episode_0133

“You came quite early, you were already waiting?”

“As the host, there’s no need to drag things out.”

Inside the company building in the city center, primarily used by my eldest noona, who busily moves in all directions.

I had left Woo Miae waiting outside.

Entering the quiet CEO’s office, where even a security guard was stationed outside, perhaps to strictly maintain confidentiality, she was drinking coffee without even looking at me.

‘Those deep dark circles just won’t disappear.’

No matter how much caffeine she drank, the dark circles under her eyes wouldn’t fade, only deepen.

My eldest noona was a proper person who always arrived first when she made an appointment.

Rather than arriving late and engaging in a pointless war of nerves with her counterpart, she would arrive early to organize her thoughts or gain an advantage through her unique composure.

“……”

“……”

Consequently, she had a knack for creating a palpable awkwardness by not speaking unless it was strictly necessary.

I, having been invited as a guest, opened the conversation with a slight resentment at not even being offered a cup of terrible coffee.

“So, what’s the reason you deliberately stepped foot into your company, making yourself so conspicuous?

People were whispering as I came in. You know that, right?”

Our meeting was bound to draw a lot of discussion and debate within the company.

Even if someone was a closely related insider within the company, probably no one could accurately grasp our current relationship.

Whether this Cha Doyeon came merely as a family member.

Or if he appeared as an enemy commander, harboring resentment after being ousted by Hwaryeong, stepping foot into their base.

As each day passed, the confrontational dynamic between and was intensifying, so interest was naturally bound to be drawn.

“Right, that.”

The eldest, Cha Seonmi, caught my words as if she had just been about to say them.

Then, to get straight to the point, she cut sharply to the chase.

“How about we, as family, cooperate for a change?”

It was incredibly succinct.

A slight smirk played on her lips as she conveyed her intent with a relaxed and concise air.

“…Huh?”

My mouth gaped open in a perfect circle.

Soon, it stretched wide horizontally, as usual.

“That’s not like you, noona. Why are you talking so weakly?”

After snorting dismissively, I strode over to the sofa and sat down.

I tapped my shoe on the floor as I pressed her.

“When we last met, the discussion was over, and wasn’t the atmosphere more about having a proper showdown?”

Noona was backing down like I’d never seen before.

As I mocked that point with casual ease, her lips again curved elegantly upwards from below her dark circles.

“Yes, that was the case.”

Slurp.

The black coffee was intensely aromatic.

A long slurp, matching its strong scent, followed, then:

“Still, my personal assessment of your actions is good, so I’m giving you one last chance to get on board.”

“Hah~ Are we playing word games now?”

After swaggering a bit to establish our power dynamic, I continued,

“With our liquid capital, we instantly outpaced Hwaryeong.

Isn’t it you, noona, who’s clearly falling behind in this power struggle?”

Currently, our side is no different than a mint that can print money without limit.

My wellspring of information hasn’t dried up yet, and based on that information, my is being propelled by a strong wind.

Even if Cha Seonmi inherited the most important assets of the Hwaryeong family, she couldn’t convert all of it into cash.

Semiconductors, batteries, etc. She received the pinnacle of Korean technology in all those fields, but even that is now gradually falling behind in global technological competition.

It means the future is proceeding as planned.

Moreover, if Seonmi noona is waiting for the AI era, then our side can smile even more happily.

Because the field we most desired and heavily invested in is precisely that area.

As the AI technology innovation noona hopes for approaches, and as time passes, the upper hand would actually shift to our side.

Even without using a trump card, the advantage is already tilted in our favor.

“Well.

So, was there any achievement from that useless power struggle?”

“……”

Cha Seonmi, who poured caffeine into her body at every opportunity.

With her long fingers, she caressed the round teacup faintly smudged with light lipstick.

“No matter how much you waste money raising unit prices or disrupt my business, the contracts are already secured behind the scenes. Are you going to keep trying methods that don’t work?”

At that, I pouted, my lips sticking out like a duck’s bill, expressing my feelings.

I had actually given such instructions behind the scenes.

Considering the funds earned through investments, our side had an enormous amount, so I tried to quickly win by crushing the opponent with money.

It was a common strategy to disrupt a successful business venture.

“It’s commendable that my brother has become a real businessman who knows how to play dirty, but he’s still a bit clumsy, isn’t he?”

However, Cha Seonmi didn’t even flinch at such petty tricks.

She gracefully evaded everything, as if it were just an everyday occurrence in this field.

She cited minor laws to buy time, incited hired civil organizations to halt construction, and cut a deal with city council members in advance to divert the work to her side.

