Ch.7373. America (2)

# When Worries Deepened in Gyeongju

As her concerns deepened in Gyeongju, Baek Seol-hwa guided the diplomatic delegation from America to the Balhut Cult headquarters in Gyeongju, following Bahamut’s orders.

While Baek Seol-hwa herself and some Balhut Cult soldiers came out to escort the delegation, considering the security forces the diplomatic envoys had brought with them, the cult’s escort wasn’t really necessary.

Their role was essentially that of observers, guarding against the possibility that these visitors might not actually be from America at all.

“Hmm. I heard East Asia was a mess with the zombie apocalypse destroying entire countries. But coming here, I don’t see a single zombie.”

The American delegation could obviously tell that Baek Seol-hwa was accompanying them as an observer, but they didn’t bother mentioning it.

From the Balhut Cult’s perspective, these were completely unexpected guests who had arrived without any prior notice, and they had every reason to doubt whether Steven and his group were truly visitors from America.

Instead, Steven spoke to Baek Seol-hwa, who was quietly watching from the side, in a friendly manner, commenting that despite this being a zombie apocalypse, there weren’t any zombies to be seen, as if trying to lighten the tense atmosphere.

“Yes. There aren’t any inside the city, but there might be wild zombies or monsters on the road connecting Gyeongju and POSCO.”

“I see. Is that why you’ve come out to escort us?”

“Yes. While you probably wouldn’t have trouble with ordinary wild zombies, powerful mutants can be dangerous even for the Awakened.”

Baek Seol-hwa kindly explained to Steven that while there weren’t any zombies inside the city, wild zombies or monsters might be found outside.

Steven then asked in a casual manner if that was the reason why Baek Seol-hwa and some Balhut Cult members had come to escort them. Seol-hwa nodded lightly and mentioned the wild mutant zombies roaming outside.

“Powerful mutants. Named ones?”

At the mention of powerful mutants, Steven’s expression suddenly hardened as he mentioned “named ones.”

Not understanding what he meant, Seol-hwa looked at Steven’s suddenly hardened expression with a puzzled face and spoke.

“Named ones?”

“Ah. In our terminology, we call powerful monsters or commander monsters that lead other monsters ‘named ones.'”

“Ah. That’s similar to what we have. We call powerful zombies ‘mutant zombies.'”

Seol-hwa nodded in agreement at his words.

Most of the named ones she and the Balhut Cult had encountered possessed powerful abilities or formed packs by commanding other zombies.

If they evolved further, new entities like mutant spider zombies could emerge, but at this point, there was no need to mention that.

“Come to think of it, America didn’t have a zombie apocalypse, right?”

“No. Not zombies but aliens… or rather, we’ve named it the Gate Apocalypse.”

They prioritized exchanging information about the Korean Peninsula and America, trying to understand each other’s true intentions.

Though it was casual small talk, both Seol-hwa and Steven were trying to gather internal information through the conversation.

However, it was only natural that Seol-hwa, an ordinary girl, would be outmatched by Steven, who had received professional training.

‘Hmm. So the apocalypse that occurred in America is completely different from what happened in East Asia. This matches what we learned from the internet.’

However, Seol-hwa had Bahamut, who could observe the situation from a third-person perspective.

Through Seol-hwa, Bahamut could observe the appearance and attitude of the diplomatic delegation claiming to be from America, and additionally…

‘Mind Scan.’

He could determine their true identity through magic.

However, since he was using the spell remotely through Baek Seol-hwa, and a detection-type Awakened who was sensitive to magical power might detect the magic being used, Bahamut used it only to identify their affiliation and identity.

Of course, he could have risked being discovered and used additional magic or accepted a successful judgment, but from Bahamut’s perspective, there was no need to aim for that.

It was enough to just confirm the true affiliation of Steven and his group heading to Gyeongju.

‘They really are diplomatic envoys from America. Their purpose… hmm. Too difficult. The casting time was too short to gather more information. I could find out more if I pushed it, but that would be greedy.’

He was able to gather information about the other party without being detected.

While he inwardly wanted to understand their intentions better, Bahamut knew there was a detection-type Awakened next to Steven, so he backed off, thinking that trying to intervene further would be greedy.

‘Besides, this magic itself is something I’m uncomfortable using.’

Above all, Mind Scan was a spell that disregarded the other person’s privacy.

From Bahamut’s perspective, he had no interest in Steven’s private life, and he considered secretly peeking into someone’s mind a violation of their human rights. So he drew a clear line not to go any further and only shared the information he had just gathered with Baek Seol-hwa.

“You really are visitors from America.”

“Of course. Haha. Who would dare pretend to be from America? We are truly a delegation from the White House.”

“You might have been scoundrels trying to deceive us. I apologize for doubting you.”

After Bahamut backed off and assured her that the people before her were trustworthy, Baek Seol-hwa said that Steven’s group really were visitors from America and smiled brightly.

Her expression showed apology and embarrassment for having doubted their affiliation until now, but Steven was suddenly faced with someone who had become convinced they were truly from America.

Steven laughed it off with a smooth expression, but he was deeply uncomfortable inside.

He wasn’t angry that the Balhut Cult had doubted his group.

Their suspicion was already part of the plan, and they had even prepared a strategy to gain maximum advantage from that suspicion.

‘Huh? Did she read my intentions?’

Rather, seeing her become confident about their affiliation and relax after just a few exchanges, Steven wondered if Baek Seol-hwa had somehow read his mind.

Before the apocalypse, reading or controlling someone’s mind would have been science fiction, but now it was the apocalypse with the mystery of the Awakened.

