Rust - Chapter 1037



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-1037

At Maru’s gaze, Kim Yang turned her eyes to the side. Carefully, very carefully.

‘Why are you suddenly looking at me like that?’

For some reason, the gaze of Maru, who was staring intently, gave off the feeling of ‘something’, ‘how is it’, ‘is that so’ to Ms. Kim.

Maru’s questions continued to break that subtle feeling.

“How is the situation in Korea?”

[It’s blocked, but the sinkhole monster isn’t going back.]

Well then, that’s right. It’s a kind of feeling.

It was Ms. Kim who confidently returned her eyes, which had been turned to the side, to their original position.

The sinkhole monsters that should have returned to where they came from a long time ago were not going back.

“What else is coming?”

[There were things that used to come from far away, but now they are blocking the path by breaking the ice sea with artillery fire as soon as they come.]

The frozen sea route from Japan to Korea was broken, so if the sinkhole monsters had just returned to their former state, they would have naturally sunk into the sea, but they didn’t.

Fortunately, Busan had a mountainous terrain. It was dirty terrain even for urban warfare. This meant that it was difficult to attack Busan, but on the other hand, it was also tiring to recapture it.

[The South Korean government is trying to retake Busan, but the sinkhole monsters have retreated to Busan and are trapped there. So they are seriously considering whether to use nukes on Busan.]

The story of Ms. Kim, who said that the sinkhole monster has stopped spreading and is holding out in Busan, Changwon, and Geoje as no more monsters are coming in.

“nucleus?”

[Yeah. I tried stabbing them a few times. Most of the ones that went in died from infection and erosion. And 155mm artillery fire has its limits.]

It might have been effective if it wasn’t an immortal monster, but it was barely effective against flying debris and buildings exploding. It’s not like napalm was effective either.

If it were a normal mutant monster, it could have been driven away with napalm, but the sinkhole monster was somewhat resistant to fire to begin with, so it was useless.

Maru, who was scratching his beard that had grown rough from not shaving for several days, looked over the materials that Kim Yang had sent once more.

‘Why did their patterns change?’

There were signs of this in sinkholes in Southeast Asia, too, as they were moving at an accelerated rate.

‘Movement has also improved.’

According to Kim Yang’s story, the guys who had been pushing in from all directions retreated to Busan, Changwon, and Geoje.

‘The sinkhole monster has retreated?’

Ki-sun opened her mouth, as if she had the same thought.

[That’s not good. If what we’re saying is true, then they’ve started doing something called stronghold defense.]

[We are responding to it that way for now. Since we have no other way out, we are talking about using nuclear weapons.]

[I don’t think we’re talking about blowing up Busan, Changwon, and Geoje with nukes. Just Busan?]

[It seems like the Korean government and military are planning to do that for now.]

Ki-soon’s squinted eyes became even narrower.

[What if, just in case, they’re leading it?]

[?]

A question mark appeared above Kim Yang’s head.

[If you want to push back the sinkhole monster that has taken over Busan, you’ll have to use strategic nuclear weapons since tactical nuclear weapons won’t be enough. Didn’t they detonate a hydrogen bomb to deal with the monster disaster in Tokyo, Japan, and that’s what happened?]

Considering the geography of Busan, Ki-sun thought that it would be difficult to push them back with small tactical nuclear weapons. What if they had swarmed the city in order to induce them to launch nuclear weapons on purpose?

“That may be true. They were irrational guys, so they retreated, and they led the street fighting to their advantage. There are many things to consider suspicious.”

Maru also agreed with Gi-sun’s thoughts.

[Then I will warn the Korean government about that.]

“I think it would be better to focus on preventing them from leaving the city rather than subduing them or pushing them out to the sea. If they ask for support for street fighting, refuse. There’s no need to put our children in a dangerous place.”

Ms. Kim nodded.

[Okay.]

[There’s something a bit odd about the photos of the stratospheric reconnaissance airship.]

Hood, the information officer, displayed the photos he had taken of East Asia on the monitor, chronologically.

[This is a photo taken immediately after a large-scale volcanic eruption in Japan.]

This was a photo taken around the time when Maru and his party escaped to Japan on a yacht. As time passed, this was a photo taken when the East Asian expedition led by Kim Yang went there. Lastly, recent photos were listed.

