Chapter 111: Coup (4) |
The grand conference hall of the Chosen People’s Party Central Committee headquarters in North Korea.
With the Party’s committee members, military generals, and every other key figure assembled.
All of them sat in silence, faces uniformly rigid.
Amid that silence, the man seated at the head of the table, who had been tapping it with his fingers, spoke up.
“Lighten up, all of you. What’s got you so spooked?”
Ri Gang-ho, Park Gwang-jin’s closest aide and the de facto number two in the current regime.
At his words, the tense crowd managed awkward smiles.
Since Ri Hyeok-cheol’s Great Revolution, North Korea’s power structure had become something else entirely from what it was before the Tower appeared.
In practice, Climbers controlled everything; ranks and titles were mere formalities.
Why else would the Party itself have been renamed the Chosen People’s Party?
The absolute ruling class and elite of present-day North Korea were the Climbers.
Ri Gang-ho swept his gaze around the room and continued.
“Our great Supreme Leader Park Gwang-jin will soon execute the traitor and return…”
Everyone gathered here knew.
That Park Gwang-jin had no intention of honoring the agreement with South Joseon, and that he would kill Kang Tae-seong.
What worried them was that this was a matter Person123 himself had intervened in.
An act that, for all intents and purposes, openly spat in the face of the Savior of Humanity.
No one could predict what kind of fallout it might bring.
“You people worry too much. This is our inauguration. A declaration to the world of the new Park Gwang-jin Chosen People’s Party, one that no one dares dictate to. Isn’t that right?”
“Absolutely right, sir!”
Ri Gang-ho chuckled and clicked his tongue.
“Person123 or whoever, who gives a damn? A South Joseon citizen meddling in the Republic’s internal affairs is nonsense from the start. Get hailed as a savior and suddenly you forget your place…”
Meanwhile, one man sat quietly, wrestling with the turmoil inside him.
‘…Forgive me, Comrade Tae-seong.’
Among the Climbers who had led the revolution, many had genuinely embraced the cause, just as Kang Tae-seong had.
But those who refused to bend were all dead.
And some, with no other choice, had ridden along with the tide.
Kim Baek-pyeong was the latter.
The moment he realized the board had flipped, he had bowed completely to Park Gwang-jin.
He had chosen to survive, however filthy it made him.
Because as long as he was still breathing, another chance would come someday.
But Kang Tae-seong would die today.
However strong a Climber he was, there would be no second miracle.
…Even in death, I’ll have no right to face him.
All Kim Baek-pyeong could do was make a vow.
He would hide a blade within these churning guts of his, and someday, no matter how long it took, he would fulfill the dream Kang Tae-seong had left unfinished… hm?
Just then, every Climber’s gaze snapped toward the entrance.
Because a faint commotion was drifting in from outside.
“…What is that noise?”
Ri Gang-ho frowned.
Soon the noise drew close enough for even ordinary ears to catch.
Sensing something was wrong, the Climbers were rising from their seats one by one, when.
Bang!
The conference hall doors burst open in splinters.
Eyes went wide with shock.
Because… it was Kang Tae-seong.
So stunned were they by his appearance that no one spared a glance for the masked figure standing behind him.
The thing clutched in Kang Tae-seong’s blood-soaked hand.
Park Gwang-jin’s head.
Silence swallowed the conference hall. No one could speak.
“H… how…”
Ri Gang-ho had gone pale, unable to force the words out.
To his eyes, Kang Tae-seong looked like a vengeful spirit crawled back from hell.
Kang Tae-seong moved.
In an instant, Ri Gang-ho’s body slammed into the conference hall wall.
“Gurk…!”
As the man flailed, Kang Tae-seong simply wrenched his neck around.
A mere level 28, Ri Gang-ho died on the spot without managing any real resistance.
“…”
Kang Tae-seong took the seat at the head of the table.
He surveyed the stunned faces around him, then spoke.
