Ch.1919. Meanwhile, in the North.

In a situation where South Korea had barely managed to hold on by ceding Gangwon Province and some rural areas to monsters, it was impossible for North Korea to survive the monster invasion.

According to information obtained from hunters, monsters that poured in through the Manchurian region easily swept through North Korea, resulting in the entire country now being in a complete apocalyptic state.

Various animal-type monsters have flourished and transformed North Korea’s natural environment. The country, which could now be mistaken for a Jurassic landscape, has been occupied by three types of monsters.

First are the animal-type monsters. Though they simply wander throughout North Korea without particularly gathering together, they cannot be underestimated.

As a result of their constant fighting and survival competition among themselves, more than eight high-ranked monsters of Grade 3 or higher have appeared, occupying territories around their lairs and forming power bases.

The monster that particularly catches my eye is Sangun (Mountain Lord), a Grade 1 beast-type monster that has always played a leading role in Korean Peninsula-related events.

True to its name, this monster resembles a tiger, covered in long white fur and standing over 20 meters tall—a truly massive creature.

Originally a wandering boss that would suddenly appear somewhere in South Korea, it is now reportedly raising its offspring, smaller Sanguns, in the northern part of the Baekdudaegan mountain range.

Its 20-meter height alone makes it a massive weapon of destruction, and despite its enormous size, it moves with incredible speed.

Additionally, its fur provides high protection against non-bullet attacks such as psychic, energy, or laser attacks, and it contains more than 20 bio-cores within its body, allowing it to hold and produce tremendous energy.

While it seems like an impossible monster to defeat, the fact that humans managed to drive it out of South Korea proves that humans should never be underestimated.

On the other hand, there are monsters that, while insignificant compared to these high-ranked beast-type monsters, cannot be ignored. These are commonly called humanoid monsters, characterized by appearances resembling fantasy novel races.

Orcs, ogres, trolls, lizardmen, minotaurs, centaurs, goblins, mermen, beastmen, and more. They typically have the appearance of distorted humans or humans mixed with animal features, and in most cases, they’re named after the fantasy novel races they resemble.

As individual entities, humanoid monsters are, frankly speaking, inferior to other monsters. In terms of physical capabilities, they rarely rise above mid-tier, and except for certain naturally gifted individuals, they can hardly use psychic abilities.

However, what these monsters have instead is intelligence. Although significantly lower than humans, they often possess a different kind of “intellect” compared to beast-type monsters.

Additionally, humanoid monsters have lower instinctive hostility toward humans. In gaming terms, while other monsters’ AI is “charge & stop-and-shoot,” humanoid monsters use crude but effective tactics.

Ambushes, surprise attacks, luring, drive hunting, encirclement, and even retreating. They can be considered primitive tribes with overwhelming physical capabilities, roughly at a Paleolithic to Neolithic level of civilization.

And finally, there’s the only monster in North Korea described in the main timeline. That is the Grade 1 Hive Mind in Pyongyang.

Usually, in the South Korean server, the 38th Defense Line is almost the only hunting ground where Hive Mind-type monsters appear, due to the overwhelming scale of the Hive Mind there.

It has eroded the entire Hwanghae Province while continuously launching offensives toward Pyeongan Province and the south. Unlike me, it has revealed itself above ground and established all sorts of massive biological facilities, giving it overwhelming productivity.

Tens of thousands of mid-tier monsters, hundreds of millions of low-tier monsters, command towers directing these monsters, and about ten high-tier monsters.

It has been treated as the final boss of normal servers due to its overwhelming numbers, but… the situation has changed.

After being bombarded with missiles equipped with anti-psychic warheads, its psychic barrier went down and its anti-air defense network was neutralized, followed by a rain of conventional ballistic missiles with nuclear-level power.

It was an extravagant expenditure that probably consumed several percent of South Korea’s annual budget in just a few minutes, but the effect was remarkably effective.

The Hive Mind was destroyed, and the remaining legions are now led by surviving high-tier monsters—or so they say, but the reality is somewhat different.

The truth, known only to high-ranking officials, is that in Hwanghae Province, where the Hive Mind was destroyed, hundreds of new Hive Minds have emerged and are engaged in fierce survival competition.

With more than seven identified Grade 1 Hive Minds, they’re being left alone out of fear of what might happen if disturbed… but well, there’s no need for conflict yet.

