President Jo Hyung-geun looked like he had aged almost 10 years since the last time they met.
His forehead was wrinkled and his cigarette smoke faintly revealed his hardships.
Well, he had faced a lot of troubles with the EU and various incidents as soon as he took office.
He didn’t actually do anything, but the position of president came with all kinds of burdens.
He leaned his head on the chair and closed his eyes, then opened them again.
“···The US Secretary of State, the EU Secretary-General, the Chinese State Councilor, the French Ambassador···I don’t know how many more people I have to meet before this mess ends.”
“You said you wouldn’t meet anyone except the US.”
“They come to me because you won’t meet them.”
“So what did you say to them?”
“Nothing much. I just beat around the bush and wasted time until I got up. Politicians are very good at dodging words.”
After saying that, President Jo straightened his posture.
“Mr. Yu, do you know how World War II started?”
“You don’t want me to say it was because of the madman Hitler···Don’t tell me it’s the Treaty of Versailles?”
“That’s right. After World War I ended, the victorious countries imposed a huge amount of reparations on Germany. They also imposed severe sanctions···And as a result, the Germans burned with hatred for the victorious countries.”
“You want me to let go of the EU.”
“···And China as well. Excessive sanctions only provoke resentment. That’s proven by human history. I don’t know your mind, but what are you going to do with 1.6 billion enemies?”
He had a different side to him.
He had seen Jo Hyung-geun as a bulldog, but he was clearly a politician.
Or maybe it was the seat that made the person.
“So you want me to bow to China and the EU?”
“I didn’t say bow. There will be times when they bow and come in, so why not accept them moderately? Of course, all decisions are up to you, but I can’t ignore the realistic problems.”
“What realistic problems?”
“···Terrorism.”
President Jo took a sip of water after saying that, as if his throat was dry.
“You may not know this, but the emergency deployment of the Air Force has increased a lot lately. I can’t tell you the exact numbers, but it’s almost doubled.”
“It must be because of the Chinese fighter jets.”
“I wonder if they’re trying to reduce the lifespan of our aircrafts with this fuss. Fortunately, the East Sea is clean for now.”
President Putin must have issued a stern warning, so the East Sea would be quiet for a while except for Japan.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Chinese public opinion is no joke right now. The Communist Party is divided into several factions, but the military is still strong and the people are burning with hatred for you. How are you going to handle that? They’re not on the other side of the earth, they’re right next to us.”
“Don’t they usually call that hypocrisy? They’re angry after trying to kidnap me.”
“That’s the privilege of a powerful country. Unfortunately, we are···not a powerful country.”
“So what do you want to say?”
President Jo thought for a moment and said.
“I won’t tell you to use appeasement measures against China right away. But you need to reach out to the EU and calm them down a bit. We have too much intertwined with them.”
“Mr. President, can I say something?”
“You’re going to say something against my opinion. Let’s hear it.”
“We don’t have to step in. They’re waiting too.”
“Waiting for us to fail?”
To be precise, for me to fail.
He didn’t show that he knew that and said.
“Ion beam nuclear fusion, moon development plan···Anyone would think they’re reckless. And they are risky indeed. They’re waiting for that failure.”
“It sounds like you’re saying you’ll never fail, is that right?”
“Not never, but I’m confident. We’re not in a hurry. What if Germany gets a commercial nuclear fusion reactor? Do you think France will just watch?”
It would be incomparable to now.
The French pride was so great that they would shout that they should have what Germany had.
“···That’s for EU, but what about China? You’ve already declared that.”
“If they sincerely apologize and promise to prevent recurrence, we can talk. I won’t block indirect trade through third countries even if direct trade is difficult.”
“Really?”
Of course, that would never happen.
China was too big and dangerous to be next to the United Human Federation.
The survival law was one, to tear each other apart and live as several Chinas.
Arma was still working on that.
It wasn’t for nothing that the factions were divided.
