Ch.88Identity

Clack! Clack!

The site for the new city was located slightly north of the central area of the Western Forest.

In this city, designed primarily for access to plains and coastal bays, materials fell from the sky daily, and wagons repeatedly brought in additional necessary supplies.

Despite two months having passed, the city’s construction felt sluggish. Only a countable number of buildings had been erected, as most of the workforce and materials were devoted to compacting and stabilizing the ground.

“Is it really necessary to compact the ground?”

“Are you an idiot? When it rains, roads and hillsides turn to mud. If we compact it properly now, it’ll withstand even heavy rainfall without problems.”

“Is that so?”

“Damn it. Are you a liberal arts major?”

Ground compaction was crucial—it ensured buildings would stand stably and made installing water and sewage systems much easier later on.

Of course, the downside was the considerable effort required to thoroughly compact an entire city’s area, small though it might be. But how could tall buildings be constructed without a solid foundation?

Nevertheless, buildings were rising quickly. This was not only because Amurtat could provide more absolute labor power, but also because veteran builders who had gained experience at various construction sites over the past decade were participating in large numbers.

As the saying goes, “Even a temple dog can recite poetry after three years of learning,” and with experienced workers and supervisors, projects were being completed several times faster than expected.

And of course…

“This bastard’s got some nerve. Skimming from foundation timber of all things? Get this son of a bitch on his feet.”

“P-please spare me! I swear I’ll never play tricks again!!!”

“Oh my. He calls it a ‘trick.’ How cute. Let’s see if your punishment will be equally cute, shall we?”

Corruption matching the scale of the construction also occurred.

Tiberius, well aware of the dangers of corruption, was severely punishing those who performed shoddy work or intentionally lowered the quality of materials.

While building issues might be one thing, he could not forgive storekeepers who diverted tens of thousands of logs meant to be driven underground to strengthen the foundation.

In the 10th year of Amurtat, dozens of storekeepers were beheaded, and hundreds more took their places.

*

Creating a new city was by no means an easy task.

Even Amurtat itself had developed gradually from an initial population of 10,000—it hadn’t started from scratch.

Moreover, since the Western Forest was a border region, it needed perfect protection against external invasions, so it couldn’t focus solely on typical urban functions.

It would have to become a military-industrial complex city, and as everyone knew, it was challenging enough to do one thing well, let alone perfectly harmonize two.

“But we have no choice but to succeed.”

“Establishing a permanent base in the Western Forest is absolutely essential. Even though the forest keepers can manage with outposts, they too have human needs that must be satisfied, and Amurtat City is too far away from them.”

“Yes. That’s why building a city in the Western Forest was something we’d have to do eventually. That’s why we’re doing it now.”

“With our newly acquired population of 1.4 million, finding people to relocate to the new city should be easier.”

Every city inevitably produces outcasts.

Whether hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands, the fact that a certain percentage of people will become marginalized is one of humanity’s great sins.

But being marginalized means being half-isolated from society, which means these people are all desperate. Using their desperation made it not so difficult to gather immigrants for the newly established city.

The only way for a creature that has failed to adapt to one society to survive is to move to another.

“Post the immigration notice five months from now. By then, the basic infrastructure should be in place.”

“Understood.”

By that time, Amurtat would be entering its 11th year of history.

One could view positively that a nation of 1.4 million people had a history of only 10 years, but just as we don’t consider precocious puberty a good thing, rapid growth over a short period for such a massive collective as a nation can only have negative long-term effects.

There’s a reason other nations develop slowly and steadily over hundreds or even thousands of years.

The generational and cultural conflicts that emerge during development, the gradual improvement and modification of lagging systems to catch up with advancing technology—this is how nations become stronger. But with Amurtat’s rapid growth, the quality supporting the quantity of social development was inevitably lacking.

For now, I could somehow suppress and adjust social conflicts using knowledge from the future and from games, but as the nation grew larger, it would become increasingly difficult to contain the generational conflicts and cultural differences that would naturally emerge.

“Sigh…”

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

“Just… thinking that perhaps I’ve been too hasty.”

“Hasty… you say?”

“Yes. I can live forever anyway, yet I’ve been rushing as if possessed.”

I am immortal.

But having a mortal mind made me terribly anxious.

Moreover, I was a consciousness that had flown in from another world—one that had consumed all the rise and fall of this world as mere entertainment.

What exactly was my identity?

Was I Yoo Hyun-sung, the unemployed shut-in who only played games, or was I Tiberius von Adler, the ruler of Amurtat?

“…All immortality stems from mortality. Only after countless mistakes and failures do immortals become enlightened about their lives.”

The aide sat beside me, offering advice.

“…”

On his shoulder were countless injection marks.

Judging by the scabs, he must have received my serum from Michaela this morning, which allowed him to continue existing in this world.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes?”

“You suffered a severe injury. An injury where your brain was exposed, brain matter spilling out… bone fragments and flesh scattered everywhere.”

“…Yes.”

The aide turned his body to face me directly.

It might be considered disrespectful, but strangely, I felt no disloyalty from him.

“Do you remember what kind of personality you had before sustaining that injury?”

“…”

I couldn’t answer.

Because truly, I had no memory of it.

When I first awoke in this world, apart from extreme pain, what came to me wasn’t memories but information.

Not like a drama or movie, but like a novel or script forcibly inserted into my head… I still can’t forget that sensation.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Are you truly yourself, Your Majesty?”

I opened my eyes wide.

The aide was asking me.

Whether I was really me.

“…Aide.”

“Yes.”

“If I say I am not myself, then what?”

“You are the ruler of Amurtat. Whether you’re Tiberius von Adler or, well, some Nicolaus von Heinkel doesn’t matter. I’m asking if you can remain the ruler of Amurtat going forward.”

“I see…”

I had to answer this question.

It wasn’t asking who I was. It wasn’t asking what I was either.

It was asking what I could do.

“I promise. I will remain the ruler of Amurtat until my death.”

“Then I will believe in you and follow you.”

“Good.”

Once again, I received an oath of loyalty from someone.

Yes.

Who I am isn’t that important.

What’s more important is what I can do, and what I should do.

Whether I’m a Korean who crossed over from Earth, or just a mental entity fused with a dead body, or Tiberius who received memories from another world—no one can define that.

Because even I don’t know myself.

And as we live, everyone eventually faces questions that cannot be answered and problems that cannot be solved.

I now faced such questions and problems, and ultimately couldn’t answer the questions or provide solutions to the problems.

But that was okay.

Life didn’t end because I couldn’t answer a question, and my identity didn’t change because I couldn’t solve a problem.

I am the ruler of this country.

Nothing and no one could deny this identity.