Ch.183183. Strange Days in Seorabeol (1)

While Bahamut was engaged in numerous international exchanges, the internal affairs of the Balhut Cult couldn’t be overlooked.

Even as Bahamut focused on exchanges with Alicia and Phoenix, the Balhut Cult… no, Seorabeol, began establishing itself as a nation under the leadership of Yuna, the Dragon Priestess, and the cabinet that followed her.

Naturally, they were preparing to fulfill the functions of a nation by upgrading the temporary government agencies to official status and reviving numerous institutions that hadn’t been established earlier because they weren’t immediately necessary.

In defiance of the apocalypse, new growth and vitality began to overflow, and Seorabeol was ready to welcome a new era. From now on, Seorabeol would be filled with nothing but smiles and…

“I hate humans!”

I apologize.

Indeed, it was too early to declare a happy ending just because the nation had been established. Seorabeol had far too many internal problems, didn’t it?

Yes, let’s stop painting a rosy picture and describe the real situation of Seorabeol in one word…

It was a complete mess.

“What’s the problem this time?”

Kim Tae-hyun, who had started with a food cart and now owned what would have been considered a small-to-medium enterprise before the apocalypse and a major corporation after it, was the first to feel this.

Yes, he could understand the vitality overflowing in the private sector due to Seorabeol’s establishment.

The more vibrant the market became, the more opportunities Kim Tae-hyun would have to make money as a business owner, and his main business of transportation would also regain its vitality.

However, Kim Tae-hyun’s expression hadn’t improved since Seorabeol’s establishment.

“There are too many people interfering with my business.”

“Well, it’s natural for competitors to appear in a successful business, isn’t it? It’s a miracle there weren’t any until now.”

Rather than anti-monopoly laws from numerous guilds trying to prevent Kim Tae-hyun’s monopoly on transportation… many people saw how well Kim Tae-hyun was doing in logistics and thought, “Is this job sweeter than I expected?” So everyone started jumping into the logistics business.

Those who started with food carts like Kim Tae-hyun did initially were at a cute level, but there were examples of established guilds risking their survival and lives to enter the logistics business.

Not just guilds, but even those calling themselves corporations began rushing in like minnows to take away Kim Tae-hyun’s market share in the logistics business.

“Those mercenary bastards. They refuse to join the military but are happy to be dogs for guilds and corporations.”

“Well, disliking military enlistment is universal, isn’t it? Besides, unlike other regions, they can’t act as warlords here, so it seems less attractive.”

“That’s the problem.”

If these had been pre-apocalypse businesses, he would have just cursed them for being petty but wouldn’t have resented them.

However, those who were going after Kim Tae-hyun’s rice bowl weren’t ordinary guilds or businesses like those seen before the apocalypse.

They were essentially armed mercenary groups, and when these armed robbers threatened him with weapons to take away his market share, Kim Tae-hyun, an honest citizen of Seorabeol, had no way to fight back.

Thanks to their great success, the business that Kim Tae-hyun had focused on had now become a red ocean, and what little market share he had left disappeared long ago.

“Damn it! If they want to be mercenaries so badly, they should cooperate with the military!”

Kim Tae-hyun wanted to curse the behavior of these armed robbers… self-proclaimed mercenaries, and tell them to cooperate with the military, but…

“Then we couldn’t loot.”

“Oh no!”

From the mercenaries’ perspective, the military offered no merit.

While looting naturally occurred in this apocalypse, Seorabeol’s military strictly prohibited it.

Obviously, from the mercenaries’ perspective, this institutionally blocked them from earning juicy side income, so they began planning independent forces that didn’t cooperate with the military to gain more profits.

Their first step was forming guilds and corporations, and their attempts succeeded, allowing them to settle in the private sector.

In fact, this reality was somewhat predictable.

While the Balhut Cult could track the birth and numbers of Awakened through the Awakened Project, they lacked the information resources to control Awakened who had awakened by killing zombies rather than through the project.

At least now that Seorabeol had been established, they had a policy of not touching these individuals as long as they diligently paid taxes to Seorabeol and didn’t rebel.

If necessary, they were considering forced conscription of these individuals as a kind of military force.

Though their discipline and order were a mess, they would be excellent forces to use in emergencies.

“So, are you planning to continue the logistics business?”

Facing the ever-increasing mercenary industry that was tacitly approved by Seorabeol, Kim Tae-hyun…

“I give up. To hell with it. I’m done. I’m done.”

Finally admitted defeat and decided to close all his current businesses.

Oh, that didn’t mean he was giving up the brand value of Kim Tae-hyun Company, just changing his main business.

He meant he was giving up his stake in the transportation business that had been his main work and looking for something else.

“So you finally gave up on transportation?”

“Yeah. Those mercenary guys are running wild. Is the mercenary business really booming? Until winter, it was practically a red ocean.”

At Kang Jae-wan’s words, Kim Tae-hyun sighed regretfully, unable to understand why the mercenary business was suddenly thriving.

As far as he knew, from last winter until February of this year, the market had been completely frozen or in an extremely cold situation.

If that state had continued, the mercenary industry would have been completely wiped out without any chance of recovery, but…

“The thing is, monsters are appearing.”

“Huh? Didn’t they all freeze to death?”

As monsters, which were thought to have been wiped out by Korea’s harsh weather, reappeared, civilians inevitably felt the need for armed forces, naturally leading to a boom in the mercenary industry.

The problem was where these monsters, which were thought to have been wiped out, had appeared from.

