There were quite a few married people in the S-rank clan, Ultimate Line.
Starting with Joshua Evans, the strongest flame mage, he was married, and there were a fair number of other married households as well.
Since they had recruited clan members considering ability, experience, personality, and compatibility, they hadn't only picked young people.
And recently, not only Joshua but also Danbi and Taewoong had all been dropped from Suho's bodyguard detail for quite some time.
Because Suho couldn't feel the need for bodyguards at all.
He didn't die easily; he had Extreme Powered Armor, enhanced androids were in his subspace warehouse, and he could flee anytime things got dangerous.
For family and other residents of Elysium, androids and the Sanarae Clan were protecting them, so that was enough.
So Joshua, in particular, had been spending a lot of time with his family lately.
When Suho asked what they usually did after training, hearing the married members' unanimous answer that they spent time with their families gave him a strange feeling.
'So this is what's good about having a family...'
They looked like they had no time to be bored. He doubted they were lonely either.
With an empty, hollow heart, he himself kept launching enormous business ventures, and the way they looked was so enviable that he wondered if he should just start a family instead.
So at a gathering where everyone was eating together, Suho blurted out carelessly,
"...Should I get married too?"
"Uh..."
"What?"
From that sudden remark, it felt like sparks flew.
The eyes of quite a few clan members turned frightening. Even the dull-witted Suho could pick up on the atmosphere.
What the...?
"M-m-m-marriage?"
Park Seoyeon stammered. Why?
Baek Yuri dropped the spoon she was holding,
Ava Mitchell and Emilia Rossi spilled their cups and wine glasses.
Lee Danbi's pupils looked like an earthquake of magnitude 8.2 had struck them. And with a trembling voice, she asked,
"S-suddenly? D-do you perhaps... have someone you've been seeing...?"
What the hell, what's with these people.
"No. I just wondered what it would be like to have a family, that's all."
At that, the atmosphere grew even stranger.
In the silence, an unknown current spread like a wave.
He tried to get past the awkward air with a few coughs and was going to brush it off and change the subject, when this time words came from an even more absurd direction.
"Ahem... How about Connie?"
Wasn't Joshua, dining diagonally across from Suho, asking with a grave gaze?
For a moment, Suho had to grope through his memory to recall who Connie was.
There was only one Connie he knew, but surely she wasn't someone who would come up in this kind of topic.
Who could Connie be, Connie... Surely not that Connie? No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out. So he just asked.
"...Connie? You don't mean your daughter Connie, Joshua!?"
"Yes."
Joshua's firm answer.
At those words, Suho grew dizzy.
Of course Connie was pretty. With both parents looking like Hollywood actors, those genes hadn't gone to waste.
But she was only fourteen—no, turning fifteen next month—but she was still a middle schooler.
Of course, unlike Korean children, as a child of the West she developed quickly and was very tall.
But she was still a middle schooler. Had this guy gone crazy?
"Um... Connie... hasn't it not been long since she started middle school...?"
"Time flies. In just five years, she'll be an adult."
Everyone's insane...
He had thought Joshua was normal, since he was always calm and cool-headed... Sigh...
Suho resolved never to bring up marriage in front of people again.
* * *
After a few weeks, Dr. Choi created and unveiled the prototype of the new enhanced android, and after consulting with Suho, they decided to call this model [Android Ascend].
It simply looked like a high-end android that appeared no different from humans on the outside.
But the defense and combat power hidden within were extraordinary.
"The melee dealer form basically has Ethereal Blades inserted into its forearms. The skin on both hands splits, and the Ethereal Blades come out from the forearms like this."
"This is basically Wolverine. An enhanced Wolverine."
"Haha, actually I was inspired by that. And for the tanker form, since it needs a bit more bulk, I made them all male models for now; the skeleton itself is made of Magralite, and it's designed so that an enhanced shield field deploys centered on the middle of the chest and both shoulders."
"Ooh..."
"And the long-range version is..."
"The Ether railgun, right?"
"Correct. I inserted a miniaturized version of that in the arm as well, and I made it so it can use a mix of left-arm ether rounds and right-arm black steel rounds."
It possessed the combat power and performance Suho had imagined. Smiling in satisfaction, he approached the androids standing still.
He raised his hand and pinched the female-type android's cheek; there was no difference from a human's. It simply felt like a person with an indifferent expression.
As expected, high-end quality left nothing to be desired.
"Good. I'm satisfied. Is mass production possible?"
"If the Clan Leader could just make a few parts..."
