Chapter 37 Why Global Defense Rankings Are Being Reorganized Around South Korea
Chapter 37 Why Global Defense Rankings Are Being Reorganized Around South Korea
Office of the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, Pyongyang, North Korea.
North Korea’s supreme leader received a report.
“You’re telling me to be wary of a mere student?”
“Yes. They say this man named Ryu Hyesung is extremely dangerous.”
“We’re already sending seven special forces soldiers. How many more do they expect us to send?”
The Chairman of the State Affairs Commission flipped through the document while breathing heavily.
Perhaps because he had gained so much weight, he appeared to have difficulty breathing.
“Why do they want us to kill this South Korean brat?”
“They say he is the chief developer of the drones captured by Russia.”
North Korea had secretly deployed soldiers to the Russia–Ukraine war.
Having experienced the drones firsthand in the field, they knew better than anyone how terrifying they were.
“That is why China says eliminating the student would benefit us as well.”
“…”
The Chairman did not deliberate for long.
“Choose twenty men with parents, wives, and children. Men who cannot flee during the operation.”
“Understood.”
“Use a submarine to send the necessary supplies as well.”
He dropped the papers onto the table as though throwing them away.
“And demand more money.”
Office at Science Facility’s Factory No. 2.
Taeju sat alone before the holographic computer screen.
It was the final interview for software developers who would be assigned to the semiconductor factory.
“You have impressive qualifications. But are you only able to work remotely? You also said you would occasionally be unable to come into the office?”
“Yes. I am overseas, so it is difficult for me to travel there.”
The man on the screen smiled brightly.
“Our CEO needs someone who can handle logic design, and you have experience….”
“Yes. I worked at Micron in the United States for five years.”
Worked, you say?
Taeju found the man’s accent suspicious.
“You are… Korean, right?”
“Yes, I am Korean. Surely you do not think I am Chinese, ha ha.”
“Say, ‘Kim Jong-un is a son of a bitch.’”
“What?”
“I said, ‘Kim Jong-un is a son of a bitch.’”
“Why would you suddenly ask me to say something like that…?”
“It is merely a simple initiation test.”
“Oh, I do not insult other people.”
“If you refuse, you fail the interview.”
“What?”
The man became flustered.
“K-Kim….”
“Yes, please continue. Say he is a son of a bitch.”
“Kim… Kim Jong-un is a… a son of a bitch….”
Contrary to Taeju’s suspicions, the man somehow managed to say it.
“Very well, then you have passed the final—”
At that moment, the man on the screen looked to the side in alarm.
“What? It is a misunderstanding. It is not like that!”
“What did you just say? How dare you insult the Supreme Leader?”
“N-No! That South Korean bastard made me say it during the interview.”
“Do not lie. What kind of interview would make you say something like that?”
The man on the screen was suddenly dragged out of view by someone who appeared to be a North Korean soldier.
“It is true! That bastard made me say it, Comrade Commander!”
“Send him to a labor camp.”
Click.
The screen went dark.
Taeju froze in disbelief.
“Did I just… ruin someone’s life?”
[North Korea operates organizations that obtain fraudulent remote-work positions at overseas IT companies.]
“Something like that actually exists?”
Taeju was taken aback by Hermes’s explanation.
He had only asked on the faintest suspicion.
[Companies also use the method of making applicants insult North Korea’s supreme leader.]
Special Operations Unit under the Reconnaissance General Bureau, outskirts of Pyongyang, North Korea.
A passport photograph of Ryu Hyesung had been enlarged and hung prominently on something resembling a blackboard.
“…Therefore, you will first infiltrate South Korea. Weapons will be supplied in the field afterward.”
The special forces soldiers, not one of whom carried any excess fat, listened to their commander’s explanation.
Tap.
He pointed at Ryu Hyesung’s photograph with a baton.
“Afterward, you will either kill this man or cripple him.”
“How will we return?”
One sharp-eyed soldier raised his hand and asked.
