Ch.322322. Illegal Fishing Vessel (2)

Before the apocalypse, Serabol was known for suppressing illegal fishing vessels in ways that bordered on massacre, drawing significant international attention for their harsh methods. However, it was actually the illegal fishing vessels that had provoked Serabol first.

Dozens of Chinese illegal fishing vessels would deploy trawl nets for indiscriminate fishing, which was essentially stealing Serabol’s future. The marine ecosystem damaged by these trawl nets took a long time to recover, causing immediate and massive damage to Serabol’s fishing industry.

Their trawl nets crushed coral reefs and smashed clams full of eggs. The sea surface had more oil residue than fish.

“Even before the apocalypse, water cannons were permitted in suppression operations. Now that the apocalypse has come, food is an irreplaceable means of survival, and those who steal such important survival resources deserve death.”

Having witnessed this, even the Hwarang, who initially thought these were just powerless fishermen trying to make a living far from home, now identified Chinese fishermen invading Serabol’s exclusive fishing zones as enemies.

After all, they were destroying the environment and stealing the fish farms that Serabol’s fishermen had worked so hard to maintain. Even someone without any prejudice against China would develop hatred seeing their behavior, which was terrible even by apocalyptic standards.

Considering that illegal fishing from China had been addressed at the national level even before the apocalypse, this was necessary. The Hwarang judged that Chinese fishermen were invading so arrogantly because they underestimated Serabol.

Therefore, the Hwarang believed it was their destiny to demonstrate Serabol’s strength and impose sanctions.

“All units, commence engagement! We have confirmed these are not unarmed fishing vessels. They are enemies threatening the survival of our citizens! Eliminate the foreign invaders!”

The fleet opened fire, and magic artillery shells from the gun ports exploded above the fishing vessels simultaneously with unmanned precision-guided torpedoes.

In an instant, one fishing vessel exploded with a bang and shattered to pieces. The fate of the crew aboard was not the Hwarang’s concern.

From Serabol’s perspective, these people were nothing more than pirates stealing marine resources. Considering that pirates were treated the same as plunderers, no one would criticize Serabol for eliminating pirates.

The Yamato Union was Serabol’s ally, so they were not an issue. China was currently denying any relationship with the vessels, so they were excluded. Southeast Asian nations might have criticized Serabol, but since they were trading partners with Serabol, the probability of them joining any condemnation was very low.

Above all, they too were suffering from China’s illegal fishing and were diplomatically closer to Serabol than to the Cho Nation. The terrifying thing was that they might even join Serabol’s elimination operation.

“Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!”

With the continued strikes, five nearby fishing vessels sank simultaneously. When the Chinese illegal fishing vessels realized that the Serabol fleet was not just conducting mild enforcement but aggressively sinking vessels, they began to resist.

Some resisting vessels started firing Chinese-made machine guns, but these were poorly maintained and couldn’t inflict significant damage on the Serabol fleet, which was protected by mages’ barriers. Even the bullets they fired simply melted against the defensive barriers cast by Serabol’s mages.

“Execute scorched earth operation! There is no humanitarianism for destroyers of marine ecosystems! No one shall approach Serabol’s waters! I swear in the name of the Dragon God Bahamut!”

Not long after, this scene was edited by journalists and broadcast throughout Serabol in documentary form, and all Serabol citizens marveled at the sight.

On the surface, it appeared that Serabol’s proud Hwarang were massacring powerless civilian fishing vessels, but those seemingly powerless civilian vessels were pirates stealing Serabol’s food, and the Hwarang had satisfyingly eliminated them.

Although many scenes that could have been banned for moral or ethical reasons were broadcast, there was a social consensus allowing such violent footage in the current apocalyptic world. Moreover, all Serabol citizens had painful memories of suffering from food shortages or nearly dying from lack of food.

“Hurrah! Long live Serabol! They repelled those damn Chinese invaders!”

“Well done! Anyone who takes our food deserves to die!”

“I can’t stand seeing people who play with food survive!”

This meant they had experienced the current situation and could empathize with it.

For this reason alone, citizens were outraged at the situation and could greatly cheer Serabol’s response.

Even citizens who always criticized Serabol were now shouting that this time they had truly done well, and support for the government continued to rise.

As the saying goes, “Strike while the iron is hot,” and the government had no intention of ignoring the citizens’ support.

“Food is life in this era! And the Chinese illegal fishing vessels in our waters are targeting our lives! The government has no intention of showing mercy to those who target our citizens’ lives! We will not guarantee their safety! In pre-apocalyptic times, this claim would be extreme. But citizens, don’t you know how important food is in this apocalypse? That we can only feel secure when we have enough food to live day by day!”

The next day, the government issued a statement declaring there would absolutely be no tolerance for Chinese illegal fishing vessels.

