Chapter. 10 Lead and Silver Coins (17)
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Takkak. Just right. Takkak.
“Is there anything else to see? “It’s almost all out, right?”
“yes. It’s just because it’s a bit sloppy. Grow up first. “I’m going to be awake anyway, so tell Bex to stop coming in.”
“That bastard doesn’t listen. After hearing about the situation, I became even more cautious and went out with just a blanket. Good deal out there.”
When I looked at the place where Ian was gesturing, I saw that there was an irregularity on the roof of the building next door that had not been there during the day. It seems that Vex, realizing that the situation was more serious than expected, took on the role of surveillance.
“Tsk. Tired guy.”
“Hehehe, I guess it has to be his personality. I sleep. I need to get a good rest if I’m going to have a big fight tomorrow. You too, sleep in moderation, dude. Rest is also part of the battle.”
I waved my hand, pretending to roughly agree with what Ian said, and focused on the record again.
Late at night.
Until the time when everyone in the group fell asleep in their own way, what I was checking was the interview information obtained this evening.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Inspector General rushed in while interrogating the spokesperson for the administration. And just when I thought everything was sorted out, a person from the executive department quietly came by.
They came one after another as if they were waiting to find a place to stay, and all they said was about justice.
[Record]
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Administration Spokesperson – Karel Bellemont.
‘What kind of group is Dom? Free democracy! Isn’t this a group created to restore the justice of the old times? Following the example of District 47, District 38 has also decided to become a presidential system. Clearly, both the inspection department and the executive department reached an agreement. It was our administration that won the election! The authority over all facilities in District 38 now belongs to the executive branch! Those scoundrels are nothing more than illegally occupying the facility and using force!’
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Administration. After listening carefully, I realized that these bastards were assholes.
It seems that the big and beautiful power of our District 47 President Young seemed very good to these guys. We were all at war, one betrayed us, and the other made a brilliant achievement, so the Inspection Department rose to the highest level of power, but here we are, in a situation where all three have established their own areas and divided the power equally. I went all in, but I lost and the guy next to me got elected? Then he overturned the board without even looking back.
I just smiled and tried to extract information, but I couldn’t help but say a word.
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‘No, then you really just showed me the voting results and then you abandoned me? ‘Did you think I would give in and say, ‘Take it all?’
‘We knew there would be friction, so we made our own preparations, but we didn’t expect it to move so quickly…’
‘We made our own preparations. Let go and complain? ‘Are you begging me not to do that?’
‘Why are you doing this when you know so well! We’ve already talked to District 47! If you pass the [box], we will talk about the purpose of establishing the Dome and support our administration!’
‘?!!’
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‘That guy looked embarrassed even after he said it with his own mouth.’
It is true that we are from 47 and that we are carrying out the president’s request, but we do not yet know whether the whole story from ‘that side’ has been relayed or whether we are just delivery men. As I was in a very difficult situation and the feeling of wishing I was an ally added to the psychological pressure, I blurted it out without realizing it.
‘Legitimacy…. you mean diplomatic recognition? No matter how much Dom seeks to return to the past order, this is going too far back.’
For example, something like this. Just like in the old dynasties, a new king ascended to the throne, but the local nobles openly rebelled against him. In times like this, our ancestors would usually send people to the kings of the neighboring country and ask them to say something like, ‘I am such-and-such king, so please write a letter saying that I am the king there.’ The situation was very similar to that.
Although the Area 38 Dome and the Area 47 Dome belong to the same group, they are distinctly separate cities with their own areas. Area 38, which has had a friendly relationship with the exchange of materials and military cooperation, cannot easily ignore a polite request from Area 47.
And usually, such requests are accompanied by jaw-dropping gifts.
‘[Box]. If what was in there was really a transformation device, it would be a great gift.’
It’s too much, too much. If such technology really existed, there is no way the District 38 dome would not have used it over the past five years. I probably dug it up for 5 years, but it either had a fatal flaw that made it impossible to use, or it was unfinished. It’s such a cheap item, but to someone who doesn’t know the actual situation, it appears to be a technology equivalent to a strategic hack, so it would have seemed like an appropriate item to give to others and show off, so they would have thought it would be a perfect gift.
‘If it weren’t for the information Dana gave me, I would have been lost here for a long time.’
So, we decided to hand over the [box], but two of the transportation team went missing, and the president sent us here to transfer valuable technology.
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‘….You don’t have to be that surprised since you already know everything. [Box]. ‘That’s a variant-related technology, right?’
‘Whoa. As expected, they were sent by the president. It probably means that Area 47 still trusts us. Then, please go back and tell me. Our administration had no intention of ruining the deal. Suddenly, communication was cut off and the people said to be from Area 47 did not arrive, so we had to move to deliver [the box].’
