Chapter 34

Chapter 34. Something Is Strange About the Commercial District Analysis Team (6)

Still holding his forehead after Jinhyeok’s shocking opening statement, Taesik waited for the next sentence.

Was he always this kind of person?

He remembered Jinhyeok’s first words during the chairman’s landmark presentation about a month earlier.

[Seongun Does Not Build Landmarks.]

That line had instantly captured everyone’s attention.

Taesik hoped this was another deliberate opening and forced himself to wait.

“First, I’ll show you the additional gateway locations that will connect the 4-ga metalworking district and Creative Village.”

A hollow breath escaped Taesik.

If Jinhyeok was going to present the gateways first anyway, why did he open with that statement and make everyone so curious?

The selection of the additional gateway locations was technically the main project ordered by the chairman.

But what Taesik truly needed was justification to move new business planning from headquarters into Seongun Development.

Whether Taesik’s insides were twisting with frustration or not, Jinhyeok calmly displayed a concept drawing of Mullae-dong 4-ga that he had personally created.

“It may be difficult to understand like this. Let’s look from farther away.”

Jinhyeok pressed the remote again.

The image zoomed out.

The gateways planned for 3-ga Creative Village and the 4-ga metalworking district were now visible together.

They struck directly into the dead points of pedestrian movement.

The positioning was almost absurdly perfect.

“...Haha.”

A quiet gasp escaped President Baek Kangjin as he stared at the screen beside Taesik.

The location selection was so perfect that not a second of the past month seemed wasted.

President Baek nodded in satisfaction.

Taesik once again realized Jinhyeok’s value.

A line beginning from the direction of Yeongdeungpo Station and continuing all the way to Dorimcheon Stream.

A commercial zone capable of absorbing demand even from Mok-dong across the river.

If expanded further, the route could follow Anyangcheon Stream all the way to the Han River.

Nobody knew that Jinhyeok’s future building would stand proudly in the center of that insane route.

“This screen shows the expected hourly pedestrian-flow data after the gateways are connected. The next compares effective demand, meaning people likely to actually spend money rather than simply pass through.”

The data had been analyzed and forecast by Assistant Manager Oh Ilman.

It looked clean and organized.

But the numbers seemed slightly high.

Noticing everyone’s doubts, Jinhyeok continued.

“You probably think these numbers are exaggerated. That’s because they assume we successfully activate Creative Village during both the day and night. I’ll now show you an example of how we intend to do that. This is why we did not develop a franchise item.”

Jinhyeok smiled calmly and changed the screen.

Words slowly appeared over a black background.

[Creative Village New Business Proposal]

The new business proposal Taesik had been waiting desperately to see.

[We Create Creative Village.]

Taesik tilted his head at the slightly abstract phrase.

“We focused exclusively on businesses that can exist only in Creative Village. Space identity, where the location itself becomes the content. These concepts cannot be transferred somewhere else. Normally, being impossible to franchise would be a weakness. Here, it becomes the very thing that makes the concept uniquely Seongun’s. I’ll now show you our test footage.”

The screen changed.

[Proposal 1: Customer-Participation Assembly Factory]

“The simulation you’re about to see is not a concept video. My team and I rented an empty factory, set everything up ourselves, and conducted actual operating tests.”

The video began.

Manager Park Jongil entered through the front and printed two sheets of paper from a kiosk.

Everyone leaned toward the screen.

“When customers enter, they choose a work order and move to their station. In front of them, as you can see, a conveyor belt is moving. It’s a bespoke customization line. Think of a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. Except instead of sushi, you’ll find gears, bolts, metal panels, doll eyes, and other parts.”

The dynamic camera followed the conveyor belt deeper into the preparation area.

Assistant Manager Oh Ilman checked work orders and placed various components onto small plates.

The room itself was simple.

Nothing but plastic drawers filled with parts.

Only Taesik understood.

Sehwa Special Steel.

Daeyang Machinery.

Samjin Precision.

Yeongheung Plastics.

The mysterious merchants constantly appearing in the card notifications over the past month.

The General Affairs Department Head, who had expected Jinhyeok to present a trendy new food item like tanghulu or Dubai chocolate, asked with a confused expression,

“Um... Team Leader Kang? Are you describing something like a block-building café?”

“Similar. You probably expected a bakery café or something like that, but there are already plenty of those. As I said at the beginning, we focused on a business that can only exist in Creative Village. Every object on those plates comes from products handled by merchants inside the district.”

Jinhyeok continued smoothly.

“As you can see, customers look at the blueprint and farm the required parts from the conveyor belt. There can be many different products. Popular customizable pens, mechanical clocks, smartphone stands, and more. To attract foreign tourists, we can also offer traditional items like metal turtle ships and Hangul keychains.”

The listeners still looked slightly overwhelmed.

Jinhyeok added the most important explanation.

“The key is the lock-in effect. Once consumers begin using a particular product or service, switching costs make them continue using it even when better alternatives appear.”

“...”

“There are two core features that make customers want to continue. First is the Gold Plate System. Rare parts such as gold gears or mother-of-pearl decorative plates appear on the conveyor at very low probabilities. However, once a customer takes a part, they are required to use it, so they can’t simply grab rare pieces without thinking.”

“...”

“Second is the QC System. Any item that fails to match the blueprint closely enough is rejected and collected. Products that pass are given to the customer for free.”

“Huh...”

Hollow breaths appeared throughout the conference room.

The concept was clever.

The purpose was excellent.

But everyone shared the same doubt.

Could this actually make money?

Only President Baek Kangjin nodded with clear satisfaction.

There’s mutual growth inside this one too.

He didn’t even need to ask.

