Ch.623Chapter 24. Real Estate Never Die (1)

North Korea had fallen.

Due to the trolling of a woman named Min Ji-young, a nuclear bomb exploded in Pyongyang, killing all the leadership.

If South Korea hadn’t had S-class espers like the Lord of Radiant Wings, the country’s borders would have resembled those of Unified Silla.

They would have expanded the border from the crater spanning several kilometers in Pyongyang to the Taedong River and Wonsan Bay.

With China and Russia devouring everything above.

But this Korea had successfully advanced northward to the Yalu River.

They secured the Korean Peninsula by sending the Lord of Radiant Wings to Pyongyang, preventing intervention from China and Russia and deterring other countries from interfering.

While they succeeded in securing North Korean territory, what happened afterward?

The land’s owner? None.

The northern region of the Korean Peninsula, called “former North Korean territory,” was merely illegally occupied by puppet groups. The land deeds stamped by the North Korean regime were worth nothing more than rewards for reporting spies.

Then what about the people living on that land?

Even if legally no one owned the land, what happened to those living there?

They were divided into three groups.

One-third died in Pyongyang.

Before humanity could intervene, they were caught in the nuclear explosion and vanished without even leaving corpses.

It was certainly the worst disaster to occur on the Korean Peninsula in recorded history.

Another third packed their belongings and headed north.

No matter how much South Korea had become the world’s leading nation, they fled to China and Russia with an unshakable conviction.

The conviction that they would never live well if they entered South Korea.

They could have hidden their accent, concealed their hometown, hidden everything to wash away their identity and live as South Koreans, but they chose to relocate to China-Manchuria where they were more familiar with the way of life.

And the remaining third.

They decided to become South Koreans.

Although it had been a puppet state, they had still thought of it as their country, so they pleaded tearfully to the espers and administrative personnel who came up from South Korea, begging for help.

Save us.

Let us live.

Call us whatever you want, just don’t kill us.

With North Korea’s collapse, the South Korean government eventually accepted these former North Korean residents who had essentially been forcibly detained.

“Fellow countrymen! Welcome. We are one people, and from now on, we will live together on this Korean Peninsula!”

(Having ten million refugees suddenly is insane.)

Smiling on the outside, but on the inside, they could only drown their bitterness with a shot of soju.

The so-called “unification costs” suddenly had to be paid.

Taxes were invested to develop and restore the former North Korean territory and support the people living there.

There were many problems, but thanks to the heroes’ earnest efforts, former North Koreans gradually integrated into South Korean society.

The leeches of Haeguneul called them commies, anti-North extremists, and other such things, but our good heroes remained faithful to the unification education they received in elementary school.

“If we had known North Korea would collapse and become empty land, we should have taught heroes to destroy communism instead of saying North Koreans are our people… mmph, who are you people?!”

Supposedly, a certain Haeguneul official said something like that.

“Did I say anything wrong?! Those people might as well not exist! Do they pay taxes?! They’re just parasites draining our taxes! Rather than wasting money feeding rice to North Korean beggars, the government should use that money to build new roads!!”

The point is that people with such perspectives definitely exist in this world.

While some people care for refugees with the same volunteer spirit that drives them to distribute free food to the homeless at Seoul Station, others say the refugees should have died in the Pyongyang explosion or gone up to China.

After various incidents, what has become of the former North Korean territory now?

“If I stake a claim on empty land, it’s mine!”

It triggered a real estate frenzy.

“Haeguneul said it! Tear down all these shabby buildings and build 30-story apartments instead!”

“This is redevelopment. Rather than burning trillions of won redeveloping slums in Seoul, it would be much cheaper to redevelop North Korea!”

“Start the factories! Load the heavy equipment on trains, we’re going to Kaesong!”

Empty land.

Government-owned land.

“Government, release the North Korean land!”

“Government, release the North Korean land!”

“Government, release the acorns!!”

Those with money began raising their voices against the government.

To buy land.

“How can the official land price be so high for collapsed North Korean territory?!”

“Shouldn’t people who buy North Korean land be exempt from acquisition tax? Who would pay that much for such barren land? lol”

This public opinion had been manufactured by the “leeches,” and related laws began to be formally established.

“How can it be that a Ministry of Land official is buying land in Hwanghae Province?”

“My grandmother was from Hwanghae Province, and it’s my father’s hometown…”

“Are you really playing that card…?”

At a time when even politicians were half-openly salivating over the empty North Korean land.

There were those in the most advantageous position.

People who could claim North Korean land through emotional appeals, theoretical arguments, customary rights, and above all, through “Korean Peninsula sensitivity.”

