Chapter 265: Tactical Nuke Drop (4)
If there’s one good thing about bing a special ability user, it’s the experiences I couldn’t have before.
Now, I could freely go to ces I previously deemed ambiguous to visit.
“You’vee in here.”
A ce further west from Mokpo.
North of Jindo, where I once fought the Skull Demon alongside Baek Seol-hee.
I entered Angel’s Ind alone, wandering an unnamed ind at the very edge of the map.
There were few people.
Maybe around 300 people on this ind?
And even those 300 people were not residents of this unnamed ind.Rumble.
People in work clothes were diligently shoveling over the salt pans.
Their skin was darkened by the sun, but they silently and diligently worked, scooping out the salt from the pans.
“Whack, whack….”
Despite the hardbor, they couldn’t help but feel nauseous, wiping the sweat off their foreheads with their sleeves while groaning.
A quick nce at a worker’s face showed a typical Australian blonde foreigner.
“Hey, no whack! Keep going!”
And a man who looked like a supervisor shouted at the blonde foreigner.
Wearing a blue armband, he had a hat with ‘Haegneul Sr Salt’ written on it, supervising the workers.
‘It’s truly amazing.’
The ce I knew was full of ghost stories about modern-day very, but here, arge corporation had directlye in and was managing the salt pans as if it’s really Angel’s Ind.
“I wasn’t swearing! It was just the sound of the shovel going in, whack!!”
“Foreigners make an F sound so clearly! Koreans would say ‘puck’, not ‘whack’! Are you going to keep whacking while earning 10 million won a month, Carlos?!”
“…Tsk.”
The grumpy white worker, Carlos, started shoveling again.
And watching them, I felt chills down my spine.
Everyone working in the salt pans was wearing work clothes with the ‘Haegneul’ emblem on their backs, and the work allowance was 10 million won a month.
‘It truly is Angel’s Ind.’
No one suddenly disappeared without a trace.
CCTV cameras managed by Haegneul were everywhere, and small boats with the Haegneul emblem patrolled the sea, watching over the salt pans.
Aside from being a sea salt farm, it was no different from other farms onnd.
Ding, dong, dang, dong.
The bell rang.
It was precisely 3 PM, and the workers all stretched and began light exercises.
“30 minutes break!! If you need to go to the bathroom, don’t do it in strange ces; use the boat! If anyone dumps in the sea again, they will be deported to their home country!”
The supervisor gave a stern warning and disappeared.
I watched the scene from the rooftop of a building inside the ind, sitting in the shade.
‘What a crazy world.’
On the rooftop of the factory, my reflection showed in the stainless steel vent extending outward.
The figure of the Goblin in a suit hidden in the shadows.
It meant the steel tes were polished enough for me to reflect in the factory’s vent.
Despite the severe corrosion from the sea, it’s so well-managed, indicating how much Haegneul cared about this ind.
Indeed, the Angel’s Ind was the Angel’s Ind.
Not just a joke, with corporate capitaling in and most of the residents changing, many things on this ind had changed.
Was it because of national pride?
Was it because of the perception of being the world’s greatest country?
Or was it because everyone agreed that the old image should no longer exist in the eyes of the world?
-Seoul Republic? Hell? Gotham? What nonsense. There’s no such strange ces in the great Republic of Korea.
-Those ces no longer exist~ The entire country changed after the great upheaval~
-Regional discrimination? How can you say such harsh words! We are one nation, and the people of the Republic of Korea! There’s no way we would tear each other down just because we’re from different regions. Hahaha!
In this world, the darkness that was abundant before the great upheaval was no longer visible, at least ‘externally.’
-If you don’t say it doesn’t exist, people in ck robes might visit your home tonight. Be careful.
-Keep in mind, maybe it was like that before, but not now. As people of this leading nation, don’t tarnish the national brand with such stories.
-Do you want to die as a traitor or live as a patriot?
If you look closely, the target had just changed. Just as Haegneul came directly to Angel’s Ind and overturned everything with corporate salt farm management, all the rumors now circting secretly were ‘things that no longer exist in this world.’
Right.
From someone’s perspective, if viewed from an alien’s point of view, ‘bad history.’
Such things no longer happened in Korea but in real-time in foreign countries, which was absurd in this world. But at least the Republic of Korea shone brightly with national pride.
Therefore.
I chose this ce.
The Subus’s Ind.
God’s sanctuary.
Whether Lace’s demon named her alias Hyangdan after being deeply impressed by the Tales of Chunhyang or not, most of her actions in Thand were imitations of what was done in the world before the great upheaval.
She cultivated coriander and mana powder instead of salt.
She just added abilities to the way people were treated like ves.
Even if she said it wasn’t rted to the ce before the upheaval, it’s a reasonable assumption that she drew inspiration from the bad image associated with this ce.
