Translator: Dreamscribe
"So, how did it go?"
"Well..."
One look at their faces made the answer clear without needing to hear it.
"Everything that new recruit said was right?"
The Team Leaders' voices shrank.
"Yes..."
"So you're telling me the problem that's been tormenting both your teams for weeks, this new recruit solved on his first day?"
"..."
It was enough to drive anyone up the wall.
Where did they think they were?
This was GAIA, the place that gathered the finest elite minds in the world.
And yet, this new recruit had found a correlation that none of them had even thought to consider.
"You ran simulations too, didn't you? And you failed to account for this?"
"These are the first projects of their kind in human history. There was no data on them. Naturally, the AI assisting the simulations didn't have that data either, so the issue wasn't flagged."
"And now that you've fed in the new data, the correlation showed up?"
"Yes. What we were missing, in the end, was the idea itself. Truthfully, these projects are new technologies that GAIA introduced to stop global warming."
It might have sounded like an excuse, but there was some truth to what they were saying.
The technologies GAIA was currently using were cutting-edge and entirely new, which meant the data was scarce.
They were developing and simultaneously deploying countless technologies to cool the overheated Earth back down to a place where people could live without air conditioning, as they once did.
Naturally, no real body of data had accumulated, and so there was no way to predict what problems might arise.
"Some Lead Researchers you are. You couldn't catch a single thing like that, and look how much money you've burned. And if that new recruit hadn't spoken up, the problem would have spread across the entire planet."
"...We're sorry."
"If you're sorry, each team, go draw up a list."
"Pardon? Wh, what kind of list..."
"A list of researchers to assign to a new team."
"You're creating a new team?"
"That's right."
But they were already short-staffed as it was.
And now he wanted a new team on top of that.
"Then who would be the Team Leader..."
"That new recruit from today, obviously."
"What?!"
The two Team Leaders stared at General Director Kim Geum-ho strangely.
"What the hell are you thinking? You think I'm doing this because he happens to be the Chairman's son? The survival of humanity is on the line here, and you're worried about currying favor with the higher-ups?"
Kim Geum-ho did not have a single shred of ulterior motive.
Kwangwoon Group was a place that evaluated people purely on merit, with no regard for background.
And so Kim Geum-ho, in line with the company's operating principles, judged people solely by ability.
"You two Team Leaders share the blame, but I knew about these problems weeks ago too, and even I couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong. That kid figured it out in one go."
This was a field overflowing with new technologies and new equations where proper data had yet to accumulate. On top of that, the presentation didn't lay everything out in detail.
And yet he had grasped the problem from nothing but those scant clues.
Something no one else had managed in weeks.
"I heard they were calling him a once-in-a-generation genius. Seems it was the real deal. Though looking at today's presentation alone, calculating that correlation would've been incredibly difficult. How on earth did he do it..."
General Director Kim Geum-ho wondered the same thing.
But there was a saying, wasn't there?
That common sense doesn't apply to geniuses from the start.
This place was packed with people who had been called geniuses since childhood, people who had walked the elite path.
In other words, it was a company swarming with geniuses.
And yet, even among geniuses, there were those who stood a tier or two higher.
"You two know, don't you? That GAIA is in crisis."
A crisis at GAIA meant a crisis for humanity.
If the people here couldn't solve the problem, it meant no one could.
"Back around 2020, everyone was boasting that by 2040 the Singularity would arrive and there'd be no science humanity couldn't conquer."
They remembered it too.
The AI boom that began in 2020 had been a brilliant hope for humanity.
They believed that long-standing problems would be solved, that global warming would be fully addressed by now, and that by 2050 even death itself would be conquered.
But reality told a different story.
Humanity had entered a period of technological stagnation.
It was, perhaps, the final wall, a limit to technology they had yet to break through.
They were solving problems by deploying various new technologies, but everyone knew that in the end, it was nothing more than buying time.
"AI has come a long way, but it still needs a human hand. Meaning the true Singularity is still a long way off. There have been advances that could be called major turning points, but really it's the media that got excited. The things that actually needed to be developed stalled out at some point."
Many had predicted that when the Singularity came, AI would solve every outstanding problem and humanity would achieve explosive growth.
But now, skepticism was growing, voices arguing that such a Singularity might never come.
"Like Edison and Newton did, like Einstein did, we need someone to spark a revolution in science."
"Don't tell me you believe that Jung Se-yoon kid will be the one to play that role, General Director?"
"It's too early to say. But I can at least give him wings."
There was a story once told in someone's autobiography.
The anecdote about how, even knowing Jung Jin-ho had been brought in as a Parachute hire, they recognized his remarkable investment ability and immediately gave him wings, and that's how today's Kwangwoon was built.
Perhaps Chairman Jung Jin-ho had found Kim Geum-ho, who had been struggling away at some lowly research institute, and slotted him into this center precisely for a day like today.
That thought suddenly crossed his mind.
* * *
"What?"
At the Secretary's report, I wore a dumbfounded expression.
"Our Se-yoon is a Team Leader?"
"Yes. On his first day, General Director Kim Geum-ho appointed Jung Se-yoon-ssi as a Lead Researcher and created a new team for him."
"On his first day? And what's the team doing?"
