After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 171

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 171

“Are you saying the Chairman has gone to the site himself right now?”

Minister Choi’s brow furrowed deeply as he gripped the receiver.

Government Seoul Office. He let out a hollow laugh as if he couldn’t believe it.

-Yes. He just took off by helicopter from the rooftop.

Team Manager Lee Gi-cheol’s voice through the receiver was calm.

Minister Choi roughly loosened his tie and raised his voice.

“What kind of place is that for the owner to go personally! The Chairman isn’t a geologist, and he doesn’t know how to operate excavators either.”

-We tried to dissuade him, but we couldn’t change his mind.

“The site is on top of an active volcano that could erupt at any moment. What exactly does he plan to accomplish by going there?”

He vented his frustration, but it was already too late.

Minister Choi let out a deep sigh as he put down the receiver after the call ended.

Controlling capital and technology was Kang Hyeon’s domain.

But drilling through the physical bedrock at the site was a battle between machines and nature.

There were clearly areas that couldn’t be solved with an entrepreneur’s rationality alone.

Strong downdrafts roughly swept across the snow-covered land of Mount Baekdu.

As the door of the private helicopter opened, sharp, bone-cutting wind rushed in.

Kang Hyeon stepped out of the helicopter, raising his coat collar.

His gaze naturally turned toward the massive caldera lake, Cheonji.

Majestic mountain ranges stretching endlessly with clouds beneath his feet.

The scenery of the massive frozen lake contrasting with the piercingly blue sky was breathtakingly beautiful.

‘Disaster is boiling beneath that tranquility.’

Kang Hyeon swallowed his brief contemplation inwardly.

Even before nature’s overwhelming landscape, his expression remained as calm as a lake.

He immediately got into a vehicle waiting beside the helipad without delay.

His destination was the base camp where drilling operations should have been in full swing.

The atmosphere at the site was heavily subdued.

The massive excavators that should have been continuously roaring were all shut down and stopped.

Workers wearing hard hats gathered in small groups, smoking cigarettes or just staring at the ground.

There was no panic or chaos. The situation itself was thoroughly controlled.

Only the frustration of being unable to move forward even a single step was weighing down on the site.

“You’ve arrived, Chairman.”

As he entered the control tent, Dr. David approached him.

His eyes were bloodshot and his face was full of fatigue.

“I’ll receive the report.”

Kang Hyeon took off his coat, hung it on a chair, and approached the table.

On the table, 3D topographical maps of Mount Baekdu and geological scan data were scattered messily.

“Currently, an ultra-high-density eclogite rock layer has been discovered in the excavation path of Unit 1.”

David pointed to the cross-section diagram and explained the situation dryly.

“Forcing through is impossible. If we try to drill through forcibly, the drill bits will break and the entire borehole will collapse.”

“So you’re saying we need to bypass the route.”

“Yes. That’s why we’ve currently narrowed down three new candidate sites for bypass.”

As David operated the keyboard, three projected routes appeared on the large monitor.

However, his expression remained dark.

“We found candidate sites, but making a decision isn’t easy.”

“Are the risks high?”

“If we get the angle even slightly wrong, we’ll hit weak ground or active fault lines. If that impact stimulates the magma chamber, the excavation itself could become a detonator for an explosion.”

Time was running out, and the cost of choice was too harsh.

Even the state-of-the-art equipment that had astronomical capital poured into it was lost before the variables deep underground.

David and the field research team were repeatedly analyzing data without being able to gain confidence.

“The longer time is delayed, the greater the expansion pressure of the magma becomes.”

Kang Hyeon rested his chin on his hand and quietly stared at the three candidate routes drawn on the map.

He asked no more questions.

He hadn’t come to engage in geological debates.

‘I’ll do what I need to do.’

Kang Hyeon concentrated his consciousness while examining the geological data showing complex contour lines and rock density.

The sensation from when he found the defect in the drone circuit diagram at the Ulsan Research Center.

He slowly drew up that intuitive sensation from his mind.

Flash.

Suddenly, familiar colors bloomed across Kang Hyeon’s retina.

It was a vivid and intense red light.

The light didn’t meaninglessly cover the entire blueprint.

It began moving organically like blood vessels along the topographical map.

Kang Hyeon’s gaze persistently followed the light’s trajectory.

It was the moment the light passed through the first bypass route, Route A, which the research team considered most promising.

Flash.

The red light that had been flowing smoothly along the route writhed bizarrely and then scattered with a pop.

‘This route collides with active fault lines.’

It was a clear signal of failure.

Machines calculated probabilities, but his ability was showing results.

Kang Hyeon turned his gaze.

The red light came alive again and flowed quickly along the geological veins of Route B.

However, the second candidate site also saw the light fade at the 1-kilometer point.

It meant weak strata that would cause ground collapse were lurking there.

David carefully watched Kang Hyeon, who was silently glaring at the monitor.

But Kang Hyeon didn’t show impatience and observed the flow of light to the end.

The third candidate site, Route C.

The red light began flowing along the contour lines of the rugged terrain.

A narrow and precise path that cleverly avoided the hardest eclogite rock layer.

The light didn’t stop.

Passing through minute cracks in the bedrock to the gas outlet at the upper part of the magma chamber, the target point.

The red light connected perfectly without breaking.

It was the single safest and most perfect optimal route that no precision scanner had been confident about.

‘Found it.’

Kang Hyeon slowly straightened up.

His finger precisely pointed to Route C on the monitor.

“This way.”

Kang Hyeon’s dry and resolute voice broke the silence in the control tent.