“It will probably be difficult to return to the North. But do not worry. South Korea does not carry out executions.”
The soldiers murmured among themselves.
It was the first time they had heard such a thing.
“I heard executions are commonplace in South Korea, Comrade Commander.”
“Hmm… that changed recently.”
North Korea taught almost nothing but lies about South Korea.
The truth was that everything in South Korea had developed to such an unrealistic degree that they could not tell their people honestly.
“Our great Chairman gave South Korea an order.”
“What order was that?”
“He ordered them to prohibit the execution of North Koreans, even if they commit murder.”
“Then are you saying we will receive no punishment even if we kill that man?”
“That is correct. You will be isolated in a South Korean facility and fed warm rice and meat side dishes every day.”
The soldiers began murmuring again.
“As expected of the Supreme Leader….”
“The South Korean bastards must be too afraid of the Supreme Leader to touch us.”
“I knew it from the moment he used teleportation.”
As the special forces soldiers continued muttering among themselves, the commander shouted,
“You bastards talk too much. Be quiet!”
The commander’s explanation contained many inaccuracies, but there was no way for them to verify it.
Daily life in North Korea was already so unrealistic.
“After the operation succeeds, the Party will take responsibility for your families.”
The soldiers swallowed at his words.
“If you have children, they will be admitted to Kim Il Sung University.”
(Translator’s Note:Kim Il Sung University — North Korea’s most prestigious university, founded in Pyongyang in 1946 and named after the country’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung.)
“Is that true?”
The commander nodded.
“Your families will become Party members.”
A murderous gleam appeared in the soldiers’ eyes.
“Just send me, Comrade Commander. I will tear him apart and return.”
“I will butcher that bastard, then live in South Korea eating warm rice and meat.”
“We only have to kill one brat. What an easy and comfortable assignment.”
The soldiers became boisterous.
Creak.
“Comrade Commander!”
At that moment, someone rushed inside.
“What is it?”
He was a cyber operative who earned foreign currency by fraudulently obtaining employment at American Big Tech companies.
“I investigated the background of the person you mentioned, Ryu Hyesung.”
He spoke while out of breath.
“Hmm. Good work.”
The commander accepted the report and muttered,
“Let us see…. We have received information on the brat we are supposed to kill…. Hmm?”
When the commander hesitated, one of the soldiers asked,
“What is it, Comrade Commander?”
“This bastard’s nicknames are… Deranged Psychopath and the World’s Strongest Arms Dealer….”
“What? Why are his nicknames so terrifying?”
“Notable details include… single-handedly defeating an entire platoon of Russian special forces and exterminating five Chinese assassins in only twelve seconds….”
The North Korean soldiers’ previously festive mood instantly sank.
“Comrade Commander, are we certain the target is human?”
“Do not worry. These are all ridiculous rumors. How could any of this be true?”
The commander deliberately crumpled the report and threw it into the trash.
“There will be twenty of us. With twenty men, we could even take the South Korean president’s head.”
However, after the commander’s absurd briefing, the student’s face hanging over the old operations board somehow began to look frightening.
“Laboratory,” Science Facility’s Factory No. 2.
“What the hell? The laboratory is packed with equipment now.”
Taeju stared in amazement at the newly installed machinery.
A massive stainless-steel tank towered upward, nearly reaching the ceiling.
Its mirror-smooth metal surface reflected the cold fluorescent lighting with an eerie gleam.
It resembled a device for cultivating alien life in a science-fiction film.
“What is… happening inside that thing?”
Beyond the glass window, a murky, viscous yellow culture solution swirled violently around enormous propeller blades.
“Taeju, lift those sacks of urea and sugar up here.”
I shouted from atop the bioreactor.
Taeju groaned as he hoisted the sacks up to me.
“Whew…. These are heavy.”
“What I’m making is a top-level secret…. I can’t use employees.”
I tore open the sacks and unhesitatingly poured their contents into the bioreactor.
“So what are you making?”
“Explosives.”
