LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 78: Antitron Unveiled
Chapter 78: Antitron Unveiled
The Second Korean War changed Korean society a lot.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were mobilized for the war, receiving meager salaries. This led to a strong demand for better treatment of them.
Especially when foreign media such as CNN revealed the wages of the South Korean soldiers, the impact was huge.
“500 dollars. I can’t believe it. You were sent to the battlefield for a mere 500 dollars. Don’t you feel resentful?”
A wounded soldier said this.
“I was unlucky that the war broke out while I was in service. But I contributed to the unification and I have something to brag about, so I don’t feel bad.”
“What do you have to brag about?”
“I rode a tank to the Yalu River and came back. I even drank the water there. It was sewage.”
The reporter nodded and asked again.
“You earned honor. But don’t you think you should demand compensation from the government? 500 dollars is less than the allowance of a US soldier.”
“Well…the president…I mean, Representative Yu Ji-ha said he would give us permanent residency in the United Human Federation.”
“Permanent residency? On Terra Island in the North Pacific? There’s nothing there.”
“I heard that they built a lot of facilities there. They said we can live there from next March.”
“I can’t believe it.”
As he said, the soldiers who directly participated in the war were automatically granted permanent residency in the United Federation.
The public dismissed the United Human Federation and Terra Island as toys for the rich, but in reality, something was progressing steadily there.
It was exposed by Japan, and the interest in Terra Island increased.
—Doesn’t that mean they have enough infrastructure to accommodate tens of thousands of prisoners?
—I saw an article from a Japanese magazine that said the prisoners were fat.
—Even if they have enough supplies, how can they build infrastructure so fast…
—I saw a post on Reddit that said the whole facility was made of black metal. If you look at it from a warship, you can see buildings popping up in a day.
—Does black metal grow there?
—There’s also a rumor that there’s a huge deposit nearby. Anyway, they chose a good location.
—It really looks like they made an island with a spaceship.
—Fuck Yu Jiha’s spaceship ownership theory. When will this end?
—He’ll reveal it after he unifies the earth as president. He’ll say he did it all.
—Lol
Despite being in the middle of a war, conversations like this were everywhere.
This meant that South Korea’s situation was not that desperate.
The prices went up a bit, but exports and imports were steady, and especially the dependence on China dropped sharply.
They couldn’t import Chinese agricultural products for almost a year, so they gave up on them.
Above all, what made people endure was hope.
North Korea was gone, so there was no more provocation or nuclear threat.
Also, as Silla Group announced the progress of their future projects, South Koreans dreamed of a better future.
-Boston Dynamics is also mass-producing Lucia. The era of androids has come.
-If they put artificial skin on them, they look like humans. I’m really looking forward to it.
-Hey, how long do you think it will take for an android Lucia to come down to one car price?
-They said they would launch it at 500 million won. It’s impossible for individuals to have it, maybe some organizations will order it for promotion.
-We need to establish like human rights to robot rights for our Lucia-chan. They shouldn’t be treated harshly.
-There’s a separate contract for that. If you treat them badly, the contract will be automatically terminated and the AI will be deleted.
-I want to take Lucia to Terra Island and drive around when the war is over.
-They say the scenery there is amazing…
However, there were also negative issues.
It was mostly economic, as they printed a lot of government bonds and tightened their belts, but still ran out of money.
It was good that they pushed out the North Korean regime, but feeding the residents was no joke.
The UN and other international organizations, as well as the US and Russia, generously supported surplus agricultural products, but there was a limit.
It would get better when control was lifted and reconstruction began, but for now South Korea had no choice but to feed them.
When the financial officials screamed, Yu Ji-ha held a cabinet meeting and ordered all state agencies to review their finances.
“I will not tolerate any more waste of taxes. Upload this year’s budget expenditure details to Lucia and have them reviewed. If you don’t pass, I’ll reflect it in next year’s budget.”
Here Lucia refers to the fund management program provided by Silla Metaverse.
This AI, specialized in tracking money flows, monitors the taxes used by the government down to 10 won.
It was applied to the Ministry of Unification for less than a month, and it exposed all kinds of absurd plans and reckless financial management, resulting in lawsuits against high-ranking officials, including the minister.
