“Young miss, I told you not to eat it... Oh dear, just look at your lips.”
Lee Si-hyun sighed as she looked at my reddened eyes.
I’d ignored everyone’s warnings and insisted on eating Shin Ramyun, and this was the result.
“Haahhh! It’s spicy, so spicy...”
Tears welled up. Looking in the mirror, I saw the pathetic image of a little girl bawling like soone who’d just lost her parents (which, well, was true).
“M-Milk... huff.”
I opened the fridge and gulped down so white milk. My tongue still burned.
Who knew buying all that milk to help grow taller would co in handy like this?
“Here, give the rest. I’ll finish it.”
After tidying up the dishes, Lee Si-hyun approached with her hand out.
I made a deeply miserable face and clutched my ran bowl like my life depended on it. Tears stread down my cheeks.
“N-Nooo... I-I’m gonna... eat it...”
It had been so long since I’d had spicy ramyun—I couldn’t just give it up.
“...”
Lee Si-hyun gave a brief, pitying look but didn’t push further.
About ten minutes later.
“Phew, that was a good dinner.”
Patting my stomach, I hopped down from the chair and grabbed my ga console before heading into my ga room.
It was a room I’d put together to hold all the fun things I could find in this stifling life. Right now, it only had the console, but I’d planned to turn it into a full subculture haven later.
“Young miss, playing gas again?”
“Yeah.”
It had beco a routine by now, so Lee Si-hyun didn’t try to stop . She knew I wasn’t soone who could be stopped with words—and she trusted both my skills and my judgnt.
“What are you playing this ti? Last ti soone said you were enjoying so overly Japanese stuff, rember?”
Since cultural imports hadn’t been liberalized yet, I was smuggling Japanese gas in through the back door. Authority sure was convenient in tis like these.
Normally, it’d be scandalous. But in this case, where my brilliance was actually more of a burden than an asset, no one said anything serious.
At most, they’d suggest I try sothing a bit more wholeso instead of “those Japanese gas.” Unlike a typical household, slacking off was practically recomnded here.
“This ti? It’s Zelna. A ga called Legend of Zelna. I even secured the distribution rights.”
Though at the mont, I only had the rights—actual dostic release was still blocked by law. Still, I’d find a use for them later.
“Aha, is that little guy in green Zelna?”
“This guy’s Link. Zelna barely even shows up in the ga.”
“...?”
—Beep beep.
Ugh, this ga’s hard to control. Since it’s the first in a series I loved before I died, I bought it knowing it’d be rough.
But wow... no save or load system?
Total trash-tier.
“Tch.”
A little fed up, I tossed the console aside and spun around to bury my face in a pillow.
Kicking the blanket with my legs, I stirred up a little dust.
“Ugh, I’m bored. Maybe I should go tour the semiconductor factory.”
“Urgh... I don’t like it there. You have to wear weird stuff.”
True. Wearing anti-static clothing in the cleanroom was super uncomfortable and made you sweat buckets.
But I wasn’t the only one suffering—Si-hyun had to deal with it too. And since she always wore dress shirts and a full suit, she’d strip down from the heat just like .
...If I were still a man, soone would’ve definitely made a fuss about it. But now? No one batted an eye even when I indulged a little. Lucky .
“Then let’s not go inside the factory. Let’s just stop by the lab and chat for a bit. Not today, though—tomorrow. Okay?”
It had been a while since I’d gone out. Quickly switching roles from nanny to secretary, Lee Si-hyun pulled out her notepad and nodded.
“Understood. I’ll arrange it.”
***
Three lows: cheap oil, a weak dollar, and low interest rates.
The era of the “Three Lows Boom” had arrived, and the semiconductor industry was developing at a blistering pace.
“Ohhh! Young miss, it’s been a while!”
The lab director greeted warmly, genuinely glad to see —not the slightest hint of annoyance in his expression.
“Yeah, it’s been a while. Was it... half a year ago, the last ti I ca?”
“Haha, that’s right. You were here when we completed the 1M mory semiconductor. Hm, you’ve gotten taller too. You’re starting to look quite the young lady.”
“Right?”
I glanced at the mirror beside and smiled with satisfaction.
There stood a ten-year-old girl to whom the word “pretty” no longer quite applied—“beautiful” was more like it. My black eyes sparkled, and my face had begun to shed its baby fat.
The head of the DRAM semiconductor research lab held quite a high position. Even I, who rarely spoke formally, used half-formal speech with him.
And rightly so. He was more ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) capable than most university professors, and even my grandfather considered him important.
Anyway, I sat down with him to get a read on the current state of things. Even if I was on break from activity, gathering intel was sothing I could never afford to neglect.
“Sir, how’s the research going these days?”
At this point, the technological gap between Daehwa Electronics and the top firms had shrunk to just two years. The summit was within reach.
