The Kanon Empire (1)
Inside the bunker, there was silence.
It was a space where even time itself seemed to have stopped.
Breaking that silence, Seon Yul slowly swept items into his Absolute Space.
The interior of the bunker, packed tightly with all kinds of food, daily necessities, weapons, and machine parts, had once been the final survival fortress prepared by a powerful chaebol chairman.
Everything he had prepared solely for his own future had now fallen into Seon Yul’s hands.
No one could know how greedy he must have been to not even share the method of entering the bunker with his own children, but thanks to that, Seon Yul was able to obtain everything with ease.
Of course, later on, the chairman’s children might attempt to file a claim for damages.
But at the very least, if they wished to continue living in the Republic of Korea, or if they were in their right minds, they would never make such a claim.
To begin with, they wouldn’t even know who had looted the bunker, and according to Cha Seong Hyeon, the chairman’s descendants had long since forgotten about the bunker altogether, as they were too busy struggling to survive in this chaotic situation.
‘With this much, I can run my business comfortably for quite a while.’
Once again, all of this was thanks to the deceased chaebol chairman’s immense greed.
Seon Yul thoroughly searched the bunker and took everything that could be useful. Not only food, medicine, and tools, but even rare resources that couldn’t be obtained from ordinary shops were discovered.
However, items such as fresh food and fuel had already been rendered unusable due to the influence of mana.
The meat stored in freezers had all rotted, and oil and power-related materials had also become completely useless due to mana contamination.
‘It’s not like these were what I was looking for anyway. There are plenty of other useful things.’
Seon Yul smiled in satisfaction. After making one final round through the bunker and collecting everything he could, he closed his Absolute Space.
‘Phew, that should be everything, right? Let’s head back.’
After gathering all the items, Seon Yul used Absolute Space to return to Seoul in an instant.
Back in Seoul, he immediately sat down in his room and checked the latest posts on the community.
These days, the community was nothing less than a battlefield of information.
Magic users from all over the world were constantly updating the situation in each country in real time, maintaining a high level of tension.
‘China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa… recently, there have been quite a lot of posts related to these five countries.’
Their movements… more precisely, the movements of BRICS, were unusual.
All kinds of information about BRICS were pouring into the community. Since they had joined hands with the Kanon Empire, Seon Yul expected them to make dangerous moves in one way or another.
‘If the Kanon Empire exerts influence over Earth–104, that marks the beginning of chaos.’
Seon Yul intended to prevent the Kanon Empire from gaining any foothold on Earth–104 by any means necessary.
The Kanon Empire was a force that had tried to oppress and exploit him in the past, and even now, it sought to enslave irregulars for its own benefit.
‘There’s no way BRICS joined hands with the Empire simply to rebuild their nations.’
Whatever their intentions, their alliance could never have a positive effect on Earth–104.
Seon Yul nodded as he continued reading the posts appearing on the community one by one.
It felt like there would be a lot to do going forward.
***
After roughly finishing all his business on Earth–104, Seon Yul immediately headed to Earth–001.
Upon arriving, he did not waste a single moment and went straight to the Fortress of Freedom.
The Fortress of Freedom was still bustling with many magic users coming and going. After arriving, Seon Yul immediately went to the shop, where Cheon Li Yu and Jun Hyeok were, as expected, busy attending to customers.
“Hey~ you’re back pretty quickly?”
“Didn’t you need more time to gather supplies?”
The two asked simultaneously, surprised that Seon Yul had returned earlier than expected.
“Well… I just got lucky.”
Seon Yul chatted briefly with the two.
After summarizing what had happened on Earth–104, he took out the items he had brought.
Then, inside the shop’s Absolute Space (warehouse), Seon Yul began stacking the items one by one.
“With this much supply, we should be able to hold out for months, right?”
Seeing the resources Seon Yul had obtained from the bunker, Cheon Li Yu and Jun Hyeok were impressed.
“Wow, that’s more than I expected? That’s amazing.”
Jun Hyeok kept nodding in admiration.
“As I said earlier, I just got lucky. It’s basically an ownerless inheritance left behind by a foolish chaebol chairman.”
Seon Yul replied casually.
After filling the warehouse, Seon Yul returned to the shop and began explaining the plans he had been thinking about even before leaving for Earth–104.
“I think we need to expand the shop. Make it bigger… and we should also consider expanding the business itself.”
Cheon Li Yu and Jun Hyeok nodded as they listened.
“So… how about you take full responsibility for the shop and business here, Jun Hyeok?”
For various reasons, Seon Yul knew that he and Cheon Li Yu wouldn’t be able to focus entirely on the shop, so he intended to entrust the entire business to Jun Hyeok.
“Me? Everything? So basically, you want me to be the CEO?”
“That’s right. CEO. Actually, you can just think of it as your own business. I’ll even give you about 30% of the net profit.”
“30%? Come on, forget it. You’re the one bringing in all the goods… what 30%? Just 10% is enough.”
