Chapter 37
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 037
Chapter Title: Sowolin Usori
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Once you leave Incheon, it's all savage wilderness. A spiritual wasteland devoid of any traces of civilization or intellect—a chaotic battlefield of tribes envious of Incheon's wealth and glory.
Which is a fancy way of saying I'd arrived in Seoul.
The official car carrying me sped along. I turned my head to look out the window, where the Han River flowed majestically today as well, eagerly swallowing up as many Koreans as it could.
Soon, some supermarket came into view. The sight of lettuce and watermelons displayed in its window made me grimace involuntarily.
Wasn't Incheon in the middle of a full-blown food desert right now? Vegetables and fruit were rarities you could barely find even in big marts back home. Yet here in Seoul, some hole-in-the-wall shop was selling them?
No wonder everyone was desperate to live in Seoul.
"Welcome, Mr. Kim Geuk! I'm truly sorry for summoning you in the middle of your busy schedule."
We arrived at our destination and stepped out of the car, where a suit greeted me. He screamed Seoul elite non-Awakener trash, so I didn't see much point in conversing.
I just nodded without replying, and the suit kept talking.
"Please, come inside. That arrogant Sowolin is waiting."
We passed down a corridor lit up like daylight by blazing lights (I can't even bear to look—Incheon's buildings don't turn on lights during the day anymore). We arrived at a room with a solidly shut steel door.
Through the glass window in the steel door, I saw a man. He was bound in thick restraints around both arms and legs that looked incredibly sturdy.
"You recognize him, right? That bastard..."
Of course, I immediately knew who the captured Sowolin was.
It was the big brute of an Awakener I'd taken down in a fight last time.
"As you know, those raiders never listen when we try talking to them. Not when it comes to Sowolin Awakeners, anyway. They claim to rule Sowol...
We've tried talking to those guys countless times, and it's never worked once. Whether we wave a white flag or bring gifts, they just ignore us. They snatch the gifts and don't exchange a single word."
The suit frowned as he continued.
"This one even refused to talk after we caught him."
However, analysis of the CCTV footage from the detention facility showed that the Sowolin Awakener had attempted to communicate with me specifically.
And since the captured brute had also complied with my demand to drop his weapon and fight with fists, it seemed he recognized me as a valid conversation partner.
"Maybe he only talks to people who obviously look like Awakeners? If you don't look like one, he treats you like lowly slaves and ignores you?"
If that was really the case, he was one arrogant lunatic. I kept my mouth shut, deeming the suit—who seemed to be waiting for agreement—not worth responding to.
"Anyway, that's why we called you, Mr. Kim Geuk. You look like a Physical Enhancement Awakener at first glance, and like last time, he might see you as someone worth talking to. Ah, the interpreter's here! Let's go in."
The steel door opened. I entered with the suit and the Sowolin interpreter.
And the burly Sowolin looked at me.
There was no need to coax him into speaking. He opened his mouth right away.
"Ah, the martial arts master? Nice to see you again."
The brute said that. I could understand his Sowolin tongue even before the interpreter translated. Good lord.
It was astonishing, but I didn't let on, lest I arouse suspicions that I wasn't a pure-blooded Incheon native. I just inwardly speculated it was some hallucination aftereffect granting me the ability.
"Tell him I'm glad to see him too. And that it's a shame to see him captured like this."
And so, with the interpreter and suit flanking me, I began conversing with the brute.
It was a bizarre exchange: the suit would whisper a question in my ear, I'd relay it, and the interpreter would translate.
"What's your name?"
"Usori."
"How old are you?"
"Four hundred fifty. After four hundred, I stopped counting precisely, so it might be off a bit, but around there."
The brute claimed to have lived for hundreds of years. Did that even make sense?
I wondered if their years differed from ours, so I asked how long ordinary people lived. The answer?
"Usually, they make it to their mid-twenties before dying?"
That confirmed the burly Sowolin was truly a monster who'd lived for centuries.
When I asked how he'd lived so long, the brute replied.
"Awakeners like you and me, if we develop the ability to heal wounds quickly, we stop aging. If we're already old, we even revert to our younger selves."
The suit whispered to me then.
"Sounds like he's talking about Super Regeneration? Seems Super Regeneration halts aging. Well, we already suspected as much, so it's not exactly news..."
I nodded, feeling a mix of joy at confirming my immortality and pride at having beaten such a mighty Awakener who'd lived centuries.
Before the suit could continue questioning, I spoke up.
"Let me ask something too. Do spirits not age either? More precisely, do those who were once human and became spirits stop aging?"
"Of course not. Their true forms aren't flesh."
No wonder my round girl looked just as young in photos from years ago as she did now—it wasn't just makeup. Another piece of good news.
As I grinned, the brute asked.
"Martial arts master, how old are you?"
"Not even thirty yet."
"Young. And yet so strong—impressive. It was a splendid proposal to set aside that cowardly yet powerful weapon and fight bare-handed. Even though I lost..."
"You too—despite being pushed back in the fight, you never drew the dagger at your waist. It was splendid, win or lose."
Did exchanging compliments with the brute irk the suit? He urged me to relay his questions.
This clueless non-Awakener trash dared...
I wasn't thrilled, but I complied.
"Do you intend to defect to South Korea?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"This is a strange world where the shepherd doesn't act like the master."
"What's a sheep?"
"This. And this."
The brute pointed at the suit beside me and the Sowolin interpreter.
Evidently, he lumped non-Awakeners in with sheep. I'd heard non-Awakeners were treated like livestock among Sowolin Awakeners, and it seemed true.
The next exchange confirmed it.
"Why have you ignored all our attempts at dialogue so far? Why reject every negotiation and just raid us?"