The lab director gave a satisfied nod.
“Haha, excellent. Thanks to you, many of our obstacles were cleared. The researchers say they owe you their lives.”
“I just got lucky. It happened to be the area I was studying at the ti...”
It wasn’t solving the technical issue that was luck—it was that I’d happened to be studying the right material when the issue ca up. That was the luck.
It might have sounded arrogant, but he just laughed it off.
“Hah, that’s so like you. Though it is true... you really are amazing. If I were just a humble academic, I’d have done anything to keep you by my side.”
“But I’m sure the team would’ve figured it out on their own if they’d had enough ti. They’re all brilliant.”
The lab director didn’t deny that. He, too, was a proud scientist.
“Sure, sure. But... well, semiconductors are all about timing, aren’t they?”
In high-tech industries, timing was everything. The reason they’d managed to chase Japanese and Arican firms to the brink was because they’d poured in their youth and passion like fuel.
If I hadn’t studied semiconductors in my past life, I wouldn’t have had a clue what to say. But this life’s superior brain had drawn endless benefit from the shallow knowledge of my past one.
For so reason, just having a vague idea of the answer cut down on trial and error by a lot.
“Ehehe, thanks for the complint.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Grinning like an idiot, I unwrapped a candy from the table and popped it into my mouth.
It was sweet.
Whew... this is why I liked smart people. They actually understood how impressive I was.
“So... we’ve resud our research again. The chairman provided generous funding, and you also gave us quite a bit in bonuses, didn’t you? Heh heh. Now that we’ve taken all that money, of course we’ve got to get back to work.”
“I feel bad for working you so hard. The researchers need a break too.”
I didn’t really an the apology, but I was a little worried. If soone dropped dead from overwork, we had no one to replace them.
The staff at this research center were Korea’s top semiconductor specialists. Running these amazing people for 12 hours a day was pure luxury.
Sure, I was using quite a bit of my own money to pay them, but... compared to what they were doing, yeah, it still counted as passion pay.
But the lab director simply smiled and replied:
“No, this ti our goal is to produce a 4M chip before the end of 1987. We’re so close to the finish line—we can’t give up now.”
...As far as I rember, the 4M DRAM was developed in February 1988. They’d just pushed the tiline forward by almost three months.
Well, I had done everything I could to intervene on this front.
I applauded them without holding back. They deserved it.
Clap clap clap.
“Wow, that’s incredible. If this really works, it’ll be a huge achievent... Grandfather will be thrilled.”
Being the head of Daehwa Group’s most important research center ant he was a highly political figure. He had a clear grasp of how the economy was moving.
“Especially with the current boom—exports are doing well, aren’t they? We need to use this montum to boost semiconductor exports. That’s the only way Daehwa Electronics survives, I believe.”
“Oooh...”
I eagerly nodded and fanned the flas of the lab director’s enthusiasm for semiconductors. From experience, I knew that people like him loved complints from those in the sa field.
On the way back, Lee Si-hyun brought it up.
“You seem to be focusing a lot on semiconductors these days.”
Of course I was.
“There aren’t many chances like this to grow a business. Booms don’t co often.”
That said, despite this massive economic boom, there wasn’t all that much I could personally do. That’s why, even if it was inefficient, I focused on semiconductors.
I kept expanding the workforce, supervised the construction of factory facilities... It was work that would’ve progressed without anyway, but since I had free ti, I made a point to be involved.
Even just making my face known would co in handy later.
And just like that, the wave of the Three Lows Boom began sweeping over South Korea.
The foreign debt that once accounted for half of the GNP plumted to around 15%, and the economic growth rate easily surpassed 10%. According to polls, more than 80% of people now considered themselves middle class.
January 14, 1987.
A student at Seoul National University died during a police interrogation after being subjected to water torture. As always, the governnt attempted to cover it up—but for once, newspapers defied censorship protocols and ran the story on the front page.
Early April.
The dollar-to-yen exchange rate hit a record low. At 137 yen to the dollar, Ha Joo-seong—now deep in the foreign exchange markets—scread with joy.
April 13.
President Jeon Doo-gwang announced the “April 13 Protection of the Constitution asure.” Public backlash exploded, and protests demanding constitutional reform erupted across the country.
In Japan, housing prices surged to insane levels, and the stock market continued its relentless climb. Korea’s stock market wasn’t as wild, but still bood—starting from 200 points at the beginning of 1986, the KOSPI broke 300 on January 27, 1987, and just kept climbing.
June 9.
One of the founding mbers of ‘Manhwa Sarang,’ a comics club at Yonsei University that had ties to the student movent, was struck by a tear gas canister fired by police and lost consciousness.
That incident triggered the full outbreak of the June Democracy Movent.
Overall—
It was a boom.
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