Receiving the Spoils (2)
Seon Yul had not yet made a compensation request, but regardless, the Administration was in an extremely chaotic situation.
So many things had happened in Jeju Island that the process of cleaning it all up was bound to be complicated as well.
The Cheonha Group and the Daehan Group, who had fled immediately when the situation in Jeju first began to worsen, were stripped of all mining rights by the Administration and ordered to pay massive penalties.
They protested, claiming that when they retreated, the situation was not that serious and that they had merely exercised their legitimate right to abandon mining under their contracts. They began legal proceedings in response.
Frankly, even Cheonha Group and Daehan Group probably would not have fled so openly if they had known the situation in Jeju would become this severe. The problem was that the situation spiraled into the worst-case scenario immediately after their retreat.
In the end, the final decision would be made in court. However, judging from public opinion and the overall situation, it was certain that they would face considerable penalties.
But this was not what the Administration was most concerned about.
Even the emergency meeting currently being held had not been convened to discuss punishment for the Cheonha Group or Daehan Group, nor to talk about other users or factions.
From the beginning, the only attendees were Director Jeong Yeon Woo, the head of the Republic of Korea Administration, and Cha Seong Hyeon, his closest aide and effectively the second-in-command of the Administration.
The reason only these two were attending the emergency meeting was simple.
They needed to discuss highly classified matters.
Matters that could not be known by others.
And those matters were, of course, related to ‘AbsoluteSafetyFirst,’ who was currently being continuously mentioned not only in the community but across various real-world broadcasts as well.
“…And after compiling and reanalyzing all the modern weapons, types, and characteristics that AbsoluteSafetyFirst has used so far, I have found that his attacks are concentrated on impact based on physical force.”
Cha Seong Hyeon possessed more information about AbsoluteSafetyFirst than anyone else.
Based on that information, he had conducted a thorough analysis and managed to uncover several key points.
“In conclusion, AbsoluteSafetyFirst’s ability manifests in a form similar to a subspace ability… but rather than merely storing items like a typical subspace ability, it appears to allow him to use modern weapons inside that subspace and exert physical force outward.”
Cha Seong Hyeon’s awakened ability was enhanced intelligence.
An S-rank ability, no less.
Perhaps because of that, he could assemble small hints into a fairly plausible conclusion.
“However, we still do not know how many weapons AbsoluteSafetyFirst can store in that special subspace… nor how ammunition replenishment works… There are still many unanswered questions. Even so, I estimate with approximately 90% probability that AbsoluteSafetyFirst’s ability is this kind of offensive-type subspace.”
After a lengthy explanation, Cha Seong Hyeon arrived at a rather precise conclusion.
Director Jeong, who had listened to him the entire time, nodded and spoke.
“That sounds plausible. It certainly seems likely.”
“We don’t know the limits of an offensive subspace ability, but from our standpoint, it would already be an enormous advantage if AbsoluteSafetyFirst simply maintained his current position. As I mentioned before, among awakened abilities designed for anti-monster combat, I see none better than this. Even this time… he demonstrated an absurd aerial bombardment. At this level, he is practically a one-man army.”
The Administration had already finished analyzing the explosion that occurred at Baengnokdam on Hallasan.
They had even restricted access to the Baengnokdam area to prevent others from gathering information and completely erased any remaining traces.
The only thing left behind was the enormous crater that had already formed.
In any case, Cha Seong Hyeon and Director Jeong were fully aware that the powerful explosion at Baengnokdam had been caused by a massive steel sphere falling from the sky.
“It truly is absurd. Especially the attack that landed at Baengnokdam… that must absolutely not become known to other users or other administrations.”
“Of course. We’ve taken as many measures as possible. However… the footage from that time has already spread, so it is impossible to completely block it at the source.”
“That can’t be helped… But no matter how powerful AbsoluteSafetyFirst is, he probably can’t unleash that kind of attack freely whenever he wants, right?”
“In my assessment, it seems to require considerable preparation time… and it does not appear to be something that can be activated easily. In particular, considering that the user ‘No Reason At All’ suddenly gained contribution points as well, it may not even be possible to activate it alone.”
“Well, naturally, he wouldn’t be able to casually unleash something like that repeatedly.”
