EP 35- International Society (2)
It is people who do whatever it takes to live, and the country is, after all, a man-made organization. The Gates incident made the world more barbaric.
And in such a world, the country that committed the most savage incidents from my point of view, who earns a living with his own political qualities, was the United States.
Knowing that there was going to be a huge gate crisis in France, he cheated that a gate would be opened in England.
With its Horus system.
Of course, it is true that a similar feudal society had entered Europe at that time. And it is also true that the feudal society led by those hunters almost unify Europe.
And if that were the case, there was a good chance that the restored unified Europe could have become a dictatorship of superpowers with nuclear weapons, resources, and an army.
Then to some extent, one might wonder if a dystopia would have been opened in which the superpowers rule the incompetent.
But that didn’t justify what the US did.
And it is said that this was the beginning of all incidents. At least that’s what the USFK commander said.
“China is trying to take control of the Horus system, not trusting the reliability of the federal government’s forecasts.”
China, who doesn’t trust the US, is trying to steal satellites. Maybe it was normal. Because we didn’t trust America either.
No matter how successful the United States may be in resolving the crises of maritime trade, international finance, food shortages, and nuclear war in this catastrophic world, it was wrong.
The unprecedented situation in which the United States betrayed Europe was secretly spreading throughout the international community.
“It seems that China does not want to suffer like Europe.”
“Ah, anyway, because of that, the satellites are temporarily disabled several times a day, and this is probably the reason why we couldn’t predict this disaster.”
“Can China do that? How long has it been since you took power after a coup d’état, and even hacking into satellites?”
“Of course, our technology hasn’t gone that far. But I couldn’t stop some engineers from passing over to China… … .”
“… … .”
I wanted to ask what I had to do to steal the researcher, but the USFK commander’s face was so tragic. It seems that there is something more stupid than I imagined in the inner story.
okay. It’s the United States that sometimes kicks shit balls like this. Personally, I was very curious about the story behind the incident, but President Yang Pan-seok urged the commander with an inappropriate expression.
Surprisingly, Yang Pan-seok was also good at English.
“So how much food do you have in a day?”
“Usually four or five times a day. The satellites are disabled every 30 minutes or so. Of course, it has never been completely hacked. It would be more accurate to say that the function is temporarily stopped in the process of normalizing it. At first, it took seven hours to get things back to normal.”
“It’s 30 minutes. I think it’s too short a time to convince me that I’ve been caught unlucky. What do you think?”
“Unfortunately, scholars are of the opinion that this disaster was a combination of bad luck and bad luck.”
“They must be American scholars.”
“… … Yes. At least our experts think so.”
“Then should I believe it? The only engineers in the world who are well versed in the Horus system are Americans. If it’s unfair, they hacked the artificial satellite.”
“… … President. What the federal government is trying to convey is, anyway, it’s all because of China, so it’s not a message for South Korea to keep quiet.”
The commander of USFK was a comrade Miuna Gouna who had fought together in Korea for the past few years, and that is why Yang Pan-seok and I remained silent for a while.
“30 minutes. It’s too short a time. It is said that a gate incident occurred in Korea while China hacked for a while. Even as a foreigner, I find it condescending. This is especially true considering the fact that the magic power usually condenses at least two hours before the gate event.”
for a moment. 2 hours?
“… … Wait. If that is the case, then the gate avalanche occurred within 15 minutes of the satellite being stopped.”
“From your point of view, I can interpret it from three perspectives.”
He took off his American uniform and laid it down on his desk. It was an incredibly sad expression.
“First, the US did not tell its allies even after being aware of the gate outbreak. Second, the US is still restless and defrauding its allies… … .”
“… … .”
“Finally, all the anomalies that are happening in Korea right now are precursors to something even bigger than this.”
It felt like someone had opened the lid of my head and poured ice water into it. It wouldn’t be much different from a placard. His voice was cold.
“Am I correct when I heard the word omens?”
“The sudden opening of the gate in such a short period of time means that magical power has exploded out of empty air, and such a phenomenon has never been observed before. Except in Europe.”
“I don’t know anything about magic, so I can’t believe it easily. Please connect the hotline. I will speak with the President of the United States.”
“good. We will connect you soon.”
“Since the story is going to be long, let Seung-moon look at you in the situation room. And I bring the elected Won Ok-bun over here.”
“all right.”
