Chapter 143: The Sky Train
People nowadays are not easily surprised.
In an era where moon travel has become a reality and people can shoot energy waves from their hands, there is not much to be amazed by.
The fact that a train could fly in the sky was not that impressive either.
Korea had already sent tanks flying during the East Asian War.
It was not one or two, but a whole legion that moved. And after the war, they were widely praised as the Flying Tank Shock in the US and other places.
Even now, military enthusiasts could easily find videos analyzing the situation at that time on Mitube.
NASA’s rocket experts also commented on the efficiency of the ion thruster and claimed that it was not strange to float a ship with it.
“Especially, the thrust-to-fuel ratio is miraculous. It can push a huge weight with very little fuel, but even after testing it hundreds of times, it is hard to believe.”
“It is more efficient in space than in the atmosphere. With an ion thruster, we can reveal all the secrets of the solar system planets.”
“The only regrettable thing is that this efficiency we are amazed by is not real. There seems to be room for improvement… But maybe only he knows the true nature of it.”
The ion thruster was so powerful that it could easily lift a train, and people were not surprised by that.
What shocked them was that there was no ion thruster attached to the bottom of the train.
“Where did the golden plasma go?”
“Is there no ion thruster?”
“Come on, that can’t be…”
The train literally floated in the air without any propulsion.
As people murmured, Arma’s calm voice echoed throughout the venue.
“You are about to watch a demonstration of the supercavity train. It is still under development, but it has enough features to show you.”
The main features were creating an ether field to ignore gravity and float, and laying rails in the air to run at a maximum speed of Mach 10.
When the broadcast announced that passengers would not feel any shock during the process, people muttered in disappointment.
“Europe was making a fuss about gravity shows, but we skipped that step and made it practical.”
“Wait a minute, if we can run at Mach 10, do we need airplanes?”
“Do we have to sell all our airlines?”
Soon after, the noise subsided and the supercavity train began to move slowly.
Its movement as if sliding in the air was truly admirable.
The train drew the attention of tens of thousands of people and soon accelerated with the ion thruster and flew away.
But that was not the end.
Large trucks erected huge QLED screens all over the highway.
The screens showed the footage of the supercavity train running at full speed.
People were startled to see a huge city in just a few minutes.
“What? Is that Pyongyang already?”
“That’s not Pyongyang, that’s Mega City North. Anyway, the land is huge.”
“And it’s incredibly fast.”
The supercavity train quickly passed Mega City North and left North Korea in no time.
Soon after, people could see a big mountain below them.
It was Mount Baekdu.
As they looked down at the sky and earth, people cheered.
“Is that Mount Baekdu already? That’s unbelievable…”
“No way, if we go at this speed, we can climb Mount Baekdu in one day?”
“I’ll have breakfast in Seoul and lunch in heaven.”
And about 17 minutes later, a wide sea appeared.
People thought it was the Sea of Okhotsk, but it was not.
Arma announced through the broadcast that it was East Siberia Sea.
“The supercavity train has arrived in East Siberia near the Arctic in about 20 minutes. Now we will slow down and turn around to return here.”
A while later, the supercavity train arrived above the highway.
People gave a generous applause to the amazing thing that ran 8,000 kilometers back and forth.
After the parade was over, many reporters rushed to cover the supercavity train.
Yu Ji-ha easily brushed off the barrage of questions from them.
“Why did you reveal the train at the parade? It’s more efficient to announce everything at once.”
“What is the relationship between ether particles and gravitons? If you figure that out, you’ll win a Nobel Prize in Physics for sure.”
“The introduction countries are only Korea and United Human Federation. Russia? We’ll go back to square one and negotiate again.”
The last sentence raised doubts among reporters.
Yu Ji-ha had never said anything bitter about Russia until now.
Russia was the only country that could introduce new technology cheaply, except for Korea and United Human Federation.
But he said he would negotiate again, and reporters couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Is there a change in Korea-Russia relations?”
