Chapter 700: North

[IMPORTANT NOTICE]

[World Event - Occupation War Phase 2 is concluding!]

[A faction has achieved 100% occupation of a Large Region!]

[Completed Region - ROK]

The messages floating before my eyes.

While I had fallen into China, the Legion members had pushed the Occupation War forward as quickly as possible so they could reach me sooner.

And the very last remaining territory had been this Church domain.

The moment even the Church decided to join our Legion alliance, the Occupation War was completed.

‘Last time we achieved 100% occupation, I wasn’t in Gangwon Province.’

As I blankly stared at the window, the feeling was strange.

Back then, we had been desperately fighting for our lives over there in Gyeonggi Province.

But seeing it like this, the actual moment of achieving 100% occupation was simply peaceful.

Thinking about it, completing the Occupation War meant forcing all the strongest enemies of that region into submission, so perhaps it was natural for the ending itself to be this peaceful.

[As the Occupation War event concludes, the Beginner Protection System will weaken.]

[In 30 days, the Phase 2 Beginner Protection Barrier will be completely removed.]

But naturally.

There was no room to enjoy this peace.

According to that grand duke—

Throughout this world, there were already beings lurking around that even that grand duke could not easily encounter.

And among the places he had explicitly mentioned, one of them was that place, North Korea.

Besides.

‘Ever since the previous barrier opened... the beings outside became capable of seeing this world.’

If so—

Once this protection barrier opened, it also meant that even greater interference than before would become possible.

‘We need to prepare as much as possible.’

It was time to return to the Legion.

***

After the matters at the Church were concluded.

Aside from several Legion members who chose to remain within the Church territory, the Legion members and I returned once again to our Legion’s main stronghold, Gangwon Province.

And.

“How long has it been since I came here?”

The gigantic fortress visible in the distance.

After discovering Bimana, I unconsciously muttered those words.

The last time I had left was when I headed to Seoul in search of a cure for myself.

I had spent quite a long time there as well.

And even after returning from China, I had immediately needed to deal with the Church matter.

In reality, several months... nearly an entire year had passed before I finally returned.

“......But.”

Even when I had still been here, the scenery of the Legion’s headquarters, Chuncheon, changed day by day.

Now that I had returned after several actual months, this place had visibly transformed.

High-rise buildings constructed throughout the city, along with numerous major facilities.

And.

“Why are there so many people?”

The countless people moving between those buildings.

Originally, this had already been one of the more populated areas in Gangwon Province.

Survivors from nearby regions who had heard rumors about the Legion had gathered here.

But now, it was beyond that level.

‘It almost reminds me of Chuncheon before the apocalypse.’

The Legion’s scale had certainly grown larger.

But now the Legion’s territory encompassed the entirety of South Korea.

And the Legion members themselves were spread throughout every part of that territory.

I wondered what all those enormous numbers of humans were doing here, when—

“As we carried out the Occupation War... even after succeeding in occupation, there ended up being lands where people still couldn’t properly live.”

Corporal Lee Minjae nodded with an ahh and spoke.

“There were quite a few cases where there were simply too many remaining monsters despite the occupation being completed. Normally, we would’ve spent time stabilizing those regions before moving on to occupy other places, but.”

“.......”

I could roughly predict the next part myself.

‘Because they carried out the Occupation War as quickly as possible to rescue me.’

Without even having the spare time to properly stabilize those areas—

The moment one Occupation War ended, they immediately moved to the next region.

“But we also couldn’t just leave the awakened who had been living there behind in such dangerous places.”

“So you relocated them here?”

“Well, basically.”

Chuncheon had originally been a city with a population of several hundred thousand people.

Resources such as food were not lacking, and public order was secure as well.

Meaning it had been the ideal choice for accepting people who had nowhere else to go.

Originally, various minor guilds besides the Legion members had already been living in this city.

But it seemed the reason its scale had grown so rapidly was because of that.

And.

“Move faster!”

Right now.

Those people were moving around quite busily.

I did not even need to ask Brother Minjae for the reason.

‘Legion supply distribution.’

Before returning to the Legion.

No, more precisely, immediately after the battle against the System had ended.

In preparation for the barrier in the north opening—

I ordered the Legion to make every possible preparation.

Some of those preparations included orders I had personally given myself.

