Chapter 85: That Time I Built a Power Company in South America (4)

TL: Skye

The moment its first president, Cristian Silva, was sworn in, the San Marcos Electric Corporation (SMEPC) officially launched.

In truth, San Marcos already had something filling this role.

The Ministry of Industry had been operating two thermal power plants, running transmission, and collecting fees.

The only problem was that management was an absolute train wreck.

Yu-jin, who understood the importance of electricity all too well, had transferred the Ministry of Industry's responsibilities to SMEPC in order to strengthen its expertise.

And Cristian, the man carrying all of Yu-jin's expectations, was scrambling like his feet were on fire. No, he had no choice but to scramble.

'I can't get hauled off to a Collective Farm at my age.'

Having already signed the contract, he had to lead SMEPC to success one way or another.

The problem was this.

"...There's nobody to do the work."

He needed to get started as fast as humanly possible, but he was desperately short on staff to serve as his hands and feet.

The civil servants transferred over from the Ministry of Industry were incompetent parachute appointees who didn't know the first thing about electricity, and private-sector engineers were nowhere near enough.

At this rate, the six-month grid modernization Yu-jin had ordered was flat-out impossible.

'Goddammit.'

Cristian tore at his hair, pale with dread.

He was almost resentful toward the mentor who'd handed over his contact information.

And so, at the very moment he stormed off to confront that mentor, William, the man offered him a clever solution.

"If you've got no people, just grow your own, no?"

"Excuse me?"

"There are engineering students over at San Marcos National University, aren't there. Bring those kids in and your manpower problem's solved. They get a paycheck and they get hands-on field experience, so the students will welcome it too."

Bring in college kids who hadn't even graduated?

Baffled by a proposal he'd never heard in his life, Cristian shot back.

"But then they can't attend classes, can they?"

William floated an even more radical idea.

"That's easily fixed. Switch them to night classes."

He was proposing a system where the students would work as SMEPC technicians during the day to build field experience, then switch to evening university at night to study.

"Just make sure you pay them well. Their families are mostly struggling, so money's tight for all of them."

In fact, this wasn't the first time the method had been used.

Back when Tortilla Bank was founded, business students had been hired as employees before graduation.

William had offered the idea recalling that very case, but to Cristian it was utterly foreign.

"I'd be grateful if you could arrange it, but will the students actually want to sign on? The company's only just been created, and the work itself is on the rough side."

"The response will be better than you think. I'll set up an info session, so charm them properly. Hahaha."

Just as William said, the response was good. No, it was explosive.

At the info session, the instant they announced that SMEPC had been established by the President's own order and that they needed people right now to climb the poles and work.

"His Excellency is calling upon us!"

"This is the work of unclogging the nation's arteries!"

"Let us all follow His Excellency's will!"

The students, who worshipped Yu-jin as a living god, tripped over each other rushing to submit applications.

Astonishingly, even after the nature of the work was explained, female students turned in applications too.

In the end, Cristian selected three hundred people, mostly male students, and only then did SMEPC begin to take real shape.

He assigned the civil servants who'd come over from the Ministry of Industry to support departments and sent the students into the field.

With things falling into place like this, Cristian's motivation blazed to life.

Bloodshot-eyed, he made his declaration to the staff.

"Now, as of today, you are no longer students. You are warriors! Let us give everything we have to light up the nights of Libertad!"

"Whoaaaaaa!"

The students, who'd become employees overnight, were moved by Cristian's grim resolve, and their passion caught fire.

And so a sweeping surgical operation on the power grid began across all of San Marcos.

The first thing they tackled.

"Why is a country that doesn't even have enough electricity running on 110V?!"

Was converting the antiquated 110V system to 220V.

"Change it! Rip the whole thing out and start over!"

Even South Korea, the nation of speed, took thirty-five years to complete a project on that scale.

But under Yu-jin's all-out support, Cristian gave the order to overhaul it boldly, and a legion of three hundred descended upon downtown Libertad.

"By His Excellency's order! Haul down the old transformers!"

"Tear out the old wiring and lay new cable!"

The students scaled the utility poles as if they were enemy high ground to be taken.

They stripped off the old, rusted transformers and swapped in state-of-the-art high-efficiency ones.

They cleared away all the wires that had been tangled like spiderwebs and laid down thick high-voltage cable, drawn out straight and clean.

It was a forced march with no regard for day or night.

Citizens watched the young men dangling from utility poles late into the night, sparks flying, and shook their heads in amazement.

The one saving grace was that, precisely because the power situation had been such a disaster, the number of transformers that needed replacing wasn't large, and on top of that all of San Marcos's electricity was concentrated in the capital, Libertad.

While the work of stepping up 110V to 220V was underway, Cristian launched into his next project.

"We've got to catch the bastards stealing electricity."

Namely, cracking down on Electricity Theft.

In fact, it made perfect sense.

Even in developed countries, illegally tapping power lines was an everyday occurrence.

And in a developing nation in Central and South America?

All the more so, surely.

And so, with grim determination, Cristian set out to inspect the field in person.

Just in case, he brought along a few big, burly employees and headed for the most run-down district in the slums.

