Chapter 227
Chapter 227
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 227
Chapter Title: Winter is Coming
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1
What season do you all like?
Summer? Fall? Spring, winter?
For the record, I don't particularly love any season.
The pride that the Korean Peninsula is beautiful because its four seasons are so distinctly separated had long since vanished. But after civilization collapsed, the seasons really did become strikingly clear.
However, there's good and bad in everything in the world. Just because the seasons became distinct didn't mean we could simply rejoice.
First, spring.
"Your Excellency. Massive yellow thunderclouds have been sighted to the west and north."
"Fine dust yellow sand, then. Immediately send a cooperation request to Three Thousand Worlds to scout the clouds' path. Order all citizens to wear masks."
"Is it that serious? From what I know, inhaling a bit of fine dust doesn't kill you on the spot."
"It's not real yellow sand—every single fine dust particle has been transformed into a lethal toxin by an anomaly. No mask means death in three minutes."
"Oh."
Summer.
"Undertaker! A typhoon's coming!"
"Calm down and let's build an ark first."
Fall.
"G-Guild Leader. Why does the autumn foliage smell not like leaves, but blood?"
"Ignore it."
"But lately, when I'm walking down the street and leaves brush against me, I faintly hear voices begging for mercy. And when ginkgo nuts fall from ginkgo trees, a stench spreads—exactly like the smell of human entrails..."
"Ahem. I said ignore it."
"Yes..."
Ah! The livable Korean Peninsula!
It wasn't just the Korean Peninsula that had turned into this hellscape, so calling it a "livable Earth" would be more accurate.
Still, no matter how harshly spring, summer, and fall imposed brutal weather phenomena on humanity, none of them could claim the title of final boss.
Winter.
The cruel tyrant of white.
From the dawn of civilization to its end, humanity's greatest enemy had always been winter.
2
One day, Cheon Yo-hwa and I were walking down a Baekhwa Girls' High School hallway when a student blocked our path.
"Hmm? What is it? I told you not to interrupt when the teacher's around... Oh, it's So-yeon."
Yo-hwa's eyes momentarily hardened coldly, but she soon recognized the girl and her expression softened warmly.
"What is it?"
"......"
She bowed.
The short-haired student gave a small nod. Her name was Joo So-yeon, one of the original members of Baekhwa Girls' High School.
She was someone who would die if I didn't intervene to defeat Mu-geon.
Remember? Out of the 750 enrolled students at Baekhwa Girls' High originally, only 19 survived, and two of those ended up committing suicide. The Joo So-yeon in front of me was one of those "two who committed suicide."
Of course, in regressions where Mu-geon was subjugated, that tragedy never happened.
Right now, Joo So-yeon was just a quiet, short-haired junior suffering from mutism.
The special thing was her position, where she could speak frankly to the student council president at any time.
"...... , ......"
"Yeah. It's okay, take your time."
"......"
Unlike Lee Ha-yul, who suffered from the same speech impediment, Joo So-yeon wasn't proficient in aura.
She didn't possess the ridiculously cheat-like ability to manipulate spider threads to make dolls speak for her.
So Joo So-yeon slowly carved letters into Cheon Yo-hwa's palm, the reliable student council president's, one stroke at a time with her fingernail.
[ Winter ]
Confirming the letters, Cheon Yo-hwa's face stiffened. My expression, glimpsed sidelong, was probably similar.
Cheon Yo-hwa asked in a grave tone.
"Winter? Really? It's still June?"
"......"
Nod.
"No way. Wait, then... So-yeon. Can you show it to us for a moment?"
"......"
Nod.
Joo So-yeon clasped her hands together like in prayer. Cheon Yo-hwa and I flanked her on either side.
After a few seconds like that.
Craaaack-.
Suddenly, the sound of ice cracking echoed through the Baekhwa Girls' High School hallway. Frost began forming within a 3-meter radius centered on Joo So-yeon.
"Yo-hwa."
"Yes, Teacher."
We raised our aura to protect our body heat. The area was growing so cold that Joo So-yeon alone couldn't handle it.
But the temperature drop was abnormal.
Crack, tzzzt- craaaack-.
The hallway windows froze over in an instant, then shattered with a crash. Snow piled up with terrifying momentum in the corridor sections within the 3-meter radius.
Only the spot enclosing Cheon Yo-hwa, Joo So-yeon, and me remained untouched.
Once the snow started piling, it went past ankles to waists, shoulders—and finally exceeded head height.
It was cold.
"......"
"......"
Haa.
Dry ice-like chill wafted from Cheon Yo-hwa's exhaled breath.
I tested by releasing aura just into my forearm. The cold of the surrounding air felt murderously sharp.
Rough estimate: minus 120 degrees.
"...So-yeon. Is that all?"
"......"
Shake.
Meaning it was over.
"Yeah. Then, can you release the ability?"
"......"
Nod.
The bone-chilling cold vanished. The remnants of unbroken windows crumbled like debris, and the snow walls around us slowly melted away.
Baekhwa Girls' High School affiliate Awakener. Joo So-yeon.
Her ability's name: [Weather Bureau].
She possessed a skill that predicted and manifested seasonal weather up to a maximum of one month ahead in the surroundings.
Hit rate: a mere 50%.
As you can tell from the probability alone, it wasn't particularly useful in normal times. Who'd care about a forecast like, "Folks, tomorrow it might rain—or it might not"?
In other words, it was an extremely valuable ability in "emergencies," not "normal times."
"...Teacher."
"Yeah. We need to prepare."
Winter is coming.
From now on, the Korean Peninsula faced a roughly 50% chance of minus 120-degree cold descending.
