Ch.264264. Korean Peninsula (3)

The war between the Cult of Immortality and the Seoul Allied Forces was merely the beginning.

Looking at the entire Korean Peninsula, it was simply a clash between two major powers, while most of the peninsula—except for a few warlords—considered it someone else’s war, far from the flames of conflict.

Some were even hoping these two powers would destroy each other so they could claim the vacant throne.

However, neither the Cult of Immortality nor Seorabeol trusted those who declared neutrality while the war that would determine the fate of the Korean Peninsula loomed before them.

“Never again! We will not be slaves to warlords!”

“We support Seorabeol! At least Seorabeol sees us as humans, not slaves!”

Seorabeol made the first move.

They deployed NTS agents as spies throughout the provinces, making contact with groups dissatisfied with the local warlords and inciting uprisings across the country.

Calling themselves militia and proclaiming themselves freedom fighters, they declared they could no longer tolerate the warlords’ oppression. They declared independence while simultaneously pledging support to Seorabeol, who had come to their aid.

Naturally, the warlords chose to suppress the rebellion and dispatched Awakened units to do so. However…

“Long live Daejeon’s independence! We too have magical weapons born from the apocalypse! No longer will warlords stand above us!”

“You damned oppressor! You’ve heard of Bahamut Bullets, haven’t you? This is that very bullet!”

The resistance forces dealt major defeats to the warlords, driving them back.

Normally, the resistance would have been quickly suppressed due to the difference in weaponry, but they had powerful backing that provided them with the means to fight back.

“Could it be they never expected us to distribute weapons to the resistance?”

Indeed, to weaken the neutral factions, Lee Hyeon-a had used NTS agents to supply the resistance groups with Bahamut Bullets and weapons to fire them, transforming ragtag militia into powerful armed groups capable of defeating even Awakened.

While Bahamut Bullets were always in short supply overseas, their place of origin was none other than Seorabeol. Currently, the military’s main opponents were train robbers targeting railways or monsters controlling highways—not the Cult of Immortality’s main forces that would require such ammunition.

So they either transferred surplus Bahamut Bullets to Seoul or gave them to resistance groups fighting anti-Seorabeol forces, aiming to weaken local powers. As Lee Hyeon-a had planned, local powers were thrown into confusion by the emergence of powerful militia resistance groups they couldn’t easily suppress.

“Damn Seorabeol! Are you attacking us neutrals?”

“Were you ever truly neutral? You’ve been running train robber gangs targeting Seorabeol’s trains, haven’t you?”

“That’s different! This is this, that is that! Don’t you know the customs? The customs!”

When Seorabeol began supporting local uprisings, the self-proclaimed neutral factions who opposed Seorabeol immediately protested. The response they received was simply that they were being paid back in kind for doing the same thing. It was essentially a polite(?) “Go eat shit, we have no intention of listening to your complaints.”

The warlords, enraged by Seorabeol’s kind response, tried to argue that such actions were common practice in the post-apocalyptic world, but…

“I don’t care about that. Just die.”

Unfortunately for them, they were dealing with a woman more vicious than any ghost.

Lee Hyeon-a just smiled sweetly as if telling them to eat more shit, deploying more NTS agents to distribute weapons to local forces. As the militia resistance groups gradually transformed into powerful armed organizations, the warlords began losing influence over their territories.

Naturally, the Cult of Immortality began positioning itself as the core of the anti-Seorabeol warlord faction, denouncing this as Seorabeol’s blatant interference in internal affairs. However, on the other hand…

“Long live Seorabeol, champion of freedom!”

“Finally, we can drive out those devils!”

Even those who had been suspicious of Seorabeol began viewing them more favorably.

Especially those suffering under the warlords’ oppression responded enthusiastically to Seorabeol’s policies, actively welcoming their intervention. Lee Hyeon-a focused on supporting resistance groups friendly to Seorabeol, providing them with abundant supplies to actively incite rebellion.

As the warlords’ power gradually weakened and signs of new warlords supporting Seorabeol began to emerge…

“Damn it! I’m joining the Cult of Immortality! Seorabeol has crossed the line!”

“Do they not understand the concept of neutrality at all? Do they not know the word?”

In this situation, even those who had tried to remain neutral began revealing their true intentions, openly supporting the Cult of Immortality as the representative anti-Seorabeol force.

Isn’t the Cult of Immortality an evil organization that deals with undead?

Well yes, they knew the cult controlled undead, but had that ever harmed them personally?

Rather, they argued that as a force openly hostile to Seorabeol, the cult was perfect as a rallying point for the anti-Seorabeol faction.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for!”

“Actively support the warlords who follow us! Tell them we’ll even dispatch the Death Knight Order if they want!”

The Cult of Immortality, seeing these supporting factions, was willing to act as their patron, recognizing that their reputation was their greatest weakness.

While they had boldly expanded their influence without fear in the beginning, they now faced hostility from not only the two major powers of the Korean Peninsula but also overseas forces. The cult now needed allies and supporters.

In this situation, the support of local warlords was necessary for the Cult of Immortality. Even if they were considered easy marks, the cult began establishing exchanges by dispatching undead or providing supplies to ensure their supporting factions didn’t collapse.

“South Korea has fallen into civil war?”

News of these movements also reached North Korea, which had been sending undead to South Korea.

With the entire Korean Peninsula engulfed in the flames of war, it would have been strange if North Korea hadn’t reacted.

With no neutrality whatsoever, and South Korea divided into Seorabeol and anti-Seorabeol factions engaged in a massive civil war, the Kim dynasty’s leader saw:

“Isn’t this our chance for Korean unification?”

He thought this was a golden opportunity to pursue unification under North Korean leadership.

