We made preparations to build a solar power plant.
We had already secured the solar panels.
China had also agreed to send technicians to install them.
There was plenty of manpower to do the work.
All we needed was a place to install them.
Fortunately, we had Magiting.
We went in person to inspect the sites Magiting had surveyed in advance.
Every place Magiting had checked beforehand was good.
Not a single one was bad.
Solar irradiance, terrain, land acquisition, the transmission network, weather conditions, accessibility—everything was good.
Patrick agreed to handle the permits and regulations.
Just seeing things like this made me think we really had done the right thing by making Patrick mayor.
If we hadn’t had Patrick, from the Assend factory to Unity Town to the solar power plant,
everything would have been far too difficult.
The final meeting to select the site for the power plant.
I was deciding on the location together with Patrick, Magiting, and Simon.
Any of the choices would have been fine, but we put our heads together until the very end to choose the most efficient site among them.
However, throughout the meeting, Patrick seemed unable to concentrate and kept looking as if he were thinking about something else.
I figured it could happen since Patrick had plenty of other matters to handle besides this, and continued the meeting.
But then, suddenly, Patrick asked me.
“Boss. By the way, would it be possible to build a few more solar power plants?”
“How many?”
“As few as five or six. As many as more than ten.”
“As long as we have the money, wouldn’t it be possible? We’re buying the solar panels anyway. We can buy the land, and you can handle the permits, Patrick. Why?”
“Now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem like we should just build one here in Zamboanga and be done with it.”
“Then?”
“I was thinking, what if we built them not only in Zamboanga but all across the Philippines? I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea, so I brought it up.”
“Across the entire Philippines?”
“Yes. As you said, boss, many people are suffering inconveniences because of electricity. Not just here in Zamboanga, but the more than one hundred million people of the Philippines. I want to change that. I want to supply electricity to the whole Philippines.”
He said he wanted to supply electricity not to Zamboanga, but to the Philippines.
Yes, this was Patrick.
Patrick had to go big.
I was happy, as if the real Patrick had returned.
Even so, it was difficult to support what Patrick wanted to do one hundred percent.
Because even if only briefly, I had come to understand just how complicated, difficult, and like an antlion pit this work was.
“Really? It’s a good cause, but I don’t think it’ll be easy. Money is one thing, but once we leave Mindanao, it’ll be hard for us to exert influence. All sorts of regulations will come attached, and every strange money-crazed bastard will cling to us.”
“That’s why I want to do it.”
“Huh?”
“The election is coming up soon, isn’t it? I want to use electricity as a foothold and turn our party, Akbayan ng Katarungan, into a nationwide party.”
“Ah! Right. The election is coming around now, isn’t it? But how are you planning to do that?”
“First, once we build a solar power plant in Zamboanga, we supply electricity cheaply to Unity Town. Then we keep exposing people on social media and Shorts to the sight of Unity Town residents naturally using electricity. Things like turning on air conditioners at home, running washing machines, small things like that. We keep showing scenes of them using electricity very naturally. Mindanao, where Akbayan ng Katarungan has taken power, has changed like this. If you vote for Akbayan ng Katarungan in this election, you too can use electricity at low rates. I thought we could build an election strategy along those lines.”
Huh?
I hadn’t expected him to approach electricity this way.
And what’s more, it was a very good idea.
The entry barrier had been rather high for us in the beginning, but electricity was still a revenue model.
It was a public good, but money could be made from it.
What’s more, once the lines were laid, it became a pipeline that earned money on its own from then on.
It meant that although the initial cost was high, once we got past that crisis, it could operate on its own from there.
We could make money,
create jobs,
turn it into an election strategy for Akbayan ng Katarungan,
and supply cheap electricity to the Filipino people.
Aside from money, there was truly no reason not to do it.
On top of that, weren’t we importing the panels from China at a very low price?
“That’s a really good idea. I’m in favor.”
“Me too.”
“It’s a wonderful idea.”
Simon and Magiting, who had been listening, also actively agreed.
Come to think of it, it was already time to prepare for the election.
Elections in the Philippines came around every three years.
That meant it had already been two years since Patrick became mayor.
Patrick had already become a full-fledged politician.
With innovative and unconventional policies, his popularity in Zamboanga was incredibly high.
Akbayan ng Katarungan, the party Patrick led, was also receiving high support in Mindanao.
But that was the current approval rating.
It was support within Mindanao.
Just because it was good now did not mean it would be good later.
Politics was a living, moving creature.
Approval ratings could crash at any time, or they could pierce the sky and soar.
They had to be managed and cared for constantly.
They had to keep expanding.
That was politics.
And now it was time to prepare for the upcoming election.
It seemed Patrick planned to put reduced electricity bills forward as Akbayan ng Katarungan’s key pledge in this election.
It seemed he intended to win people’s hearts through electricity rates.
They would be reborn as a nationwide party.
The Philippines had to become free from electricity rates.
He intended to show through Mindanao that those were not just empty words.
I had to show that Patrick’s words were not a lie by building the solar power plant.
