Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Hero's Welcome
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“But, Seo-hyun.”
“Yeah?”
“When we build a mutant village based on the World Tree, what if there are mutants who don’t want to come to the village?”
This was a pretty important issue. There could be mutants who valued their freedom highly, or ones whose hatred had reached such extremes that they’d choose revenge over the comfort of the World Tree.
“We can’t force people like that to come. It’d basically be a prison. Instead, if someone chooses to act out of revenge rather than join the mutant village, the other mutants can band together and stop them. I’ll help out if I can. Oh, and I forgot to mention something from the negotiations earlier… Could you pass a message to the governor for me?”
“What message?”
“If they keep discriminating against mutants so harshly that something like this happens again, we won’t help next time. They need to improve how they treat mutants on their own.”
“…Got it.”
Mutants weren’t idiots, and they couldn’t just erase years of pent-up resentment overnight. Building a mutant village was just a temporary measure.
A fence to protect them, a place to let their emotions cool a bit—a stopgap solution.
In the meantime, the outside world needed to make efforts of its own.
That’s why a threat like this was necessary.
We’d helped this time, but there wouldn’t be any assistance for a second disaster caused by mutant hatred.
If they tried to use me for their own convenience, I’d blow the state government sky-high instead.
That ought to get the point across loud and clear.
* * *
“Oh, Deputy Director. You must be tired. It was a long flight.”
“No, you’ve had it worse, Director. Haha. Looks like you pulled off quite the feat.”
“Well… yeah.”
I summarized everything that had happened for the Deputy Director.
How to resolve the mutant village and the widespread hatred toward mutants in America, and so on.
“That sounds solid. But the situation was way more serious than I thought.”
“Don’t even get me started. They tortured and massacred thousands of people, then turned the corpses into monsters and sent them marching forward.”
“Insane…! Sorry about that. But really? They massacred thousands?”
The Deputy Director’s eyes went wide. A perfectly natural reaction.
“The news will spread like wildfire soon enough. Plenty of people saw it.”
“My god… What a horrific tragedy.”
“The federal government will probably try to cover it up. But I made a deal with the state government to reveal every detail of how this all went down.”
“To raise awareness?”
“Exactly. To make it crystal clear what unchecked hatred and discrimination against mutants can lead to. No matter how I look at it, the situation here is totally different from back home.”
Going through all this made me truly appreciate what the National Intelligence Service Director had accomplished.
…In a situation where something like this could’ve easily happened in Korea too.
“Alright, I’ve got it. Leave the follow-up to me.”
“Please do.”
* * *
After finishing up with the Deputy Director, Sia and I decided to visit the World Tree.
We needed to check its size first to figure out how many mutants it could accommodate.
And the World Tree we saw…
“Whoa…”
It was unmistakably a World Tree, boasting an awe-inspiring scale. How many meters tall was that thing? Not just the height, but a single tree as massive as a mountain? Was that even possible?
“Impressive, right?”
“Didn’t you say it would grow to about 500 meters once fully mature?”
“Yeah. But… I don’t know. It suddenly grew even more…”
“That looks like it’s pushing a kilometer tall.”
It was.
Thanks to some unknown effect, the World Tree now towered a full kilometer high.
Surpassing the world’s tallest buildings, this colossal tree—large enough to envelop an entire city—filled us with overwhelming awe just by looking at it.
“With this size, it should be more than enough for every mutant in America, right?”
“More like overflowing. This is city-scale. Hell, it could house mutants from all over the world if they all crammed in.”
“Not quite that much. There are only a few hundred in Korea, but other countries have a bit more. Right now, about 5,000 confirmed mutants in the US alone.”
“More mutants than I thought.”
“Yeah, well. India and China probably have even more. Anyway, this should accommodate every mutant in the world if they all came… No major issues there. The real challenge is the infrastructure—the state government promised a lot of help with that.”
“That’s already settled.”
