Chapter 129: The Fun Arms Race
“I’ll take care of the rest of the work.”
“Try to absorb them into the management agency if possible. If you need more manpower, ask the secretariat.”
He entrusted Arma with the reform of the remaining distribution network.
Now that he had established the foundation of smart farming, the rest was not too difficult.
Contrary to his expectations, people did not have much resistance to cultured meat, and it was selling like hotcakes.
The low price was one reason, but the bigger advantage was the consistent quality.
—At least there’s no confusion about whether this is fat or meat.
—If you eat this, you can’t eat other meat. It’s tasteless.
Many citizens were eagerly waiting for the launch of smart-farmed beef, following pork.
And many researchers from abroad came to visit, and some even naturalized.
—When I came to Korea and checked it myself, I realized how hard it was to catch up with the technological gap. It’s better to do research here.
—It’s more like learning what has already been researched than doing it together, but there are so many new technologies and equipment that it’s fun.
As a result of accepting these researchers, Korea’s smart farming management agency became the largest in the world.
There was a lot of domestic demand, but there were also many export requests from foreign countries that verified the quality, so it seemed that they would have to operate at full capacity for a while.
Dairy products also went down in price considerably, and especially milk had an additional process added to enjoy its unique rich and creamy taste.
There were also plans to make butter and cheese with this milk, which delighted domestic consumers.
—Foreign goat cheese is really delicious, but I tried a sample this time and it was almost similar.
-Domestic butter was ridiculously expensive, but this time the price will go down a lot.
—It’s amazing how technology can solve even the worst land…
Now most consumers hoped that smart farming would produce fruits as well.
Especially delicious fruits from Southeast Asia.
Imports had increased significantly and farms growing them in Korea had also increased, but they were still expensive.
Especially things like mangosteen, which had a short shelf life, took a long time at customs or quarantine procedures even if they used cargo ships, which raised the unit price.
The smart farming management agency said that there were technical difficulties, but it was not impossible.
—We are currently testing the process of making pulp with particle spray like cultured meat. Once the genetic analysis is done, we will be able to produce more realistic products.
—We started working on removing the odor gene from durian. We might be able to make a fruit that has the original taste of pulp but is more accessible.
This information was known to Southeast Asia and caused a great backlash.
They said that they could not recognize the pulp made that way as fruit.
Anyway, consumers only cared about enjoying it cheaply and deliciously, and he had no plans to stop or give up.
In this way, as the overall perception of smart farming improved and the rural extinction accelerated, the reform of the distribution network was also progressing steadily.
Arma was confident that he could raise Korea’s food self-sufficiency rate to 65% in five years at most and manage most of the distribution network.
“In 10 years, we will be able to produce enough food for ourselves, and in 25 years, we will be able to feed a billion people.”
“That’s good. Go ahead with it.”
Next, he needed military reform.
The current Korean military was too inefficient for him to maintain.
When he fought against Plague in the future, he would need not only artificial intelligence but also weak psychers and ordinary humans.
He had to pour all his resources into a total war.
But when he was active on Earth, he didn’t need to operate an army that cost a lot of labor costs.
Just look at the naval forces of China and Korea gathered near the West Sea oil field.
He could save on this.
Although the number of personnel on board each warship had been greatly reduced by automation, it was still about 80 people per ship.
There were 13 ships in total, so more than a thousand people were involved.
If they confront each other for about two weeks, the labor cost would be close to 2 billion won.
The current Korean military was using sailors at minimum wage, but still so.
The army equipment was even more wasteful.
The recently introduced weapon systems were better, but things like large-caliber towed guns required about 10 people to stick to them.
It was such an old weapon system that it needed a lot of human touch.
The Ministry of National Defense announced an automation plan from early 2010, but as always, it was postponed due to other projects.
And so soldiers were still digging holes to cool down the towed guns in 2031.
“It’s a social waste to keep these people in the military.”
It was time to abolish conscription.
When this was announced, there would be a commotion from active-duty soldiers to retired generals, but there was no plan change.
