Translator: Dreamscribe
"Why can't we reach the other branches?"
"It's not just one or two branches that have gone silent. Places we were in contact with as recently as yesterday suddenly can't be reached today."
"Did Sentinel launch a surprise raid? But there was no sign of that, was there? We've been watching their movements with hawk eyes."
Contra Mundium.
An organization formed to oppose the mandatory implantation of Biochips that the Kwangwoon empire, built by the king of Satan, was imposing on every citizen of the world, and to resist their coercive rule and schemes.
Far more people cooperated with Contra Mundium than expected, and the organization had been able to expand its territory in no time.
Those who were awake knew the truth.
Jung Jin-ho was the Antichrist long foretold in the Bible, and Kwangwoon was an empire built by Satan.
The Biochip they were mandating was the 666 mark the Bible had spoken of.
And what stood against it was Contra Mundium.
"There is a strange rumor going around."
"A rumor?"
"Yes. They say the king of Satan, Lucifer, has finally escaped the human body and become a god, and that he is wielding transcendent power to slaughter our Contra Mundium brothers and sisters without mercy."
"What nonsense is that? You're saying that bastard Jung Jin-ho is wielding superhuman powers?"
"That is exactly it. We hide in every corner of the world, evading Satan's eye, conducting our activities in secret, aren't we? To the point that even Sentinel has a hard time catching us. But if it's not a human eye but Satan's eye, wouldn't it be different? Besides, the king of Satan wouldn't even need human strength."
The Bishop let out a sigh as he looked at the follower spouting such foolishness.
This was the problem.
Every now and then, there were those who became so buried in doctrine and religion that they believed absurdities to be real.
Well, the more fanatical they were, the higher their loyalty and the easier they were to handle, which was an advantage.
But believing such ridiculous rumors was also a problem.
It only brought unnecessary confusion to the organization.
"Enough of this nonsense."
"But it's hard to dismiss it as mere rumor. There are followers who actually witnessed the power of the devil exterminating our brothers and sisters."
"I told you to stop with the ridiculous talk. I don't know who's spreading this nonsense, but if they believe it to be true and are spreading rumors to sow confusion in our congregation, I will not let them get away with it. Guh!"
The Bishop, who had been losing his temper, let out a short scream and slumped forward, his head hitting the table.
"B-Bishop-nim?"
Just as everyone rose in shock to check on him.
"Urk!"
"Gah!"
One by one, they collapsed with short death cries, just like the Bishop.
As if their souls were being yanked out of their bodies in an instant.
"D-Divine punishment!"
"T-The devil is taking our souls!"
"Run!"
The executives screamed and bolted out of the room.
And the moment they opened the door and stepped out.
"...!"
They found the corpses of hundreds of brothers and sisters, who had been hiding with them in the underground facility, scattered everywhere.
"W-What on earth is h-happening..."
Their curiosity didn't last long.
"Urk!"
They soon followed the ones who had gone before them.
* * *
"Chairman-nim. Sentinel has sent a report. They say they've found and fully eliminated seventy-five strongholds of the terrorist organization called Contra Mundium."
"Seventy-five?"
"Yes. Since they operate as a Cell Organization, hiding out in underground facilities or manufacturing various weapons in ordinary-looking buildings, they've been hiding just about everywhere, apparently. There are also high-ranking officials who've been secretly cooperating with them."
That was why, from what I had heard, even Sentinel had found it difficult to track down this terrorist group until now.
"Still, it seems they've somehow managed to find them."
"Yes. They haven't wiped them all out, but there does seem to be significant progress."
"But... 'eliminated' means they killed them all, doesn't it?"
"It's not stated in so many words, but yes, most likely..."
I let out a short sigh.
Even if they were a terrorist group, in the end, it was the taking of human lives.
There was no way it could sit easily with me.
"There were no innocent casualties, were there?"
