Chapter 2
September 15th, 2015 12:00 – Seoul, Republic of Korea
The whole world was in shock. The bombing attack in Pyeongyang back on August 15th was traumatic for both South Korea and North Korea. North Korea announced that the revealed terrorists, who turned out to be the survivors of the purge from when Chairman Kim Jong-un sat on his throne, were all shot dead. However, press from all over the world – including South Korea – did not believe the announcement. Since North Korea had been unreliable, press everywhere spread all kinds of conspiracy theories and trash news.
Nonetheless, North Korea’s unilateral diplomatic cessation notification and their unreasonable rejection of South Korea’s terrorism investigation committee led to a tense relationship with possibilities of war. The situation created a decrease in capital from the foreign investment companies. Combining that with KOSDAQ and KOSPI hitting rock bottom and 10 million yearly K-POP tourists no longer visiting the country, numerous markets fell apart, causing major and minor companies to downsize or face bankruptcy.
The working class said that this national financial crisis was nothing compared to the IMF crisis in 1998. On the contrary, the upper class tried to leave the country with their money as they did not believe that the crisis would end soon. The countries nearby northeastern Asia seemed obsessed to watch the Korean war outbreak, using the crisis to spread conspiracy theories and rumors for their own profit.
Not only did South Korea seem to have enemies everywhere, but their largest plight was the absence of their president. Despite that Prime Minister Oh Yong-guk stepped in as the Interim President after President Ahn Hyoung-jun’s death, it seemed to show South Korea’s limit in this situation. Thus, the election for the 19th president was settled on October 19th, 2015, by the second clause of Article 68 of the constitution. Both the Korean citizens and press companies from around the world were curious about who would be the next president of the unstable country of South Korea.
* * *
October 2nd, 2015 16:00 – Computer Engineering Lecture Hall of Daehan University at Seoul, Sungbook-gu, Anam-dong
“Ah, it was at the last stage... come on, Kim-puter! What happened to you? It’s probably my military service that’s tanking my skills, darn it.”
The third-year computer engineering major at Daehan University, Kim In-jik, could not focus on anything the professor was saying because of what happened the night before. When the Pyeongyang bombing attack happened on August 15th, Kim In-jik was the Sergeant of Artillery Brigade 4, which had only three days left before discharge. When the attack happened and the nation declared DEFCON 2 and the state of emergency, every soldier’s service that was about to be discharged – for all the armies – was extended three more weeks. Because of this, Kim In-jik was forced to waste almost a year since he would not be able to apply for readmission to the university again.
Thankfully, the universities were aware of the situation and extended the application deadline for anyone facing the service extension like Kim In-jik. He could apply, be accepted, and be able to go to school again.
Since high school, Kim In-jik competed in the white-hacker competition to win the championship not only in the nationals, but also worldwide, so he was known as “Kim-puter” in the industry. Not only was he admitted to Daehan University, one of the top universities in the Republic of Korea, as a computer engineering major, but he was considered a top student. This programmer, who would be in the top ten in South Korea, was disappointed in himself for not being able to hack into the security system. He blamed the length of his military service as he looked out the window frowning.
Later, the class was over and all the other students were on their way out of the lecture hall.
In-jik’s bestfriend, Kang Kyoung-ho, called his name with a cheesy smile. “Hey In-jik, I got a blind date today, really last-minute! Haha, this brother got this just for you, so you better dress up for it. You, me, and Jae-yun, its three on three, triple blind date.”
“Nope.” In-jik replied lazily in a simple response, looking at the window.
“What? These girls are mass communication majors, and the prettiest in their major! What is wrong with you today?”
Knowing that In-jik is usually obsessed with blind dates, Kang Kyoung-ho looked at Jae-yun pointing and circling his finger around his head, trying to say that he is crazy.
“Well, I’m going home now.”
Suddenly, Kim In-jik packed all of his stuff and quickly left the lecture hall.
“Hey, it’s a blind date, with the best ones!! You can’t just leave like this!!”
As In-jik left the lecture hall without even giving him a chance to catch him, Kyoung-ho yelled at him, but he did not get any response back.
“Jae-yun, what’s wrong with him? Did he eat something bad?”
“Who knows? That’s not what’s important right now. We gotta get a substitute for him.”
“Of course we should, we can’t blow this opportunity just because of In-jik. Let’s go look for a substitute.”
The two friends left the lecture hall hoping they would not have to blow off this opportunity just because of Kim In-jik.
* * *
October 2nd 2015, 23:00 – Kim In-jik’s Place at Seoul Kangbook-gu, Sooyou-dong
Right as he came back from school, Kim In-jik sat down on his desk and stared at his monitor for five hours straight, trying to grapple with the problem.
“Ah, what the hell is wrong?” Kim In-jik mumbled as he passionately typed into his keyboard. On the monitor, there were numerous signs and numbers going up and down, with some numbers infinitely repeating to appear and disappear again. “Please, just a little bit more, more! I’m going to break into this today!”
