Ch.265Chapter 10. Tactical Nuclear Strike (4)

If there’s one good thing about becoming an ability user, I’ll say it as many times as needed: it’s that I get to have experiences I couldn’t have before.

Like now, being able to freely enter places I’d normally consider off-limits.

“So I’m entering here.”

A place further west from Mokpo.

North of Jindo, where I previously fought the Skeleton Demon alongside Baek Seol-hee.

I’ve come alone to Angel Island, walking on an unmapped island at the very edge.

There aren’t many people.

Would there be about 300 people on this island?

And even those 300 aren’t residents of this nameless island.

Dig, dig, dig.

People in work clothes are diligently shoveling above the salt farm.

Though their skin is darkly tanned from the sun, they all silently work, scooping salt from the salt farm without complaint.

“Fuck, fuck…”

Unable to hold back curses while doing hard labor, one wipes sweat from his forehead with his sleeve while muttering expletives.

The worker’s face I glimpsed briefly was that of a typical blonde Australian.

“Hey, no fuck! Keep going!”

A man who looked like a supervisor shouted at the blonde foreigner.

Wearing a blue armband and a hat that said “Haeguneul Sea Salt,” he was supervising the workers.

‘This is really strange.’

The place I know is full of urban legends about modern slavery, but this place is truly like an “Angel Island” with a major corporation directly managing the salt farms.

“I didn’t curse! I was just making the sound of the shovel going in, fuck!!”

“Your foreign F pronunciation was quite clear! What nonsense! Koreans say ‘puck,’ not like that! You’re getting paid ten million won a month to go ‘fuck fuck,’ Carlos?!”

“…Tch.”

The white laborer, Carlos, pouting grumpily, resumed his diligent shoveling.

And watching them, I felt chills down my spine.

Everyone working at the salt farm wears work clothes with “Haeguneul” printed on the back, and moreover, their monthly wage is ten million won.

‘It really deserves to be called Angel Island.’

There’s no chance of someone suddenly disappearing without a trace.

CCTVs installed everywhere are managed by Haeguneul, and small boats bearing the Haeguneul emblem patrol the waters, monitoring the salt farms.

Except for being a salt farm on the sea, it’s no different from any other farm on the mainland.

Ding, dong, deng, dong.

A bell rings.

It was an alarm announcing exactly 3:00 PM, and all the workers began stretching lightly.

“30-minute break!! If you need to use the bathroom, don’t do it in strange places—go to the boat! If anyone pees in the sea again, they’ll be forcibly deported back to their home country!”

The supervisor issued his warning and disappeared.

I watched the scene from the rooftop of a building inside the island, a factory proudly displaying the “Haeguneul Sea Salt” sign, sitting leaning against the shade.

‘What a crazy world.’

My reflection appears in the stainless steel exhaust pipe extending from the factory roof.

The image of a suited Goblin hiding in the shadows.

The fact that the metal plates are polished enough to reflect me on this island factory’s exhaust pipe.

And that it’s so well-maintained despite the corrosive sea environment shows how much attention Haeguneul pays to this island.

Angel Island truly is Angel Island.

This isn’t a joke—with corporate capital coming in and most of the island’s inhabitants changing, this island has transformed in many ways.

Is it because of national pride?

Is it because of the perception that we’ve become the world’s greatest country?

Or is it because everyone agreed that the old image should disappear from the world’s view?

-Seoul Republic? Demon Realm? Gotham? What are you talking about? There couldn’t possibly be such strange places in the great Republic of Korea.

-Such places no longer exist~ The whole country changed after the Great Cataclysm~

-Regional discrimination?! How could you say such a thing! We are one people, citizens of the Republic of Korea! How could fellow Koreans disparage each other just because they’re from different regions? Hahaha!

In this world, the darkness that was abundant before the Great Cataclysm is no longer visible, at least “externally.”

-If you don’t say it doesn’t exist, men in black robes might visit your home tonight. Be careful.

-Remember. It might have been like that before, but not anymore. As people of this country at the forefront of the world, please refrain from tarnishing our national brand with such stories.

-Do you want to die as a nation-hater, or live as a patriot?

If you look carefully, only the target has changed, but just as Haeguneul has directly entered Angel Island and completely transformed the environment into a corporate salt farm operation, the harsh whispers that circulate in secret have all become “things that no longer exist” in this world.

Yes.

Things that someone might see as “bad history” from an alien’s perspective.

It’s absurd that such things are happening in real-time in foreign countries rather than in Korea, but at least this country, the Republic of Korea, shines brightly with national pride.

That’s why.

I chose this place.

The Island of Succubi.

The Sanctuary of Gods.

Whether Laplace’s Demon chose Hyangdan as her alias because she was deeply moved by the Chunhyang story or not, most of her actions in Thailand mimicked what happened in the pre-Cataclysm world.

She just cultivated coriander and mana powder instead of salt.

The way she treated people like slaves was just enhanced with abilities.

That it’s related to this place before the Great Cataclysm, or even if not, that she drew inspiration from the negative image associated with this place, is a reasonable inference.