“Park Gwang-jin is dead.”
…A fact no one could have missed even without being told.
After all, Park Gwang-jin’s head sat alone on the table.
The only question was how on earth Kang Tae-seong had come back alive, while Park Gwang-jin, who had marched out with his elite forces in tow, had returned as nothing but a head.
“The traitors who abandoned our cause. Two of them still left in this room, I see.”
Kang Tae-seong’s gaze settled on two men.
Kim Cheol-yong and Ri Gyeong-tae.
The two shuddered, then bolted for the entrance.
One had his head crushed by Kang Tae-seong on the spot.
Crunch!
The one who stopped the other was Kim Baek-pyeong.
“Guh…”
Having driven his hand clean through Ri Gyeong-tae’s torso with his Aura Blade skill, Kim Baek-pyeong pulled it free.
He turned his head and met Kang Tae-seong’s eyes.
Then he stepped before him and dropped to his knees.
“Kill me, Comrade Tae-seong.”
He had no idea what had happened, but…
Kang Tae-seong had come back alive.
That was enough. He could die gladly by his hand.
Because he was a traitor who had not resisted Park Gwang-jin.
Kang Tae-seong looked down at him for a moment, then laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Baek-pyeong.”
“…”
“You’ve endured so much. I know what was in your heart.”
Kim Baek-pyeong’s eyes reddened.
“…Too many comrades died for nothing. At the hands of that son of a bitch Park Gwang-jin.”
Kang Tae-seong patted his shoulder, then looked out at the other Climbers.
By now he had killed most of those who had followed Park Gwang-jin from the beginning.
“Myeong-ho, Ju-gil, Seong-mi, Cheol… the same goes for you, comrades.”
“…”
“I know none of you had a choice. Thank you for staying alive.”
They averted their eyes or bowed their heads, as if too ashamed to face him.
Kang Tae-seong spoke as if making a proclamation.
“There are no more obstacles. Now, let us begin again. Our cause.”
*
We arrived at the headquarters building.
Kang Tae-seong took command of the room in an instant and, just as he had been confident he would, rallied the remaining Climbers.
There was nothing for me to do, really. I just watched.
Things seemed more or less settled, so I figured it was time to head home.
“Thank you.”
Kang Tae-seong offered me his final thanks.
“If not for you, I would have died today, and my homeland would have sunk back into a long darkness. I will consider this the single miracle of my lifetime.”
I nodded.
“I trust you’ll keep your promise.”
“Of course. I intend to tear this country out by the roots and rebuild it.”
I could feel the sincerity and resolve in his expression.
Well, he’d manage on his own.
But then, out of nowhere, the Demon King rained on the parade.
– Nine out of ten humans who seize power are bound to rot.
‘…Things were wrapping up on a warm note. Why so spiteful all of a sudden?’
Kang Tae-seong didn’t strike me as that kind of man.
– Nothing brands a man as surely as fear.
‘What are you even talking about?’
– I’m saying you’ve always been too damn soft. Hand over the body for a moment.
‘Ugh, not this again.’
He seemed to have something in mind, so I handed it over for now.
Taking over my body, the Demon King fixed his gaze on Kang Tae-seong.
Did he sense the shift in the air?
Kang Tae-seong’s expression slowly stiffened, then, bit by bit, grew stained with a terror that went beyond it.
“Ugh…”
Kang Tae-seong trembled as if gripped by a sudden chill.
“I will always be watching.”
Kang Tae-seong barely managed a nod.
The Demon King handed my body back.
Released from the pressure, Kang Tae-seong gasped for breath.
It seemed like he’d done something similar to what he did to Park Gwang-jin…
I wasn’t sure any of this was really necessary, but, well, fair enough.
However strong Kang Tae-seong’s convictions were, the Demon King had a point: there was no telling what the future held.
With a warning like this in place, I supposed there was no chance he’d ever stray, not even one in ten thousand.