He started the defense reform with the help of Arma.
When he showed the plan to the chief of the secretariat for a moment, he looked somewhat absurd.
“You’re thinking of making a high-tech military with a very small number of people.”
It was high-tech compared to other countries, but this plan was extreme.
He planned to replace everything except a few command posts with unmanned equipment.
He turned the page.
“Korean military force is about 400,000 and defense budget is 65 trillion won. The labor cost is over 26 trillion won, which is too high. If you add basic housing and welfare costs, support costs, it goes over half. The number does not include golf courses that officers exclusively use.”
Here, Bae Sungmin realized the fate of the golf course.
It will close soon…
The important thing was that he was planning this while clashing with the Chinese navy in the West Sea.
Did China mean nothing to the president?
According to this plan, conscription would be abolished and most of the officers and non-commissioned officers would be discharged.
They would be replaced by a high-tech military controlled by artificial intelligence.
The chief of the secretariat briefly recalled the old movie Terminator.
He wondered when such a future would come, but now it was right in front of him.
“This is not a reorganization, but a dismantling and rebuilding.”
“As you know, the military is a wasteful group that only knows how to fight. The bigger it is, the more burden it puts on the budget. Therefore, efficient reorganization is important.”
“…If you look back at history, there were frequent protests and riots due to the treatment of veterans and such. Wouldn’t kicking them all out at once cause a similar outcome?”
“I have already considered that. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to use them somehow.”
What about the resource development in Siberia?
It was such a vast and barren place that it required a large-scale investment and manpower.
He could automate that part with the technology hidden in the Settler, but he couldn’t afford to idle that many people.
The chief of the secretariat turned the plan over and said.
“If this idea is realized, the world will be turned upside down again.”
“There won’t be many people who are surprised by now.”
“Some people seriously believe that you came from outer space, Mr. President. What do you think of that?”
It was a bit of an off-topic remark, but he surprisingly didn’t rebuke him.
“Well, imagination is free, but I have only one goal. The peace of humanity.”
If there was a French politician here, he might have laughed out loud, but Bae Sungmin believed him without doubt.
He closed the plan and said.
“Let’s keep this between us for the time being. It will get noisy if the military finds out.”
It would be more than noisy, it would be overturned.
But he was a man who did what he said, and no one could stop him.
***
President Baldwin was definitely different from his predecessor.
He really did what he said after declaring that he would withdraw from East Asia.
He didn’t say a word even though the tension was rising in the West Sea.
But he tried to secure his own interests, and sometimes that annoyed him.
“I’m a bit disappointed. Couldn’t you have let American companies participate in the oil exploration… That’s what I thought.”
“It’s because Russia’s conditions are better.”
“In what way?”
“Americans are too thorough. They set up places where they can and can’t go from the beginning to prevent technology leakage. But Russians are different. They show everything for a bottle of vodka.”
That’s what actually happened in Siberia’s resource exploration.
The Korean exploration team was inexperienced in oil, so they got a lot of help from Russians who were experts in that field.
There was a security officer attached to them formally, but they got drunk together at a drinking party in the cold place and became careless.
The friendship that he had built up with President Putin over time must have helped a lot.
To Russians, Korea was like a brother country.
He felt a little sorry to stab them in the back.
“Haha… That’s what attracted you.”
“Isn’t it natural to prefer more information coming in?”
“But American companies would have much better technology. Russia is an oil-producing country and has a lot of know-how in that field, but their equipment is too old. It costs too much money to drill one hole.”
“I’ll make up for that with walkers.”
“The combination of know-how and cutting-edge technology… This is getting pretty scary.”
President Baldwin’s words were not flattery at all.
He might be under a lot of pressure from the Democrats.
Was it right to withdraw from East Asia and ignore Korea?
But he had to at least pretend to do so if he thought of diamond semiconductors.
President Baldwin changed the subject.
“Speaking of which, major powers are raising their defense budgets lately. There is also a high opinion in the Senate that we should increase our defense spending.”
