Chapter 47: That Time I Handed Out National IDs in South America.

TL: Skye

Whoooosh-!

Air Force One roared as it departed Libertad Airport.

"Finally gone."

The aftermath of the hurricane known as Drump.

"Ughhh..."

I collapsed onto the office sofa like a corpse, overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion.

"Old man's got energy, I'll give him that."

Despite being well past seventy, dealing with him had been several times harder than hauling bricks at a construction site (not that I'd ever done that, of course).

"Perhaps you should take the day off, Your Excellency."

Isabella came in with coffee and made the suggestion as I lay there groaning.

"I'd love to, but..."

I gestured toward the mountain of documents on the desk.

"There's a mountain of work to get through."

"But Your Excellency, your complexion is pale."

"If I just lie here and rest for a bit, I'll be fine."

"Please don't worry about work. The Senior Secretaries and I will do our best to cover for your absence. Your Excellency's health is the health of San Marcos, after all."

"......"

Her firm yet composed voice swayed me.

'Should I?'

Come to think of it, the number of days I'd taken off since becoming Acting President could be counted on one hand.

Had I rested for maybe ten days total? It was fair to say I'd been running nonstop for close to a year.

On top of that, even on my so-called days off, I'd been discussing state affairs with Isabella, so it wasn't as if I'd ever truly rested.

'Yeah, I'm only human. I need room to breathe.'

Even machines break down without oil. How much worse off would a person be?

"Alright, just one day. If anything urgent comes up, contact me immediately."

"Rest well, Your Excellency."

And so I earned myself a precious day off. I immediately got in a car and headed to Horumaldo Forest Park, the newly developed park north of Libertad.

It hadn't opened to the public yet, making it perfect for a quiet stroll, and since the Presidential Palace doubled as the executive branch's headquarters, it never felt like a real break unless I physically left the premises.

"Ahh, the air is nice."

The phytoncide scent filling my lungs deep felt like it was washing away the throbbing headache.

As I slowly trod along the dirt path and climbed to the mountainside, the panoramic view of the capital, Libertad, unfolded before me.

"Wow."

Just a year ago, this had been a landscape littered with slums and decrepit shanties. Now it was completely transformed.

"Seeing it from up here really drives home how much has changed."

The first thing that caught my eye was the neatly maintained roads.

Streets that had been buried under garbage and filth were now spotless, with citizens bustling along them with energy.

And that wasn't all. The city practically radiated vitality, the difference palpable at a glance.

Once public safety had been established, commerce revived. The young people who had once wandered the streets with nothing to do were now sweating it out on construction sites and in factories.

When I shifted my gaze, buildings freshly painted in crisp white came into view.

Those were the schools that had been expanded under special orders during the education reform.

'Looking back, the education reform was the hardest part.'

On top of that, the large-scale investment drives from Korean companies. And the summit with the president of the world's most powerful nation, the United States.

Memories of the past year flashed through my mind like a montage.

"I really... did a lot, didn't I."

A smile spread across my face before I realized it.

Honestly, I was proud of myself.

'Out of ten, I'd give myself at least a nine, right?'

At first, I'd just been scrambling to survive, but looking back, it seemed like I'd actually done a pretty decent job.

I climbed up to the observation deck at the summit and gazed down at Libertad.

The houses clustered together below, the people who were probably smiling inside them... thinking about it all, a warm, fuzzy feeling swelled in a corner of my chest.

'I want to feed the people of this country rice and meat so... no, tortillas with meat toppings!'

At the very least, I wanted to make sure no one starved to death or died from illness.

If I was going to be greedy about it, I wanted to build a country where everyone could dream.

A society where anyone who worked hard could be rewarded for it.

If I could build that and then retire. And recover my retirement funds at the same time.

"Now that would be a real happy ending."

Wouldn't that be the perfect scenario?

I imagined it: the nation growing prosperous, its people happy, and me departing as a rich man.

A win-win for everyone, killing two birds with one stone.

"Heh heh heh."

The laughter just came out on its own.

"Maybe I should head back down."

In high spirits, my head clear, I turned to leave with a light step. That was when...

"...Hm?"

