Chapter 72. Japan's Request for Cooperation.
Chapter 72. Japan's Request for Cooperation.
The walls were riddled with countless bullet holes—evidence of their attempt to resist. The lucky ones had only lost an eye.
The moment we broke down the door and walked in, they fixed desperate eyes on us and scrambled over. Those without arms crawled on their knees. Those without legs dragged themselves forward with their hands. The blind groped along the ground as they came.
A middle-aged man who seemed to be their leader, meanwhile, had wedged himself into a corner, face buried, having soiled himself.
"Paura, that's enough. I'll summon you again shortly."
She cast them a regretful look, then slipped back into the jar. The bastard approached me.
'A congressman. Lee Chang-ho, was it?'
"D-Did you chase that monster away?"
"Look here, Lee Chang-ho. Why did you do this?"
He must have had some brains—from that one line, he'd have figured out I was the one who summoned the monster. And the moment he realized his scheme was over, the bastard started struggling desperately.
"L-Look...! It's up to us, the upper class, to guide and enlighten the lower creatures...!"
I just stared at him, as if to say, Keep spewing that nonsense.
"Do you honestly believe it's right for those lowlifes below to hold power? Chairman Lee is the strange one...!"
"Right..."
Seizing on what he took as agreement, a flush of color returned to the bastard's face.
"Then how do you plan to handle the fact that those lower creatures you're meant to be guiding are dying off?"
"I-It's the sacrifice of the few for the sake of the many...! Even if a handful of them die, aren't we, the ones leading the group, safe...!"
"Let's hear what they have to say about that."
The bastard looked baffled, unable to grasp why I wanted opinions from people who were already dead. I radioed Chairman Lee's group and told them the situation was over and to get over here.
As soon as the Chairman arrived, he spotted Congressman Lee Chang-ho's face, strode straight over, and punched the bastard in the solar plexus—just hard enough not to kill him.
"G-Gahk...! Urrghh..."
"W-Why on earth did you do this...! What wrong did they ever commit...!"
"Heh... You're wrong... I should have seen it coming the moment you started pushing that crap about helping the lowly..."
Ever since then, it's been 'lowly this' and 'lower creatures that.' Back on Titan, if my people had witnessed this scene, they would have quietly left me alone with the bastard spouting that bullshit and cleared the area.
I grabbed the few remaining strands of hair on his head and said,
"Let's hear what those 'lowly creatures' of yours have to think."
I summoned Paura again.
"Paura, bring the souls of the ones who died here. Respectfully."
Sensing the weight in my tone, even Paura—who'd normally be delighted by an order to fetch souls—stared at me in silence for a moment before flying off.
What would a mass of spirits of the unjustly killed look like? Regrettably, only Lee Chang-ho and I could see the spirits that coalesced here, brimming with immense malice.
"Your tormentor is over there. It may be hard to find peace, but do as you please until your hearts are content."
For those who saw nothing, the scene must have been grotesque. Lee Chang-ho stared into the empty air in shock, then suddenly burst into wailing tears, fell to his knees, and begged for forgiveness to the void. Then came the screams as his muscles tore strand by strand, his flesh ripped away piece by piece, and soon every orifice was bleeding.
- Chaos Sword Technique: Dimension Severance.
I opened the gates of the Underworld and guided them all there. Even Lee Chang-ho, who wasn't dead yet.
"Lee Chang-ho. Over there, you won't be able to die even if you want to."
I called out through the rift torn open in the air, ignoring the bastard screaming and reaching his hand toward me as I closed the gap. Only then did Chairman Lee seem to come back to his senses and ask,
"W-What just happened...?"
"I avenged the ones who died unjustly. I sent them all to the Underworld."
Surprisingly, they accepted that at face value. Did they think opening a gate to the Underworld was as simple as him artificially creating Awakened?
"Anyway... the research complex has been thrown into chaos, and too many people have died..."
"Can we confirm the survivors?"
"We can check via the CCTV in the control room. As I understand it, the building was designed with no blind spots for the cameras."
Realizing we needed more people, I radioed Gimpo to explain the situation and ordered them to send additional troops. Fortunately, supplies like food and weapons were intact.
And so, we searched every nook and cranny of the research building for places survivors might be hiding, safely rescuing everyone without any additional casualties.
After a thorough check to make sure no one had been bitten, we confirmed that, thankfully, there were none. We were just about to identify the remaining survivors and head back. The operation was over, threats eliminated, and we were ready to call in the helicopter and leave. The helicopter arrived, and as we prepared to depart, Chairman Lee's group was seeing us off.
Then Chairman Lee suddenly called out to me and spoke with a serious face.
"Representative, I realized something today. Would you consider taking us in?"
"I understand a great calamity struck your group... but isn't this decision a bit sudden?"