[This photo shows that the clouds containing volcanic ash and smoke are not disappearing. In particular, recent photos show that the clouds have risen to the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.]

[Also, because of the recent incident in Southeast Asia, I checked the volcanoes that erupted in Southeast Asia, and the volcanoes that erupted recently did not disperse in a similar way to Japan.]

It was a hood that concisely stated the information that he had confirmed.

‘It’s a cloud···.’

It was strange that no matter how large a volcano erupted, the cloud of ash and smoke would not disappear.

Clouds that weren’t blown away even by a typhoon were not normal.

[I came here because the story came up last time. Strangely, there have been almost no typhoons coming to Japan in recent years. Even the earthquakes stopped except when we escaped.]

It was a story of Ki-sun that earthquakes and typhoons have decreased in Japan, a paradise for earthquakes and typhoons. Hood confirmed Ki-sun’s story.

[Super typhoons were created due to rising sea temperatures, but most of them missed Japan.]

Strangely enough, after the great disaster, typhoons mostly went towards the west coast of China, Taiwan, and Korea, and never made landfall in the Japanese archipelago.

“If you say it’s almost never happened, does that mean it happened a few times?”

[okay.]

Ki-soon nodded to Maru’s question.

“It’s not just the typhoon, but even with the monsoon front and westerly winds, the clouds are still rising towards the Korean Peninsula.”

There are many reasons why clouds laden with volcanic ash and dust would be washed away. But it is strange that the clouds that covered such a large area remain the same for several years, moving north?

[It’s definitely strange considering the sinkhole monster’s weaknesses.]

Na Ju-yeon interpreted the strange phenomenon in terms of the sinkhole monster’s weaknesses. The immortal monster’s weaknesses were salt, seawater, and sunlight.

And the fact that thick clouds block out sunlight means that one of their weaknesses has disappeared. It was not natural for such clouds to spread to the southern part of the Korean peninsula.

“The clouds that were supposed to hide their weaknesses happened to move in the same way as the sinkhole monster’s attack?”

[It was definitely strange. The clouds always covered the sky around Busan. It was difficult to bomb it with airships.]

“How did the ingredient analysis go?”

[The results of the component analysis show that it is simply water vapor mixed with volcanic ash and dust. Since it has the property of clumping together, we are conducting related research.]

There was a chance that the exact cause would never be discovered, just as it was still unknown how the sinkhole monster’s immortality came about.

Maru summarized the current situation.

The identity of the flesh monster that appeared in the conference hall of the city of the sea and the force that released it were confirmed, and relations with the empire were maintained at the status quo for the time being.

Since the imperial military and parliament had been annihilated anyway, there was nothing to actively respond to until a new government was formed.

‘We should just leave it alone until someone comes along and presses the nuclear button to start a nuclear war.’

A frustrating scenario would be one where the Empire would collapse and Imperial refugees would flock to the Holy Realm in their tens of millions.

Even though they had set a principle of not accepting refugees, it was clear that they would become tired in many ways because they had to prevent the refugees who were driven out from becoming lunch boxes for cannibals, vampires, and mutated monsters.

The best thing would be for the empire to endure and maintain itself, so that it could concentrate its efforts on technological development without wasting resources and time in the wrong places.

‘The fact that a flesh monster has appeared means that there is a force that is advancing its technology in the direction of bionics.’

Whether it was for mass production of cannibalistic vampires or for creating bioweapons, Maru was determined to move on to the next stage of the floating city as quickly as possible.

Next is the Korean issue.

Kim Yang and his personal guard were not a large force on their own, but considering the Black Drake-class fleet, they were a considerable force.

The Korean government attempted to recover Busan, Changwon, and Geoje, which had been lost to the sinkhole monster, through the participation of the Holy Kingdom’s air fleet and royal guards in the attack, but decided not to participate.

‘A cloud of volcanic ash and dust is covering the sky over Busan, Changwon, and Geoje.’

What if the clouds suddenly expanded their area? The air fleet that had lowered its altitude to provide support could have been thrown out in danger.

Likewise, if the sinkhole monsters had gained reason or had a commanding entity, it would have been dangerous for Kim Yang and his personal guards to enter.

So, I decided to advise against using strategic nukes against the sinkhole monster and to focus on defense.

