Chapter 189
Chapter 189
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: An Unusually Peaceful Morning
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3
That morning.
The agents heading to National Highway Management Corps headquarters (nicknamed: Babel Tower, Demon King's Castle) felt an inexplicable sense of emptiness.
"Why's that? The commute doesn't piss me off as much today."
"Congrats. You've finally lost it."
"Was the plaza in front of our office always this clean?"
"What a beautiful day. Birds chirping, flowers blooming. On a day like this, grown-ups like us should be resting at home...."
Just as they began to suspect they'd developed some kind of work-induced mental illness,
Someone pointed at the plaza and shouted.
"Ah! That! It's gone!"
"Gone? What's gone?"
"The crazy uncle! Jo Young-su's missing!"
"Gasp."
That was right.
Rain or shine, cold or infected with the anomaly virus, Jo Young-su had held a picket sign every day, bellowing "No Do-ha must resign!"
His presence had vanished.
The Management Corps agents were amazed. Just one person gone, and Babel Tower Plaza revealed its inherent elegance.
"Wow, without that uncle, it feels so good...."
"He'd come right up during lunch while I was eating a sandwich and start yelling his lungs out."
For the first time since joining, the National Highway Management Corps agents experienced a quiet commute.
Of course, the happiness didn't last long. Happiness is like summer ice cream—you can't savor it forever.
Exactly half a month later.
"Take a look at this!"
"Yes?"
Thud!
Jo Young-su returned to National Highway Management Corps headquarters with a triumphant face. He slammed a thick stack of documents onto the reception desk.
"Uh...."
The receptionist panicked.
The National Highway Management Corps wasn't some government body serving the public as masters. Naturally, there was no citizen complaint window for the general populace.
(There was a reception desk for patients commissioning protective gear from No Do-ha personally.)
"Uh, Mr. Jo Young-su? What's this...?"
"It's a public opinion poll on whether current National Highway Management Corps Captain No Do-ha is fit to rule Korea!"
Jo Young-su let out a booming lion's roar. The eyes of the Corps agents enjoying their lunch break in the lobby immediately focused on him.
"A p-public opinion poll?"
"That's right! See for yourself!"
The first page of the 400-sheet survey read:
[Korea 1st Public Opinion Poll]
[Question: Do you believe that National Highway Management Corps Captain No Do-ha, as Korea's de facto sole ruler, was elected through proper democratic procedures?]
[Very legitimate - 12.3%]
[Somewhat legitimate - 15.1%]
[Somewhat illegitimate - 5.5%]
[Very illegitimate - 1.6%]
[Doesn't matter - 59.7%]
[No response - 5.8%]
Tiny handwriting scribbled in pencil. Clearly handwritten. The paper was ragged from repeated erasures.
"Ah...."
The receptionist blinked.
"Um. What on earth is...?"
"Survey data I collected on foot from hundreds of Busan citizens!"
Jo Young-su's clear eyes sparkled.
For reference, and irrelevant, but at that moment, his bald head gleamed as much as his eyes.
Just like that.
"Everyone! As you can see, positive responses are 27.4%, and negative responses reach a whopping 7.1%!"
"Uh, um. Assuming this poll was conducted properly, isn't the approval rating actually pretty high...?"
"Korea is currently under Captain No Do-ha's dictatorship! In that situation, over 7% of citizens risked death to voice their opinions! We must not downplay that figure!"
"No, dictatorship...?"
The receptionist glanced around in alarm.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the Corps agents, accustomed to Jo Young-su's antics, didn't blame the desk worker. They just exchanged looks of "Here we go again."
"This is the voice of the people, the cry of the masses! The National Highway Management Corps must not ignore the magma-like public sentiment boiling underground!"
"...The public sentiment seems to be saying 'doesn't matter,' though. With nearly 60% responding, that might be the real voice of the residents...."
"Are you saying that 7% voice isn't a voice, and those people aren't citizens?"
"Yes? No, that's not what I... "
"Is it the universal stance of National Highway Management Corps members, who lead the present and worry for the future, to ignore a mere 7% opinion? That's why the nation's foundations are crumbling and minority voices are silenced!"
"Ah, got it. Got it, Mr. Jo Young-su! I'll pass the materials to the captain! Happy now?"
"Please dooo!"
At this point, you might wonder.
How the hell did I, the Undertaker, eavesdrop on that entire conversation to narrate it in this omniscient style?
The answer is simple.
Surprisingly, behind Jo Young-su, the incarnation of Korean democracy, lurked a mysterious backer.
[I think he has a point.]
None other than the Saintess... expressing support to Jo Young-su!
[I don't support restoring the fallen Korean government, but it's better to have an institution that at least listens to public opinion.]
"There's SG Net, isn't there?"
[Only Awakened can access it. It's hard to fully reflect ordinary citizens' views. I can only share Awakened perspectives, so I'm not collecting public opinion perfectly.]
"Hmm."
[You always warn against Awakened supremacy, Undertaker. It's not bad to hear ordinary voices this time.]
"If that's what you want, Saintess...."
The Saintess hit "subscribe and like" on YouTuber Jo Young-su and shared his every move with me, her friend.
Honestly, it didn't interest me much.
If you picked the one person on the peninsula with the least nostalgia for Korea, it'd be me.
To avoid misunderstanding, it wasn't because I was some Korea-hater.
My reason was far simpler than the fierce political stances battling online.
'I don't remember a damn thing!'
Those were memories from before the 4th regression.
I'd probably served my military duty as a healthy SCV. Experienced the angst and conflicts of my age, formed my own views or parroted others' on Korea.
And all those memories sank into the sea of oblivion like Shim Cheong.
Unless the Dragon King under Incheon suddenly helped, no way they'd return.