“What? You lunatic, you’re making explosives here? Do you know how much expensive equipment is inside Factory No. 2?”
“I know. It’s fine. I’m making them safely.”
“…They won’t explode, right?”
Taeju asked anxiously.
“They absolutely won’t. I designed a process that cannot detonate.”
“What kind of explosive requires production on this scale?”
“It’s an explosive called CL-20. It’s twice as powerful as TNT.”
“CL-20?”
“It’s the luxury brand of explosives. Although it costs one hundred times as much as TNT.”
“Then its cost-effectiveness is terrible. Doesn’t that clash with our company’s style?”
“Right. CL-20 is expensive because the manufacturing process is extremely complicated. That’s why I used a slightly unusual method.”
“An unusual method?”
Taeju asked curiously.
“Cultivating E. coli.”
“E. coli? The bacteria inside our stomachs?”
“That’s right. If you modify its genes, you can turn it into a biological machine that produces a precursor for CL-20.”
Thump, thump, thump.
I quickly descended the ladder while struggling to shake a plastic drum containing a premade precursor liquid with a purity of 99.999999999 percent.
“Look. It doesn’t explode, right? Every molecule needed to form CL-20 is already inside this. They simply haven’t been assembled yet.”
Glug, glug, glug.
After filling the reactor with the solution, I poured concentrated copper sulfate into the top.
“How does this become an explosive…?”
Just as Taeju asked suspiciously—
Creak.
When I adjusted the upper valve, the concentrated copper sulfate poured into the glass tank.
The enormous agitator rotated quietly but powerfully.
The instant the formerly transparent liquid seeped down between the copper particles, every point of contact began turning a deep cobalt blue.
“What is this blue liquid?”
“It doesn’t have a name yet. How about Blue?”
“Blue? That sounds completely….”
I poured a small amount of the Blue solution into a beaker.
“Watch.”
When I mixed an antisolvent into the beaker, blue powder began assembling within the solution and falling as sediment.
“See it? The powder settled at the bottom is CL-20.”
“So this is the stuff that’s twice as powerful as TNT. The blue color is surprisingly beautiful.”
I spoke almost in a whisper.
“CL-20 is normally white. Mine is blue, though.”
“You’re certain it won’t explode?”
“It won’t detonate while it’s wet. Once I mix in a binder and plasticizer to finish it, the CL-20 is complete.”
“So how much does it cost?”
“What?”
“You said it normally costs one hundred times more than TNT. How much does the version you made cost?”
“Exactly the same as TNT.”
“You made it one hundred times cheaper?”
Taeju’s eyes widened.
“This will change the world.”
Conference Room, Underground Crisis Management Center, Blue House.
The Director of the Agency for Defense Development and the Minister of National Defense were reading the report sent by Ryu Hyesung.
The President arrived late, read through the report, and asked,
“What does it mean that he produced CL-20 at the price of TNT?”
The President casually directed the question toward the research director.
“The CL-20 manufacturing process is so difficult that only four countries in the world know how to produce it.”
“Is that so?”
“The United States, China, Russia, and the Republic of Korea. France and Germany can only produce small quantities in laboratories.”
“Then South Korea already knows how to make it. Is this truly so extraordinary?”
The research director shook his head.
“Because it is so expensive, it is barely used even in high-performance missiles and space-launch-vehicle propellants. But that boy succeeded in producing it for next to nothing. Without petroleum, at that.”
“If the manufacturing process does not require petroleum, that means….”
“It can be produced without limit inside South Korea. Without importing any raw materials.”
At that moment, the Minister of National Defense interjected.
“Mr. President, we cannot sell this to other countries. It must be used exclusively by South Korea.”
The President shook his head.
“I intend to permit sales to allied nations. When will the performance testing take place?”
“We plan to conduct it as soon as possible.”
“…What do you believe will happen if it passes the performance tests?”
The President asked without taking his eyes from the report.
“Global defense rankings will be reorganized around the Republic of Korea.”