"Talking to sheep is weird."
"You mean there's no reason to talk to non-Awakeners? Why?"
And the brute's response didn't even carry the nuance of deeming them lowly.
"When wild sheep gather and you want to take a few, trying to negotiate with the herd leader is bizarre. Of course, if they had an owner, you'd talk to the owner."
To him, conversing with non-Awakeners was simply 'weird.' Not undignified or unbecoming of nobility—just odd.
Like how we don't talk to livestock not because we scorn them, but because they're unworthy of conversation in the first place.
"Are you truly a lord ruling a territory?"
"Of course."
"How many do you rule in your territory?"
"Two thousand."
"Fifty million live in Korea. One point eight million in Incheon."
And the brute asked flatly.
"Lots of sheep. So?"
The suit seemed flustered by the reaction. He'd probably hoped to cow him by highlighting how vastly superior Korea was to his tiny domain, but it hadn't worked at all.
"Do you think I'm lying? Don't believe me?"
"I believe you. But so many are wild sheep, not yours. No matter how numerous, they're worthless."
"Why worthless? Doesn't a territory grow stronger with more people?"
"Stronger with more sheep? What does that mean?"
I brought up nations, populations, and mobilization of forces, but the brute scoffed.
"Using sheep in battle? Why do something so wasteful and cruel?"
As instructed, I pulled out my smartphone and showed him images of tercio and phalanx formations—massive soldier arrays that would seem overwhelming to pre-modern eyes. The question was, didn't even ordinary people in formation look useful?
But the brute just scoffed again.
"Giving iron to sheep? What a strange way to waste metal."
"Why? Don't they look strong?"
The brute shook his head at my question.
"Looks like one swing of my sword would kill them all. Being clustered makes it even easier to cleave them in one go."
Of course, if scattered individually, they'd be worthless even for a sword swing, so arming sheep with iron was still weird, he added.
"That ignorant bastard really..."
The suit vented his frustration, but I agreed with the brute.
With the advent of firepower, massed formations had become pre-modern folly, right?
And this Awakener before me swung a 3-meter force field blade. A single slash had grenade-level power or more.
Thus, massed formations against Awakeners in Sword World held no tactical value, and scattering troops was pointless against overlords with such overwhelming individual combat power.
I suddenly thought of this world's great warriors: Xiang Yu, who was peerless among men yet fell to countless cavalry, and Richard the Lionheart, slain by a mere boy's crossbow bolt.
Such indignities wouldn't happen in Sword World.
That Sowolin last time had wiped out modern-armed soldiers like they were nothing. If even modern firearms struggled against Awakeners, handing non-Awakeners bows, spears, and swords—worse than rifles—would be useless against superhuman Awakeners.
That's why arming non-Awakeners as soldiers in Sword World had no tactical merit. Combat was purely Awakeners' domain; armies of masses seemed nonexistent.
To me, it sounded damn cool.
A world where great heroes and warriors never fell to the common rabble? How could such an awesome place exist...
Conversely, arguments that more population made a nation stronger fell flat against this Awakener lord.
Emphasizing how great and livable Korea was did nothing to persuade him to defect.
"If you defect, we'll treat you better than you can imagine. You can eat whatever you want, and we'll give you plenty of wealth..."
"No need. My sheep suffice for everything I want. Plenty."
The same exchanges repeated without any sign of persuasion. Just like you couldn't sway Kim Jong-un by saying South Korea was better off, it was the same with this guy.
"I've answered all your questions. Can I go now?"
I relayed to the suit.
"He says absolutely not."
I glanced at the suit as I said it, but the brute didn't even look at him.
"I didn't ask the sheep—I asked you. Let me ask again: can I leave now?"
"You want me to release you?"
"No, I'll leave on my own. I've paid enough for raiding your territory rashly. Can I go?"
"Go if you can. But don't harm anyone on the way."
The suit freaked out at my response. He glared at me and pleaded with the interpreter.
"Tell him absolutely not."
But wasn't the interpreter a Sowolin too? He knew whose words to heed—non-Awakener trash or an Awakener.
The interpreter translated my words, not the suit's, and the brute smiled in satisfaction.
"You can go, but don't harm the sheep? I won't. One thing, though: the one who came with me—is he dead?"
He seemed to mean the Force Field exoskeleton guy I'd killed with one kick, so I said yes. The brute grinned.
"Impressive—you beat him, and he was mighty strong! In that case, want to come to our lands?"
Caught off guard by the offer, I blinked.
"To Sword World?"
"Yes. He's dead, so his sheep are masterless. Come over, and you can rule them without fighting anyone."
"Tempting... but no."
"Why?"
"I have to protect my land."
That ended the conversation. We left through the steel door, and the suit sighed.
"He really doesn't listen. Looks like to make that guy defect, we need someone like Councilor Park Mi-hyeong, not the likes of me. Use her hypnosis brainwashing that works even on Awakeners to make him loyal to Korea...
But he's planning to escape, huh? Bold dream. If we stop him, maybe it'll break his spirit and make him more compliant?"
However, containing a powerful Awakener is incredibly difficult. Even with limbs bound.
That night, the news reported the Sowolin Awakener's escape.
CCTV footage from the escape was released too. The restraints binding his limbs tore like tissue paper under the brute's fingers.
In the video, the brute's nails faintly gleamed after freeing himself in an instant.
Force field blade ability—apparently usable with nails instead of a sword. Just as I hadn't used Teleportation, he hadn't used that.
And until now, he'd played along like he couldn't escape, meekly eating their food—until a Gate opened in Seoul. He sensed it and bolted straight in.
Brilliant. Truly.