And that was exactly this.

‘The Legion’s strength alone may not be enough. We need to raise the level of every awakened as much as possible.’

Production-type awakened needed to create equipment in order to grow.

And the Legion was a guild that accepted only elite forces.

Whenever even slightly better materials arrived, or improvements became possible, the production-type awakened updated the Legion members’ equipment.

The important thing was the previously used equipment left behind after those upgrades.

Each individual piece was unquestionably extremely high-quality equipment, yet the Legion members themselves no longer needed them.

And so, it had been decided to distribute such equipment to every awakened faction under the Legion’s influence.

Compared to the Legion, they were weaker minor guilds.

But even so, they were still survivors who had managed to stay alive until now, meaning they possessed skill in their own right.

With sufficient support, they would become excellent military strength.

“......Those places that are supposedly difficult for people to live in.”

“Mm?”

And.

Through the story I had just heard from Brother Minjae, another thought came to mind.

“The environment itself isn’t contaminated with poison or anything like that, right?”

“Ahh. There are a few places where the environment itself is contaminated, but those are rare. Most are simply areas with too many monsters regardless of occupation.”

“Even so, if you’re maintaining occupation, that means Legion members are stationed there too?”

“That’s right. It’s not stable enough to accommodate other awakened, but we at least stabilized it enough for our units to remain stationed there. Why?”

“If that’s the situation.”

At those words.

I turned my head and looked toward someone else.

“I think there may be a good method.”

The one my gaze landed upon—

Was the old man who had also played an active role in the recent battle against the Church.

“Borjin.”

The shaman of the Green Mane tribe.

It was Borjin.

***

“Gruhk......? Don’t tell me.”

“That’s right.”

Upon hearing my call, Borjin widened his eyes and stared at me.

“It feels like it’s finally time to fulfill our promise.”

Borjin had shown tremendous contributions as a collaborator of the Legion.

But that cooperation had not been without reason.

He was a being who had clearly formed a contract to cooperate with the Legion.

That’s right.

‘The children of the Green Mane tribe that Borjin had been carrying with him.’

In the future.

Once the Legion stabilized, and once the Legion determined it could trust him.

He had requested land where he could raise the last remaining children of that tribe.

Now that we needed to keep watch over the north.

The Legion lacked the spare capacity to fully stabilize its internal territory.

Besides, regarding trust toward Borjin—

[Awakened: Borjin]

Looking at that status window.

He was trustworthy to a certain extent.

“The Legion won’t be able to provide much support. Even so, you’ll be alright?”

“Of course!”

He shouted with a joyful smile unlike anything I had seen from him before.

“The Legion is currently preparing for battle against another enemy...... and in the middle of all that, if I caused problems in the rear, it could lead to unexpected °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° major damage...... I never imagined you would bring this up now.”

......Uh.

I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“So this means you trust me that much.”

Whether he knew my thoughts or not.

He spoke with a deeply moved expression.

“This old shaman...... Borjin swears upon my own honor and the honor of my tribe.”

“......?”

“That the newly reborn Green Mane tribe shall never forget this grace!”

Saying those words.

Borjin departed while leading several Legion members away with him.

‘......Though even so, it’ll be difficult to gain immediate benefits from it.’

I had heard that the Green Mane tribe possessed tremendous reproductive ability.

But even then, I had also heard their pregnancy period was three months, and that it took around three years for them to reach adulthood.

Right now, the number of eggs Borjin had secretly been carrying was only around twenty at most.

‘He said they give birth to dozens at once, right? If they produce around twenty at a time...... the next generation would be around 200, and the generation after that maybe around 2,500.’

That meant that after only around five or six years, there would be military strength on that level.

Considering how difficult it was for humanity’s population to increase, that was not bad at all.

Even as younglings, they fought fairly well.

Even if it took time, they would gradually reduce the monsters in that region.

‘......It’ll still be difficult to use them against the enemies beyond the northern border that are about to appear immediately.’

In the end.

That meant preparations against them would need to be handled separately.

Anyway.

***

And so, I returned to Bimana, the Legion’s headquarters.

The Legion members who had remained here welcomed me.

After exchanging simple greetings with them.

“Then...... reports regarding the preparations currently underway.”

Immediately afterward.

I decided to receive reports from several Legion members.

