novelraw Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Chapter 125
With this, for the time being, we handled the fortress the corpses had built in Kaesong.
It was not an immensely difficult task. We were only three hunters, but two of the three had their names on the List of Hope.
And since the remaining one had pushed the 3rd rank of the List of Hope to defeat and had defeated the representative of Taebaek.
If you only considered the sum of our combat power, it was actually at a staggering level.
If someone said they brought only three rounds of ammunition to a war, you might think they were joking, but if those three rounds were nuclear missiles, the story changed quite a bit, didn't it?
“Here, eat. It is prison food.”
When we arrived at the accommodation, Jung Oh-hoon was boiling curry in a pot.
“Pineapple curry?”
The words "What on earth are you doing?" hit the roof of my mouth and went back down.
I thought putting pineapple on pizza was a sign of the world's ruin, but putting pineapple in curry?
“I always put it in. Just try it for once. The taste is amazing.”
I ladled the curry into a bowl with a suspicious expression.
Thus, an indescribable combination where rice, curry, and pineapple gathered in one place was completed.
“Who eats rice and pineapple together?”
“They eat it in China.”
I replied to Han Sang-ah’s words.
“Are you talking about something like pineapple fried rice?”
“No, they put minced pineapple flesh and glutinous rice inside a hollowed-out pineapple and steam it in a steamer.”
I would not nitpick about food people from other countries ate... but honestly, I was not sure if that would be tasty or not. Pineapple curry looked decent by comparison.
Anyway, we talked while eating the rice and curry with pineapple.
The subject of this dinner table conversation was, of course, the story Han Sang-ah and I had shared just before. The relationship between people turning into monsters and the Erosion Cores.
“Then shouldn't we stop it? Whether by exposing their identity or threatening the South Korean government....”
Jung Oh-hoon offered an opinion. I wore an ambiguous expression at Jung Oh-hoon’s words.
“Stop what? Do you think they would stop just because we told them not to?”
“Well, no. But we have to do something.”
It was not something that would be stopped just because we tried to block it.
“Hunters are all bound to want greater power. And the South Korean government does not want to lose its unique standing.”
It was no different from shouting "Stop!" to help a kid being beaten by bullies.
No matter how much effort we put in, hunters and the government, who moved according to their own goals and greed, would not listen to us.
“So, that method is?”
“There is no point in trying to block it. We have to remove the cause.”
Here, too, I applied a law similar to the principle by which I saved the world and people.
“The most certain way to make everyone non-smokers is to make cigarettes extinct from this world.”
How can you smoke when there are no cigarettes? There is no need for smoking cessation clinics or campaigns. If you just erase cigarettes from the world, everyone becomes a non-smoker.
There is no need to test each individual's will at all.
“So, the solution to this situation is the removal of the Erosion Core?”
“It comes back to that in the end. Honestly, there is nothing else we can do besides that.”
Han Sang-ah replied to my words.
“At the very least, we can reveal their identity and warn them to push it into the shadows.”
“The one who wants to utilize that right now is the South Korean government.”
If the government has no intention of pushing it into the shadows, how could it go there?
“On the contrary, they could frame us as a privileged class and bury us.”
There is a way to get strong easily, and there is a way for citizens to become safer.
But we are talking nonsense just to maintain our vested interests.
If they framed it that way, how could we respond?
“The world does not work that justly, and surprisingly, there are not many people who want it to work justly.”
I clapped my hands once and finished the rest of the curry.
“So let's eat a warm meal and gather more people while waiting for the hunters scheduled to join us.”
The three of us handled the fortress in Kaesong. But the fight that would follow would not be that easy. Even if 30 more people joined us now, it would be incredibly difficult.
We needed more hunters and money. Thirty people, if you compared it to an army, was like saying a platoon was going to occupy North Korea.
“We will be able to gather more. But more than that, I think we can even pull in and use Taebaek’s hunters.”
I let out an "Oh" at Han Sang-ah’s words.
“Tell me in detail.”
Han Sang-ah took out a comb and smoothed her hair as she spoke.
“Instead of saying Taebaek cooperated in this Kaesong conquest, I will ask them to support us with hunters.”
Han Sang-ah continued the explanation.
“Paju is a front line Taebaek has been maintaining. They have only maintained that front line for several years now.”
“The three of us wiped it out.”
It was true that Taebaek had ended up in a very awkward situation. People would praise what we did and at the same time think, "Then what the hell has Taebaek been doing all this time?"
“The only ones who saw the Kaesong conquest process with their own eyes were us and the hunters belonging to the Taebaek branch in Paju anyway.”
So we could say as much as we wanted that we pushed them out in cooperation with Taebaek.
If Taebaek supported us with hunters. In other words, it meant we could request cooperation beyond just providing a place to stay and a base as they had done until now.
“However, my back feels a bit itchy.”
“Really?”
Hearing my words, Han Sang-ah reached out and scratched the back of my head.
“No, I meant that I am not very fond of fighting alongside guys I cannot trust.”
Han Sang-ah let out an "Ah" and held out her smartphone.
“This?”
“A video I took with my smartphone. I recorded it secretly while you were fighting that ghost knight.”
On it, a scene of just Han Sang-ah and me charging into Kaesong was captured. It was not a long video. It was only about a 15-second video of the landscape inside the fortress.
But that was enough. There were no hunters in that video other than Han Sang-ah and me. There were no hunters from Taebaek.
