The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 77

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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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A Regression of the Fallen Chaebol’s Third Generation — Episode 77
“The air here really does smell different.”
The moment I opened the car door, the heavy air peculiar to the petrochemical complex pressed against my nostrils.
A blend of salt and petroleum—a familiar yet sharp smell that cut through the senses.
Two years. The last time I’d stepped through that gate was midsummer before enlisting; December at Mifo Industrial Complex wore a different color entirely.
“We’ve arrived.”
Jung Tae-sung stepped out first, pointing toward the factory’s main gate.
The entrance checkpoint had changed.
Three CCTVs mounted on the vehicle barrier.
A security guard with an ID badge checked our license plate and radioed inside.
“Last time I came, there was just one security officer. You’ve upgraded considerably.”
“Choi Sung-hun, the representative of SJ Security, has invested considerable effort.”
“I should tell him in Seoul that he’s done excellent work. Better than I expected.”
As the car passed through the gate, Factory 2 came into view.
The building I’d only confirmed as figures in a report now stood before me in concrete form.
The exterior walls were still clean, and white steam venting from the roof’s exhaust ducts spoke to active operations.
The factory I’d bought for 2.7 billion won had transformed.
“Representative.”
Park Jin-hyeok stood before the entrance.
Safety vest over gray work clothes—he looked less like a research director and more like a field engineer.
“Director, it’s been a long time.”
“Indeed, two years since we last met. Congratulations on your discharge.”
“I was discharged quite some time ago.”
“You’ve been so invisible that I’m only greeting you now.”
I shook hands with Park Jin-hyeok and stepped inside the factory.
“We didn’t have time to prepare since you came on such short notice. Director Hong is away on a business trip to Japan.”
“What’s there to prepare? I just wanted to see the current situation.”
“Still, now that……”
I’d come on impulse, but from Park Jin-hyeok’s perspective, it wasn’t that simple.
The representative overseeing operations was also away on a scheduled trip.
“Next time, I’ll arrange a schedule in advance.”
“I’d appreciate that. Shall we start with the JV line?”
“Yes, let’s go through it in order.”
We changed into cleanroom garb and entered the JV line.
Two engineers dispatched from Shinjin watched monitors alongside Korean staff.
They bowed deeply in greeting.
“Third-quarter revenue grew 35 percent year-over-year. Semiconductor demand recovery combined with JV synergies.”
I walked along the line as Park Jin-hyeok explained.
From the chemical washing process through quality inspection and shipping staging areas, the line ran uninterrupted.
The line was packed solid.
Factories 1 and 2 alike left no wasted space. There wasn’t room to add a single piece of equipment, let alone expand further.
“The corridors are quite narrow.”
“With limited space, we had to squeeze lines in. But we did ensure safety throughout.”
“Can’t expand the line capacity further?”
“Factories 1 and 2 are nearly at full capacity.”
I was glad I’d come down to see this in person. From Seoul, receiving only reports, I couldn’t have imagined it like this.
“We’re wrestling with it. If we could expand further, revenue growth would climb even higher……”
When markets grow, it becomes a competition for market share. When that happens, unit prices fall. The current margins wouldn’t last forever.
After finishing the tour of all factory lines, including Factory 1, we emerged into the corridor when Park Jin-hyeok stopped walking.
“Representative, there’s actually one more thing I’d like to show you.”
Park Jin-hyeok lowered his voice slightly.
We went to a small room at the end of the second floor of the main building. The nameplate read “Analysis Laboratory B.” Inside, a miniature reactor and sample bottles lined the workbench.
A researcher stood and bowed.
“What’s this place that you’re being so careful about?”
“Secondary Battery Electrolyte Additive.”
Park Jin-hyeok lifted one of the sample bottles.
“We’ve applied the high-purity refining technology we use in semiconductor cleaning. The metallic impurities in the electrolyte additive can be controlled at the parts-per-billion level. Japan currently dominates the market, but we’ve reached a level where we’re competitive in terms of purity.”
His words were measured, but his fingertips trembled faintly.
‘This man isn’t accustomed to hiding his excitement.’
“Of course, we’re still at the prototype stage. There’s no mass production line yet, and the equipment investment……”
His words trailed off.
It seemed like he was trying to lower expectations.
I took the sample bottle. The transparent liquid swayed gently beneath the fluorescent light.