Most of the components placed on those plates were likely dead inventory or materials that had lost their normal usefulness.

Franchise Operations Team Leader Park Wonki, still filled with concern, asked,

“There’s one thing I’m worried about. If it’s too difficult, nobody will participate. If it’s too easy, you’ll give away too many products for free and it’ll be difficult to make a profit.”

“Correct. That’s why we already received agreements from the business owners supplying the parts that they will not charge us for components used in completed products. They understand something too. If this place attracts enough people, they can earn sufficient profit elsewhere. Compared to normal marketing costs, it’s cheap for them.”

Every alternative had already been prepared.

A nearly flawless proposal.

The doubts in the room melted away.

“In that case, the situation changes. From our perspective, there’s almost no downside. If we bring people into Creative Village, sales from our other businesses will naturally rise too.”

Jinhyeok smiled lightly and shook his head at Park Wonki’s increasingly positive interpretation.

“You’re correct, but our goal isn’t to make people who visit Creative Village enter the assembly factory.”

Everyone listened.

“We want the opposite. People will come for the assembly factory, and through it, they will discover Creative Village. That will directly contribute to the success of Seongun’s Creative Village project.”

A creative idea.

A realistic operating model.

And a clear objective.

President Baek Kangjin nodded in satisfaction.

“Good. We’re not making a final decision in this meeting, so let’s hear the next concept. What’s the second one?”

Kangjin’s eyes turned toward the screen while he tried to hide his excitement.

A screen filled with bright neon signs appeared.

To Kangjin, it looked like a chaotic place with no clear identity.

“The temporary concept name is a Korean-style cyberpunk pub. We call it ‘Shift Work.’ What you see now is the location after sunset. I’ll show you the same place before that.”

Click.

Jinhyeok pressed the remote.

A completely different image appeared.

It was an ordinary manufacturing factory filled with metal tables and machine tools.

“This is the exact same location. In reality, it operates as an accessory manufacturing factory from nine in the morning until six in the evening. After that, we want to use the same space for a second business while preserving even the smell of the factory atmosphere.”

Once again, Jinhyeok played a video he had filmed with the team for everyone who still looked confused.

6:00 p.m.

A loud siren rang.

Several machine tools and important products moved behind shutters.

Cleaning began.

Outside the windows, the sky gradually darkened.

As night deepened, hidden holograms and neon signs throughout the room lit up.

The factory transformed into something like a futuristic standing bar from a science-fiction film.

“The transformation process you’re watching will dominate social media and other platforms. A press machine becomes an excellent standing table. Employees wearing heat-resistant suits use real welding torches to sear the outside of meat as a fire show. Some of you may think the atmosphere is far too chaotic. But I’m certain of one thing. This will become the hottest place in Creative Village.”

Heavy silence filled the conference room.

When everyone heard that the Commercial District Analysis Team would present new business concepts, almost nobody had expected much.

Most assumed they would focus on selecting additional gateway locations, which fit their normal duties.

Instead, the priorities had completely reversed.

The gateway location selection was excellent.

But it was obvious they had invested far more effort into new business planning.

A unique ability to turn Mullae-dong’s existing infrastructure into realistic profit models.

President Baek Kangjin quietly murmured toward Taesik.

“That concept contains mutual growth too. And an entry barrier competitors can’t simply copy. Truly impressive.”

Praise from Kangjin.

Exactly the result Taesik wanted.

Everyone could now see the synergy created when new business planning was combined with commercial district analysis.

Suddenly, the card bill that had exceeded ten million won didn’t feel wasteful at all.

Taesik now had perfect justification.

And it existed entirely because of Jinhyeok.

There was no need to watch any longer.

For Taesik, Jinhyeok had become the greatest possible partner.

Someone he had to keep beside him no matter what.

Was it because the chairman wasn’t here?

I finished the briefing much more comfortably than last time and returned to my seat.

As I left the conference room and walked back toward the Commercial District Analysis Team, I could immediately feel the difference.

Not only the team leaders of the Integrated Development Division, but leaders from completely different departments looked at me differently now.

“Team Leader Kang. That was an incredible briefing. How did you develop ideas that complete?”

“Exactly. I got goosebumps listening to it. At this rate, isn’t our company going to create an entire New Business Planning Team?”

Half joking.

Half serious.

The department leaders kept praising me.

I smiled awkwardly and shook my head.

It had been an interesting experience.

That didn’t mean I wanted more work.

“You’re giving me too much credit. All I did was refine my team members’ ideas a little.”

When I gave the credit entirely to my team, the expressions around me became even friendlier.

I wasn’t pretending to be humble.

It was true.

Over the past month, those guys had become my hands and feet and worked with incredible passion.

Mutual growth.

Everyone needed to succeed together.

The team members had been the ones forced to absorb the consequences of my stubborn principle with their own bodies.

“Team Leader! Did the presentation go well?”

The moment I returned to the office, Jongil jumped up and ran over.

I patted his shoulder.

“Yeah. Thanks to all of you, the briefing was perfect. Everyone worked hard.”

“Whew! As expected from our team leader. What do we do next? Give us anything! We’re ready!”

Ignoring the fire in his eyes, I looked at my smartphone.

Red text had appeared the moment I finished the briefing.

This was a moment where I absolutely could not move carelessly.

“Take it easy. You’ve all worked hard for a month.”

“What? Take it easy?”

“Yeah. There isn’t anything especially urgent, right? Check whether anything from our normal work was missed during the past month and prepare for next week. We aren’t taking on anything new for a while.”

Jongil blinked his enormous eyes as though wondering what nonsense I was talking about.

It had to be this way.

I had absolutely no intention of becoming the ideal hardworking employee shown in the diary app.