Ch.273273. Total War (2)

The fortification of Incheon Port with steel and concrete happened in an instant.

All roads leading to the port were completely blocked, anti-aircraft guns were positioned at the fortress to prevent approach, and snipers were stationed in the high-rise buildings around Incheon Port. It almost seemed like a demonstration to the Cult of Immortality that they intended to stay there for a long time.

Supply ships that had already departed from Seorabeol and arrived at Incheon Port began unloading countless supplies into the harbor warehouses. They started securing islands that hadn’t yet been captured, and their naval vessels transformed into floating fortresses.

“This strategy has failed. As expected, the conditions were insufficient for the Cult of Immortality to use.”

The commander in charge of Incheon’s defense sighed after witnessing the scene firsthand. But just like the Seorabeol-Yamato alliance, once the other side began building fortresses for defense, there weren’t many good options available.

Since they had so blatantly constructed fortresses, it was difficult to conduct mobile warfare with just the Death Knight Order. To destroy the fortresses, they needed siege weapons like Undead Golems. However, the enemy was well aware of the danger posed by Undead Golems and had installed anti-aircraft guns in their fortresses to snipe the Undead Golems from a distance, signaling that the allied forces were constantly monitoring them.

Above all, Undead Golems moved slowly despite their massive size, and their movement inevitably drew attention—a significant disadvantage. Even if they deployed Undead Golems to the front, Seorabeol would quickly spot them and try to snipe them with anti-aircraft guns.

Knowing how great a loss it would be to lose even one Undead Golem, the Cult of Immortality couldn’t thoughtlessly send them charging toward the harbor fortress.

“What orders has He given?”

“He said that the magical power accumulated in Gangbuk is reaching the heavens, and victory is within sight.”

But there was no need to be pessimistic.

Already in Gangbuk, enormous magical power continued to accumulate, and He had promised to descend upon this land.

Rather, what was truly frightening was the possibility that while attention was focused on Incheon Port, the main Seoul force might attack Gangbuk. In fact, they had faced several crises due to Kim Su-ho’s unstoppable charges, and the Cult of Immortality was deeply concerned about what their next move should be.

“If we can no longer receive Death Knights from our homeland, it means we must face the Seorabeol-Yamato alliance and the Seoul alliance with only the Death Knights we have left.”

Unless they recaptured Incheon Port, they couldn’t receive reinforcements of Death Knights, which meant they could no longer recklessly deploy them to the front lines.

They had to be used carefully, which made operations more difficult. And while they only mentioned Death Knights, the supply of powerful undead like Undead Golems and additional Skeleton Mages would also be significantly delayed.

If there was any fortunate aspect for the Cult of Immortality:

“We can produce Undead Golems ourselves. And we can create as many Skeleton Mages as we want if we can offer sacrifices!”

“Yes, that’s right.”

They could locally source all units except Death Knights.

This meant that while they might lack mobility, they could at least match Seorabeol in firepower. Still, losing the ability to replenish Death Knights was undeniably a setback for the Cult of Immortality.

“But the problem is that we can’t replenish the most important Death Knights. Even if they’re no longer used at Incheon Airport, the demand for Death Knights on the Seoul front remains high.”

“Ugh.”

Considering that the Death Knights were barely holding back the Seoul alliance’s advance despite their limited numbers, they needed a new force to replace them.

But the deliberation wasn’t too deep.

In this apocalypse, potential military powers to recruit were abundant, and the Cult of Immortality, like Seorabeol, had formed alliances with numerous factions.

Even now, they were keeping Seorabeol in check through these alliances and attacking their supply lines. However, these warlords couldn’t overcome their limitations to deliver a fatal blow to Seorabeol.

If not ordinary warlords but a nation, could they deliver a critical hit to Seorabeol?

“Send a message to those northern pigs. Tell them we’ll hand over Gangwon Province that they’ve been wanting so badly.”

Yes, wasn’t there a country that was burning to participate in this Korean Peninsula war?

Everyone had remained silent or ignored North Korea’s nonsense, but North Korea was still a legitimate power on the Korean Peninsula.

No one had paid attention to them, and they had temporarily fallen silent due to the Yamato alliance’s fierce opposition and the United States’ declaration of support. But their ambition for Gangwon Province had not ceased.

Of course, the Cult of Immortality knew that their true aim was Seoul, but could those northern pigs actually defeat Kim Su-ho?

The northern pigs probably knew they were inferior to Kim Su-ho, so the Cult of Immortality thought they would shed tears of gratitude at their proposal, but:

“If you want us to deploy troops, hand over Paju, Yangju, Pocheon, and Cheorwon.”

‘This guy has completely lost his mind. That northern leader pig.’

The pig was greedier than the Cult of Immortality had anticipated.

What the cult had requested was simply for North Korea to deploy troops, occupy Gangwon Province, and pose a threat to the Seoul alliance—they hadn’t asked for participation in the front lines at all. But it seemed the North Korean leader underestimated the Cult of Immortality and was counter-threatening them to hand over Gyeonggi Province as well.

Being originally a citizen of the Korean Peninsula, they knew that the northern pig—no, the Kim family—was obsessed with power to the point of killing their own family members, but wasn’t this too much?

The Cult of Immortality had always made reasonable demands, offering the entirety of Gangwon Province in return. If this wasn’t accepted, it would be extremely troublesome.

“The current North Korea has no right to negotiate with our Cult of Immortality as equals. But the reason we’re facing you and negotiating is that He has shown mercy to you just once.”

“What did you say!?”