I couldn’t learn anything simply by looking, but my response to seeing the prototype in person differed vastly from Jung Tae-sung’s report about Shinhwa Welltech’s expansion into secondary battery markets.
“This is wonderful. I don’t understand what any of it is, but I feel great.”
The secondary battery materials market will grow substantially in the future.
In my previous life, from the mid-2010s onward, electric vehicles ramped up production, and battery material demand exploded. All the core materials reached semiconductor-scale market sizes within a decade. And Japan’s monopoly on electrolyte additives broke in the late 2010s when Korean and Chinese refining technology caught up.
This sample in my hand represents that beginning point. If I invest now, I could advance the timeline by several years and potentially secure a dominant market position.
I’d earned all that money precisely for opportunities like this, and now felt like the moment to scale up.
“Director.”
I set the sample bottle down and spoke.
“You’ve worked hard. Acquiring Shinhwa Welltech and giving you full research authority was truly the right choice.”
Park Jin-hyeok’s expression changed.
His mouth opened and closed repeatedly. I’d never seen his eyes redden before.
“……Thank you.”
“I’ll take my thanks when the mass production line comes online.”
“Mass production?”
“Yes, isn’t the research phase complete now?”
Park Jin-hyeok’s expression flipped 180 degrees from moments before when he’d been fighting to temper his hopes.
“It is. We’ll probably need about two years to build the line and test yield.”
“Then we need to expand the line starting now.”
“Th-thank you!”
“Let’s head out.”
As I left the analysis lab, I turned to Jung Tae-sung.
“Director Jung, is there empty land next to the factory?”
“I’ll check. I’ll contact the Industrial Complex Management Corporation first thing tomorrow morning.”
“If there is space, find out the size as well. We’ll need two to three times the current factory footprint.”
Jung Tae-sung nodded and jotted it down in his notebook.

* * *
After finishing with Park Jin-hyeok, I headed straight to the fourth floor of Shinhwa Welltech’s main building.
Unlike the organized factory below, cables hung loose in the corridor, and three whiteboards covered with equations and sketches lined the walls. The handwriting was hurried and crooked.
“We informed CEO Seo Min-seung that you were coming, but it seems he forgot. Shall I call him?”
Jung Tae-sung asked quietly from beside me, but I shook my head and simply looked into the office.
Inside, Seo Min-seung looked up from three monitors where he’d been working on something, switching between them.
A hoodie with an antistatic vest over it, and a face that hadn’t seen a razor in quite a while.
It made me smile involuntarily.
“This looks completely like a startup.”
“Oh, you’re here?”
Spotting me, Seo Min-seung stood from his chair and brushed off his hands.
When we were alone, we could speak casually as seniors and juniors, but in a company setting, mutual respect naturally had to come first.
“CEO Seo, are you doing direct assembly as well?”
“With limited staff, there’s nothing left undone.”
Two researchers in the back stood and greeted me.
“Come in. We’ve been waiting for your arrival.”
I simply nodded to the staff and followed Seo Min-seung inside.
If Shinhwa Welltech below was a company generating revenue, this was still a research lab that only spent money.
All manner of components scattered across the workbench.
“Let me show you.”
Seo Min-seung stood before the Robotic Arm at the center of the workbench.
A small robot about the size of a human arm, with cables dangling everywhere.
Seo Min-seung went to a monitor and entered something; the robotic arm began moving.
Whirrrr—
It grasped the metal block on the workbench, lifted it, then moved it thirty centimeters over and set it down.
Precise. Not a trace of tremor between movements.
It grasped again, this time rotating to a different position. The motions were swift, clean—like human movement.
“That’s impressive.”
I meant it.
“Thank you. But this arm is only doing what I’ve programmed it to do.”
“Only what you’ve programmed?”
“Right now, this arm is executing coordinates I’ve input in advance, in sequence. It’s like a car following a GPS route.”
Seo Min-seung shifted the position of the metal block on the workbench slightly by hand.
“Let me run it again.”
The robotic arm repeated the same motions.
Its descending fingers grasped the block at an angle, then lifted it awkwardly before dropping it midway.
Clang—
The sound of metal striking the workbench rang through the lab.
“That’s the problem.”
Seo Min-seung picked up the fallen block and continued.
“If the position shifts even two centimeters, it fails. On a factory floor, whenever part positions change, someone has to re-input coordinates, and whenever conditions shift, the whole system needs reprogramming.”