“And after the election, I’ll make sure we can provide as many subsidies as possible for newly built power plants. If we receive subsidies and fees, it seems like it could become quite a decent business item, doesn’t it?”
Of course, we weren’t building power plants to make money,
but to supply cheap electricity to the Filipino people.
Still, we had to at least cover labor costs.
“So all we have to do is build the power plants?”
“Yes. We’ll take care of the rest.”
*****
“Wow—seeing it like this, it’s no joke.”
Before our eyes, solar panels glittering in the sunlight stretched out over a vast expanse.
The wasteland where there had been nothing was now filled with solar panels.
At last, the solar power plant was nearing completion.
Construction was finished, and only the test run remained.
Even we, who had carried out the construction, hadn’t thought we could build it this quickly.
Even as we drew up the construction schedule, we hadn’t believed it would turn out this way.
Naturally, we had assumed all sorts of things would happen during the construction period, dragging out the schedule.
So we made it even tighter.
To move it up even a little.
The first thing we did was choose the site.
That was easily resolved because we had Magiting.
And even before receiving approval, we began land work.
Believing Patrick would somehow get the permit issued.
While one side leveled the ground and carried out grading and drainage work, behind them, racks capable of holding the panels were driven in.
We did not rest.
We made all preparations so that the panels could be mounted as soon as they arrived.
The moment the panels arrived, they were mounted on the racks and connected to the power grid.
Hundreds of people formed dozens of teams and worked simultaneously.
A land-clearing team, a rack-installation team, a panel-mounting team, a grid-connection team, an ESS system team.
It progressed smoothly, fitting together like gears turning in mesh.
The work proceeded at tremendous speed.
Thanks to that, completion was possible in a short time.
A 100 MW solar power plant.
Everyone was surprised.
We, who had planned the construction,
the construction teams that carried it out,
and the supervision team dispatched from China were all surprised.
They said they had never built something this perfect in such a short period of time.
The management team sent from China asked if they could use this process elsewhere.
I readily gave them the okay.
After all, these people had to travel around the Philippines and keep building solar power plants.
It would be convenient if there were people who knew the know-how.
They had better forget about any thought of returning to China for the time being.
A 100 MW solar power plant.
Its size was truly impressive as well.
It was the combined size of 250 soccer fields.
It was truly enormous.
And its size wasn’t the only enormous thing.
Its power output was enormous too.
The electricity produced there was enough to replace Zamboanga’s power supply.
Of course, there were problems too.
There was the nighttime generation problem, a fundamental issue with solar power.
Because the sun does not rise at night.
But we had installed an ESS system.
You can think of an ESS system as a giant battery.
It charges surplus electricity during the day and lets us draw it out and use it whenever needed.
For something Wei Zhonglin had thrown in as a bonus, he had given us an ESS system with quite a large capacity.
After resisting so hard and refusing to give it to us, too.
Anyway, he was a tsundere.
.
.
.
Unity Town.
Unity Town was brimming with vitality.
Perhaps because there were so many young children, energy surged throughout the entire town.
The whole town felt like one big school.
Here and there, children moved around in groups of five or six.
They gathered to play games, hang out, and study.
Their smiling faces, the sight of them running around, the sight of them passionately focusing on something.
Just watching those things seemed to recharge my energy.
It was good that we had made a lot of parks.
The children sat in the parks, laughing brightly.
Even so, I had many worries.
Since so many children of similar ages had gathered, I worried most about school violence and bullying.
It couldn’t be helped.
They were still at an immature age.
It was a time when they believed that if they were strong, they were allowed to reign over others.
No, perhaps it was instinct.
So we had to keep that in check through education and discipline.
We had to teach them what was right and what was wrong.
Fortunately, there was no bullying.
Those children themselves had suffered a great deal of discrimination and wounds.
Such children had gathered together and formed a town.
Someone who has been hurt recognizes someone else who has been hurt.
Even after just talking a little, they realized they shared the same pain.
Rather than ostracize, reject, and torment one another,
they embraced and protected one another.
The counseling we conducted for all residents had a great effect.
While holding resident orientation, we instilled in them the awareness that we were a community.
We also built a community center that residents could enter and leave at any time.
We made several cafeterias where meals could be taken care of as well.
Of course, they had to pay for their meals, but the response was good.
I think the sense of being together played a large role.
There was another reason too.
The dream of the children here was to become rebels, and they said the rebels took a close look at school violence.
It was a small town with a population of only about ten thousand.
If you went through just one connection—no, most people simply knew each other.
So they became more careful about their behavior.
If their conduct was poor in everyday life, they could never become rebels.
They could never stand alongside the legendary Alex.
More schools had appeared as well.
To be precise, the schools that had been under construction had opened.
As the environment improved, the number of subjects taught increased.
Along with that, town maintenance work was also underway.
We laid down the main roads.
Power lines, communication lines, and water and sewage pipes were all buried beneath the roads.
Utility poles, drooping electric wires, and communication lines were all placed underground.
Most of all, we installed an enormous number of streetlights.
The roads were bright even at night.
They were installed as LEDs with sensors, so the lights turned on automatically when it grew dark.