Yu Ji-ha Jiha pushed a report to the minister who complained of injustice.
“This committee has been continuing its grandiose task of compiling a joint dictionary of North and South Korea for 24 years. But do you have any results?”
The Minister of Unification handed him a not-so-thick dictionary.
“If I have to tell you with this dictionary…”
“Don’t shove me an unfinished dictionary. And does it make sense to spend 70 billion won on editing one dictionary? You said you spent 1 billion won this year to maintain the office. What are the 15 staff members there doing?”
When he looked inside the office through a drone, it was empty.
The minister finally bowed his head.
“I have nothing to say.”
“I’m closing the office as of this time. And find the work records of the office staff for 24 years and report them to me.”
The minister’s face turned pale at the words of finding and reporting the work records for 24 years.
There was no such record.
Yu Ji-ha emphasized to him.
“If there is no work record, I will assume that you did not work and charge you for the cost. And you better find a lawyer.”
This kind of thing happened everywhere, and the government agencies were busy making the data to submit.
Some of them ignored it halfway and were called by Yu Ji-ha and got smashed.
There was even a president who committed suicide after being severely criticized.
The sound of death’s dance was heard from the parliament and the media, but Yu Ji-ha did not budge an inch.
“From now on, if you need more than 10,000 won in finance, you have to submit a plan to Lucia. And I warn you, don’t try to get away with it. I will track down the waste of taxes even if I have to stop the work.”
The results were posted on the Blue House website.
People realized how wasteful the government was with their finances.
-A salary of 100 million won for an employee who works less than 10 hours a week? Are you kidding me?
-If you give money to a civic group, is that a civic group? It’s a controlled group.
-They should all spit out the money.
People were relieved, but also worried about the future.
There would be reforms for now, but there was no guarantee that it would continue.
-What if the next president reverses everything?
-The war will end and martial law will be lifted, then we’ll have presidential and parliamentary elections…
When the president is vacant, the acting authority takes over the duties, but an election must be held within 60 days.
But South Korea couldn’t hold an election because of martial law.
So the members of parliament kept asking Yu Ji-ha to lift martial law whenever they had a chance.
The surviving veterans gave interviews like this to the media.
“He’s shaking up the government too much. It’s true that some agencies were somewhat reckless in their management, but this can be corrected through audits.”
“Yu Ji-ha’s acting authority pointed out that the Audit Office didn’t work at all.”
“We can do better from now on. Anyway, he’s not the president, he’s the acting authority. He should only focus on maintaining the status quo, but he’s turning the whole Republic of South Korea upside down.”
People watched that interview and realized.
As soon as Yu Ji-ha stepped down, the government would return to normal.
Some were dissatisfied with the members of parliament who popped up and raised their voices without doing anything during the war.
-What did they do during the war? They just begged to be sent to Pyongyang.
-Yu Ji-ha did the war, but they look like they’re going to take it all.
-We voted for them, what can we do?
-I wish Yu Ji-ha Jiha would keep acting as the authority and get rid of them all.
-Then there’s no answer but a coup d’etat?
Amidst this pressure from all sides, Curtis B. McKinley, the US president, notified his visit to Korea.
It was surprising that he visited during wartime, but also the number of officials who accompanied him was no joke.
The members of parliament dreamed of spotlight, but there was almost no time allocated for parliament in his one-week visit schedule.
They raised their voices saying that he shouldn’t push for such things when he was about to hand over power soon.
“He’s going to hand over power soon. What kind of deep discussion can he have with him? We need to postpone the schedule.”
“The US requested it.”
“…”
Then there was nothing to say.
The US president’s visit to South Korea is usually very short, about one night and two days.
It’s a busy position and South Korea’s importance is relatively low, so it can’t be helped.
But this time Curtis B. McKinley’s visit schedule was a whopping week long.
Considering that it was wartime, and that South Korea’s leader was not a president but an acting authority, it was impossible.
It’s hard to have a serious discussion with someone who will soon give up power in a logical sense.
There were all kinds of speculations from the fact that the US set up such a schedule.
—The president thinks Yu Ji-ha will seize power in the future.
—Even so, it’s too early. A week is enough time to do more things.
—Maybe he’s wary of the close relationship between Russia and South Korea lately.
—He could have warned him instead of spending a week. It’s too long.
