Chapter 110: Coup (3)

Bilon had given me Kang Tae-seong’s location.

I timed my arrival and warped there.

The heart of downtown Pyongyang.

I’d come out a little off target, so I borrowed the Demon King’s power and flew the short distance that remained.

In the distance, beyond the low buildings, I could see military hardware and a crowd of people gathered together.

They were the Climbers, including Park Gwang-jin, North Korea’s new leader.

‘...?’

Something about the atmosphere...

Still under Concealment, I watched the scene from the rooftop of a nearby building for a while, then entered the Tower.

I went up to Floor 5 and waited, pacing around Zone 0.

Maybe people had come to watch, because the crowd was thicker than usual.

When the appointed time arrived, I saw Kang Tae-seong emerge through the portal with the Security Corps. Section Chief Shin Su-jin was there as well.

Concealed once more, I moved over to Kang Tae-seong’s side.

He exchanged farewells with the Security Corps members and exited the Tower.

I followed right behind him.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

...What?

The moment we emerged, Park Gwang-jin fired at Kang Tae-seong.

It was an attack that shouldn’t have done anything to him.

Was he really about to break the agreement?

But Park Gwang-jin didn’t attack again. He simply tossed the gun aside.

Then the two of them began talking.

Kang Tae-seong demanded to know why he had been betrayed, while Park Gwang-jin answered with a sneer.

Judging by the way he spoke, Park Gwang-jin was no different from any ordinary dictator.

As I listened, however, their conversation took a strange turn.

“Cut the crap. You never intended to let me go, did you?”

“Figured it out, huh?”

...Ah, shit.

No wonder the atmosphere had felt wrong.

And here I’d been hoping I was imagining things.

North Korea had never intended to let Kang Tae-seong leave safely. Not from the very beginning.

So that gunshot...

Had it been meant to put him under Combat Status so he couldn’t escape back to Floor 5?

“I won’t let you slip away a second time. Let’s end this here.”

Killing intent poured from Park Gwang-jin and the North Korean Climbers.

Just as the fight was about to begin.

I stopped time.

‘What do I do?’

What indeed...

Wasn’t this exact situation the reason I had come all the way here?

Should I step in and reveal myself?

He had already broken the agreement, so there was no telling whether he would listen even if I showed myself.

There was no reason to take a pointless risk.

It would be better to subdue everyone except Kang Tae-seong first.

Including all that military hardware.

‘Demon King, can you freeze all of them for me? Everything except Kang Tae-seong.’

Rather than using my own skills, having the Demon King freeze the whole lot of them would neutralize everything cleanly in one go.

– Rotten brat. Spoil you a little, and now you keep trying to put me to work.

‘I’m counting on you. And don’t kill them.’

I handed control of my body over to the Demon King and released time.

The Demon King grumbled, but he moved.

He flew straight into the center of the area where Kang Tae-seong and the Climbers stood...

FWOOOOOOSH-!

And unleashed a blast of cold in every direction.

People.

Tanks.

Even the drones circling overhead.

Everything froze solid.

Everything except Kang Tae-seong.

The Demon King’s magic technically wasn’t a skill, but using that much power was enough to break Concealment.

“Wh... what is this...”

“What the hell...”

The North Korean Climbers descended into panic.

Since I’d told him not to kill them, only their heads had been left unfrozen.

I took control of my body again and descended to the ground.

Kang Tae-seong stared at me in stunned silence.

Of course, I was wearing a mask.

Before I could say anything, he spoke first.

“Are you... Person123?”

I nodded.

Kang Tae-seong let out a long breath.

Then his gaze shifted toward Park Gwang-jin.

“P-Person123...?”

Park Gwang-jin was staring at me too, looking utterly bewildered.

“You didn’t keep your promise.”

At my words, he seemed to pull himself together. His eyes darted around before he answered.

“...Of course I did. I believe there’s been some misunderstanding.”

He was quick on his feet.

In any case, I had no intention of making things any more complicated than they already were.

‘Demon King, when will these people thaw out?’

– I only froze them lightly. They’ll thaw on their own in about an hour.

It annoyed me, but I had no intention of doing anything else to them.

I would simply take Kang Tae-seong away as planned.

“I’ll escort Kang Tae-seong out myself. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

“...”

Park Gwang-jin slowly nodded.

