Chapter 180

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“What in the world is going on?! How did the number of protesters increase like this?!”

When President Perong declared he would push pension reform.

The number of protesters reached a whopping one million.

Nevertheless, Perong didn’t delay the reform.

Because pension reform was an urgent matter that someone had to take responsibility for and handle.

That’s why he absolutely couldn’t give in even if a million protesters gathered.

And as expected, the protesters’ power weakened day by day.

No matter how much they bark, if the government closes its ears and pushes through, the citizens have no choice but to follow, don’t they?

It was the same this time.

Pension reform was necessary for future generations, so there was justification that someone needed to take responsibility and reform it. Combined with the government’s consistent non-response, the protesters lost their strength.

“Then how can those protesters have increased to 3 million?!”

After the protesters gradually dwindled to just a few people gathering, President Perong had nothing stopping him.

Also, concerned that dragging things out in the National Assembly could affect his approval ratings, he was about to invoke Article 49, Section 3 of the constitution to forcibly pass the bill using presidential authority without a vote.

But today the protesters gathered again.

And an enormous 3 million people gathered throughout the city.

“It seems the influence of SNS is quite large. From a certain point, fake news has been spreading tremendously centering on SNS.”

“Fake news?”

“Yes. Content saying this pension reform is killing the common people, the government is monopolizing all the money, and it’s going into the president’s personal account…”

“Wait, people actually believe that?”

“Mr. President. No matter how absurd the content, if the same news keeps repeating, people gradually come to believe it’s real. Of course, there are people who don’t believe it, but some unconsciously come to accept it as fact.”

As a result, the protesters grew to 3 million.

“The problem is that if those protesters run rampant, other people’s thinking will change too. Especially France is vulnerable to incitement. They love gathering together to protest and using it as a pretext to commit looting.”

That phenomenon became worse as more immigrants came in.

Indeed, with 3 million protesters gathering, fires broke out and looting occurred throughout the city.

Security issues had already become severe.

The funny thing is that even tourists sometimes get caught up in this atmosphere and commit looting.

Such chaos overlapped and now all of France was shaking.

Weren’t more protesters gathering and destroying the nation than during the Yellow Vest incident in the past?

“So this is all because of SNS?”

“Yes. Fake news has been simultaneously pouring out centered on SNS, and with content criticizing it becoming mainstream, there seems to have been incitement. There’s also the fact that immigrants looking to loot using this chaos mixed in, further increasing the number of protesters.”

Why did such content suddenly spread on SNS?

Pension reform was certainly content that would displease the current generation.

But for the sake of the future, it was a problem someone absolutely had to solve.

Knowing that, the protesters also lost their justification and gradually weakened.

But absurd inflammatory content spread on SNS, and people were deceived into massive protests.

“To be precise, it was from when you expressed opposition to the ESG association, Mr. President.”

“……”

Right, I knew it.

Sudden incitement always has a mastermind behind it.

And this time too, Gwangwoon was behind it.

They did this during the Yellow Vest incident back then too.

Now that we tried to block the ESG association, they’re pulling these dirty tricks again.

Did they really think this would make me submit?

“But Mr. President, this time it’s serious. Just the number of protesters gathered is increasing exponentially, and inflammatory news keeps spreading through SNS.”

“Then just block the SNS.”

“What?”

“Isn’t the problem PikPik? Block it.”

“B-but blocking PikPik won’t end the problem. Inflammatory posts are already spreading on various communities too, and if we block PikPik, there will be even greater resistance saying the government is infringing on citizens’ freedom.”

Who is the culprit behind all of this?

It’s Gwangwoon.

And the tools they use for incitement are PikPik and Faceweb.

We must block those two to stop them from shaking this noble country, France, anymore.

“I don’t care what they say. Block all SNS related to Gwangwoon, even using presidential authority!”

***

These days, when you watch the news, there’s content that comes up first.

“5 million protesters? Is this even a possible number?”

“Yes. The French government apparently yielded in the end. A large-scale protest is usually a million people, and five times that number rose up. Apparently the military had to come out to stop the protesters who wanted to forcibly drag President Perong to the guillotine.”

France drew worldwide attention for several days.

Massive protesters beyond common sense and the French military mobilized to stop them.

Tanks even came out to guard President Perong.

It was quite a spectacle in many ways.

“Originally, President Perong was going to forcibly pass this pension reform without a vote using Article 49, Section 3.”

Article 49, Section 3 is a French constitutional provision that immediately passes a bill without voting when matters are urgent.

However, if a majority rejection vote comes within a day, that bill is forcibly withdrawn.

“Usually invoking Article 49, Section 3 means there’s been some discussion with the opposition party. But the opposition all threw rejection votes, so the pension reform bill was withdrawn.”

“So he got stabbed in the back?”

“At first, the opposition probably didn’t intend to do that. They also knew pension reform was absolutely necessary. Since President Perong was going to take the hit and do it for them, they probably wouldn’t have opposed it.”

“But the protests grew and intensified beyond expectation, so they changed their position?”

“Yes. Feeling like they’d get pelted with stones too if this continued, they stabbed him in the back during the rejection vote and put all responsibility on President Perong.”

“Both the ruling and opposition parties?”

“Yes. The ruling party also betrayed President Perong, and the opposition also overturned everything they had agreed upon.”