"Actually, we had already discussed it among ourselves. And I felt it for certain. If you hold a moderate amount of power, those who covet it will inevitably appear. And..."
"And?"
"Is it convincing enough if I say that we now fully trust you?"
Chairman Lee grinned and held out his hand for a handshake. I took it and said,
"No special privileges."
"Haha, don't worry. No one among us would dream of such a thing."
* * * * * * * *
Leaving them behind for the moment, our party returned to Gimpo first. We had to inform everyone that Chairman Lee's group would be joining us.
"Mr. Sihu, if they join us, there will be no need to shuttle technicians back and forth."
"Yes. Still, many of their people have already died."
The President bowed his head in mourning for a moment, closing his eyes to pray for the repose of their souls.
"It's such a tragic accident, especially now when every single person is precious..."
"We have to make sure no one ever again dies for such a ridiculous reason."
"Yes. And our group has also received a few pieces of good news."
"Good news like...?"
"We've received reports that several people are pregnant."
As the world nears its end, is pregnancy a blessing or a calamity...? At least in our group, it will be felt as a blessing, not a calamity.
"And... a request for cooperation has come in."
"Cooperation? From which survivor group?"
"Japan..."
"Japan?"
I recalled that when David asked about the source of the information last time, the President told him about me. And since David would know I'm with the government, he must have made contact.
"Did you hear from Commander David that a huge forest appeared in Japan?"
"Yes, he briefly mentioned it in passing last time. A forest rivaling the Amazon..."
"Japanese forces have been deployed into that forest multiple times for reconnaissance, but they've never returned. So they're asking for our cooperation..."
A forest from which no one returns, and they're asking for cooperation... And if the President is bringing this up to me, there's a clear reason. He's not the type to speak without thinking.
"If you're bringing this to me, there must be a reason, right?"
"Yes. To ensure the steady operation of the power plant, we've decided to take as much uranium and plutonium as we want."
"Huh? Doesn't our country already have uranium and plutonium from way back?"
"Given our current facilities and manpower, the extraction process is extremely dangerous. But whether it's dangerous to mine it in someone else's backyard is irrelevant."
Indeed... words befitting a politician. It's true that whether someone else's house blows up is none of our concern.
"In return, we've made it absolutely clear that they cannot offer any help during the extraction process."
It wasn't a bad deal for them, either. They probably figured, 'Go ahead and take it if you can manage somehow.' The only hard part was the extraction itself—once we got the fuel out, we could just stuff it into my subspace and be done.
"What are the exact details of their cooperation request?"
"Rescue their people from inside, or if they're dead, retrieve their belongings. And confirm what lies within."
"Do we have to check that entire vast area?"
"No, they say there's a location where life signatures are detected. They tried deploying troops there themselves but kept failing. Drones and other unmanned vehicles can't confirm anything, either."
The President gestured to his Chief Secretary to bring over the documents. He then handed the papers to me, telling me to read them.
The contents were mostly the same as what the President had just explained, but a few photos were attached.
"A bird? This is clearly..."
"Yes, there's a high possibility it's that zombie bird we saw last time."
"Its shape is a little different to just call it a zombie bird... and it's considerably larger than I expected..."
"Representative... that photo was taken from five kilometers away."
'A bird that massive... Don't tell me... No. Given the Leviathan, it's possible...'
As I stared at the photos and sank deep into my own thoughts, my companions asked,
"Sihu, have you seen one before?"
"I have. But this is the first time I'm seeing one on Earth..."
Seen one before, but the first time on Earth? My companions understood immediately.
"...Then it must be a being that crossed over from Titan... Could you describe what kind of being it might be?"
"I'm not certain it's exactly that thing, but if it is, Japan could be wiped off the map."
When I said annihilation rather than mere destruction, everyone was shocked. And a few of the quicker ones caught on to what I was referring to.
"Son-in-law, that giant bird you mentioned last time..."
"Yes. A monstrous bird of the sky that covers the sun with its wings and annihilates a nation with a single flap."
"It's right next to our country—shouldn't we also consider the possibility of it causing damage to us?"
"That's what's a bit strange... I don't know why it hasn't been active yet and is staying still. And we haven't confirmed it's really that particular bird."
A being on par with the Leviathan—no, slightly higher in rank. The expressions of all my companions darkened.
"Did you receive the coordinates for the plutonium and uranium?"
"First, we received the location of the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant and a few others. Why do you ask?"
"Fortunately, it's far from that creature's location... In the first place, if we intend to extract the fuel, we'll have to subdue that thing. Otherwise, the commotion from the extraction process could bring us into conflict with it."
On top of that, another fact we discovered was that the fuel replacement cycle had only about three months left. In the end, we had to go to Japan.
Since a Chinook helicopter couldn't make the trip in one go, we formulated a plan to refuel in Busan and then fly to Japan.