After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 191

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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 191

The entire Earth was boiling with commotion.

The massive electronic billboards of Wall Street, New York simultaneously spewed out red breaking news alerts.

President Edwin’s political protection.

Elon Musk’s overwhelming space infrastructure.

And Choi Kang-hyeon’s capital power that wove together all those massive pieces with money.

Global capital that had lost direction and remained stagnant began pouring down like waterfalls toward KH Group’s nameplate all at once.

Falcon 9 wasn’t simply a space launch vehicle.

It was the future currency itself, shot up toward a new territory—an unclaimed land beyond the reach of Earth’s vested interests and regulations.

But unlike the ground situation where fierce madness swirled in whirlpools.

The world outside the atmosphere that had torn through the stratosphere was wrapped in perfect silence.

[Altitude 100 kilometers. Breaking through the Kármán line.]

Kennedy Space Center Main Control Room.

The flight controller’s mechanical shout broke the taut silence.

The perspective on the large screen switched, displaying real-time footage from Falcon 9’s external camera.

The sky beyond the screen had already completely lost its blue hue.

Perfect, suffocating pitch black without a speck of dust or glimmer of starlight spreading.

As the atmosphere thinned, even the minute frictional vibrations that had roughly gripped and shaken the launch vehicle vanished like a lie.

A vacuum region where no nation’s constitution or concept of airspace could reach.

Finally, capital had entered humanity’s deepest frontier.

“External hull temperature resistance normal. Vibration tolerance zero.”

Astra’s lead engineer Michael quickly recited while checking dozens of gauges on his monitor.

Faint beads of sweat formed on his fingertips as he scrolled the mouse wheel.

“Astra module internal pressure maintaining normal. Orbis robot sleep mode perfectly maintained.”

Data analyst Sara’s typing sounds echoed through the control room.

Hundreds of engineers simultaneously turned their gazes to the red timer on the main screen.

Tension so thick that even the sound of swallowing couldn’t be heard.

Falcon 9’s most critical physical gateway approached right before them.

The first-stage booster that had pushed the massive launch vehicle outside the atmosphere.

The moment when that booster would exhaust its lifespan and separate.

Only by enduring the massive shock wave hitting the entire aircraft as explosive energy was momentarily cut off could successful orbital insertion be achieved.

[T-Plus 2 minutes 30 seconds. Entering MECO (Main Engine Cut Off).]

The controller’s declaration fell.

Simultaneously, the massive flames at the bottom that had filled the screen instantly extinguished as if a switch had been turned off.

Whoosh—!

The fiercely burning first-stage propulsion stopped.

Pitch-black darkness completely swallowed the silver aircraft.

Falcon 9 in the screen glided smoothly as if floating in the empty space.

Insane speed of several kilometers per second.

But in the frictionless zero-gravity state, it was as quiet as if stationary.

A moment of advancing toward orbit purely by inertia.

“Stage separation standby.”

SpaceX’s Marcus gripped the intercom tightly.

Blue veins bulged on his thick neck.

“3, 2, 1. Separation.”

Clunk—!

The external camera screen trembled slightly.

The heavy coupling that had firmly gripped the launch vehicle’s lower section was released with a mechanical rupturing sound.

The massive first-stage booster separated from the aircraft.

Debris slowly drifting away toward Earth’s blue curve.

Only the second-stage rocket and Astra’s module remained intact on screen, revealing their silver hull.

“Stage separation confirmed!”

Sara clenched both fists and half-rose from her seat.

“Physical impact force, less than 40 percent of allowable specs! Astra engine module has switched to standby status.”

Michael quickly flipped through hologram panels.

The Sentinel control board’s status window appeared in mid-air.

It was right after the rough shock wave from stage separation had hit the aircraft.

That precarious moment of overload when ordinary circuit boards would have spewed red error logs.

Beep.

But the $9 billion military-grade hardware heavily suppressed the massive impact force.

The output control graphs and circuit networks showed not even the slightest tremor.

A perfect straight line as if drawn with a ruler.

“Main board damage rate zero. System synchronization rate maintaining 100 percent.”

Marcus also tapped his monitor and let out a long breath that had been completely blocked.

All physical variables generated in the process of breaking through Earth’s gravity.

Components purchased with capital had perfectly defended against them.

SpaceX’s delivery mission outside Earth had been completed successfully without a single error.

VVIP Control Room window.

Kang Hyeon was silently watching the pouring monitor data.

‘SpaceX’s delivery is finished.’

Kang Hyeon’s gaze fixed on the silver aircraft left alone in the middle of pitch-black space beyond the screen.

Breaking through Earth’s gravity was something anyone could do with money and technology.

True monopoly belonged to whoever moved faster and more perfectly than anyone else in that empty space.

Kang Hyeon took out a pen from his jacket’s inner pocket.

The smooth fountain pen rolled lightly between his fingers.

Click.

“Lead Engineer Michael.”

Cutting through the control room’s heat, Kang Hyeon’s calm and unwavering voice fell.

“Yes, Chairman!”

Michael immediately turned around with his sweat-soaked face.

“Since our goods have safely arrived at their destination.”

Kang Hyeon’s gaze brushed past Elon Musk once, then headed toward the massive screen in front.

“Now it’s time to shed the shell and turn on the real heart.”

The unclaimed territory.

Astra’s plasma engine, which would rewrite the rules of that place, had finished preparing to awaken.

“Plasma engine. Begin real combat ignition countdown.”

“Plasma engine. Ignition sequence activation.”

Michael’s fingertips heavily pressed the main button on the control panel.

The control room’s large screen immediately switched to the rear camera view of the Astra module.

Space in vacuum state.

In perfect silence where even sound didn’t exist.

The new heart created by humanity finally opened its eyes.

Whoosh—!

