Chapter 16. System Collapse
Chapter 16. System Collapse
9:40 a.m.
Only now did proper news finally start airing on the TV I had left on.
“The United States has released a statement. There was a North Korean nuclear attack on Seoul today, but it ended in failure, and in response to this grave threat against a blood ally, the United States will immediately begin retaliation.”
A caption read: Osan U.S. Air Base. Bombers sortie.
I wondered if this was really going to be okay.
To be honest, Bella in Room 102 warned me in advance just now, so I was able to respond. If I hadn’t known, I might’ve already turned to dust.
No… would the telekinesis field that always surrounds me have blocked even a nuclear strike?
I felt like I needed some kind of preparation.
So I expanded my telekinesis field like I’d done earlier and tried covering the sky over Seoul.
But there was a side effect.
When it blanketed all of Seoul, I could sense even tiny movements, and my head got noisy.
I wanted to cut off my nerves, but the information flying in automatically made it hard to even think.
Then I remembered how, when I launched the missile away, I hadn’t spread my telekinesis as a fixed area, but as a long, straight shape.
If that was the case, instead of covering an entire area, couldn’t I just put up a barrier?
So I imagined my power as a thin glass dome and spread it out.
The side effect vanished.
I only sensed it when a passenger plane passed through the barrier, and the movements of the entire city stopped being my problem.
Okay…
This is basically an air-defense shield, isn’t it?
Even if I were asleep, I’d be able to detect an attack like a missile.
Lately, I’d been realizing all kinds of useful ways to apply my power.
In the end, the key is imagination.
Before, these were things I couldn’t do because I hadn’t imagined them—but once I tried, it was nothing.
No… maybe it’s that I never imagined them because I never needed to.
Then I saw on camera that Chanhyeok hyung was entering the motel together with a junior from the Isu Gang.
I checked the time: 9:48 a.m.
He’s coming in this early…
Was the subway not jammed today?
“Hi… Chan.”
Chanhyeok hyung came in greeting me in a drained voice. Behind him, the Isu Gang junior bowed ninety degrees to me, smacked Chanhyeok hyung on the back once, and went into Room 105.
“How did you end up coming together?”
When I asked, Chanhyeok hyung didn’t speak until the Isu Gang junior was fully inside Room 105, then whispered.
“That guy seems crazy. He came looking for me from the morning and told me to come to work. Oh, right. Weren’t you surprised? I was on my way over and people were freaking out saying North Korea fired a nuke. The subway even stopped midway. If that hadn’t happened, I would’ve been here thirty minutes ago. Ah… when the hell is that long-term guest in 105 leaving? How many days are left? Is checkout in three or four days now?”
But I delivered bad news.
“They paid extra yesterday. Two months prepaid—in cash.”
“Aaagh! Fuck! Those bastards!”
Chanhyeok hyung mixed curses into his despair.
Then a breaking-news alert blared from the TV I’d left on in the office.
“We have breaking news. U.S. bombers have struck the facility that launched the nuclear missile. We have video coming in.”
It looked like U.S. footage—flames and heat surged on a mountainside.
“Additionally, they have reportedly launched bunker busters at locations believed to be where the North Korean leader is hiding. The United States says it will eliminate North Korea’s leadership.”
The news showed the U.S. hammering targets with strikes.
Then came reports that China and Russia had issued strong statements of condemnation.
I was curious what happened to the government’s earlier stance that there would be no North Korean nuclear attack. But even after watching for a long time, nothing like that came up—only self-congratulatory talk about how amazing the South Korea–U.S. coordination was in firmly stopping North Korea’s nuclear provocation.
“Whoa… did we seriously almost die?”
Chanhyeok, who’d only now gotten the full story because he’d been commuting when everything happened, looked stunned.
“Yeah. If it weren’t for the U.S., it could’ve been really bad.”
I dropped my smile and said it seriously.
Heavy topic—serious face…
But Chanhyeok hyung looked at me like he was watching something unpleasant.
“Then why aren’t the aunties coming down? It’s past time.”
I checked the clock. 10:10 a.m.
