Chapter 325
Chapter 325
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Part 2 Prologue
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The light, darkness, and history of Daehan.
Lee Sung-jun.
With those three syllables of my name, I could explain everything about Daehan. I was the absolute sovereign.
Even a name as grand as that held no meaning in the face of death.
My memories ended there.
And the moment I opened my eyes again, I felt a powerful sense of déjà vu.
Familiar furnishings surrounded me.
‘This is... our house?’
If my memory served right, this was the room of translator Kim Sung-jun.
Just looking at the computer on the desk and the foreign books scattered haphazardly everywhere made it obvious.
I spent a long time looking around before pinching my cheek.
‘Was all of that just a dream?’
Come to think of it, did it even make sense for a mere translator to fall into a webtoon world and reign as the supreme ruler?
I'd dreamed an absurdly elaborate absurd dream.
I let out a hollow chuckle.
But if it had all been a dream, then what about these vivid memories etched into my mind?
They were far too clear to dismiss as mere fancy.
I turned on the computer and searched a portal site for "Fall of the Empire."
‘It’s here.’
The webtoon "Fall of the Empire," with its familiar realistic art style.
Aside from being much longer than what I'd seen, it was serialized on the portal for real.
‘I must’ve just had a crazy dream after reading this.’
People do dream about webtoons they read, right?
I tried to brush it off like that, but an inexplicable curiosity made me click on "Fall of the Empire" anyway.
“Huh?”
The story unfolded very differently from my memories.
" Fall of the Empire" was supposed to be a webtoon far removed from nationalistic hype, yet Daehan in the story dominated as the world’s second superpower.
Not the four-way death ending?
The name of Daehan’s leader was familiar, too.
Lee Sung-jun.
It was exactly the name I’d used in my dream.
Lee Sung-jun’s appearance matched the face I remembered perfectly.
No, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize it.
‘What the hell is going on?’
Was this really just a dream?
Dazed, I scrolled to the latest chapter.
At the end, it depicted Daehan groaning under the Yushin dictatorship.
Meanwhile, America soared into an era of great presidents, widening the gap with Korea in one fell swoop and surging ahead.
The disparity between the two nations, once called the dual powers, had more than doubled in just one generation.
“Daehan—the nation I built—falls this far?”
It was an ending too infuriating to simply write off as a dream.
I scrolled further, but that was the end of the content.
When I reached the bottom, the author’s note appeared.
“Are you satisfied with this outcome?”
As if.
Dream or not, Daehan was the country I’d nurtured with genuine affection.
It was the nation my daughter Lee Se-eun had sacrificed her youth to protect.
How could I be satisfied with an ending where all that effort crumbled into nothing?
I left a comment saying I couldn’t accept this conclusion.
“If so, change the fate of Daehan on the brink of ruin with your own hands, Your Excellency Lee Sung-jun.”
The author’s curt reply asked whether I’d seize the given opportunity or not.
Am I dreaming again now?
But it didn’t matter.
I couldn’t turn my back on Daehan in crisis.
The moment I made my decision, the clock blurred.
A hazy sensation washed over my body, like it had been anesthetized.
It felt like something I’d experienced once before.
Was it like this when I died?
A chill ran through me, and when I opened my eyes again, I saw an unfamiliar room.
Looking around, I spotted a small mirror.
The reflection showed a stranger’s face I’d never seen in my life.
Stunned by the sight, I staggered and collapsed into a chair.
Memories tangled chaotically in my head, bringing on dizziness.
‘Feels like I might puke, but I can endure it.’
Instead of panicking at the vertigo, I waited for the memories to sort themselves out.
That’s why ‘experience’ matters.
No doubt about it—I’d possessed another body.
Possession into a new body, huh.
Once my mind cleared, I didn’t hesitate like a newbie. I acted like the seasoned veteran I was.
First, I organized the information.
No matter what, grasping the situation objectively came first.
I picked up a pen.
1. My identity: A bureaucrat who followed Korea’s top elite track.
Bae Sung-jun graduated from Sung-jun Middle and High School, completed officer training for army, navy, and air force academies, and walked the elite bureaucrat path.
This track’s prestige surpassed even the royal bloodline course trod by Daehan Empire-era civilian generals.
