The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 120

The security phone that Moon Seok-il had obtained was unique.

No, ‘unique’ was the more appropriate term.

First of all, it was peculiar in that it could only make outgoing calls.

It was similar to the city phones that briefly appeared in the late 20th century, but unlike city phones, there was no need to loiter near public phone booths to make a call.

The sound quality wasn’t clear, and there was a static-like crackling noise. It didn’t matter since the only people he’d been calling were Moon Seok-il and Kim In-rang, but the call quality wasn’t great.

On a Saturday afternoon, Jin-hyuk and Moon Seok-il walked together along the urethane track by the waterway. Because water was needed for this year’s farming, they were using the existing waterway, so the new waterway hadn’t been filled with water. Thanks to this, the bottom of the waterway was covered in green grass, making it look less desolate.

Jin-hyuk looked at the phone and said,

“It’s amazing. That this kind of technology exists.”

“To operate in the shadows, you have to do all sorts of things. I don’t even know the principle behind it.”

Moon Seok-il shrugged.

He had obtained a Nokia 1011 cell phone that had been modified into a secure satellite phone somewhere in Seattle, USA, and then had it modified again at an electronics store in Cheonggyecheon [a district in Seoul known for its electronics shops] to make it usable in Korea.

“They do that kind of thing in Cheonggyecheon?”

“If you pay enough, they’ll even make gun parts. You just have to get them and assemble them.”

Huh-, Jin-hyuk let out a drawn-out exclamation like an old man.

There were other reasons why the phone was special.

“It really can’t be tracked?”

“It’s more accurate to say it can’t.”

Moon Seok-il didn’t bother explaining that the call was routed through North Korea. He had mentioned something about frequencies and analog signals, but even though he was knowledgeable about how to use it, he didn’t have the technical expertise, so he couldn’t answer all of Jin-hyuk’s questions. Besides, once this guy started asking questions, he wouldn’t stop. Moon Seok-il, who had been sweating while answering, had no choice but to become more taciturn.

“Think of it as a walkie-talkie, and it’ll be easier.”

Jin-hyuk nodded with a nonchalant expression.

Talking about the phone reminded him of his recent conversation with Min Yong-rak.

Last year, the number of mobile phone subscribers announced by Seokyeong Mobile Communications was less than 800 nationwide. To use a brick phone weighing over 700 grams, one had to spend over 5 million won, including the device cost and activation fee, which he had vaguely heard was equivalent to the cost of a small apartment in the outskirts of Seoul.

Regardless of the price level, it was also an indicator that contributed to Seintel Telecom’s birth after Seokyeong gave up its mobile communication business. It was partly thanks to the large amount of assets given by the Sein Group, but also thanks to Seokyeong’s hasty judgment of business viability.

For some reason, Daejeong and Seokyeong were having difficulties developing subsequent handsets, and Jin-hyuk was the only one who suspected that Hong Ki-joon was behind it. In the year after Hong Ki-joon became the president of Sein Electronics, Sein had no hesitation in poaching key engineers from other companies with huge sums of money.

‘The pager era might be over soon, too.’

According to Min Yong-rak, Sein Electronics and Sein Telecom were already preparing for digital-based mobile communication services. He had mentioned something about CDMA [Code Division Multiple Access, a digital cellular technology], but Min Yong-rak, who wasn’t an expert, simply explained it as some kind of communication technology.

Looking at the plans for miniaturizing handsets, Jin-hyuk thought,

‘Are they planning to make other companies obsolete?’

It was a simple method.

Wait until other companies’ models are released on the market, then distribute a large quantity of groundbreaking products. Then, the existing companies that failed to gain consumer choice would struggle with their unsold inventory and face financial difficulties.

‘They’ll absorb them.’

It was a way to inflict internal damage without attacking. It was easy to understand if you thought of a race between a child and an adult. The adult starts late from behind but eventually overtakes the child. If companies were of similar skill levels, it would be normal to compete to release new products as quickly as possible, but if there was a good way to ruin competitors without breaking the law, why bother with a cutthroat competition?

From afar, Jin-hyuk could already see Hong Ki-joon’s movements, who had already begun his world domination project. It was a move that only Jin-hyuk could see.

“I have something to talk about with Manager Min.”

He parted ways with Moon Seok-il in front of the bear gym and walked across the lawn.

The scorching summer sun hitting his left cheek was adequately blocked by the zelkova trees planted here and there.

There was no need to go to the molehill to meet Min Yong-rak.

