Chapter 167 – Resume Communication (10)
Lee Man-cheol is dead.
However, the special forces who participated in the operation kidnapped some executives, saying they were chickens instead of pheasants.
As a result of interrogating them, I was able to find out what the hell happened.
It was information that did not deviate too much from our guesses and only strengthened our confidence.
“…”
The name of the lieutenant sitting in front of me is Kim Cheol-ju.
Immediately after the explosion and power outage, he was holding a communication device in the communication room and was dragged out after fainting due to an electric shock.
He is in handcuffs with a desk between him and me.
His mouth is closed
[It’s simple if you leave it to me.]
Artemis said.
“Aren’t you thirsty? “You haven’t had anything to drink since you were captured.”
Wave a can of beer in front of him. Bloodshot eyes darted back and forth following the beer can.
“Isn’t it hard to get people on standby at the rear because there is limited time? “Because the executives on site will peck you before it gets to your lips.”
Since it was just taken out of the refrigerator, there is dew and frost on the surface of the can. Just looking at it makes my mouth water.
[Why are you trying to persuade so inefficiently, leaving behind the power of science?]
I tried to ignore the beautiful voice ringing somewhere in my head.
“My colleague, the young lady, has a different approach than me. “He is an efficiencyist without blood or tears.”
As he pretends to place an imaginary syringe on his wrist, Kim Cheol-ju’s eyes flutter.
“You choose. “Which do you prefer, a confession that is inserted into a vein or a confession that you drink orally?”
He placed the can of beer in his hand on the desk.
Chikeok.
He took the lid off right away without hesitation.
Gulp… Gulp. Gulp.
“Kahaa.”
I drank more than half of it in one go and exhaled deeply.
“It’s not a good idea to cross to Jeju Island anyway, so the rest of us have to survive. “That was it.”
He spoke softly.
“If your goal is to survive, you should unite and interact more. Why did you start a rebellion?”
“Self-consciousness.”
Cheolju’s voice was mixed with sarcasm.
“What?”
“Just surviving isn’t enough. It’s worth eating well and living well. “It’s a shitty world, so we have to live in squalor?”
He chuckled and shook his head.
“I can’t do that even if it’s unfair. Everyone is alive because we rolled and fought until now, right? “Enough is enough. It will be difficult if we continue to ask for sacrifices in the future.”
Gulp.
He took another sip of beer.
“That doesn’t make sense. Now, we will receive a reward for protecting you with blood and sweat. Everyone stood up with that mindset.”
Is it because I have already prepared myself for death? Or was it a feeling of despair?
He faced each other without fear and told everything he wanted to say.
“If Lee Man-cheol is the boss, who is the leader?”
I asked.
“Nothing in particular. Everyone is the leader and everyone is like a commander. There are still class differences and respect. But how much does that mean to abandoned soldiers in a broken world? “Are you going to humiliate me at the shareholder meeting because I’ve had a few less weeks?”
“Ha, shareholder?”
Although it is a difficult metaphor to explain the military, it is also a perfect metaphor for today’s Goheung County.
“Is it your work that shot the original warden and started a rebellion?”
“No, it was Lee Man-cheol who originally shot and killed the warden. The director said he would go across to Jeju Island alone. The executives who happened to hear this and rushed in tried to kill the director by tearing him alive. There was a lot of dissatisfaction built up as we were treated like expendable items.”
“Why did you shoot it with your own hands?”
“Whether it’s a major general or a colonel, they’re both high-ranking people, right? He must have been worried that the executives’ anger might spill over to him. Bread on the spot! A performance where you shoot and kill! It wasn’t bad. Even the executives who were hot-headed calmed down.”
The improvisation that originated from Bosinism expanded into a huge rebel force.
“From then on, it was like riding on the back of a tiger?”
“Okay. First, he shot the director to death to avoid the fire, but the executives were still very dissatisfied, so he noticed them and became a criminal who killed his superior… He had to do anything to survive.”
“Then, in the midst of the lawlessness, the lower powers gradually came in?”
Kim Cheol-ju nodded his head.
“They are cut off from the Jeju Island government, and there are signs of warlords rising up all over the place. They are Ganghwagan, but wouldn’t it be an eyesore to have an old man who can kill with a single finger giving orders from the top? Still, that bastard is a long gun. The easy-going guy ate little by little. Although on the surface I was polite.”
“…”
In the subsequent interrogation, Kim Cheol-ju gave out information in his own sincerity.
“What was the explosion? I can guess that it was insurance to prevent foolish schemes, including Lee Man-cheol’s escape. But who installed it?”
“I don’t know. Because not everyone knows me. Now, Goheung County’s command center is like a room surrounded by numerous curtains. There will be Lee Man-cheol in the exact center.”
He pretended to gently remove the curtain.