“Well, that’s up to you.”
To Seon Yul, this “percentage” wasn’t very important.
He planned to focus less on the business side and just supply goods, so he truly intended to leave everything to Jun Hyeok.
Jun Hyeok smiled confidently as he replied.
“My awakened ability might be worse than yours, but I’m definitely better at this kind of thing. I’ll expand the business with these goods and actively sell them.”
His voice was filled with confidence. As always, Jun Hyeok’s attitude was brimming with self-assurance.
He was already envisioning strategies to expand the shop and attract more magic users.
“Yeah, this probably suits you better.”
Seon Yul nodded as he looked at him.
He believed that Jun Hyeok would manage the business well.
“I’m thinking of heading north of the Dark Forest with Li Yu.”
“Why there?”
“Well, we’re running low on monster materials for the shop. And as I mentioned earlier, it seems like those Kanon Empire guys are up to something strange. I want to scout their fortress over there.”
“Be careful. I’ve heard a lot about the Kanon Empire while running this shop… they’re really different from the natives here.”
“Of course, I won’t do anything dangerous. I’m planning to just scout safely and come back.”
Seon Yul also knew very well what kind of place the Kanon Empire was.
So rather than taking risks, he planned to first observe the situation lightly.
Leaving the shop to Jun Hyeok, Seon Yul, and Cheon Li Yu immediately headed north of the Dark Forest.
If they wanted, they could have crossed the forest quickly, but since their goal was both scouting and hunting, they proceeded calmly while hunting monsters along the way.
Hunting monsters in the Dark Forest was as easy as flipping a palm for them, so their progress was extremely fast.
Thus, while hunting monsters, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu quickly advanced northward and, in less than a week, reached near the Empire’s northern fortress.
At that moment, Cheon Li Yu spotted a strange group ahead.
“Over there… those guys…”
While observing the surroundings with her divine sight, Cheon Li Yu pointed ahead and quickly shared her vision with Seon Yul.
In his view, Seon Yul saw a group of magic users in the distance fleeing in a hurry.
Their faces were filled with fear and confusion.
“That mark… that’s the U.S. flag… are they a U.S. government magic user team? But what are they being chased by? Li Yu, look further behind them.”
At Seon Yul’s words, Li Yu immediately examined the pursuers behind them with her divine sight.
The pursuers wore black clothes and held unique weapons in their hands. But most striking of all was the clear mark stamped on their bodies…the brand of the Kanon Empire.
‘That imperial brand… and their appearance, they’re unmistakably Indians…’
“They look like magic users from Earth–104, too?”
“Yeah, seems like it. Probably magic users from India… but they’ve got the Empire’s brand.”
At Li Yu’s words, Seon Yul nodded.
“Then that means…”
“Yeah. They’re probably BRICS magic users.”
Those bearing the brand were indeed Indian magic users.
“And the ones being chased are American magic users. They’re probably trying to capture them and turn them into slaves of the Empire… I don’t think we can just sit back and watch.”
It wasn’t because he felt pity for the American magic users, nor because of any sense of justice as a fellow Earth–104 magic user.
It was because the opponent was the Kanon Empire, and because these BRICS magic users had voluntarily pledged loyalty to it and even accepted the brand, that he couldn’t stay still.
Seon Yul immediately took action.
“Li Yu, let’s go with Formation A.”
“Okay.”
Seon Yul and Li Yu had created various formations while hunting countless monsters, and Formation A involved Li Yu entering the Absolute Space and acting as a fire control operator, while Seon Yul opened entrances to Absolute Space at suitable locations to initiate attacks.
There were a total of 10 Indian magic users from BRICS.
And 7 American magic users are being chased.
Once branded by the Empire, not only basic physical abilities but even the rank of awakened abilities could increase, raising their overall power by one or two levels.
In fact, aside from being under the Empire’s strict control, the brand was an incredible buff, so the pursuing Indian magic users possessed overwhelmingly stronger power than the fleeing Americans.
But that was only within their own standards.
Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu were far beyond even the scope they could imagine, so they did not consider eliminating ten branded Indian magic users to be difficult.
‘First, let’s hit the ones moving together with a railgun shot.’
Tzzzzzt.
Seon Yul immediately opened an entrance to Absolute Space and aimed a railgun at the group of Indian magic users about 1 km ahead.
Whiiiiing, BOOM!
As Seon Yul instructed, Li Yu targeted the one in the center and fired the railgun immediately.
Whoooosh, KABOOOM!
In an instant, the tungsten shell from the railgun flew 1 km and struck among the Indian magic users, killing four of them on the spot from the impact.
The surviving magic users, shocked by the sudden attack, scattered… but waiting for them were Cheon Li Yu’s long-range sniping and Seon Yul’s pursuit.
Li Yu eliminated them one by one from afar with precise shots, while Seon Yul rapidly closed the distance and erased them one by one at close range using a Gatling gun.
Thus, in an instant, the two of them completely wiped out all ten Indian magic users.
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