After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 190

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

I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 190

Edwin’s brow furrowed deeply.

His gaze fixed on Kang Hyeon across the table.

Edwin’s hand that had been reaching across the table hesitated.

He kept fidgeting with just the smooth handle of the teacup with his fingertips.

Handing over NASA’s control and orbital free pass to a mere private company.

No matter how reliable a political ally, it was a political gamble that could immediately trigger congressional hearings.

Edwin’s jaw muscles tensed tightly.

Clatter.

The teacup hit the saucer, making an irritated scraping sound.

Edwin’s lips parted slightly to utter words of rejection.

“The astronomical accumulated deficit that NASA is carrying.”

Kang Hyeon lightly placed his hand on the table and spoke.

Each word was clearly embedded in the air.

“And the cost of collecting hundreds of obsolete satellites abandoned in orbit.”

“…What are you trying to say.”

“KH will cover that massive debt entirely in cash.”

The air in the closed room instantly became heavy as lead.

Even Elon Musk, who had been leaning back casually, set down his champagne glass on the table with a thud.

It was an insane proposal for a mere private company to pay off the nation’s enormous space budget hole.

“The political justification will be solid.”

Kang Hyeon’s voice was perfectly level without the slightest fluctuation.

Lengthy persuasion wasn’t necessary.

Numbers and justification with solid impact were enough.

“Reforming a chronically deficit agency that devours taxpayer money.”

“…”

“And cleaning up space debris that would cost astronomical budgets with private capital.”

Kang Hyeon lightly clasped his interlocked hands on the table.

“In exchange, we lease some idle infrastructure to the private sector.”

“…”

“Congressional criticism toward the President will end in a few days. What remains will be only the achievement of perfect budget reduction.”

Edwin’s breathing trembled irregularly for a fleeting moment.

His knuckles gripping the teacup handle had turned white from lack of blood circulation.

The eyes of America’s highest authority, mentally pounding countless calculations, shook restlessly.

The tightly stretched air in the closed room suddenly became disheveled.

“Ha, hahaha…”

A hollow laugh leaked from between Edwin’s lips.

That laugh gradually deepened and echoed lowly through the closed room.

It wasn’t clumsy persuasion or shallow compromise.

The overwhelming violence of capital that completely covered political risk.

That absurd proposal for a mere private company to pay off a government agency’s astronomical debt entirely in cash completely paralyzed Edwin’s reason.

Thud!

Edwin slammed the teacup he was holding onto the table.

It was such a rough motion that the brown liquid inside splashed up.

He stopped his hollow laughter and stared straight at Kang Hyeon.

“You really are… a damn perfect partner, Mr. Choi.”

Edwin’s head nodded slowly but clearly downward.

“I’ll have to package this to Congress and the media as the opening of a space renaissance through private capital.”

It was a sign of acceptance from America’s highest authority.

A historic moment when the world’s strongest nation’s space infrastructure and orbital control passed into the hands of a single company.

Even Elon Musk, who had been watching the scene from the side, clicked his tongue and let out a long breath mixed with admiration.

But no trace of jubilation crossed the face of Kang Hyeon, the party who had devoured that enormous interest.

His eyes didn’t waver nor did the corners of his mouth rise.

His expression was extremely indifferent, like someone who had just paid for a bottle of water at a convenience store and received a receipt.

Swoosh.

Kang Hyeon withdrew his hand that had been placed on the table.

He lightly rolled up his shirt cuff and casually checked the second hand of his watch.

“Time to focus on the main business.”

It was a natural topic change that didn’t leave even a second’s afterglow of the massive negotiation.

He pushed back his chair and slowly rose from his seat.

“The launch countdown will begin soon.”

Kang Hyeon turned around without regret, leaving Edwin and Musk behind.

The sound of his shoe heels heavily stepped across the thick carpet.

Kang Hyeon gripped the handle of the tightly closed soundproof door of the closed room.

Creak.

As soon as the thick soundproof door of the closed room opened, fierce noise that assaulted the ears poured out.

“First stage rocket liquid oxygen injection complete. Pressure normal.”

“Flight trajectory simulation all green.”

Communication sounds from hundreds of engineers and keyboard typing filled the massive main control room without gaps.

Data flickered endlessly across dozens of large monitors filling the front wall.

The red digital clock on the central screen was ruthlessly cutting down numbers.

10 minutes.

It was the entry into full countdown.

As soon as Kang Hyeon, Musk, and Edwin took their seats at the VVIP exclusive desk, two men approached. They were Michael, Astra’s lead engineer, and Marcus, SpaceX’s system director.

“Reporting final inspection.”

Michael displayed the screen of the tablet he was holding on the hologram panel above the desk.

“Weather conditions, communications, propellant loading. All system Go/No-Go polling results, all Go.”

Marcus also nodded and pointed to a corner of the panel.

“Particularly the Astra engine preheat overload section we were concerned about is being perfectly controlled.”

Real-time output data from the engine’s lower section appeared on the hologram.

As the plasma engine raised temperature to critical point for launch, massive energy was fluctuating. Fifteen percent excess output that seemed ready to jump above the red warning line at any moment.

However, that rough energy became calm as if crushed by a heavy weight the moment it touched the Sentinel control board implanted between the engine and Falcon 9 mainboard.