Who would compare it to the path of uniformed officers under civilian control, an elevator that could lead to supreme power if needed?
This was the best possible starting point.
2. The current time: 1976.
The world after my death.
The era when Jang Dong-yoon’s Yushin dictatorship had just begun.
His power base wasn’t fully solidified yet.
Perfect timing to open my eyes.
3. My homeland, the Republic of Daehan, is in better shape than expected.
Jang wasn’t hopeless at governing, just blinded by power.
He’d pulled the country out of the economic crisis to some extent and maintained control over the factions.
‘Well, dictatorship takes skill, after all.’
This showed our judgment wasn’t entirely off in failing to screen him out.
4. Jang Dong-yoon’s grip on the state is stronger than anticipated.
Even accounting for Kim Jeong-gil grooming him throughout his presidency, the influence exceeded expectations.
Most elites from Sung-jun Middle and High School were acting as his praetorian guard.
Truth be told, this wasn’t abnormal.
When ‘school ties’ to the top power become a path to success, factions forming around pedigree is only natural.
With those elites rooted in government, bureaucracy, and military, Jang’s power was bound to be formidable.
‘With that network, he’s got the intelligence agencies locked down tight.’
Challenging someone who controls information is folly beyond words.
5. The democratization movement has no prospects right now.
Jang had established some legitimacy by visibly overcoming the economic crisis.
On top of that, through intelligence ops and media spin, he was redirecting resentment toward feigned ‘diligence.’
Considering this, without a major turning point, toppling the Jang regime wouldn’t be easy.
I coldly separated what I could do from what I couldn’t.
So, what could I do in this setup?
I calmly sorted my thoughts.
‘First, seize the intelligence agencies.’
To strike at his blind spot in the crucial moment, I needed control of the regime’s eyes and ears.
‘In this era, information power—not brute military force—is true power.’
To take the intelligence agencies, I needed to rise as an intelligence bureaucrat.
The problem: This body had no intelligence background.
Its owner had experience only in Finance, Defense, and Foreign Affairs ministries.
But this young bureaucrat had prime conditions to become one.
Being a Sung-jun Middle and High School grad favored by the ‘supreme leader’ was that edge.
Why was being from Sung-jun Middle and High so crucial?
Jang heavily favored them, handing out as many opportunities as possible.
They were dubbed his praetorian guard in public, or the so-called ‘Jang faction.’
‘Not an unfair assessment.’
And that’s not all.
Sung-jun alumni pulled each other up without hesitation.
“We’re all Sung-jun grads!”
Riding those connections and schmoozing a bit would make transferring to intelligence a breeze.
‘Looking at it this way, it’s the root of all corruption.’
If I regain power, I’ll shut down Sung-jun Middle and High for good.
Dead serious.
Anyway, back to the point—what next after entering intelligence?
Gather money.
I planned to discreetly skim the black money sloshing around intelligence ops.
That way, I could grease palms on the way up and build my own people.
In this cold realist era where ideology is dead, politics runs on money, not people.
This time, I’d rally allies with cash, not ideals.
Once the foundation was solid, opportunities to challenge Jang would abound.
How?
Just like Central Intelligence Chief Kim Jae-gyu did.
My role model this time: Kim Jae-gyu on October 26, 1979.
‘Kim Jae-gyu succeeded at everything except heading to Army HQ bunker.’
He taught me one intelligence agency was enough to launch a coup.
No law saying I couldn’t be the second Kim Jae-gyu.
‘Hell, putting a bullet from a Walther into Jang’s chest sounds appealing.’
Of course, it’d take serious effort and time, but I had confidence.
‘Just rack up high evaluation scores—easy.’
I already knew exactly how bureaucrats were assessed and what the model answers were.
Just navigate accordingly.
I reviewed my notes, then burned the paper clean with a lighter.
‘Nice and tidy.’
Since the flame was going, I lit a cigarette.
The author who sent me here might’ve expected a democratic martyr leading the movement, but not me.
I never even considered the passive choice of staking my life on the regime’s ‘humanity.’
Just looking at the regime and intelligence behavior, the martyr path was a dead end.
‘As always, the proactive path is best.’
For Lee Sung-jun, who sought to create results actively, coup was the only option.
Once more, I resolved on a ‘coup.’