Chapter 2414 – 2414. Eternal Eden
Shin Young-soo, sitting across from me, has beads of cold sweat on his forehead.
His earlier attitude is nowhere to be seen. He tries his best to maintain a poker face, but he can’t hide the trembling of his fingertips.
‘He thinks I could kill him too.’
From Shin Young-soo’s perspective, I’m a heinous bastard who just killed his younger sister.
‘It seems Lee Yeon-hee didn’t tell him much about me.’
Perhaps Lee Yeon-hee hid some information about me. If he knew me well, he wouldn’t have approached me this way.
“Let me tell you in advance. That wasn’t my younger sister. It was a Satanic demon.”
“…Yes. I see. A Satanic demon… it was.”
“It wasn’t murder. It was exorcism.”
“I understand. Yes. Exorcism.”
Shin Young-soo repeats my words, exhaling. His trembling fingertips return to normal. As expected of the Deputy Director of the NIS. He quickly regains his composure.
“Sung Yoo-jin. I don’t know much about Satanic demons, but… Sung Ah-jin might have been a variant. I was the one who brought the variant… I apologize. This is a token of my apology. Please accept it.”
Shin Young-soo gives a wry smile and takes something out of his pocket. It’s a small bag containing pills. Three sky-blue pills.
“It’s not drugs. What kind of pills are these?”
“Xenode. It’s a drug recently made by Bionics, who we collaborate with. It’s a kind of nutritional supplement, and even the President takes it every day. I wish I could take it every day, but… it’s a rare drug, so I only take it about once a week.”
I take the bag of pills and examine it closely. It looks ordinary on the outside. But since Bionics made it, it’s definitely not ordinary.
“It’s not really just a nutritional supplement, is it?”
“It is a nutritional supplement. Just one pill provides all the necessary nutrients. It also has a fatigue recovery effect. And the more you take it, the stronger your body becomes little by little. Isn’t it amazing?”
“Amazing indeed. As good as the effects are, the side effects must be outstanding too, right?”
“No. The side effects are minor. It’s just that you might lose control of your emotions due to hormonal irregularities… and in the case of men, erectile dysfunction, and in the case of women, infertility. Oh, these are just potential side effects that can occur with long-term use.”
‘Erectile dysfunction? Damn it. That’s a seriously dangerous drug.’
I quickly throw the bag of pills I was holding behind me. A member of the Praetorian Guard catches it.
Still feeling uneasy, I repeatedly wipe my hands on my pants.
“…I’ll take the gift. So, what’s the main point? You didn’t just come here because you wanted to introduce me to my younger sister.”
“Haha… Please don’t misunderstand. We are protecting your family, your parents.”
“I can sense it. They’re also Satanic demons. I’ll have to kill them someday.”
“No, no. We will protect them well.”
Shin Young-soo waves his hand. When I nod, he sighs.
After a moment of silence to change the atmosphere, he speaks again.
“Sung Yoo-jin. The President is concerned about you.”
“Concerned? About what?”
“Your forces. It’s forbidden to have private soldiers in South Korea. Maybe a security company level, but Sungak Elementary School has already exceeded that level. Above all, the biggest problem is that guns and bullets are being produced at Sungak Elementary School. As you know, South Korea is a country with gun control. Ordinary citizens cannot possess firearms. They shouldn’t.”
“Gun control? It feels like everyone and their dog has a gun. The looters roaming the city have not only rifles but also grenades.”
“Until now, it couldn’t be helped. The inside of Korea was chaotic due to zombies, variants, and mutations, and the outside was a problem with North Korea. The President hasn’t been able to actively mobilize the military because of North Korea. But now that a truce has been established with North Korea… the President is trying to clean up the inside of Korea. The military will take action in earnest. Variants will disappear from the city, and firearms will be regulated.”
I can picture the military roaming around inside Seoul.
Martial law has already been declared.
Under the pretext of a crisis for the survival of Korea, they can create a foundation for dictatorship.
‘Jung Woo-hyun. He’s moving more blatantly and quickly than I thought.’
I want to kill Jung Woo-hyun right now… but I don’t have the confidence to go and kill him secretly. If it gets out that I killed the President? My plan to become President will be shattered. And I can’t trust the Praetorian Guard to do it. The Blue House boasts the highest level of security in South Korea, unlike other places.
‘I have no chance if I fight openly.’
Dozens of missiles would fall on Sungak Elementary School. Or a tank unit would come.
“Sung Yoo-jin. The President highly values your abilities. Disband your forces and come to the government. Ms. Na Chae-young and Ms. Yoo Seo-jung under your command as well. The government welcomes you. Oh, the Sungjin Church must be disbanded. The President hates and loathes cults.”
I feel like this is the real purpose. They don’t want to waste my abilities. And they must be very interested in Na Chae-young. The current Korean government doesn’t have a technologist.
Disband the Sungjin Church? Of course. They wouldn’t like it since it’s not an organization that supports them. If I were the President, the mere existence of the Sungjin Church would be irritating.
My answer is, of course, a refusal. Go under the President? My personality won’t allow it. And if I became President, he would surely scatter my women.
‘I’d rather die fighting than that.’
There’s no need to give up and fight. It’s not that bad of a situation yet.
I can’t openly refuse yet. They have the justification.
“…There are many other forces with private soldiers besides me. Not just looters, but corporations.”
“Ah, of course, corporations are also subject to sanctions. We are giving you a chance before the full-scale internal cleanup begins.”
“I see. I need time to think.”
“Time to think? Is this a matter that needs thinking?”
