[The Government of the Republic of Korea is alive!]
“What kind of bullshit......?”
A white bird that suddenly came from beyond the fortress.
Settling down inside the command-and-control room, that bird began spouting an unbelievable story.
‘The government is alive?’
An utterly out-of-nowhere claim.
“......What the hell does that even mean?”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who found it absurd.
Sergeant Lee Minjae frowned and spoke toward the bird, but—
[This message is being delivered only to human factions across the Republic of Korea.]
[The fact that there are those receiving this message means you are people who survived even through the recent calamity, doesn’t it.]
As if it couldn’t hear our reply at all.
It kept talking.
“......It can’t hear us?”
“Looks like a recorded message.”
[White Bird of the Herald]
[Freshness - Supreme]
While listening to it.
I checked the information I’d found through {Ingredient Identification} at the same time.
[This is the White Bird of the Herald, a magical lifeform primarily used in early magitech civilizations.]
[True to its name, it is a magic commonly learned by heralds, and among the ‘bird’ category of magic used by heralds, it belongs to the upper tier.]
[Unlike other birds, if you designate a target, the white bird can send a wide-ranging message regardless of the number of targets.......]
[It is a being with no physical body, but since it contains a substantial amount of magic power, for magic-powered lifeforms it is considered a worthwhile snack. In fact, because of this, there are cases where it gets eaten while delivering a message.......]
After reading that.
I could be sure of what it was.
“I think this is some kind of skill.”
If you set conditions for targets.
A skill that can send a message to everyone who matches.
‘Before, it would’ve been completely useless.’
But in an era like now, where not just SNS and texts—
Even communication itself had become difficult, it was a pretty powerful ability.
‘We can broadcast radio with Minjae’s ability, but even that has drawbacks.’
In the end, we could only deliver communication as far as the radio could reach.
And we couldn’t designate who, exactly, would be listening.
That was why Taejun warned us about the radio, keeping those drawbacks in mind.
On the other hand.
That bird didn’t look like it could deliver messages periodically like we do.
But it could clearly designate who would receive the message.
An ability that was better than ours in some ways.
And.
The beings that bird had designated as the recipients of its message were none other than—
[We extend our deepest gratitude to the citizens of the Republic of Korea who survived by responding with composure even amid this sudden crisis.]
“Citizens of the Republic of Korea.......”
Those who succeeded in surviving this ruin.
The surviving factions of the Republic of Korea.
[And...... at the same time, we apologize.]
[Regarding this incident, the Government of the Republic of Korea was unable to properly exercise its influence in regions outside of Seoul.]
[We believe many of you have suffered great harm because of this.]
[Additionally, many of you must have given up, believing the government had collapsed.]
[However, through this message.]
[We wish to convey an important fact.]
And.
The entity that sent that message.
[Do not give up, everyone!]
[The Government of the Republic of Korea and Seoul are still standing!]
“.......”
“.......”
They were claiming.
That they were this nation’s government.
That Seoul was still standing.
*****
‘The government survived?’
It had just been a little over one year since the day of ruin.
A lot had happened in that time.
But by now, one year later, there were a few perceptions that had settled into everyone’s mind as common sense.
For example, that every military unit except ours had been wiped out.
That densely populated city centers had turned into hell.
And also.......
‘The government is gone.’
That this country called the Republic of Korea too.
Had lost its meaning.
That was the shared belief of everyone who survived.
‘Even we, before we escaped the base, used to worry about running into other units or encountering government officials.’
That was also why we deliberately set up First Lieutenant Kim as a figurehead.
Now, we kept that figurehead position for other reasons.
But at first, the reason was that having an officer—not an enlisted soldier—as the head would at least let us preserve some justification when encountering outside factions.
‘......When did that expectation disappear.’
For a while, I definitely kept thinking like that.
I tried to recall when that hope died.
‘The Pope.’
The Pope who created that [Invasive Otherworld Dasmur].
Even if they were said to be severely weakened compared to their prime due to aging and Minjae’s lightning.
The original version of that thing likely had a very high grade.
And.
[“A nation? Trapped in a well, unable to see anything properly. How pitiable. Natives who know less about this world than I, an outsider.”]
‘Something like that wouldn’t have said something with no basis at all.’
After having that short conversation about nations.