She dodged me like a cunning fox, and as a result, only my company’s contracts were stalled, and my plans suffered setbacks.

‘As expected, she’s not as easy to deal with as Hwaryeon noona.’

All of this isn’t meant to criticize her as cowardly.

After all, this kind of work is about who uses stratagem better, and we were outmaneuvered in execution.

In other words, it means they consistently played good defensive cards in response to our attacks.

She truly deserved to be called the successor.

“…But still, noona, you can’t hold out forever.”

But even so, the powerful current heading our way cannot be escaped.

After all, it was a move made by our side merely as a check, and even Cha Seonmi cannot defy fate by going against the inevitable flow of the future.

Soon, by sheer capital, will come to revere to the point where it can no longer dismiss it as a mere derivative.

It means the fake I created will overshadow the real thing, like a shadow.

The fact is, even if our methods aren’t working, there’s no need to rush; all momentum and trends are already heading in our direction.

“Yes, I don’t know what your trick is, but I understand that you can wield money like magic.”

Cha Seonmi acknowledged my side as if doing me a favor.

Then, after taking a final long sip from the coffee in her mug,

“But, no matter how much you excel, can you really beat the entire Republic of Korea?”

“……?”

I blinked, not understanding what she meant.

Cha Seonmi made an utterly incomprehensible statement, then added another layer of mystery.

“Doyeon, I am about to become the Republic of Korea.”

“………………What?”

Cha Seonmi was a cold and calculating person.

She wasn’t someone who merely bluffed.

When evaluating things, she was a fiercely rational human being who always saw them for exactly what they were, nothing more, nothing less.

So this remark was both slightly surprising and incomprehensible.

Cha Seonmi scoffed as if teasing me.

“To explain it to my younger brother, who looks like he doesn’t understand the quiz, it’s exactly as I said.

If you kick this table and oppose me now, you’ll be turning your back on the entire Republic of Korea.”

“Did that strong coffee have a side effect of making you spout nonsense…?”

“Whew… Alright, since you might become a partner, I’ll tell you briefly.”

As if to tell me to listen carefully from now on, she loosened her tie slightly and cleared her throat.

“You didn’t jump into AI development.”

“……”

“You saw the same trend as I did, but you hesitated to directly develop AI.

Instead, you built power supply networks and data centers necessary for it, and invested in promising companies on your side.”

A rare, subtly rising smile, uncharacteristic of her.

“That cowardly judgment is your downfall.”

“……?”

“Well, I understand.

Even a brief look shows that AI development costs a lot of money. If you even consider the possibility of failure, it’s a business that would ruin the company. It would seem much wiser to just pick up the scraps around it.”

She continued, emphasizing with her lips pressed together,

“Only for a very short while.”

“…Noona, stop beating around the bush and get to the point.”

“Hehe, you couldn’t see the bigger future.

You missed the most important part. That the meaning of AI development is essentially a war between nations.”

War.

That’s how Cha Seonmi described AI.

She was utterly serious, as if it were by no means an exaggeration.

“If AI is developed, the most top-secret field that nations will definitely consider is war and military equipment.

They’ll embed AI into all sorts of weapons that automatically kill people, and there will be no more ignorant acts of humans jumping into the battlefield.”

“……What about it?”

Cha Seonmi offered an example here.

“Assuming AI is innovatively developed in the future, can you trust and use an AI weapon with a Chinese flag on it?”

“……!”

At this point, she struck a nerve.

It felt like being hit hard in the back of the head as I simultaneously realized something crucial I had strongly missed.

“Conversely, if it had an American flag, would that be the case?

Just because it’s our closest ally, can we trust and use it forever?”

“That is…”

“Brother, AI is security. It becomes an essential security measure that a competitive nation must possess autonomously.”

Noona emphasized seriously.

“Of course, if they immediately think of war, it’s an inhumane act, so for now, nations might claim, putting on a facade, that such tragic events should be avoided.”

“……”

“But did that stop nuclear weapons from being made? Even if a massacre weapon equipped with cutting-edge intelligence is inhumane, wouldn’t at least one nation secretly develop it somewhere in the world?”

Then, noona subtly reached out and took my hand.

Even though we were family, noona’s body temperature was chillingly cold and pale.

Grinning as if delighted while speaking of such terrifying things, she hammered in the final nail.

“My pouring all its efforts into AI development is a gamble on a global technological cold war… and war preparedness.

It’s an essential business that a nation cannot possibly miss out on.”