[Awakened: Lee Gongwoo]

[Lv.31 Legion Engineer]

“Regarding the preparations for the war machines you mentioned. In truth, that was already one of the primary areas we had been focusing on even before your orders.”

Corporal Lee Gongwoo.

The leader of our unit’s engineer corps, and also one of the leaders among the production classes.

“We do have many weapons currently being manufactured independently by us, but...... due to material limitations and such, the efficiency on that side wasn’t especially high. So right now, we’ve been cooperating with the other unit members to gather firearms from military bases.”

“Firearms?”

“Yes. The moment you told us to prepare for enemies that could descend from the north, it immediately came to mind.”

Though it had ended in meaningless destruction.

South Korea’s military strength had originally been powerful.

That was already proven by the fact that the legacy left behind by those military forces had greatly aided our survival.

However.

In the end, even we had only managed to reclaim an extremely small portion of those military units.

Because the difficulty of reclaiming military bases had been so high, awakened combat forces eventually became the primary military strength midway through the apocalypse, but—

“Because the strength that the pre-apocalypse military cultivated in preparation for the north was exactly that.”

That strength still remained effective.

Especially.

“The former Ministry of National Defense focused on firepower. Considering Korea’s terrain, they must have judged it to be the most effective and cost-efficient method.”

“I see.”

“Right now, we’re concentrating on restoring that firepower...... in other words, artillery forces. Considering the one-month grace period shown by the System.......”

Corporal Lee Gongwoo closed his eyes briefly as though calculating.

“By that point, we should be able to restore around 50% of the pre-apocalypse firepower.”

“Oh.......”

“Well, that estimate is after our modifications are applied, of course.”

South Korea’s army had originally ranked among the strongest military forces in the world.

And the majority of that strength came from precisely that firepower.

Considering that many pieces of equipment had likely been permanently lost entirely, restoring even 50% of that firepower was an extremely positive development.

[Kim Jongdu]

[Lv.31 Legion Architect]

“You’ll need strongholds capable of deploying and firing all that artillery.”

The next person to speak was—

Someone who had originally belonged to the Association in Gyeonggi Province before joining the Legion through my recruitment.

The architect, Kim Jongdu.

“As soon as I joined the Legion, I carried out your orders and constructed military fortresses throughout various regions.”

Engineers were also excellent builders, but fundamentally they were closer to all-rounders.

Meanwhile, Kim Jongdu’s profession was Architect.

His construction ability surpassed even the Legion engineers themselves.

“Since we built them around every major stronghold, the total number is roughly around one hundred.”

“......That many?”

True to the name of his profession.

He had already constructed an enormous number of structures.

“You can assume that every major strategic point one would pass through while descending south from the north now possesses defensive facilities.”

Even back when he belonged to the Association and received almost no proper support, he had built dozens of fortress-scale structures.

The awakened of Gyeonggi Province had lived under extreme conditions.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that more than 90% of the reason they survived was thanks to the fortresses this man constructed.

There was no reason to doubt the completion quality or defensive strength of each individual fortress either.

“In truth, there are additional things we’re preparing as well.”

“Mm?”

“But I’m not entirely confident we can finish those within the remaining month...... and honestly, even I think it might be excessively overboard. So for now, please just know that there are additional preparations underway.”

Besides that enormous number of fortresses, it seemed there was even more being prepared.

Once again, I realized how fortunate it had been to recruit him out of the Association.

And beyond that as well.

While receiving reports from the Legion members, I prepared for what would someday emerge beyond that barrier.

And during that time.

“Commander.”

“Mm?”

Someone came looking for me.

[Awakened: Choi Wonjun]

[Class: Demon Hunter]

“......It’s been a long time, Commander.”

One of them—

Was the Demon Hunter who had joined our unit after going through numerous incidents.

He too was one of our Legion members.

It was not particularly surprising that he came looking for me.

But the other person was somewhat unexpected.

“You are.”

Back in the past.

When this Chuncheon, which had now become the Legion’s headquarters, had still been a submerged city...... a [Dungeon].

An awakened who had cooperated with us to defeat the Pope.

[Awakened: Kwak Changsu]

[Spear Master of Inquiry]

[Guild: Avengers]

“It’s been a while.”

It was Kwak Changsu.