Chapter 88: The End of Dictatorship
—Hitler, Stalin. And Yu Ji-ha.
—Congratulations. Korea now has Yu Ji-ha instead of Kim Jong-un.
These were the headlines of the articles from the French and British media, who loved freedom and human rights more than anything.
They put the name of Yu Ji-ha next to the worst dictators of the 20th century, which showed their hatred.
The citizen score system shocked the world, and the criticism did not stop even after the positive aspects were revealed.
The very idea of scoring and managing the citizens was shocking in itself.
It was not too strange to propose this method now, after humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction by the cosmic monsters and chose stability.
The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of the policy.
The US, instead of the government, led by the Democratic Party, launched a massive campaign to bash Yu Ji-ha.
—Is this what he does after unifying the Korean peninsula? We should have never supported him in the first place.
—He said he wouldn’t control their thoughts, but that’s what dictators say like parrots. Look, now those drones will peek into every household.
But Korea did not suffer any real damage.
It was because they had so many exclusive export items.
The US also only criticized Yu Ji-ha verbally, but could not impose any actual sanctions.
Rather, President McKinley had to ask the Democrats to lower their tone of speech.
This showed how much power Yu Ji-ha had.
In contrast to the criticism from all sides, Korea was adapting to the citizen score system fairly peacefully.
Most people lived without any crime-related issues in their lives.
Also, drones started to update with very convenient features.
It was the function as a helper.
Let’s list the advantages of the one million drones that were scattered in Korea:
—They are agile and fly in the sky.
—They are sturdy and have high thrust. Four of them can easily lift a 2-ton vehicle.
—They have judgment skills similar to humans and can respond immediately.
There was only one drawback:
—They are damn expensive.
But ordinary citizens didn’t need to worry about that.
From their perspective, drones were helpers who could help them anytime.
The feedback also went in that direction, and features to help citizens were added.
They could lift heavy loads, of course, and print out answers when asked something.
They even started to guide people who had poor eyesight on the road.
Now it was essential for drones to accompany children on their way home from school.
These guys would wait at crosswalks and stop cars when children passed by.
Drunk driving also decreased significantly.
People who were recorded on the list were monitored by drones when they tried to get in a car.
If they seemed drunk, they would immediately sound an alarm and not move away.
These functions of drones resulted in lowering the crime rate drastically.
It was no different from having police everywhere.
Citizens began to realize slowly:
—They are surprisingly comfortable.
—I thought they only watched us, but it feels like having a personal helper following me around.
—It depends on how you look at it. Drones look different depending on your perspective.
Of course, there was criticism as well:
—But they can’t lower the crime rate to zero. The disadvantage of citizen control is bigger than the advantages.
—They will start to control thoughts through drones. All dictators have the same logic, and Yu Ji-ha can’t escape from that either.
He used to inject his thoughts through Lucid Premiums, but now he didn’t have the need or time for that.
Yu Ji-ha’s goal was to create a fortress called Megacity and protect humanity from there.
His objective was to expose 1.5 billion people to Aether and cultivate Psychic, so he didn’t care much about thought control.
Of course, education close to brainwashing would be conducted in the process of psycher cultivation.
“Still, there are quite a lot of people who don’t trust me. How do you think it will turn out?”
“The exact location is not known, but it is presumed to be M Corporation’s headquarters.”
They must have tried hard to hide their destination, but most of the high-ranking people in society were watched by microdrones.
“Do they plan to cut my neck with an execution squad while I have a meeting with the conglomerate heads?”
“They think they can seize power without you, Master.”
“I wish I could just step aside for a year and let them try.”
But he couldn’t do that.
Yu Ji-ha decided to uproot the coup forces this time.
To do that, he had to give them victory instead of breaking their pre-meeting and wait for their forces to gather.
When the news of Yu Ji-ha’s death spread, the existing privileged class would come out.
This was like luring ants with honey.
“Arma, are you ready?”
“Yes. I produced a substitute in the biobag. Only part of the head is mechanical, so it won’t be detected by metal detectors.”
He needed a substitute, not an android, because they had to believe that Yu Ji-ha was dead.
Fortunately, the repair of the biobag was finished a long time ago, so he could produce a human body.
The human body produced like that had no soul, but it could imitate simple actions with a few parts.
“Pretend to have a discussion according to the meeting analysis and get shot by a bullet.”
“Understood.”
He targeted the broadcasting station because he wanted to announce that they had seized power at the same time as Yu Ji-ha’s death.
Also, the broadcasting station was so crowded that security was lax.
Drones couldn’t enter either, so it was perfect for their plan.
Yu Ji-ha’s location would probably be determined by one person.
