I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 124

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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124 – Power Plant
124
We had made preparations to build a solar power plant.
We had already secured the solar panels.
Technicians from China were arranged to be sent for installation.
We had plenty of labor available.
All we needed was a location to install it.
Fortunately, we had Magiting.
We personally conducted site inspections at the locations Magiting had surveyed in advance.
Every place Magiting had pre-checked was excellent.
There wasn’t a single poor option among them.
Everything was perfect—solar irradiance, terrain, land availability, power transmission infrastructure, weather conditions, accessibility.
Patrick agreed to handle the permits and regulatory matters.
Just looking at this, I was glad we’d made Patrick the mayor.
Without Patrick, everything from the Assand Factory to Unity Town and now the solar power plant would have been infinitely harder.
It all would have been overwhelming.
The final meeting to select the power plant location.
Patrick, Magiting, Simon, and I were deciding on the site together.
Any choice would have been good, but we put our heads together until the end to select the most efficient location.
However, throughout the meeting, Patrick seemed unable to focus and kept lost in thought about something else.
I figured Patrick had many other matters to handle, so I continued with the meeting.
Then suddenly, Patrick asked me a question.
“Young Boss, would it be possible to build several more solar power plants?”
“How many?”
“At minimum five or six, at maximum ten or more.”
“If we have the money, isn’t it possible? We’re buying the solar panels anyway. We can purchase the land, and you can handle the permits. Why?”
“I realized we shouldn’t just build them in Zamboanga and call it done.”
“Then what?”
“I’ve been thinking—what if we built them not just in Zamboanga but throughout the Philippines? It doesn’t seem like a bad idea, so I wanted to mention it.”
“Throughout the entire Philippines?”
“Yes. As you said, many people are suffering from electricity shortages. Not just here in Zamboanga, but over 100 million people in the Philippines. I want to change that. I want to supply electricity to all of the Philippines.”
He wanted to supply electricity not just to Zamboanga, but to the entire Philippines.
Yes, this was Patrick.
Patrick was someone who expanded the game.
I was glad the real Patrick had returned.
Still, I couldn’t fully support what Patrick wanted to do.
Even in this short time, I’d learned how complex, difficult, and like an ant trap this kind of work could be.
“That’s a good intention, but it doesn’t seem easy. Money aside, once we step outside Mindanao, it’ll be hard to exert influence. There will be all sorts of regulations, and every money-hungry weirdo will come crawling.”
“That’s exactly why I want to do it.”
“What?”
“Isn’t the election coming up soon? I’d like to use this opportunity to leverage electricity as a stepping stone and transform Akbayan ng Katarungan into a nationwide party.”
“Ah, that’s right. The election is coming around again, isn’t it? But how exactly do you plan to do it?”
“First, we’ll construct a solar power plant in Zamboanga and supply electricity to Unity Town at affordable rates. We’ll continuously expose people in Unity Town naturally using electricity on social media and short-form videos—turning on air conditioning at home, running washing machines, those kinds of everyday things. We’ll keep showing scenes of people using electricity so naturally. Mindanao, where Akbayan ng Katarungan holds power, has transformed like this. If you vote for Akbayan ng Katarungan in this election, you too can use electricity at low rates. I’m thinking of structuring the election campaign this way.”
What?
I never expected electricity could be leveraged in such a way.
And it was actually an excellent idea.
We had high barriers to entry initially, but electricity is ultimately a revenue model.
It’s a public good, yet it generates profit.
Once you lay down the infrastructure, it becomes a pipeline that generates money automatically from then on.
The initial costs are substantial, but once we overcome that hurdle, it can sustain itself independently from that point forward.
We earn money,
create jobs,
serve as an election strategy for Akbayan ng Katarungan,
and can provide affordable electricity to the Filipino people.
Honestly, I can’t find a single reason not to do this aside from profit itself.
Besides, we’re importing solar panels from China at incredibly low costs, aren’t we?
“That’s genuinely a great idea. I’m in favor of it.”
“Me too.”
“It’s a brilliant idea.”
Simon and Magiting, who had been listening, enthusiastically agreed as well.
Now that I think about it, it’s already time to prepare for the election.
Philippine elections occur every three years.
It’s already been two years since Patrick became mayor.
Patrick has already become an established politician.
His innovative and bold policies have made him incredibly popular in Zamboanga.
Akbayan ng Katarungan, with Patrick as party chairman, is also receiving high approval ratings in Mindanao.
But that’s the current approval rating.
The approval rating in Mindanao.
What’s good now doesn’t mean it’ll be good later.
Politics is a living, breathing organism.
Support can plummet at any moment, or it can skyrocket to the heavens.
It requires constant management and attention.
Continuous expansion is necessary.
That’s what politics is.
And now it’s time to prepare for the upcoming election.
Patrick seems intent on making electricity rate reduction the core platform of Akbayan ng Katarungan in this election.
He seems determined to win people’s hearts through electricity rates.
The party will be reborn as a nationwide force.
The Philippines must be freed from the burden of electricity costs.
