Chapter 96: Metaverse Hope Edition
The Middle Kingdom (China) was torn apart by a blast.
It started with a riot that broke out in the first concentration camp for Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and escalated into an independence movement.
There were rumors that the Taliban, who had been pushed back in Afghanistan, were involved.
The Middle Kingdom, which used to be formidable, had no capacity to deal with both the Uyghurs and the Taliban at the same time.
As hundreds of soldiers and police officers were executed, Wang Xian Shangjiang declared that he would withdraw all his troops and give up on Xinjiang.
-It is a shameful thing to fail to preserve the land of the Middle Kingdom. But there is always a chance. We will rise again.
As soon as the Middle Kingdom abandoned Xinjiang, Tibet also began to show signs of independence movement.
Taking advantage of the gap in military power, the Lhasa station in Tibet was attacked by independence activists and closed down. Cargo trucks were set on fire.
Wang Xian Shangjiang ordered an immediate suppression.
He could give up on Xinjiang, but Tibet was an indispensable region for securing water resources.
But then, a bomb attack by an unknown perpetrator cut off the Qingzang Railway at its most vulnerable point.
Railway experts estimated that it would take at least six months to restore it, which put a strain on the leadership of the Middle Kingdom.
The Middle Kingdom did not have enough power to deploy a large-scale military force to Tibet at the moment.
They could do it if they wanted to, but then they would lose control over the mainland and the three northeastern provinces.
—We have no choice. Tibet is an inalienable territory of the Middle Kingdom. We must quell the rebellion by any means necessary.
At this time, some of the Korean troops stationed in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula quietly moved northward.
They were armed with advanced equipment such as K-3 tanks and Ion Beams, and had undergone sufficient training.
Some speculated that they could gain an advantage even against the US Army of equal size.
This was because they had applied a tank-mounted drone system.
These drones were mounted on tanks normally, but formed a swarm before combat and mapped out the battlefield in 3D terrain, which they transmitted to each tank.
Therefore, each tank could know the type and movement of enemy tanks in real time.
Thanks to the unmanned turret, there was no need for a gunner, and as soon as the tank commander confirmed the target and pressed a button, the enemy tank burst into flames.
At this point, some frontline soldiers felt that combat felt like a game.
“It’s over when you shoot. This is less thrilling than a phone game.”
“Even if you get hit, the armor material is Black Metal, so it just shakes for a moment.”
What was astonishing was that they were preparing to mount railguns on the improved K-3A2 tanks.
Several military-related institutions praised them as a country that was crazy about firepower.
—If Korea succeeds in deploying railgun-mounted tanks, they will be able to overwhelm any country in ground combat, including the US Army.
—They have nowhere to project their power. After absorbing North Korea, there are only two countries in East Asia that can compete with Korea: the Middle Kingdom and Japan. I hope they don’t want a new war.
Of course, they didn’t completely move northward and occupy Manchuria, which was clearly part of the Middle Kingdom’s territory.
The Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff dismissed it as a mistake during training and warned against overinterpretation.
—Some units got lost and went north for a while. They’ll be back soon, so don’t worry.
It was ridiculous to say that Korean troops armed with corps-level reconnaissance aircraft and drones got lost.
But the Middle Kingdom was in no position to make a fuss because they had economic cooperation with Korea in mind.
Thanks to this, Korean troops were able to roam around Liaoning and Jilin provinces relatively freely and learn about geography.
While the Middle Kingdom was facing a crisis of disintegration, Japan was also in a serious crisis, though not as much as them.
The Ground Self-Defense Force began to crack down on protests harshly after declaring that they would support Right Wing Representatives Party’s power grab.
Violent protests broke out all over Japan, and conflicts escalated as the Ground Self-Defense Force, which was inexperienced in counterinsurgency operations, clumsily suppressed them.
There was also a fierce fight within Representatives Party for the largest faction.
It was so bad that a gunfight broke out in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Russian-made firearms were used extensively in this gunfight, which killed or injured more than a dozen people, but no one was arrested.