Among the Awakened, there could be those who could read minds or control and brainwash people, and American intelligence had long been aware of the existence of Awakened with mentalist abilities.

However, to say that the girl before him had such abilities…

‘According to our intelligence, the specialty of Baek Seol-hwa before me is magic that manipulates temperature. In other words, she’s not a mentalist.’

Information about Baek Seol-hwa’s abilities was already in American intelligence.

Baek Seol-hwa was a powerful mage, but she specialized in temperature control and couldn’t use mentalist-type magic.

Just to be sure, Steven glanced at Anna, a detection ability user standing beside him, and Anna immediately naturally took Steven’s hand and gave him the predetermined signal.

‘No magical detection. Did she just purely believe us?’

If Anna’s signal was to be trusted, the person before them had not activated any magic.

Not only was there no magic, but Anna hadn’t even sensed any signs of magic being activated. Given this signal, Steven could only conclude that she had simply trusted them.

Of course, even that judgment wasn’t completely without basis.

‘Well, according to our information, she’s 14 years old in Korean age. An age where one might purely trust people.’

Having collected information about her abilities, they had naturally also gathered her personal information, and Steven used the fact that Seol-hwa was still a minor as a basis.

Thinking normally, she was a girl who admired America, and if one explained that she was excited about the fact that America had come directly, one could form a logic that would be somewhat acceptable to the public or Steven himself, even if there were some inconsistencies.

In fact, this girl had been greatly surprised at the mention of America’s arrival, and if one interpreted all her subsequent actions as being favorable, one could think that Baek Seol-hwa was looking forward to this meeting.

‘But what is it? I’ve thought of reasons that I can somewhat accept, but my heart feels heavy for some reason.’

There was no need to be serious with a minor.

It could have been seen as a time to show adult composure to the girl before him, but Steven felt he couldn’t just brush it off lightly.

He had already confirmed through his colleague that there were no signs of magic or magical power, and American intelligence had gathered all the personal information about the cult.

He had only deduced based on that information and had reached a level where he could somewhat accept it, but why?

Why was his instinct screaming that this wasn’t the right answer?

‘What on earth am I missing?’

But instinctively, he felt like he had missed something.

What could it be?

All sorts of distracting thoughts and suspicions tormented Steven’s mind.

“Steven? Mr. Steven?”

“Huh? What? Huh?”

“Ahaha. It seems you dozed off for a moment.”

Steven was finally able to come to his senses at Baek Seol-hwa’s words.

It seems that a small doubt that had settled in a corner of his mind had consumed too much of Steven’s attention.

They had arrived in Gyeongju, and the main hall of the Balhut Cult was right in front of them, but he hadn’t been able to focus the entire journey and only came to his senses at Baek Seol-hwa’s words.

“I’m sorry. I must have been very tired.”

Steven apologized sincerely and followed Baek Seol-hwa’s guidance into the main hall, where he discovered a young girl.

‘As reported, the leader of the Balhut Cult is young.’

Steven and his delegation knew who the girl before them was.

Choi Yu-na, the leader of the Balhut Cult and known as the Dragon Priestess in South Korea.

There were rumors that she possessed terrifying power, and with that power, she had unified Gyeongju.

‘This girl also has power beyond imagination.’

‘Geez. Were the children of the Balhut Cult part of some superhuman project from birth or what?’

And as reported, the girl before them was incredibly strong, beyond imagination.

She possessed tremendous power that was incomparable to the American Awakened participating in this delegation.

Having realized this fact through Anna’s signal, Steven couldn’t help but inwardly laugh bitterly.

‘We’re talented Awakened too. I’ve seen even more talented ones. But even those guys didn’t feel that different from me. But the person before us is different. That immeasurable, boundless… magical power!’

Talented Awakened were gradually emerging in America, and among them were those born with incredible talent.

Steven was also an Awakened who was considered talented in American Awakened society, which is why he was appointed as a special envoy for this delegation despite his young age.

And he had met many Awakened who were stronger than him, but…

‘So this is why she can govern Gyeongju and establish a government.’

Would even those Awakened be comparable to the girl before him?

Honestly, he wanted to think that Anna was lying to him on purpose to make him more alert, but Anna wasn’t lying. Instead, she was trying to avert her gaze from Yu-na with a pale face.

Seeing Anna trying to hide her trembling hands and pale face, Steven steeled himself and stepped forward first.

“A visitor to the White House. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yes. We were just thinking that this meeting is meaningful. Leader of the Balhut Cult, Ms. Choi Yu-na.”

“Oh my. You know a lot about me.”

At the mention that the White House knew the Balhut Cult well, Yu-na looked at Steven with a wary expression.

In response to that gaze, Steven felt…

‘I prefer human suspicion rather than the unknown.’

Thinking that human suspicion was better than the unknown, he brushed it off lightly.

Having recognized Choi Yu-na as a human who could be talked to rather than a Godzilla with boundless power, Steven smoothly responded to Yu-na’s suspicion.

“Fortunately, our country’s intelligence gathering hasn’t rusted yet. The United States is still standing strong.”

“Yes. I know through the internet.”

He boasted about America’s power, saying that the American government was still intact.

Unlike South Korea, where the government and its head of state were missing, America still maintained the framework of a country. At these words, Yu-na set aside her suspicions.

After all, she too had confirmed through Bahamut that the delegation before her was truly from the White House.

Her previous words could be seen as a small mind game or a check from Yu-na.

“I am Steven David, appointed as the delegation representative from the White House.”

“As you know, I am Choi Yu-na, leader of the Balhut Cult. Then…”

Choi Yu-na looked around at the faces of the delegation members and…

“Shall we get to the point?”

She guided the diplomatic delegation to the negotiation table.