Chapter 108: Coup (1) |
North Korea.
The truth was that a change in power had already taken place there once before.
It was only that the timing had fallen right around when Nightmare Floor 1 was being cleared, and amid the great chaos of humanity’s looming extinction, no one had spared a thought for anything like that.
The apocalypse had been averted by Person123, of course, and the South Korean government had belatedly investigated the full story.
Were it not for the incomprehensible catastrophe of the Tower, the overthrow of North Korea’s leadership would itself have been an unprecedented event, enough to shake the political balance of the entire peninsula.
Back then it had been Ri Hyeok-cheol, a Hard difficulty Floor 4 Climber.
With the end of the world bearing down and the ruling class inside North Korea likewise thrown into disarray, he had seized the opening to stage a coup, and succeeded in taking power.
Nothing in particular had changed.
Ri Hyeok-cheol was no different from the chairman who came before him, and he had hardened his grip on power and his standing around the rising Climber faction.
But now, once again, a shift in power was under way inside North Korea.
Ri Hyeok-cheol was dead.
A revolution had risen under the banner of stamping out the corruption of the ruling class and delivering freedom to the people of North Korea.
The Climbers who had gathered around Park Gwang-jin, a Hard difficulty Floor 14 Climber, had ruthlessly purged the old leadership, Ri Hyeok-cheol among them.
The revolution had ended in success.
And here was one hunting hound, cast aside the moment the hunt was done.
“You backstabbing bastards…”
Kang Tae-seong glared at the man before him, the broken vessels in his eyes turning them red.
The Climbers ringed around him.
They were the comrades who had fought at his side for the revolution, to bring down Ri Hyeok-cheol’s dictatorship.
And the man who had orchestrated all of it, Park Gwang-jin, clicked his tongue and spoke.
“Give it up quietly, Tae-seong. There’s nothing you can do.”
Like Park Gwang-jin, Kang Tae-seong was level 52, and he too had been a core force in carrying the revolution to victory.
He had truly fought because he believed in Park Gwang-jin’s ideals.
That they would root out the corruption, set the people’s lives right, that this man could change everything that had rotted.
But Park Gwang-jin had never given a damn about any of that from the very start.
There had only ever been a raw hunger for power.
BOOOM!
In the heart of Pyongyang, armed conflict broke out to dispose of the reactionary Kang Tae-seong.
Gravely wounded, Kang Tae-seong barely managed to flee.
In the end, the pursuit team lost him.
Because the instant his Combat Status lifted, Kang Tae-seong had entered Floor 5.
Floor 5’s Zone 0.
“Huh? Over there…”
“What’s with that guy?”
Watching Kang Tae-seong stagger out of the Portal soaked in blood, the Climbers nearby began to murmur.
Kang Tae-seong, who had been making for the Security Corps building, dove desperately to one side.
The North Korean Climbers had attacked him.
Just as fighting broke out again and the chaos started to spread.
BOOM!
The North Korean Climbers scrambled back away from Kang Tae-seong.
A man had dropped out of the air to plant himself between them.
It was Alex, the Security Corps Chief.
Other Security Corps members and Black Star Society Climbers were already crowding in around them.
“You’ve got nerve. Just where do you think you are, throwing your weight around?”
Zone 0 was a Non-combat Zone that everyone had agreed upon.
Fighting here was forbidden, no matter the circumstances.
And this was no petty scuffle; trying to kill someone was an absolute taboo.
Meeting Alex’s predator’s stare, the North Korean Climbers set their faces too.
“We are Climbers of the Republic. This is an internal matter of our own nation; the Security Corps is to refrain from interfering.”
“…The Republic? North Korea?”
Alex glanced back at Kang Tae-seong.
His condition was so dire that he looked ready to drop at any second, so the Security Corps members stepped in to hold him up.
“Hey. Are you all right?”
Shin Su-jin of Korea was there as well.
The coup in North Korea had broken out only a short while ago as it was, and now she was left wondering what on earth this was.
Kang Tae-seong dragged in ragged breaths and forced the words out.
“I… South Joseon…”
“What? What did you say?”
“South Joseon… I’m requesting to defect…”
And with that, Kang Tae-seong lost consciousness.
Once they confirmed he was still breathing, they moved him for the moment to administer first aid.
When the Security Corps moved to take Kang Tae-seong away, the North Korean Climbers protested furiously.