“This is a scoop. There’s no time to confirm with the desk, so send it right away.”
Until now, Korea and Russia had been almost like a joint destiny, sticking together.
But Yu Ji-ha’s remark today suggested that there might be a change in that policy.
Now the reporters went to cover the supercavity train.
Despite running at Mach 10, the body was lukewarm and seemed to have no problem with the function.
The door opened wide and people looked inside, which was no different from any other train.
“Mach 10 is much faster than supersonic passenger planes, right?”
“It means that the earth becomes a single living zone in a true sense. Of course, only for the countries that pay and introduce it…”
“Airplanes, of course, and even high-speed trains will be completely replaced. If we introduce this, we don’t need to lay rails.”
“There will be more than one or two countries that will run with money…”
“That’s why Korean airlines withdrew from the business.”
As the reporters’ coverage spread around the world, Yu Ji-ha called the bureaucrats, including Bae Seong-min, the chief of staff of the secretary’s office, and the minister of land and transportation.
“There will be some minor changes in mass production compared to the prototype. But the core function will not change, so proceed with the plan as planned.”
“Yes.”
“Mr. President, may I ask when mass production will be?”
The minister of land and transportation asked, and Yu Ji-ha thought for a moment and said.
“We are making mass production machines at the smart factory right now. The first delivery will not exceed May.”
“Wow…”
I always feel this way, but the development progress is too fast.
At this point, building a railgun ship in a year would not be a remarkable feat.
The android that Yu Ji-ha was maintaining took out the tablet and launched the map app.
“The first route to be connected is Seoul and Megacity Pacific. Several megacities will be connected and the domestic lines will be introduced by the end of this year.”
That was Yu Ji-ha’s plan to link Korea and the entire United Human Federation with supercavity trains and cargo ships.
The fare was more expensive than trains, but much lower than airplanes.
Yu Ji-ha emphasized the CP system.
“Citizens who collect a certain amount of CP will be offered free boarding benefits. It’s probably on the Megacity app.”
Bae Seong-min, the chief secretary, finally realized what he was talking about.
“I wondered what the supercavity train was… You’ve been planning this for years.”
“I just thought it might be theoretically possible. It was Lucia who systematized and implemented the theory.”
It felt like artificial intelligence was too omnipotent, but it was true.
Lucia was the one who supported all the projects and developments that Yu Ji-ha had conceived.
She monitored the financial and internet networks, managed numerous smart factories and smart farms, and controlled over a million drones.
She also did countless other things, and the design of the supercavity train was only a small part of it.
“You’re amazing. Other countries have only confirmed the possibility of controlling gravity…”
“They must be holding an emergency meeting by now.”
Yu Ji-ha calmly accepted the bureaucrats’ compliments and said.
“Isn’t it time to stop being surprised?”
“I always try to do that, but what you bring up is beyond that…”
“Anyway, the construction of the supercavity train docking station must proceed without any hitch. Lucia will take care of Terra Island, but you have to take care of the domestic side.”
“I’ll finish the station construction perfectly, even if I have to work overtime.”
Yu Ji-ha nodded and called Bae Seong-min, the chief secretary, separately and walked slowly around the highway.
“This is just between you and me… Actually, Arma is pregnant.”
Bae Seong-min’s eyes widened.
He thought there was nothing more to surprise him, but this was beyond that.
It was a pregnancy without marriage, but nowadays the system was so well established that marriage was just one of many options.
He quickly relaxed his expression.
“Congratulations. I hope you have a healthy baby.”
“Thank you. Arma will go to Terra Island for recuperation when she feels full enough. I’ll bring an android instead of her, so I’ll need your help.”
“I understand. There’s a lot to do in many ways.”
There were a lot of tasks in the secretary’s office that did not go into the administrative network.
Lucia would have to learn those things first when she came.
Artificial intelligence secretaries were being tried by some large companies and the results were generally good, but it was the first time for a president’s secretary, so he was worried.
