Chapter 42

Chapter 42. War Preparations (2)

Paat!

[Inquiring about Constellation information is a prohibited act.]

"Even between fellow Transcendents, I can't ask? Is that it?"

Having declared he would enter the Tower, the Patriot fell into deep deliberation.

'The Tower — the very place where that old geezer Sword Emperor went missing… ugh.'

A situation where he had no choice but to enter the [Tower] — the place he hadn't gone anywhere near since the Sword Emperor's disappearance.

Now that the Japanese bastards had all gone home, he had no more excuses.

The options given were two.

[Enter the Tower, overcome the trial, and welcome a new Constellation.]

[Options]

1. Constellation, Syngman Rhee.

2. Constellation, Yi Do.

'Syngman Rhee is certainly a great figure, but…'

He had heard the man was the first President of the Republic of Korea.

But it was a bit ambiguous.

When it came down to it, he couldn't recall hearing what exactly the man had accomplished.

It was clearly different from the other Constellations.

Yi Sun-sin had annihilated the Japanese bastards in the Battle of Myeongnyang.

Yulgok Yi I had raised a 100,000-strong army and punished Japan.

Cheok Jun-gyeong had become a Sword Master and eradicated China.

Yi Sun-sin, Yulgok Yi I, Cheok Jun-gyeong.

He knew them well, starting from historical drama novels and even webtoon adaptations.

He'd even learned from <Trip: Great Korean Empire, 2077> that Yi Sun-sin's ships were actually aircraft carriers.

He'd encountered Yulgok Yi I's high-tech forces in a different work by the same author.

'It was the one where Yulgok Yi I, having gained the ability to summon a modern military, builds the Great Korean Empire.'

Special-forces soldiers who had crossed the line of humanity to defeat foreign enemies.

The sight of soldiers who had become killing machines for their homeland crushing invaders on patriotism alone had truly struck a chord with the Patriot.

The land they protected was the Republic of Korea within the trial the Patriot had endured.

"Hmm."

But the Patriot was always cautious.

He couldn't hastily choose a Constellation's trial.

Even so, wouldn't a first President be someone amazing?

Ordinarily, one might think so — but because it was the Patriot, the word 'President' gave him pause.

'Presidents aren't inherently good people.'

Could a President truly serve the national interest?

Right after Transcending, the Patriot hadn't only executed the sitting President.

He'd combed through every government file, and whenever evidence of corruption was found, he'd killed them all — past Presidents and Assembly members alike, without exception.

'Every last one of them was a bastard.'

Politicians, the military — all of them.

Assembly members who'd evaded conscription, or gotten their children illegally exempted, had debated military discipline and executed budgets.

And the military had pocketed those budgets, funneling money to businesses run by their own families.

Two million won for a single bed, ten million won for a single chair.

All of it had been done under the patronage of the man called the President.

That was why the title 'President' held no great weight for the Patriot.

'Even if it's Korea's first President…'

He wouldn't be on the level of Yi Sun-sin, Yulgok Yi I, or Cheok Jun-gyeong.

For one, the man didn't even have a title.

Yi Sun-sin was so extraordinarily famous that he even had the [title] 'Chungmugong.'

In fact, when the Patriot had first undergone his trial, only the title [Chungmugong] had appeared in the selection — but he'd been able to identify Yi Sun-sin thanks to remembering him from a movie.

The structure was exactly the same when it appeared as a [Tower] trial after Awakening.

'If I think about Yi Sun-sin's case, "Yi Do" also seems like some kind of title…'

[Yi Do] — a title he'd never heard of.

The first thing that came to mind…

'Dual-wielding?'

But dual-wielding originated from the Japanese bastards, didn't it?

Since it was his own trial, it absolutely couldn't be a Japanese matter…

'No answer.'

The Patriot felt immense pressure about summoning a new Constellation.

And so he used the [Tower Quest Change Token] he had obtained from conquering the Black Gate — that nightmarish forest of elves.

Paat!

[Choose a Constellation to strengthen.]

1. Yi Sun-sin.

2. Yulgok Yi I.

3. Cheok Jun-gyeong.

The trial's content changed to something comparable to what he usually faced.

'Who should I strengthen?'

To deal with Shin Si-woo, it would be right to strengthen Sword Master Cheok Jun-gyeong.

But…

'He's not a bad guy.'

The kid was actually decent.

That vile Japanese Ggampre had been terrified at the mere sight.

Shin Si-woo had clearly shown the Japanese bastards a thing or two.

And he was damn strong.

'Seeing Cheok Jun-gyeong pull back, one round of strengthening won't be enough to match him.'

So.

Now the options were two.

[100,000 Special Forces VS 12 Aircraft Carriers.]

What the Patriot needed to do was wage war.

Not some run-of-the-mill civil conflict.

The first international war since the Gate crisis.