Kang Tae-seong looked at me, thoroughly cowed.
Feeling a little guilty, I said,
“I’ll be rooting for you, Mr. Kang. I’ll be on my way, then.”
I took out the Warp Device I had set running in advance.
It was time to return south.
*
Kang Tae-seong stared at the spot where Person123 had vanished.
He had pulled what looked like an item out of thin air.
And then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone.
‘…What in the world.’
The Tower’s appearance had upended the world’s common sense long ago.
But even within that upended common sense, Person123 was an enigma.
The top Climber of Nightmare and the Savior of Humanity, wielding abilities no ordinary Climber could even imagine, and wielding them at will.
Kang Tae-seong, too, had been saved.
Why had he gone so far to help him?
If he had simply helped a man in trouble, if that was the whole of his reason…
Then he was truly a great man, one whom the measures of ordinary people could never hope to fathom.
And at the same time, a terrifying one.
Recalling that moment just now, Kang Tae-seong felt goosebumps rise all over again.
Person123, who had warned him as if, in that one instant, he had become a different being entirely.
Kang Tae-seong had never once felt fear, not even in the life-or-death moments of his climb up the Tower…
But just now, he had felt a primal terror, like a frog before a snake.
Of course, warning or no warning, Kang Tae-seong would give everything he had.
The wish he had carried, to change this rotten country, could finally come true.
“Please, watch me.”
He had said he would always be watching; Kang Tae-seong would prove himself worthy of it, without fail.
*
The South Korean government, which had been set to receive Kang Tae-seong at the Joint Security Area, was thrown into an uproar.
Because South Korea’s intelligence authorities had also been monitoring the situation in the North via satellite.
They confirmed the appearance of a figure presumed to be Person123, and the deaths of Park Gwang-jin and other North Korean Climbers.
“…Keep absolutely silent on this matter.”
They decided to bury it as classified.
The US, China, Russia, and a few other countries did the same. They simply kept a close watch on the situation in the North.
As expected, North Korea soon proclaimed that its leadership had changed once again.
Kang Tae-seong, who was supposed to have been handed over to South Korea, had suddenly seized power in the North; the public was stunned by a turn of events that seemed to come out of nowhere.
[Performer: Wait, what. Kang Tae-seong just took over North Korea??]
[Patatutu: How did he even pull that off lmaooooo]
[Airplane: What revolution number are we on? Not a single quiet day over there]
With news coverage limited, only a handful knew the truth.
*
Bilon got in touch.
He asked whether it was true that I’d had a hand in the Kang Tae-seong affair, so I told him what had happened.
That the North had broken its promise and tried to kill Kang Tae-seong, and one thing led to another, and, well, it ended up like this.
According to Bilon, the US had been watching by satellite too, so they knew I had stepped in.
And that my own country, China, Russia, and the rest most likely all knew as well.
Hm… figured as much.
I’d warped in and out, so it wasn’t like they could trace my route anyway, and I figured it wouldn’t be any real problem.
– …North Korea’s Chosen People’s Party has renamed itself the People’s Peace Party, strongly affirming its commitment to making the stability of its people’s livelihoods and cooperation with the international community its top priorities…
Time passed, and news about North Korea kept coming in.
It seemed Kang Tae-seong had gone on to consolidate power successfully, without much trouble.
He even reached out to me now and then through Whispers on the Communication Channel…
As for me, I tuned out all things political and went back to my daily life.
The US and China came to me for advice on conquering Floor 7.
Their position was that, regardless of whether they ultimately took on the challenge, they wanted a strategy prepared.
I went in and out of Floor 7 helping them, hunted in Zone 5.
I kept doing what needed to be done, same as always,
and time flowed steadily on…
[Nightmare]
Personnel: 477,635
Time Limit: 94 days 8 hours 2 minutes 1 second
Reached Floor: Floor 8
Little by little, the moment of the next challenge was drawing near.
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