Dictator From Outer Space

Chapter 47: First Come First Served

A few weeks later, the Silla Group established a new subsidiary.

Solar Fusion.

The name evoked nuclear fusion, and it attracted a lot of attention.

Among that attention, there were many skeptical views.

– No matter how you look at it, nuclear fusion is too… That’s a different dimension from drones or something like that.

ㄴDon’t you have Lucia?

ㄴLucia is a bit expensive.

ㄴIf you talk to that AI directly, you can see that Yu Ji-ha is a genius.

ㄴI can’t imagine a world without Lucia.

ㄴThe only downside is that she doesn’t come out of the monitor.

– Even if Yu Ji-ha is a genius, he should have some basics. He just developed it out of nowhere?

ㄴHe hasn’t done it yet, you idiot. He just made a corporation.

ㄴHe hired a lot of researchers from KSTAR. He must have absorbed the talent from there.

ㄴWhy is there a commotion there?

ㄴThere’s a rumor that they fought over the KSTAR data. Jo Hyunggeun ordered it, but the researchers resisted and got fired.

ㄴThat bastard, I knew he would do that.

ㄴHow can he fire such core personnel, even if he’s the president?

ㄴHe insults them by saying why can’t you do what he does. What can they do but leave?

ㄴIs he Yu Ji-ha?

ㄴMaybe?

ㄴBut why do you call the president a mutt?

ㄴWhy do you think? He’s like a neighborhood mutt, looking for trouble all day long.

ㄴHe went to the ruling party headquarters and fought with the senior members. He said it would be better to equip the good drones with good guns.

ㄴGood+Good=Twice as good? What kind of calculation is that?

ㄴHe’s really ignorant…

– How many years do you think it will take for Solar Fusion to post commercial nuclear fusion data on their website?

ㄴI give it three years at most.

ㄴReally…?

ㄴㅋㅋWhen they first made Starfield, they had the same reaction. The researchers who said it was impossible are now working at Starfieldㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴThis time, the navy tested the ion thruster and was shocked.

ㄴHow amazing is it?

ㄴAccording to the National Defense Committee data, it can propel an OOOOO-ton platform with OO knots.

ㄴWhat does O mean?

ㄴThe exact numbers are confidential. But judging by how the old men at the National Defense Committee passed the budget for the preliminary research right away, it must be impressive.

ㄴAre we seriously getting our railgun battleship?

ㄴAt this point, Yu Ji-ha might be a human from a parallel or future world.

ㄴWhere did that awesome spaceship go?

ㄴWho knows? It might be floating above our heads.

The protagonist of that spaceship was meeting with the vice president of KFE, Korea Fusion Energy Research Institute, at a restaurant in Seoul.

“Nice to meet you, Vice President An Yonghoon.”

“I’m former vice president. I quit, so I don’t have any rank or anything.”

The middle-aged scientist with half of his hair gone looked at Yu Ji-ha with apprehension.

He was indirectly responsible for making him leave KFE after all.

He came to talk to him anyway, but if there was nothing special, he would leave right away.

There were many places that wanted him anyway.

“So… Why did you want to see me after taking all our data?”

“I wanted to show you this.”

Yu Ji-ha played a video on his laptop screen.

A very thin beam seemed to scan a small material from various directions.

An ordinary person wouldn’t have guessed what it was, but An Yonghoon was someone who knew very well.

“Could it be… an ion beam? Are you shooting an ion beam into the reactor chamber right now? Is this an implosion phenomenon?”

“It’s not real, it’s a simulation.”

He lost his breath for a moment.

“A simulation is something that even undergraduates can do easily. What’s the point?”

“By the way, I should tell you that there is no tritium in this fuel pellet. Only deuterium and helium-3.”

“What did you say?”

If tritium was not needed, the cost of nuclear fusion power generation could be drastically reduced.

Why else would they spend billions of dollars to make a blanket that could breed tritium?

It was hard to believe, but the young president in front of him had never lied so far.

“This is not my theory, but Lucia’s.”

“Lucia?”

Dr. An Yonghoon’s eyes widened.

The AI Lucia, which was released in the metaverse, was very popular inside KFE.

Not only the researchers, but even he had bought Lucia and taught her various things.

Of course, Lucia didn’t come up with any great ideas or developments.

But she had a knack for learning one thing and understanding at least two.