Some of the US intellectuals were mistaken that the relationship between the US and Korea was as close as before.
South Korea did not receive much support from the US during the Second Korean War.
Of course, it would have been harder without US support.
It was obvious that without information at the beginning of the war, support from hospital ships, and permission for military GPS use, Korean troops would have suffered significant damage.
Also, if it weren’t for food exported from the US, there would have been a lot of starvation in the occupied areas, according to a research result.
But the outcome would have been the same, so South Koreans no longer felt dependent on the US.
Even in this visit, there were such words.
—Our acting authority is a busy person. Isn’t a week too long? Just do one night and two days and get out of here like before.
—He’ll probably tour Silla Group and go. They said they released a prototype of an android Lucia. He’ll probably touch that and go.
—-He evacuated all Americans as soon as the war started. Is it okay now?
—Also, if he’s going to be annoying like before, I wish he’d just leave with his cronies.
—Now that I think about it, Russia is an angel. They supported us with transport planes and food, and they didn’t even set any conditions when they lent us money.
—Russia is happy that we’re unified because they’re thinking of laying gas pipelines.
—It’s not bad for us either. The price will go down by 70% or less.
—When we’re unified, won’t we share a border with Russia?
—That’s not the problem, it’s that if you enlist now, you might have to serve in Samjiyon or Gaema Plateau.
—It starts at minus 20 degrees in winter there lol
—Ah fuck.
Anyway, McKinley’s visit proceeded as planned.
Normally, the US president should be treated as a state guest and the highest honor should be given.
But Yu Ji-ha’s acting authority skipped most of the honors because of the war.
He didn’t even go to the airport himself and sent another minister.
It was a serious breach of etiquette considering the status of the US president, but it couldn’t be helped because of the war.
So McKinley met Yu Jiha at the Samcheong-dong residence.
…
“This is our second time, right?”
“We met once at Camp David.”
“I asked you to come with me then… I don’t know how it turned out like this.”
“That offer is still valid.”
“Well, it’s too risky.”
“If you refuse, there’s no need to talk for long.”
McKinley smiled faintly as he looked at the handsome Korean young man.
“Did we have this kind of conversation back then?”
“The thing I hate the most is wasting time and inefficiency.”
“I know that. That’s why I came right away without having a working-level meeting. Let’s negotiate from the top down.”
Usually diplomacy is not done like Yu Ji-ha did.
They cautiously check each other’s intentions and positions, contact each other, and narrow down their opinions at the working level.
The summit meeting is just a process of stamping.
But Yu Ji-ha had spent most of his life as a soldier and was used to that method.
He could have gotten coaching from Arma on diplomacy if he wanted to, but he didn’t need to do that now.
He just had to match the other side.
McKinley leaned back in his chair.
“First of all, I want to tell you that there was a fierce debate among my staff about this proposal. It was that intense.”
“You had a lot of opposition even for splitting China, huh?”
“China was definitely threatening. But lately they’re suffering from post-war syndrome. Several think tanks speculated that China would never challenge the US again.”
“So you’re satisfied with this.”
He said with a difficult face.
“Representative Yu, broaden your perspective. What we have to do now is minimize the post-war syndrome. If China splits, there will be an economic depression. It means the world economy will split.”
China built an economy second only to the US with its huge population.
Its influence on the world was no joke, so much so that there was a saying that if China stopped, the world stopped.
South Korea had started to get out of China since last year and made significant progress.
But that was the result of pushing ahead with the pressure of rising prices.
The US could never do that like South Korea did, and they didn’t even want to do that in the first place.
There was no reason to crush them as before when they couldn’t challenge their country anymore.
But South Korea’s, Yu Ji-ha’s position was different.
“It doesn’t seem like our opinions will narrow down.”
McKinley looked at Yu Ji-ha who buried himself in his chair with disappointment in his eyes and said.
“Let me change the topic for a moment. We discussed several things this time. One of them was about your identity.”
“My identity? I’m curious how much you found out.”
“Ah, nothing too impressive. But it’s definitely strange. If you look closely at your actions so far, you can’t help but doubt if you’re really an ordinary businessman and politician.”
“Are you saying I’m an alien or something?”
“Not quite, but you’re certainly a very peculiar person. So I can’t help but ask.”