3
Naturally, the National Highway Management Corps was in an uproar.
"Minus 120 degrees? In the middle of summer? No, is that even weather humans can survive...?"
"Of course it's weather meant to kill people. No Do-ha Corps Leader, tsunamis over 100 meters tall come casually in summer—were those normal?"
"Fuck. Living on Earth is such bullshit..."
No Do-ha vented complaints, but if Russians heard, they'd snap that she was whining from a full belly. Their neck of the woods averaged minus 100 degrees year-round.
Of course, No Do-ha wasn't about to empathize with Russians when it didn't even work on Koreans. Her head was probably already plotting a plan to sacrifice about half the city's population.
"So, any brilliant ideas? The city's already full of shantytowns. If a minus 120-degree blizzard hits this slum city, you die, I die, we all croak together peacefully..."
"Think coldly first. This cold is ultimately just a phenomenon caused by the Void."
"And...?"
"It means we don't have to sit in Busan waiting for winter to come. We advance farther north than Pyongyang and meet winter head-on ourselves."
"Head-on...?"
No Do-ha tilted her head crookedly.
"'We'...?"
Exactly.
First, we used Constellation Telepathy to urge citizens residing in the Eastern Holy Kingdom to stay indoors as much as possible.
The authority of the Constellation "Dawn Star of the Second Coming" in the Eastern Holy Kingdom was beyond imagination. Evacuation proceeded smoothly.
Then, a party of 50 total—including No Do-ha, Yoo Ji-won, the Saintess, plus National Highway Management Corps operations team members—marched north. A two-week odyssey.
"Haaa."
The Saintess, wearing a fur hat and fur gloves, clasped her hands and exhaled.
A breath balloon preserving the full volume of her breath puffed up in the air before scattering white.
"It's already chilly here. And it's only July. The air feels totally different from Seoul."
"......"
Next to the Saintess, No Do-ha stood with arms crossed, glaring silently at me.
No Do-ha had just arrived in Sinuiju leading the National Highway Management Corps members. I spread my arms wide to welcome them.
"Welcome, Queen of the Korean Peninsula. Great job escorting everyone here."
"Great job's secondary... What the hell is that?"
"Ah, that? No need to mind it. It's just a kind of totem."
"No, you madman. How am I supposed to not mind that...?"
In the direction No Do-ha pointed stood the symbol of New York, holding aloft a torch.
Yes.
The Statue of Liberty.
While No Do-ha led the 50-person party up, I'd arrived in Sinuiju ahead of time and whipped up the former American symbol.
The original Statue of Liberty was made of steel and copper, too precious to use. Instead, I gathered nearby stone materials.
Even so, the sculpture mimicked the original's appearance perfectly. Height: 93.5 meters, identical to the original.
Faced with this overwhelming monument, No Do-ha wore the expression of a 1900s Irish immigrant. Excitement, anticipation, arrival as a beginning, hope and anxiety for the future...
"Fuck. Why the hell did you build a Statue of Liberty in Sinuiju and flop down here?"
For the record, I had a reputation for being bad at reading No Do-ha's expressions.
"You don't get it, Corps Leader."
"Huh?"
"The Statue of Liberty is originally the first symbol targeted in any media. More precisely, there's a law: 'Disasters strike the location of the Statue of Liberty first.'"
"What kind of law is that...?"
"If it's hard to believe, there's still time—go check beyond the Tumen River for a bit. It's actually warmer here than there."
"......"
No Do-ha bowed her head and muttered something. Probably praising my foresight and wisdom.
The Saintess, who'd been listening to our conversation, nodded lightly.
"It's like a lightning rod."
"Exactly. Especially for weather-related disasters, climate change catastrophes, eco-apocalypses—the Statue of Liberty always gets destroyed first."
"Yeah. I think that happened in the movies I saw too."
"From this, we can derive a hypothesis. All climate disasters destroy the Statue of Liberty."
Snap. I raised my index finger.
At the end of where my finger pointed, the Statue of Liberty cast a massive shadow.
"Flip it around: If we can just protect the Statue of Liberty intact, aren't climate disasters just nobodies?"
"......"
"The original Sinuiju residents and warriors have all been moved to Pyongyang. Right now, nothing exists here but me, you all, and the Statue of Liberty."
Thus, the strategy for this anomaly "Blizzard" or "Winter General" was exceedingly simple.
We humans protect the Statue of Liberty.
Meanwhile, the anomaly has to damage the Statue of Liberty somehow. Because as long as the Statue of Liberty stands unharmed, the "climate disaster hasn't arrived yet."
In short.
"From today, this isn't Sinuiju—it's New York. Now, No Do-ha Corps Leader. Here's your appointment as mayor of New York."
"Uh..."
I shoved the pre-prepared appointment letter and nameplate at No Do-ha.
What an honor for her, the first Korean appointed mayor of New York. As expected of No Do-ha Corps Leader.
Her English conversation skills were a bit lacking for a New York mayor, but who cares? That just proved this New-New York was a free city unbound by prejudice or nationality.
Thus, the Eastern Holy Kingdom added "Eastern Jerusalem" to its titles with "Eastern New York," evolving into a true nation.
The once-poorest region in Asia had grown this far.
You could easily infer that this world's genre was actually alternate history, with the Eastern Holy Kingdom as the protagonist.
"Look at the Yalu River. There's a mid-river island like Manhattan. Totally New York, right?"
"......"
"The rest of you will be appointed police chief, federal judge, etc. From now on, protect the Statue of Liberty by any means necessary. Everyone."
Thwack!
No Do-ha bashed the back of my head with the nameplate reading "New York Mayor No Do-ha (路濤河)" in clerical script.
Defense game, start.