“Around April, they succeeded in breeding. We thought they’d all be wiped out, but who knew they’d even succeed in breeding and settling down. They have tenacious vitality.”

“Damn it!”

Specimens that survived the harsh winter had succeeded in breeding and increasing their numbers.

Since mercenaries were a kind of armed group, and a business appeared where they could legally use that force, it was natural market logic that it led to a boom.

They hunted monsters to level up, and based on those levels, they expanded their business aggressively, taking on personal security and corporate security, gradually expanding their market.

“But their emergence was inevitable. While cities might be fine, rural farms can’t always receive Seorabeol’s protection. Moreover, the bred monsters were starving due to extreme food shortages, so they had no choice but to attack farms for food.”

The existence of monsters had knowingly or unknowingly proven the necessity of mercenaries.

From the perspective of rural farms, they couldn’t always receive Seorabeol’s protection, so they had to hire mercenaries to protect themselves, and based on that demand, the mercenary industry was able to revive.

But the problem here was…

“The issue is that all the manpower that should be protecting those farms is flowing into the mercenary business.”

“I can’t deny that.”

To put it bluntly, that manpower was originally supposed to go to the military.

They refused to enlist in the military and threw themselves into the mercenary industry, so naturally, the military, which should have absorbed this manpower, was experiencing severe shortages.

Moreover, they recently separated from the police, making the already insufficient manpower even more lacking.

“Despite receiving grace from Lord Bahamut, they refuse to join the military! What is Prime Minister Hwang Geun-chul doing?”

“I wonder.”

Even Awakened who had naturally awakened by hunting zombies were rebelling against Seorabeol’s directives. Those who awakened through Bahamut’s Awakened Project could easily become Awakened without hunting undead, but those who awakened this way weren’t working for Seorabeol.

They were grateful for being helped to awaken, but they wanted to live their lives as they pleased.

“By that logic, we’re the same. Honestly, you don’t want to join the military either, right?”

“Hey! We pay a lot of taxes and voluntarily cooperate with civilians. We do!”

The conclusion was that they didn’t want to join the military.

It was a feeling that any Korean… no, any young person of military age could sympathize with. Even if they enlisted, they would prefer a cushy position or to serve as a social service worker rather than active duty, spending their precious youth fighting the undead.

“So what’s your next business? I’ll advertise it for you. Give me the advertising fee.”

“Wow. This trash journalist is blatantly asking for advertising money. Isn’t this backdoor advertising? It would be a big deal if the passing Dragon Priestess heard this!”

As if saying he would stop talking about the gloomy stories implicitly heard in Seorabeol, Kang Jae-wan asked Kim Tae-hyun about his next business and blatantly asked for advertising money.

In response, Kim Tae-hyun called Kang Jae-wan a trash journalist and jokingly shouted “Look at this, everyone!” to an empty space, playing along with the joke.

“The Dragon Priestess is a busy person. Would she join in on our foolish chat?”

“True. Yeah… Since you’ve been in the food business, I guess you’ll be doing something related to food production again.”

Kang Jae-wan said the Dragon Priestess couldn’t be here, but he just smiled brightly.

Seeing Jae-wan’s expression, Kim Tae-hyun scratched his head and finally said he would challenge a business related to food, which he was confident in.

“Are you thinking of building a factory?”

“I’ve had a lunch box factory for a while. Now I’m planning to focus on that in earnest.”

Since he had been supplying food to the military, he already had a factory.

He had acquired equipment remaining in Pohang at a cheap price, built a factory, processed the abundant food coming in from the United States, and distributed that processed food to the military and civilians.

Kim Tae-hyun said he would aggressively invest in the factory business and convert it into his main business.

“Food… Well, thanks to the food coming in from the United States, there’s no shortage of food itself, but because of that, domestic products and industries are losing competitiveness and dying out.”

“Actually, domestic agricultural products are extremely rare!”

Kang Jae-wan thought it wasn’t a bad idea and mentioned a recently revealed problem: domestic products were dying out because of cheap American products.

America’s exchange had given Seorabeol enormous wealth, but in return, the presence of domestic products was gradually disappearing.

Well, although he said “domestic products,” in this apocalypse, the only country where factories were operating without problems was the United States, so it was very natural for American products to dominate the market.

However, if this state was left unchecked, domestic products would completely wither away, and national competitiveness would be lost, so they needed to attempt domestic businesses to reduce dependence on the United States.

“I heard that Seorabeol is developing the area around the Hyeongsan River, so I’m planning to put my name on that list.”

Seorabeol was aware of this fact and had begun trying to develop the granary area located around the Hyeongsan River to reduce dependence on the United States.

As winter passed and the weather was warming up, this development of the granary area was happening at a very appropriate time, and Kim Tae-hyun was responding to Seorabeol’s investment by saying he would also put his name on that list.

At those words…

“Hmm. In my eyes, you’re more like a civilian collaborator cooperating with the government than a merchant. A typical merchant would be thinking about how to exploit the government.”

“That’s not wrong.”

Kang Jae-wan told Kim Tae-hyun that he wasn’t a merchant but a civilian collaborator actively supporting Seorabeol.

“Lady Yuna is a benefactor to me and my family. How could I harbor thoughts of betrayal?”

Kim Tae-hyun and his family already owed their lives to Yuna, so how could he harbor thoughts of betrayal?

“…There are too many ungrateful people in Seorabeol.”

“That’s the problem!”

The problem was that despite being saved, there were more than a few people who were already showing ungrateful attitudes.

Kim Tae-hyun could only sigh at the social problems occurring within Seorabeol.