I started thinking the national system had been completely broken.
But now, all of a sudden—
[The current provisional government of the Republic of Korea is located in Yeouido.]
[To the citizens still alive in each region!]
[If you are able to move freely, we would like you to gather in Seoul so we can speak in detail.]
[The detailed location of the current provisional government is.......]
They were saying they were alive.
And telling us to come to Seoul and talk.
“......Honestly, it’s hard to believe.”
“It’s already shocking enough that Seoul—what we thought had the lowest survival odds—is fine, but the government is still around too?”
It was definitely hard to believe.
But.
“We can’t ignore it either.”
“Ahem.”
If that contact had come to only us.
Since it was such an unbelievable claim, we could’ve just ignored it and moved on.
Even if Seoul really was still standing, it wasn’t like we had to encounter them right away.
The problem was something else.
“It said that message went to surviving human factions, right.”
Not just us.
The point was that there would be others who received that message too.
“I don’t know whether we can trust whoever sent that message. But.”
“......?”
“Even so, there will be people who flock to those words.”
When I said that.
Sergeant Lee Minjae nodded, as if he’d realized something.
“We’re not the only ones curious about what other regions look like.”
“That’s right.”
Wanting to learn the situation in other regions, and wanting to contact humans in other regions.
That wouldn’t be only us.
Humans split up by region.
If they survived, most of them would be thinking the same thing.
‘It would’ve been nice if we could be that center of gravity.......’
But Gangwon, where we’d established ourselves, was the northernmost edge of the Republic of Korea.
Even if humans survived in other regions, and even if we had a means to deliver messages to them.
It wasn’t like we could tell them to gather here.
That was why we were forming an Expedition Force and trying to go find them instead.
On the other hand.
‘Seoul is the capital of the Republic of Korea.’
No matter what region it was.
There was a road to Seoul.
Those who doubted the message’s truth wouldn’t answer the call.
Even so.
There would definitely be people who wanted to answer it.
‘That call might be a trap.’
But.
If so, then even more, we couldn’t ignore it.
‘If others answer that call, they might fall into that trap.’
We can’t warn them not to go over the radio.
We experienced it in Gyeonggi Province, but while the Legion’s existence might be hope to people in other regions.
At the same time, we were also an object of wariness.
From their perspective, that government and us surviving soldiers would look similarly suspicious.
‘This works out.’
Our immediate goal was to prepare for the enemies in North Korea.
To do that, we needed to gather the humans of this land.
We were planning to go region by region on expeditions.
And gradually make contact with the humans in those regions.
But—
“They set the stage first, so we don’t need to take that annoying approach.”
I rose to my feet.
And for the first time in a long while, I gave an order to the unit.
“Make expedition preparations.”
“......Yes!”
“Our unit, starting now.”
One year had passed since the day of ruin.
And now.
“We advance into Seoul.”
Gangwon’s army.
Would set foot in Seoul’s territory.
*****
VRRRRRRRR.......
A road that had gone unmaintained since the ruin, grown rough.
Across that road, several vehicles and tanks ran.
But strangely.
......RUMBLE.
‘It’s quiet...... and comfortable.’
Aside from the sound of small stones kicking up off the ground.
Even with those massive heavy-armored machines moving.
There wasn’t much sound echoing nearby.
I snorted.
“A military vehicle being quiet and comfortable, that’s ridiculous.”
“Haha. We put some work into it.”
As I spoke with a light laugh.
The combat engineer driving the vehicle gave a small snort and replied.
A combat vehicle.
These pieces of equipment that the combat engineers began making as soon as they came down to the ground to gather materials originally had some degree of soundproofing.
In this world, loud noises draw monsters’ attention that much more.
But.
Now, it wasn’t just that.
‘I can’t even feel vibration from the engine.’
Rough military vehicles don’t consider passenger comfort much.
So when you ride, it usually comes with vibrations that feel like they’re shaking your whole body.
“I heard it before, but. It’s something else.”
Even though I felt none of that vibration.
I looked around the inside of the combat vehicle that was still moving forward just fine and muttered.
“Because it doesn’t use fuel.”
“Just think of it like an electric car.”
Something from what happened in Gyeonggi Province came to mind.
When I tried to secure power to attack the source of that cold.