“I wonder why they had to rush to their death when they had enough money to live for a lifetime.”
Lee Hyungseok was his uncle, but Yu Ji-ha didn’t feel any emotion for him.
“Don’t give any signal and secure the list first. Let’s see how many ants there are.”
…
One evening in November, Yu Ji-ha and the executives of the conglomerates gathered at the headquarters of M Corporation’s broadcasting station in Yeouido.
The topic of the day was the discussion of the national projects for 2029, including the Moonlight Project.
It was called a meeting, but in reality, it was more like an announcement of how much food Yu Ji-ha would distribute to the conglomerates.
Nuclear fusion, Moonlight Project, and other businesses derived from black metal, ion thrusters, and unoptanium were enormous.
Also, in the second part, there was a debate on the citizen score system, which was a recent issue.
Intellectuals and civic groups had concluded that they had no choice but to attack Yu Ji-ha with freedom and human rights, since he was strong in data.
They couldn’t deny that the crime rate had dropped drastically and that the citizens’ reactions were good.
Therefore, there was a strict security on the seventh floor of the broadcasting station headquarters.
All employees had to go through three layers of body searches, and dozens of guards stood by the door.
The participants could only enter the main studio after passing through metal detectors.
“Isn’t it too much to ask me to take off my belt?”
“Please bear with us for a moment.”
Soon after, the meeting began and Yu Ji-ha started his speech.
“In 2029, humanity will face a new era of transformation. And Korea will be at the center of it…”
As he spoke, a group of people started to come up from the basement of the broadcasting station headquarters.
They were armed with submachine guns and various grenades, and even wore black metal bulletproof vests.
Their goal was to use fire to get Yu Ji-ha out of the center of security.
“The fire alarm will go off.”
As soon as one of them finished speaking, a loud alarm rang throughout the headquarters.
Ding-dong-dong!
“Fire! Fire!”
“There’s no smoke. Where’s the fire?”
The guards who were waiting on the seventh floor moved immediately.
“Code red. Protect the VIP at all costs.”
Several guards stuck to Yu Ji-ha’s body, who was disguised as a human body.
“We’ll take you this way.”
“Me, protect me too.”
Was Lee Hyungseok chairman related to the president?
He didn’t have to do that, but since the VIP nodded his head, they all protected him as well and went down through the emergency exit.
But somehow they knew, and armed terrorists were coming up.
Bang!
Flashbangs and smoke grenades exploded at the same time, blocking their sight.
Taking advantage of that, terrorists wearing gas masks quickly climbed up the stairs and aimed their submachine guns.
Tatata!
“Ugh!”
The guards who were protecting Yu Ji-ha with their bodies fell down.
There was some counter-fire, but the terrorists’ firepower was superior.
Finally, a grenade exploded on the stairs and the guards were torn apart and fell down.
“Aaaah!”
Lee Hyungseok screamed sincerely and collapsed on the floor.
And not long after, the terrorists were able to drag Yu Ji-ha out from among the fallen guards.
“If you kill me…”
He seemed to have been hit by shrapnel in his leg, as he was groaning in his mouth.
One of the terrorists pointed a gun at his chest.
“The end of a dictator is always death by a bullet. Farewell.”
Bang! Bang!
The bullets pierced through the dictator’s heart.
The light faded from Yu Ji-ha’s eyes.
The terrorists searched his body and found out that he was not an android.
BD’s androids looked human on the outside, but if you looked closely, you could tell right away that they were not human.
“He finally died.”
“Bastard, he acted so smug. He deserves it.”
As soon as he died, they played a pre-recorded broadcast.
-Yu Ji-ha is dead!
-The dictator is dead!
-Stop all hostile actions and drop your weapons!
The employees who were hiding heard that broadcast and were very confused.
“The president is dead?”
“What’s going to happen now?”
The guards who came up late were also confused.
They lost their subject to protect.
Even if he was a dictator, he had the title of acting authority, so they continued to guard him. But if he died, would there be any meaning in their authority?
People’s image was important anyway.
People would remember deeply the politician who appeared first after Yu Ji-ha’s death.
Smoke filled the studio as the broadcast resumed.
“Ah ah, this is Congressman Han Seungjae. There was a big commotion just now, but it has been resolved without any problem. What was the commotion? Don’t be surprised, citizens. The dictator Yu Ji-ha is dead.”
The ratings were huge because of the news that Yu Ji-ha was attending the meeting.
The news of Yu Ji-ha’s death came out on TV, on the radio in the car, and on various internet broadcasting platforms.
Shock hit Korea, and the real Yu Ji-ha heard this news from the Settler.
“Wait until they gather enough.”
His empty seat while looking below.