Good things to Korea.
Bad things to foreign countries.
“If it didn’t exist, just leave it as it is. Why go abroad to recreate it as if it were Korea?”
Beep beep beep.
The Taeguk Watch started ringing.
It seemed about time, and the phone started ringing.
“Yes, I’m answering the call.”
[Is this Mr. Park Bunchung?]
“…Who is this?”
Of course, I was not Park Bunchung.
No matter how many people in the world lived with unique names that seemed like they needed to be changed immediately, I was not Park Bunchung.
Rather, it would be surprising if they called me Do Chang-nam.
[Are you the one who wrote the story about Hyangdan? I’m Kim Soo-jung, a web novel PD working at ‘Mercury Media’.]
“……Ah, yes. That’s right.”
For a moment, I wondered if it was real, but I could sense the sinister tone in the voiceing through the phone.
“By the way, how did you get my number?”
[Well… I hacked it.]
“…….”
The true nature was revealed.
I immediately hung up, but soon something like a breeze began to blow where I was standing.
Sarak.
A woman wearing a hanboknded on the rooftop.
With her neatly tied ck hair, she looked more like Seong Chunhyang than Hyangdan, and except for her ck hair and ck eyes, she looked like a foreigner in a hanbok.
“…Who are you?”
“I’m Kim Soo-jung.”
“Are you… a special ability user?”
“Yes. I am a special ability user. And also….”
She smirked.
“I’m a demon who came to kill you.”
“……!”
“You’re the one who wrote the story about Hyangdan, right?”
Creak.
The woman, who called herself Kim Soo-jung, a demon, cracked her neck from side to side and slowly approached me.
“Oh my, it’s unforgivable. Mixing NTR into pure love. And on top of that, making a woman like a praying mantis who devours men.”
“…Are you here to kill me just because of a novel?”
“Just a novel? Ha, don’t you care about the mental state of someone who might go crazy because of your novel?”
I understood.
I was a reader, too.
“Because of your novel, a story about love between a man and a woman and a woman’s chastity turned into a pornographic 19+ affair story!!”
“And that’s why I deserve to die?”
“Of course!”
“…Well, demons really have nothing better to do. And it’s just absurd.”
I immediately took off the mask I was wearing.
“……Huh?”
“Do the demons of Pandemonium have no thoughts? No intelligence at all?”
“…….Who?”
“Oh.”
I revealed my face.
Well, it didn’t matter.
The barrier was already set, and all that remained for this woman was ‘execution.’
[Does this help you understand?]
“……!”
As soon as I released the hidden magic and put on the mask, Kim Soo-jung jumped up and tried to escape into the sky.
Bang!
But it was useless.
“An invisible me barrier…?”
[I got help from Gunggi. Don’t worry. Gunggi won’t participate in this battle.]
Now that this ind has be a ‘battlefield,’ Kim Soo-jung—Lace’s demon—could not leave until Gunggi’s magic was exhausted.
In other words, I must defeat that woman before Gunggi’s magic was fully depleted.
“Hehe, interesting. You’ve consumed so much magic, and you think you can win against me?”
[If I wasn’t going to summon you, I wouldn’t have created such a novel.]
“……Huh?”
Lace’s demonughed with her mouth wide open.
“So, you created that NTR intrusion novel just to lure me out…?”
[It was very effective. By the way, if you try to escape, Hyangdan won’t end as Seong Chunhyang taking over Yi Mong-ryong. I’ll make sure it ‘transforms’ properly.]
It’s a specialized term only those in the know understand.
It’s a word that didn’t circte in this world.
“What, what are you going to do…!”
That’s why Lace’s demon was afraid.
For her, the demon who knew everything, the fact that there was something she didn’t know was a terror itself.
[If you want to know, run away.]
“…Hehe, okay. Then, if I kill you here, I can learn about that transformation or whatever it is, right? What, will you transform like a rider?”
[I’ll tell you before you die. But, why are you so confident?]
As expected.
Just like Duoexini, she’s foolish.
[The association fights the enemy by any means necessary. My magic is not fully restored to face you alone.]
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but no matter how much you build it up, it’s just a bluff.”
[Do you think it’s a bluff? That’s unfortunate.]
I lightly tapped the Taeguk Watch with my finger.
[Unfortunately, it’s not a bluff.]
Soon, a message flew far beyond Gunggi’s barrier, and I leisurely stretched my hand toward Lace’s demon.
[Let me introduce.]
“……Huh?”
Snap.
From a golden circr magic circle, a blonde-haired, gold-eyed woman emerged, tearing open the space.
[My special EX-grade partner.]
The sure way to kill Lace’s demon, even with my iplete magic.
[The Archangel of Justice who I brought to defeat you.]
Tactical Yumir drop.