The good goes to Korea.

The bad goes abroad.

“If something ceased to exist, it should have been left alone, but to go abroad and recreate it as the Korean image…”

Beep beep beep.

The Taegeuk Watch starts ringing.

I was expecting a call soon, and it started ringing.

“Hello, I’ve answered the phone.”

[Excuse me, is this Mr. Park Bun-chung?]

“…Who is this?”

Of course, I’m not Park Bun-chung.

No matter how many people live with “names that seem like they should be changed immediately,” I am not Park Bun-chung.

If they had said Do Chang-nam, I might have been surprised.

[Are you the one who wrote “The Tale of Hyangdan”? I’m Kim Su-jung, a web novel PD from Mercury Media.]

“…Ah, yes. I see.”

For a moment I wondered if it was real, but I could sense the sinister tone in the voice coming through the phone.

“But how did you get my number?”

[Well… I hacked it.]

“……”

She revealed her true colors.

I immediately hung up, but soon something like a wind began to blow toward where I was standing.

Rustle.

A woman in hanbok landed on the rooftop.

Her neatly arranged black hair made me wonder if she was Seong Chun-hyang rather than Hyangdan, and except for her black hair and black eyes, she almost looked like a foreigner in hanbok.

“…Who are you?”

“I’m Kim Su-jung.”

“Are you… an ability user?”

“Yes. I’m an ability user. And at the same time…”

Snicker.

“I’m also a demon who’s come to kill you, author.”

“…!”

“You wrote ‘The Tale of Hyangdan,’ right?”

Crack.

The woman, the demon calling herself Kim Su-jung, slowly approached me, cracking her neck from side to side.

“Wow, I can’t forgive you. Adding NTR to a pure love story. And if that wasn’t enough, turning a woman into some kind of male-devouring praying mantis.”

“…You came to kill me just because of the content of a novel?”

“Just the content of a novel? Ha, don’t you care about the feelings of someone who’s about to lose their mind because of the novel you wrote?”

I understand.

I was once a reader too.

“Because of your novel, a story about love between a man and woman and a woman’s chastity suddenly became an adulterous orgy 19+ erotic tale!!”

“And for that reason, I deserve to die?”

“Of course!”

“…Well, demons really have nothing better to do. And this is utterly absurd.”

I immediately removed the mask I was wearing.

“…Huh?”

“Do you Pandemonium demons have no thoughts? No intelligence at all?”

“…Who are you?”

“Ah.”

I showed my face directly.

Well, it doesn’t matter.

The barrier is already deployed, and all that remains for this woman is “execution.”

[Perhaps you’ll recognize me now.]

“…!”

The moment I released my hidden magical power and put on my mask, Kim Su-jung leaped high, trying to escape into the sky.

Thud!

But it was useless.

“An invisible flame barrier…?”

[I got help from Qiongqi. Don’t worry. Qiongqi won’t participate in this battle.]

Now that this island has become a “battlefield,” Kim Su-jung—Laplace’s Demon—cannot escape until Qiongqi’s magical power is depleted.

In other words, I need to defeat that woman before Qiongqi’s magical power runs out.

“Hmph, interesting. You must have consumed so much magical power already, yet you think you can defeat me?”

[If I hadn’t intended to lure you out, I wouldn’t have created such a novel in the first place.]

“…What?”

Laplace’s Demon gapes and laughs.

“So you’re saying you created that NTR intrusion novel just to draw me out…?”

[It was quite effective. By the way, if you try to escape, the novel won’t end with Hyangdan NTR-ing Yi Mong-ryong from Seong Chun-hyang. I’ll make her properly ‘transform.’]

It’s a technical term only known to those in the know.

There’s no need to know it, and it’s a word not commonly used in this world.

“W-what are you planning to do…!”

That’s why Laplace’s Demon is afraid.

For the Demon of Omniscience, the demon who knows everything, having something she doesn’t know is terror itself.

[If you want to know, try to escape.]

“…Hehe, fine. Then if I kill you here, I’ll know what this ‘transformation’ thing is? What, does she transform into a Rider or something?”

[I’ll let you know before you die. But why are you so full of confidence?]

As expected.

Like Dueoksini, she’s foolish.

[The Syndicate doesn’t discriminate in its methods when fighting enemies. I’m not in a state where my magical power is fully charged to face you alone.]

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but all that build-up is just bluffing.”

[You think it’s a bluff? That’s unfortunate.]

I lightly tapped the Taegeuk Watch with my finger.

[Unfortunately, it’s not a bluff.]

Soon, a text message flew through Qiongqi’s barrier into the distance, and I leisurely extended my hand toward Laplace’s Demon.

[Let me introduce you.]

“…Huh?”

Crackle.

From within a golden circular magic circle, a woman with golden hair and golden eyes emerged, tearing open space.

[This is my Special EX-grade partner.]

The way for me, with incomplete magical power, to definitively kill Laplace’s Demon.

[The archangel of justice I brought to defeat a demon like you.]

Tactical Ymir deployment.