86. New Advance (2)
The conclusion of this meeting was that the city the Balhut Cult would newly advance into was Ulsan. Judging that it would be difficult to control Daegu or Busan with their current forces, the cult planned to devour Ulsan first, build up their strength, and then aim for Busan or Daegu.
That meant it was now their turn to deeply deliberate on the path from Gyeongju to Ulsan.
"Like with Pohang, there's actually no issue with the route to Ulsan. It's right below Gyeongju, after all."
In truth, from the perspective of the cult based in Gyeongju, there were no problems at all with the route to Ulsan itself. Gyeongju and Ulsan were already connected by roads like Wonhwa-ro and Sanup-ro, so following those straight through would get them to Ulsan in no time. They'd conquered Pohang using military vehicles on the roads as well, so as long as they secured control of the highways connecting the cities, they could easily penetrate deep into the urban centers along those routes.
"If necessary, we can enter Ulsan via the sea. Using fast speedboats, we could land inside the city via the rivers connected to the ocean."
Of course, now that Pohang had been recaptured, it was fully possible to utilize not just roads but also sea routes. If they infiltrated Ulsan Port with speedboats from Pohang, seized the harbor, and established a foothold there, the Balhut Cult could manage easy resupply by sea—and from there, push into the city's interior. Above all, Ulsan had waterways linking the sea to rivers, giving them the advantage of deep penetration via speedboats.
For the cult, which needed internal collaborators to conquer cities, recapturing Ulsan Port with speedboats seemed quite appealing.
"But the Pohang Navy is locked in fierce combat with the ghost fleets appearing at sea to normalize the East Sea. We can't pull the fleet out recklessly just for a Ulsan push."
The problem with this approach was that it required the Pohang fleet led by Baek Seol-hwa. In other words, it meant diverting the Pohang fleet—currently clashing head-on with the ever-appearing ghost fleets threatening East Sea routes—for the Ulsan operation, placing a heavy burden on the ships fighting those spectral armadas.
Moreover, at this critical time when trade with the White House was vital, they couldn't arbitrarily deploy the Pohang Navy guarding the East Sea for Ulsan. A single misstep could disrupt East Sea shipping lanes, drastically reducing the volume of goods flowing from Pohang to Gyeongju. That could derail the entire project to redesign Gyeongju as an awakener-centric city. Thus, Yu-na rejected Jeong Dong-gun's sea-route proposal as impossible.
"Well, Ulsan is important, but maintaining ties with America is even more so."
When Yu-na declared a coastal assault via sea effectively unfeasible, Jeong Dong-gun expressed regret—but he knew better than anyone that the cult couldn't easily abandon the massive influx of logistics from the US. Especially since the iron ore imported from America was processed in Pohang and supplied to Gyeongju as steel, bolstering the Balhut Cult's weapons industry. High-quality new weapons born from these premium materials in the Balhut weapons lab were greatly strengthening the cult's forces, while exporting those same arms back to the US created a virtuous cycle.
"If we can't use the sea, we'll have to recapture Ulsan with an Awakened infantry force. From our perspective, there are two routes to Ulsan. First, using the Munmudaewang 5 Tunnels from Pohang onto the East Sea Expressway. Second, taking the Sanup-ro connecting Gyeongju and Pohang. The Sanup-ro route even has a way to link up to the East Sea Expressway."
If sea routes were off the table, they'd have no choice but to launch a road-based assault like they did for Pohang. Fortunately, there were paths from both Gyeongju and Pohang to Ulsan—and the Balhut Cult could choose whichever suited them best. In other words, they had the freedom to select the optimal path, and Jeong Dong-gun had already mapped out the best one before this discussion even began.
"Which is faster?"
"They're similar, but factoring in resupply for the expedition force, I'd say skipping the Munmudaewang 5 Tunnels—which we'd have to start from scratch—and instead using the secured Sanup-ro to hop onto the East Sea Expressway, or just pushing all the way via Sanup-ro, wouldn't be bad."
Jeong Dong-gun seemed convinced that the Sanup-ro route, starting from Gyeongju under firm cult control, was ideal. And...
"So, we're departing from Gyeongju."
"Yes. Even before we fully secured all of Gyeongju, the route to Ulsan was already under our control. Back then, we were at war with North Gyeongju, so we had no spare attention for the Sanup-ro to Ulsan—but the road itself has long been under our command."
Since the Balhut Cult originated from South Gyeongju, the Sanup-ro leading to Ulsan was already within Gyeongju's sphere of control. When heading to Pohang, North Gyeongju was under Jo Sun-do's rule—right around when re-trial results were pending—leaving security unstable, and the roads to Pohang swarming with zombies occupying key points. They'd had to clear zombies from start to finish along the way. But the Ulsan route was already under cult control.
"True. We prioritized recapturing the villages and townships along there first."
"Frankly speaking, using the familiar and secure Sanup-ro is more convenient for our troops."
"Yeah. Better to leverage what's already there than start over from scratch."
From Jeong Dong-gun's standpoint, advocating for the already-controlled Sanup-ro was ultimately about safe transit and troop convenience. Why restart from zero when they had a secured safe path? It would just waste time and budget.