“By whose leave do you take him! That man is a traitor to our Republic! Hand him over to us at once!”
Brow drawn tight, Shin Su-jin exchanged a look with Alex.
Alex folded his arms and said,
“Whatever’s going on, this isn’t your country, it’s Floor 5. In the Common Zone, you follow the Common Zone’s rules.”
“…This is interference in our internal affairs!”
“Interference or not, the Security Corps has a duty to protect the Climbers of Floor 5.”
The North Korean Climbers turned toward the Black Star Society as if pleading for help.
A Black Star Society officer who had been watching it all unfold stepped forward as though to mediate.
“Stand down for now. It’s your side that’s stepping over the line here.”
The ban on combat in Zone 0 was an iron rule that both the Security Corps and the Black Star Society had upheld without fail all this time.
North Korea belonged to the Black Star Society too, but muddying the waters like this was something that couldn’t be allowed.
In the end, the North Korean Climbers had no choice but to grind their teeth and fall back.
The commotion of that day became a major topic in no time at all.
*
– The unusual activity reported within Pyongyang, North Korea, since this morning has now been officially confirmed to be a coup carried out by North Korea’s Climber faction. In response, our government…
It was a little while after every manner of article had come pouring out, all of them claiming that strange currents were being detected within North Korea.
A coup really had broken out in North Korea, and the news came out officially confirming that the old leadership had been swept away.
Our country went on emergency too.
The military was on its highest level of alert and was doing everything in its power to stabilize the situation, the government announced, asking the public to rest easy and go about their daily lives.
This wasn’t actually the first time.
Back when I cleared Nightmare Floor 1, a coup had broken out in North Korea then as well.
A coup by Climbers. Since it was North Korea, there was nothing particularly surprising about it.
Even if Ri Hyeok-cheol, who had grabbed power back then, had turned out to be exactly the same breed of dictator.
Wasn’t this just another new Climber thrashing around to seize power, this time by driving out that very same Ri Hyeok-cheol?
A little time passed.
The news came out that the North Korean military had officially announced the death of Chairman of the State Affairs Commission Ri Hyeok-cheol.
The figure who had newly taken power was a Hard difficulty Floor 14 Climber by the name of Park Gwang-jin.
While bits and pieces of news kept trickling out like this,
– …This just in. A disturbance has erupted on Floor 5 of the Tower in connection with North Korea. A level 52 North Korean Climber is reported to have requested defection to our country. The Security Corps is said to be holding this North Korean Climber under protection, and to be locked in a standoff with the North Korean side over the matter…
another eye-catching piece of news came through.
What was this about…?
[Paris: yo the vibe on Floor 5 rn is no joke lol this is good stuff]
[Brazier: looks like he got chased on the outside and bolted to Floor 5. saw it in person, the guy was drenched in blood.]
[Hwanggong: ok what is even happening rn?]
[Dukriboard: looked like the Security Corps Chief was hashing something out with the Black Star Society]
[Hwanggong: any Security Corps members here? somebody fill us in]
[Lasus: Black Star Society’s backing North Korea and demanding they hand him over right now, and Alex told ’em to screw off. Security Corps and Black Star Society are this close to going to war yep]
[Oak Barrel: srsly?]
[Eagle: yeah right lol]
[Person321: the air’s def tense tho. they’re for real squaring off]
[Black Pepper: been peaceful for a while, it’s been ages since Zone 0 got this messy]
The Communication Channel was in an uproar too.
It seemed something was unfolding on Floor 5 over this North Korean Climber.
*
When he was first found, Kang Tae-seong had been gravely injured, but after a few days he had healed up almost completely on his own.
The higher a Climber’s level, the greater the body’s regenerative ability, but beyond that, he seemed to possess a Recovery-type skill as well.
The Security Corps building. A gathering of Korean and American Climbers, Shin Su-jin among them.
“…And that’s how it came to this.”
In an atmosphere like an interrogation room, they heard the whole story from Kang Tae-seong.
He was one of the Climbers of the coup faction that had recently risen in North Korea, and once it was all over he had been betrayed, hunted down, and had barely scraped his way into Floor 5.
“It was a revolution we raised to tear our rotten homeland up by the roots and rebuild it. But Park Gwang-jin, that son of a bitch, never had any such cause in him from the start.”
Kang Tae-seong shook, trembling as though to keep his fury in check.
Seated across from him, Shin Su-jin nodded.
