The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 8
Only Noblemtl
8. Ramen is this delicious? (2)
The facility upgrade for mass production of flavor enhancers was simple. Just place the previously produced flavor enhancers in a large vat coated with Solarstone and let them mature.
Solarstone is made by mixing various rare metals.
It was a pain in the ass to make this. It didn’t take much effort to make one small maturation vessel, but maturing a large quantity required a considerable amount of Solar Stone.
There was a metal that did not exist on Earth, so it had to be obtained through meteorite trading.
Luckily, we were able to obtain a meteorite with the desired metallic composition.
I stayed up all night for several days, carefully mixing the fine metals obtained by crushing the meteorites purchased in an old workshop in the Kuro Industrial Complex, and my eyes started to spin.
They say that if your head is not strong, your body will suffer.
It was no easy task to do each task by hand.
Make sure you have the right tools and enough materials.
After making something that was somewhat close to what I wanted, it turned out to be pretty good.
I took off the goggles I was wearing while working and wiped the sweat off of them.
“I think it’s pretty much over now, right?”
[It looks like the product came out as designed. If you put in the mixed metal powders and turn it on, the solar stone will automatically be applied inside the metal container.]
He installed the newly made device into a metal container that he had ordered in advance and put it into operation.
The palm-sized mechanical device operated smoothly with a squeaking sound.
“Oh! This seems to be working.”
My voice naturally grew louder as I felt that the result of several days of hard work was working very satisfactorily.
[Oh! That’s cheap. Why do you like making such simple primitive equipment so much?]
Ariel grumbled, but it was still good.
“Whatever you say, it’s fine. But is this really going to work out the way you want it to?”
According to various calculations, the optimal amount of Solarstone to be applied is about 6mm. If it is thinner or thicker than this, the desired taste will not be achieved.
[There is no problem as long as the error is within about 0.5mm. However, if you do not mix it properly and make it in a shorthand manner, you will not be able to achieve the desired taste.]
I had a bitter taste in my mouth.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. There are some metals that can’t be found on Earth.”
This is satisfactory enough.
I loaded the results of my work into my car and rushed to the factory.
The work of installing the workpiece was not very difficult. The cans were installed in a workroom that had already been built on one side of the factory.
I set the timer while watching the flavor enhancer pour into the metal container I had installed. Eight hours would be enough to achieve the desired degree of maturation.
The workers blinked in confusion as they looked at the equipment added to one side of the production plant.
The facility that was built in a jiffy after bringing in various materials from the morning must have looked like a goblin’s play to them.
“Why does installing this make the soup taste better? The boss told me to install it, so I did, but…”
Now, Mr. Kwak, who is nearing retirement age, asked. He was a long-time subordinate of his grandfather who had been with the company since its founding.
I tilted my head in disbelief, but I just ignored it.
“I installed a timer, so you can just take it out when the time comes.”
“Is this really going to make things better?”
“Once you taste it, you won’t be able to escape.”
“Is that so?”
Factory Manager Kwak tilted his head again with a puzzled expression.
When a mature product comes out, there are people who will try hard to taste it even if you tell them not to.
“Oh my, it’s hard”
When I finished installing and returned home, my whole body ached.
When I tried to move my body that had not been moving before, my whole body sent me signals that it was difficult.
I was lying in bed without any thoughts, feeling a bit dizzy, and I thought that if I took a nap, my body would relax a little.
“Iriel, am I installed correctly?”
[The last time I checked, I applied exactly 6.3mm of powdered Solarstone, so it’s correct.]
“Ugh, I just took a quick look and the production process is really primitive. Even if you try to keep the environment clean, there are limits to making food by hand.”
I was secretly terrified because the production process was completely different from what I had imagined.
At least edible products should be made in a vacuum to avoid foreign substances from mixing in.
[It’s the limit of the times. The Master’s factory is relatively good. If we just fix a few things right now, it seems like things will get better.]
It’s not that I didn’t understand what Ariel was saying. I racked my brain for a moment, but soon shook my head.
“No, let’s quit. If I step out, Grandpa will give me work as if he had been waiting for me.”
[That’s true. There’s a 99.9% chance that you’ll end up with a huge amount of work.]
“Okay, it’s better to let it go to this extent. For the time being, we’ll just have to keep an eye on it and see how much it sells.”
According to a rough survey, last year’s consumption of ramen in Korea was just under 4 billion units.
Of those, our food share is about 10%.
That means they sold 400 million packages of ramen last year.
It was obvious that if they launched a new product using the improved ramen powder as their base, at least their market share would increase.
There are many variables involved in how much sales can be increased in a short period of time, but in the long term, the success of the new product was inevitable.
[The problem is production capacity. Based on the current facilities, it will be difficult to ship more than 300 million additional units.]
“Yes, to increase production capacity, we need to expand, but it’s not something that can be done in a day or two. Even if we build a new factory, the company’s financial situation doesn’t look good. The debt ratio is 135%! I was shocked when I saw it.”