“We’ll bypass through the third route. Redeploy the equipment immediately.”

David looked up in surprise at Kang Hyeon’s fingertip.

“Ch-Chairman. Route C has such complex rock structure that the scan data is most unclear there. Probabilistically, the risk is…”

“It’s not a matter of probability.”

Kang Hyeon lightly cut off David’s words.

“It’s the only path that can avoid the hardest bedrock and minimize stimulation of fault lines. Routes A and B will collapse or have gas explosions the moment we dig into them.”

“But on what basis can you say that…”

“It’s my judgment.”

Kang Hyeon’s eyes showed not a trace of wavering.

He couldn’t provide geological evidence. But it was a more certain result than any supercomputer’s data.

“I’ll take responsibility. Doctor, you operate the machines.”

Clear instructions and boundaries of responsibility.

David’s hesitant expression soon hardened with resolve.

Whatever was right, the highest decision-maker on site had given him confidence.

“Understood.”

David picked up the radio.

“All workers to positions. Drill Unit 1 angle correction 15 degrees, begin bypass excavation via Route C!”

The massive metal machinery that had been stopped began roaring with heavy engine sounds again.

Life returned to the site that had been frustratingly stalled.

Kang Hyeon quietly gazed at the destination where the red light on the monitor had reached, lightly adjusting his tie.

The giant gears began turning heavily once more.

Drill Unit 1, redirected to Route C, bored into the new geological layer.

The monitor readings inside the control tent updated continuously.

-Depth 1.6 kilometers passed. Rock resistance values are in perfect normal range.

At the site manager’s excited report, David unclenched his tightly gripped fists.

The bypass route Kang Hyeon had indicated was surprisingly smooth.

It was passing by the edge of the most feared eclogite rock layer by a paper-thin margin.

Kang Hyeon did not return to Seoul.

He sat on a cold metal chair at the base camp, silently watching the status board.

A site where hundreds of billions of dollars in capital and cutting-edge technology had been invested.

But the deep underground was bound to spew out new variables at any time, as if mocking human predictions.

-Bit temperature is rising rapidly! We’ve maximized coolant circulation but it’s broken through 120 degrees!

The smooth excavation faltered again.

They had encountered an unexpected high-temperature zone at the 2-kilometer underground point.

David frantically enlarged the scan data and pounded the keyboard.

“Chairman, it’s a localized hydrothermal deposit. A place where boiling groundwater has clustered.”

David turned to Kang Hyeon with a pale face.

“If we drill through like this, even the coolant will evaporate. The drill bit will melt completely.”

Kang Hyeon quietly stared at the screen with his chin resting on his hand.

The scan data couldn’t accurately determine the scale or shape of the hydrothermal deposit.

But once again, vivid red light was blooming across his retina.

The light was curving very subtly, cleverly avoiding the center of the massive hydrothermal mass.

“3 degrees to the right. Turn the angle exactly 50 meters and descend.”

Kang Hyeon’s dry voice echoed through the tent.

David no longer asked for geological justification.

He immediately grabbed the microphone and relayed instructions to the site.

-Turning 3 degrees right and descending. …Penetrated! Temperature stabilizing back below 50 degrees!

A sigh of relief burst through the radio.

Work continued quickly and precisely again.

Kang Hyeon utilized his ability whenever sections where the drill got stuck appeared intermittently.

The single optimal trajectory the light revealed.

He gave only decisive and minute adjustments without complex explanations.

“Maintain altitude and correct 1.5 degrees north.”

“Lower RPM by 20 percent for entry until the next rock layer penetration.”

David and the research team commanding the site were inwardly amazed.

Even blind spot sections completely devoid of geological data seemed transparent to Kang Hyeon.

He was like someone who had the complex terrain 3 kilometers underground perfectly mapped in his head.

How much time had passed?

Dim dawn light was seeping outside the control tent.

Everyone’s eyes were dark with exhaustion from the all-night work, but no one could leave their post.

The depth gauge on the monitor finally exceeded 2.9 kilometers.

-50 meters before target depth reached. Gas pressure readings around the drill are rising.

Everyone in the tent held their breath as if by agreement.

Kang Hyeon also lifted his back from the backrest and leaned his upper body toward the screen.

The massive gas pocket formed in the upper part of the magma chamber.

They had to drill through that precisely to defuse the detonator of the expanding explosion.

-30 meters, 20 meters, 10 meters…

The workers’ rough breathing could be heard clearly through the radio.

David swallowed dry saliva and stared intently at the pressure graph on the monitor.

The red light trajectory reflected in Kang Hyeon’s eyes was also finally heading toward the final destination.

The dull vibration of breaking through the last rock layer traveled up through their feet.

-Target depth reached! The cap has penetrated the rock layer!

Instantly, the gas discharge readings on the screen shot up vertically.

High-pressure volcanic gas began gushing violently through the safety valve into the pre-installed discharge pipes.

The massive pressure that had been trapped underground for hundreds of years, crushing the magma, had finally found an outlet.

The seismic wave readings and surface uplift data that had been sounding warnings drew noticeably declining curves.

“Success! Underground gas pressure is discharging normally!”

David raised both arms high and shouted.

The researchers and communications personnel in the tent all rose from their seats and burst into cheers.

It was a moment when the extreme tension and fatigue that had been crushing them for days was washed away in an instant.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Only then did Kang Hyeon slightly part his tightly closed lips.

There was no exaggerated expression of joy or cheering.

But in his bloodshot eyes, clear and heavy relief clearly passed through.

The first wedge to prevent catastrophe had been perfectly driven into the heart of Mount Baekdu.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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