President Jo took a puff of his cigarette, as if he was relieved.
“I tell you, these days when I wake up in the morning, I sigh and wonder if I’m still alive.”
“Are you worried that China will launch a nuclear missile?”
“Who knows if some crazy general will do something crazy? It’s a relief that you’re being conciliatory.”
Arma was preventing that from happening.
At this very moment, the Settler was monitoring the entire earth with a gravity radar, so it could shoot down 100% of any ICBM launched.
And the place where the ICBM was launched would become a wasteland.
There was no need to use reactive bombs.
It would be enough to send some asteroids from the asteroid belt where the mining ship was working hard, and attach a probe to change their orbit.
A 100-ton meteorite entering the atmosphere at 20 km per second was a weapon in itself.
This method was not good, but it had to be maintained until the existence of the United Human Federation was revealed.
And the United Human Federation would begin when the island in the North Pacific settled down.
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“The land has risen quite a bit.”
“Yes. I think we can get recognized as a reef in about four months.”
He was looking at the work status in the North Pacific with Arma.
They were slowly pulling up the land with a gravity crane, so the progress was slow.
They also had to stop working many times because of the US Navy’s interference.
Despite that, they would finally be able to see the land on the surface in four months.
It would take a lot more work to make it usable, though.
“We need at least half of Taiwan’s size to build a megacity, right?”
“It could be a little smaller, but it would be hard to fit in various facilities if it’s too narrow.”
The facilities included mass drivers, smart farms, power plants and hyperloop stations.
“The problem is how to get recognition for that···”
“It’s unclaimed territory, so the first country to discover it gets ownership.”
“I won’t have any problem getting it with my influence in a year or so.”
“Then you’ll have to officially establish a country. Korea partially allows dual citizenship, so there won’t be much trouble.”
You can get dual citizenship if you sign a foreign nationality renunciation pledge.
He didn’t fit any of those items, but they would create a new one for him if he said he would give up his Korean nationality.
That would make him ineligible for president, but who cares?
What he wanted was not a president, but a dictator who had all the power.
“Stop all intrusions around here until we grow the island enough.”
“Okay. But don’t you think we should prepare for when it’s discovered?”
“Planes are tricky, so let’s buy a yacht. Buy one that’s decent and set up a hologram and roll it out.”
That’s how he would discover the island and officially declare it his land.
The next step was to focus on national defense.
The existing small island nations in the Pacific had no reason or value to bother.
But if Yu Ji-ha’s state settled in the North Pacific, there would be many forces that would covet it.
A typical example was China.
They were playing hide and seek with the US fleet in the Pacific, so they wouldn’t just pass by Yu Ji-ha’s territory.
He could entrust his defense to Korea or the US, but there was no need to do that.
“Set up a smart factory in Kamchatka. Make it capable of producing any weapon.”
“Okay. And the design of the 20,000-ton cargo ship you ordered is done. Should I contact the shipbuilding company and start making the hull?”
He nodded his head as he looked at the printed model.
“Order it from the Russian branch. I’ve already talked to the Kremlin.”
The branch he set up in Kamchatka had nothing to do with Shilla Group on the surface.
It was because Arma was the owner of the branch.
But since Arma’s master was Yu Ji-ha, they were essentially affiliated.
“It’s much easier to do business thanks to Russia’s convenience.”
“But the US is complaining.”
They nagged him for 30 minutes about supplying ion thrusters to Russia.
They didn’t threaten him, but he found it ridiculous.
Neither the US nor Russia was a complete ally or enemy, so why limit their trade?
“They probably want to go back to the old days. When they could limit missile ranges as they pleased.”
They had already started withdrawing their troops from Korea, but they were having a hard time negotiating with the Democratic Party to bring them back.
That was because the budget had been executed and most of them had left.
They wanted to sell their equipment and facilities to Korea, but President Jo Hyung-geun refused to accept them.
―Won’t it cost more to transport them back home? Just leave them and go.