And a war fought alongside allies, no less.

'The Million Demons will be enough for ground forces, so let's strengthen the fleet for naval power.'

The sea.

Ocean and sky.

Hence, aircraft carriers.

That was the Patriot's thinking.

"Wouldn't it look pretty cool if missiles rained down from flying aircraft carriers?"

Dropping nuclear warheads, that is.

Let's make the carriers — already at a Transcendent tier — even stronger!

The trial's content would become extremely difficult, but even so, the Patriot had confidence.

With the Constellations at his side, he had no fear.

Still…

"Hmm."

Just before entering the Tower, one last thing.

The Patriot entered [WorldNet] and checked public opinion about himself.

He had to do this regularly every day to feel at ease.

"Huh?"

But something was off.

Praise for his opening portals across the entirety of South Korea was nowhere to be found.

Every citizen was riveted to Shin Si-woo's statement.

<Transcendent Shin Si-woo has declared he will strengthen internal security within South Korea.>

The Patriot nodded.

This guy's no ordinary one either.

"I'm genuinely curious what exactly he plans to crack down on."

Violent criminals didn't exist in South Korea.

Even potential murderers — drunk drivers — had been uprooted.

The big-time con artists had all been executed too.

What was left was real estate and the stock market, maybe?

And…

He didn't know.

'He'll handle it himself.'

* * *

The demon worshippers were on the move.

The cause lay with me.

'The more something is perceived, the more vivid it becomes.'

A case in point: [Induced Awakened].

They underwent trials in a recreated environment based on the shared experiences of existing Awakened.

This was possible because the more widely the trial's content became known, the more firmly it took root in the world.

<The more observers, the lower the probability.>

Of course, this too was fact.

Under such circumstances, the number of people undergoing trials and Awakening ought to decrease — but reality had been different.

Awakened had been born in a 'degraded' state while retaining sound minds.

Hence, 'Induced Awakened.'

Meaning, if the level of Awakening was lowered, the probability itself did not decrease.

'For demon worshippers, it'd be the reverse.'

If the old rule was that you became a demon worshipper by killing a few people, then going forward, you would need to kill far more to become one.

A fact proven in the [Raise a Sword] world.

Reality was no different.

"Given these conditions, the chances of demon worshippers being born in secret should drop significantly."

The President, who had been discussing countermeasures with me, nodded.

The result of publicly, for all to see, proclaiming the existence of demon worshippers.

Now we could monitor the conditions for becoming a demon worshipper in real time.

[Kill 1,666 people and offer those deaths to the Dark God.]

The concept that observation lowered probability applied to Trials of Awakening.

Demon worship was strictly in the domain of 'choice,' and its conditions had shifted to become stricter.

The previous conditions — killing one or two, at most ten — was something that could be concealed if one set their mind to it.

But killing over a thousand people would not be so easy.

"Shin Si-woo, you really did have a plan after all."

Senior Prosecutor Kang gazed at me with a steady expression.

Then he asked,

"Are demon worshippers the only enemies derived from humanity?"

A question asking whether there were more.

Naturally, demon worshippers and the Dark God were not the end of it.

"That's correct."

In truth, the terrifying beings called Outer Gods still remained.

But those, I had no intention of mentioning at all.

'I'd better not even bring up the Outer Gods.'

Ignorance was bliss in that case.

They were the type that grew more vivid the more people knew and became conscious of them.

If the Outer Gods appeared without countermeasures, humanity might just be annihilated wholesale.

The Outer Gods were beyond any comparison with abstract phenomena like [Darkness] or [Death].

So I deftly steered the topic elsewhere.

"Where is the most likely location domestically?"

"You truly intend to carry out the internal crackdown."

The reason I'd declared I would strengthen internal security was because of Kim Chang-sik, who had come to me seeking defection.

Korea's demon worshippers had been ground down by the Patriot before they could even attempt anything.

Since those who'd resolved to kill people and embrace evil were often inherently wicked, that was how it went.

But—

"There are still quite a few demon worshippers hiding domestically."

The [gathering] Kim Chang-sik had described had only assembled Seoul's demon worshippers, and their numbers had been very small.

But in the provinces, the scale was reportedly larger.

Because Seoul — under threat from Goyang's Red Sea and Ghost Valley's curse — had received the greatest concentration of forces.

The provinces, being relatively lax, had looser surveillance — and there was speculation that actual strongholds existed out there.

"There are three leading candidates."

According to information the Presidential Office had compiled, there were approximately three candidate locations for demon-worshipper strongholds in South Korea.

Their common feature was that, like Gate-less Bizarre, inexplicable phenomena were occurring without any clear cause.

"The first candidate is the dragon nest in Jamsil Lotte Tower."

A dragon's nest.

Far removed from demon worshippers.

"This one is more likely a precursor to a Black Gate."