There could be many reasons for a coup, but the main ones were usually like this:
—I want to have power too.
In the past, it was the king, and now it was the president or something similar.
The goal of those who paid for this terror was also that.
They wrapped it up as returning power to the people, but inside they were full of greed and jealousy.
-Why should I take orders from a 30-year-old kid?
-If he can be president, why can’t I?
-He must have scraped money with his claws. If I do well, that could be mine.
There were more than one or two of these people.
The conglomerates that ranked high in the business world were on Yu Ji-ha’s side.
Silla Group had so many and sweet crumbs to drop from it.
Just the nuclear fusion plant project alone was too big for Silla Heavy Industries to handle alone.
Naturally, they had to form a consortium with others like KHNP, and it was obvious that they would get some benefits in the process.
But not all conglomerates supported Yu Ji-ha.
The two groups, Future Automobile and GC, were representative examples.
The former couldn’t get the supply of black metal batteries, and the latter was pushed out by black metal batteries and faced a crisis of survival.
The political and military factions were only interested in what would come out of the can if they burst the pressure that was keeping Yu Jihara in place. They didn’t care about the situation of the world.
Such greed made it impossible to have a precise and meticulous plan for the future.
The stupid ideas that even a child wouldn’t fall for were discarded and a beheading plan was established to target Yu Jihara when he came out of the broadcasting station.
However, none of the instigators thought about what would happen after killing Yu Ji-ha.
―Let’s kill him first and see. There’s always a way out even if the sky falls, right? We’ll manage somehow.
They didn’t know how Silla Group and Yu Jihara were connected and how they used artificial intelligence.
They also knew very little about the newly acquired territory north of the 5th parallel.
When someone pointed out this fact, Congressman Han Seung-jae said:
“We’ll find out everything when we seize the Silla Group server room. It’s not like they have alien technology there, right? The experts can analyze it.”
The beheading operation without a countermeasure began and they finally succeeded in killing Yu Ji-ha.
The special forces who carried out the operation said it was too sloppy, but the instigators couldn’t hide their joy and danced around.
Of course, after the camera was turned off.
“Yu Ji-ha is dead… Now Silla Group and Korea are mine!”
“Ours, right? Congressman?”
When Colonel Jang Ik-hwan asked, he gave a nervous laugh.
“It was just a slip of the tongue. Anyway, let’s announce this to the people.”
The broadcast ended and they dreamed of the cheers of the citizens as they came out of the broadcasting station.
But the reaction of the citizens was completely different from their expectations.
“…”
“Why are you looking at us like that? We did it. We killed the dictator.”
“…”
Congressman Han Seung-jae was perplexed by the cold eyes of the citizens.
Why are they all looking like that?
Aren’t they being too rude to the people who killed the dictator and restored their freedom?
The soldiers under Jang Ik-hwan also checked their weapons in confusion because of the chilly atmosphere.
And then the citizens started to criticize them with sticks.
“You’re going to return power to the people? No one believes that!”
“Can you replace him? Can you lead Korea?”
“People remember how you only dragged Yu Ji-ha’s feet!”
This is not right.
The reaction of the citizens was so fierce that Congressman Han Seung-jae and his men were chased back into the broadcasting station.
And they witnessed a really annoying sight.
The broadcasting station staff were covering Yu Jihara’s body on the floor with a blanket.
It must have been a gesture of consideration, but it was an infuriating sight for Han Seung-jae and Jang Ik-hwan.
Bang! Bang!
Colonel Jang Ik-hwan pulled out his pistol and shot.
As the staff looked at him in surprise, he opened his heavy mouth.
“We burned down a dictator and you can’t even cheer. What are you doing? Don’t you cover him with a blanket?”
“…”
“You still don’t take it off… We made a big mistake. We should have left him alone to be ruled by a dictator. Don’t you agree?”
He asked his subordinates as if he was asking them, but one of them spat out sarcastically.
“It would have been better that way…”
“What did you say? Do you want to die?”
He aimed his gun at him, but he didn’t stop talking even though he was trembling.
“That, that’s right. What are you going to do now? Can you replace Yu Ji-ha? You had no ability and kept passing on the authority delegation.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Colonel Jang Ik-hwan slapped his face with his gun.
As his face turned and blood flowed, Congressman Han Seung-jae stopped him from the side.
“Colonel Jang, please be gentle.”
“Say it again. What did we do wrong?”
“…”
The staff member glared at Colonel Jang without wiping his blood.
He wanted to hit him again, but he had to endure it.
The other staff members came forward to protect him.
There was confusion and anger in their eyes.
How could he get this much trust from people as a dictator…
The two ringleaders realized that something had gone wrong.
But it was too late to turn back.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m