“They seemed startled this morning. They’ll come out once they pull themselves together. Anyway, I’m heading in.”
“Yeah, good work. See you tomorrow!”
I gave him a bright smile and went up to the rooftop room.
When I checked Room 102 with telekinesis, Bella was watching a drama while scooping ice cream into her mouth, and Cheolmin hyung was discussing something with the Isu Gang junior who’d just gone in.
Ice cream sounds good…
What should I eat?
I only have ramen.
I’ll boil ramen and sleep.
Thinking that, I headed up to the quarters.
But the cleaning aunties were still gathered in their room. They were packing like they were about to run at any moment, clustered in front of the TV.
Ah… right. A nuclear missile did come earlier.
From a normal person’s emotional standpoint, that kind of panic and fear is natural.
I’m the abnormal one.
I finished washing my work clothes, showering, and eating breakfast, then lay down and tried to sleep.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
“Chan! Kang Chan!”
I woke to someone pounding on my door.
I checked the time: 11:20 a.m.
I opened the door—it was the manager.
“What is it?”
I asked, and the manager came in with his face deeply furrowed.
“Ah… I’m going crazy. The aunties say they can’t work. They’re making a scene saying they’re going back to their home country today. Total chaos.”
“What?”
What the…
In our motel’s system, the most crucial element is the cleaning aunties.
If you compare it to a factory, they’re the production line.
If you don’t produce the product, how is sales supposed to sell, or marketing supposed to market?
But the factory stopping…
North Korea fires a missile, and a Seoul motel’s production system stops.
“Is it because of the North Korean nuke this morning? Isn’t that all resolved?”
“Yeah. The news keeps saying it’s safe now, but they say they can’t trust it and want to go home. And they’re sitting in, demanding the money for everything they worked up to yesterday. They say once they get that, they’ll leave tonight if they have to.”
“Ah… this is bad. If they’re gone, how do we clean rooms?”
“Boss says you and Chanhyeok should do it… and I’ll cover the counter. But it’s not that simple. I tried to stop him, but he’s being stubborn as hell.”
I collected my thoughts.
“This isn’t right. If the aunties quit, we should hire new people. Cleaning isn’t some job you can half-ass, and it’s heavy labor. You can’t do that and then work all night. No way.”
Honestly, I could clean all rooms alone in five minutes even right now.
But just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Like I said, cleaning isn’t easy. You have to work a long time and become skilled before it’s even manageable. People who come to do cleaning at first are completely wiped by evening. Chanhyeok hyung would collapse after about twenty guest rooms. And then he’s supposed to do an all-nighter? He can’t.
You can’t shove this through with no plan just because it’s urgent.
When I refused, the manager spoke with a desperate expression.
“Ah… Chan, I’m asking you. Please, just today and tomorrow. I’ll do whatever it takes to put together a cleaning team by the day after tomorrow.”
“No. The manager and the boss should clean.”
“What! You little shit. You think you can just say anything? Me, clean?”
What part did that hit? The cleaning? Or the part where I put him together with the boss?
“Either way, I have to rest today. That’s how I work tomorrow.”
“No… no, Chan. Don’t be like that… then just today. Just one day. I’ll make sure everything’s fine starting tomorrow. Hey, hey… I’m begging you like this!”
“Hold on.”
He was pleading pathetically, but I felt nothing.
No means no.
But something more important than that just got detected.
Thousands of something slammed into the northern part of my telekinesis barrier around Seoul.
The instant they touched my barrier, I snatched them out of the air.
Then I expanded my range northward—and Gyeonggi’s northern area, which had been outside my barrier, was already getting shelled in all directions, belching fire and smoke.
If I’d known, I should’ve expanded the barrier a bit more…
Tsk.
Still, most of the shells hit areas with no people.
Looking at the trajectories I was currently snagging in midair, every shell was supposed to fall on northern Seoul.
If that had happened, millions would’ve died.
I sent the frozen shells back toward the hundreds of artillery pieces lined up north of the ceasefire line.
Kwakwakwakwakwaang!
Countless shells detonated at once, smashing the tightly packed North Korean artillery.
What was that called again… long-range artillery?