—There were machine gun sounds in Kabukicho, but they couldn’t find the culprit? What’s happening to Japan?
—They’re all incompetent. I wish a proper leader would appear and sweep them all away, like the neighboring country.
—Japan is really over. Everyone else is switching to nuclear fusion, but we can’t afford to run expensive and dangerous nuclear reactors.
—We can still beat Korea’s navy if we mobilize our power!
—Taiwan repelled China’s landing fleet with five railguns. We have two bigger railguns on Tsushima and an unidentified black ship. How are you going to overcome that?
—The US is only focused on Europe and Russia invited Yu Ji-ha to the Kremlin. They must be planning to carve up Japan.
—How can we lose our territory, which is not even a disputed area? What did those bastards above do?
On the other hand, the Moonlight Project began and the news of the lunar base occupied all the channels in Japan.
Several launch vehicles flew to the far side of the moon with materials and androids were mobilized to build the base.
The Japanese were annoyed by the American-made rovers that were roaming around.
—They were supposed to use Japanese-made rovers for transportation…
—Representatives Party ruined it. Die.
—I’d rather stay still than participate in a Korean-led project. They will surely fail miserably and become an international laughingstock.
—Yu Ji-ha has never failed so far.
—Then he will fail soon.
—That’s why you get kicked out of school, netouyo.
—If we don’t participate in this project, we will create hundreds of trillions of yen in added value. How far are these fools delusional?
Not only giant communities, but also similar conversations took place in reality.
Japanese companies formed a consortium to make a breakthrough and devised a direct investment plan in Korea.
—We will build an ocean plant in Korean waters and float it. Then we will connect it to Japan with a submarine cable and supply electricity. That might be possible.
The only problem was whether Yu Ji-ha would allow it.
The newly formed consortium cautiously contacted the Blue House and Yu Ji-ha showed this reaction.
“I’ll allow it if it’s east of Tsushima. That’s the closest place to the mainland, right?”
It sounded like he was considering Japan’s situation, but in fact it was his ambition to solidify his control over Tsushima.
If this becomes a reality, the Maritime Self-Defense Force will not be able to carry out any operations against Tsushima Island.
It would be like handing over Tsushima to Korea by Japan’s own hands.
What was more absurd was that Japan had no choice but to accept this even though they knew his intentions well.
—We have no choice. If we don’t do this, our future will be dark.
How can we afford to run expensive and dangerous nuclear reactors when everyone else is switching to nuclear fusion?
When the consortium began to work out the details, such as sending staff to Korea, the Maritime Self-Defense Force smelled something and strongly opposed it.
The Public Security Bureau warned that some companies would be charged with espionage, and Japanese companies, including Keidanren, asked for support from international economic organizations.
Japan was indeed facing a crisis of disintegration.
….
Arma entered the office and reported on the general situation of North Korea and the future plans.
“It seems to be stabilizing somehow.”
“At least there are no starving people. But it will take some time to set up the infrastructure and production facilities and assign the people.”
“We have to expect that much time.”
“And… there are requests for the release of androids from all over the world. What should we do?”
There were many things that surprised the world from Shilla Group, but androids were especially more so.
Maybe because they could touch and feel the quality for themselves.
There were hundreds of videos on YouTube and other places where people talked and dated with androids.
At least they looked indistinguishable from humans on video.
And so, men from all over the world began to cry out.
—Shut up and take my money!
The enthusiasm was incomparable to when Russia Premium was released.
They couldn’t stand it anymore and some people immigrated to Korea.
“Use that as a bait and lure them to the Pacific side. Of course, only those who have some skills.”
“Understood.”
“And we need to secure pilot genes soon… Are the metaverse personnel and equipment ready?”
“The moment you give the order, we can start right away.”
The most important thing to eradicate Plague was the number of Psychic.
But it was a problem if those Psychic couldn’t get into assault armors.
The talent of a Psychic and the training as a pilot were separate things.
There were very few people who could perform well in both fields, and the United Human Federation also had a headache over this issue.
After a tremendous effort, the researchers at ARC, an artifact analysis agency, developed a device using biopacks.