In other words, if we released this video, Taebaek's claim that they fought with us to secure Kaesong would become a lie.
“This changes the situation completely. Well done.”
It meant we could put a bomb necklace on untrustworthy guys so they couldn't pull any tricks.
If we had something like this, we could fight together all we wanted. I slapped Han Sang-ah’s back once and spoke.
“Well done. Now go and bite Taebaek.”
“I won't bite.”
Since Han Sang-ah was the planner of this idea, it was only natural for her to go and settle it. Han Sang-ah had already proven that she was good at negotiating during the process of gathering the funds needed for the Jaun Valley subjugation.
Han Sang-ah stood up from her seat and spoke to Jung Oh-hoon.
“Next time, tell me in advance if you put pineapple in the curry.”
“Why?”
“I will prepare my own food separately.”
It meant it was not tasty. Well, I suppose it did not suit her taste.
“Chan-seok, was it bad for you too?”
“No, honestly, for the most part, food is all the same anyway.”
I did not think there was any meal I had eaten with admiration other than the food made by Owner Sa Seung-hee.
I was not the type to be picky about what I ate. I would probably even eat that glutinous rice steamed in a pineapple that Han Sang-ah mentioned if it were given to me.
After finishing the meal, Jung Oh-hoon fumbled with something on his smartphone.
“What are you doing?”
“Shopping.”
Shopping, all of a sudden? I looked at him for a moment, confirmed that his expression was quite serious, and then looked away.
“What, are you doing something like stocks?”
Jung Oh-hoon replied to my words.
“I am pretty good at Hwatu and poker, but whenever I did stocks, I ended up getting stuck at a high price. So I quit.”
Anyway, it seemed he was not shopping for something like that. I would be able to find out what he bought after some time passed.
In the meantime, it seemed Han Sang-ah had finished the settlement with Taebaek. It was almost 4:00 AM.
“From tomorrow, the hunters belonging to the Paju branch decided to cooperate with us too.”
“That is a relief.”
Han Sang-ah continued to my words.
“However, it is not that they will cooperate with our Erosion Core subjugation itself.”
“What does that mean?”
At my words, Han Sang-ah spread out a map and sat on the floor.
“We are short on numbers.”
“Right, that is the biggest problem.”
We were in a position where we had to push up from Paju to Pyeongseong. Even if there were obstacles blocking us in between, it was not impossible to tear them down.
It had already been proven in Kaesong.
“The problem that arises when numbers are short is that we cannot maintain the points we have torn down.”
Han Sang-ah was seeing it correctly. Honestly, that was exactly why the lack of numbers was a problem. We had the power to smash places where monsters gathered to guard. But we could not guard them after smashing them.
Because we were only three people. I compared the three of us to a nuclear bomb, and it was a fairly accurate metaphor.
A nuclear bomb can wipe out the enemy, but it cannot occupy the empty place after wiping them out. That is a task for soldiers, not a nuclear bomb.
“This time, Taebaek will solve that issue.”
In other words, after we rushed in and wiped out the monsters, Taebaek would send hunters to guard the places we had cleared.
“Just guarding is not enough.”
Han Sang-ah replied to my words.
“The agreement Han Sang-ah and Taebaek reached is simple. After we wipe out the big things, Taebaek will guard the corresponding location and remove the surrounding monsters and small Erosion Cores.”
“What about the lands Taebaek was occupying after we succeed in removing the Triple Blood Cave?”
Han Sang-ah replied to my words.
“Taebaek will hold the negotiation rights with corporations. We will take 35% of the profits that fall to Taebaek’s share.”
Jung Oh-hoon frowned.
“It feels like we are losing out.”
“What they said made sense too. In the end, after occupying the regions we tore down, Taebaek also consumes a lot of manpower and funds for maintenance.”
Han Sang-ah continued as she rolled up the map.
“Under these conditions, Taebaek plans to support up to 850 hunters, three operating teams, and supplies for the maintenance of the occupied regions.”
“Then 35% is not a bad condition.”
It was to the point where one could say "as much as 35%" instead of "only 35%."
“The problem is if Taebaek gets a bad idea later and intentionally cuts off our supplies.”
I replied simply to Jung Oh-hoon’s words.
“The reason we need a base is for the success of the conquest. Our survival and return are already guaranteed even without a base anyway.”
Even if Taebaek stabbed us in the back after we arrived in Pyongyang, simply leaving Pyongyang and returning to Paju was possible even without supplies.
The fact that we could not occupy a base because we were only three people was a problem, but to put it the other way, because we were only three people, we did not need many supplies to go back.
“And if they stab us in the back like that... Taebaek will regret it terribly later.”
“Oh, and they said they would like it if we did not accept additional hunters other than the 30 we already agreed with if we proceed this way.”
In addition, in the case of the 30 who decided to accompany us from the beginning, Taebaek planned to set the amount of money to be split through their own negotiations with those hunters.
This meant they wanted to make things as unencumbered as possible when they split the pie later.
“I don’t care. But we will also check the negotiation results. And if the share falling to those friends is strange, we will enter the negotiations ourselves.”
In any case, they were hunters who trusted what we were doing and followed us. We had an obligation to protect their share.
“I can obtain at least that much through additional negotiations.”
For now, they said the hunters of the Taebaek branch in Paju were scheduled to head to Kaesong immediately. Han Sang-ah would likely carry out the negotiations again for the additional items I requested.