Some researchers said she was just outputting the contents stored on the server, but he didn’t think so.

Lucia was a definite AI, and a remarkable disciple who absorbed the knowledge he gave her like a sponge.

“But Lucia can acquire knowledge, but she can’t pioneer new fields…”

“The Lucia that was released to the public is just a terminal of the metaverse server.”

“That means Lucia’s main body is on the metaverse server…”

“You can come to Solar Fusion and research with us. I don’t have much knowledge in nuclear fusion, but Lucia does.”

“…”

Researching artificial intelligence and nuclear fusion.

He joked that he would see such a day before he died, but he didn’t expect it to come so soon.

People who liked to prophesy were babbling about the singularity, but he didn’t care about anything other than research.

Yu Ji-ha showed him a list of facilities and equipment that were being introduced to Solar Fusion.

“We are not only doing simulations, but also seriously introducing equipment.”

“It seems so. But I don’t know if you can afford my salary… Even though I look like this, I have been researching nuclear physics for over 20 years…”

“I’ll match you with 200 million. I’ll also give you a card that you can use as you please within 5,000 limit.”

To An Yonghoon’s eyes, it looked like Yu Ji-ha had a card in his hand.

A spider web that he couldn’t escape from was entangling him.

He asked cautiously.

“There are some researchers who came out with me…”

“I’ll treat them the best I can.”

“Then…”

He cautiously grabbed his hand and Yu Ji-ha smiled.

“I’ll call you director from now on.”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

…

One day in April.

The European Commission announced that it would investigate whether the Black Metal batteries that would soon enter Europe violated the competition law.

Shortly after, Rene, the commissioner for competition, gave a detailed presentation on this matter.

—The Black Metal decomposer is, as far as we know, the only way to process Black Metal. Silla Energy has a dominant position as the exclusive producer of this decomposer…

—The EU’s competition law protects the companies and ideas that create new markets. However, Silla Energy did not make enough effort to supply the decomposer to the market. This clearly constitutes a violation of the competition law.

—Therefore, the Commission intends to apply the competition law extraterritorially to Silla Energy. Until Silla Energy submits verifiable data or takes action, the import and export of Black Metal batteries will be indefinitely suspended.

The market reacted as if it had expected this day.

The EU’s competition law was so strong that it surpassed the US in some respects.

The fines also kept increasing, and sometimes they collected 10% of the global sales.

—They haven’t even made the batteries yet.

—It’s the trend these days. To respond proactively. It gives you time to prepare in advance.

—It looks like blackmail to me.

—It won’t be easy to get out of this. They can’t give up the EU market completely, can they?

—There was also a lot of talk about Lucia in the EU. I doubt they’ll be able to release it.

—It’s lucky that they voluntarily delisted. If they hadn’t, their stock price would have plummeted.

Silla Group had delisted most of its subsidiaries as if it had predicted this day.

It had almost turned into a private company.

But everyone thought they couldn’t give up the huge EU market.

—But it looks bad. EU companies are losing out.

—They must have something they want to get, even at that cost. Maybe superconductors?

—You know how sensitive the EU is about carbon emissions. Nuclear fusion would solve that problem cleanly.

In fact, the EU was pouring tremendous efforts into eliminating internal combustion cars by 2035 and introducing carbon border taxes.

This was largely related to the rapidly changing climate in recent years.

Every summer, floods and large fires broke out, and in winter, extreme cold and heavy snow made all of Europe suffer.

For the EU, nuclear fusion power generation was not a possibility, but a matter of survival.

But Silla Group’s reaction was lukewarm.

—Silla Group is seriously discussing the EU’s announcement.

Time passed and German carmakers started to panic.

They were about to mine Black Metal and make batteries, but suddenly lightning struck.

If one of them didn’t back down, launching electric cars would be a dream.

They all thought Silla Group would be in a hurry, but they were surprisingly relaxed.

Yu Ji-ha held a press conference and announced an improved version of Terra Heavy launcher himself.

“This launcher will carry robots from the US, Russia, and Japan. It plans to bring back a total of one ton of unobtanium and share it fairly with each country.”

“Why did you exclude EU from this? Is it related to this extraterritorial application of competition law?”

A French journalist asked and Yu Ji-ha shook his head.

“Of course not. I have no personal feelings at all.”

He said so as Terra Heavy launcher quietly rose behind him.

Was he really without feelings?