“I see. So, Mr. Kang, you…”
“I wish to defect to South Joseon. No, to the Republic of Korea.”
“Hmm.”
Shin Su-jin studied him with a grave expression.
“I know I’m asking for the impossible. But is there truly no way?”
When a Climber left the Tower, they returned to the exact spot from which they had entered.
And the North Korean side knew precisely where Kang Tae-seong had entered.
Because after learning from Kang Tae-seong the location of the building he had come in from, and observing it by satellite in cooperation with U.S. intelligence, they had confirmed that North Korea’s military hardware in Pyongyang had been massed at that very spot.
They had everything in place to rain down a barrage the instant Kang Tae-seong emerged.
No matter that Kang Tae-seong was a level 52 Climber, his odds of surviving were next to none.
But as things stood, Kang Tae-seong was a man who had applied to the Republic of Korea for protection…
“…I’m sorry. There’s nothing definite I can promise you just yet.”
That was all Shin Su-jin could offer in reply.
These days she was kept busy darting in and out of the Tower at all hours.
Because she had to keep the government updated on the situation, and in turn relay the government’s position back.
“Even now we’re still in continuous talks with the North Korean side.”
“Did Park Gwang-jin, that bastard, come into Floor 5 himself, by any chance?”
“No. Someone else came as their spokesman.”
“Hah. Gutless bastard.”
The South Korean government’s position could only be described as a quandary itself.
Under the constitution, North Koreans too were citizens of the Republic of Korea, so the government could not simply ignore Kang Tae-seong.
And naturally, there was no reason not to welcome a level 52 Climber who wanted to come over…
The problem was Kang Tae-seong’s physical location in the real world.
What could possibly be done about Kang Tae-seong, sitting as he was in the dead center of Pyongyang?
The only way was to have him peacefully handed over by North Korea, but…
“Our position will never change. Surrender Kang Tae-seong’s custody to us at once.”
There was no chance of that happening.
A gathering that drew together the Security Corps, the Black Star Society, and the North Korean Climbers all in one place.
As the spokesperson for the South Korean government, Shin Su-jin spoke with the North Korean side in place of the Security Corps Chief, Alex.
“I’ll say it again: this is plainly interference in our internal affairs.”
“This is Floor 5. We are merely fulfilling the role of the Security Corps.”
“Spare us the word games about the ‘Common Zone’. In the real world, Kang Tae-seong sits within the territory of our Republic. Don’t you understand that no matter how your Security Corps coddles him, it’s nothing but a pointless waste of time?”
The Black Star Society’s stance was half that of a bystander, but for the moment it at least made a show of siding with North Korea.
In the end, North Korea was a nation affiliated with the Black Star Society, and the Black Star Society and the Security Corps stood opposed to each other.
In any case, North Korea’s resolve was firm, and round after round of negotiation came back with nothing to show for it.
Even by the time three days had passed since Kang Tae-seong came into Floor 5, there had been no real progress to speak of.
“Haah… this is enough to drive a man mad.”
Having received Shin Su-jin’s report, the Tower Climbing Special Agency Director pressed a hand to his forehead.
On the sofa in the Agency Director’s office sat government figures as well, the Minister of Foreign Affairs among them.
The government, too, had yet to settle on a direction for handling the Kang Tae-seong affair. It wasn’t as though there had ever been a precedent for such an absurd situation to fall back on.
Giving up on him entirely and dragging the negotiations out by setting unreasonable terms were both equally heavy burdens.
And yet, was it even possible for Kang Tae-seong to live out the rest of his days on Floor 5?
Nor was the Security Corps entirely on South Korea’s side. Frankly, this was another country’s business.
As time wore on, it was plain that Kang Tae-seong’s presence would become a cumbersome weight on the Security Corps too, and it would be no surprise if they washed their hands of the whole thing.
The government racked its brains over how to resolve the problem.
And that very evening,
a single post went up on the Communication Channel.
[Person123: I would like Mr. Kang Tae-seong handed over into the custody of the Republic of Korea.]
*
TL Note:
Republic of Korea is the official name of South Korea, and it is called South Joseon by North Koreans.
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is North Korea’s official name.
“Joseon” refers to the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), the last Korean kingdom before the modern era. North Korea continues to use “Joseon” as the name for Korea, while South Korea uses “Hanguk”. This is why each side refers to the other as “South Joseon” or “North Hanguk” respectively.
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