"So, are there many zombies coming from Ulsan to Gyeongju?"
"No. Soldiers at outposts and checkpoints report no zombie traces in the last two months. No mutant zombie sightings either. We can essentially say none are coming up from Ulsan."
The potential issue was zombies migrating from Ulsan—beyond cult control—to Gyeongju. Jeong Dong-gun had checkpoints and outposts monitoring for zombies from other cities, but for Ulsan, they hadn't spotted regular or mutant zombies in two months. It was certainly good news, but...
"That's fortunate, but in this apocalypse, zero zombies feels... good, yet strangely off."
"Yes, it's a bit suspicious. A few zombies trickling in would make sense, but none at all defies the norms of this apocalypse."
In peacetime, it would be unremarkable, but this was the end times—and zero zombies flew in the face of that reality, making it suspicious instead. No zombies meant zero casualties among soldiers manning nearby roads, which sounded great on paper. Yu-na acknowledged it as good news too.
"With the ghost fleet incidents lately, it feels even more off."
Having experienced various suspicious events recently, the Balhut Cult couldn't help but suspect some hidden implication behind the total absence of zombies.
"Mutant zombies are common outside our managed areas, yet none appear in our southern jurisdiction."
Bluntly put, regular and mutant zombies were commonplace everywhere except the routes to Ulsan. Awakener civilian transport, bodyguard, and mercenary businesses were booming in Gyeongju and Pohang precisely because unmanaged roads and areas had high mutant zombie risks.
"Even now, our key granary zones see mutant zombies frequently—and worse, mutant spider zombies at times."
Reports of mutant zombies frequently appearing near the Hyongsan River tributaries—the granary zones for Gyeongju and Pohang—were still coming in regularly.
"So, based on our current intel, we can make two deductions."
"Two, huh?"
Jeong Dong-gun was confident he could narrow it down to two hypotheses with what they had.
"Yes. First: like Pohang, Ulsan is under the control of newly evolved mutant zombies. Bahamut has stated that the apocalypse on the peninsula leans more toward undead than plain zombies, so evolution into unknown undead types is entirely plausible. The ghost fleets prove it."
"Fair point."
The first hypothesis mirrored Pohang's mutant spider zombies: a new mutant strain had emerged in Ulsan. Following Bahamut's hunch that this was more undead apocalypse, unknown new undead variants were inevitable. In other words, a powerful new Ulsan-exclusive mutant zombie had silenced the city. That was hypothesis one.
"Second: Ulsan is currently under someone's control, just like the Balhut Cult. If a powerful Awakener has emerged to purge zombies and reclaim the city, it would explain the current situation."
"If Seol-hwa sees it that way, the hypothesis holds. That's how I took Gyeongju, after all."
The second was that someone in Ulsan had brought the city under their personal control, Balhut Cult-style. Jo Sun-do had proven that a strong Awakener could dominate the masses through violence, while Yu-na and Seol-hwa demonstrated that talented powerhouses could rally around their charisma to reclaim and rule a city. The Balhut Cult had solidly validated the latter, and though she'd failed, even young Seol-hwa had nearly unified Pohang with her unbeatable prowess and courageous presence. It was entirely plausible.
"Word from community rumors is that a survivor leader in Daegu unified the splintered camps. They're apparently calling themselves a provisional government—likely a coalition like Pohang's."
"Something like that in Daegu? Well, it's one of the peninsula's major cities. What about Ulsan?"
"...Nothing like that from Ulsan. Their communities are eerily quiet compared to others—feels like they're fully controlled."
To back his claim, Jeong Dong-gun cited Daegu. The flaw? No similar case in Ulsan. Their communities were so silent, no internal news leaked out at all.
"Quiet, huh. We'll skip intel-less Ulsan for now. What about this Daegu coalition?"
"Daegu's likely a coalition provisional government too. Like Pohang, internal unity would be abysmal, but sheer size makes them a hassle. That's the extent of it, though. No need for the Pontiff to worry about Daegu."
"Got it. What about zombies from the west?"
Jeong Dong-gun pegged Daegu's self-proclaimed provisional government as a loose Pohang-style alliance, arguing their cohesion was negligible—but Daegu was four times Pohang's size. Regardless of internals, inflated forces could intimidate foes into concessions. Yu-na nodded gravely and asked about zombies from the west—Daegu.
"Western surveillance outposts report a sharp drop in zombies coming from Daegu to Gyeongju lately."
"Mutants?"
"Mutants appear sporadically. Not absent like Ulsan."
Unlike silent Ulsan with zero mutants from the south, Daegu—which boasted a self-proclaimed government and internal unity rumors—still sent mutants westward toward Gyeongju.
"So, zombie-free silent Ulsan has none, while coalition Daegu still spawns mutants. Hard not to suspect something."
"The silence is suspicious."
The very quietness fueled deeper suspicion.
"For now, like with Pohang, we'll gather intel on Ulsan—internal situation and community chatter—before moving. Oh, and Daegu intel too, while we're at it. It's our neighbor, after all."
"Wise decision."
In the end, Yu-na opted to collect intel on Ulsan and Daegu governments, then devise countermeasures. The main focus remained Ulsan ops, with Daegu as an afterthought—their treatment still lukewarm.