Ch.8686. New Venture (2)

The conclusion of this meeting was that Ulsan would be the new target city for the Balhut Cult’s expansion.

The cult determined that controlling Daegu or Busan would be difficult with their current strength, so they planned to consume Ulsan first, increase their power, and then target Busan or Daegu.

As a result, they needed to carefully consider the route from Gyeongju to Ulsan.

“Actually, like with Pohang, the route to Ulsan isn’t a problem. It’s located below Gyeongju.”

In truth, for the cult based in Gyeongju, the path to Ulsan posed no issues whatsoever.

Gyeongju and Ulsan were already connected by the Wonhwa Road and Industrial Road, so following either route would quickly lead to Ulsan.

Since they had conquered Pohang using military vehicles on established roads, they knew that if they could secure control of the roads between cities, they could easily enter the city interior along those routes.

“If necessary, we can enter Ulsan by sea. Using fast patrol boats, we could land inside the city through rivers connected to the ocean.”

Of course, now that they had recaptured Pohang, they could also consider naval entry methods in addition to roads.

If they could infiltrate Ulsan’s port with fast patrol boats from Pohang, capture the harbor and establish a position there, the Balhut Cult could easily receive supplies by sea and use those supplies to penetrate deeper into the city.

Above all, Ulsan had waterways connecting the sea to rivers, which offered the advantage of being able to infiltrate deep into the city interior using patrol boats.

This approach would be particularly attractive for the cult, which needed to find internal collaborators for city conquest, but…

“However, the Pohang Navy is currently engaged in fierce battles with ghost fleets appearing in the East Sea to normalize the waters. We can’t rashly pull out the fleet deployed in the East Sea for an Ulsan offensive.”

The problem with this approach was that it required Baek Seol-hwa’s Pohang fleet.

In other words, it meant diverting the Pohang fleet that was currently confronting ghost fleets threatening the East Sea shipping lanes, which would place a tremendous burden on the Pohang fleet fighting the ghost ships.

Moreover, they couldn’t casually use the Pohang Navy, which was protecting the East Sea, for an Ulsan offensive during this critical period of trade with the White House.

If the East Sea routes became compromised, the volume of supplies being transported from Pohang to Gyeongju could be greatly reduced.

This could undermine the project to redesign Gyeongju as an Awakened-centered city, so Yu-na responded that Jeong’s proposal for a sea-based entry was impossible.

“I suppose maintaining exchanges with America is more important than conquering Ulsan.”

When told that coastal assault via the sea was essentially impossible, Jeong Dong-geon expressed disappointment, but he knew better than anyone that the cult couldn’t easily give up the enormous volume of goods coming from America.

In particular, iron ore imported from America was being processed in Pohang and supplied to Gyeongju as steel, greatly strengthening the Balhut Cult’s weapons industry.

The high-quality new weapons being created at the Balhut Weapons Research Institute using these quality materials were significantly enhancing the cult’s military power while creating a virtuous cycle of exporting those weapons back to America.

“If we can’t use the sea for our offensive, we’ll have to capture Ulsan with an Awakened army composed of infantry. From our perspective, there are two routes to Ulsan. First, using the Munmudaewang Tunnel 5 in Pohang to access the Donghae Expressway. Second, using the Industrial Road that connects Gyeongju and Pohang. The Industrial Road route also has access points to the Donghae Expressway.”

If they couldn’t attack Ulsan by sea, they would have to use roads for their offensive, just as they did with Pohang.

Fortunately, there were routes from both Gyeongju and Pohang to Ulsan, and the Balhut Cult had the freedom to choose whichever path they preferred.

This meant the cult could select the most advantageous route, and Jeong Dong-geon had already formulated an optimized route before this conversation began.

“Which is faster?”

“They’re both similar, but considering supplies for the expedition, rather than starting from scratch with the Munmudaewang Tunnel 5, using the already secured Industrial Road to access the Donghae Expressway or following the Industrial Road all the way wouldn’t be a bad choice.”