He was one of the most laid-back people in the neighborhood, and other than helping Jang Jin-nam prepare food, he spent a lot of time on the porch, teaching Yu-jin numbers and letters and building a friendship with her.

“Why is your tummy sticking out, Uncle?”

“Ah! Aah-.”

He was criticized by Yu-jin more often than he taught, but since the criticisms were based on facts, Min Yong-rak was always speechless.

“Why is the number ‘five’ similar to an ‘S’?”

“Aah-.”

There were too many questions he couldn’t answer, so he was sweating and losing weight naturally.

Jin-hyuk knew that Min Yong-rak was doing this to meet him. He had no sense of romance, but he was very perceptive of people with business purposes.

“Manager, you need to change your notebook.”

Jin-hyuk clicked his tongue, looking at Min Yong-rak’s notebook filled with dense writing.

He knew the importance of taking notes, but as someone who always kept things in his head, it was an unfamiliar habit. He would only focus intently to clarify past events as they came to mind, but he didn’t write them down separately. He had to be careful because if someone else saw those notes, they might think it was strange.

“I don’t think there’s a need to introduce GSM [Global System for Mobile Communications]. And the machines too. If the pace of technological development is fast, shouldn’t the equipment development be adjusted to that pace? Isn’t that a market-leading strategy?”

It was a response to a note about Sein Telecom considering introducing the GSM mobile communication system standard, which had not been introduced in Korea. Next to the note, there was a name of a member of the National Assembly in parentheses, which meant that a request had come from the political circles.

Min Yong-rak’s eyes lit up, as he had no understanding of the terminology.

“Do you know what all of this means?”

“No.”

Jin-hyuk’s answer was firm. He really didn’t know. If he knew all those trivial terms, he’d be a computer, not a human.

How can he give an opinion if he doesn’t even know the meaning? Min Yong-rak’s eyebrows furrowed.

“I look at them as unknowns.”

“Unknowns?”

“I put aside the words I don’t know as X and Y, like in an equation, and look at the other words first.”

Min Yong-rak’s face became increasingly blank.

As Jin-hyuk continued his explanation, Min Yong-rak leaned closer, adjusting the pen in his hand.

“It’s good to know the details of the technical aspects to gain persuasiveness, but it can also be a hindrance when making decisions. You might unknowingly delve too deeply and end up with a logic that flows in the wrong direction. In the end, the answer is either yes or no, and the businessman’s area is to consider whether there will be profit or loss. The technical aspects are the engineer’s area, and the convenience aspects are the responsibility of the public relations people who have to package it.”

Jin-hyuk shrugged as if it was nothing.

Is that so? Min Yong-rak scribbled notes and tilted his head.

Surprisingly, Jin-hyuk’s behavior wasn’t unfamiliar. It was familiar, like seeing his cousin who had graduated from a science high school.

Jin-hyuk pointed to the notebook.

“Here, it says that Sein Telecom has already decided to introduce the digital mobile communication system CDMA developed by Qualcomm? There’s no need to bring in the European system on top of that. I don’t know why they’re suggesting GSM.”

This was material that Hong Ki-joon was using to test him. That’s what Jin-hyuk suspected.

Of course, it was also possible that a politician who often failed to follow trends or went against the times was putting pressure on the company for the sake of their performance. So, he had also thought that perhaps they needed a way to refuse without antagonizing the politician.

However, as far as Jin-hyuk knew, no one could match Hong Ki-joon’s ability to negotiate appropriately between acceptance and refusal. If you looked at his tightrope-walking skills alone, he was the best diplomat on the planet.

“-We should aim for perfection once we’ve started, but it seems more important to solidify our foundation rather than expand our reach right now.”

It was definitely a test. Looking at the M&A data, which was vaguely described under the name of restructuring the group, Jin-hyuk nodded inwardly.

Even if he spoke vaguely, Hong Ki-joon would understand, so there was no need to explain it in detail to Min Yong-rak. Hong Ki-joon wouldn’t be unaware of the upcoming financial crisis, so why would he engage in aggressive mergers and acquisitions? It didn’t make sense. When that time came, even the giants would falter on their own. Frankly, they could swallow one of Daejeong’s main companies, so there was no reason to overdo it.

‘It might be a good idea to erase Daejeong, who is dreaming a sweet dream, from the 21st century.’

From Sein Heavy Industries to Sein Machinery and Sein Chemical. Looking at the charts for the construction of a new semiconductor production plant, equipment, and drug development, it seemed that Hong Ki-joon had the same idea.

Nhaaaaaa-.

