Episode 173 [ Age of Mana (5) ]
Pak! Pop! Papa pa paak!
As the three leaders held hands, camera flashes exploded loudly.
The leaders of South Korea, North Korea, and Russia looked at the camera and smiled brightly.
bread! Bang!
Then the horn sounded and the train that was standing behind the memorial hall departed.
It was the first transcontinental train to depart from Seoul, pass through North Korea, and cross Russia.
From today, Korea is no longer an island country separate from the continent, but a country connected to Europe.
Now that the shipping route is almost blocked, this railway could become Korea’s lifeline in the future.
“Thank you all for your hard work coming.”
Other leaders shook their heads at President Kwon’s greeting.
“Now is the beginning. “We need to connect gas pipes and roads.”
The next plans were already in progress. President Kwon forced a smile at President Bykov’s words.
It was a welcome event, but the situation in Korea was not conducive to just laughing.
“The President is having a hard time too. Still, at a time like now, reactionary elements must be eliminated quickly.”
The president’s expression darkened as Chairman Lee Seong-hyuk continued.
The opening ceremony was held forcefully, but as Chairman Lee said, Korea was now very confused.
*
[Korean prosecutors are arresting members of the ‘Korea-Japan Friendship Association’ who ordered the terrorist attack. The members of the organization include leading figures from the ruling party and the opposition party, as well as prominent figures from all walks of life.]
Special reports on Korea continued to stream on TV.
[People around the world and the Korean people are shaking with anxiety at the Korean government’s sudden, drastic action.]
Although the correspondent was directly briefing in Seoul, the scene behind the reporter was just an ordinary Seoul street.
The Mitsubishi Group Chairman clicked his tongue while watching TV.
“The plan failed, the gold bars disappeared, and the organization was discovered. What did they do to do this?”
The organization that had been desperately expanding since the monster appeared was completely shattered by this incident.
I don’t know how they knew, but even the original pro-Japanese organizations were being wiped out.
Mitsubishi Group, which worked with the government on this project, also suffered a major blow.
All of the Korean companies that had been cooperating with the group turned their backs on the group. These were the few pro-Japanese companies that remained after SG Group took over.
The chairman walked to the window and looked out.
The smoke rising from the group’s chemical plant complex was no longer visible for some time. The reality that Japan’s factory operation rate had fallen below 50% was visible before our eyes.
The chairman muttered with a stern expression.
“I can’t believe I was drying up and dying like this while I was in the land that God protected.”
Is it because it was an island country? Japan was going through this period when monsters were popping up without any problem.
There was no wave like in other countries, and the awakened people were well controlled by belonging to companies and the government.
Unlike other countries, Japan got through these dangerous times without much change.
But that was the end of the good news.
The faltering world economy also hurt Japan, and the blocked skies after the cataclysm became a fatal wound to Japan.
Although the sea route was still safe, the sea route had already entered the era of great pirates.
Fishermen in countries where public power was lost turned into pirates, and in some countries the military stepped in to collect tolls.
The seaway was still maintained with the help of the Self-Defense Force Navy, but it was unclear how long it would remain intact.
Prices had already jumped several times and the economy was on the verge of collapse.
A safe transport route to land was absolutely necessary. So, we requested an undersea tunnel, but the Korean president immediately rejected it.
“At least it was a peaceful way…”
The Chairman clicked his tongue as he recalled the failed operation.
The Chief of Staff came up behind the Chairman.
He was the new Chief of Staff after the previous Chief of Staff died in a generator accident. He was
the Chief of Staff who was needed for that position anyway. . The dead Chief of Staff had already been erased from the Chairman’s mind.
“This is a call from the Prime Minister’s Office.”
He handed the phone to the chairman.
The chairman answered the phone with a bitter expression.
“Yes, I’m looking at you… Is that what you decided in the end? I understand.”
The Chairman sighed and hung up the phone.
The Chief of Staff cautiously asked,
“Is it really war?”
The chairman nodded.
“Now that the plan to go to war has failed and an operation has failed, there is no way to stop the radicals. Since the U.S. military has left, there is no country to stop them.”
“But is this a winnable war?”
As far as the Chief of Staff knew, the Korean military was not weak either. It would be natural for Japan to win at sea, but if they could not land, they were in trouble. The Chairman shook his head. “Anyway, there is an idea to revitalize the economy by returning to a war economy, so win or lose.
” “It won’t stop.”
“I guess the idea is to occupy the southern region or turn coastal cities into swamps and force them to come to negotiations.”
The Chief of Staff nodded. That didn’t seem like a bad plan.
But the Chairman looked at the Chief of Staff who lowered his head with a sneer.
The war with Korea. It was all pointless talk. It was just a show to unite the chaotic internal world. It was just that.
If we fought only with South Korea, there might have been a possibility.
But looking at the way things are going now, we will also have to fight against South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. The
Self-Defense Forces and the Prime Minister’s Office may be stretching their imaginations in the most positive direction, but in his view as a businessman, There was no chance of success at all.
The Chairman sighed.
In any case, there was no alternative. The only choice left was to die like this or die in a fight.
In any case, the war was the last lifeline for him and the Mitsubishi Group.