Taking him back with Warp would have been easy, but the Warp Device only worked for one passenger.

I would have to fly Kang Tae-seong somewhere near Panmunjom instead.

It was only about a hundred kilometers from here to Panmunjom, so it wouldn’t take long.

The distance wasn’t enough to push me into overload either.

“Let’s go, Kang Tae-seong.”

I spoke to him.

But Kang Tae-seong was staring at Park Gwang-jin with a strange expression in his eyes.

Then he opened his mouth.

“...I’m not leaving.”

What?

“I have to kill that man. Park Gwang-jin.”

Now what was this...

When I merely stared at him, Kang Tae-seong hurriedly continued.

“I’ll do it! I’ll kill Park Gwang-jin right here and take control of the Republic. As long as Park Gwang-jin dies, I can do it!”

“...”

“If things continue like this, nothing in this country will ever change. All I want is to bring down those in power and save the people who are suffering. Nothing more. I’ll change this country. Please, believe me, Person123!”

Desperation was written all over his face.

...This was throwing me off.

What Kang Tae-seong was asking me to do right now was simply stand aside.

To let him overthrow those in power and save the suffering people.

Thinking back on the conversation I had just heard between the two of them, it wasn’t as though I had any reason to doubt Kang Tae-seong’s sincerity.

I stopped time and thought it over for a moment.

...Was there really any reason for me to stop him?

Whether he could truly change North Korea, I had no way of knowing.

But at the very least, I could hope for a much better future than one in which someone like Park Gwang-jin remained in power.

Besides, leaving things exactly as they were didn’t sit right with me either.

What if Park Gwang-jin resented my interference and ended up holding some pointless grudge against my country?

I released time.

As if to make absolutely certain, I asked Kang Tae-seong.

“If Park Gwang-jin dies, can you really seize power?”

Kang Tae-seong answered without hesitation.

“The military was reduced to a puppet long ago, and by now every shred of the Party’s real power is concentrated in the hands of the Climbers. If I eliminate Park Gwang-jin and the inner circle gathered here, I can bring the remaining Climbers back together under my leadership. I can promise you that.”

“...That’s absurd!”

Park Gwang-jin, who had been listening, desperately cut in.

“Person123! You can’t seriously believe that nonsense!”

“...”

“What... what do you think the first thing I did was after my revolution succeeded? Naturally, I secured the former chairman’s nuclear briefcase. If I die, a nuclear weapon will be launched at Seoul.”

...What did he just say?

At the word “nuclear,” my expression hardened.

“Don’t go sticking your nose into another country’s affairs for no reason. Just take Kang Tae-seong and leave, exactly as we agreed. That was the deal, wasn’t it? Do that, and nothing happens.”

Kang Tae-seong spoke.

“He’s lying. It’s true that he secured Ri Hyeok-cheol’s nuclear briefcase, but Ri Hyeok-cheol had to be killed immediately, which means the launch authority was never transferred to Park Gwang-jin.

Technicians may be working to reset the briefcase’s codes, but they’re nowhere near finished. Even under the most optimistic estimate, resetting the codes and fully transferring launch authority would take at least three months. Every one of the state’s top cryptography experts said the same thing.”

“...Heh heh. Can you really be so sure, Tae-seong? While you were hiding away on Floor 5, we cracked it ages ago.”

Park Gwang-jin looked at me.

“Person123, you’re a South Joseon man, aren’t you? If you want to find out whether I’m telling the truth or lying, go ahead and test it—with the fate of your homeland on the line.”

The Demon King asked,

– What is this “nuke” that has all of you making such a fuss?

‘...It’s basically a bomb that can wipe out an entire city with ease.’

It really did sound like Park Gwang-jin was bluffing, but...

There was always a chance he wasn’t.

– Hand the body over.

‘Huh?’

– I’ll simply make the wretch confess whether he’s bluffing or not. Easy enough, isn’t it?

‘That’s true, but... what are you planning to do?’

Was he going to torture him?

‘You can’t kill him.’

The Demon King told me to stop yapping and hand the body over already, so I did.

The Demon King walked up to Park Gwang-jin.

“What...”

He pressed a finger against Park Gwang-jin’s forehead.

The instant he did, Park Gwang-jin’s head began to tremble.

“Grraaagh...!”

His eyes rolled back as a convulsive, inhuman scream tore from his throat.

The Demon King withdrew his hand.