Son Yu-jin, who had been listening nearby, yawned widely.

‘Oppa is talking boring stuff again.’

While her brother was talking with Min Yong-rak, Yu-jin was brushing Hong-si’s fur. Hong-si, who was born in the winter, had grown so much that he was bigger than his mother, Jang-gun, and even bigger than Nuroongi from Choi Mi-kyung’s place. When it was hot, Jang-gun would go under Hong-si’s chest to avoid the sun, so it was to the point where Hong-si looked like the mother.

Even now, while she was brushing him, Jang-gun was playing with Hong-si’s chest fur.

“Hong-si’s fur is long. Longer than Jang-gun’s.”

His appearance was also exactly the same as Bbomi, whom she had seen in Seoul.

Jo Il-heon, the old man, had said that.

– “Hong-si looks exactly like Jang-gun’s mother.”

He had also said that it was impossible for a Jindo dog [a Korean breed of hunting dog] to give birth to a retriever, and that they must have picked up someone else’s puppy. Then, he got his calf bitten by Jang-gun and limped. Hong-si was gentle, but Jang-gun was a fierce dog, and since she was small, the neighborhood men often ignored her and were punished for it.

‘I shouldn’t say ‘ho-‘ to the old man who ignores Jang-gun.’

After a long brushing session, Hong-si, who had looked like a fur mess, showed off his aristocratic appearance.

Yu-jin noticed a scratch on his nose, probably from playing somewhere.

Son Yu-jin glanced at her brother and Min Yong-rak, then stroked Hong-si’s wound.

Her hand warmed up, and the warmth passed to Hong-si.

‘Ehehe-.’

Heheheh-.

She smiled, seeing the wound healed, and Hong-si licked Yu-jin’s nose.

Whimpering-.

Jang-gun, who was lying flat on the ground, looked up with pitiful eyes, rolling her eyes upwards.

She was extending her right front paw, as if to say that it hurt there. Why was she like this when she had been fine until now?

‘I can’t do it twice.’

This is difficult.

There’s a way to handle this.

She pouted her lips and aimed at her palm. As her eyes converged in the middle, something popped out of her mouth.

Tu-. Free Grandma Medical.

***

With the family growing, there were more things to do even on Sundays.

Still, Yu-jin was the most important one to take care of. Jung-won was still a newborn, so she had to live in her mother’s arms.

After covering Yu-jin, who had fallen asleep next to the baby, with a light blanket, he went up to the rooftop.

He looked around to see if anyone was watching or listening, and then took out the phone.

There was something he had been doing every day since July.

Hmm hmm-. As he cleared his throat, a young man’s voice was heard from the other end of the phone.

Jin-hyuk quickly made his mouth like a duck’s beak and opened his throat. He also slightly lowered his jaw.

“Hey-, is this Mokpoo- Airport?”

The North Korean accent he had learned from Jung Sang-tae wasn’t easy. However, the appropriately mixed static and distorted voice would properly hide Jin-hyuk. Location tracking would naturally be impossible.

“I’m at Mokpoo- Airport. I’ve planted a bomb.”

His heart was pounding as he made a prank call that was no joke, but it was an unavoidable choice. He had to stop the planes heading to Mokpo Airport.

He vaguely remembered that the accident had happened around the summer vacation. The weather had been hot all along, but it had rained on the weekend of the start of the vacation, and it had been all over the news. The shock he had received was so great that he could barely recall the season.

“You dog-brained bastard, are you listening to me with your nose?”

Jin-hyuk gave an apologetic look to his dog friends, who had followed him and were now sitting quietly. He was sorry to Jang-gun and Hong-si, but this was the only curse word he had learned from Jung Sang-tae.

He had to stall for time.

He had to make the police or the military track Jin-hyuk’s signal. That way, the authorities, realizing that he was untraceable, would take measures such as closing the airport or something else.

‘I’m sorry to the passengers.’

North-South tension? He didn’t need to worry about that. Neither side had any intention of going to war, and they wouldn’t be able to find any evidence of terrorism anyway. Even if evidence came out, they were in a relationship where they couldn’t easily hold each other responsible.

But this was a big problem.

‘Damn it, I’m out of material.’

It was the result of not thinking enough about what to say.

That’s when it happened.

– Whaaa-whaa-.

That’s right, they were asking for his demands from the other end of the phone.

Wait? But what should he demand?

Being a terrorist without a script wasn’t easy either.

‘Aish-, there’s nothing easy in this world.’

There’s a way to handle this.

Click-.