And he intends to prove this isn’t mere talk through Mindanao.
I needed to prove to Patrick that his words weren’t lies by actually building a solar power plant.
“And after the election, I’ll ensure we can provide maximum subsidies for newly constructed power plants. If we factor in subsidies and electricity rates, it could become quite a profitable business venture, wouldn’t you say?”
Of course, I wasn’t building the plant purely for profit,
but to supply cheap electricity to the Filipino people,
though I still needed to cover labor costs.
“So all I need to do is build the power plant?”
“Yes. We’ll handle the rest.”
*****
“Wow, seeing it like this is no joke.”
Before my eyes stretched vast solar panels glinting brilliantly in the sunlight.
The barren wasteland had been completely filled with solar panels.
The solar power plant was finally nearing completion.
Construction was finished—only test operations remained.
Even we who conducted the project hadn’t expected we could build it this quickly.
Even while drafting the schedule, I couldn’t believe it would happen this way.
I naturally assumed various issues would arise during construction, extending the timeline.
So I scheduled it even more tightly.
Trying to accelerate it however possible.
The first task was selecting the site.
This was easily resolved thanks to Magiting.
And we started land preparation before even receiving permits.
Trusting that Patrick would approve them regardless.
While one team leveled the ground and handled grading and drainage work, another team behind them installed racks for the panels.
We never stopped.
Everything was prepared so the panels could be installed immediately upon arrival.
The moment the panels arrived, we mounted them on the racks and connected them to the power grid.
Hundreds of workers organized into dozens of teams worked simultaneously.
Land preparation teams, rack installation teams, panel mounting teams, power grid connection teams, ESS system teams.
Like gears meshing perfectly, everything aligned and progressed flawlessly.
Work proceeded at lightning speed.
Thanks to that, completion was possible in record time.
A 100MW solar power plant.
Everyone was astonished.
We who planned the construction,
the construction teams who executed it,
and even the supervisory team dispatched from China were all amazed.
They said they’d never built anything this quickly and perfectly before.
The management team sent from China asked if they could use this process elsewhere.
I readily agreed.
After all, these people would need to continue building solar power plants throughout the Philippines.
It’s convenient to have someone who knows the ropes.
For now, it’s best to forget any thoughts of returning to China.
A 100MW solar power plant.
The scale was truly impressive.
It was the size of 250 soccer fields combined.
Absolutely enormous.
It wasn’t just the size that was staggering.
The power generation capacity was equally astounding.
The electricity produced there was enough to replace Zamboanga’s entire power supply.
Of course, there were challenges.
There was the fundamental problem of solar power generation—the nighttime generation issue.
The sun doesn’t rise at night, after all.
But we installed an ESS system.
Think of the ESS system as a massive battery.
We charge it with excess electricity during the day and draw from it whenever needed.
Wei Zhonglin gave us quite a large capacity ESS system as a bonus.
After all that complaining about not wanting to give it.
Typical tsundere behavior.
.
.
.
Unity Town.
Unity Town was brimming with vitality.
With so many young children around, the entire town radiated energy.
The whole town felt like one enormous school.
Children clustered in groups of five or six scattered throughout.
They gathered to play games, have fun, and study.
Their laughter, their running about, their passionate focus on something.
Just watching them seemed to recharge my own energy.
I was glad we built so many parks.
Children sat in the parks, giggling away.
Yet I remained deeply concerned.
With so many children of similar ages gathered together, I worried most about school violence and bullying.
It was unavoidable.
They were still at an immature age.
An age when they believed the strong had the right to dominate.
Or perhaps it was simply instinct.
So we had to address it through education and discipline.
We needed to teach them what was right and what was wrong.
Fortunately, there was no bullying.
These children had experienced considerable discrimination and hurt.
When such children gathered together, they formed a town.
Those who have been wounded recognize the wounds in others.
Simply sharing stories revealed that they carried the same pain.
Rather than ostracizing, rejecting, and tormenting one another,
they embraced and protected each other.
Conducting counseling sessions for all residents proved remarkably effective.
Through resident orientation programs, we instilled a sense of community among them.
We also established a community center where residents could freely come and go.
We built several restaurants where people could obtain meals.
Of course, they had to pay for their food, but the response was excellent.
I believe the sense of doing things together played a significant role.
There are other reasons as well.
The children here dream of joining the Rebel Forces, and the Rebel Forces take school violence seriously.
It’s a small town with a population of only about ten thousand.
Even crossing one bridge, most people are acquaintances.
That’s why people become more cautious in their behavior.
If someone’s conduct is poor, they can never join the Rebel Forces.
They cannot stand alongside the legendary Alex.
More schools were built as well.
To be precise, a school under construction finally opened.
As the environment improved, the range of subjects taught expanded.
Alongside this, infrastructure work on the town continued.
We laid the main roads.
Power lines, communication cables, and water pipes were all buried beneath the roads.
Utility poles and the tangle of power and communication lines were completely underground.
Most importantly, we installed an enormous number of streetlights.
The streets remained bright even at night.