"Of course. I'll do it. I'll have to grind again for a while. Still, it's much simpler than the super enhanced androids, so that's nice."
"Then I'll ask that of you. The production line is already complete, so as soon as you make the necessary part materials, we can complete them right away."
And so the crafting began.
A few seconds on the outside—that is, a few months inside the subspace warehouse—and Suho had Lavi working hard while he grinded,
finally producing all the necessary parts for three hundred [Android Ascends].
* * *
More than anything, the artificial island construction that Suho had wanted to proceed with.
Truthfully, ever since clearing the 92nd-floor tower in Japan, his heart had been entirely set on this, but swept here and there by busy matters, it felt like it had only now found its proper place.
He had already secured all international legal basis related to international law and maritime sovereignty issues—that is, with the government of the Republic of Korea, the Japanese government, and international organizations (UNCLOS, ITLOS), and so on.
Now he just had to build it.
The place he flew to was the vast Ulleung Plateau, which he had already thoroughly researched.
It was the eastern part of the Korean Plateau, divided into east and west.
A location northeast of the area between Ulleungdo and Dokdo.
Suho stopped at a point roughly 10–20 km from the closest approach to Ulleungdo.
The water depth was roughly 200–300 meters, an extremely shallow depth compared to the average 2,000 meters of the Ulleung Basin surrounding the Ulleung Plateau.
Suho flew a bit further and settled at a point roughly 51 km northeast of Ulleungdo.
"This should be about right...?"
There were three things needed for the artificial island's construction.
1. A place to build.
2. Materials from Cheonyangwon.
3. Lavi.
Three very simple preparations. That was all he needed, and all three were already ready.
He had already secured the building site, and while he had plenty of materials no matter what he used, he thought he'd try using some granite, of which he had an absurdly abundant amount.
Having stupidly accepted one yang won's worth of this useless stuff, there were now six hundred quintillion tons of granite piled up in his subspace warehouse.
A whopping eight times the mass of the moon. Eight times.
He had used 1.42 million tons laying the foundation for Elysium Heights, but that amount didn't even make a dent.
He resolved that this time, he would properly use a huge amount of it.
"Lavi! You're watching, right?"
Lavi, who had been primed with runes and kept on standby in front of the window turned into a portal.
The size of the artificial island Suho had decided to build was similar to Ulleungdo, which had a total area of 72.9 square kilometers.
"You remember the shape I showed you?"
The form of the island Suho had decided on was crescent-shaped, with the indented part facing west.
The currents and waves of the East Sea had a strong tendency to flow from northeast to southwest. Therefore, he had already received the conclusion that to minimize wave impact and protect the island's interior, it was advantageous for the indented part to face west—that is, toward South Korea.
If the island was designed in this direction, waves and currents would be naturally blocked, not only creating a safer and quieter environment for the harbor, but also improving connectivity with the South Korean mainland or Ulleungdo.
Putting their heads together with Lavi, they carefully carved and shaped the granite, erecting it on the Ulleung Plateau.
With an area of 70 square kilometers and a crescent shape, it became a long island with a distance of 14 km between its two endpoints.
Carving granite to a height of roughly 300 meters over that area, its weight alone was 567 million tons.
It was certainly a large mass, but compared to six hundred quintillion tons...
It still didn't make a dent.
The indented part of the island naturally became the bay of the harbor, and the eastern-facing back side, which had been deliberately heightened and carved into sheer cliffs, became a natural breakwater against the East Sea's winds and waves.
He wanted to sink all the carved rock into the water at once and easily finish the artificial island, but he couldn't do that.
If he did, there was a high possibility that tsunamis would rush toward the coasts of surrounding countries due to the amount of water the rock would displace.
Although he could build it as quickly as he wanted, in order to minimize the impact on the marine ecosystem, it was important to endure and slowly submerge the rocks in multiple stages.
So, not only did he slow the submersion speed as much as possible, but he also divided the mass into smaller pieces to disperse the shock to the sea surface.
The sluggish submersion work went on for several days. A tedious and lengthy task began. Of course, Lavi did that work.
And finally, the desired shape was completed.
A crescent island standing tall above the Ulleung Plateau.
Floating high in the sky and looking down at the newly created island, he felt extremely satisfied.
It was perfect. Exactly the island form he had planned and envisioned.
So I have my own island now.
For the first time in a while, Suho's heart was fluttering and excited.
* * *
To name the new island, a naming contest was held for all residents of Elysium Heights.
It was a small event with a prize of 500 million won—mere pocket change.