“Well, the territory your Supreme Leader has left is only Pyongyang, isn’t it? The rest of the cities seem to want independence from the Supreme Leader. If we were to guarantee their independence, I think the Supreme Leader would be in trouble.”

However, they had prepared countermeasures in case the other party made unreasonable demands.

If the Kim family didn’t accept this proposal, the Cult of Immortality would no longer consider the North Korean government and the Kim family as negotiating partners and would explicitly attack North Korea’s weaknesses.

At those words, the Kim family leader felt a chill run down his spine. Indeed, preventing independence declarations was the reality of the North Korean regime.

But would local warlords with the Cult of Immortality as their backing not declare independence and remain loyal to the central government?

That was impossible! They would surely declare independence and, borrowing the power of the Cult of Immortality, slaughter the Kim family, the father of the North Korean people, and collapse the North Korean regime.

“…Then I’ll make a different demand.”

“I think handing over Gangwon Province is already sufficient payment. Don’t you understand equivalent exchange, you damn old human pig?”

Upon reaching that thought, the Kim family also took a step back and said they would make a different demand, but the already irritated Cult of Immortality was ready to end the negotiations.

They thought the greed was too excessive and were convinced that North Korea wasn’t a worthy partner, but:

“We need technology, weapons, and methods to control the undead. For that, we’ll lend you our name.”

“Oh ho.”

They became greatly interested in the possibility of extending the Cult of Immortality’s influence within North Korea.

This was essentially saying that they would officially recognize the Cult of Immortality’s activities under the Kim family’s name, which had no downsides for the cult.

Rather, the Cult of Immortality could monopolize all the undead established in North Korea and even seize the opportunity to push out the complacent Kim family and establish a new country in North Korea.

‘After obtaining all the know-how of the Cult of Immortality, we’ll just eliminate them as rebels against the legitimate government.’

North Korea, or rather the Kim family, was also planning to extract the cult’s know-how and then discard them.

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together—it was an absurd situation where they were planning betrayal before even forming an alliance. But this was their way, and it was also the driving force that had allowed them to maintain power throughout this apocalypse.

“That’s interesting.”

The Cult of Immortality accepted the Kim family’s proposal, handed over some know-how about the undead, and began teaching necromancy magic to agents dispatched from North Korea.

Accordingly, North Korea also deployed immediately available troops to Gangwon Province and:

“Now North Korea is the sole ruler of the Korean Peninsula! People of South Korea, praise the Kim family, the father of the people!”

North Korea claimed to international organizations that they were the sole ruler of the Korean Peninsula. The deployed North Korean forces attacked Chuncheon after passing through Hwacheon and Yanggu, while simultaneously mobilizing their remaining fleet to attack Gangneung from the sea.

With all the troops stationed at the border already wiped out by the apocalypse, there was no army to stop North Korea. By mobilizing enormous quantities and using the violence of numbers along with their remaining weapons, they were able to successfully occupy these regions.

Gangwon Province was a region that had lost the attention of all powers established in South Korea, and Gangwon’s misfortune was that no outstanding warlord had emerged to unify it.

The existing powers were all defeated by the North Korean army’s divide-and-conquer tactics, with some being captured. North Korea, having mobilized its national power after a long time to occupy Gangwon Province:

“Look! Gangwon Province is now ours! Kneel, you South Korean bastards! Your master has returned!”

They loudly proclaimed their occupation of Gangwon Province and told the South to surrender before it was too late, but:

“What are you talking about?”

“Eh?”

As always, the reality for North Korea was that they couldn’t even attract the attention of most South Korean powers.

Their eyes were directed toward Seoul, not Gangwon Province, and Gangwon had never been selected as a representative power in this Korean Peninsula war.

To be frank, no one was interested in Gangwon Province, and while there were a few warlords who had their eyes on it, Gangwon Province, with most of its territory consisting of mountains, wasn’t worth the effort to occupy.

Rather, blocked by the ruggedness of the Taebaek Mountains, most turned back before even entering Gangwon Province to fight. North Korea had simply occupied Gangwon Province, which had been ignored by all warlords on the Korean Peninsula.

“I’ve received news from my informant.”

“What news?”

“North Korea has finally occupied Gangwon Province.”

Even when the Seoul alliance heard the news that North Korea had occupied Gangwon Province:

“Well, they’ve been claiming it all along, so it was bound to happen eventually. But can they come out of the Taebaek Mountains?”

“I’m not sure?”

They dismissed it as insignificant, thinking that North Korea’s occupation of Gangwon Province wasn’t a problem at all.

Rather, they believed Gangwon Province could be recaptured anytime and were only preparing for the final battle with the Cult of Immortality right in front of them.

As always, North Korea, only being ignored by the major powers of the Korean Peninsula:

“North Korea, get out!”

“The Kim family in this apocalypse? Don’t make me laugh!”

They were on the verge of being driven out due to the resistance of Gangwon Province residents.

Initially, Gangwon Province had no proper warlords and acted uncooperatively and separately. But thanks to the emergence of North Korea as a common enemy, they began to resist North Korea’s rule in an organized manner with a united voice for the first time. This signified the birth of a new warlord in Gangwon Province, which had previously lacked any strong warlords, who would challenge for the supreme power of the Korean Peninsula.

“I will drive out the northern pigs trying to rule my homeland! Long live the independence of Gangwon Province!”

“Suppress him immediately!”

Thus, the warlord who ruled with the support of the citizens declared independence from North Korea, and consequently, the North Korean army had to move to suppress them for the governance of Gangwon Province, gradually struggling with the control of Gangwon.

Yes, it was the birth of genuine independence fighters.