Rust - Chapter 622



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-622

General Dan Brown stroked the back of his neck.

‘It strangely gets on people’s nerves…’

Bernard Greene So, Kim Ki-soon’s narrow eyes really caught my attention. Those thin eyes that hid their gazes would not leave my mind.

It was also quite unusual to see the ministers of all relevant ministries gather and place a rat on the table without consulting anyone, without even crossing the line.

Everything about him, from his tone of voice to his actions, to the way his narrow, squinty eyes scanned the area, got on my nerves.

An attitude that gets on my nerves, but doesn’t cross the line so subtly. Even if I throw out bait here and there, he catches on like a ghost and doesn’t fall for it.

“You get better every time I see you.”

Chancellor Den Browne turned the report aside. The Holy Kingdom, its King Vladimir Kalin, and all those under his command were becoming more adept.

It wasn’t a bad thing that the trustworthy alliance was getting stronger. The problem was that the center or the additional power of the alliance was completely moving over to the Holy Kingdom.

Imperial Specialty Products is importing modular nuclear power plants, but that was the last time. It has been announced that modular nuclear power plants will no longer be needed in the future.

That meant securing a new power generation technology. In the current situation, if there was a more effective way to generate power than modular nuclear power plants, it would most likely be nuclear fusion.

‘Have we passed the singularity?’

He was the one who helped Dr. Jack Neese and the supercomputer Tria get into the Ark Tower anyway.

‘An artificial intelligence that thinks for itself. Tria.’

After that, AIs named Samantha and Diana coexisted in the supercomputer. They must have used that AI to spur their research.

What if the Holy Kingdom had succeeded in nuclear fusion, which had only been briefly achieved in modern laboratories for a limited time? What if the technology had been proven through a miniaturized nuclear fusion reactor?

‘I will change everything based on my abundant energy.’

The foundation of modern civilization was electrical energy. Endless power was the element that made the impossible possible.

If only there was enough electricity, everything that was only imaginable would become a reality. What would happen if everyone had unlimited energy available to them?

It wasn’t impossible to build a mass driver that could launch satellites into space. Yes, it would be possible to build a city that wouldn’t budge even in the harsh winter.

Technology that can change everything from food, clothing, and shelter in an instant. It was a sacred kingdom with serious energy problems while securing Canadian territory. But they didn’t need a modular nuclear power plant? No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one.

‘Nuclear fusion power generation.’

Beyond the imbalance, it was a game changer. In the old world, even if it had been developed, it would have been buried for a long time.

Oil and natural gas had to be sold, power plants had to be run. To keep energy companies and their associated industries from collapsing… Technology that had been sealed for 20, maybe 50 years.

‘This is difficult. This is difficult.’

Aside from the modular nuclear power plant, the only thing the Empire has that is far ahead of the Holy Kingdom is cloning technology. But now, even that cloning technology has to be handed over to the Holy Kingdom.

‘There must be an area where we have a comparative advantage···.’

The fundamental problem is that if it is certain that the Holy Kingdom has passed the singularity, the gap will surely grow exponentially over time.

The expressions of the cabinet members darkened at General Dan Brown’s statement that the Holy Kingdom’s technological prowess seemed to have surpassed the singularity.

“There are fundamental limits to the growth of the Holy Kingdom.”

President Den Brown signaled to continue with the Economic Minister’s assertion.

“The first limitation is the imbalance in territory and population, and the second is that the monetary circulation structure has been changed to real money.”

“Aren’t you trying to take our cloning technology to overcome those limitations?”

“Don’t you understand that I’m treating you like a human being when I say I’ll take all the clones?”

“The Holy Kingdom will try to solve its population problem with clones.”

“That’s crazy. Human rights for clones.”

“······.”

“The second one is not a limitation in today’s world.”

“Yes. After securing stability based on fiat currency, we can gradually move on to fiat currency.”

The Minister of Economy smiled broadly at such a counterargument.

“That’s the problem. Giving clones human rights means giving them economic rights. The size of the economy will suddenly increase, but will real money be able to handle that sudden demand for currency?”

“······.”

“Come to think of it, crows were buying things at the PX.”

“Even if you can handle a crow···.”

The ministers’ eyes turned to the tablet PC on one side of the table. What if a situation arises where the rats are paid a daily wage or something like that?

What if you had to pay out 100,000 or 1 million units of daily wages at once? Could the fiat money economy handle it? Even if it could, could it handle the sudden demand for gold?

“It’s gold.”

“If the economy of the Holy Kingdom were to operate on the basis of fiat currency as it does now, it would require a vast amount of gold.”

And the Empire had a huge amount of gold, a huge amount of gold that had been accumulated since the days of the Federal Government.

“I guess I can buy some time.”

It had been a long time since ethical regulations on cloning research had been virtually abolished.