※ ※ ※

Anyway, while North Korea has become such a mess, conversely, it can be said that there are no clear focal points or monsters threatening enough to endanger the state.

Especially underground, it’s almost empty. At most, there are only ultra-giant worms, mole monsters, or ant colonies—all monsters I’ve encountered before in the underground of the already occupied Gangwon Province.

Worms vary in size, but strong individuals are just ordinary giant earthworms of around Grade 5, moles are just animal-type monsters about the size of humans, and ants aren’t even worth mentioning.

Thanks to this, I was able to expand underground with almost no interference. I know how to deal with any potentially interfering monsters from past experience, and I’ve also introduced my own underground-dwelling monsters.

Reptilian wyrms, created by analyzing the body structure of worm-like creatures, create passages as they move through, followed by monsters based on redesigned mole monsters that compact these tunnels.

Then I extend my flesh along these passages to erode them, creating proxy bodies at certain intervals to form intermediate bases capable of producing at least low-tier monsters.

Ah, occasionally other monsters invade and occupy these intermediate bases, so I’ve built defense systems as a precaution.

I’ve placed about 200 low-tier monsters at each strongpoint and installed defensive bio-facilities equipped with weapons to attack enemies at regular intervals.

Repeating identical structures in each area to confuse location tracking is also one of the methods of forming this defense system.

In reality, it’s quite common for other monsters to invade underground by following monsters returning from hunting, so having these preparations in place is clearly helpful regardless of what happens.

And while expanding my territory primarily underground in these empty areas, I came up with a plan for more active operations while preparing for contingencies.

※ ※ ※

Seonggwang Group Headquarters, Chairman’s office on the top floor.

The Chairman of Seonggwang Group, who had finished most of his regular daily tasks and was enjoying his usual solitude in his chair, had his solitude broken after a long time.

“Mr. Chairman, your daughter has arrived.”

“…Tell her to come in.”

His youngest daughter, whom he cherished dearly and who had been busy working as a hunter, had come to visit after a long time.

“Father, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

“Yes, my youngest. As you say, it’s been a while.”

Though one of the top chaebol families in the country, his family situation was quite good. So they spent about 30 minutes catching up and making small talk before getting to the main point.

“Now you can tell me. My daughter, what brings you to this old father of yours?”

“I have a favor to ask.”

“…A favor? What kind of favor?”

When he expressed surprise that his daughter, who was objectively successful even without the halo of being a chaebol heir, was making an unusual request, she opened her mouth with a hint of embarrassment.

“Well, actually…”

She went on at length about her request, and since Lee Sujin wasn’t particularly eloquent, her explanation became unnecessarily long with extraneous details.

After she finished explaining, the Chairman shook his head gently at her terrible speaking skills that he couldn’t cover up no matter how hard he tried, but summarized her request.

“So… when contact was lost in the Gangwon area last time, you received help from a stateless mercenary group, and you’d like to formally hire these mercenaries?”

“Yes…”

At first glance, it might sound like she wanted to bring a gang or mafia organization into the country, but in reality, such stateless mercenary groups weren’t that uncommon in this world.

More precisely, these stateless mercenary groups ranged from thug-level operators with stolen or scavenged weapons to regular armies of collapsed or fragmented nations who had given up their nationality—and the mercenary group his youngest daughter was referring to was closer to the latter type.

“You’ve done your research, of course?”

“Yes, here. I’ve done everything I could within my capacity.”

With those words, Sujin placed a paper envelope she had been holding onto his desk.

The Chairman quietly stared at the rather thick envelope before speaking.

“No matter how much research you’ve done, you know additional investigation is necessary, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. I’ll contact you again when the investigation is complete.”

With those words and a look that signaled dismissal, his youngest daughter politely bowed to him and left the Chairman’s office.

And the moment it was confirmed that she had entered the elevator, the Chairman asked the bodyguard standing quietly in the corner.

“…Was there anything unusual?”

“Nothing, sir. No signs of physical brainwashing or external psychic interference whatsoever.”

“I see. If you say so, then it must be so.”

Although he had felt a slight sense of dissonance from his youngest daughter, if his bodyguard, a former high-ranking hunter, said there was no problem, then there truly was no problem.

The sense that she had changed from before was probably due to her having changed after the life-threatening experience she had back then.