As he typed into the keyboard unbelievably fast, the monitor stopped and showed the phrase that he had been waiting for: the word ‘Success.’
“Yes! I AM the Kim-puter nonetheless! Hahaha!!”
Screaming in joy, he jumped onto his bed with his arms wide open. In-jik tasted the joy of accomplishment for a bit, then all of a sudden he got up and looked at his watch.
“I have 10 minutes before the security and investigation system runs.”
Facing the time limit, Kim In-jik pressed enter and a familiar logo popped up on his monitor. It was NASA. He broke into the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration security network system. He’d been preparing for this for a month after he was discharged from the army, and he just entered the system going through 29 countries. He was caught on the last security network yesterday, but he just made his dream came true today.
“Shall I start by shopping?”
As Kim In-jik checked out the data from NASA Database, something caught his eye. Seeing this, he started to quickly type on his keyboard again, digging into his new challenge.
“Five minutes until the security system gets me! Is this possible, or should I at least try now?”
As the words “Go” and “Stop” debated in his head, his hands were speeding up to type. In a short moment, he found an oasis following NASA’s satellites and connected networks.
“Area 51.”
The famous Area 51 in the state of Nevada, the official name of the Nellis Air Force Base, the secretive place where all the research on aliens is going on.
“Woah, oh my god!”
Kim In-jik screamed shortly, his heart was beating fast and his hands were shaking on his keyboard. However, knowing that he is running out of time, Kim In-jik downloaded any data that he could get from the database.
As much as he was excited to access the NASA network with information pertaining to Area 51 through 29 countries, he started to get scared of it too. Area 51 was so secure that they were known to shoot even their own citizens if someone came too close.
“I’m not going to get killed by a secret agent from the States for this... right?”
Being paranoid in his thoughts, Kim In-jik stopped the downloading process and quickly got out of the Area 51 database. He picked China as the initiating point for the hack, then he went through 29 countries to get in – he was confident that they wouldn’t be able to chase him down. However, he was still anxious thinking he might have touched something way too big for him. He moved all of the downloaded data onto a USB, then put it into his laptop bag.
“It was fun in the beginning when I got the challenge to break in, but I’m a bit scared once I got this. Maybe I should not have done it...? Ugh, I’m tired, let’s just go to sleep now and think about it tomorrow.”
The five hours of looking into a monitor and typing into the keyboard having anxious thoughts tired him both physically and mentally. Kim In-jik passed out as he laid down on his bed.
* * *
October 9th, 2015, 18:20 – 2nd Floor Break Room in Daehan University at Seoul, Sungbook-gu, Anam-dong
Every channel on TV was focusing on who would be elected as the 19th president. Knowing how serious the situation is and how important this election and elected president will be for the future of the Republic of Korea, everyone from young elementary school kids to centenarians were focused on the election more than anything.
The program had an announcer and two panels were talking about election exit polls. Even the TV installed at 2nd floor break room in Daehan University broadcasted the election.
“Finally, the election for 19th president has ended. Ah! The result from exit poll has just came out. It seems like according to this result, the situation is a bit different than how everyone expected it to be. Take a look at this exit poll results first.”
Sitting in between two panels, the female announcer pointed at the graphs and explained the current situation with the exit poll.
“According to the current exit poll, Oh Dong-gil, the candidate from the leading opposition, the Alliance party, is in the lead at 44 percent, and Seo Hyun-woo, the candidate from the One Revolution party, is running up as a close second at 42 percent. And unlike many people’s expectations, Yeon Gil-soo, the candidate from the current ruling party of the Korean Welfare party, is at 13 percent. Now, how do you think this happened, professor Ahn Kang-hyun?”
The female announcer asked the panel sitting on the left of her. He seemed to be a middle-aged, balding man.
“This is how I expected it to be. The reason being, the current ruling party is going through the consequential reactions of the citizens from last year’s Pyeongyang bombing attack. At the start of 2015, they were forming a peaceful state between the North and the South, even starting talk about unification. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the bombing ended up as the worst situation since this country was built on both economics and security, right? If you look into the society, the citizens are going through major issues right now because of this. In situations like this, there will be barely any citizens who are willing to vote for this party. Ehem!”
“I see. Then, Professor Ahn Kang-Hyun, are you saying that there is a very low possibility of Candidate Yeon Gil-soo being elected as president?”
“Yes. Currently the public sentiment has left the Korean Welfare Party. And tell me, who...”
Kim In-jik watched this on the library television, looked at his watch once, then left the library break room and went downstairs. He was exhausted. Ever since he succeeded at the hack, he couldn’t sleep, tempted to look at the data he had on his USB. Yet, he predicted the worst would happen if he opens it, and the anxiety he was getting from this stopped him from opening it every day. It had turned him into a half-zombie; he had dark circles going down to his cheeks.
As he was leaving the library building, someone called Kim In-jik.