Ch.3838. Stories from the Outside (1)

# Reactions to Jo Sun-do’s Trial in Gyeongju

The internet community in Gyeongju was divided into two camps regarding Jo Sun-do’s trial and death sentence.

“He deserves to die!”

“Rot in hell, Jo Sun-do!”

“North Gyeongju is in ruins because of that bastard!”

The first group strongly welcomed Jo Sun-do’s verdict.

Naturally, the citizens of North Gyeongju who had suffered under Jo Sun-do’s rule and exploitation formed the majority opinion. No one showed any sympathy for him, and the only response was that he deserved his death.

Even in South Gyeongju, where people weren’t directly affected, public opinion wasn’t much different.

They were aware of the situation in North Gyeongju, and many South Gyeongju residents had suffered significant losses due to Jo Sun-do’s troublemaking.

Additionally, since the trial proceedings had been livestreamed and recorded, considering the disgraceful behavior Jo Sun-do displayed during the trial, there was no room for sympathy.

However…

“This is judicial murder by the Balhut Cult!”

“Punishing someone under the Balhut Cult’s laws rather than South Korean law is tyranny!”

“This is a religious trial! A witch hunt! Not a legitimate trial!”

Surprisingly, there was a group strongly opposing the Balhut Cult’s trial.

But looking into the details, one could only laugh at the fact that those opposing Jo Sun-do’s execution were all either part of his gang or those who had collaborated with his camp.

“Damn it, we’re next in line!”

With Jo Sun-do, who had been a powerful figure in this apocalypse, receiving such an unceremonious death sentence, they naturally thought they would be next.

The citizens of North Gyeongju remembered the atrocities these people had committed, and obviously, for them to survive, Jo Sun-do needed to become a martyr who stood against the Balhut Cult.

“We’ll die if we do nothing!”

“Damn it! What should we do?”

“A martyr! We need to portray Boss Jo Sun-do as a martyr who fought against the cult’s oppression!”

They were gripped by the fear of death if they didn’t act.

In reality, the Balhut Cult was too busy rebuilding North Gyeongju to pay any attention to them, but to these people, the Balhut Cult was a cult that would capture them and send them to trial at any moment.

If there was any luck on their side…

“A trial? Ha. A trial in this apocalypse? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Are you trying to provoke us? Or are you just showing off your leisure? Such luxury, you bourgeois bastards.”

“Use that leisure to save our region instead.”

The majority of opinions in other regional communities were critical of the trial conducted by the Balhut Cult.

In reality, holding a trial itself was a luxury in this apocalypse, and those who hadn’t even properly reclaimed their cities criticized them, saying they should help other regions instead of wasting time.

In other regions, villains like Jo Sun-do would be executed on the spot rather than being kept alive for a trial, so they were annoyed by the Balhut Cult’s display of leisure.

From the Balhut Cult’s perspective, it was more like a war crimes trial to win over public opinion for governing North Gyeongju, but would other regional communities care about such internal matters?

They could only judge based on appearances rather than delving into the details.

“Why is a cult thriving? Life is hard enough as it is.”

From the perspective of survivors in other regions, the Balhut Cult was a cult conducting outdated religious trials to eliminate competition.

So let’s talk about other regions of South Korea that haven’t been mentioned so far… especially Seoul, the capital.

After the zombie apocalypse, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, found itself in a miserable situation despite its title as the “Seoul Republic.”

As the city with the highest population density in South Korea, it was the most vulnerable to the zombie apocalypse disaster.

Thousands, tens of thousands of citizens turned into zombies overnight and ran rampant throughout the city, making it impossible for Seoul’s police force to contain the chaos.

What made it even more frustrating was that Seoul had voluntarily given up the golden time when it could have resolved the apocalyptic disaster on its own, which was a maddening reality.

“I’m taking a well-deserved rest, my fellow citizens.”

Yes, in this emergency situation, the head of state had gone on vacation.

And this was just three months after taking office. The president thoughtlessly went on vacation, effectively giving up the golden time when the zombie disaster could have been resolved independently.

If the president had recognized the severity of the situation and urged immediate action, there’s a good chance that the entire country wouldn’t have suffered from the zombie outbreak.

South Korea wasn’t a weak nation that would collapse so easily, and it had economic and military power ranked among the top in the world.

If they had been able to think straight, they could have at least secured Seoul as a safe zone, or even secured the safety of major cities across South Korea.

However, the government’s actions were utterly incompetent, having experienced a rapid drop in approval ratings right after inauguration, creating the new term “inauguration duck” instead of “lame duck.”

