Chapter 170
Chapter 170
Translator Penny
Chapter 170
Chapter 4
In the past, the Joseon Dynasty had something called the Gongdo (Empty Island) Policy. Literally, it was a policy to empty the islands of their residents. Instead of continuously getting our expansions—which barely produced any minerals or gas—raided by Zerglings (Japanese pirates), the idea was to just lift the Command Center and move it. A true reversal of thinking. It was also proof that our ancestors had cared for the people like SCVs since ancient times. As a member of the Terran race myself, I could not help but emulate my ancestors.
"Your Excellency Undertaker. All residents of Jeju Island have been evacuated." "Good work."
Upon receiving my orders, Yoo Ji-won traveled around the southern islands, inducing the evacuation of the refugees. There was some resistance, but I ignored it. Between the 'monsoon' that ordinary people thought of and the 'Great Monsoon' approaching now, there existed a difference as vast as that between a whistle and a typhoon. If we didn't evacuate them now, they would all be massacred anyway. This was a fact verified over multiple regressions. The evacuation order wasn't just issued in reality.
-[Three Thousand] Witch Trial Judge: (Must Read) Guidelines for living during the Great Monsoon period. -[Baekhwa] High School 8th Grader: All roads connected to Sejong City will be closed from July to August until the Great Monsoon ends! Those short on food, please come to Sejong City Hall and apply for refugee status!! >_<);; -Operator: (Notice) We inform you that access to SG Net may not be smooth during the Great Monsoon period.
Guild masters allied with us, like Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, took the lead and volunteered for the role of the canary in the coal mine. Even Seo Gyu, the operator of SG Net, stepped up. When the nickname 'Operator', which really rarely appears, showed up, even some Awakeners who considered themselves tough guys felt a sense of alarm.
-Anonymous: Wait, has SG Net ever been cut off before? Never, right? └ Anonymous: No, no, there were times it really connected to weird sites. I once typed the exact same address but got forcibly linked to a place called 'Salja Net' (Suicide Net) lol. └ Literature Girl: Hieeeek. └ Anonymous: That was just being contaminated by a suicide site Anomaly for a moment, not SG Net access itself being blocked. It's true that this Great Monsoon is an all-time legendary event though... -Anonymous: So basically only Busan is the most dangerous, can't we just run away? └ Anonymous: Yep. That's why almost all the civilians in my neighborhood went up to Daejeon. At least the shelters and soup kitchens are running well there. └ Anonymous: You'll probably get lost in the void and die while going up lol. └ [National Highway] Historian: Currently, the National Highway Management Corps is operating emergency caravans twice a week. Civilians, please use the caravans. -Cooking Queen: Those in difficult circumstances, please come to Daejeon. We will help you anytime as much as our situation allows.
The southern part of the Korean Peninsula became bustling with preparations for the flood. Of course, despite sending warnings to this extent, there were still complacent people.
-Anonymous: Wow, the overreaction is insane lol. -Anonymous: Typhoon? Anyway, we have the SSS-class breakwater called the Japanese Archipelago. No worries no no.
It couldn't be helped. Humanity is a race enslaved by dopamine and thrills. Aren't humans the animals that insist on camping in valleys even when there's a flood, and attempt sea swimming even when a typhoon blows?
-Anonymous: Even so, isn't it just a monsoon? ㅋㅋ Maybe ordinary people would, but surely Awakeners won't die just from getting hit by a little rain??
Between those leaving Busan and those remaining, those building arks and those sneering, amidst the noisy preparations and cold ridicule.
Drip...Drip-drop. Drip.Drdrdrdrop...
The rain began to fall.
Chapter 5
[Visually confirmed the wall of the typhoon.]
The Saintess's voice echoed in my head. It would have been delivered not only to me but to other Awakeners as well. Though, for them, the message would have flown under the name of a 'Constellation'.
[Jeju Island, incorporated into the typhoon's influence.] "Good. Please retreat the Three Thousand Worlds guild members scattered across the southern coast one by one." [Yes.]
The Three Thousand Worlds guild members, all of whom could use flight magic, were currently performing the role of meteorological agency staff. Hanging onto a single staff and flying over the sea, they were observing the typhoon approaching moment by moment. The Saintess shared the eyes of the meteorological observers through [Clairvoyance]. Thanks to that, we could track the typhoon's path from multiple angles.
