Translator: Dreamscribe
Project Helios.
The stated purpose was eco-friendly space-to-ground energy transmission.
The advancement of science and construction technology.
In particular, there were androids capable of working nonstop so long as they were supplied with power twenty-four hours a day.
In other words, with enough money and ideas, a finished product could be built from the blueprints faster than at any other time in history.
"......But wasn't Project Helios supposed to take at least five years just to finish the prototype?"
"That's what they said. But the moment the project started, the completed blueprints came out in just two days. And from then on, the androids have been running around the clock to build it."
When Project Helios had been approved, the inside of GAIA had been abuzz.
On the surface, it was an eco-friendly means of gathering energy in space and beaming it down to the ground. A satellite that could rapidly recharge places where energy was desperately needed.
Didn't it look like a piece of equipment humanity absolutely had to have?
The actual project documents dealt with nothing but that.
But this was a science facility that gathered only the world's elite.
In the eyes of the researchers, Helios was unmistakably the Rod of God, something that had only ever existed in imagination.
"Five, four, three, two, one. Launch."
As General Director Kim Geum-ho watched the rocket climb high into the sky, the complicated feelings inside him showed plainly on his face.
"I was certain you would hold this back, General Director. That you wouldn't even let them launch it."
At the Vice General Director's words, Kim Geum-ho nodded.
"I was going to. It didn't fit GAIA's philosophy at all. It was, in every sense, a weapon that could threaten the world. But......"
Jung Se-yoon.
That monster of a man had completed the project in a mere year.
The original plan had been to build a prototype within five years as the first milestone.
Yet the blueprints appeared the moment they began, and production started right away.
"I was taken in. No matter how much of a genius he is, who could have imagined that he had already finished conceptualizing a project no one else had even attempted, and was ready to jump straight into fabrication?"
Jung Se-yoon hadn't drawn up the report saying he would now begin researching the project.
He had already finished the concept and the designs long ago; he had simply been waiting for his chance to put it before the world.
"But we still don't know whether that thing will actually work or not, do we? No matter how far science has come, the Rod of God is still the realm of imagination."
"Don't you know Jung Se-yoon? He's the one who cracked, in just a few months, the research problems that had us stuck against a wall for years. He's leagues beyond anything we'd call a genius."
And a man like that had built a finished product with full confidence, and just sent it up into space.
What did that mean?
It meant Jung Se-yoon knew that thing was going to work.
"Th-then, General Director. Shouldn't we stop him, even now, from doing as he pleases with that thing?"
"You know who personally approved that project, don't you? The Chairman himself. It's possible he knew Helios existed in Jung Se-yoon's head even before the project was approved. No. I'm sure he knew."
General Director Kim Geum-ho had a reputation for leading GAIA with bulldozer-like drive, paying no mind to those above him.
But in truth, that reputation was wrong.
Kim Geum-ho was human, too.
Which was precisely why he knew very well who ruled this world, and what kind of beings stood above him.
"Everyone calls me a mad dog, but the truth is I'm more rational than anyone. I'm not a fool stupid enough to defy the one man I must never defy and get myself killed for nothing. You understand that, don't you?"
"......."
"And suppose we really did shut down Jung Se-yoon's project. What about the other team projects he's running right now? There's a mountain of large-scale projects just waiting for him to hand them a solution. Work that would normally take years can be finished in months thanks to him. And you're saying we should throw all of that away?"
Kim Geum-ho had already realized that this was no longer in his hands.
"If your conscience truly weighs on you, then you shouldn't have come to GAIA in the first place. Have you forgotten that this empire called Kwangwoon was built on the blood of tens of millions?"
That single conviction, to heal this sickening earth and save the world, still lived on inside Kim Geum-ho.
But sometimes there were things a man had to let pass, pretending he hadn't seen though he had, pretending he hadn't heard though he had, pretending he didn't know though he did.
Exactly like now.
* * *
[What you are looking at right now is humanity's new technology, the 'Pillar of Light'. Eco-friendly energy beamed down from space is received in real time by charging stations, which can then replenish power-starved regions, making it an extraordinarily versatile system. Furthermore......]
I watched, heart uneasy, as my son's project, completed in a single year, reached out into space.
Contrary to my worry that he might have finished it too soon, my son's attempt had succeeded.
The satellite, now settled successfully into place, was shooting its Pillar of Light down toward a temporary charging station, broadcasting the beautiful sight live to the whole world.
"Congratulations, Chairman-nim."
"Your son has truly done something great for humanity. Ha ha."
"Blood will tell, indeed. To think he's achieved such a remarkable invention at such a young age."
I let out an inward sigh of relief and accepted the executives' congratulations with ease.
"This is only the beginning. From what I hear, it's still in the testing phase. And there's still so much that needs to be done to save this earth."
"Yes. But from what we're hearing out of GAIA, your son has unblocked projects that were stuck all at once, thanks to him."
"That's right. His presence at GAIA is simply unmatched. Everyone there is just in awe. They're saying an unprecedented scientist has been born."
They say nothing in the world sounds sweeter than praise for one's own child.
Now I understood why hyung-nim used to say such things.
The corners of my mouth were hooked up by my ears and simply would not come down.
"Apparently my son has many more projects ahead of him. And a great deal that our headquarters will need to cooperate on. GAIA is giving everything it has to save our earth, isn't it? So I'd like all the executives here to give my son their full support. Whatever he asks for, please cooperate actively."