Park Gwang-jin gasped for breath as though he were on the verge of death.

It had lasted only a few seconds, yet his eyes were already overflowing with terror.

“Speak. Were your words true?”

“Ngh, uh...”

Park Gwang-jin shook his head like a man who had lost his mind.

“N-no. They weren’t true... It was all a lie...!”

That came out remarkably easily.

‘What did you do to him?’

– I merely touched his soul a little. The terror of having one’s soul frozen is not something a lowly creature can endure.

Now that was terrifying...

In any case, the important part was clear.

No nuclear weapon was going to be launched at my country.

I looked at Kang Tae-seong.

Kang Tae-seong, who had been staring blankly in our direction, spoke.

“...During all his years in power, Ri Hyeok-cheol never even established a protocol for transferring nuclear authority in the event of his death. As things stand, no one in the Republic currently possesses the authority to launch a nuclear weapon. That’s the truth.”

“All right.”

I had one final question.

“You really can do this, can’t you?”

Now that things had gone this far, Kang Tae-seong absolutely had to take power in North Korea.

Kang Tae-seong nodded firmly.

“Trust me. I will see it through. No matter what.”

I nodded as well.

As I stepped away from Park Gwang-jin...

Kang Tae-seong strode straight toward him.

The shock must have been profound, because Park Gwang-jin still hadn’t recovered his senses.

Kang Tae-seong raised his fist.

For a moment, he stared at Park Gwang-jin with a complicated look in his eyes.

Then...

SPLAT!

With a single blow, he smashed Park Gwang-jin’s head apart.

Kang Tae-seong turned toward the remaining Climbers.

Their faces drained white with fear as they cried out.

“C-Comrade Kang Tae-seong! Please, spare us...!”

Kang Tae-seong didn’t kill them immediately.

First, he forced enough information out of them to get a rough picture of the situation inside the regime.

Then he killed every last one of them without mercy.

“I’ll head straight to the headquarters building. They say everyone is gathered there. I’ll rally the remaining Climbers under me and purge whoever needs to be purged on the spot.”

Holding Park Gwang-jin’s severed head in one hand, Kang Tae-seong bowed deeply to me.

“Thank you. Truly. I owe you a debt I could never repay in a lifetime.”

“Let’s go together.”

“Sorry?”

“You never know what might happen. I’m already involved, so I’ll help you see this through to the end.”

Because now that things had reached this point, Kang Tae-seong absolutely had to seize power in North Korea.

I would watch it happen with my own eyes and make sure everything ended properly.

***

U.S. intelligence had been observing the situation unfold in real time through surveillance satellites.

They had fully anticipated the possibility that the North Korean side might break the agreement.

But the sudden appearance of a third party was something even they hadn’t expected.

“What in the world is happening?”

“Well... it appears everything has frozen over, sir...”

The footage was being transmitted through the satellite.

With the arrival of a single figure, the North Korean Climbers, the military hardware, and even a vast stretch of the surrounding ground appeared to have frozen solid.

It was a Climber.

And if they had to name someone capable of something so absurd, only one person came to mind.

“...Person123.”

Person123 had appeared.

The staff immediately sprang into action.

The resolution of the satellite footage had its limits, but this was the first time Person123 had ever directly revealed himself in the real world.

The Secretary of Defense swallowed hard as he watched.

‘What in the world is that...?’

What kind of skill was it?

Some kind of ice-attribute magic?

It had neutralized a force of that size in a single instant.

Trying to predict Person123’s capabilities had long since become a meaningless exercise, but to think he possessed not only that black line of destruction, but also an area-of-effect skill of this magnitude...

No.

More importantly, how in the world had he suddenly appeared in the heart of Pyongyang?

It had been the same during the Sub-Tower Incident.

Could Person123 truly teleport anywhere on the planet?

The figure believed to be Person123 appeared to be talking with Kang Tae-seong.

Then, before long, Kang Tae-seong began killing the North Korean Climbers one by one, Park Gwang-jin among them.

“...”

Everyone watching held their breath.

What in the world was happening?

Soon afterward, Kang Tae-seong and Person123 left the area at high speed.

“...They’re heading toward the Central Committee headquarters.”

The beating heart of North Korean power.

Something extraordinary was unfolding.

And if they had to venture a guess...

It seemed North Korea was about to have a new leader once again.