Something strange caught my eye. At the very end of the trekking course, at the highest point of the forest park, a massive boulder stood draped in white cloth.

The problem was...

Flutter Flutter

As the cloth swayed in the wind, the shape underneath it kept peeking through, and it looked... oddly familiar.

"No way?"

A chill of foreboding crawled down my spine.

As if drawn by some invisible force, I walked closer.

Fwap-

I grabbed the fluttering cloth and yanked it off.

The cloth fell away, revealing what lay beneath. Carved into the stone was the face of a man gazing out over the Libertad skyline, his expression both benevolent and solemn.

"This is..."

It had been somewhat idealized, but there was no mistaking it.

"That's me?"

And worse, on the bronze plaque at the base of the statue...

[The Great Leader and Founding Father of San Marcos, Yu-jin Choi. From this place, he watches over his homeland.]

That was what it said.

"No."

Are they insane? Seriously.

***

The next day. As soon as morning broke, I summoned Isabella.

"Take it down. Now."

The purpose was to order the removal of the statue at the top of the trekking course, but in the end, I failed.

"That statue was made with personal funds pooled by myself and the other Senior Secretaries to honor Your Excellency. You want us to destroy it? How can you be so dismissive of our feelings?"

"W-Well, that's..."

They say a woman's tears are a weapon. With her eyes glistening as she pressed her case, I had no choice but to back down.

"Besides, that's not the most pressing matter right now."

"Then what is?"

Just as I was wavering, Isabella presented the most urgent item on the national agenda.

"I've completed the draft for the Resident Registration Project that Your Excellency proposed. This needs to be dealt with first."

"......!"

I reflexively snatched up the documents.

[Draft Plan for National Administrative Digitization and Identity Verification System.]

"...You're right, this is definitely more urgent."

San Marcos's administration had been utterly haphazard.

When a birth was registered, the local branch office would record the name and date of birth in a ledger, and that was it.

As a result, the central government had no way of knowing how many people lived in which region, let alone compile population statistics.

The only thing that had kept the system from collapsing entirely was the fact that most citizens lived in Libertad. Without that, the administration would have fallen apart long ago.

Just thinking back to the education reform I'd pushed through not long ago was enough to remind me how horrific it had been.

'That really scared the hell out of me.'

I'd made tuition free and launched a school meal program to bring students back into the classrooms.

But when the lid came off, the number of students turned out to be more than double what we'd projected.

Children whose births had never been registered swarmed in like a cloud.

The result was chaos: not enough desks and chairs, so we threw up tents outside for makeshift classrooms; couldn't match the meal quantities, so we ended up ordering deliveries from nearby restaurants.

In short, the absence of data had made it impossible to forecast demand.

For that reason, the most urgent item on San Marcos's national agenda was the Resident Registration Project.

I reviewed the draft carefully, page by page.

As I went through it meticulously, not missing a single word, I could tell they'd put serious effort into it.

"Hmm."

But as someone from South Korea, a country that takes resident registration deadly seriously, I wasn't satisfied with the standard.

"It's definitely a proper draft, I'll give you that."

"Then shall we proceed with it as is?"

"No. There are a few areas that still need work."

"Please tell me, and I'll revise accordingly."

"First, birth registration is set up here as voluntary. That won't do. There needs to be a deadline, and it has to be mandatory. Resident registration is a basic social safety net. If the state doesn't even know a child has been born, how can it protect them?"

"......"

"And you shouldn't just register names and dates of birth. Each person needs to be assigned a unique number."

"A unique... number, Your Excellency?"

"Yes. In Korea, it's called a Resident Registration Number. It's a unique identifier used for social security, financial transactions, and personal verification. It also lets you distinguish between people who share the same name and date of birth."

"...I see. Assigning unique numbers would certainly make management much easier."

"Also, it says here you're handing out IDs at age eighteen?"

"Yes. We're currently discussing whether to mail them or have people come in to collect them."

"Have them come in, and at that point, register their photograph and fingerprints in the national database. How does that sound?"

"I understand the photograph, but... fingerprints as well?"

"Yes. That's how it's done in Korea."

"Forgive me, but could you explain what fingerprints are used for? I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding..."