"Yes, Chairman-nim."
"We'll make absolutely certain there's no friction."
Usually, the sons of chaebol families grew up drunk on money and power and turned out crooked.
But Se-yoon had never once shown that kind of wastrel behavior.
If anything, he was so buried in study and research that he didn't mix with other children, didn't even have a light hobby, to the point that it worried me.
And that was why I trusted my son.
Se-yoon was not the kind of boy who would ever do anything foolish.
If that child undertook something, it was solely for the sake of humanity.
Just as my Intuition had told me, Se-yoon would play the role of humanity's savior.
"Chairman. Your son has sent over a new project list today. He says he'd appreciate it if you'd pick which one should be started first, the way you did last time."
"Ah. Has he?"
I looked over the list and report Se-yoon had sent.
As always, it was full of alien gibberish I couldn't make sense of.
But my Intuition seemed to understand it, because it lit up for me which item was the most urgent.
I might be a lacking father, but I was glad I could contribute to my boy's great work even in this small way.
* * *
"A year ago, when you came to see me. Back then, I thought what you were saying made no sense at all. Honestly, I still thought that up until last week."
"And now you believe it?"
"Yes. How could I look at this magnificent result and not believe?"
The head of Sentinel, Anthony Watson, clicked his tongue as he watched the Pillar of Light descending from the sky.
"I always knew that one day, technology beyond my common sense would rule this earth, but actually seeing it, the feeling is something else entirely."
"I told you a year ago, didn't I? That I'd make sure you wouldn't regret choosing not to retire."
"Ha ha. That's right. If I hadn't let myself be swayed by what you said that day and had gone ahead with my retirement, I'd be resting easy at some resort by now, I do think that once in a while....... But there's one thing I'd like to ask. Wouldn't it have been enough to leave this to my successor, rather than me? Why me?"
"Because my father is the one who chose you. Whatever else may be true, if my father picked you himself, that's reason enough to trust you with anything, isn't it?"
So he trusted his father's insight over his own judgment.
Jung Se-yoon.
The emperor's only son, who from childhood had displayed genius and had sprinted along the elite track.
Anthony had been curious how Jung Jin-ho would make use of his son.
And he had had his own son forge the most powerful weapon of all.
"It's exactly as I explained a year ago. Helios drifts through space and can deliver a pinpoint strike on anyone on earth."
"When you fire the Pillar of Light, is the whole region obliterated? Then there could be unnecessary casualties, couldn't there?"
"If you widen the range, yes. But Helios isn't such a crude weapon."
An offensive weapon.
He had said exactly that.
Helios was officially eco-friendly space energy, but of course, Jung Se-yoon recognized it as a weapon.
"The Pillar of Light is nothing more than a performance piece for the public. The truth is, Helios wasn't designed to fire a pillar across a wide area like that. It can also fire the thinnest possible ray of light."
"Does that mean...... you can fire it at just one target?"
"Yes. A single, narrow beam of light. Moving at the speed of light, driving its energy right into the crown of the target's head."
"!?"
Anthony had thought, after everything he'd lived through, that nothing would surprise him anymore.
But this was a weapon beyond imagination.
"At the speed of light, and capable of killing a single man without harming anything else around him."
"Yes. As you said, because the strike travels at the speed of light, even if the target moves the moment the button is pressed, it cannot miss. It is, quite literally, the speed of light."
Anthony swallowed hard.
At first he had thought it was a simple device for firing that massive Pillar of Light down to sweep a given region clean.
But this was something more.
It was, truly, a weapon that could deliver the wrath of God Himself.
"The reason I met with you a year ago, General Director, was to prepare for this very day. Now that the weapon is complete, we have to use it. That's why I made my request back then, wasn't it? To draw up a list of those who stand against this earth, against our Kwangwoon, against my father, to identify where they operate, and to keep them under watch."
"Ah, yes. We've already been compiling a list of dangerous individuals and tracking them. This is that list."
When Se-yoon plugged in the USB Anthony had handed over, a hologram rose up.
Countless red dots blooming across the round model of the earth.
They were the targets disturbing the world his father ruled.
Presently, a single line of text appeared on the screen.
[Do you wish to activate Project Helios?]
The moment Jung Se-yoon reached to press the button.
Anthony stepped in to stop him.
"Wait. If this is something that will get blood on someone's hands, let me do it. There's no need for you to do it yourself."
But Se-yoon smiled faintly.
"It's fine. I understand exactly what my role is."
"......Pardon?"
Without hesitation, Jung Se-yoon pressed the button.
There wasn't a sound, but Anthony could feel it.
Divine judgment was falling upon sinners, all across the world.
"Does the Chairman know about this work, by any chance?"
"You only need to know one thing, General Director."
"Which is......"
"Who was the first to approve this project."
"Ah-."
Anthony rose quietly from his seat and bowed his head.
"I'll prepare the next list and bring it to you."
"Please do. True to Sentinel's name, keep the strictest watch over anyone who dares threaten the Chairman's empire."
"Yes, sir."
Only a few years ago, with the Kwangwoon Empire completed, he had begun slipping into a kind of stagnant rut.
He'd never imagined that the Chairman's son would be the one to pour this kind of stimulus and passion back into him.
Just like Jung Se-yoon, Anthony wore a faint smile.
He really had done well not to retire, after all.