Damn the World, Ride a Submarine - Chapter 198



Only Krnovel

Episode 198 – Winter Raiding Season – Winter Raiding Season

Director Jae-seong Yoo, who oversees the OSS’s current status information, was speaking in a longer, more repetitive manner than usual.

– … I would like to add a word of caution. The influence of our organizations, including OSS and OSL, on the international community is comparable to that of the United States. And you are the chairman of two international organizations, ESSO and PATA…

– Sir, what I want to say is…

– Yes. I’m curious as to why we don’t make a national declaration. Even if we make a national declaration now, no one will object or interfere…

I cut off Director Yoo Jae-seong’s words because they seemed to be fading.

“It seems like Director Yoo had a hard time bringing it up. The meeting may take a long time, so let me explain. I mentioned this before, but…”

– …

“First of all, the nation is nothing more than a mental concept. It is merely a tool to mobilize people and elicit sacrifice and loyalty by using that concept. The first reason is that we do not need such a concept.”

– ···.

“And I don’t want to impose any obligation on people by mobilizing such an ideological thing, and I don’t want to feel obligated to it either.”

Director Lee Shin-young added with a chic expression.

– We don’t even pay taxes. We live off of the CEO’s money. Hahaha.

– And that’s not all? Free housing, free medical care, free education…

“Yes. If OSS were to take on the guise of a nation, there would be various conditions and restrictions on such benefits. And also,”

– …

“There are obstacles that make it difficult for OSLAM to make such blatant investment returns. Imagine if the U.S. government were to manipulate Wall Street with government-level information. It would probably be difficult for them to maintain power.”

A voice, whose identity was unknown, came out softly from the speaker.

– Then, if we just have a monarchy…

“A monarchy? What era is this? That’s ridiculous. Anyway, I can’t stand it anymore because it’s so embarrassing.”

The crowd stirred when someone brought up the word monarchy. But strangely enough, an atmosphere of agreement was created for this ridiculous idea.

– A monarchy? Does that make sense?

– A king? It’s no different from an empire, so he’s an emperor, right?

– Oh, then OSLAM should become the Imperial Property Management Agency.

“Oh my, how would that make any difference from now? And I’m still single, so if it were a monarchy, wouldn’t everyone be urging me to quickly create a crown prince?”

– Hahahaha. You are absolutely right, sir.

– Yes. You should get married and have children. What are you going to do with all that money?

– Oh, let’s go ahead and talk.

“Yes, what you all said is not wrong. I don’t want to do that. I don’t know why.”

– Oh, no. I’m worried that you might disappear somewhere if this continues. Please be careful with what you say.

– I’m sorry. I brought up something unnecessary…

“No, it’s okay. I was just curious. Anyway, I don’t think it’s necessary to declare a nation.”

…

As I turned around after the meeting, two words lingered in my mind: ‘marriage’ and ‘second generation.’

I hated being restricted and interfered with, and I was even more reluctant to mortgage my future, so I had become a single person before I knew it.

But suddenly, I felt sorry for Hyein, who always seemed to be there, but not there.

‘Should I try something like marriage?’

As my thoughts raced, I thought, ‘The world is going crazy, so what can’t I do?’

‘First of all, after safely getting through the fifth winter…’

It was only natural that war paralyzed people’s reason.

The fact that we are now facing the harsh fifth winter, which we call the Little Ice Age, is something we only began to notice when our instinctive sense of cold skin gave us signals.

The weather was now impossible to predict, and the boundaries between seasons had long since become blurred.

Looking at the calendar, it was still October, the height of fall, but as November approached, the Han River began to freeze over.

However, South Korea was able to calmly prepare for winter thanks to being the only developed country to have escaped the effects of World War III.

In addition, we were able to secure sufficient oil supplies from the Sakhalin oil field in the Far Eastern Republic, and secured various energy resources such as nuclear power plants.

And above all, because North Korea was taking strict measures to manage the ‘winter refugees’ and a significant number of military resources along the ceasefire line were deployed along the Yalu River.

but.

In many parts of the world, regimes have changed, riots have occurred, and people have fled to other countries over the question of ‘how to distribute energy.’

The media called them ‘winter migrants’ and ‘winter refugees’ as they fled to escape the winter.

‘Winter refugees’ have caused great problems between countries, but they have also caused many problems within one country.

China was particularly severe. Refugees from Mongolia were swarming across the border to escape the winter, and China tried to stop them by force.

China has used force to block refugees coming from outside.

They were helpless as Han Chinese migrated en masse to the southern regions to survive the harsh cold of the northern regions, including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Heilongjiang Province, Hebei Province, and Shaanxi Province.