It was a device that established various abilities required for controlling assault armors at the genetic level.
With this device, they could preserve some special talents called pilot genes, such as reflexes, and pass them on to future generations.
If they were connected to artificial wombs called biopacks, they could produce excellent pilots.
The most successful human born from this was Yu Ji-ha himself.
When Yu Ji-ha was born, there was a huge cheer at ARC.
They thought that the war was over with his extraordinary ether response.
He recalled that time and smirked.
“I hated that system more than anyone…”
He had no choice.
He had to use everything he could to wipe out Plague.
Yu Ji-ha ordered Arma.
“Make a suitable platform and create pilot genes. What would be a good platform?”
“How about a game? It has a high interest among young people, and also more people are enjoying it with VR devices these days.”
He looked at the data screen and nodded his head.
“Start right away. We don’t have time.”
As of May 2029, Korea’s game market could be said to be stagnant.
The gacha games that started in the 2010s became more cunning in sucking money from wallets, and most users got used to it.
There was a brief criticism of malicious BM in the early 2020s, but it didn’t change the trend.
At least some indie games with creative ideas came out occasionally, but they didn’t go beyond roguelikes and were not mainstream.
What about VR? The equipment didn’t develop much, and it was branded as otaku stuff by ordinary people.
It was weird to see healthy men dancing with girlish voices and gestures in VR chat rooms using voice conversion programs.
For a while, public institutions and corporations paid attention to metaverse, that is, virtual reality, but it sounded like nonsense to gamers.
—Metaverse? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing since the early 2000s with online games?
—They just stick metaverse on everything because it looks like a cutting-edge industry and it’s easy to get funding. It’s used by anyone and everyone.
—It’s similar to ubiquitous. It seemed like it would change the world, but it was smashed by smartphones. And now they’re sucking investors’ money with the word Internet of Things.
—When I see men with female voice packs going into VR chat rooms and dancing like girl groups, I feel nothing but despair for metaverse…
—The real metaverse hasn’t even started yet.
In this situation, an artificial intelligence named Lucia appeared and people had high expectations.
Since it was artificial intelligence, they thought it would be useful for fields that required massive data processing, such as genetic engineering or food production.
But what its owner did was to build a drone system and take over the internet network and become a dictator.
Most researchers were greatly disappointed by Yu Ji-ha’s behavior and didn’t even expect or contact him.
—Is that all he can do with that amazing artificial intelligence? Just strengthening his dictatorship?
—We could do more research that would help humanity if we had it. I’m really disappointed.
Of course, everything they wanted was ready in the DB.
There were a lot of technologies and concepts that were sleeping, from diamond semiconductors to superconducting quantum computers, to gravity technology.
He didn’t reveal them because he judged that it wasn’t time yet.
For example, medical technology that significantly delays aging would only cause chaos in the world.
The population of the world was increasing anyway, so he thought it was enough to provide it to those who needed it.
For example, like Fatima, a Psychic party he brought from Afghanistan.
He hadn’t seen her once since he brought her, but he thought Arma was taking good care of her.
He sometimes sent her pocket money and she sent him a handwritten letter. It seemed that she felt him as a father-like figure.
It was natural for her to feel that way, since she had almost no one to bond with in Korea, which was far away from her home country.
Anyway, Yu Ji-ha thought that now was the time to show metaverse-related technology.
A game platform was efficient for securing pilot genes.
Controlling assault armors had little to do with modern pilots.
What they needed were physical senses that were almost instinctive, such as dynamic vision and reflexes.
They had to revive those abilities that had degenerated as humans developed civilization and became physically comfortable.
He could extract his genes and use them, but artificial wombs were limited and he couldn’t be sure that the children born that way would have the talent of psychers.
That was evident from the fate of Yu Ji-ha’s biological children.
In the end, it was most efficient to gather 1.5 billion candidates and increase the probability.
Anyway, for that reason, Silla Metaverse and Silla Entertainment started their business at the same time.
Those who didn’t know the situation were expecting a lot from Yu Ji-ha’s interest in games.
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