"They're used in many ways. First, for reissuing lost IDs. Also for identity verification. They're useful for crime prevention, criminal investigations, and identifying individuals during disasters. Oh, and they can prevent identity fraud as well."

As I laid out the system actually in practice in Korea, Isabella seemed to grasp it and nodded.

"I understand. To summarize, Your Excellency wants to assign each citizen a unique number, register their unforgeable fingerprints in the national database, and implement a system of [proper management]. Is that correct?"

"Exactly. That's the minimum threshold for effective management."

"Hmm... understood. I will revise the plan to reflect Your Excellency's intentions."

"Good. I'm counting on you, Isabella."

I met the eyes of Isabella, whose very presence was reassuring, and nodded.

***

Beneath the Presidential Palace lay a secret space whose existence Yu-jin was entirely unaware of.

Originally built as a vault, it had become unnecessary thanks to Yu-jin's modest disposition and had been converted into a lounge and discussion room for the Senior Secretaries.

And now, Isabella, Lucio, and the rest of the Senior Secretaries were gathered there.

Amid the taut tension in the room, Isabella, seated at the head of the table, broke the heavy silence.

"After presenting the Resident Registration Project, I've learned that His Excellency desires complete control over the populace."

"...!"

A murmur rippled through the assembly.

The directives she relayed from Yu-jin had been that shocking.

Assigning every citizen a unique number. Collecting all ten fingerprints and registering them in a national database.

It practically radiated the will of a state intent on knowing every last detail about every individual citizen.

Then, breaking the silence, Lucio let out a scornful laugh.

"See? What did I tell you? I said the first draft was too sloppy to satisfy His Excellency, didn't I?"

Lucio raised his voice as though he had understood Yu-jin's profound intentions all along.

"His Excellency clearly intends to place this entire country in the palm of his hand. Not just compiling population statistics, but knowing who is where, doing what, whether they've paid their taxes, whether they've committed a crime and fled... Why can't you people see that?"

Riding the momentum, Lucio's eyes glinted as he pressed further.

"And we shouldn't stop here. To realize the complete control His Excellency desires, we need the infrastructure to support it."

"What kind of infrastructure are you referring to?"

"As a long-term plan, CCTV cameras need to be installed throughout all of Libertad. Major roads, alleyways, government buildings... we need to eliminate every blind spot. And ultimately, we need to implement facial and iris recognition systems."

Lucio continued his explanation with brimming confidence.

"If we link the photo data from the registration IDs to the CCTV network, the moment a wanted fugitive walks down the street, an alert goes off. The budget would be astronomical, of course, but..."

He clenched his fist.

"Fifteen years... no, ten. We can do it in ten."

Inspired by Lucio's borderline-fanatical proposal, the other Senior Secretaries began chiming in, unwilling to be outdone.

"Then the regions outside Libertad, where our administrative reach doesn't extend, would be the problem."

"For those areas, let's start with the registration project and gradually roll out the cameras."

"We'll need to distribute cameras and fingerprint scanners to the government offices and police stations in each region."

"There's a risk of tampering, so let's introduce cameras and have officials take the photos directly."

As opinions flew back and forth, Sophia, the Foreign Affairs Senior Secretary, cautiously voiced a concern.

"But... what if people refuse to register? Being subject to state control might cause some pushback..."

Isabella shook her head.

"That won't be an issue."

"Why not?"

"His Excellency stated that resident registration is a basic social safety net. What that also means is that those who refuse to enter the fold will not be protected. Would any citizen be foolish enough to reject His Excellency's care?"

"Ah...!"

The Senior Secretaries let out sounds of admiration.

"Hmm. That's certainly true. His Excellency's vision truly runs deep."

The air in the meeting room grew white-hot with fervor.

Yu-jin had simply wanted more efficient administration, but his loyal subordinates were already in motion to turn him into Big Brother.

Once all discussions had concluded, Isabella rose from her seat and wrapped up the meeting.

"Well then, let's go with this plan. That will be all."

Her cold gaze swept over the room.

"Keep in mind: anyone who is not subject to His Excellency's control cannot be a citizen of San Marcos. Prepare accordingly."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The golden statue of Yu-jin Choi, standing in the center of the secret room, caught the light and gleamed.

*****

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