“The president was just following his schedule. So, citizens, don’t worry and continue with your daily lives.”

Far from taking responsibility, the president tried to downplay the scale and danger of the situation to cover up his incompetence.

This alone was shocking, but the president actually didn’t move an inch from his vacation spot and only received reports from his secretaries and staff much later.

It was only days after the incident that he finally gave instructions, and naturally, numerous incidents had occurred during those days.

Yes, it was just a few days’ delay.

The president’s authority and power were still intact, and if he had acknowledged his responsibility and united the ruling and opposition parties to mobilize the country’s full strength, there was still enough time to turn the worst situation into a slightly better one.

“The ruling party is ready to resolve this situation!”

“The opposition is the same! Everyone within the party has united and made a decision!”

Both the ruling and opposition parties recognized the danger of this disaster and were willing to resolve the situation with one heart and mind, without any conditions.

“This is all fake news.”

“What?”

The president, who was both the commander-in-chief and the head of state, made no contribution to resolving this disaster situation and refused to take responsibility.

The president, who should have called for national unity and worked to resolve the situation regardless of political affiliation, did nothing.

Up to this point, there might be some understandable logic.

From the perspective of the president, who was in the safest place, if bureaucrats said a zombie outbreak had occurred, who would believe it?

Naturally, from the president’s perspective, based on common sense at that time, he dismissed all the reports as fake news and decided to stay at his vacation spot.

But no matter how positively one tries to describe or excuse it, it’s clear that they missed the only time when they could have turned the worst situation into a slightly better one.

But here, everyone might have one question.

South Korea is a country under armistice and has a conscription system.

To the north, there was North Korea, which was hostile to South Korea, and to counter this threat, a significant budget was allocated to defense every year, resulting in a military ranked among the top in the world.

It was unlikely that the entire South Korean military would be wiped out in this zombie outbreak, and there was also the Capital Defense Command responsible for defending the capital.

In other words, there must have been a way to protect at least Seoul from the zombie threat with the remaining military.

“Why didn’t they evacuate to a safe place in advance? This means it’s not a disaster that requires military mobilization. Rather, all of this is false propaganda from the left.”

Even at this point, the president misjudged the situation.

The president, who had returned to Yongsan from vacation, started a meaningless ideological conflict by insisting that this situation was leftist propaganda, making it impossible for the government and the National Assembly to function properly.

As a result, the government’s crisis response was utterly inadequate, and the communication system between government agencies, which was closely connected to the government, began to break down one by one.

“Sir! This is a real situation! It’s not a joke! Our military is losing control, and South Korea is in a national crisis!”

“We need the president’s decision! We all need to overcome this crisis with one heart!”

“The opposition party is willing to cooperate without any conditions. Please, Mr. President, make a decisive statement!”

So, some rational staff members continued to appeal to the president about the national crisis, and in the National Assembly, both the ruling and opposition parties called for the president’s decision with one heart and mind. There were officials and politicians who were trying to avoid the worst situation or resolve this crisis.

Both the ruling and opposition parties appealed with one heart and mind that it was a national crisis, and there were even calls for the president to stop the meaningless ideological conflict and form a national unity cabinet by uniting the ruling and opposition parties.

“South Korea is so safe. Why should we cooperate with criminal suspects?”

“What?”

Just when the extreme conflict had ended and the ruling and opposition parties had united with one heart and mind for the first time in a long while, the president opposed the formation of a national unity cabinet.

Conversely, the president insisted that South Korea was safer than anyone else and stubbornly refused to cooperate with the opposition party, whom he called criminal suspects.

With the honeymoon-period president rejecting the national unity cabinet, the National Assembly was effectively paralyzed.

“What’s that? It’s scary, you know.”

In the end, the president only properly understood the situation when South Korea had lost control of its proud military.

With the president acting this way, the government’s crisis response was utterly inadequate, and for the military, which was vulnerable to epidemics and infectious diseases, the zombie apocalypse was nothing short of the worst.

If one soldier was infected with a mutant zombie, dozens of zombies would be reborn as the unit collapsed.

“I can’t take it anymore! Let’s try to survive on our own!”

The infected zombies arrived at other units and infected them, and the military, which had been waiting indefinitely for government orders, finally couldn’t bear it anymore and began to break away from the government’s civilian control for survival.

“National unity cabinet! Please, just this once, let’s succeed in forming a national unity cabinet!”

“There’s still a way to turn this into a slightly better situation! We need the president’s decision!”