We decided to study the strange phenomena occurring in volcanoes in Japan and Southeast Asia, and to study whether clouds of volcanic ash and dust block the weak points of sinkhole monsters and move them tactically and strategically.

‘Should we keep our hands off the situation in Southeast Asia?’

The countries of Southeast Asia were split into two and were on the verge of war. With Vietnam divided into North and South, the countries formed alliances to win each other’s victory and grew in size, creating a Southeast Asian version of war.

The elite Imperial Army unit that went to fight in the Vietnam War was annihilated while trying to capture Maru, and the three legions that were trying to attack the Holy Kingdom were annihilated.

The Emperor is dead, the Prime Minister is executed, the military and the parliamentary officials are all dead. As long as the Empire does not go mad, the Empire will not get involved in a civil war in Southeast Asia.

‘We’d better get out of Southeast Asia too.’

The Korean army has mostly returned due to the invasion of the sinkhole monster. It would be right for the Holy Kingdom army to withdraw around this time.

Tsk-

Maru clicked his tongue because he felt like the ending wasn’t good.

It was not about killing the legitimately elected governments of Southeast Asian countries to prevent war. They had already been overthrown once, so they were going to overthrow them again.

The reason the previous regime was overthrown was because it was a cannibalistic regime and because it was a government that treated the people as a resource in order to extract faith.

After erasing it like that, the Holy Kingdom army maintained security and started a referendum. What would happen if Maru wiped out the new government elected by the people because it wanted to form alliances and fight wars for its own interests?

The problem was that when a large-scale war broke out in Southeast Asia, cannibals, vampires, and faith-eating monsters inevitably emerged in the chaos of war.

‘This is difficult.’

If we intervene, things will become a mess just like they are now. If we don’t intervene, cannibals, vampires, and things that have become stronger by eating people will run wild.

Maru made a decision after much deliberation. It was right to clean up the mess. If the Holy Kingdom stayed to maintain order and was attacked by a terrorist attack, it would end up getting dragged into war.

The policy of the Holy Kingdom was thus decided.

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In the run-up to the war, Southeast Asian countries criticized the Holy Kingdom and Empire.

“You said you would help maintain order, but you backed out right away?”

“The Empire is the same. They said they would provide artillery support with their elite units, but there has been no contact.”

“You damn bastards, you can’t trust those sheep either.”

“Korea is the same.”

“The Korean military says that their home country is under attack by a sinkhole monster.”

“Tch- You say you have the world’s 5th or 6th military power, but you can’t even catch a sinkhole monster?”

The countries of Southeast Asia, split into North and South, were burning with the will to fight even though the Holy Kingdom, Empire, and Korea were missing. And so, one day in June, the war began.

‧

Korea had no choice but to watch as the entire Southeast Asia was engulfed in war.

“It is said that a North Vietnamese factory area was attacked by a special force comprised of capable individuals.”

“What were the North Korean capable people doing?”

“They said they were conducting an operation to block the flow of troops and supplies from Indonesia.”

“It’s likely to be a war of attrition.”

It was different from conventional warfare. Because it was a jungle, the use of tanks was limited, and bombing using airships was impossible due to the aftermath of volcanic eruptions and flocks of crazy birds.

“It’s a mess. Everything.”

“We need to re-organize our tactical doctrine around the ability users and exosuit infantry.”

“How did the Busan recapture operation go?”

“The sinkhole monster is undetected by bait operations.”

“The strange clouds are expanding their territory, and bombarding them is becoming less effective.”

“The best thing to do would be to blow up the weird clouds and sinkhole monsters all at once with a hydrogen bomb…”

We have issued a warning against the use of strategic nuclear weapons in the Holy Kingdom. After carefully analyzing the warning, we have determined that there is a risk of a sinkhole opening in Busan if strategic nuclear weapons are used, so we could not select the hydrogen bomb option.

“Will the Holy Kingdom not participate in the recapture operation?”

“They say they will only provide support for the defensive line.”

During the meeting, an urgent report came up.

[A fleet consisting of what appear to be Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers and passenger ships is requesting docking in Pohang.]

[As a result of the preliminary examination and investigation, it was confirmed that they were a vampire and a group of civilians following him.]

[Claims to have diplomatic relations with the Holy Kingdom.]

Some of the secret organization forces that Kisun had unilaterally entered into an agreement with in Japan had escaped to Korea.