Ah…
At this rate, the aunties really are going to leave the country.
If our aunties are like this, would other foreign workers be any different?
It’ll probably be hard to recruit a cleaning team for a while.
I firmly told the manager who was begging me for “just one day” that it was impossible, then went down to the first floor.
One day becomes two days, and two days becomes a month.
Then Chanhyeok hyung and I might become the permanent cleaning crew.
This is the boss and manager’s problem to solve.
When I got down to the first floor, the boss and Chanhyeok hyung were staring at the news with their mouths open.
The news was saying North Korea had begun shelling with thousands of long-range artillery pieces. Luckily, the range was short, so only areas near the ceasefire line and parts of northern Gyeonggi were hit, and most impacts were on military units.
Is this turning into an actual war?
The door to Room 105 opened, and Cheolmin came out with the Isu Gang junior, watching the news together.
“Little Brother, what’s going to happen?”
From here on, even I didn’t know.
I thought stopping the nuke would be the end…
No, now that my telekinesis barrier blocks the ceasefire line, maybe it won’t happen again. But if we start attacking, that’s war…
But if I block their attacks, isn’t it safe?
Thoughts like that flashed through my head in a split second.
So I smiled at Cheolmin hyung and said:
“Don’t worry. Seoul is safe. Nothing will happen.”
Then the elevator doors opened and the aunties came down, loaded with luggage.
“We’re leaving, so pay us now.”
Auntie Sukhee said it bluntly.
“No… how am I supposed to hand over money right this second? I have to go to the bank, and do you think bank operations are even normal right now? Don’t do this—stay just a few more days.”
The boss tried to soothe them, but I immediately remembered that Cheolmin hyung had paid two months of lodging fees in cash yesterday.
“Boss, the Room 105 guest paid in cash yesterday. You put it in the safe this morning. It should be enough to cover the aunties’ wages.”
Cheolmin hyung chimed in too.
“Right. I happened to pay cash yesterday. That should be enough… if it’s short, want me to lend you some? I’ll give you a special low interest rate.”
The boss looked like he was about to cry.
But like he had no choice, he sluggishly pulled out the money, counted it one by one, and paid the aunties.
They’d expected the boss and manager not to pay, but the aunties—who were determined to go back home even if they didn’t get paid—were thrilled and left.
If there’s war, it’s true that you should run as fast as possible. It’s not the time to clean rooms.
As Auntie Sukhee stepped out the door, she dipped her head slightly to me in greeting.
I protected Korea’s air defense, but there was nothing I could do about our cleaning system collapsing.
Now we’ll see how the boss and manager handle this crisis.
“Chan… and Chanhyeok. I’m begging you like this. If you don’t help right now, are you telling me to shut the place down? Come on—please, until I find a cleaning team, just do cleaning for a few days!”
Chanhyeok hyung pretended not to hear and looked away, but I made my stance clear.
“No. I didn’t come here to be a cleaner. Either you do it yourself or hire people.”
“You… you… you little—”
The boss was about to explode into shouting and curses, but when Cheolmin hyung widened his eyes and stepped in front of me, the boss shut his mouth in shock.
This is the boss’s karma for trying to squeeze labor out of people like illegal workers to save on labor costs.
Not my problem, but I’m not going to let myself get used like an idiot.
The boss is just trying to use Chanhyeok hyung and me cheaply—when this is a problem he can solve if he really wants to.
“Hm… sounds like all the aunties ran off… then call a staffing agency or an employment broker. There should be places that supply staff specialized for lodging businesses…”
Cheolmin hyung said to the boss, who looked miserable.
Of course there are.
But if you hire through them, costs go up about 40% compared to now. The boss, who’s obsessively frugal, doesn’t want that. So he’s trying to force me and Chanhyeok hyung into cleaning duty until he finds a cheap team like Auntie Sukhee’s crew. The problem is, even once you hire people, it could take a week—or a month—for them to get trained and competent.
“Ah… I don’t know any places like that. Do you know one?”
The idiot boss was saying something he really shouldn’t.
Cheolmin’s eyes lit up, and he said he’d arrange it for him.