Of course, North Korea was also in shambles due to the apocalypse—provinces were on the verge of independence, and military control was gradually collapsing.

The Kim leader certainly had the ability to preserve his position and had overcome several crises before, but he knew there were limits. He was essentially facing the crisis of being overthrown, and in such a situation, he needed an achievement no one could deny.

“But if I could achieve unification of the Korean Peninsula under North Korea, something even my predecessors couldn’t do…”

What if that achievement was the unification of the Korean Peninsula?

If he could accomplish what even his great predecessors couldn’t—unifying the Korean Peninsula—wouldn’t that eliminate all dissenting factions in North Korea in one stroke?

Of course, before the apocalypse, this would have been such a hopeless plan that people would have told him to keep dreaming.

The enormous gap in national power between North and South Korea was a fact no one knew better than the Kim dynasty itself, which is why they only engaged in WWE-style provocations toward South Korea, never once attempting UFC-level provocations.

Well, there were a few times when they failed to control their strength and actual UFC-like situations occurred, but during those times, they remained silent and waited for the anger to pass. The Kim leader himself had proven multiple times that North Korea could never defeat South Korea.

“Yes! It’s possible! I can unify South Korea and create a true Korea! This is a great task that only I can accomplish in North Korea!”

But wasn’t it different now?

With all of South Korea engulfed in civil war between Seorabeol and anti-Seorabeol factions, the Kim leader couldn’t help but think that North Korea’s opportunity for unification under his leadership had arrived.

Yes, he believed this was a message from heaven to the Kim family to bring about communist unification of the Korean Peninsula.

“So are we targeting Seoul?”

“Of course not! We have no reason to get involved in a fight between whales!”

However, he didn’t boldly plan to target Seoul.

While South Korea was in chaos, North Korea had also essentially experienced civil war, which was forcibly ended only because of undead pouring in from China. Apart from Pyongyang, the entire country was in shambles.

In such a state, they lacked the foundation to sustain a long war. If asked whether they could defeat the Cult of Immortality and Seoul Allied Forces with the power remaining in Pyongyang, the Kim leader couldn’t refute it if someone laughed and called it an impossible fantasy.

The one piece of good news was that North Korea also had powerful Awakened after a long struggle, and these Awakened were currently under the strict control of the party.

“Let’s target Gangwon Province.”

The Kim leader’s choice was Gangwon Province. With the entire Korean Peninsula engulfed in civil war, Gangwon too was divided between Seorabeol and anti-Seorabeol factions, making it conquerable with North Korean forces.

Moreover, both factions seemed too busy confronting each other head-on to care about a side war. In this chaotic situation, couldn’t North Korea take Gangwon Province?

They might be asked to return Gangwon once the civil war ended and a victor emerged, but the Kim leader planned to assert that Gangwon was rightfully acquired through North Korean power and then counter-attack the exhausted new Seoul government.

“Yes, this is heaven creating an opportunity for our North Korea.”

Having reached this conclusion, the Kim leader summoned his entire family and ordered war preparations, with forces beginning to gather in Goseong-eup in northern Gangwon.

“The civil war has just begun. When their division reaches its peak, we will take Gangwon Province!”

However, they weren’t going to rush into battle immediately.

The Kim family, excellent at maintaining power, knew better than anyone that attacking now would make them the common enemy of the entire Korean Peninsula.

While the factions were currently fighting each other, the conflict hadn’t reached its extreme yet. If an external enemy like North Korea appeared, they would immediately join hands to deal with North Korea first before resuming their civil war.

So for North Korea to attack Gangwon, they needed to wait for the conflict between warlords and militia in Gangwon to reach its peak, when they would be unable to cooperate and forget their grudges.

“And Seoul. That man in Seoul must not notice our movements.”

And Kim Su-ho’s gaze must not turn toward North Korea.

Just as Kim Su-ho seemed to know about North Korea, the Kim family had long known that Kim Su-ho was exerting influence over North Korea to gather information and keep them in check.

The Seoul Allied Forces needed to focus solely on fighting the Cult of Immortality, and the war in Gangwon needed to be seen as a side conflict completely different from the war engulfing the entire Korean Peninsula, not attracting public attention.

Only then, by the time the others realized what was happening, would North Korea have exclusive control over all of Gangwon Province and inherit all remaining assets of the Republic of Korea in Gangwon.

Yes, the Kim family thought time was on their side and North Korea’s, but unfortunately for them…

“Our Yamato Union, in accordance with the mutual defense treaty, declares in the name of the dragon god Bahamut that we will bravely fight alongside Seorabeol against the Cult of Immortality!”

“What?”

From North Korea’s perspective, this meant their thousand-year enemy Japan was participating in the war on Seorabeol’s side.

What nonsense was this? They arbitrarily assumed Japan was invading the Korean Peninsula like during the Japanese colonial period and became furious that the Yamato Union—no, Japan—was participating in the Korean Peninsula war on Seorabeol’s side.

“Our North Korea strongly condemns Japan’s imperialist actions!”

“We are the Yamato Union! Japan has already perished! It’s long dead!”

Of course, the response from the Yamato Union was that they couldn’t understand why North Korea was still talking about Japan when it had been dead for so long.

But to North Korea, this seemed like repeating the behavior and claims of Imperial Japan.

“Imperial Japan is North Korea’s thousand-year enemy! Imperial Japan is an imperialist country trying to invade the Korean Peninsula! Let’s save the South Korean people suffering from imperialism!”

“You damn pig! Are you deliberately calling us by a different name? We’re not Japan, we’re the Yamato Union!”

As always, they called Japan their thousand-year enemy and used that as justification to attack Gangwon Province.

The Yamato Union, branded as Imperial Japan, was dumbfounded by North Korea’s behavior of arbitrarily changing their country’s name.