He would use them well if they left them, but he wouldn’t buy them.
The amount was not small, so Korea and the US had been clashing a lot lately.
Well, that was their problem.
Arma, who was sorting out the situation of the neighboring countries after returning to Korea, reported to him.
“Master, Japan’s recent trends are not good.”
“In what way?”
“They seem desperate as Korea achieved remarkable military results. Japan doesn’t have railguns or ion thrusters.”
He didn’t mind selling ion thrusters to Japan, but Korea did.
The two countries were very close, but they had almost no contact except for some military exchanges.
The US wanted them to join forces against China, but that wasn’t easy.
“What can they do? They’re not going to make nuclear weapons.”
“Japan has been obstructing IAEA’s nuclear inspections lately. There are surveillance cameras in their nuclear research facilities, but they pretend to be under construction and cover them up.”
He frowned.
“Isn’t the IAEA Secretary-General Japanese? How does the US react?”
“They just tell them not to cover up the cameras and accept IAEA’s additional inspections, but they’re not very harsh.”
“Didn’t they turn Korea upside down when they experimented with 0.2 grams of nuclear material?”
“They searched the entire research facility. They only recognized their transparency after several years of investigation.”
“Compared to that, they’re soft as silk. Is Japan’s nuclear armament possible? The international pressure is no joke.”
“Japan can handle it if the US approves. And it’s a common saying that you can’t stop a country that desperately wants nuclear weapons.”
“Well, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea all have nuclear weapons.”
Any existing nuclear weapon was nothing but a candle compared to a reactive bomb.
But he couldn’t reveal that he had reactive bombs, so he couldn’t use them to threaten his opponents.
They would only know when they got hit, but by then their capital would evaporate.
“Do you want me to make nuclear weapons?”
“No. There’s something better than nuclear weapons. The thing Plague used first.”
“You mean NCM (Neutron Counter Measure) bomb.”
After experiencing the Night of Sorrow, humanity responded to Plague’s air raid with their accumulated nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs.
Plague at that time was not mature enough, so it fell down surprisingly easily by humanity’s attack.
Humanity was overjoyed and produced more nuclear bombs, but at some point they stopped working.
Plague came out with a weapon that suppressed the movement of neutrons.
If the research on reactive bombs hadn’t been completed in time, humanity would have been extinct.
He recalled the time when he worked at Ark and asked.
“Wasn’t the range of that a bit narrow?”
“According to the current data, it’s only about 500m in diameter.”
“That’s enough. Make it and report to me.”
“Okay.”
…
One day in early May.
An event was held at the Silla Group Pangyo branch exhibition hall.
It wasn’t a big event since they didn’t rent a convention center separately.
But those who knew the situation had high expectations.
It was the first stage to showcase the results of Boston Dynamics after being acquired by Yu Ji-ha.
The media made various predictions.
―The army was impressed by Shilla Hi-Tech’s military drones. Therefore, it is a reasonable decision for Boston Dynamics to match that.
―BD belonged to Future Car until recently. They made various industrial robots, so that must have attracted Yu Ji-ha’s attention.
Among them, the columns related to androids drew people’s attention.
―BD’s executives have always wanted to make bipedal robots. But noise and short operation time were the problems. What if they apply black metal batteries? And what if Lucia is installed?
Black metal battery with Lucia installed.
If that was true, it could be called the first android.
Many people were shocked by Lucia.
It was not only because of her functions, but also because of her emotional aspects.
Sad people received comfort from Lucia, and some people gained courage from her.
Now many Koreans said they couldn’t live without Lucia.
Some people even openly said that their dream was for her to come out of the monitor.
So what was BD’s announcement?
This event was small, so only a very small number of invitations were thrown online except for the related parties.
To get these invitations, they had to verify Lucia, but the competition rate reached 1 in 10,000 in an instant.
And thus, about 200 people were invited and attended the presentation hall.
The promised day came.
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