The red graph that should have been jumping wildly was blocked by the blue defense line of military-grade hardware, maintaining a perfect straight line as if drawn with a ruler.

Marcus still couldn’t take his eyes off that abnormally peaceful straight-line graph and swallowed dry saliva. Kang Hyeon only silently alternated between watching the hologram screen numbers and the launch pad outside the window.

[T-Minus 5 minutes. All personnel entering automatic launch sequence.]

Mechanical sound that resonated throughout the entire control room flowed through the speakers.

The red numbers on the massive central screen at the front changed from 04:59 to 04:58, flickering roughly as they transformed.

[T-Minus 10, 9, 8…]

Only the mechanical sound flowing through the control room speakers filled the massive space where hundreds had gathered.

Perfect silence where even mouse clicks had stopped. The red numbers on the main screen were ruthlessly carved away by the second.

[3, 2, 1, Zero. Ignition, and Liftoff.]

Simultaneously with the voice, a fierce flash that pierced the eyes burst from the bottom of Launch Pad 39A, distantly visible beyond the glass window.

Flash-!

White light clusters that burned the retina white first devoured the field of vision. A fleeting moment before sound, slower than light, could arrive.

The scene of atmosphere distorting and boiling up like heat haze faintly formed beyond the glass window.

And soon an overwhelming explosion that seemed to tear up the earth’s axis rushed in like a tsunami.

Rummmmmble-!

The special soundproof glass dozens of millimeters thick surrounding the VVIP control room began shaking madly.

Heavy and rough vibrations that came up through the concrete floor shook all desks inside the control room and ruthlessly struck people from their soles to their shins.

The water surface in coffee cups placed on tables rippled violently.

Whoooosh-!

Tens of thousands of tons of cooling water poured out on both sides of the launch pad, colliding with the ultra-high temperature flames and vaporizing, explosively expanding into a massive cloud of steam.

The engine that shot up through the dense gray-white fog, tearing it to shreds, violently spewed out pillars of red and yellow flames.

Violent thrust that mercilessly crushed the earth and blazed with fire.

Standing on that brute force, the massive Falcon 9 launch vehicle began to rise into the air very slowly and heavily, forcibly pushing away Earth’s gravity.

As the launch vehicle’s altitude grew farther from the ground, the thunderous roar that tore through the atmosphere amplified exponentially, crushing eardrums.

Crackle, crack-.

The entire glass window front took the full brunt of the relentlessly surging shockwave vibrations, emitting sharp friction sounds as if it would crack at any moment, and the afterimage of the massive pillar of fire that filled their vision swayed chaotically across the surface of the vibrating glass.

The massive pillar of fire tore through gravity and shot up into the sky.

The Falcon 9’s altitude and speed data climbed steeply across the large monitors at the front of the control room.

[Sound barrier broken. Max-Q section passed. Vehicle control normal.]

The moment altitude stabilization was announced through the main speakers, the tightly stretched air in the control room burst out all at once.

“Waaaah-!”

Hundreds of engineers sprang up from their seats and let out cheers.

It was a crucible of ecstasy as they embraced each other and swung their fists in the air.

Michael and Marcus pounded each other’s shoulders with reddened faces until they nearly broke, screaming with joy.

Elon Musk also jumped up from his seat and thrust his clenched fist into the air.

President Edwin, who was sitting nearby, also began clapping leisurely with a satisfied smile.

The control room was a vast ocean of noise where victory and ecstasy were tangled together.

But just one person.

Only Kang Hyeon was completely separated from that fierce noise.

He neither stood up from his seat nor made eye contact with anyone.

Kang Hyeon’s gaze, leaning back in his chair with arms crossed, was fixed solely on the trajectory of the launch vehicle disappearing as a red dot toward the distant stratosphere beyond the soundproof glass.

The writhing flames were clearly reflected on his dark retinas.

‘Success.’

Others saw humanity’s progress or science’s victory in those flames.

But what was reflected in Kang Hyeon’s eyes was an extremely simple and clear form of capitalism.

Ownerless land.

A perfect no-man’s land untouched by any nation’s regulations or the old rules of existing vested interests.

A massive stake made by bundling his capital was being driven into that empty infinite space.

‘My territory.’

In Kang Hyeon’s indifferent eyes, a single red dot was quietly swallowed into the darkness of space.

At the same time, Wall Street, New York.

A red breaking news banner flowed noisily across the large electronic billboard.

[(Breaking) SpaceX Falcon 9 launch successful. Orbital insertion perfect.]

Hundreds of fund managers and brokers walking the streets stopped in unison.

Smartphone news alerts rang out simultaneously.

[President Edwin makes surprise visit to launch site. Opening new chapter in public-private cooperation…]

[KH Group Chairman Choi Kang-hyeon in attendance. Perfect operation of Sentinel Board mounted on Falcon 9 proven.]

The billboard screen changed.

Against the backdrop of Kennedy Space Center, a photo of Elon Musk, President Edwin, and Kang Hyeon standing at the center filled the screen.

[Alliance of three men toward space. The landscape of the aerospace industry has been overturned.]

Capital from around the world began to surge fiercely toward one man’s name in unison.

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