“So it can’t be used in real-world applications.”
“Not in its current state.”
He gestured toward the monitor.
“What I really want to build is different. A robot that finds and grasps the block wherever it is. Rather than inputting coordinates, I want it to learn movements on its own when given only the goal.”
It was something I’d read in papers. The theory was proven. The question was whether it could actually run in practice.
“What would you need to reach that point?”
“Two things. Computational infrastructure, and people.”
Seo Min-seung sat down as he spoke.
True engineer that he was, he stated the practical problems matter-of-factly.
“Computation can be solved with money. I’m sorry to be blunt when you’re already spending on this, but that’s the reality.
“I told you—money is my concern. I’ll handle that. But you mentioned another problem?”
“Yes. People.”
“What kind of people?”
“Researchers who can apply reinforcement learning to physical systems. People who can design simulation environments and write algorithms that let the robot learn movements through thousands of trials and errors.”
He paused briefly, then continued.
“Domestically, there are almost none. There are fewer than five people in this field, and they’re all professors—untouchable for recruitment.”
Mechanical, electrical, and control engineers could be sourced domestically.
Even narrowly, Ulsan has national universities and schools with engineering programs—sufficient for those needs.
But the person to build this robot’s brain didn’t exist in Korea.
“CEO Seo.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll find that person.”
Seo Min-seung looked at me. There was slight confusion in his eyes, but he didn’t ask further.
As if he knew I don’t make empty promises.
“Then I’ll keep refining the body.”
“Please do. Well, you’re busy, so I’ll head out. I’ll be around Ulsan for a few days—we’ll meet again soon.”
After greeting Seo Min-seung and leaving the lab, Jung Tae-sung took his place beside me.
“Both are critical businesses for us. I sense we need to move quickly.”
“Then my task is……”
“Growing both requires more space. Check on the land immediately.”
“I’ll arrange the call with the Industrial Complex Management Corporation for first thing tomorrow.”

* * *
“Sigh……”
Back at my quarters, I showered and sat on the bed. I opened my laptop but didn’t look at the screen.
There was much to think through.
Shinhwa Welltech’s secondary battery electrolyte additive.
Synapse’s reinforcement-learning robot.
Separately, they’re two different businesses. One is materials, one is machinery.
But when I overlay memories from my previous life, the picture changes.
“The age of electric vehicles will arrive soon.”
From the mid-2010s onward, electric vehicles ramped up mass production.
Battery material demand exploded, and core material markets grew tenfold within a decade.
South Korea’s “Big Three” battery makers divided the global market share, with material supply chains behind them.
‘And robots—they really started being deployed properly across manufacturing from then on……’
Electric vehicle factories brought robots in. Though battery packs had fewer components than combustion engines, the precision required in battery pack assembly actually increased automation rates.
The reinforcement-learning robot Seo Min-seung was developing would truly shine in that environment. A robot that adapts on its own even when parts change, even when lines shift.
In the end, both threads pointed toward the same future.
Shinhwa Welltech making battery materials, Synapse making the robots that assemble them.
Like I’d resolved from the start to become a super supplier rather than compete with them, I needed to ride their value chain.
From top to bottom—materials to manufacturing, all under one roof.
“The problem is scale.”
Shinhwa Welltech is packed with semiconductor chemicals. There’s no room for secondary battery mass production.
Synapse rents a single floor of someone else’s building. Even one prototype feels cramped.
Money and technology are sufficient, and people can be found if we look.
What’s missing is land, and with Jung Tae-sung on it, that’ll be solved. The real problem……”
“I need to position myself properly in the value chain. Domestically……”
If there’s a complete vehicle manufacturer making electric cars in Korea, it’s only Seonjin Motors, but that’s off-limits. That’s Kang Tae-yong’s domain.
Having finished thinking, I picked up my phone and pressed the call button.
-Hey, Seon-woo! Isn’t it nighttime in Korea right now?
Danny’s familiar voice came through from the other end.
“Danny, there should be an electric vehicle startup called Volta Motors right now receiving initial investment.”
-Volta…… Motors? Where have I heard that?
“It’s a venture founded by Ryan Holt.”
-Ah! Ryan Holt. Yeah, I think I’ve heard of him.
“Look into everything. Everything.”

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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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