* * *
The gate incident swept through the metropolitan area, but Chungcheong-do was not in good shape. Chungcheong-do has been the region that has changed the most in Korea since the opening of the gate.
The fear of the monster caused an astronomical rise in house prices in the southern region, and ordinary people and refugees from the metropolitan area flocked to Chungcheong Province.
Thus, Chungcheong-do became the land of the vagrants.
This was consistent with the government’s intention to drive refugee camps only in Chungcheong Province. To build a new metropolitan area centered on Sejong, the administrative capital, a lot of cheap workers were needed.
Thanks to this, the construction industry easily cooperated, and the refugee unemployment rate fell sharply, but this cheap Korean version of the New Deal had unexpected results.
refugee camp. construction board. Even the guns hidden by refugees. It is an optimal condition for a slum to be built. A hotbed of crime has been created in the shadow of security.
Right now, just a little away from the residential area of Sejong city officials, I smelled moonshine and bond. In the already collapsed resident registration number system, there were not one or two people who disappeared without mice or birds.
Therefore, some have called Chungcheong-do the trash can of Korea.
And the trash can was burning to the point where it couldn’t be worse.
“The monsters have invaded the downtown of Jecheon!”
“Wow, what! Wasn’t it blocked by Mt. Worak?”
“Flying monsters suddenly appeared from Mt. Chiak. Since it was not captured by the air defense system, it must have been that there was a gate there as well.”
“Or maybe it just opened.”
Monsters were churning around Chungcheong-do.
Martial law was invoked in Jecheon, Danyang, Mungyeong, Yecheon, Andong, Uiseong, Cheongsong, Gunwi, and Yeongcheon. It was close to the entire Taebaek Mountains, including Chungbuk and Gyeongbuk.
Fortunately, there was less damage in Gangwon and Gyeongbuk, where many hunters live and work. This is because most of the main enemies of this situation were small monsters.
However, these miniature beasts were able to climb the apartment stairs and hide in the hills to avoid being tracked by military satellites. This resulted in fatal casualties and potential threats due to Korea’s topographical characteristics.
“You must not miss a single one. If they hide and start breeding in earnest and evolve according to the environment, the entire Taebaek Mountains will be lost.”
As a result, the government had to protect citizens from monsters attacking the Chungcheong-do area, and at the same time annihilate the monsters hiding in the Taebaek Mountains in Gyeongbuk and Gangwon-do.
If it failed to defend Chungcheong-do, it would be recorded as the worst disaster in history, and if the monsters hiding in the Taebaek Mountains were not annihilated, the entire Gangwon-do would be designated as a potential danger zone.
I focused on the latter.
The loss of the Taebaek Mountains meant the collapse of the Chungcheong defense line system.
Until now, the region south of the Chungcheong Defense Line was almost the only high-tech society that was not attacked by monsters, and based on this, the southern part of the Korean Peninsula created the world’s most developed economic network and finance.
If it collapses, Korea will die. All of this prosperity started with an unfounded confidence that we were safe, so we could have confidence that if we lost Gangwon-do, we would lose everything.
“Now is the golden hour! We must call up all the reserve forces and push them into the Taebaek Mountains. Or burn the entire Taebaek Mountains!”
“Are you crazy! A manager??!”
“The government has ended, so what regrets do you have? I will never see Gangwon-do become a monster land under our administration.”
A large-scale sweeping operation was initiated. We poured all available troops into the Taebaek Mountains, regardless of hunters, military, and overseas volunteers.
It was an operation to find and annihilate the monster even by covering the whole of Gangwon Province with people, and as a result, the operation succeeded with a huge budget deficit.
So we survived.
with bitter scars.
[…] … Monsters that invaded Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, swept through the refugee camp. Only a bloody tent and a collapsed building remained where they passed.]
[…] … Most of the deaths and missing persons estimated so far appear to have occurred in Jecheon. When the monster invaded the densely populated refugee area, proper evacuation could not take place… … .]
[…] … Shocked citizens are stocking up on supplies. The stock market is fluctuating, and real estate prices in the south are at all-time highs… … .]
Although sporadic gate incidents occurred throughout the central region, no monsters entered civilian residential areas except for Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province.
In other words, there was an unprecedented situation in which monsters invaded the downtown area of Jecheon, and this caused human casualties that shocked the entire nation.
This disaster was called the ‘Jecheon Incident’.