I stopped by the equipment warehouse General Jo Beomseok had gathered.
And.
‘Fuel.’
Jo Beomseok failed to secure fuel to run that equipment.
That was why he’d been in a state of frustration and despair.
And back then.
I thought the Legion wasn’t any different from Jo Beomseok on that problem.
Because we really didn’t have much fuel either.
But.
That wasn’t the case anymore.
“This is the project our combat engineers have been most absorbed in lately. I’m glad you’re satisfied too, Sergeant Shin.”
I looked toward the front engine compartment.
A place where the engine should be, but I felt no vibration at all.
But even if I didn’t feel vibration.
It wasn’t like I felt nothing at all.
‘Magic power.’
It was concealed as much as possible.
But to the rider, magic power could be faintly felt.
The Legion’s vehicles were now.
Not running on fuel, or electricity......
But on magic power.
“Magic stones, huh.”
In the [Underground Mine], the tremendous magic power from Morzan remained.
Even now that Morzan’s main body was gone, there was still so much magic power that if we didn’t regulate the output, it could become a major threat to our fortress.
And the effect was tremendous.
‘Just looking at Minjae not long ago.......’
A skill of Minjae’s that condenses lightning and fires it in one shot.
[Thundercloud]
The problem with that skill was that if the caster didn’t have a lot of magic power to begin with, they couldn’t condense much force.
The way we used that power in the past was to make all the unit’s spare mages eat an excessive amount of food, then condense as much magic power as possible, but—
‘To the point of deleting a giant in one strike...... I never imagined it.’
Because of Minjae’s own limits, two shots was the limit.
But the firepower that came from that “infinite magic power” was beyond imagination.
If we assume a fight near Bimanar.
Our unit could mobilize Minjae’s lightning up to two times.
Our unit’s defensive strength, already strong at holding territory, had effectively increased overwhelmingly.
And.
That [Underground Mine] was, literally, an underground mine.
Deep inside, there were many magic stones left behind that had been affected by that tremendous magic power.
And.
“Somehow, after we kept stitching and stitching together the technical manuals you translated for us...... we realized we could use it as a power source.”
As a result of researching it.
They’d reached the point where they could use it instead of fuel.
‘In Gyeonggi, we solved the fuel problem by securing usable fuel through Howard Jin’s [Ingredient Management].’
At the time, I thought it was a pretty huge achievement.
It felt a bit brute-force, but still.
I was proud, thinking I’d perfectly solved one resource shortage problem.
But.
Our combat engineers.......
“There’s a better resource, so why use the old stuff?”
“.......”
With that Spartan mindset.
They’d straight-up replaced the power source for all equipment.
‘These bastards aren’t normal either.......’
It wasn’t for nothing that in our unit, the highest regarded group wasn’t the combat roles, but the production roles.
“......Even so, it’s not completely replaced yet. We’re only using it in vehicles and major bases. Just in case, we also left the function to run on internal combustion.”
“Even so, it’s incredible.”
Unlike Howard’s ingredient management, which only needed ‘management’ to work.
My degraded skill only applies its effect to things under my management.
Power that’s maintained only when it’s at least within my sight.
With that, it was impossible to keep fuel in a liquid state.
‘I was thinking I might import fuel in exchange for equipment, both to solve it and to throw some weight behind Gyeonggi and Howard.......’
But they’d already solved that problem.
And unlike internal combustion engines.
Devices using magic-power engines made extremely little engine noise.
We originally did some soundproofing, but now it was beyond even an electric car.
RATATATATAT.......
‘.......’
Of course.
Even so, since we were visible to the naked eye, we couldn’t avoid combat.
Listening to the sound of the outer advance elements fighting.
I looked out the window and thought.
‘It’s a shame I couldn’t look over all of Gangwon.’
There were probably a lot of changes besides just this vehicle.
I was curious about the ammunition battalion where Alraune stayed, and Yeongdong too, which I couldn’t tour.
But for now.
‘Seoul.’
To head for Seoul, I was riding in this vehicle.
Included among the Legion’s column advancing while cutting down monsters.
And then.
“Youngjun.”
“Yes?”
One of the people riding in the same ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ vehicle with me.
“......There’s something I want to ask.”
“First Lieutenant Kim?”
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok, seated in the front seat.
Carefully opened his mouth.