Most of the ‘winter refugees’ were low-income and had no means of transportation, so they headed south, even on foot.

The Chinese Communist Party tried various methods to prevent the movement of residents, but there was no way to stop the movement of hundreds of millions of people as if by agreement.

The scene was captured on countless smartphones and spread around the world. The media reported it as a symbolic scene of the true disaster of the fifth winter.

This was enough to create a new problem, not just a cold one.

Beijing, the capital of China, was losing its population, except for the upper-class Zhongnanhai and a few wealthy villages, due to the severe cold and air pollution, and the entire city was turning into a slum.

Meanwhile, southern Chinese cities were suffering from housing, medical, and job problems, as well as a surge in crimes big and small, and behind this was China’s underworld, which was expanding its influence again due to the war that China had started.

The Free China that the OSS had established as an independent state was located south of Shanghai, so the situation was somewhat better, but they had not yet decided on a policy on how to deal with the ‘winter refugees’ who might come from mainland China.

Russia seemed to have survived its fifth winter surprisingly well.

In areas where it was already difficult for people to live, only people and systems that could withstand temperatures of minus 60 degrees remained, and the impact of the extreme cold was relatively small.

And it was exercising influence on the Black Sea and Caspian Sea coastal countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to a level close to annexation.

The Kremlin had a policy of relocating significant numbers of residents to eastern and southeastern Ukraine in advance.

In the United States, everyone was shaking in fear of another anomie situation after the great earthquake.

There was also a chaotic situation between the federal and state governments due to their vested interests and energy supply. More than 3,000 counties were divided by region, race, and income and were wary of each other.

This was because, before the real winter began, winter plundering was prevalent throughout the United States. The so-called ‘winter plundering’ had begun.

The American media began calling it pre-winter looting, and it soon became the official term for winter raiding season.

Spring was the season of war and winter was the season of plunder.

The arrival of the ‘winter raid season’ in the United States

It was reported nonstop through the news.

News stories like, “A gang of Hispanic looters from County A raided and looted a wealthy white neighborhood in County B,” or “A gang of masked looters raided County C,” were reported every single day.

A vicious cycle was repeated in which a militia was organized to prevent looting, and the militia transformed into a plundering party by wearing masks to survive the winter.

The towns ravaged by looting were swarming with bandits, and if there were no bandits, the mafia would rob the residents.

There were also constant ominous rumors, and the saying, “Police by day, looters by night,” was openly circulated.

The only places where public safety was maintained were the centers of large cities that had not experienced earthquakes.

But that place, too, became densely populated due to American-style ‘refugee raiding’, and naturally, various problems arose.

It seemed that our OSS and affiliates would not have much trouble. While I and everyone else were busy with the war, Director Kim Wan-jun and Director Lee Shin-young were diligently preparing for winter.

Many of the staff and their families were relocated to warm Marshall Camp or OSS-LAND in Kiribati, while others were sent on board several OSL cruise ships, including the Leighton, to spend the winter in warmer climes to the south.

OSS soldiers and officers were also given sufficient supplies, rest, and vacation time.

It seemed like winter was passing by like that.

…

I was on the ARK heading to OSS-LAND in Kiribati.

As the submarine was passing the Federated States of Micronesia, Yoo Jae-sung, the head of the Strategic Coordination Office, approached them, saying he had an urgent report to make.

“Sir, a security emergency has occurred.”

“yes?”

“OSL’s San Francisco branch office staff are said to be isolated.”

“ah ···.”

“They say that the looting gang is on the rise and that it’s a situation where you can’t go anywhere.”

“Then why don’t you just ask the US authorities? If it’s under the OSS name, they’ll sort it out?”

“That’s it···.”

“Come on, tell me.”

“That’s it. As instructed by Director Lee Shin-young…”

“Come on!”

“Yes. The 150 tons of gold secured under the direction of Director Lee Shin-young are stored in the San Francisco branch.”

“150t?”

“yes.”

“Isn’t that amount more than the Bank of Korea?”

(The United States holds more than 8,000 tons of gold.)

“Yes. The CEO instructed us to buy as many as possible…”

“Oh, that’s right. Anyway, is it difficult to request support from the US authorities because of 150 tons of gold?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a problem if it becomes known that you own gold, but if it becomes known, it becomes difficult to take it out of the country. And if it gets looted, it’s an even bigger problem.”

“I didn’t know about this problem from the beginning…”

“We were trying to bring it in slowly and legally, but things seem to have gotten complicated since this happened in the US.”

“In the end, unintentionally. So you have to smuggle it out.”

“Yes. That’s how things turned out.”

“Then, how about we throw away the 150 tons of gold and just rescue the people?”

“Huh~?!”

…