"There was no separate report about that either. Shall I have Director Anthony Watson summoned? If it's a call from the Chairman-nim, he'll come running immediately. Otherwise, we could form an audit team at headquarters and conduct a separate investigation."
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Before long, my Intuition sent a faint signal.
"No need. It seems they're handling it well on their own."
"Ah, yes."
"What's next on the agenda?"
"The heads of various nations are scheduled to gather in Korea to celebrate the peaceful reunification of China and Russia into a single nation."
I had thought China and Russia would never be reunified.
The tension had been so severe that people were on edge wondering if nuclear war might break out any day.
But as time passed, the extreme threat of war subsided, and instead, public opinion grew in favor of reunification for economic reasons.
Eventually, through a national referendum and the reconciliation of divided leaders, China and Russia became one again, and Asia, which had long been gripped by the anxiety of war, recovered its peace.
"That's a relief. Please send a congratulatory message. And let Kwangwoon cover all the costs and facilities needed for the event."
This was no time for us humans to be fighting among ourselves.
The earth was growing hotter, and the glaciers were melting, weren't they?
My son and GAIA were doing their utmost to cool the earth, but if nations became embroiled in war with each other, humanity would be destroyed then and there.
In other words, now more than ever, we needed to join hands and unite.
To move further forward.
Fortunately, it seemed a united humanity and a peaceful earth were not far off.
* * *
"Operation rate on day one: 100 percent. The number of terrorist organization members killed by Helios on the first day alone: forty thousand. That's roughly one eliminated every two seconds."
It had been one month since Project Helios went into operation.
Based on data sent from Sentinel, Helios, which roamed above the earth, was purging this planet by eliminating its targets.
"Are you... all right?"
"Why?"
"Five hundred thousand people have been eliminated over this past month. By the Helios you created, Team Leader-nim. For an ordinary person, it could easily be mentally taxing."
"It sounds like you want to check whether I'm a psychopath. Unfortunately, I'm not quite that bad. If I too had thought innocent people died, I might have struggled so much I couldn't even swallow a sip of water."
But the five hundred thousand eliminated this time were nothing more than clumps of germs sickening humanity.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Helios was the cure, and those people were bacterial masses that needed to be eliminated, so Jung Se-yoon felt not a shred of guilt.
'Father truly is a merciful man.'
Unlike his son, his father was the kind of man who would feel pity even for those germ-like beings.
And he believed that was a virtue required of the one who ruled this world.
'But those who serve him must not be merciful.'
For the sake of that nobility, to protect that sanctity, those beneath him needed to be ruthless.
The hidden blade wielded by the merciful one.
That was the role Jung Se-yoon had understood himself to play, even when he was a young child who knew little of the world.
"You're controlling the media well, I trust?"
"Yes. And this Helios weapon is so precise that most people will have no idea what actually killed them. About 170,000 people die on this earth every day, don't they?"
A few more deaths on top of that wouldn't stir up any controversy.
As long as it didn't get exposed in the media.
"So, why did you call me here today? Doesn't seem like you just wanted to hear a report."
Anthony Watson had secretly visited GAIA today because Jung Se-yoon had summoned him.
It wasn't that he was offended by being constantly called back and forth.
Quite the opposite.
He was looking forward to what kind of stimulus would be offered to him this time.
"There's something I need to discuss with you today."
"Bio... Genesis? What is this?"
"Have a read."
"..."
Anthony read for a bit, then frowned and closed the report.
"I've seen all kinds of encrypted documents working in that complicated intelligence agency, but I genuinely can't make heads or tails of this one."
"It's research on muscle cell enhancement and neural response optimization."
"...I see."
"To put it in plainer terms, think of it as creating Super Soldiers."
"!?"
Only then did Anthony's interest awaken.
"But wouldn't it be simpler to build an android army?"
"I believe humans are ultimately stronger than machines. With some modifications and mechanical integration, that is."
"Then the reason you're showing me this..."
"We need suitable volunteers. People willing to take the drugs and machinery to become Super Soldiers for our Kwangwoon. Sentinel must have plenty of people with that kind of zeal."