“Do you mean that’s because of me too?”
“Isn’t that true? What do you think other countries think when they see the warships of both countries confronting each other in the West Sea? Wouldn’t they insist that they must secure railguns at all costs?”
Anti-ship missiles had three levels of defense: deception, missiles, and CIWS, but they were all useless in front of railguns.
The West Sea was too narrow, so there was a tension among the naval forces of both countries that whoever shot first would win.
If Earth Fleet was mobilized, it would be a different story, but China threatened to deploy more fleets in that case.
—If you think railguns and ion thrusters are Korea’s exclusive property forever, you are mistaken. We have already finished the experiment of Hafnium2. We can mass-produce it and it will bring despair to Korea.
He already knew well about China’s black metal-ether research situation, so he couldn’t help but sneer.
China literally threw psychers into the research.
They had strong powers, so they used the excuse of efficient research and imprisoned them in a facility and completely blocked it with the military.
They were treated as prisoners in fact.
Thanks to that, there was a growing doubt among Chinese psychers whether they deserved such treatment.
What good was a high salary?
They had to vomit blood and cause transform phenomena as prisoners.
The problem was that the quality of the black metal produced that way was not uniform.
The inspection was so thorough that the railgun barrels didn’t break like Japan’s, but the short lifespan was inevitable.
That’s why the Chinese railgun ships deployed in the West Sea had replaceable barrels.
“The output is not properly delivered because the barrels are replaceable. That’s why the range is relatively short.”
It wasn’t a big problem in the narrow West Sea, so they might be happy by now.
On the internet, netizens from both countries were arguing over whose railgun was better.
The Korean side had an advantage of freely translating all kinds of insults with Russian Premium, but it seemed better to lose.
Anyway, he had to block President Baldwin’s intention to urge disarmament.
“Before you claim that railguns are an arms race, you should pay attention to the human rights of psychers in each country. At this very moment, psychers from various countries are being abused like slaves.”
“That’s not such a severe level…”
“That may be true for America. But not for other countries. You should urge your intelligence agencies. Something similar to the Uyghur case in Xinjiang is happening.”
“No way, that can’t be.”
“I’ll bet you anything. You’ll change your mind when you get the proper information.”
As the topic shifted to human rights, President Baldwin was embarrassed.
He was talking about this, who was farther from human rights than anyone in the world.
Anyway, there seemed to be some source, so he needed to urge the intelligence agencies.
The information they obtained was tailored to the taste of the head of the intelligence agency.
Being in the position of president, he could easily be swayed by their intentions if he only received limited information.
“…I’ll check it out. But let me ask you one thing. Why don’t psychers appear in Korea?”
“They’re all in Megacity. They live more comfortably and happily than psychers from other countries.”
“There must be a reason for keeping them together…”
“It seems that there was a problem with ether research. You have to pay a price to get what you want.”
He thought he had paid back everything that America had helped him decades ago.
Now he had nothing left to give, and America was a friendly country at best, not an ally.
He had to pay a corresponding price to secure new technology.
President Baldwin said bitterly.
“Maybe the senators were right after all.”
“America’s real friends are Anglo-Saxons, aren’t they? Focus on them.”
“America decides what to focus on. Anyway, I understand your intention, Mr. President. You have no intention of compromising at all.”
“Just like America does.”
Infinite nationalism.
It was a philosophy that gained popularity in various countries after the emergence of black metal and psychers.
There had been many arguments that countries should cooperate in various ways for the environment and peace, but they all changed their faces when this kind of trick appeared.
He could tell by looking at France’s actions, which had been the most critical of him on human rights issues.
They were whipping psychers at a level close to abuse and increasing their military spending to rebuild the great France.
Even if it wasn’t as bad as China, it would be a great shame if it was revealed overseas.
Arma was collecting information through micro-drones and Sibiri satellites.
It would be fun when he popped it someday.
***
Although warships from both countries were confronting each other in the West Sea, surprisingly no battle occurred.