I had grounds for thinking so.

After the Japanese Transcendents departed, the Patriot had shared the trial he'd undergone.

The government had summarized and published the details to the world.

[Elves — a non-human, barbaric, cannibalistic race that is extremely hostile to humans.]

[World Tree — a colossal tree-type monster that regards humans as fertilizer.]

My speculation was that the Patriot had encountered the remnants of a corrupted World Tree.

Or it might have been a group of World Trees with sane minds.

'Whether corrupted or not, they've always been extreme.'

At any rate, factoring in the American case as well, the dragon that had infested Jamsil Lotte Tower was highly likely to be a precursor to a Black Gate's appearance.

So, on to the next issue.

"The next is Paju… the area where polluted-beast corpses are stockpiled."

From North Korea, polluted beasts flowed out ceaselessly.

Without pause, constantly.

Polluted beasts were dreadful creatures whose corpses couldn't be fully erased even by the Patriot's firepower.

So the government had simply built a disposal facility on the destroyed land of Paju.

And that land was now an uninhabited no-man's-land.

"If they have a way to hide from the bombings, it could certainly be used as a hideout."

Naturally, the Patriot periodically bombed the area to reduce the polluted-beast remains as much as possible.

If they could just dodge those bombings, it was the perfect location for a hideout — and the fact that they could flee to North Korea at any time was certainly an appealing factor for demon worshippers as well.

And the last—

"Jeonju, Jeolla-do."

A Bizarre phenomenon in which an entire city, along with roughly 300,000 of its citizens, had been sucked into a void.

Yet it was the only place the Patriot did not bomb.

Naturally so, because—

<This is Jeolla-Man! Reporting on survival day 1,134.>

<Today 3,000 residents vanished, leaving a total of 170,000 survivors. We are still alive and maintaining our sanity.>

<We urgently request rescue from the government…>

Jeolla-Man — the civil servant who had been promoting Jeolla-do.

Before the Gate crisis, he was a famous civil servant with millions of subscribers on NewTube.

He had held his ground even after the Gates erupted and the [WorldNet] era arrived.

Furthermore, he'd gained even more fame for being a civil servant who had escaped the Patriot's judgment.

And even after being sucked into the void, he continued to transmit survival signals.

"That location has merit too."

A precursor to a Black Gate.

And the possibility that demon worshippers had set up a base there coexisted.

If the hundreds of thousands of survivors were real.

"If I could, I would like to request that you start with Jeolla-do."

I wanted that too.

But priorities existed in this world.

The moment the Dark God — Necribas — manifested, a catastrophe making hundreds of thousands look like nothing could unfold.

A fully intact Dark God was a being that required me to maintain my sword for 'over 1 minute' to kill.

One minute might sound trivial, but enduring my sword for a full minute meant it was on a level that vastly Transcended the ordinary.

"As President of this nation… I earnestly, sincerely ask."

"The timeline isn't that tight. Please don't worry too much."

We hadn't even heard back from Jesus and America yet.

"For now, I'll handle them one at a time."

My plan was to set priorities and resolve every issue cleanly.

One month until the war.

Meaning, within that time, I would erase every last remnant of demon worshippers from the country called South Korea.

To that end, there was one person I absolutely had to meet.

"Truly, you must meet her?"

But for some reason, Senior Prosecutor Kang seemed to be gently trying to stop me.

"When answers are there for the picking, ignoring them would be foolish, wouldn't it?"

"…Since Lord Patriot's return, her mental state hasn't been sound, so if she's a bit strange, I'd appreciate your understanding."

"Don't worry."

The Patriot had entered the Tower.

That was what made such a bold visit possible.

* * *

I headed to the Blue House underground bunker to meet the Saintess of Fate, Im Ji-a.

And what greeted me there was a horrifying sight I'd never anticipated.

—Gurgle. Gurk.

They'd told me the Saintess had gone even crazier after the Patriot returned.

She had lost all of her body and vanished.

No — one finger remained.

And that finger…

Twitch—.

Flipped over an invisible card resting on the table.

⦗Ohhh… what a bizarre iron I've never seen before!!!⦘

Muratan marveled at the sight.

A moment later, the invisible being fled in haste.

Before long, a hand formed above the finger, and the Saintess's body began regenerating one part after another.

The resurrected Saintess shouted,

"Royal Flush!!! Hah! You worthless trash!"

It appeared she had pulled off a dramatic victory in a desperate crisis.

Atop the Saintess's table, a heap of Coins had piled up, and several golden cards had materialized.

Trembling with the joy of victory, she locked eyes with me.

"Th-that's not what it looks like?"

She asked me with wavering eyes.

I shrugged and averted my gaze.

Everything else aside…

'I'm going to use every one of those cards.'

It was possible that the Saintess's lifespan was even shorter than I'd thought.