“Government, immediately promote family reunions for separated families!!!”

“Looking for my grandfather who was separated during the Korean War…!”

Separated families.

Human history changed after the Great Cataclysm.

But the history of families split between North and South due to division and war remained unchanged.

And.

Even if the Syndicate had dealt with Haeguneul’s chairman, the remnants of greed that Haeguneul had spread still remained throughout the country.

Right here, like in northern Gangwon Province beyond the DMZ.

* * *

Northern Goseong County, Gangwon Province.

“I never thought I’d see Mount Kumgang with my own eyes like this.”

I spoke to the black-haired woman riding behind me as I drove my bike down the dilapidated road.

“What do you think?”

“Not much….”

“Your appreciation is quite lacking.”

“I’ve already been here five times.”

Baek Seol-hee fiddled with her dyed black hair and pouted her lips sullenly.

“I thought we were finally going to Ulleungdo for a few days of rest, but we left after just one night. What’s that about?”

“It’s what firefighters do when they go to put out fires.”

“…Are you trying to say that fire accidents occur at all hours?”

Maybe it’s because I’ve been with Baek Seol-hee for so long.

“Are you saying that villains you need to execute or deal with cause trouble regardless of place, time, or occasion?”

“That’s right.”

Why are we now crossing the DMZ and driving down the Mount Kumgang road when we should have been unpacking at an Ulleungdo pension and waiting for the World Cup?

It’s for one reason—we received news.

“Seol-hee. You know what ‘squatting’ is, right?”

“…What should I do? I think the Ymir bacteria has stuck too much to my brain. I thought of something else.”

“Tell me. What did you think of?”

“Putting golden beads under Do Ji-hwan.”

“…That’s about external core insertion. Not the Ymir bacteria.”

If she’s thinking about squatting while exposed to the Ymir bacteria, then perhaps her—

“Tsk. I just remembered.”

“What is it? Are you also intoxicated with the Ymir bacteria right now?”

“No. I know a case where someone infected with the Ymir bacteria did some squatting.”

“…What is it?”

Baek Seol-hee grabbed my waist tightly with a slightly trembling voice.

“What kind of egg did they plant? Wait, was it even an egg in the first place?”

“If it has the form of an egg, then it’s an egg.”

“…Where?”

“You can ask them directly. Coincidentally, they’ve agreed to come to Korea to help resolve this matter.”

I stop the bike on the road.

At this hour, even near Gangwon Province, there are hardly any people passing through the former North Korean territory.

VROOOOM!!

Hardly any, not none at all.

From the opposite side of the shabby single-lane road, a bike with a rough exhaust note is racing toward us, making a loud noise.

“They’re excited.”

“…Where are they coming from?”

“Probably marked a spot up there and coming down.”

They’re riding without helmets.

The bike seems custom modified, changing colors in real-time like a rainbow, spreading light around.

“Never thought I’d see an RGB gaming bike. And at Mount Kumgang, no less.”

“Well… down below, esper police would arrest you for speeding recklessly.”

Baek Seol-hee smiled bitterly and shook her head at the rainbow-colored bike gang passing by.

“If this were Busan, a B-class would be chasing after them by now, grabbing them by the hair.”

“If it were Busan.”

Even if you’re riding a bike at over 100km/h, it’s not impossible for a physically enhanced esper running at full speed to overtake a bike.

Then what about here?

There’s no one to enforce the rules.

That’s why those who want to ride like they’re on the Autobahn come across the DMZ to drive on these roads in Gangwon Province and elsewhere on the peninsula.

…Some bring Humvees or similar vehicles for off-roading, but there’s almost no enforcement here.

“North Korea is gone, but this is still North Korea.”

“A collapsed North Korea. Surrendered to capitalism.”

Whoosh.

As the RGB bike passed by, something like paper fell in front of us.

I picked it up immediately, and Baek Seol-hee frowned openly at the gaming business card glowing with RGB colors.

“These people are really…”

“They’re using every means possible to make money.”

Inside the colorful business card that looked like it should have “loans” or “cash advances” written on it:

“They’re trying to claim North Korean land by impersonating separated families.”

It had phrases like [DESCENDANT SERVICE] and [DEFECTORS WELCOME] emblazoned on it.

“In the late Joseon period, they forged family records, and it seems the collapsed North Korea is no different.”

In the past.

Haeguneul manipulated North Korean refugees to artificially create separated families.

“If a grandfather left in North Korea wants to leave his land to his granddaughter in South Korea, I suppose no one can really object.”

All to acquire land.