“But when you open one curtain, there are executives secretly whispering, and when you open the curtain behind them, there are executives whispering again. No one knows how far it will lead.”
Kim Cheol-ju knew the post-war situation during the rebellion quite well, but it was closer to studying the history of warlords after the Infection War.
We did not have much information of strategic value.
“Thank you for your cooperation. “You will be sent to Yeosu.”
“Ha… Damn. “Can’t I just stay here?”
Kim Cheol-ju turned over an empty beer can and sucked it down to the last drop.
“I’m sorry, but you are no use to us. “He’s not someone you can trust.”
His expression darkens rapidly.
“Don’t worry too much. Do you really think you should be shot?”
“Do you think you will get hit? Have you forgotten that several guard posts were destroyed by us? From their perspective, I am an enemy and a rebel!”
I grinned.
“Good luck.”
“You bastard!”
The robot waiting behind placed the gun bag on his face.
Poop!
“Hundreds of millions!”
And then I hit him with my fist.
[Spoiled brat.]
Artemis was angry.
It seems he waited quietly because I was being interrogated.
* * *
No matter how much Lee Man-cheol was the commander-in-chief, his symbolism and influence as the highest commander were considerable.
As Kim Cheol-ju said during his interrogation, the executives under Lee Man-cheol were each driven by dissatisfaction and desire.
It has been a long time since priority was given to the survival and prosperity of individuals, rather than the protection of the country and its people.
First, it is advantageous to be united, so even if you are united, various conflicts are bound to be intertwined.
‘I would rather listen to Lee Man-cheol than be led by a major who is only one rank higher than me.’
The existence of the highest rank superior in itself had the effect of suppressing conflict to some extent.
But it disappeared in an instant.
[Now is not the time for all-out war. We will return.]
One of the gathered groups returned to their base, leaving behind a brief radio message.
From that point on, all parts of Goheung’s military began to tremble.
Executives who valued staying together tried to suppress it somehow, and it was inevitable that infighting would break out between them and the opportunists and breakaways.
It soon led to a battle.
“Shoot! Keep shooting!”
Gunshots, explosions, and screams echo across the vast land where the sandstorm blows.
This is a vehicle scrap site in Goheung.
This place was built when the operation to escape Jeju Island was planned during the infection war.
As supplies, manpower, and troops gathered in Goheung, unusable equipment was disposed of here.
And it functioned as a place to extract useful parts.
Numerous abandoned vehicles served as cover, and soldiers hiding among them were shooting at each other.
“Maintain firepower! It’s okay if you can’t kill them, so just make sure they can’t raise their heads!”
The machine gunner’s fire sent dozens of sparks flying off the rusting vehicle.
Numerous soldiers crawling around him also fired bullets from their respective firearms.
“Aaaaah!”
The soldiers who were taking cover fall down one by one, spouting blood.
“Keep moving! If we stay here, we’ll all be crowded to death! Everyone go to the right!”
An officer tried to move his men to a safer area, but none of them moved.
This is because no one dared raise their head as bullets were flying from all directions.
“In action! Everyone, move…”
Kwaaang!
A mortar shell fell precisely on the officer who was wiping the prone soldiers.
A soldier began to appear in panic as he saw his superior’s corpse cut into two pieces soaring tens of meters into the air.
“We’re all going to die!”
A conscripted soldier ran to the rear.
“Get down! “Get down, you idiot!”
Pak!
A bullet passed through the back of a running soldier.
The sight of the soldier falling was not visible as it was obscured by the scrap metal vehicle.
“Everyone just lies down here! Because you’re safe here!”
A veteran soldier who took cover in a bus that had fallen on its side shouted. That was his will.
Quang!
With a huge explosion, the bus he was hiding in was blown away without a trace.
“Tank!”
Finally, even tanks were deployed, and the fratricidal war began.
[Surrender immediately. There is no chance for you to win.]
[If you join now, I will do everything to you, including stripping you of your command.]
The main dispatcher warned the escaping group by radio.
[Does that mean you’re telling me to die? Who do you think is a fool?]
[You guys soaked this Mancheol too, right? Right?]
The seeds didn’t even work. If I had intended to do that, I wouldn’t have left in the first place.
[What are you saying! Don’t make false accusations!]
The calm voice suddenly heated up with anger.
[Have you hit the nail on the head? You guys didn’t even salute Lee Man-cheol properly. From then on, I knew everything.]
While the commanders fought so pathetically, the troops under their command continued to fight for their lives without even knowing why they were fighting.
And the fighting came to a halt in an unexpected direction.
“What on earth is that?”
There were so many black aircraft flying from the other side of the sky that counting them seemed meaningless.
The drone army, which had been crouching and waiting for its moment, descended on the battlefield of fratricide.