[This is...]
Thus, the Saintess, who witnessed the reality of the 'Great Monsoon' more clearly than anyone else from a first-person perspective, had no choice but to hesitate for a moment.
[Jeju Island is being torn away. No. It was swallowed. The island. Entirely.][Like a tsunami... Just like what I saw in movies, but much more massive than that...][A wall of waves covering from the horizon to the sky, a tsunami over 10km high is approaching. How can such a thing...]
Even the Saintess, who had witnessed numerous Anomalies and Voids, lost her composure for a moment. Minimum height 10km. A typhoon made of 'seawater' with a diameter of 1,200km. A waterspout of waves capable of swallowing even Everest simply. It was a violence that would make any human, whose DNA is engraved with fear of nature, shudder inevitably.
"Saintess. It must not head to other regions. You must slowly guide it towards the Arks through the Three Thousand Worlds guild members." [But, no matter how many Arks we made, against such... Can we block that?] "We can. If we don't, the Japanese Archipelago will sink, or the entire Korean Peninsula will be submerged completely." [...I understand. I will begin guiding.]
The Saintess regained her calm again and commanded the operation according to my instructions. The command center was gathered in the operation control room of the 1st Ark. No Do-ha, Dang Seo-rin, Yoo Ji-won, Seo Gyu, Lee Ha-yul—everyone looked down at the map. On that map, chess pieces were moving here and there according to Yoo Ji-won's ability, [Minimap]. Each chess piece represented the Three Thousand Worlds scouts. Thanks to this, we could observe the typhoon's movement in real-time from a third-person perspective. I spoke.
"The typhoon will arrive soon." "..." "That typhoon of the Great Monsoon is both an Anomaly and a Void. The moment it reaches Busan, it is practically the same as us entering the 'Great Monsoon Void'."
Points I had already emphasized several times. But since repeating it was never enough, I gave the final briefing.
"The monsoon rain scattered by that typhoon is not simple rainwater, but poison made of Void Poison. There is a danger of the human body deforming immediately upon contact." "..." "Even though the ship we are riding is performing the role of an Ark, flooding will still occur. At that time, calmly mobilize water buckets and continuously, whether for an hour or tens of hours, scoop out the water through a relay. Do not question how much waterproofing effect that would have. The act and motion of scooping water itself is important."
We gathered scrap ships previously used as cruise ships and remodeled them into Arks. The outer walls of the cruise ships were surrounded by 'wood', and inside, we stockpiled food to last at least 40 days. The total number of Arks was 12. The capacity of each Ark averaged 5,000 people. A total of 60,000 Busan citizens were aboard the Arks anchored on the ridge of Geumjeongsan Mountain.
"Rain will inevitably pour into the interior of the ship. Therefore, do not move to other locations thoughtlessly. Each zone must be thoroughly isolated, and if you really intend to communicate with other zones—"
Tug. I grabbed a thread. That thread was connected like a spiderweb. Following the ceiling wall of the operation control room, it was connected to other zones. It was a puppet string set up by Lee Ha-yul.
"Please use this puppet thread. As we get closer to the typhoon's influence, SG Net and Telepathy will become dead. In that case, you must load Aura onto the puppet thread and transmit Morse code."
Drip—. It was then. A drop of rain splashed on the window. It was a window made of reinforced glass. Wriggle wriggle. The raindrop that fell on the glass moved on its own like a living insect. The water droplet spread long to both sides, up and down, and took a bizarre shape. That shape was,
Rain (雨).
It was written. Every single raindrop wriggled individually. Sometimes large. Sometimes small. However, the shape the water droplets eventually revealed was nothing but a single character.
Rain (雨).
Every time the characters of water droplets wriggled alive, a faint croaking sound of a frog, ribbit, echoed from somewhere. It was a bizarre thing. We had never loaded frogs onto the Ark. We merely modeled the Ark of Genesis as a means to survive; we did not truly manufacture a cradle of life.
Rain (雨).
[Mister Undertaker.]
Rain Rain (雨雨).
[It landed in Busan. Now, ah. The waters of the typhoon are rapidly gathering towards Busan. This is impossible. The typhoon... From the form of a giant spiral, it changed like a straw shape, ah. Water■, the tsunami on the horizon. Everything is gathering towards Geumjeongsan■ is■■. Everyone be carefu■――.]
Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain (雨雨雨雨雨).
Static interfered with the Saintess's Telepathy, which had never been cut off at any time. Ribbit. Seo Gyu's hand, which kept checking his smartphone with nervous eyes, flinched. "Hyung-nim, SG Net is dead," Ribbit. The space of the Ark, which the law of universal gravitation had been holding stably, the ship we were standing on, felt like it was temporarily floating up—whoosh. Ribbit. Seo Gyu just opened his mouth and Dang Seo-rin also shouted "Undertaker!" or something, but that sound was completely buried by the sound of rain pouring from outside the window and the croaking of frogs crying out from that rain. Ribbit. It rained.
Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain.
The next moment after blinking my eyes in the middle of the noise of muffling water sounds and frog sounds. I couldn't breathe. My vision squirmed. The people who were in the operation control room, including myself, were all submerged underwater.
Chapter 6
Bubble bubble bubble—. Bubbles rose right in front of my nose. It was the breath Lee Ha-yul spat out. Lee Ha-yul was clearly flustered by the kind of Void she encountered for the first time in her life. Just blinking her eyes for a moment, yet her whole body was in a state of being submerged in water.
“......! ......, ......!”
Lee Ha-yul flailed underwater. The reactions of other people were not much different. No matter how much I emphasized explanation after explanation, it was not easy for a drowning human to maintain composure. Ribbit—. What was worse was that the fingers of Lee Ha-yul and other Awakeners, who were spewing bubbles like that, were increasingly resembling 'frog hands'. Body mutation. Existence contamination. It was a typical phenomenon that appears when exposed to Void Poison. At the sight of their hands and feet, which had moved as their limbs for their entire lives until now, suddenly turning into 'frogs', people fell into temporary panic.
Bubble bubble— Ribbit, bubble. Ribbit. Devouring human panic, the Void Poison spread faster and faster. Now the sound of bubbles Lee Ha-yul spat out was becoming closer to the sound of frogs. Frog expressed in Hanja was Wa (蛙). The meaning of insect (虫) was included. It was because the crouching posture of a frog resembled the shape of the character for insect (虫). Ribbit, bubble bubble. Bubble, ribbit. Frog hands. Frog legs. Green skin. My colleagues were turning into insects in an instant. The time it took to reach this point was merely a little over 6 seconds. I loaded Aura into my voice and burst it out.
“Move the water buckets!” “......!”
My lion's roar shook the underwater.
“Perform the motion of scooping water. It doesn't matter how clumsy it is! Scoop it out! Ha-yul, move! Hurry! I told you so many times!” “......! ......!”
Only then did Lee Ha-yul and the other Awakeners come to their senses and grab the buckets to move. Acting underwater was difficult, but they had all experienced group training before boarding the Ark.
“......!” “......! ......!”
In what could be seen as ridiculous appearances, yet desperately, everyone performed the 'motion of scooping buckets'. Flail. Flail. Then, the water level that filled the operation control room began to lower gradually. It wasn't that the water contained in the bucket actually moved outside. But the water boiled down as if 'it was really being scooped out'.
“Puh, haa!”
As the water level barely lowered, the colleagues stuck their heads out of the water surface. The skin color that was turning green also returned to human flesh color before we knew it.
“Fu-fuck, I, I almost died!” “Haa....... Ha-eu, whoa, haa......!” “ is everyone safe?”
The colleagues panted while completely soaked. Their hands were still long like frogs, and webs had formed between their fingers, but that too was healing little by little.
“It is too early to be relieved yet.”
The colleagues looked back at me all at once. I glanced at the window. Only ‘Rain (雨)’ was visible outside the window. Just as we were, the Ark was entirely submerged in water. It was completely flooded. Not in the ocean, the mother of all life, but in the Void Poison, the reaper of life.
“From now on, we must go to check if other zones are safe.” “.......” “Ha-yul, follow me.” “Yeah.”
After moving the bucket until all the water in the operation control room was drained, I left the door alone with Ha-yul.
Ribbit ribbit ribbit ribbit. The long corridor of the Ark. From all directions on both sides, the sound of frogs croaking echoed thickly.