Ariel sighed in disappointment at my words.
[Oh my, Master. In this day and age, this is incredibly good. Even if things have improved, if the debt ratio is under 200%, it is an incredibly stable company. It can’t be compared to the company that Master used to run. In today’s terms, it’s an oil business, but if you dig the ground, you make money. The oil businessmen here on Earth also make a lot of money.]
“Oil? Isn’t that abundant on nearby Titan? If you just pump it out of the methane sea, it’s not that expensive.”
[It’s not cost-effective. Cost-effective! These days, there are no anti-gravity devices, so we have to launch solid fuel rockets into space. These days, the cost of going to Titan is not a problem, but it’s impossible to go there.]
“You’re launching a rocket with solid fuel! It must cost a lot of money to go into space once?”
[Plus, once a rocket is launched, it can’t be recycled.]
It was an incredibly shocking sound.
“Wow, I really did go back in time. I have to go into space without an anti-gravity device.”
Anti-gravity devices were the best means of moving within a star system.
It would take three days to travel from Earth to the Kuiper Belt, where resource extraction facilities are plentiful, using a normal anti-gravity engine.
Before I came here, there was talk of cutting this down to a day trip.
I had to somehow get to STK0029. Once I got there, I could mine Orcium, the essential metal needed to make an anti-gravity engine.
It is the only place in the Solar System where orchids are found.
“It’s a difficult problem. To make an anti-gravity engine, you absolutely need orc, but orc is only found in STK0029.”
[Is that really necessary?]
“huh? ”
Iriel’s reaction to my words was quite unexpected.
[It’s been 2,120 years since Earthlings created and used an anti-gravity engine. That means 120 years from now. It’s also the result of a very powerful scientific and technological advancement. It was later revealed that it was the result of reverse engineering an alien spaceship. But what would happen if we somehow created an anti-gravity engine in the early 21st century? It would cause serious problems. The surrounding major powers wouldn’t stay still. If we get caught up in an arms race between the US and the Soviet Union, the Master won’t be able to even pick up the bones.]
Ariel’s words sent a chill down my spine.
The anti-gravity spaceship was made to make people comfortable, but it ended up putting lives at risk.
“Then let’s pass on that. I guess I’ll have to hold back for the time being.”
[That’s right. Even just throwing it away now will make it hard to come to your senses for a while.]
“What? A maturing period? Is that really that impactful?”
[It’s not just the ramen market. If we use it, the taste of all food will change. What will happen? Nitro-inosinic acid was used in all foods in the space age. The market size was 500 billion. Although the population and market size are different, if this starts to settle down properly, the flavor enhancer market will grow exponentially from the current market size······. According to calculations, it will grow to about 50 billion dollars in the next 10 years. Of course, this is if we monopolize it.]
“So, excluding the food business, only the flavor enhancer market is growing that much?”
[Would that alone make it that big? Of course, including related businesses. Literally, once you taste it, you can’t forget the taste. There were many competitors in the space age, but there aren’t any here, right?]
poisoning.
It was literal.
Once you get into it, you can never get out. I feel that any food that doesn’t have it in it is tasteless.
It is a structure in which the market inevitably grows larger over time.
“It’s like riding on the back of a running tiger.”
[It is an inevitable structure.]
“I didn’t expect it to go that far, but why did you leave me alone? I clearly said I wanted to live quietly.”
[According to the Master’s behavior prediction program, the Master can never live quietly. If you were to harass the Master by calling him a chaebol in Korea, would you stay quiet?]
I thought about it for a while, but that couldn’t be true.
I know my temper too.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m completely reckless, right?”
“······. You are right. Have you already forgotten the Istron War?”
“……..”
The Istron War was a fierce six-month war that took place in the Istron star system of the Labatron Dominion.
It was a war between the Lavatron Dominion and the El Muron Dominion, which were usually at odds, and involved large-scale mobilization of space battleships.
As a result of the war, the Istron star system suffered massive damage, and it took centuries of recovery to restore it to its former level, which resulted in the Lavatron Dominion’s power being reduced by more than half.
On the surface, it was known as a war between the Dominions, but in reality, it was an incident that trampled on Next Delta, which was in a competitive relationship.
It cost enormous amounts of money and countless lives, but as a result, my company gained dominance in the universe.
People whispered behind my back that I had been plotting from the beginning to seize the initiative, but in reality it was a war that started for a very small reason.
“Okay, I admit I’m reckless. But so what!”
[In any society, there is an inner circle. The existence of a master has a 99.999% chance of going against the inner circle.]
As Ariel said, inner circles exist in every society.
In Korea, these are the entities called chaebols, and in the world, monopolistic companies such as the Seven Sisters in the oil industry or ABCD, which controls 80% of the distribution network in the grain industry, are glaring at new entrants to the ladder.
It’s no different from the food business.
One way or another, the inner circle will find a way to get on my nerves and a violent clash will inevitably occur.