“Building the village, enacting laws for mutants, setting up systems—it’ll take a decent amount of time. And we’ll need to advertise. ‘Mutants, come on over!’ Something like that. As soon as prep is done, the California state government will run a big campaign.”
“Sounds good.”
“But, sis.”
“Yeah?”
I kept kneading Sia’s cheeks as she spoke.
“Getting tired of it yet?”
“Nope. It’s thrilling every time. The best.”
“Ugh… Anyway, that’s the rough plan.”
“Hope a ton of them show up.”
“They probably will. Even just the mutants in America must be dying for a place free of discrimination and hate. Of course… like you said, some might skip it for revenge, so we’ll need cooperation from other mutants and help from the federal government for that.”
“Well… like I said earlier, I’ll help however I can. There are plenty of dangerous mutants out there. And if someone’s so blinded by revenge, just tell me. That’d be the best option.”
“You sure? I thought you were still in college.”
“The professor’s got the flexibility for that, obviously. So I can legally skip class for Management Bureau duties.”
“Good to hear. Oh, wanna take a closer look at the World Tree?”
“Yeah.”
Sia and I approached the World Tree. An overwhelming sense of cool freshness hung in the air around it.
My slight dissatisfaction melted away, replaced by a calm serenity.
“…Does the World Tree have some kind of mental stabilization effect too?”
“Yep. It’s a defense mechanism. Emotionally unstable people might lash out at it, so this effect lets me bring mutants here. Being around it calms the mind and suppresses mutant-specific impulses.”
If what Sia said was true, this place could be a true paradise for mutants who struggled with self-control. Not all mutants went berserk by choice, after all.
“That’s amazing. Bet a lot of mutants will want to come here.”
“We’ll need to build out the basics—systems, facilities, everything. It’ll take time, but I hope it goes fast.”
“The federal and state governments will handle that.”
“Still, as the one in charge… Oh, I was thinking of giving you some fancy title too, sis. What do you say?”
“No can do. I’m already a Korean civil servant. No moonlighting allowed here.”
“Oh, right.”
We chatted like that, speculating about what kinds of mutants might end up living here.
And at that moment, I had no idea. The drone footage I’d told the California governor to release… what kind of ripple effect it would have.
* * *
The drone footage released by the California governor shocked the entire United States.
Thousands of undead led by a lich and a dullahan.
And the corpse dragon formed from those undead masses.
It was so unbelievable that people claimed it had to be CG, not real footage.
But it wasn’t mere CG—it was a real entity born from the sacrifice of thousands.
And it had been marching toward San Diego. In reality, not some fantasy.
People wondered how anyone could have stopped such a monster.
Soon enough, that mystery was solved.
A colossal black dragon appeared, casting a massive shadow over the ground.
The breath it unleashed melted the corpse dragon in an instant.
And right after slaying the corpse dragon, the lich and dullahan suddenly crumbled to ash and scattered.
Those in the know about Mexico’s situation were stunned.
They knew exactly how vicious that lich and dullahan were.
The internet exploded.
What was that dragon’s identity? Why had one mutant stopped another?
The California governor cleared it up.
In an official press conference, he introduced Seo-hyun to the American people and explained her mindset in coming to America’s aid.
-Oh my god, it’s not an evil dragon—it’s the dragon that protected us!
-Protector Dragon!
-She’s a Korean civil servant?
-Wait, a college student? That huge dragon? Unbelievable!
-Heard she rushed over in a heartbeat to save America!
Interest in Seo-hyun skyrocketed across communities and the nation. Countless people expressed admiration for her selfless aid to another country in its hour of existential crisis.
Even in mutant-rejecting America, Seo-hyun successfully cemented her image as a hero.
And so, right now.
Seo-hyun stared in bewilderment at the sudden crowd that had come to see her.
The signs they held welcomed the hero—in English.
Amid their grateful words and cheers.
It was a flood of handshake requests.