‘then. What is the whereabouts of the box?’
‘….It was stolen. I don’t know how they knew, but as soon as we moved from the administration building to the transport vehicle, the gunmen killed and robbed all the agents.’
‘It wasn’t stolen by a fanatic, it was taken by assailants… I understand. One last thing. This friend next to me. ‘Do you know anyone?’
‘….sorry. After experiencing the enemy’s show of force once, we became impatient. With communication cut off, the BDSM caravan is the only means of contact with Area 47. Since the inspection and enforcement department is aware of that fact, I decided that there would be an assassination attempt on this side and thought I should come in advance and protect them….’
‘I understand. I listened carefully and will tell the president as soon as I get back. Oh, you can take this friend with you.’
‘Thank you! As soon as our administration clears out the puppet group in District 38 and the city becomes stable, we will reward you greatly! Please tell us! ‘We had no intention of ruining our relationship with District 47!’
* End of conversation
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This is what I found out through the administration spokesperson.
The administration sent a [box] to District 47 in exchange for political help, and due to various accidents, the [box] was stolen…
‘Definitely. The administration has no control over the chain of events.’
It is clear that it is the starting point, but after that, it is just dragged along by the machinations of other forces. In the first place, the administration, which mostly holds research administrative positions, will likely have little to do after the use of force began.
The spokesperson expressed his gratitude and went on a visit with the released sniper. As the sound of his shoes slowly receded in the hallway, there was suddenly a commotion in the hallway.
The sound of something hitting. The sound of several people confronting each other and raising their voices.
After a while, the sound of shoes moving away came closer to us again.
Footsteps with slightly different tempos.
Squeak-
“I don’t know what that rat said, but it’s all lies, so don’t believe it!”
Those were the first words that came out of the mouth of the man who entered the room with a very angry face.
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Spokesperson for the Inspection Department: Park Hwan-seok
‘This accommodation is unnecessarily soundproofed. I was going to listen quietly and visit tomorrow morning, but I was so shocked by the way those rat-like bastards were talking. ‘I am Park Hwan-seok, head of the Inspection Department.’
‘Oh yes. ‘This is Professor Park, the leader of the BDSM caravan.’
‘Oh yeah. It was that kind of name. But… Professor Park? By any chance, is Mr. Park somewhere…?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Can you even say that! In an era where countries have disappeared and people speak the same language, how can people from the same country have a normal relationship?’
‘Uh…I thought it was Miryang Park or something.’
‘you!!!! From now on, call me Hwanseok! We are family, family! Ah, Hwan-seok, I told you to try it!’
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What can I say. It felt like it was opening a new horizon for how to fuck people. Saying that you were wiretapping for nothing. Old man? You’re talking like a fucking old man. How can someone be so unlucky and a piece of shit without even a single swear word or sarcasm? First of all, this side lacked information and had a bit of power, so they responded in a polite manner, which was the default… If it weren’t for the fact that this is where they saw these guys, they would have started kicking their chins off.
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‘What do you think politicians should focus on during this time of trouble? humanity? Quality of life? dog sound. It’s all hypocrites’ bullshit! Justice takes on different forms depending on the times. In the Middle Ages, it was justice to praise someone who hit an enemy’s neck while riding a horse, but in modern times, it has become justice to send that person to prison. As the world changes, justice must also change. We live in times of drought, I think. ‘It’s time to look at reality a little more than trivial things like humanity.’
‘money. Choice about a situation comes from money. Don’t you know that you are a businessman too? When your pockets are full, you have a variety of choices. Aren’t the city-level shields that immediately protect the lives of citizens and the greenhouses that produce food for them all all about money? But the executive branch of the executive branch says they should shut down low-income farms, saying what about human dignity? Don’t they say that more should be returned to the hands of citizens? They are so ungrateful! Ordinary citizens are like insects! They don’t know that if you feed a bug too much food, its stomach will explode and it will die, but it is completely useless!’
‘Just by looking at the actions of the administration right now, you can see that they are very idiots. What are you announcing the voting results? So, what are you going to do about the administration that made abusing its pledge to provide money? This is why ordinary citizens must be made stupid and clueless. I’m just pretending like I don’t know anything, thinking it’s an opportunity and running out of work to rest! Fortunately, I cut off all communication before that happened. If it weren’t for us, the Dome’s production capacity would have been cut in half due to the demonstrations. ‘If this isn’t the work of a proper politician, what is?’
‘Oh, one last thing. You broke the president’s promise and opened a street stall? Well, I completely understand the desire to quickly dispose of inventory during uncertain times, so let’s just skip over the vegetable business. However, [Transitional Equipment] must be traded with the Roched Coin Merchant. This is advice, not recommendation. If it is violated, it will be done in a somewhat coercive way. ‘I’m sure we’ll have a fair deal.’
