Ch.163162. Alliance and Confrontation (1)

It was essentially a white flag of surrender, entrusting both life and death to Baek Seol-hwa. In response to Heo Jin-ho’s surrender, Seol-hwa smiled brightly and spoke.

“I have no intention of killing you. Please lower your hands.”

“…We’re refugees. Though we’re potential threats who might usurp your position after receiving your kindness.”

Seol-hwa made it clear she had no intention of killing Heo Jin-ho, to which he responded with a warning of sorts.

Indeed, in this apocalypse, there was a high probability of being betrayed by refugees after showing them kindness, and Heo Jin-ho was one such example.

Although Heo Jin-ho explicitly stated that he could usurp the Balhut Cult’s position, considering the deity the cult served, this was essentially a needless concern.

“Hehe. Go ahead and try. I’ll accept all your challenges.”

Above all, Seol-hwa wasn’t one to shy away from challenges.

Rather, she provoked him to try, and Heo Jin-ho looked at her with a puzzled expression.

While Heo Jin-ho himself was currently a refugee, if he could recover even a little strength and establish himself, he had high potential to grow into a threatening force like the Daegu Interim Government.

Especially from the perspective of the Balhut Cult, which was expanding its influence in Yeongnam, the Daegu Interim Government had been a buffer zone against external invasions, but simultaneously a threatening rival.

Considering this, Heo Jin-ho would remain a threatening figure the moment he challenged for power again.

“But I need you all. More precisely, the Balhut Cult needs you. The Daegu Interim Government.”

However, conversely, if he was talented enough to challenge for power, his value was also tremendously high.

Just as the Balhut Cult had recruited Jin A-yeon and Han Seong-geun to establish the police department, if they could recruit Heo Jin-ho, they could establish a government organization befitting him, or…

‘With luck, we might even take Daegu.’

Using the connections and information network from the Daegu Interim Government era, they could bring Daegu under the Balhut Cult’s sphere of influence.

Therefore, rather than eliminating Heo Jin-ho, it was more important to protect him and persuade him to align with the Balhut Cult.

“I’ll treat your wounds. Can you explain your situation?”

“The wounds…”

Seol-hwa approached him alone and used healing arts. With her treatment, not only Heo Jin-ho’s wounds but also those of his remaining followers began to heal one by one.

Realizing that the girl before him was favorable to the Daegu Interim Government, Heo Jin-ho fell into contemplation, but it didn’t last long, and he calmly began explaining his situation as Seol-hwa had asked.

“At first, I thought they were just ordinary refugees from outside. At the time, I was already dealing with the zombie problem pouring in from all directions. I managed the situation and made them my troops.”

“I see. That’s quite common.”

Making wandering refugees into one’s soldiers was a fairly common practice.

In this period when many people were physically dying, even a single soldier was precious, so rescuing refugees and making them soldiers was a common practice.

The Balhut Cult also rescued refugees and made some of them into troops. For most factions, the reason for rescuing refugees was less humanitarian and more practical—to replenish their forces.

“But at some point, the number of refugees began to exceed what we could handle. There were so many that even the administrative network of the Daegu Interim Government couldn’t properly function…”

“And then one of the refugee representatives usurped your position? But how did they do it? Wasn’t your headquarters located in the most difficult place to attack?”

The problem was that the refugees had gathered to a level that the interim government couldn’t handle.

When the number of refugees exceeded the government’s army, the refugees forgot the government’s kindness and betrayed them. After the refugees’ all-out assault, they had fled to this place.

However, there was one issue: a faction’s headquarters would naturally have the best defense system that faction could muster.

Even the Balhut Cult’s headquarters, the main hall, was personally guarded by the cult’s elite guards.

“There was a traitor.”

“A traitor, I see. Well, there’s nothing to be done if there was a traitor. What’s the traitor’s name?”

But even with a defense system in place, it was naturally humans who operated it.

If an internal person in charge of that system betrayed them, that very robustness could become a poison.

And the name of the traitor who betrayed Heo Jin-ho was…

“A fellow named Go Jun-woo.”

Go Jun-woo.

‘Huh?’

‘Ah.’

‘Oh.’

It was a name the Balhut Cult couldn’t possibly ignore.

As if they never expected that name to come up here, not only Baek Seol-hwa who knew the situation, but also the NTS agent and military personnel all froze.