They knew too well that they couldn’t go to war with each other.
There was no self-made drama like his specialty, so they just confronted each other and it left a big impression on other countries.
It looked like China was successfully containing Korea.
—That sea is narrow and shallow, so it’s not easy to operate large warships. The fact that China succeeded in containing them to that extent shows the need for investment.
—The only thing that can counter railguns is railguns. Therefore, we need to increase our military spending. A lot of it.
At this point, railguns were a widely spread weapon system.
The battery was simple with black metal batteries and the technology itself reached maturity by solving the superconducting rail issue with unobtainium.
The problem was the cracks and lifespan of black metal, but that was largely solved as well as the psychers’ abilities increased and research progressed.
Of course, there were only a few countries that could invest in this way, including the existing permanent members and those called strong countries.
Four of them were crowded in East Asia, so the arms race was quite fierce.
China and Japan immediately declared that they would raise their defense spending to 7%, which was estimated as the limit line.
Originally, a large part of defense spending was labor costs and black metal was so expensive that they had to raise it like that. It was a sad story behind it.
It was a waste to make armor plates with black metal for batteries.
Especially Japan, which imported all of its black metal from the United States, was severely hit.
In Japan, they criticized that the results were not very promising compared to the money they poured in.
—What’s the point of raising the defense budget by five times? At best, we can only produce five railgun escort ships.
—Black metal is too expensive. I don’t know how Korea can build buildings and pave roads with it.
—The efficiency of the newly developed ion thruster is suspicious. I doubt what benefits it has compared to the existing propulsion system. First of all, the fuel cost doesn’t decrease much.
—We have to install it because we spent too much money on it.
—So you’re saying we have to install the ion thruster for the sake of the politicians’ face?
—I won’t answer that.
This debate went on endlessly and even those with the most right-wing ideology doubted if this was okay.
But railguns and ion thrusters were an irresistible trend of the times.
Russia had followed this trend early on and so did China.
Many of the existing strong countries announced that they would increase their defense spending, although their circumstances were different.
It was a global arms race.
But Korea, which could be said to be the cause of this competition, was surprisingly relaxed.
No, it only seemed relaxed.
He looked at the blueprint of the combat walker, which would become the new main force of the Korean army.
This walker would replace the existing soldiers on the battlefield.
Unlike androids, it had a sturdy frame and black metal armor plates, so it wouldn’t be destroyed by a single rocket launcher.
It was basically bipedal, but it could also jump high by activating the ion thruster.
It was a futuristic heavily armed infantry, but the reason why it was made human-sized was because it had to use the existing weapon systems.
He couldn’t just throw away what he had made.
Usually, such systems were difficult to repair and couldn’t be used on site.
But that was because they didn’t have the technical skills to introduce them.
“It wasn’t very useful in the Human Alliance, but it will be different here. Prepare for mass production.”
“Yes.”
“And we need to make the next tank. I’d like it to look like that guy.”
He was referring to the infantry support tank Taranula, which was sleeping in the pod of Sibiri satellite.
Like the combat walker, it wasn’t very useful in the Human Alliance, but it would be enough for this era.
The K-3A2 tank that was currently being mass-produced was only a transitional phase, and it was expected to take charge of the ground war until the Plague attacked from the air.
However, it required a lot of effort to transform the Korean army into this kind of army.
There might be a backlash that couldn’t be compared to the food distribution network.
But this pain was nothing compared to the troubles of other countries.
They were literally pouring money into their defense spending.
They even cut welfare spending, which was rarely seen in developed countries, and the people protested.
The governments of each country made excuses that they had no choice because their neighbors were leading the way in producing railgun ships, and that was true.
Even America, which had become a relaxed lion, planned to cut welfare spending and produce ships optimized for railguns.
But he, who was the direct cause of this competition, rather declared to reduce defense spending and abolish conscription at the same time.
“There will be no more compulsory conscription. We will abolish conscription as of September 15th, 2031.”
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om