, the increasingly anxious Ukrainian deputy minister urgently interrupted.
“Wait! If the United Kingdom buys everything, what will happen to Ukraine?”
“We will discuss that together with the South Korean government.”
Apparently judging the matter to be a sensitive diplomatic issue between states, the Prime Minister skillfully cut off the discussion and postponed it.
After the demonstration ended, I left the crowded training ground.
“You did excellent work, CEO Ryu.”
Seo Dojin, the secretary assigned to accompany me, spoke casually.
“Thanks to you, South Korea’s diplomatic leverage has increased significantly.”
Who was allowed to purchase strategic weapons, and in what order?
In the international community, the power of the country capable of allowing someone to jump that queue was beyond imagination.
“It is fine. I only need to develop weapons. Please let the government handle the complicated diplomatic issues.”
That was better for me anyway.
The South Korean government could deal with the annoying paperwork and coordination between countries.
Bzzzzzt—
The moment I turned my phone back on, it began vibrating wildly.
The caller displayed on the screen was Taeju.
What was so urgent that he had made an expensive international call?
Was the factory on fire?
“Yeah, what happened?”
“Hyesung! Did something happen to you?”
I had secretly flown to the United Kingdom and met privately with a Ukrainian deputy minister.
I had also just successfully completed a weapons demonstration worth thirty-two billion won.
Technically, those were both major events.
“I don’t know. Nothing much.”
“There are a lot of people looking for you right now.”
A lot of people were looking for me?
Had something happened?
“Why? What is going on?”
“The Vice President of LK Hynix is going crazy trying to find you.”
LK Hynix was a partner helping develop the automated equipment for the HPM drones currently under production.
“LK Hynix? Why?”
Had they encountered another section of the design they could not implement?
“I don’t know. He says he absolutely needs to meet you for the sake of national competitiveness.”
What did that mean?
“Fine. Anyone else?”
After LK Hynix, maybe Fanuc?
Perhaps they had also encountered a technical obstacle.
However, the next name Taeju mentioned was completely unexpected.
“Ian keeps calling me because you are not answering her.”
“Huh?”
While speaking on the phone, I pulled down the notification bar.
Three missed calls from Ian.
Ten KakaoTalk messages and text messages were waiting.
But I had turned off my phone for the military demonstration only about three hours ago.
“Call her back first. Hey, but Hyesung.”
Just as he was about to end the call, Taeju suddenly asked as though he had remembered something.
“What is this baby stroller in the corner of the office? Is it yours?”