It wasn’t the murky red flames that conventional chemical rockets spewed out.

Transparent and intense blue light that was dazzling to the eyes.

Ion particles heated to ultra-high temperatures stretched out toward the pitch-black space.

It was a bizarrely shaped propulsion system that was extremely condensed without scattering in all directions.

“Thrust reaching 100 percent!”

Sara’s shout cut through the control room’s taut air.

Her typing speed became insanely fast.

“No, 110… breaking through 115 percent!”

“Bring up the acceleration graph!”

Michael shouted as he leaned so close to the monitor his nose nearly touched it.

“Ascending vertically! Current speed breaking Mach 15… Mach 20… breaking Mach 25! It keeps climbing!”

The real-time data Sara was calling out was brutally trampling the common sense of existing aerospace engineering.

Overwhelming acceleration force bursting forth in a frictionless bottomless pit.

“Fuel consumption efficiency, does it match the target specs?”

Michael asked urgently without taking his eyes off the screen.

“It’s not just matching the level.”

Sara brought up new fuel efficiency data like a waterfall over the large hologram panel.

“Current fuel consumption relative to thrust. It’s one-tenth the level of existing Falcon 9 chemical engines!”

Overwhelming acceleration.

And ridiculously low fuel consumption.

Magic that exponentially slashed the physical cost of movement in space.

That was the true value of the plasma engine.

“If this data is correct…”

Deep awe permeated Michael’s voice.

“We can reduce travel time to Mars or the asteroid belt to less than half of what it was.”

“What’s the mainboard load status!”

SpaceX’s Marcus urgently interjected, wetting his dry lips.

The massive overload generated by 115 percent excess output.

It was a dangerous figure that could potentially burn out all of Falcon 9’s circuits.

But the defense graph of the Sentinel control board displayed on the monitor was eerily calm.

“Sentinel board perfectly absorbing excess output. Zero data collision rate with SpaceX main system.”

Sara drove the point home by displaying consecutive green lights on the screen.

Military-grade hardware was solidly blocking the brute force output variables.

Perfect control without displaying a single error log.

The component Kang Hyeon had forcibly transplanted in exchange for the astronomical sum of 9 billion dollars.

This was the moment that component perfectly proved its worth in the middle of space.

“The Orbis robots inside the module are also stably maintaining sleep mode. Radiation shielding rate within normal range.”

The engineers’ briefings continued in succession.

Finally, the final report came down.

“All flight data, all green.”

Michael set down the pen he was holding and declared with a voice full of confidence.

The air in the VVIP control room was perfectly separated from the enthusiastic atmosphere of the main control room outside.

The champagne glass in Elon Musk’s hand stopped rigidly in mid-air.

His gaze wasn’t on the brilliant blue trajectory.

It was nailed like a wedge to the real-time fuel efficiency and acceleration data streaming beside it.

One-tenth of existing chemical rockets.

Fierce acceleration easily breaking through Mach 25 in vertical ascent.

Tens of thousands of calculations were spinning madly in Musk’s pupils.

The heart of a monster that instantly cut the physical cost of Mars colonization in half.

‘It exceeded expectations.’

He thought it was simply an Asian partner with obscenely large amounts of money.

But he was mistaken.

Choi Kang-hyeon was trying to seize complete hegemony over the space ecosystem using 9 billion dollars in cash as a weapon.

Musk’s lips, which had been curving pleasantly, sank heavily.

His playful eyes had completely disappeared.

‘This man is also easily surpassing my expectations.’

In contrast, the attitude of the owner of that overwhelming miracle was extremely indifferent.

As soon as Kang Hyeon confirmed the screen data had reached target values, he turned around.

Snap.

Kang Hyeon lightly flicked his fingers.

“Ha-ryul Manager.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

Ha-ryul, who had been waiting, immediately approached and held out a tablet for approval.

“Real-world data collection for the Astra engine ends here. The efficiency has been sufficiently proven.”

Kang Hyeon picked up the electronic pen and scrawled his signature roughly across the tablet screen.

Scratch, scratch.

The sound of the pen tip scraping glass filled the heavily settled control room.

“Immediately activate the module assembly line for KH’s independent space station to be announced to global press next month.”

“Yes.”

“Also triple Orbis’s space construction robot production compared to existing plans. The funds from today’s investment inflow will be sufficient to cover it.”

“I’ll issue the orders immediately.”

Space station.

As soon as those words fell, President Edwin’s thick eyebrows twitched beside him.

Musk finally swallowed empty air.

He had just witnessed the first engine ignition performance with his own eyes.

An ordinary company would have wasted months getting drunk on this success, boosting stock prices and popping champagne.

But to Kang Hyeon, this overwhelming plasma engine was merely a high-efficiency truck for hauling construction materials to space.

Without giving even a moment to breathe, he immediately broke ground on the massive orbital real estate development project.

“Isn’t the pace too fast, Mister Choi?”

Musk spoke with a hardened voice.

“Until just now, it was a combination test of launch vehicle and engine. Station construction is a completely different dimension…”

“Because the land is empty.”

Kang Hyeon decisively cut off Musk’s words.

“When transportation is perfectly established, is there any reason to hesitate about putting up buildings on empty land with no owner?”

Kang Hyeon’s gaze turned beyond the soundproof glass window of the VVIP control room.

The pitch-black void of space stretching endlessly.

Kang Hyeon’s eyes gazing at that overwhelming space of nothingness were intense.

“Now SpaceX will also need to prepare for more than just cargo delivery.”

Kang Hyeon turned around while buttoning his jacket.

“To haul the framework of my space station, the current Falcon 9 payload scale will be woefully inadequate.”

Musk’s mouth closed tightly.

Kang Hyeon silently walked toward the heavy soundproof door of the control room.

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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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