"You've come to the right place. Haha."
Anthony, who had earlier shoved the report aside as if he'd seen something he shouldn't, now picked it back up and looked it over with satisfaction.
"Super Soldiers, huh... I'm very much looking forward to this."
Jung Se-yoon only smiled in silence.
In truth, calling it Super Soldiers was just a name; this was a kind of experiment for the next stage.
A body with Eternal Life.
A transcendent body that would never rot, never sicken, never be wounded.
An immortal body that not even those called Super Soldiers could break.
That was not a privilege granted to everyone.
Only one person in this world.
It would be a project for just a single individual.
* * *
World Peace Day.
The day divided nations became one, humanity joined hands, and eternal peace was pledged.
"..."
But the heads of state gathered here today knew this peace was a manufactured one.
The reason China and Russia had been split and then reunified was all because of Kwangwoon.
They had torn those two countries apart, seized control of the world, and then pieced them back together.
How much had those two countries suffered at the hands of Kwangwoon's machinations?
Hundreds of leaders had lost their lives, and in the end, executives fully loyal to Kwangwoon had been chosen to become the rulers, and it was they who had signed the pledge of reunification.
"Now what I'm curious about is what comes next."
"What comes next?"
"From Europe to America. Korean descendants have taken over most political positions, and even the heads of those nations are of Korean descent. What does that mean? Before long, every nation will be unified under a single name: Korea. Just as China and Russia have been reunified now."
They, too, were beginning to feel it in their bones.
That Kwangwoon was trying to gather the world under the single name of Korea.
Which was why they were planting Korean-descended figures throughout every political sphere.
"But the backlash will be immense. Even if Korean culture has taken over the whole world, if you suddenly told an American to start being Korean from today onwards, who would willingly follow that?"
"Isn't that exactly why we're sitting here now, to make it possible?"
"I can't do it. No matter what, erasing the name of my country...!"
"You've got reckless courage. You could die tomorrow for that statement today."
"I'm the President of the United States. Even Kwangwoon can't just kill me out of the blue."
At that, someone let out a short laugh.
"I'm sure you've all been briefed. That the terrorist organization members who opposed Kwangwoon all died mysterious deaths at once. And that even now, the number of people dying mysteriously around the world is on the rise."
"I've heard. Is that really related to Kwangwoon?"
"From what I've heard, no one can identify the cause."
Deaths of unknown cause.
These people had one thing in common.
They had opposed Kwangwoon.
Even people who had died in the middle of busy cities turned out to have been secretly communicating with and aiding the terrorist organization.
"It's clear Kwangwoon is killing them all off, but the method itself is unknown. Looking at the cause of death, all bodily activity suddenly ceases. And no one knows how that's possible."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Among the frightened members of that terrorist organization, a certain saying is spreading. That the power of Satan is raining divine punishment down upon them."
"!?"
Divine punishment from Satan.
Someone was punishing them, not by the power of science, but by the power of a god that surpassed human limits?
"T-That's ridiculous..."
"Such talk has already been spreading within Kwangwoon itself. That Chairman-nim Jung Jin-ho has long since transcended humanity. Isn't he the one who built today's Kwangwoon with insight that seemed to see the future?"
"What on earth are you saying? Are you claiming he's actually become a god...!"
"He seized control of this earth with insight comparable to a god's, and now he is punishing those who defy his will with power that cannot be explained by human knowledge. What do you think that means?"
"...!"
Then, as the rumors that had been circulating for a long time suggested, Jung Jin-ho had already joined the ranks of transcendent beings.
No. Perhaps he had never been human to begin with.
Merely something wearing the skin of a human.
"Perhaps he is listening to the very conversation we are having here right now. Perhaps he is looking down on us from above. And yet you would defy the orders of such a being... I'd like to applaud your courage, Mr. President."
"!?"
At those words, the President of the United States could not stop his body from trembling.