“But the important thing is that he can perform such an attack.”
“That attack… in the era of mana civilization… would have to be understood as something akin to a tactical ‘nuclear’ strike.”
“Based on reverse calculations we conducted after examining various traces following the explosion, the destructive power was approximately equivalent to 100 tons of TNT. That level is not truly comparable to an actual tactical nuclear weapon. However, within the current mana field, there exists no attack capable of generating that scale of destruction. So if we confine the hypothesis to the mana civilization era, calling it a tactical nuclear strike would not be inappropriate.”
Cha Seong Hyeon was a T-type personality.
So even though he could have simply agreed, he felt compelled to clarify the exact technical details. By this point, however, Director Jeong understood his personality well enough that he said nothing.
“Now then, at this point, what kind of compensation do you think AbsoluteSafetyFirst will request from us?”
In truth, this was the primary reason they had convened the emergency meeting.
The invoice that AbsoluteSafetyFirst would likely send soon.
They intended to predict its contents and prepare accordingly.
“If we assume his awakened ability is an offensive subspace, then it is most likely he will request ‘modern weapons’, particularly those capable of exerting powerful physical force.”
“You mean something like the GAU-8 (Avenger) we talked about before?”
“The GAU-8 has already been prepared. Including it in this request would be somewhat awkward… so we are planning to send it to him soon regardless.”
“Right. That would be best.”
“In my view, AbsoluteSafetyFirst will first request information regarding advanced modern weaponry systems that ordinary civilians would not know about.”
“So he might look at the menu first… and then decide what to order?”
“Exactly. Before his awakening, AbsoluteSafetyFirst would have been an ordinary civilian. He likely searched for weapons online, used that information as a basis for making requests to us, or purchased items from the market and used them… but that approach inevitably has limits.”
“Then how about… we send him the menu first?”
After a brief moment of consideration, Director Jeong concluded that since they absolutely needed to maintain the best possible relationship with AbsoluteSafetyFirst, it would be better to proactively offer everything before he even made a request.
“I was actually about to suggest that. The menu… rather, the weapon lists and detailed information have already been compiled. There are a few sensitive secret projects… If you could coordinate those, Director.”
“Just include more.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. If we’re truly going to board the same ship properly, then it’s best to lay everything we have on the table. If we half-hide or hold back, that would be worse.”
Inside Director Jeong’s unusually sharp intuition, a persistent whisper urged him to pour everything into AbsoluteSafetyFirst.
He had never experienced his intuition activating this one-sidedly before, so he simply released all restraints.
“Understood. Then we will include not only the information we possess, but also everything currently in development by other nations as well.”
“Do that. And whatever request comes after he reviews it… we accept all of it.”
“So we’re going completely all-in?”
“At this level, isn’t it worth going all-in?”
“I agree. It is more than worth it.”
Cha Seong Hyeon nodded in agreement.
For someone as rigidly T as he was, to acknowledge it meant the conclusion was firm.
The Republic of Korea Administration’s all-in bet.
No matter how one looked at it, it did not seem like a bad choice.
***
“Wow… They’re sending me all of this?”
Seon Yul was genuinely startled when he saw the menu Cha Seong Hyeon had sent.
In truth, just as Cha had predicted, Seon Yul had been planning to request this kind of information first anyway.
He had obtained firearm-related information from the internet and configured his current weapons based on that knowledge.
However, he had begun to feel that it was time to look for something more powerful.
The problem was that the information found online was inevitably limited, which left him feeling frustrated. He had been considering requesting information from the Administration when, unexpectedly, they had sent him an enormous quantity of data first.
Not only that, it was neatly organized for easy viewing, and Cha Seong Hyeon had personally annotated it.
This was truly a customized menu tailored specifically for Seon Yul.
‘They’re going this far… I’m honestly starting to feel grateful.’
Seon Yul had already maintained a good relationship with the Administration, but this incident further increased his trust in them.
“I shouldn’t just squeeze them dry. I should help them appropriately, too.”
Originally, the Administration had been nothing more than a convenient government agency for him to use.
But after this, it had been upgraded, at least in his mind, to a friendly government agency that mutually helped each other.
“Alright… let’s see.”