We installed LED lights with sensors that automatically illuminated when darkness fell.
Because they were LED, maintenance costs decreased dramatically.
We also installed numerous CCTV cameras.
They were installed solely for the safety of Unity Town.
Living conditions changed significantly as well.
Refrigerators, televisions, and fans were standard; washing machines and microwaves were used freely.
Air conditioning ran twenty-four hours in places where people gathered—schools, libraries, childcare centers, and community centers.
And naturally, such scenes were woven into reels and shorts.
Laundry spinning naturally at home.
Food rotating in the microwave.
Vacuuming with a cordless vacuum cleaner.
Studying in an air-conditioned library.
Coming out at night to meet friends.
Most notably, the bright expressions on the children’s faces.
It was nothing special in daily life, but it apparently didn’t look that way to other Filipinos.
It was juicy enough to spark an issue on social media.
– Where is that place? It doesn’t look like Forbes Park (the Philippines’ most exclusive neighborhood)
└ I’ve never seen it either, but it doesn’t seem to be in the Philippines. There’s nowhere in the Philippines that bright at night.
└ Right, it doesn’t seem like the Philippines. Using electricity like that.
– Why are they running a washing machine at home? Are they a conglomerate heir?
└ My house can only do it once every two weeks, and the rest is all hand washing.
└ If you run it like that, you’re booking a back massage.
– Air conditioning coming out of a library? Did someone make a mistake?
└ No, it must be a mistake. There’s no place like that.
– How is it so clean and bright? How can there be a place that bright and clean at night? Kids are walking around at night.
└ That’s not the Philippines. The Philippine night can’t be like that.
└ It’s really a new world. I wish there was a Philippines like that.
– It looks like AI, but living in a country like that would be nice.
└ Me too.
It was a lifestyle rarely seen in the Philippines.
It became an object of admiration for Filipinos.
People began trying to find out where that place was.
Interest in Unity Town skyrocketed tremendously.
.
.
.
Seeing the clean Unity Town made me feel good.
It didn’t feel like the Philippines.
It felt like Japan, or America, or Seoul.
I came to the Community Center wondering if there was anything else we needed, and I was resting for a bit when I saw Shin Jung-gi walking ahead.
What the hell is that crazy bastard doing here?
Wasn’t he out selling weapons with Dennis?
I was afraid Shin Jung-gi would taint the clean Unity Town.
I was scared that the growing children might be infected with psychopathy.
“Simon. Why is that bastard here? You know he’s a psychopath.”
“I know.”
“A guy like that—you never know what he’ll do if his eyes go crazy. What if the kids catch psychopathy from him?”
“He teaches well, though.”
“Huh?”
“He teaches well. Really, just the essentials and core concepts.”
“That bastard teaches the kids?”
“We had a hard time at first because there was no teacher. Even when we brought in a teacher, they didn’t have the skills we expected. Seeing that, Shin Jung-gi said he’d teach better himself, and from then on, he taught well. Not just math, but physics, radio waves, and even weapon development—better than a professor.”
“··· What?”
Had I misheard something?
Weapon development?
“Beyond that, Tian Zihao teaches internet and hacking, Ana comes by occasionally to teach accounting, Edward teaches chemistry. I teach medicine.”
“······.”
A strong sense that something was going terribly wrong washed over me.
I looked at Simon again.
Simon gazed at me with a satisfied expression, as if seeking my praise.
Suddenly, the back of my head throbbed.
Wasn’t this supposed to be teaching just the basics—language, math, and science?
What exactly are you teaching these kids?
I had to address this.
“You should be teaching them useful subjects like language, math, and science. How can you teach them things like that?”
“So you make your living off language, math, and science?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if you make your living using what you learned in language, math, and science.”
I had no response to Simon’s question.
I had learned those subjects, yet I hadn’t truly learned them.
Since I couldn’t remember anything, I simply assumed I should teach what I’d been taught.
Because that’s how I was educated.
“The Philippines has plenty of highly educated people. Look at Patrick—he graduated from the University of the Philippines, one of the most prestigious schools, and he was working as a thug. I’m a medical school graduate, and I’m with the Rebel Forces. Simply studying academics makes it hard to even find a job. That’s why this is a vocational school—we teach things that students can use immediately after half-finishing their education. Of course, we teach language, math, and science too, but learning diverse skills is beneficial, isn’t it? Whatever they learn, they’ll find a use for it. That’s why I’m teaching them such a wide range of subjects.”
Diverse was putting it mildly.
It felt less like teaching the full spectrum of light and more like teaching everything from transparency to absolute darkness.
Yet I couldn’t refute Simon’s words because it seemed like he’d reached this conclusion after long deliberation.
Simon was thinking about the children’s futures.
He was providing education that would allow them to become self-sufficient, not conventional schooling.
My thoughts grew complicated.
Then Edward contacted me.
– Young Boss, the development is complete.
“Really? This quickly?”
– Yes. It’s quite impressive.
“You’ve worked hard. How effective is it?”
– Please don’t accidentally ingest it. You’ll be searching for it for the rest of your life.

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