“……”
I stare at Shin Young-soo with murderous intent. Shin Young-soo pauses. His eyes tremble, perhaps recalling the sight of me kicking my younger sister’s head without hesitation.
“…You must have things to sort out, so you need time. We’ll be going now. Please understand that we can’t give you much time.”
Shin Young-soo gets up from his seat, watching my reaction.
“See them out.”
I order the Praetorian Guard. They will monitor them to make sure they don’t pull any tricks.
• • •
Xenode.
The drug Shin Young-soo gave as a gift. I immediately asked Yoo Seo-jung to analyze it. Na Chae-young would have been troubled by drug analysis, but not Yoo Seo-jung, who is a Bionic. She’s an expert in this field.
Yoo Seo-jung examined Xenode with her naked eye and put it into the analyzer to check its components.
“I’ve identified the components. It’s definitely made with parts of a human-type variant. However, I don’t know the exact effects or side effects in detail. The drug is locked, and to unlock it… it will take a few days.”
“A few days? You can analyze it in just a few days?”
It’s much faster than I expected. Since there was no specialized equipment for Bionics yet, I thought it would take at least a month.
“The structure of the drug is similar to X-Cream. And it uses human-type variants as materials…”
“This is a drug made by a Bionic affiliated with the Korean government, right?”
“The Korean government must have also experimented on human variants. Maybe they experimented on humans like at the Daemado Research Institute…”
Yoo Seo-jung’s expression darkens. I think it’s the latter. The world is already falling apart anyway. Not doing human experiments also meant that the pace of development would slow down, leading to being left behind.
“Anyway, analyze that drug as quickly as possible.”
“Is it urgent? Just hearing about the effects, it doesn’t seem like a great drug.”
“There’s no way I can trust what that guy said. And something feels off.”
• • •
After leaving Sungak Elementary School and arriving at the NIS headquarters, Shin Young-soo lets out a sigh of relief.
Sung Yoo-jin was more insane than he had thought. He actually kicked his younger sister’s head and blew it up.
‘He’s not normal. Lee Yeon-hee has been negotiating with a guy like that all this time.’
He was too valuable for his healing abilities to kill him using this as an excuse.
‘We still have Sung Yoo-jin’s parents here… but that crazy bastard would even kill his parents.’
It’s impossible to control Sung Yoo-jin using his family. He abandons that plan. But he has no intention of handing over Sung Yoo-jin’s parents.
‘They are Sung Yoo-jin’s parents. If they awaken, they might become healers. There are research results that suggest that family members have a 50% or higher chance of awakening similar abilities.’
Sung Yoo-jin’s parents are valuable enough as research subjects.
‘It was a waste to give Xenode to Sung Yoo-jin. It was originally meant for me… No, there’s no need to feel regret. At the time, Sung Yoo-jin was overly agitated. He was a guy who killed his own younger sister. He might have killed me in that agitated state.’
It’s okay that the first plan failed. The next plan is already prepared.
‘If I could, I’d bring in an armored unit and wipe them all out.’
But he can’t do that.
Jung Woo-hyun is currently concerned about his approval ratings. Gun control? It’s effective as a justification, but the public won’t accept it. Guns have already spread everywhere, and it’s an era where people protect themselves as the world falls apart.
It’s dangerous to rashly bring up gun control as a justification.
‘Especially Sung Yoo-jin, who also has the title of the greatest hero of South Korea. In a way, he’s more popular than the President. It’s all because of that damn nationalistic TV. Nationalistic TV is sucking up to Sung Yoo-jin, so his hero status is being overblown.’
But he can’t sanction nationalistic TV. It’s surprisingly helpful in boosting the morale of the people. Like it or not, Sung Yoo-jin is a hero and hope for Korea.
‘The next plan is food pressure. Slowly starve them to death. They probably won’t last a month.’
Shin Young-soo calls one of his closest aides. The aide who went to Sungak Elementary School with him.
“Did you record it properly? Sung Yoo-jin wouldn’t have noticed, right?”
“Yes. This won’t be detected by metal detectors.”
“Take it out.”
The aide grabs his right eye and takes it out. The eyeball pops out. When he presses the back of the eyeball, a small chip-like object comes out. The eyeball and the chip wriggle slightly as if they are alive.
A bio-machine.
A machine made using bio-metals that Bionics can create. It was an item brought from Japan, not Korea.
Shin Young-soo puts the chip into a terminal and plays the video. The video of Sung Yoo-jin kicking his younger sister to death is recorded perfectly.
“Good. I’ve got the best evidence. I’m looking forward to the public’s reaction when they see the true nature of Sung Yoo-jin.”
Of course, he has no intention of distributing it right now.
This is insurance in case the next plan fails.
• • •
The next day.
I went to find Kim Ji-hee. I can’t fully trust Kim Ji-hee yet, so I plan to keep an eye on her for the time being.
Kim Ji-hee is in the annex where the Sungjin Church’s rituals are held, not the main building.
Stepping into the annex, my mouth drops open. In just one day, the clean annex had become rather chaotic.
Religious items from Buddhism, Christianity, shamanism, and other religions were placed all over the place, making it a mess.
The most striking thing is the phrases posted everywhere. I read the phrases out loud.
“There is no god but Sung Yoo-jin, and Kim Ji-hee is his only apostle.”
…It’s a phrase I’ve seen somewhere before.
Ironically, it felt like I could sense Kim Ji-hee’s sincerity in this phrase.
‘Kim Ji-hee. She’s as crazy as Choi Hye-jin, or even more so.’
Kim Ji-hee is pretty, so I can tolerate it.