‘Well, he’ll figure it out.’
It was Yu Ji-ha’s job, after all, so he wouldn’t fail.
That’s what Bae Seong-min thought.
In his mind, Yu Ji-ha had become an absolute being.
He probably wasn’t the only one who thought so.
***
“Therefore, we should not take this land lightly. This land belongs to our great mother Russia and her people, and all of us.”
At the Russian Federation Council plenary session, Borchenko MP gave an impassioned speech.
His speech was so long-winded and slow that it made the impatient Russians yawn.
Some MPs talked to their colleagues with serious faces.
“So what do you want us to do? Do you want us to overturn what has been decided by the Senate?”
“The point is that. The land we promised is too wide, so let’s get rid of it.”
“The president of Korea would love that kind of remark.”
Not that it wasn’t true, but Borchenko was now biting and pulling on an issue that had been directly decided by the Senate and approved by the president.
Russia needed to renegotiate with Korea over the entire Siberia that it had promised.
It was a very awkward claim for the senators.
“The transfer of administrative network work is over, but what do you want us to do now?”
“The autonomous republics were also full of expectations. I wonder how they will persuade them.”
Russia was a federation composed of many ethnic groups and republics, and Sakha Republic was one of them.
This autonomous republic initially opposed leaving Russia’s embrace, but most of its residents agreed after feeling Korea’s technology.
Siberia had almost no development due to its geographical characteristics, but they wondered if it would change if Korea came in.
If Sakha Republic had not directly expressed its welcome, it would have been difficult to plan the land transfer, according to some observations.
There were also many other cities, and most of the administration was transferred to the Korean side under Putin’s orders.
The residents also made their choices, and the remaining people were looking forward to becoming Koreans.
After all, wouldn’t Korea, which had over $40,000 per capita GDP, be much better than Russia, which had only $10,000?
Yu Ji-ha, the president of Korea, also promised a massive investment in each region, and the residents’ expectations were high.
But now they want to negotiate again.
The surprising thing was that there were not a few MPs who agreed with Borchenko’s nonsense.
Most of them would be his cronies, but it was also true that there was a sense of resentment in the Federation Council that they had given up Russia’s land too lightly.
Borchenko MP spoke with excitement that made his veins pop out on his forehead.
“Looking at the situation at the time, they opened a plenary session by surprise and almost rushed to a decision! This is a tyranny that makes us forget even the meaning of the Federation Council!”
He did not mention that it was the United Russia Party that made it, and that he was a senior member of the party.
As the atmosphere heated up, he showed a new map on the screen behind him.
“Kamchatka Peninsula is fine. Primorye is also under the influence of unified Korea, so we can’t help it. I’ll allow Habarovsk and Magadan too. But nothing else.”
The MPs were stunned by the new map.
If it stayed that way, most of Siberia, including Sakha Republic, would remain in Russia.
How would Yu Ji-ha, the president of Korea, react to that?
It wouldn’t be a good expression.
Anyway, Borchenko MP’s claim surprisingly succeeded in leading the reaction of the mainstream United Russia Party.
They must have thought that pushing him would give them an advantage in the next presidential election.
Borchenko had to make some achievements like this, since his rival Dmitry was pouring a lot of effort into the conquest of Estonia.
And then it was break time.
The MPs of the United Russia Party, who supported Borchenko, stopped Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov, who was about to leave after attending the plenary session.
“We believe that the consensus of the parliament has been clearly conveyed. The executive branch should follow suit.”
“…”
The elderly Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov looked at the MPs with a blank stare.
Since when did the parliament have the power to tell the executive branch what to do?
Russia was technically practicing the separation of powers, but the executive branch had a strong power.
The parliament was nothing but a servant of the executive branch.
It was Putin’s dictatorship for 30 years that made it that way.
Borchenko was trying to create cracks in that solid system to gain power.
When he got power, he would try to strengthen the executive branch again.
Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov asked slowly.