'They've definitely got lines tapped all over the place.'

Nerves stretched tight, Cristian stepped into the alley, and then had to doubt his own eyes.

"...Huh?"

Not a single electricity thief turned up.

The meters stuck to the walls of the shanties were worn down to nothing, but they were spinning honestly.

"This... can't be right. Why isn't there a single trace of Electricity Theft?"

Unable to believe it, he turned to the employee beside him.

Only then grasping why they'd come, the employee's eyes went round as he asked back.

"You mean, stealing electricity?"

"Yes! In a neighborhood like this it's usually common as dirt."

"Sir, in San Marcos, nobody does anything like that."

The employee answered in a firm voice.

"Since His Excellency took office, all crime has vanished."

"Crime... vanished?"

"Yes. His Excellency gave us bread and built us schools, so how could anyone dare commit a crime? That's the sort of thing only animals do."

"......"

The words came out as though they were the most natural thing in the world.

Cristian, trembling from head to toe, thought to himself.

'This country... is insane.'

*

Five months later. The solar power complex.

Dark blue-green solar panels stretched past the horizon, blanketing the plain.

It was a miracle of a worksite, completed in a mere five months, a full month ahead of the six that had been promised.

Below the platform stood James, the president of Perfect Solar.

Five months of eating and sleeping on site had left him gaunt and haggard, skin stretched over bone, but his eyes alone were drunk on the thrill of victory.

'We did it. We actually did it.'

They'd shaved a full month off a timeline he'd thought would be tight even at six.

Of course, what had made it possible was the crazed devotion of the local laborers, who would leap into a fire if His Excellency ordered it. But completing a 5GW-class solar power complex in five months would elevate the Perfect Solar name to a whole new level.

Just as James stood there wearing a satisfied expression, Yu-jin approached with his bodyguards.

"President James."

Yu-jin extended his hand as he spoke.

"You've truly worked yourself to the bone."

"...Thank you."

James clasped Yu-jin's hand with a dazed look.

"You've genuinely... created a miracle. I was in awe of Perfect Solar's technical prowess."

At Yu-jin's heartfelt praise, James shook his head.

"You flatter me."

"There's no need to be modest. Covering an area this vast in panels is hardly an easy feat."

"No, I mean it. This wasn't something our technology accomplished."

James spoke while looking back at the thousands of San Marcos laborers arrayed behind him.

Their faces, too, were streaked with sweat and grease, but their expressions shone brighter than they ever had.

"The people of San Marcos accomplished this."

James's voice trembled slightly. He'd carried out construction in countless countries over his lifetime, but he'd never seen workers like these.

"There was a moment when a storm rolled in. I screamed at them to stop work and pull out because it was dangerous. But instead of retreating, the laborers tied ropes around their bodies, saying they had to see His Excellency's will fulfilled. And then, gripping onto one another, they went and installed the panels anyway."

What workers anywhere in the world would put their lives on the line to do a job?

"But... why would they go so far as to risk their lives..."

"You have truly magnificent people."

At those words, Yu-jin fell silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Our people are... remarkable, in certain respects."

Even though he'd grown somewhat used to this kind of thing by now, Yu-jin let out a sigh.

"Let's head up. Everyone's waiting."

The instant Yu-jin took his place at the center of the platform, a storm of camera flashes went off.

Through the state broadcasting station and radio, this historic moment began airing live across all of San Marcos.

"My esteemed fellow citizens."

His voice spread out across all of San Marcos.

"For far too long, we have lived in darkness."

A low, powerful voice.

The citizens gathered in the plazas of Libertad and the farmers out in the countryside with their ears pressed to the radio all stopped what they were doing and listened.

"When the sun set we had to light candles, we had to shut down the machines in our factories for fear the power would cut out, and we lay awake through the night worrying the food in our refrigerators would spoil. The darkness born of poverty has crushed down on us for forty years, as if it were our very destiny."

As Yu-jin laid bare a painful reality, the crowd's eyes reddened.

"But today, I declare the end of that miserable age of darkness."

Yu-jin raised his hand and pointed to the vast power plant.

He paused for a moment and looked straight into the camera.

"This colossal power complex, forged by your sweat and your faith, will drive the darkness out of Libertad. And the sun that once beat down so scorchingly will now be not a disaster, but a blessing."

His gaze was brimming with conviction.

"When I throw this switch, the light will reach everyone, equally. Whether a rich man's mansion or a shanty in the slums, if you are a citizen of San Marcos, you have every right to affordable electricity."

Yu-jin's hand settled onto the enormous ignition lever.

"From now on, light up your homes to your heart's content."

Rrrrruuuumbllle-!

Yu-jin hauled the lever down with force. At the same instant, the needles on the gauges in the plant's central control room began to dance.

"Whoaaaaaaa!!"

The citizens gathered in the plaza let out a roar of cheers.

Someone hurled the ice cream in their hand to the ground, and someone else threw their arms around another and danced.

"Viva el Presidente!"

"Viva Yu-jin! Viva San Marcos!"

From every corner of the brilliantly lit streets, Yu-jin's name came bursting out.

*****

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