They looked at Heo Jin-ho with expressions that suggested they had no idea why that name had come up here and now.

“That guy is really bad!”

“Indeed. Betraying trust. What a terrible person.”

The innocent comments from Han Seong-geun and Jin A-yeon pierced the hearts of the three fools like spears of conscience.

The reason for the negative reactions from the military, NTS, and Baek Seol-hwa was very simple.

That name belonged to a collaborator the Balhut Cult, especially the NTS, had acquired when they directly intervened in Daegu.

He was a sort of champion chosen to check Daegu, which was trying to rise as an interim government before the Ulsan expedition, and was an influential figure under the economic official Lee Hyeon-a’s influence.

So, the gazes of the military and Seol-hwa…

‘The NTS, huh.’

‘The NTS has done something again. I have more to report to Sister Yu-na.’

…automatically turned toward the NTS agent.

Those gazes suggested that if something strange or problematic occurred, pointing at the NTS would generally be correct.

And those gazes weren’t wrong; from the moment the name Go Jun-woo came up, the NTS was inevitably marked as a potential source of the problem.

‘No, this is unfair to me too!’

But the NTS also felt wronged.

After all, wasn’t Lee Hyeon-a, who had been managing him, busy attending the International Organization Reconstruction Conference and other matters?

Moreover, Go Jun-woo himself hadn’t directly seized power; he had acted as an internal traitor and handed over the government. How could they have predicted that?

From the NTS’s perspective, while they could admit some negligence in management, they wanted to strongly argue that the butterfly effect from the refugee crisis was completely unfair to blame on them.

After all, though these people didn’t know it, the fundamental cause of this refugee crisis began the moment Kim Su-ho gave up controlling the refugees, so the NTS was merely greatly influenced by Kim Su-ho’s policy.

Before that, they had firmly held Go Jun-woo’s leash and, in cooperation with the administration, had perfectly controlled him.

‘Is this our fault? What should we do?’

‘No matter how I look at it, this is the doing of those NTS guys.’

However, the military and Seol-hwa, who knew nothing of the inside story, looked at each other’s faces with trembling eyes, unsure of what to do.

It was certain that the potential source was the NTS.

So, should they bury this, or should they honestly reveal it? It was inevitably a dilemma.

The former would be comfortable now, but if this fact was revealed later, there would be a great karmic retribution. Revealing this fact now meant having to settle that karma immediately.

‘Ms. Lee Hyeon-a. Is this our fault!? Is this our fault!?’

The NTS agent could only inwardly cry out to the absent Lee Hyeon-a with a genuinely wronged expression.

“Why the long faces?”

And when the expressions of these three organizations weren’t good, Jin A-yeon asked what was wrong.

After all, from the moment the name Go Jun-woo came up, everyone’s expressions had hardened as they pondered something, so curiosity was inevitable.

Jin A-yeon, who had just launched the police organization and hadn’t fully received information about Daegu, was completely unaware of this fact, and with such a nonchalant expression, she could approach the military, Seol-hwa, and the NTS agent whose expressions had hardened.

“Ah, no! I’m just… yes, very surprised at the fact that they fell due to internal betrayal.”

When the oblivious Jin A-yeon asked with a worried expression what was wrong, Seol-hwa quickly responded that she was surprised by the fact that they had fallen due to a traitor’s betrayal.

Thanks to Jin A-yeon, the gazes directed at the NTS could all be redirected to her, and at the same time, by saying they were greatly surprised by the fact of being betrayed and ruined…

“True. It must be devastating. If I were betrayed from within, I think I’d go crazy from the shock.”

“Being betrayed by someone you trusted. It’s not strange to suffer from distrust of people.”

For now, they could draw a line that it had nothing to do with the Balhut Cult.

In response to Seol-hwa’s statement, Jin A-yeon and Han Seong-geun nodded as if they understood, saying it was content that Seol-hwa could empathize with.

After all, Seol-hwa was also the leader of a region like Heo Jin-ho, and it was understandable for her expression to harden in empathy with Heo Jin-ho’s situation of being betrayed by a subordinate and ruined.

‘The girl before me seems to be in a higher position than I thought. Could she be the Dragon Priestess I’ve heard rumors about?’

As these two accepted that Seol-hwa could empathize with Heo Jin-ho’s situation, Heo Jin-ho, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, also realized that the girl before him was in a considerably high position. At the same time, he failed to notice that the organization before him was one of the culprits behind the downfall of the Daegu Interim Government.