“It’s an order from the Prime Minister’s Office. “Let’s convert all the factories to a display system.”
“All right.”
The Chief of Staff received the Chairman’s instructions and went out.
The Chairman, who was left alone, watched TV and clicked his tongue.
Although not on the announced list, the Chief of Staff to the President of the Republic of Korea had not been seen for several days either. If he had been caught too, it was clear that the monster poison that was being injected into the President would have stopped. “ Nothing
works.”
The chairman frowned.
But even if we could get over the other things, there was still one thing that remained that he did not understand.
“Who is it? There is no way a snobbish president would do something like this…”
The current president was not the kind of person who would come up with something big like this.
Heart . He became frustrated. Ever since the power plant explosion, something unpleasant had been blocking him and Japan.
The chairman calmed his frustration by looking at a picture of Mount Fuji on the wall.
Although it was a place closed to traffic after the cataclysm, he wanted to visit Mount Fuji like other Japanese people. I thought it was a sacred mountain.
***
Half way up Mt. Fuji.
Gyeonghoon was sitting on a rock next to a hiking trail that was closed to traffic, looking at the nearby forest.
Tall
trees were falling one after another. But there were no birds flying or animals pouring out.
It was like a forest. They appeared to be dead.
At the beginning of the cataclysm, all the animals on Mt. Fuji poured down the mountain,
from small squirrels to deer and bears.
People were shocked, but they finished the job by shooting the animals.
Japanese police banned access to Mt. Fuji. They searched the mountain,
but they did not find any monsters.
They did not find the monster, but they were not allowed to climb the mountain again. And time passed as Mount Fuji was abandoned.
“They didn’t know because it was underground.”
Kyung-hoon muttered as he looked at the monster that was destroying the tree.
It was a huge earthworm monster. An earthworm-shaped monster similar to the monster he caught in the other world not long ago.
Burning.
As the monster passed by, the surrounding trees burned.
The earthworm monster from the other world. Unlike the Mt. Fuji earthworm monster, its entire body was covered in flames. It seemed like it was because it lives near a volcano. -Data
verification completed. Probability of war with Korea is 100%. Japan has already started preparing for war.
“Are they going that way after all? “How long until the war?”
-It looks like the war could start in as early as three months or half a year.
Gyeonghoon nodded at Eve’s words.
Modern wars do not require short preparations. Of course, the engagement itself can easily take place, but a lot of preparation is needed to wage an invasion war. -What are you going to do
? Should we inform the Korean government?
“No, there is no need to do that. It would be impossible to start a war anyway.”
There was no need to interfere directly.
Just not announcing the wave was enough to prevent war.
The Japanese may have thought they were living in a blessed land, but nowhere in the world was safe.
“And those who did it would be dealt with during the wave. “You can do it.”
Kyung-hoon had no intention of ending his punishment by keeping his mouth shut.
The monsters of Mt. Fuji were discovered by Eve after the cataclysm when she investigated the earthquakes around Mt. Fuji.
And these earthworm monsters were now preparing to unleash a wave.
Crrrrr.
Several places . Flames rose up from there. Other earthworm monsters crawled out of the ground.
Flames rose up. The
heat was felt all the way to where Kyung-hoon was.
-It’s time. I think we should leave soon.
Kyung-hoon stood up at Eve’s words. .Wheeeeeeee.
Sirens
began to sound in the city far below Mount Fuji.
But it was already too late.
A black hole was created in the floor. It was a portal. Kyung-hoon jumped into the hole. Kyung-hoon disappeared
into the hole and then
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssssdbptsbprb.prsb.ssipbb.scan) disappear into the hole. A black hole has been created in the floor.
An earthquake struck the entire Mt. Fuji area.
Fuaaaaaa!
Lava poured out from the holes where the earthworm monsters came out.
Crumbling.
The earthquake did not stop.
The snow that had piled up halfway up the mountain poured down.
But the snow met fire and lava. It only turned into water vapor.
It wasn’t just water vapor that rose up. Smoke rose from the top of the volcano. The
sound of the siren became several times louder, but people stared blankly at Mount Fuji.
At that moment.
Quaaaaaaaaa!
The volcano exploded.
After 300 years. Thanks to the hole made by the monsters, Mt. Fuji erupted again.
Volcanic ash rose all the way to the sky and lava spewed out like a fountain.
The lava that spewed out flowed down the mountainside like a waterfall.
Riding the flowing lava were people resembling earthworms. Huge monsters ran downward.
The lava would not continue to flow endlessly, but the monsters had no intention of stopping.
The monsters ran north.
In the direction the monsters were running was Tokyo, the capital of Japan.
***
[…. New .Swearing.. to. 5. 3.. yo…..]
The first sound I heard after escaping from the portal was a New York broadcast that cut out loudly.
It was worth it to arrive at the broadcast time.
But Kyung-hoon did not listen to the broadcast . He was looking up blankly.
“Is this really where I thought it was?”
Shane nodded,
“I stopped by on the way. Don’t you need a lot of money?”
Tall buildings rose in the middle of the endless desert.
Several floors of the buildings were buried in sand, but the remaining floors were very tall and luxurious.
Las Vegas.
The city of entertainment built in the desert was spread out before my eyes, covered in sand.