“The only thing left is to convey it to Korea. Have you coordinated with President Yu Ji-ha?”
“Coordination is the responsibility of the executive branch. We will trust and wait.”
It was an absurd remark that they would pass on the responsibility and only take the credit.
Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov approached them closely and said.
“Do you think President Yu Ji-ha will sit still if you demand a renegotiation? He will surely reconsider our relationship.”
“Deputy Prime Minister, you don’t know. Korea has so much hatred that their industry won’t work without our raw material exports.”
“Didn’t you see for yourself what happened to China, who pressured them with their precious raw materials?”
“Do you think he will go to war with us? Our nuclear power is different from China’s.”
China and Japan must have thought so too.
They were different from Iran or Pakistan.
But Yu Ji-ha made them panic with his bold declaration of war and forced them to surrender by deploying his core forces to their capitals.
Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov was not a military expert, but he was skeptical whether he could stop the combat walker units from entering Moscow and St. Petersburg.
But he couldn’t refuse the MPs’ demands in the end.
If he annoyed Borchenko, who was mentioned as a successor after Putin’s death, he could be kicked out of his deputy prime minister position right away.
His influence in Russia’s politics and economy was not low.
Unfortunately.
“…I’ll discuss the request with the bureaucrats for now.”
“I hope you notify the Korean side as soon as possible. Estonia must not surrender first.”
It was when the deputy prime minister was about to leave the building.
One of his secretaries ran up to him with a tablet in his hand.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you. Korea has made a major announcement.”
Borchenko MP snickered.
“Didn’t they say they were having a parade? Sure, those machines are impressive, but don’t forget that we have over 7,000 nuclear weapons.”
“That’s not it. They also announced a new supercavity train.”
“What train?”
He snatched the tablet in confusion.
As the MPs watched around him, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov also peeked his head in.
As the parade was almost over, a train rose into the sky.
“They flew tanks, so a light train… Wait, there’s no ion thruster underneath this. How did they fly it?”
“Despite several trains being connected, there was no movement when they soared into the sky. It’s an amazing technology.”
As the MPs admired, the train sped through the sky.
When it was revealed that its maximum speed was Mach 10, the MPs around him opened their mouths wide.
“What do you call this… A miracle?”
“Doesn’t that train completely replace the Siberian railway?”
“That railway is so outdated… It’s hard to repair and it would be much better to introduce this one.”
“But what’s the principle behind this? It seems like they control gravity with ether fields, but I don’t understand…”
“That’s not important.”
Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov interrupted their conversation.
“Did you hear what President Yu Ji-ha said as he passed by? He said he would renegotiate from scratch.”
“What negotiation? We just have to introduce it as we have been doing.”
“Where else do we have a tier 1 partner country besides us? Korea treats us specially…”
One MP couldn’t finish his sentence and mumbled.
He wondered if he could introduce this train if he went into territorial renegotiation.
Yu Ji-ha’s remark that he would renegotiate from scratch raised doubts.
Everyone’s eyes turned to Borchenko MP.
“Did you contact President Yu Ji-ha?”
“I suddenly had something come up…”
Borchenko MP tried to make an excuse and get away, but Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov’s words stopped him.
“Don’t you know him yet, even though you were by his side? He will overturn the ground itself if there is an obstacle in front of him. Why did you provoke him?”
Borchenko, flustered, emphasized that the supercavity train had entered Russia’s airspace.
“They must not have notified us either. This is a problem.”
He couldn’t help but sigh.
Russia was about to lose its partner status, and he was making a fuss about entering the airspace.
One MP heard the details and frowned.
“That supercavity train has the same introduction conditions for Korea and the United Human Federation. It means that we have to spend an astronomical budget to replace the entire Siberian railway.”
Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailov added.
“I assure you, this is just the beginning. Do you still think it’s valid to lead a territorial renegotiation with the raw material export issue?”
“…”
The MPs looked at Borchenko in unison.
His face was stiff with displeasure.
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