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I have often had the impression that the influence of the upper level, such as Roched Coin or Roaches, is strong, but now I see that it is not just that the influence is strong, but that the entire inspection department has been taken over by the upper level.
All they talked about was money, money, money, and the means they used were quite vicious.
A low-income farm created by kidnapping wandering outsiders. The extreme of golden universalism, which views humans as nothing more than livestock or objects.
And affirmation of democratization and control of the media.
‘Radio tower. I heard that it was an electronic warfare base that was built by remodeling an old broadcasting station during the Great War and transmits a signal strong enough to transmit orders through the enemy’s jamming waves. In order to prevent the voting results from being spread, the Inspection Department attempted to use radio towers they did not know much about to cause strong radio interference. The result was more powerful than imagined, and communication networks were blocked throughout almost the entire 30th division. The administration has all the technical personnel who know how to fix this, so they have no choice but to bring in all the private sector engineers to fix it.’
His strong ambition for power stood out. It is said that the reason they cut off communication was because citizens knew of the results and would nominate the administration as their leader.
To summarize,
1. The Inspection Department did not like the executive branch having leadership.
2. The inspection department operated a radio tower and activated wide-area jammers to control the media.
3. When I first came here, the inspector general said, ‘[Core parts] that were being prepared for delivery were stolen.’
conclusion.
‘These guys knew about the administration’s dealings with District 47.’
I didn’t know what the contents were, but I knew the box was the price of an important political deal to Area 47.
So he sent someone to seize the box and block the transaction. By cutting off communication, citizens were prevented from going wild and communication between the two forces was also cut off.
While contact was lost, the entire transport team disappeared without ever reaching this place.
The administration, which lacked military power, was completely isolated by external activities.
‘And as the president said, the stolen box was an item that could not be opened, so it was thrown into the armory without knowing what it contained and then stolen.’
Takkak. Takkak. Takkak.
The professor, who was thinking while tapping his knuckles, wrote down words on a piece of paper.
4. The moment I met the Inspector General. And also at the moment I met the spokesperson named Park Hwan-seok. There was a burnt smell.
That scent. It’s faint, but the smell of burning blood and filth from the battlefield is something that anyone who has been through the battlefield will never forget. Wherever you go, you can’t shake off the scent of human biodiesel, the scent of a raptor.
Crunchy.
[Inspection Department <-> Raptor]?
Area 38 Dome, where the executive branch holds most of the force. In fact, the inspection department, which should have had powers no different from that of the executive branch, showed results of external activities that were beyond their level. What if the military unit that handles the work of the inspection department is an external collaborator rather than a force they secretly cultivated? What if it’s a raptor?
[Administrative Department <-> Area 47 Dome]
[Inspection Department <-> Raptor]
[Executive Department <-> ???]
“….I feel like I’m watching a snowball rolling from the top of a snow-covered mountain range. And it’s tied in exactly the right spot. Are there any regular gatherings of large wasteland forces that I don’t know about? 38 Raptor in the area 47 dome. Then, Happy Blind should also be included, right? huh?”
“Ugh, don’t be so foolish, Hepburn. Words become seeds. “Who will those fanatics like Byeok Chang-ho join hands with?”
It was the time when I was getting ready for bed, saying I had to send off the two spokespeople and get organized for the day.
I just said that too. I was just saying this out of excitement, wondering what kind of nonsense these guys were up to when the Raptor suddenly popped out…
“This is Mikhail Pletnev, who is in charge of the executive department.”
After recording the conversation with the spokespeople and roughly organizing it, I couldn’t believe it when this man came to me right before I went to sleep…
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3. Executive Vice President – Mikhail Pletnev
‘I did it’ .’
‘….yes?’
‘Isn’t that what I’ve been looking for all day long? Who caused this confusion? It’s me. A criminal who joined hands with fanatics to terrorize the city. ‘It was all planned by me.’
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There really was a crazy guy who joined hands with those idiots. It didn’t even seem like they had any intention of hiding it.
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‘Teacher… what do you think justice is?’
‘Justice. Our most noble values. Justice. Dom is a group that has always fought for the weakest. However, the current Dome no longer has any traces of its glorious past. You’ve probably seen the farms out there that have been crushed like scabs, right?’