'I don't even know my parents' faces or my hometown, so how could I feel nostalgia for Korea?'
Thus, Jo Young-su's rhetoric sounded like true alien language to me.
Make a constitution?
I guarantee 100%: the moment it's written, anomalies will corrupt the text.
Anomalies wouldn't miss such juicy prey: "a sequence of characters all citizens must respect."
First line would be corrupted to "①Korea is void ②Korea's sovereignty belongs to anomalies, and all deaths come from anomalies." I'd bet my pinky on it.
Voting? Majority rule?
Oh my, miracle. The moment paper goes in the ballot box, votes from "humans who shouldn't exist" appear!
Total turnout somehow hits 146%.
'Why create more weaknesses exposed to anomalies? Masochists?'
Weaknesses must be minimized.
Shrink government to National Highway Management Corps. Concentrate power in No Do-ha.
Then, I just manage to keep her anomaly-free.
Why build guilds mostly with Awakened, not civilians? Just because they're more capable?
No. Because the Saintess can monitor Awakened 24/7.
Even if anomaly-infected, [Clairvoyance] allows instant response. Can't do that with civilians.
Too risky—one slip, and they're gone.
Risk management.
As a regressor, my strategy focuses ruthlessly on countering anomalies.
"I truly can't understand it."
I refrained from touching Jo Young-su out of consideration for the Saintess, but mentioned it in chats with No Do-ha.
"If it's just nostalgia for civilized times, fine. But longing for Korea itself is bizarre."
"Well, maybe it's mixed emotions creating nostalgia? 'We at least lived humanely back then.'"
"I get that. But Jo Young-su's beyond that. I don't remember details, but was Korea worth that much longing? It's not like we miss it only after it's gone...."
"Hmm."
Click-clack.
No Do-ha chuckled lowly while trimming her nails, trash bin on her lap to catch clippings.
"You're that kind of person...."
"...?"
What did that mean?
Anyway, the Saintess and No Do-ha were surprisingly tolerant of Jo Young-su's antics.
Other Awakened weren't much different.
Everyone despised him, but no one made him "disappear." They could have anytime.
No family or friends, no guild, living in Busan's shantytown, frequenting free cafeterias at National Highway Management Corps and Three Thousand Worlds, decrying both organizations' "dictatorships."
He picked up trash all day.
Needed paper for "opinion poll sheets."
Resources scarce, so he hand-wrote survey questions in pencil.
[Korea 4th Public Opinion Poll]
[Question: A puppet state called Oriental Holy Kingdom was established in Pyongyang. National Highway Management Corps has issued no official comment. Do you think we should recognize the Oriental Holy Kingdom as a sovereign nation?]
[Korea 11th Public Opinion Poll]
[Question: This year, to counter typhoons and floods, island regions in the South Sea forcibly relocated citizens. Do you think the National Highway Management Corps can infringe on citizens' freedom of residence and movement in national crises?]
[Korea 20th Public Opinion Poll]
[Question: Do you think guild leaders' authority can be established without democratic consensus or discussion? If so, do you think guild leaders have certain duties to citizens?]
I really want to show you these surveys. They're genuinely interesting in a way.
Trash paper covered in Jo Young-su's heavy pencil strikethroughs.
Like this.
Sometimes whited out from who-knows-where, rewritten. □□□(like this).
Once tried erasing with eraser, but poor quality tore the paper. Added text around hole. ■■■like this.
So, my accurate recreation of Jo Young-su's opinion poll:
[Korea
19th
20th Public Opinion Poll]
[Question:
As infrastructure gaps widen between cities, power concentrates in ■■a tiny few guild leaders.
Do you think
guild leaders' authority
can be established without democratic consensus or discussion
□□(or not)? If ■■■■■yes, do guild leaders have
certain
some duties
to citizens?]
Ragged rags.
He reused identical sheets multiple times for surveys, tallying responses with tiny strokes beside. Like this.
[Authority is legitimate]
11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 111
Back in his shack, he'd count marks, calculate stats, fill percentages in "final version." Like this.
[Authority is legitimate – 66.3%]
Thus, "statistics" and "public opinion" submitted to National Highway Management Corps.
Shortest: half-month. Longest: over 100 days.
Years passed.
Something wondrous happened.
"Dictator No Do-ha, step down! Step down! Step down!"
Babel Tower Plaza's scene changed slightly.
Jo Young-su still held protest signs, draped in a constitutional relic like armor, wailing for No Do-ha's resignation.
Agents sighing on commutes: same.
But a cardboard box sat before Jo Young-su's feet.
"Uncle, here's some updates-."
"Dictator No Do-ha, step downnnn!"
"Good work-."
On way out, agents dumped "leftover paper" in the box.
One sheet. One sheet. Another.
Like tossing bills to a street guitarist.
"Hey. Sometimes don't you get chills from Team Leader Yoo Ji-won? How does she keep the same expression 24/7?"
"Dictator No Do-ha, step down! Step down!"
"That's why she's operations team leader. Heard she had the same face even purging problematic agents."
"Dictator No Do-ha, step down! Step down!"
"No matter the pay, I could never join operations...."
"Dictator No Do-ha, step down! Step down!"
"Budae jjigae today?"
"Oh, budae jjigae sounds good. Deal."
Lively chatter.
Corps agents, fully accustomed to Jo Young-su, chatted among themselves as they crossed the plaza.
Until sunset, when Yoo Ji-won clocked out last, Jo Young-su shouted for No Do-ha's resignation. Yoo Ji-won left without a glance.
"Cough. Cough, ow, my bones...."
Nightfall, Jo Young-su heading to shack.
His hands clutched thick stacks of trash paper.
Their volume equaled the current territory size of "Korea."