Despite the small prize, many people participated actively and countless island names were submitted, but the one that struck Suho's fancy was 'Bijeongdo (秘境島)'.
This name, meaning 'an island with secret scenery,' had surprisingly been coined and submitted not by a Korean, but by Joshua's daughter, Connie.
These days, Suho was astonished every time he saw how well she spoke Korean.
He liked the hidden feeling in a name that suggested a mystical island possessing hidden beauty.
He paid Connie the prize money in cash, and Suho immediately registered the name with the National Geographic Information Institute of the Republic of Korea and received official approval.
At the same time, registration was completed with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as well.
Afterward, he dove into decorating the island in earnest. It was practically the work of building a small city.
Except for the curved eastern ridge, Bijeongdo was an island composed almost entirely of flat land, so its land utilization was very high; as such, he could build anything he wanted.
And Suho had absolutely no intention of waiting years for this island SimCity like some new city construction project.
Waiting was truly only enough for new city SimCity or the TDM Convention Center. The same went for building infrastructure related to artificial space habitats.
So from the moment he selected the construction company, Suho planned to participate in the construction from start to finish.
First, Suho put massive amounts of construction materials—enough to fill dozens of supertankers—into his subspace and flew them over, and the same went for heavy machinery and equipment.
The basics of construction actively utilized modular construction methods, and 3D printing construction was also introduced.
And Suho ferried all the on-site workers who would labor at the Bijeongdo construction site aboard a gigantic luxury yacht.
Feeling sorry that the workers would spend time away from their families facing the cold winter sea winds, Suho provided them with good lodgings made from module houses and paid wages more than five times those of mainland construction sites.
And so the mini-city construction of the artificial island Bijeongdo began to proceed at a tremendous speed.
First, basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges,
building Ether power plants, supplying electricity to the entire island and installing power grids,
water and sewage systems, trash and recycling systems,
communications infrastructure, establishing communication networks,
and even laying undersea cables to secure external connectivity were completed in an instant, and
Next, as the headquarters responsible for the island’s overall operation, management, traffic control, and provision of public services, he established the Central Management Headquarters.
This also included a command center capable of controlling the island’s security system and defensive infrastructure—in other words, the maritime security and defense facilities that could protect the island and the surrounding waters.
And for the residential zones, he built luxury hotels and formed a commercial district.
In truth, it wasn’t an island that would be opened to the public, nor was it a city that would accept ordinary citizens, so he didn’t build ordinary houses. The entire residential space consisted mainly of the finest hotels and luxury resorts situated along the beaches.
He also built an airport and a harbor. A truly adorable little airport, along with a commercial and passenger port, and even heliports and VTOL landing pads.
He did build a hospital and medical center as well, but if you actually went there, it only looked like a hospital on the outside. Inside, there were only vending machines for healing and disease-curing potions, and beds.
The idea was to drink a bottle of potion, sleep it off for a bit, and leave...
Educational facilities? There were none. Among the people he might invite here, there was no one who would be attending school. Connie was about the only one, but that kid already went to a prestigious school in the first place. He might come to the island to play, but he wasn’t going to settle down here.
Aside from that, he laid out many entertainment and recreational facilities.
Parks, cultural centers, sports facilities, theme parks, adventure facilities, spas, wellness centers, water and marine sports, golf courses, e-sports arenas, extreme sports facilities, VR and AR theme parks, eco-friendly beach buggies, and so on...
He also made sure not to leave out museums, art galleries, large performance halls, premium shopping malls—with only luxury brands and high-end stores from around the world—restaurants, cafés, and bars.
And the island had several forms of public transportation that operated free of charge.
First, electric self-driving vehicles served as the main means of transportation, and small autonomous smart trams were set to run along the island’s routes twenty-four hours a day.
A sightseeing monorail that circled along the beach also operated twenty-four hours a day, and electric scooters for short-distance travel were placed here and there so that anyone could use them freely.
He also secured numerous electric yachts and water taxis to operate between Ulleungdo and Dokdo.
Suho spent quite a lot of money to create an “island playground” for himself and his acquaintances.
Taking part in the construction site and putting each of these things in place one by one was so enjoyable that, for the first time in a while, he lost track of time and immersed himself in it.
Since it was an island far out in the East Sea, it was a large-scale construction project that would have taken more than ten years by ordinary means, but with Suho’s cooperation, it entered the final stage in just a few months.
By the time spring had passed and the hot winds of June began to blow, all construction was already complete.
When the island was finished and all the construction teams had cleaned up and withdrawn,
Suho led his family there for the island’s first opening.