* * *
[…] … I solemnly in front of the people to abide by the Constitution and defend the country, strive for the lasting reconciliation of the country, the promotion of freedom and welfare of the people, and the development of national culture, and faithfully carry out my duties as President… … .]
On the TV in the corner of the hospital room, Won Ok-bun was inaugurated as president.
At the point where the follow-up of the Jecheon incident was not even finished, our government came to an end. In the first place, the situation itself occurred near the end of the presidential term, so it was unavoidable.
A wave of remembrance and mourning. Frozen social atmosphere. spreading fear. fluctuating economy. And the awkward silence between Korea, China and the US.
That was the end of Yang Pan-seok’s administration.
Surprisingly, however, there was not much criticism of the government, because the United States acknowledged some responsibility, although it did not reveal the detailed reasons for the failure of the Horus system.
In addition, the achievements of the Yang Pan-seok administration, which annexed North Korea and revitalized the economy, were great, and there is a virtue that people still perceive the Gate incident as a natural disaster that humans cannot predict.
And above all, the daughter-in-law of President Yang Pan-seok was swept up in an accident and died.
Even his son is suffering from death in the hospital, so who can blame President Yang Pan-seok for knowing that an accident would happen?
It’s a very cautious story to say out loud, but it has been used as a fairly large political asset.
President Yang Pan-seok’s ardent supporters were rarely seen in front of the hospital where his son was admitted.
“… … So, wouldn’t it be difficult for the people to let Yang Pan-seok go easily?”
“… … .”
“People are still waiting for a human plate. This era has not yet forgotten the yangban stone.”
In fact, it would not have been one or two high-ranking officials who had survived unknowingly because Yang Pan-seok’s son was lying in the hospital.
The death of the president’s daughter-in-law and the serious injury of his son were enough to stir up people’s emotions. And in the current political arena, such a cheap emotional arm was needed.
But when I heard it from Yang Pan-seok’s son, I felt a little strange.
“Minister Han Seung-moon.”
“Don’t do this. I am no longer a politician.”
“Then I will tell the human Seung-moon Han.”
He murmured, holding his weight to the fullest while he was lying on the hospital bed with his bandages wrapped around him.
He is a son and his face resembles a yangban-seok, so he has a certain atmosphere.
“I will inherit the spirit of human yangban-seok.”
“… … .”
“It doesn’t matter what the difficulty is. Just give me a chance to run.”
* * *
“Chaewon-ah, have you been waiting for a long time?”
“no. Did you have a good visit?”
“Seeing you talking nonsense, you’re fine.”
Pi Chae-won, who had been sipping the barley tea in the hospital lobby, robbed and got up.
Whether he read my expression or my mood, Chaewon quickly recognized that I was quite upset.
“Eat this.”
“My hair is falling out.”
“… … Are you done now?”
“I don’t want to eat yulmu tea, the master of hair-”
Pi Chae-won said while poking at one of the Yulmu teas he was holding. As always, his voice was a bit muffled and there were no major highs and lows.
“Did you know President Yang Pan-seok’s son?”
“Well. If you know, you know. I’ve seen it a few times before when I was an aide.”
“Are you close?”
“I sucked medicine at the room salon and carried what D.B was lying on on my back. Twice as well.”
“Such.”
“People were like that. You know how to make life as an assistant really easy.”
“I am no longer an assistant.”
Pee Chae-won was no longer an aide, and I was no longer the chief of staff of the president.
okay. It is now completely white.
Still, Pi Chae-won and I used to go together. It was just kind of a habit.
It was like that today. I came here because I thought I would have to go to the hospital because I became a human being, but I was just in the mood for nothing.
When Yang Pan-seok got drunk, he would sometimes say that he threw it away if it wasn’t for his granddaughter, Abby.
I assumed that the son was crooked because of Yang Pan-seok’s cold temper, but now that I look at it, I think that Yang Pan-seok may be crooked because of his son’s cold personality.
Then, in the far corner of the hospital, Yang Pan-seok cherished his granddaughter.
She was surrounded and guarded by bodyguards.
“… … Let’s go now, Chaewon-ah.”
“yes.”
I just got out of the hospital because it would make me feel uncomfortable if I had to say hello.
As I got into the driver’s seat familiarly, I asked the secretary in the passenger seat.
“okay. What’s next?”
“There are three hours left until the flight to Paris departs.”
“Then let’s have dinner at the airport.”
The next itinerary was a European tour.
The gate opened on the first day of my tenure episode 231