Jeong Dong-geon seemed to think that the Industrial Road route starting from Gyeongju, which was under the cult’s firm control, was most appropriate for the route to Ulsan.

Moreover…

“So we’ll be departing from Gyeongju.”

“Yes. We had already secured the route to Ulsan even before we controlled all of Gyeongju. At that time, we were too preoccupied with North Gyeongju to pay attention to the Industrial Road to Ulsan, but the road itself has been under our control for some time.”

Since the Balhut Cult was based in South Gyeongju, the Industrial Road leading to Ulsan was already under Gyeongju’s control.

When they were heading to Pohang, North Gyeongju itself was still under Jo Sun-do’s rule as his re-evaluation results were about to come out, and public safety wasn’t properly maintained. The road to Pohang was full of zombies occupying the route, so they had to clear zombies along the way as they moved. However, the road to Ulsan was already under the cult’s control.

“Right. We prioritized capturing the towns and townships in that area.”

“Honestly, from our military’s perspective, using the familiar and safe Industrial Road is more convenient.”

“I suppose it makes sense to use what’s already available rather than starting from scratch.”

So Jeong Dong-geon’s argument for using the already controlled Industrial Road was ultimately for safe movement and military convenience.

When there was already a secure route available, why would they need to start from scratch?

It would only seem like a waste of time and budget.

“Are there many zombies coming from Ulsan to Gyeongju?”

“No. According to soldiers stationed at outposts and checkpoints, there have been no traces of zombies for the past two months. The same applies to mutant zombies—no sightings have been reported. We can essentially say there are no zombies coming up from Ulsan.”

If there was a problem, it would be zombies coming up to Gyeongju from Ulsan, which wasn’t under the cult’s control.

Jeong Dong-geon had set up outposts and checkpoints in specific areas to monitor zombies coming from other cities, but in Ulsan’s case, neither regular zombies nor mutant zombies had been detected for two months.

While this was certainly good news…

“That’s fortunate, but in this apocalypse, having no zombies at all seems strangely suspicious despite being good news.”

“Yes, it is a bit strange. I could understand if zombies appeared occasionally, but having none at all is incomprehensible by the current apocalyptic standards.”

This would be unproblematic in normal times, but in the current apocalypse, the complete absence of zombies was conversely a suspicious circumstance.

Certainly, the absence of zombies meant no casualties among soldiers stationed near the Industrial Road, which was objectively good news, and Yu-na acknowledged it as such.

“With the recent ghost fleet incidents, this is even more suspicious.”

From the Balhut Cult’s perspective, having experienced several suspicious incidents recently, they couldn’t help but suspect some hidden implication behind the complete absence of zombies.

“While mutant zombies are common in areas outside our management, they’re completely absent in the south under our jurisdiction.”

Frankly speaking, regular and mutant zombies were commonly seen in all areas except the route to Ulsan.

Currently, businesses like Awakened civilian transport, bodyguard services, or mercenary work were thriving in Gyeongju and Pohang because mutant zombies were likely to appear in roads or areas not managed by the cult.

“Even now, mutant zombies and sometimes even mutant spider zombies are appearing in the granary areas we consider important.”

Even now, reports of mutant zombies frequently appearing near the tributaries of the Hyeongsan River, the granary areas of Gyeongju and Pohang, were common.

“Therefore, with the information we currently have, I can offer two conjectures.”

“Two conjectures?”

Jeong Dong-geon confidently stated that he could offer two conjectures based on the information they currently had.

“Yes. First, like Pohang, Ulsan might be under the control of newly evolved mutant zombies. Lord Bahamut has stated that the apocalypse that appeared on the Korean Peninsula is closer to undead than zombies, so it’s entirely possible that they’ve evolved into a new type of undead we’re not familiar with. The ghost fleet has proven this.”

“That does make sense.”

The first conjecture was that, similar to the mutant spider zombies in Pohang, a new mutant species might have appeared in Ulsan as well.

According to Bahamut’s intuition that they were closer to undead than zombies, the emergence of new types of undead unknown to the cult might be inevitable.