Because there was so much information, Cha Seong Hyeon had placed the documents into USB files, allowing Seon Yul to view everything easily on his laptop.
Like someone sitting in a restaurant browsing a menu, Seon Yul slowly reviewed the information, carefully considering what request would benefit him the most.
Meanwhile, as Seon Yul was enjoying this pleasant dilemma…
A grave discussion was taking place in China.
Officially, China’s Administration belonged under the umbrella of the World Gate Management Agency (US).
In reality, however, it thoroughly rejected oversight from the US and operated almost entirely independently.
China’s Administration was not even called a Gate Management Agency. It was known as the Dimension Management General Bureau of the People’s Republic of China.
The General Bureau had its headquarters in Beijing, with branches in every province.
The serious discussion was currently taking place at the headquarters.
More precisely, the Director-General of the Dimension Management General Bureau was receiving a report from the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, and their conversation was far from ordinary.
“AbsoluteSafetyFirst. Have you still not obtained personal information about that mana user?”
“We apologize. There is… almost no publicly available information about him….”
“I told you, ever since the invasion event in Seoul, that this was the top priority for acquisition.”
“…We apologize.”
The Intelligence Director repeated apologies endlessly.
He felt like he was going insane. He had mobilized every intelligence network and HUMINT resource available to gather even the slightest information about AbsoluteSafetyFirst—but had acquired nothing.
“Look at this. Even just from these videos circulating online… It’s almost certain that Korea has once again obtained a Heaven Beyond Heaven–class mana user.”
In China, hyper-ranker users were referred to as Heaven Beyond Heaven–class mana users.
And the reason they were so sensitive about Korean users was because of the North Korean territory currently under South Korea’s effective control.
“We planned to reclaim the former North Korean region from Korea within this year. But now that this variable has appeared, what are we supposed to do?”
The Director-General shouted in irritation, his expression filled with frustration.
He had prepared this plan for an extended period, which made the disruption even more aggravating.
In the early days of the Great Cataclysm, a chain event had occurred in North Korea. The North Korean regime had completely mishandled the initial response, leading to the nation’s collapse.
As the chain of events’ domain spread across the entirety of North Korea, it became a land of death.
Originally, when North Korea was collapsing, China had intended to swiftly enter the region, clear the chain event, and effectively absorb the nation itself.
However, at that very time, chain events erupted simultaneously in Sichuan and Guangdong. Instead of moving into North Korea, China had to mobilize its mana users domestically.
The timing had been disastrous. Especially in the early phase of the Great Cataclysm, when China had not yet fully established systems for managing and supervising mana users, resulting in inefficient responses.
The result was that North Korea completely fell, and the chain event in the region became effectively permanent.
Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea, which recovered relatively quickly from the initial shock of the Cataclysm, deployed mana users northward and secured the territory first.
Even after stabilizing Sichuan and Guangdong, China attempted to enter North Korea… but by then, the Republic of Korea had already established effective control. Furthermore, Korea had stronger legitimate grounds for its presence, forcing China to step back.
Particularly as the Republic of Korea had risen to become a significant mana-user power during the Cataclysm, and with America, China’s eternal rival, backing Korea, retaking the former North Korean region was not easy.
However, that did not mean China had given up on it.
“Sigh. Continue gathering information on AbsoluteSafetyFirst. We need to know how close he is to the Korean Administration, and what his disposition is like… We need something. If necessary, we recruit him. If not, assassination or coercion is an option.”
“Understood. We will intensify our efforts.”
“If necessary, conduct operations through Old Blood or NEU. Given the current situation, those groups appear to have great interest in this AbsoluteSafetyFirst.”
The Director-General did not care what methods were used, so long as Korea’s mana-user power weakened.
“We will mobilize all methods to counter him.”
This plan was not designed solely by the Dimension Management General Bureau. China directly managed all mana users within its borders; the Bureau was simply the administrative body created for that purpose.
In other words, this plan was effectively directed by the Chinese state itself.
China, targeting Korea… more precisely, the former North Korean region.
The former North Korean territory was an exceptionally lucrative area, capable of safely and consistently mining a stable quantity of magic stones.
China had long coveted it.
And now, at last, that ambition was gradually revealing itself.
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