In the end, due to the president’s complacent behavior, the early response was severely delayed, and the military either became zombified or broke away from control and began to run wild.

In this situation, the only option for the president was to acknowledge all responsibility and cooperate with the National Assembly to normalize the country.

Although he had already lost all administrative power and was a mere figurehead, South Korea was still a solid country, and the authority the president held somehow remained until this time.

“All these evil deeds are the work of the left!”

However, the president’s choice was not to acknowledge and accept all responsibility, but to blame all the sins on the opposition party.

If he had acknowledged all responsibility, apologized, and stepped down, the ruling and opposition parties that were still intact in the National Assembly might have cooperated with the president.

But the stubborn, self-righteous president, who didn’t want to admit his own mistakes, blamed this entire situation on the hostile opposition party and made them take the blame for all the responsibilities and sins he had committed.

“What the hell? What kind of crazy talk is that?!”

With the president’s unexpected declaration of ideological conflict, the ruling and opposition parties finally exploded.

Far from forming a national unity cabinet or achieving national unity, the president’s great performance led to an unwanted civil war between the conservative party and the democratic party.

In this dire situation, even the conservative party sympathized with the democratic party’s outcry and loudly criticized the president, dismissing it as nonsense.

They tried to use the National Assembly’s legislative power to restrain the president in order to somehow resolve the situation, but this time, it was blocked by the president’s mindless veto barrage.

The worst part was that since the president had just been elected, the president’s faction within the party had a tight grip on the party’s leadership.

“We’ve just beautifully reclaimed power. Why should we cooperate with the opposition party?”

“You idiot. We’re the minority party in the National Assembly!”

Even within the ruling party, there was extreme conflict as it split between supporters of the president and supporters of the party leader.

And such a solid support base could be the driving force behind the president’s veto power.

“Are you really thinking of having a big fight with us?”

“No! This is really something the president and his core associates did on their own!”

Thus, the extreme conflict and ideological war intentionally caused by the president ultimately prevented the ruling and opposition parties from reconciling, and they failed to establish a national unity cabinet.

The failure to establish a national unity cabinet led to distrust between the government and the National Assembly, which caused new conflicts, and Seoul was divided into two political forces, seemingly on the verge of a massive civil war.

“So, the government and the National Assembly had already collapsed due to the heavy rain in August?”

“Yes.”

However, the truth was that before these two political forces could head towards civil war, South Korea’s national power could no longer withstand their nonsense, and the conservative party, the democratic party, and even the president all neatly collapsed.

What’s more, these political forces didn’t collapse due to attacks from the opposing side, but due to nature’s wrath, which made it all the more futile.

The decisive blow to the South Korean government and National Assembly wasn’t human foolishness, but the massive rainfall that flooded Seoul.

“Excuse me, we still haven’t recovered from the zombie outbreak or the great flood that occurred two months ago? There’s no government to handle this? Are you kidding me?”

“Ah! There are a few self-proclaimed legitimate governments. Would you like me to connect you?”

“No, that’s okay.”

Due to the heavy rainfall and flooding that occurred mainly in the metropolitan area south of the Han River, most streams overflowed and roads were flooded.

South Korea’s sovereignty, which was already precarious due to the zombie apocalypse, was blown away by this one heavy rainfall.

Even under normal circumstances, such heavy rainfall and flooding would inevitably result in many injuries and deaths.

Especially in the Seoul urban area, which was also experiencing a zombie outbreak, Seoul was thrown into uncontrollable chaos by the heavy rainfall, and with both the National Assembly and the president remaining silent, the South Korean government had effectively ceased to exist.

“How many real members of the National Assembly are in that self-proclaimed legitimate government?”

“Almost none, I guess? Many members of the National Assembly died or went missing when the National Assembly collapsed. And those who survived can’t really be considered alive.”

“You mean they became zombies.”

Moreover, with the government gone, the self-proclaimed governments that emerged were not elected by the people but were self-proclaimed governments born amidst the chaos.

However, heroes are born in times of crisis, and Kim Su-ho, the strongest Awakened in Seoul, saved citizens, civil servants, and government officials who survived this chaos, allowing us to hear this grand nonsense… I mean, truth.

And from their mouths, we could hear about behavior so unbelievable it seemed like they were going out for lunch.

“It’s the end of the world. Truly the end of the world.”

With a hollow laugh, one could realize the fact that South Korea had collapsed.

But nothing changed, and Kim Su-ho and his subordinates had to recapture Seoul with a bleak feeling, without any government support.