Because they were LEDs, maintenance costs were greatly reduced.
We installed many CCTV cameras as well.
They were installed solely for the safety of Unity Town.
The living environment had changed greatly too.
Refrigerators, TVs, and fans were standard, and people freely used washing machines and microwaves.
In places where people gathered—schools, libraries, daycare centers, community centers, and the like—air conditioners ran twenty-four hours a day.
And those scenes naturally blended into Reels and Shorts.
The sight of people naturally doing laundry at home.
The sight of people heating food in a microwave and eating it.
The sight of people cleaning with vacuum cleaners.
The sight of people studying in an air-conditioned library.
The sight of people going out at night to meet friends.
Most of all, the bright expressions on the children’s faces.
It was an ordinary daily life, nothing special, but it seemed other Filipinos did not see it that way.
It was more than enough bait to stir up an issue on social media.
- Where is that? It doesn’t look like Forbes Park, though.
└ It’s my first time seeing a place like that too, but I don’t think it’s the Philippines. There’s nowhere in the Philippines that bright at night.
└ Yeah, doesn’t look like the Philippines. Using that much electricity…
- Why are they running a washing machine at home? Are they chaebol or something?
└ At my house, we can only do that once every two weeks. The rest is all hand-washing.
└ If we ran it like that, our backs would be booked for a beating.
- Air-conditioning in a library? Didn’t someone make a mistake?
└ No, it has to be a mistake. Places like that don’t exist.
- But why is it so clean and bright? Was there ever a place that bright and clean at night? Kids are walking around at night.
└ That’s not the Philippines. Night in the Philippines can’t look like that.
└ It really is a whole new world. I wish there were a Philippines like that.
- It does look like AI, but it’d be nice to live in a country like that.
└ Me too.
It was a lifestyle that was hard to find in the Philippines.
It was a place that became an object of admiration for Filipinos.
People began trying to find out where it was.
Interest in Unity Town skyrocketed.
.
.
.
It felt good to see the clean Unity Town.
This place didn’t feel like the Philippines.
It felt like Japan, and also like America, and also like Seoul.
I’d come by to see if the community center needed anything else and was taking a short rest when I saw Sin Junggi walking along up ahead.
Why the hell is that crazy bastard here?
Wasn’t he going around selling weapons with Dennis?
I was afraid Sin Junggi would stain the clean Unity Town.
I was scared that the growing children would be tainted by a psychopath.
“Simon. Why is that bastard here? You know he’s a psychopath.”
“I know.”
“When a bastard like that snaps, there’s no telling what he’ll do. What are you going to do if his psychopathy spreads to the kids?”
“But he teaches well.”
“Huh?”
“I said he teaches well. He really summarizes things and gets straight to the core.”
“That bastard teaches the kids?”
“At first, we had a hard time because we didn’t have any teachers. Even when we brought people in as teachers, they weren’t as skilled as we expected. Sin Junggi saw that and said it would be better if he taught them himself, and since then he’s been teaching well. Not just math, but physics, radio waves, and things like weapons development—he’s better than a professor.”
“…Huh?”
Did I hear that wrong?
Weapons development?
“Besides that, Chen Zhihao teaches things like the internet and hacking, Anna comes by sometimes to teach accounting, and Edward teaches chemistry. I teach medicine too.”
“……”
I strongly felt that something was going wrong.
I looked at Simon again.
Simon was looking at me with a proud expression, as if asking me to praise him.
The back of my head suddenly started throbbing.
Weren’t they just supposed to be teaching language, English, and math?
What the hell are they teaching?
This was something I had to address.
“You should be teaching them helpful basics like language, English, and math. How can you teach them things like that?”
“So do you make a living off language, English, and math?”
“What?”
“I asked if you learned language, English, and math, and now make a living with language, English, and math.”
I had nothing to say to Simon’s question.
I had studied language, English, and math, but I hadn’t really learned them.
Since I didn’t remember anything, I had simply thought that was what should be taught.
Because that was how I had been taught.
“There are tons of highly educated people in the Philippines too. Just look at Patrick—he graduated from the University of the Philippines, the top school, and he was running errands for gangster bastards. I went to medical school, and I ended up with the rebels. Just studying makes it hard to even find a job. So it’s half a vocational school, teaching things they can use right after graduating. Of course, we do teach language, English, and math too, but it’s good to learn all sorts of things. If they learn something, they’ll find a use for it. That’s why we’re teaching a variety of subjects.”
Variety was one thing, but this was far too varied.
It didn’t feel like they were teaching the colors of the rainbow, but everything from transparent to pitch-black.
Even so, I couldn’t refute Simon’s words, because it seemed like this was the conclusion he had reached after long deliberation.
Simon had also thought about the children’s future.
He wasn’t giving them a typical education, but an education that would allow the children to survive on their own.
It gave me a lot to think about.
Just then, Edward contacted me.
- Boss, development is finished.
“Really? This quickly?”
- Yes. It’s absolutely incredible.
“You worked hard. How effective is it?”
- Don’t take it even by accident. You’ll spend the rest of your life craving it.