"He's been tasked with reviewing the projects assigned to each team. On top of that, he's been given the authority to start any new project of his choosing at any time."
"So he has the authority to freely request investment funds from headquarters?"
"That's correct, Chairman."
Of course...
So he's feeling me out.
Since he's my son of all people, the people at the center have no choice but to read my face.
And that's how an appointment this bold comes about.
"What would you like to do?"
"..."
Is this how hyungnim felt back then?
Apparently, back when Team Leader Park Hong-seo suddenly gave me that extraordinary promotion and tossed me five billion won, hyungnim agonized over it a great deal.
If it had been me, I probably would've cut off the investment right there, but back then, hyungnim just let it be.
Even though I could have blown all that money, he decided to trust me and watch. Ready to console me and tell me it was all right, even if I lost every last won.
'Thinking back on it, hyungnim really was a man of enormous character.'
I don't think I'll ever fully repay that kindness in my lifetime.
"Leave it alone for now. And if Se-yoon happens to request any investment, approve all of it."
"Understood. I'll pass that along."
Beyond Se-yoon himself, I decided to trust General Director Kim Geum-ho, the man who had so abruptly fast-tracked my son.
He was originally the type who didn't concern himself with what the higher-ups thought, who pushed forward with whatever he believed was right, which was precisely why he'd been demoted and barely managed to hang on to a research position.
My Intuition must have liked that kind of disposition, because it had picked out this man named Kim Geum-ho and chosen him as the General Director of GAIA.
I don't believe someone like that would suddenly change his character and elevate my son just to read my face.
No. I'm choosing to believe that.
Just as hyungnim trusted and watched over me.
On top of that, I trust my Intuition.
My Intuition sent me a powerful signal that day: my son would one day be the person who saved the world.
'Right now I may be sitting in this seat, but-.'
Someday, my son will become the great leader who guides this world on the right path.
* * *
"I'm well aware that it isn't normal for someone as young as me to leapfrog past senior colleagues with long careers and become a Team Leader in a single day. Still, I'd ask for your understanding. Please let me know anytime if I'm doing something wrong."
Jung Se-yoon opened with a greeting and an apology to the researchers who had been pulled out of their existing teams and abruptly reassigned, and who now looked quite bewildered.
"Oh no. Not at all, Team Leader. We were in that meeting with you the other day too, remember?"
"No one here doubts your abilities, Team Leader. Honestly, do you have any idea how thrilled I was to be assigned to your team?"
"Really?"
"Yes. I get the feeling this place will be completely different from the other teams. Haha."
Thankfully, the team members didn't seem to have any major complaints.
The impact he'd made at that meeting had been that significant.
He was, after all, the legendary new recruit who had spotted a problem no one else had noticed and silenced not only that notoriously foul-tempered General Director but every Lead Researcher in one fell swoop.
On top of that, this new recruit's father was the man who currently ruled the world.
Blood really does tell, it seemed.
"For now, as per the General Director's request, we'll be reviewing the projects currently underway at our center."
"Wow... There must be a ton of projects going on here. So I guess we shouldn't expect any new projects for a while?"
"If we finish the review quickly, we might find some time. In any case, we're going to be very busy for a while. This is my first time at a company, so there's a lot I may not know. I'd really appreciate it if you'd all show me the ropes."
"Yes, sir. Don't you worry, Team Leader. We'll take good care of you!"
They were highly cooperative researchers.
How should he put it.
It was as if they'd spotted their chance, burning with the ambition to make a good impression and turn their lives around.
"Then let's talk again this evening. I'll go over the reports in the meantime."
"Got it."
Jung Se-yoon, now inside the Team Leader's office, sat down in his chair and stared blankly up at the ceiling.
The truth was, he had already finished going through all the reports that had come in that day.
He didn't even need to read them carefully.
With the ability he possessed, his Comprehension, he absorbed the contents in an instant.
He had simply set aside the time to let his team members review and understand it at their own pace.
His interest lay elsewhere, not in the minutiae of lowering the Earth's temperature.
"..."
[Immortality of Cells]
It was one of the theses Jung Se-yoon had written in graduate school.
Current research focused on suppressing cellular aging, but what Jung Se-yoon wanted was to prevent cell death itself.
Cells that would not merely age more slowly, but never die.
Cells that regenerated and healed on their own.
That, in turn, meant human immortality.
'But not everyone needs to be immortal.'
A world where everyone was immortal would only compound the chaos.
It was when only a chosen, specific individual held immortality that it became a privilege, and power.
Someday, humanity might replace organs and bodies with machines to maintain their physical form forever, but this exalted being would require no such assistance. Through bodily ability alone, he would heal from any wound, and never die.
Quite literally, he would become a living 'god'.
And the one person in this world worthy of that immortality.
'Father.'
Father had always said it.
That he would grow up to be a scientist who saved the world.
But Jung Se-yoon had understood from a young age exactly what his role was.
'My role isn't to succeed my father and become the emperor.'
It wasn't to develop various technologies to save the world either.
'It is to make the throne he sits upon last forever.'
To ensure that this Earth, this humanity, remained under his rule for all eternity.
To make his father, a mere man, into a god.
That was the reason for his existence, as Jung Se-yoon understood it.