From the moment the government officially declared zero tolerance, the national violence that had been restricted to the fleet was unleashed. More Hwarang and mages boarded the fleet as crew members, and they were armed with more cannons and weapons.

Not long after, radar detected another Chinese illegal fishing group in Serabol’s territorial waters—the second wave of the illegal fishing group that had been annihilated by Serabol days earlier.

This time, they had strengthened their armaments in anticipation of Serabol’s attack and thoroughly prepared by disguising themselves as civilian ships. However, civilian armaments could never match state-level responses.

“Even with barriers, we can’t risk damaging our ships. Prepare to fire the cannons.”

Breaking the silence from the Serabol fleet, magic artillery began descending upon the illegal fishing group with a thunderous roar.

The blue flames falling like mist and the freezing power that froze the sea revealed that Serabol’s magic shells had applied Bahamut Bullet technology. Following this, earth-attribute shells mercilessly struck the illegal fishing vessels’ hulls, shattering them to pieces.

It couldn’t even be called a battle.

The Chinese illegal fishing vessels had prepared themselves for a fight with Serabol, but the result was not a fight but overwhelming retribution that showed what a post-apocalyptic world without laws, treaties, or human rights could deliver.

“We’re civilians! We’re just ordinary fishermen…”

Serabol suffered no damage, while the crew of the Chinese illegal fishing fleet continued to be slaughtered. Unable to endure, rough Chinese pronunciations of surrender came through the communication channel.

“Do they have weapons?”

“Yes. There are machine guns on the hull.”

“Then, according to current apocalyptic conventions, they’re not fishermen but pirates.”

However, the Serabol fleet detected machine guns on their ships along with the distress signal and firmly classified them not as civilians but as pirates.

By this point, some compassion might have arisen, but Serabol, as warned, showed no mercy to plunderers stealing Serabol’s food resources and did not stop the attack.

“You are not fishermen! From the moment you took up weapons, you were classified as pirates in this sea! All Serabol can offer pirates is death!”

The cannons fired, and the fishing vessels disappeared in flames.

This operation was so simple it could hardly be called an operation, and it demonstrated how much public power the nation of Serabol could show when determined.

Dawn revealed debris and the smell of blood in the sea, and fishermen in surrounding waters swore never to cross into Serabol’s waters again.

“The apocalypse does not listen to excuses. Illegal fishing and retaliatory combat are pirate acts in this era, and pirates have no right to protest.”

This statement, issued in the name of Choi Yu-na, the Dragon Priestess and ruler of Serabol, was clearer and harsher than any international diplomatic document in Asia so far, and it firmly established maritime security.

As if to prove these were not empty words, the Serabol Navy later expanded its “Maritime Surveillance Zone” and declared it would consider all unauthorized vessels as enemies.

Surrounding countries could now understand what kind of nation Serabol was.

“Serabol treats pirates and smugglers as military targets and does not use the word tolerance for lawbreakers.”

South China suffered the greatest damage from Serabol’s policy, especially the Cho Nation, which had taken the lead and suffered devastating damage to its illegal fishing companies, reaching a point where they could no longer ignore or dismiss the situation.

Cho Nation citizens distrusted their government for remaining silent at the most critical moment after calling so loudly for war. Fishing companies that had invaded Serabol’s waters trusting their government demanded compensation, claiming they had suffered near-annihilation damage by believing the government.

Unable to withstand the pressure, the Cho Nation regime convened an unusually urgent press conference through the Defense Ministry spokesperson, and the press conference was filled with anger and deliberate accusations.

“Serabol is a new invasive nation destroying the Asian order! The excessive use of force against illegal fishing vessels is a clear military provocation and threatens our sovereign waters!”

However, this was not self-criticism or holding their own companies accountable, but shifting all blame to Serabol for excessively suppressing illegal fishing vessels.

It was also a search for political justification to check Serabol’s maritime hegemony expansion and an appeal to unite their citizens by creating a powerful external enemy.

However, the Serabol government had no intention of playing along with the Cho Nation’s political actions, and Serabol also unusually responded through the government spokesperson’s office just 30 minutes after this announcement.

“Illegal fishing is not simply a fishing issue. It is the plundering of food resources and a war for survival. Cho Nation vessels engaged in trawl fishing and combat activities in Serabol waters, and accordingly, Serabol merely exercised its legitimate right to defense.”

As he spoke, the spokesperson held evidence photos and black box video captures proving they were not ordinary fishing vessels.

The video revealed Cho Nation vessels with crew armed with guns and using machine guns as ship artillery.

This essentially proved to the world that they were not fishing vessels but pirates, and the spokesperson strongly countered the Cho Nation.

“Don’t blame us for drawing our swords when you fired your guns first.”

“This gaori-ppangz bastard!”

The Cho Nation, rather than acknowledging or reflecting, began to express even more hatred toward Serabol, and relations between the two countries began to cool.