In other words, Ulsan had fallen silent due to the appearance of powerful new mutant zombies unique to that area.

That was his first conjecture.

“Second, Ulsan is currently under someone’s control, just like the Balhut Cult controls its territory. If a powerful Awakened has appeared, eradicated zombies, and focused on reclaiming the city, the current situation would be somewhat understandable.”

“If Seol-hwa thinks that’s a possible case, that conjecture isn’t wrong either. I took control of Gyeongju in a similar way.”

The second conjecture was that someone living in Ulsan had brought the city under their control, similar to the Balhut Cult.

Jo Sun-do had maliciously proven that with the power of a strong Awakened, one could forcibly dominate the populace through violence. It had also been proven that with the emergence of talented and powerful Awakened like Yu-na or Seol-hwa, cities could be reclaimed with these Awakened at the center, governing the populace through their powerful strength and charisma.

The Balhut Cult had definitively proven the latter, and although she had failed, Baek Seol-hwa had also demonstrated skill and courageous charisma that no one could oppose despite her young age, nearly unifying Pohang. Considering this, it was entirely plausible.

“In fact, I’ve heard that a survivor leader has emerged in Daegu who has unified the divided camps. According to rumors from community sources, they’re calling themselves the Daegu Provisional Government. I suspect it’s some kind of coalition force like in Pohang.”

“Such developments in Daegu… Well, Daegu is one of Korea’s representative cities. What about Ulsan?”

“…We’ve heard nothing of the sort from Ulsan. In fact, the Ulsan community is unusually quiet compared to other communities. It feels almost as if the community is completely controlled.”

To support his argument, Jeong Dong-geon used Daegu as an example.

The problem with this argument was that, unlike Daegu, no similar case had emerged in Ulsan. Rather, the Ulsan community was so quiet that no internal news was coming out at all.

“Quiet, you say. Let’s set aside Ulsan with its lack of information. How should we think about this coalition government that has appeared in Daegu?”

“The Daegu side is likely a coalition government as well. In this case, their internal cohesion is likely to be terrible, as we saw in Pohang. But still, if they inflate their size, it would be troublesome for us to deal with. But that’s the extent of it. You don’t need to worry about Daegu, Lord.”

“I see. What about the zombies coming from the west?”

Jeong Dong-geon speculated that the self-proclaimed provisional government in Daegu was a coalition government like Pohang, composed of various camps, and through this logic, he could argue that their cohesion was negligible. However, Daegu was still four times the size of Pohang.

Regardless of internal affairs, if they could inflate their power, those dealing with them might be intimidated and concede ground.

Yu-na nodded heavily at Jeong Dong-geon’s words and asked about zombies coming from the west, meaning from Daegu.

“The observation posts monitoring the west also report that zombies coming from Daegu to Gyeongju have greatly decreased recently.”

“What about mutant zombies?”

“Mutant zombies are occasionally spotted. It’s not like Ulsan where they’re completely absent.”

Unlike Ulsan, where there was no news at all, Daegu, which was internally discussing unification and claiming to be a provisional government, still had mutant zombies coming toward Gyeongju from the west where Daegu was located.

This was a contrasting result to Ulsan in the south, where no mutant zombies appeared at all.

“So, mutant zombies are appearing from Daegu, which has formed a provisional government, while none appear from Ulsan, from which we hear nothing. To not be suspicious of this… would make one seem foolish.”

“It’s suspicious precisely because it’s so quiet.”

The very silence made it all the more suspicious.

“For now, let’s gather information about Ulsan, which we’re about to attack, and its internal situation from community sources, just as we did with Pohang. And while we’re at it, let’s also collect information about Daegu. After all, Daegu is Gyeongju’s neighbor.”

“As you command.”

In the end, Yu-na’s choice was to collect information about the governments of Ulsan and Daegu and devise countermeasures accordingly.

Of course, the main topic was about attacking Ulsan, and Daegu was just mentioned as an additional information-gathering target, showing that Daegu was still not being given much consideration.