But from Heo Jin-ho’s perspective, it couldn’t be helped; Han Seong-geun and Jin A-yeon’s expressions were too sincere to be considered acting, and he was completely fooled by the information that the girl before him was in a position to empathize with his situation.

Moreover, considering the direction of the Balhut Cult’s expansion from its base in Gyeongju, he had judged that the Balhut Cult, which had been concentrating all its capabilities on Ulsan until now, wouldn’t suddenly disperse its forces to attack Daegu.

‘Good. We can get away with this!’

Seeing Heo Jin-ho’s expression, Seol-hwa realized they could quietly bury this, put on a serious face, and shifted her gaze toward him.

Then, with a somewhat stiff appearance, she calmly questioned him.

“…So, are you saying the Daegu Interim Government fell because of Go Jun-woo’s betrayal? I understand the refugee volume is terribly frightening, but if you call yourselves the Daegu Interim Government, I’d think you’d have more armed soldiers than them?”

“That’s right. We weren’t weak enough to fall just because of that guy’s betrayal. However, Go Jun-woo simply sold our interim government to a capable warlord who came from outside.”

Of course, from Go Jun-woo’s perspective, he had simply sold the Daegu Interim Government to whoever could buy him at the highest price.

It was frustrating that it happened to be a warlord from outside rather than an internal force in Daegu, but well, if that was the only force that could buy Go Jun-woo at a high price, it was understandable.

“You seem to be referring to the raiders who hid among the recent refugees. It seems you were sold to a named raider who hid among the refugees…”

“That’s right.”

“But it’s even stranger because they came from outside. Could you really fall like this just because of one person’s betrayal?”

However, the Daegu Interim Government couldn’t have fallen just because of one betrayal.

Not only was there an enormous difference in scale between a lone warlord without a base and a force calling itself an interim government, but the number of troops they could use was on a different dimension.

Unlike refugees who were limited to dozens or hundreds at most due to food and mobility issues, an interim government could command hundreds or even thousands of Awakened as soldiers if they wanted.

Considering this, the claim that the Daegu Interim Government fell because of a single traitor seemed far-fetched, but the answer came directly from Heo Jin-ho.

“It was a decapitation operation. It seems they couldn’t fight me head-on, so they targeted the interim government’s command with a decapitation operation. Go Jun-woo was recruited for that operation. If only our command, not the entire interim government force, had to fight, they wouldn’t need that many troops, would they?”

“I see.”

They knew they would definitely lose if they fought in terms of scale, so they didn’t aim for a head-on confrontation but clearly targeted the command of the Daegu Interim Government through a decapitation operation.

The warlord who usurped the government recruited Go Jun-woo, a founding member of the interim government, for this purpose and meticulously carried out the decapitation operation, achieving the theoretically best result.

Heo Jin-ho fell helplessly to the warlord’s operation and eventually fled after losing his base.

“And the end of that flight was being captured by you all. That’s the end of the story.”

The fact that he survived gave him another chance, but for Heo Jin-ho, who essentially had nowhere to return, there was no such thing as an opportunity.

An opportunity would exist if there were ownerless territories, but where Heo Jin-ho had fled, there were no such territories, and if he tried to gather strength as a warlord, he was destined to be eliminated by the Balhut Cult.

“So you’re completely ruined.”

“That’s right. At least I pride myself that all my subordinates are useful talents. Isn’t just me enough?”

Knowing this fate well, Heo Jin-ho claimed that he was fine and that his subordinates would be useful to the Balhut Cult, essentially asking for leniency.

It was practically an unconditional surrender, a request to end just himself.

“Let me say it again, I have no interest in your neck, Mr. Heo Jin-ho. Your subordinates can certainly be helpful to us.”

But honestly, she really had no interest in Heo Jin-ho’s life.

Rather, Seol-hwa was impressed by the dignity Heo Jin-ho calmly displayed.

“And as for Mr. Heo Jin-ho himself… from our perspective, I’d like to recruit you.”

As if she liked what she saw, she said she wanted to recruit him.

“Hmm. I can’t tell if you’re a big shot or just materialistic.”

At the bold declaration of recruiting him, a warlord, Heo Jin-ho just scratched his head with a puzzled expression, looking at Seol-hwa.