He had successfully led the Second Korean War and showed amazing skills in removing obstacles one by one.
He was making a dangerous substance like Anttron, which had a huge impact on the world economy, and now he wanted to split China.
Who could guarantee that the US would not be his target in the future?
Therefore, some US intelligence agencies argued that Yu Ji-ha should be naturalized or assassinated in the worst case.
Of course, McKinley did not accept that argument, but he couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
Was Yu Ji-ha really likely to become an enemy of the US?
“Your statement just now was quite dangerous.”
“In what way?”
“It sounds like you’re declaring that you have no choice but to antagonize me.”
“I’m sorry if it sounded like that. There’s only one thing I sincerely want.”
“What is it?”
“Peace for humanity.”
“…”
He almost laughed.
Usually the word peace is preceded by the word world, but it was somewhat unexpected to mention humanity.
Well, this wasn’t important.
McKinley lowered his voice even though there was no one around.
“If you do one thing for me, I can trust you. No, the whole US will trust you.”
“You’re suggesting that I become an American. As I said before, it would be hard to handle.”
“Does that mean you’re going to do something hard to handle?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
The president’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ll tell you in advance, you can’t disclose that Anttron thing.”
“There’s no such thing as absolute in this world.”
“Do you know what happened to Japan?”
“They’re doing quite well despite the sanctions. The misfortune of others is the happiness of oneself.”
The world economy was so depressed these days that sanctions were not very effective.
And the US had taken away semiconductors and cars from South Korea.
It wasn’t for nothing that they were suffering from a severe depression.
South Korea’s main exports were not replaceable items, but new materials and technologies such as black metal.
Sanctioning them would be like shooting themselves in the foot.
McKinley sighed with frustration.
“The US and South Korea have been allies for decades.”
“They were allies. And that doesn’t mean a dependent relationship. You’ve listened to us for decades, isn’t that enough?”
“So now you want to establish an equal relationship?”
“It’s hard because there’s such a difference in size. But we can try.”
“…”
The US’s original plan was to maintain its influence in Korea without letting go.
But it turned out that this was impossible.
Korea had decided to walk its own path after absorbing North Korea.
They were confident enough to handle the aftermath of the war, which was no joke.
It was time to warn them sharply at this point.
McKinley straightened his posture.
“What I’m going to say now can be seen as the official position of the US government.”
“Go ahead.”
“The US does not agree with your opinion. The dangerous proposal to split China will not be accepted, and Anttron must never be disclosed.”
“You can’t compromise on anything.”
“We have prepared a three-stage boycott, but we won’t start it right away. We can negotiate with the next government.”
Is this it?
Yu Ji-ha looked incredulous.
“Do you think you can give up on me with this?”
After the meeting, there were not only tours of Silla Group’s facilities and androids, and nuclear fusion tests, but also a schedule to look around Pyongyang.
The US was confident that Yu Ji-ha would kneel down.
“I won’t answer that.”
It was hard to deal with him when he came at him instead of being intimidated by economic sanctions.
‘He’s definitely smart, but strange.’
The US is not Japan.
The US boycott is so harsh that it’s impossible to withstand unless it’s China or Russia.
Korea was building an independent economy, but it was still under the influence of the US.
He warned him this much, so he wouldn’t dare to announce Anttron.
McKinley stood up.
“All the schedules after this are canceled. Let me know through the official diplomatic channel if you change your mind.”
Saying to communicate through the official diplomatic channel, not the hotline, was an expression of his will not to accept him easily.
Yu Ji-ha looked at him as he stood up.
“I understand.”
“Let me give you some advice. You’re making too many enemies. It’s going to be hard for you to handle that alone someday.”
“Thank you for your advice.”
He didn’t look grateful at all.
McKinley boarded Air Force One surrounded by security guards.
He felt that the whole of South Korea, including the media, was puzzled.
Yu Jiha would suffer from a lot of pressure from now on.
But he didn’t know.
As soon as he returned home, Yu Ji-
ha held a press conference and announced Anttron.
-Let me introduce you. A new substance that suppresses all nuclear reactions, Anttron.
“…”
As his aides gasped in horror, McKinley covered his eyes with his hand and groaned.
“Can we handle this?”