The EU’s response was very quick.

Terra Heavy launcher left the atmosphere and less than a day later, Rene, the commissioner for competition, visited Silla Group.

This was an unprecedented move that showed how urgent the EU was.

Yu Ji-ha greeted the elderly commissioner politely.

“Welcome, Commissioner.”

“I’m sorry. You left out EU’s robots.”

Rene’s tone was like a child’s tantrum.

Well, there were so many space-related research facilities and universities in the EU.

He must have been burning with ambition to study unobtanium properly, but he was dropped out just before launch.

But he had a lot to say on this side too.

“Why did you suddenly say you would apply the competition law extraterritorially when you were quiet?”

“Because Silla Energy’s actions went against the values that the EU pursues.”

“Are you not China’s agent? Don’t tell me you didn’t know. The lobbying from China is so loud that I can hear it from here.”

He had already obtained information that Jardine UN Secretary-General had visited several embassies and acted as a mediator.

He had attached a micro-drone when he came to propose to Yu Ji-ha before.

Rene denied with a serious face.

“Commissioner, the European Commission has nothing to do with China.”

“Instead, France, Germany, and Britain must have received investment promises. Can you deny that?”

“…”

There was a long silence.

Did he wonder how he knew the results of the fierce negotiations and deals under the water?

Rene changed the subject.

“As you know, the EU is suffering from the rapid climate change. Nuclear fusion power generation is not a possibility for us, but a matter of survival.”

His voice was heavy and pitiful, like an old actor’s performance.

But Yu Ji-ha knew his true intentions.

“It all came down to unobtanium, didn’t it? Did I declare a monopoly before this incident?”

Of course not.

He had already discussed the distribution of unobtanium with several countries.

Basically, the ratio was recognized according to the investment, but the population and the technology contributed were also evaluated.

Starfield didn’t monopolize it, but it was inevitable that it would depend on it to some extent.

The EU and Britain didn’t like this.

The US and Russia decided to choose lobbying as they realized that it was hard to take the lead realistically.

Rene raised his hand.

“Of course not. But the unobtanium found on the moon is the property of all mankind. It’s regrettable that we haven’t formalized it yet.”

“I have a slightly different opinion.”

“···The EU believes that unobtanium should be placed under the common management of mankind. For that purpose, a keynote speech is prepared at the UN General Assembly. Isn’t it a great honor?”

“I guess so.”

He reacted indifferently and Rene became impatient and pulled his chair closer.

“Just say one thing. Unobtanium belongs to all mankind. Then all sanctions will be lifted and you will win the Nobel Prize in Physics.”

“I didn’t know that the EU Commission selected that.”

“We can recommend candidates. You will get both honor and money.”

“Keynote speech and Nobel Prize in Physics… They are worthless things.”

“···What?”

How could he say they were worthless?

Rene’s face hardened with shock when Yu Ji-ha said.

“I heard you well. You prepared a nice spider web. From Black Metal battery sanctions to keynote speech to Nobel Prize.”

“It’s for the sake of humanity and the EU.”

“Don’t you mean excluding humanity and including China? Well, since you made a proposal, I have to give you an answer. I refuse.”

“···So you decided to privatize unobtanium.”

“Do you want me to show you what real privatization is? How about 100 million euros per kg? Of course, I’ll sell it to other countries for a million dollars.”

“That’s a betrayal of humanity!”

“Stop equating the EU with humanity. The EU’s population is less than 500 million. You are no longer the center of the world.”

Commissioner Rene shivered with indignation.

After World War II, the EU had ceded the leadership of the world order to the US, Russia, China and others, but it was still a force that could not be ignored.

He could not let a mere CEO of a company look down on him.

But if he thought rationally, he had to admit that his side had almost run out of cards.

There was only one thing left.

To invoke solidarity for peace and propose a revision of the space treaty to the Security Council.

Even an arrogant entrepreneur would not be able to ignore the pressure of the Security Council.

Commissioner Rene stood up without saying goodbye and tried to leave.

Yu Ji-ha spoke behind him.

“If you don’t lift the sanctions within a week, I’ll impose my own sanctions.”

“Threats won’t work. Even if it’s superconductors.”

“Can I make a prediction? You and the rest of the executive committee won’t finish your terms.”

What nonsense.

Commissioner Rene slammed the door and left.

The unpleasant feeling that had seeped into his body did not go away.