Looking at it this way, it was quite sad news.

Pension reform was like an unavoidable fate for France.

If reform doesn’t happen, it will soon be depleted and future generations will have to bear that burden.

President Perong took all the arrows of criticism to prevent exactly that.

“Our country was also facing such a crisis. Pension reform was more urgent than ever, but everyone was ignoring it.”

“Yes. But then our President stepped up and solved that problem. Thanks to that, our Gwangwoon is being praised as a national hero company.”

“Honestly, I still can’t believe it. While other countries are in chaos over pensions, our national pension is heading toward 2,000 trillion won.”

What developed countries currently consider the biggest headache is pensions.

They’re afraid of the political risk of reforming, but the aftermath of delaying is hell.

But the majority choose the former.

Because after all, those who’ll suffer from pensions aren’t the current politicians but future generations.

Moreover, most current politicians have a lot of money and get a lot from the state, so they’re not particularly worried about their old age.

So irresponsibly they pretend not to see and hand bombs to future generations.

“They just need to do shorts and day trading with big gains like our President does. Hoho.”

“Haha, hearing Manager Lee say that gives me chills again. I still sometimes have nightmares about that time. Dreams about our company losing all the national pension money.”

Looking back, I still don’t know what mental state I was in to take on all that national pension money and shoot.

Even with intuition, to make such a gamble with citizens’ money while on a dopamine high.

Just thinking about it again makes my palms sweaty.

Along with a strange thrill that it succeeded.

“What about them blocking our SNS? What happened?”

“It was quickly lifted this time. No matter what, in a democratic country, blocking SNS with presidential authority without proper legislation is unacceptable. Plus, while it’s true that bad content about pension reform went out through our SNS, domestic French communities were actually the bigger problem.”

The world is different now than before.

The internet is so well developed that people have a much higher chance of being swayed by false rumors.

So President Perong took the drastic measure of forcibly blocking our PikPik and Faceweb, but instead got hit with backlash as rumors spread that the president was trying to become a dictator.

“In the end, even the 5 million gathering was probably because our SNS was blocked. Even people who thought reform was needed turned their backs on him.”

It was fortunate for us, but I also felt a bit bad.

After all, it’s an undeniable fact that our SNS was one of the causes of this French incident.

“So French pension reform is essentially gone?”

“Yes. They’ve essentially declared they’ll put all responsibility on future generations. It’s irreversible now. If anyone brings up pension reform, the protesters will rise up again.”

Thinking about this, our country was really fortunate.

Unlike other developed countries, our national pension won’t be depleted before the year 2100.

“Ah, and President. Close AI says they’ve started developing enterprise AI according to your instructions. But there are things that need detailed discussion, so they sent several documents.”

They were documents of considerable thickness.

“The AI content is honestly all gibberish to me.”

Same for me.

I’m a complete novice when it comes to AI.

“So should I send this to the strategy team and have them coordinate the details?”

At the manager’s advice, my still intuition passed through my mind.

Is it telling me that since the investment has been decided, the rest should be left to subordinates?

“Yes. Please tell them to discuss with head office and proceed from now on.”

“Understood. I’ll convey it as is.”

I feel like I’m passing the buck too much, but didn’t my intuition also signal that experts would do better than me?

If the investment is done, it’s better to leave the rest.

That’s why there’s a strategy team, and that’s why there’s head office.

***

“So… what is this?”

“These are project contents jointly established by Close AI and our strategy team.”

Hwang Dae-woon blinked while looking at the report brought from the strategy team.

[Project Prometheus]

The name alone was ominous.

“We develop enterprise AI that boasts significantly upgraded features compared to the XPT on the market, and furthermore ensure AI is necessarily installed across all industries.”

“Jin-ho is paying special attention to this? Why?”

“We invest enormous money to maximize XPT’s performance so our subsidiaries can use it, and furthermore we induce other companies to use it attracted by its appeal. If that happens, Chairman, our AI will control all industries from now on.”

“……”

AI that controls all industries.

Just hearing about it was scary.

“That’s not all. If our AI continues to develop and our XPT gets into most industries, we can move to the software stage.”

“Software?”

“Yes. Currently Micro Hard controls all industrial software. Our AI will take that seat. With Gwangwoon OS that replaces Micro Hard with AI.”

“!?”

Only then did Hwang Dae-woon realize why Jeong Jin-ho was paying special attention to this matter.

Micro Hard, which currently controls computer software.

But if XPT’s artificial intelligence capabilities improve further, penetrate all industries, and eventually replace software, then Micro Hard will no longer be needed.

In other words, Micro Hard’s world that was considered absolutely irreplaceable would be overturned by AI.

“…So you’re saying Jin-ho is proceeding with this Prometheus project really aiming at Micro Hard?”

“Yes. President Jeong Jin-ho gave instructions to invest money to have enterprise AI developed, then coordinate details by discussing with the strategy team. He laid out the entire board, so the rest is for head office to do well.”

Hwang Dae-woon swallowed hard.

This was about ending the tyranny of Micro Hard, a company considered representative of ‘too big to fail.’

He felt like he received too big an assignment from Jin-ho, but,.

“He laid out the board this far, so I can’t just run away saying I can’t do it.”

Being given all the weapons and items and then not charging into enemy territory was unthinkable for a Trinity guild member.

End