‘That’s a prime example. It is an ant hell where helpless civilians wandering around looking for a settlement are gently coaxed inside, their property is confiscated, they are confined to a shelter farm outside, and they are given only the minimum amount of water and food and worked until they die. Are the crops so earned evenly distributed among the people of the dome? you’re welcome. Most of the time, the merchants of the inspection department sell them and put them in their own pockets, and the administration that condones them also takes its share and carries out all kinds of extravagant research. The only thing that gets into their hands and returns to the public is a single, extremely expensive, dried carrot root. We couldn’t let people like that take power. We… decided to inflict shame on ourselves.’
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‘This is a bastard. It must be this bastard!’
The moment I saw his eyes burning with a sense of mission, I instinctively said, ‘Gotcha!’ I got a feeling. Oh, it’s these guys. I thought these people had done something serious.
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‘The group, including the teacher, periodically escaped the gaze of our surveillance agents. While I was impressed by his skills, I also felt confident. This BDSM group is not simply a business with a false reputation, but is truly the elite of the elite in District 47. He must have escaped surveillance and conducted his own investigation. Yes, this is what we did. The eastern part was the central residence of corrupt merchants who were tainted by the inspection department’s golden omnipotism, and the administration was trying to strengthen their position through bribery by stealing important goods. We stopped them. With the help of the helper, those vicious egoists were able to slow down their rise to the top to squeeze out people’s hard work. Although some sacrifices were involved, it was all out of necessity.’
‘Does that mean… the executive branch allowed the civilians in the District 38 dome to be pushed out, as well as an entire section of the city?’
‘….You have no right to criticize us. While you were enjoying life in peaceful Area 47, we were endlessly thinking and planning how to make this world more peaceful.’
‘We don’t want anything. We just need to stay out of our troubles in District 47. Leave this place quietly, Agents of Area 47. If that happens, we will soon be able to meet again as the Area 38 Dome, where the rotten roots have been cut out and the evil has been purified. When we reach the end of the plan… you will understand.’
* End of conversation
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The executive director just said what he had to say and left without me having time to say anything.
There was no need to discuss conversation with him.
The executive team joined hands with Happy Blinds.
It was clear that they had helped operate within the dome and in return had burned down the eastern part, the center of the Inspection Department’s power, and burned civilians as well, and were just beginning to leave.
It’s really nice that you said it so clearly without having to think about it.
“The problem is whether there was a need for these guys to join hands with Happy Blind… If the executive branch, which operates most of the military, overturns its will, isn’t there a need to join hands with outside forces?”
I think I’ve figured out all the superficial reasons. I felt very uneasy because I felt like I couldn’t find any real intention.
‘A series of events taking place simultaneously. It’s not clear, but they all have one foot in each other’s hands. It is too elaborate to have happened by chance. There is someone. The person who coordinates the game behind the scenes and draws the big picture.’
Crunch Crunch-
[Executive Department <-> Happy Blind]
[Administrative Department <-> Area 47 Dome]
[Inspection Department <-> Raptor]
The professor was conflicted as he looked at the three notes written side by side.
There are limits to this kind of desk reasoning. Even if they met with a spokesperson, it is clear that since they all came to visit on their own, they would have only told the amount of information that could be disclosed. If you want to get close to the truth, you have to move directly and gather information, but looking at the situation, it was clear that if you moved like that, you would be crushed by those giant powers.
“It’s impossible to move alone. “You have to choose one of the three and move together.”
It is a stable but weak administration that has joined hands with the 47th District Dom, which is the closest ally.
An inspection department that boasts enormous money power and will join hands with anyone as long as it profits.
Of the three, the executive branch has the ideology closest to justice and has sufficient equipment and troops, but it clearly has something to hide.
Who should I hold hands with? How much support is needed and how much risk can be taken?
widely. widely. widely. widely.
The professor’s fingertips moving back and forth between the three groups’ notes became faster and faster. Every time my hard left hand knocked on the wooden table, it felt like the information that was tangled up was being mercilessly settled.
Which one. Let’s choose.
Okay, let’s guess right.
Ding. dong. Dang.
A finger stops pointing at the executive branch.
“dong.”
And then a white glove appeared out of thin air, gently moving the finger to the side.
Saaagh-!
Slam!
His body, which was accustomed to danger faster than goosebumps could rise, pointed its gun at the intruder.
I completely forgot. No, more accurately, it should be said that it was intentionally excluded from the accident. These children are the variables themselves. Because there is no information and it is impossible to predict.
“I was wondering if I missed something. I forgot about that. It was the most important clue. How come you came to me even though I didn’t call you? “Is this a business trip service?”
“Didn’t I tell you? “I will remember that one. ‘professor’.”
The professor smiled wryly as he looked at the white suit that didn’t waver even in the face of the gun.
A finger moved to the empty space next to the memo from the Department of Administrative Enforcement and Inspection.
Below it, there was a business card with the name of [Artists Union] written on it.
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