Although we have maintained human rights at least in name, this rat incident has made us realize that this is a world where every citizen can become prey to rats at any moment.

Safety and security? Or freedom and human rights? The age-old debate has degenerated into an easy choice between the two.

“It’s dangerous.”

“It’s dangerous.”

“The calls to ease arms controls are growing stronger.”

“Now that it has been proven that even big cities are not safe, there is a prevailing opinion that virtually all gun control laws should be repealed.”

Imperial citizens scoffed at the idea of ​​limiting individual freedom and human rights for the sake of safety and security.

‘What will happen if the police come after I die?’, ‘What will happen if the military comes after the rats have swept through?’

So, these were citizens who wanted to arm themselves with new firearms for their own safety and security. The clone issue was the same.

Chancellor Den Brown suddenly thought of Vladimir Kalin, who had ended this chaos by declaring that the King of the ‘Holy Kingdom’ would do as he pleased.

‘I don’t know… I wonder if he thought about it this far.’

I was curious as to why the Holy Kingdom was suddenly declared.

‘A kingdom.’

A choice that overturned the basic values ​​of modern people. That’s why many people left the Holy Kingdom and came to the Empire. There were also many refugees who turned away from the Holy Kingdom and headed to the Empire.

If the reason for declaring a kingdom in a situation where population soon became the size of the economy and a growth engine and military resource was to prevent such conflicts at the source,

General Dan Brown looked out the window.

The road where the rats and field mice had engaged in a fierce street battle was covered in white snow. In that white world, he saw a few crows flying in the sky.

If there were any crows flying in New York, they were crows dispatched from the Holy Kingdom. They were crows contracted as mercenaries to escort airships.

‘hmm?’

President Den Brown immediately summoned the person in charge of the relevant work to confirm the matter.

“I’m talking about crows. Do they move around even on a cold day like today?”

“No. On cold days, I mostly stay in the dorms.”

Dan Brown’s gaze turned to the crow disappearing into the distance.

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dripping-

A knock on the second floor window of the Springfield Gun Shop.

“Fuck!!! You’re here already?”

Knock knock-

A man hurriedly climbed the stairs while cursing. With each step he took, his rippling flesh shook pitifully.

Knock- knock- knock-

The irritated knocking sound grew louder and louder. The owner desperately ran to open the window, as if to say, ‘Why don’t you open it quickly?’

Foodduk-

Caw!

Kaaa …

Knock!

What came in through the open window were three crows.

The kind man wasn’t surprised at all by the sudden intrusion of crows. He was just focused on the bag the crows were carrying.

Caaaak!

A crow pecked at the gunsmith’s plump belly, as if he was distracted by the gunsmith’s focus on his black bag.

Cock-

“Ah- Oh my, I’m sorry for keeping you waiting. Thank you all for coming. I’ve lit a warm fireplace downstairs, so please come downstairs.”

The crows’ heads simultaneously turned toward the gunsmith who was whining.

‘Shall we go down?’

‘What do I trust you with?’

‘I think this kid is acting up right now.’

The flexible neck movement and dark gaze unique to birds. At that staring gaze, beads of sweat ran down the gunsmith’s thick jawline.

“No. No. I made a mistake. Would you like some warm water?”

“Cocko-a-aak!” (Cocoa)

“Saaaaakkeeeee.” (Sake)

“Milk.” (Milk)

The three of them each had their own personality(?) and one of them even asked for a drink during the day. Warm sake.

‘How did you know there was Japanese sake?’

The gunsmith wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed.

“I’ll be back shortly. Please wait a moment.”

After a while, when the crows brought the drinks they had requested, one of the crows held out a bag it had been holding.

The owner, who had taken a sip of water as if his throat was parched, opened his bag and found a neatly arranged box of ammunition.

“Is this the new special bullet that came out this time?”

Caw!

This rat infestation shocked and horrified New Yorkers. Locking the front doors and barring the windows didn’t help.

Shooting at the swarm of rats that were crawling through the walls and ceilings didn’t work either. The rats had mutated to the point where a 9mm bullet would just ignore them.

Special bullets were needed to catch them with a 9mm. The Empire was also producing special bullets, but they were insufficient to supply them to military units.

Caaaak!

“Ah. Yes. Here it is.”

After confirming, the man placed some gold bars on the table, seemingly saying that he would make a cool deal. Small gold bars that looked to be about 1kg in size.

Caw?

“1 kilo?”

Every time I heard someone talking like this, I felt a chill down my spine. The owner, who had wiped away the sweat flowing down his face again, nodded fiercely.

“Ah- yes. It’s definitely 1kg of pure gold.”

A crow stuck a wire into a gold bar on the table.

Is that a content analyzer?

Beep-beep- [98.57%]

“Ah- This is because there is no proper refining facility.”

That was probably within the margin of error, as the crows each pushed the black bags they were holding forward and spread one of their wings as if to suggest that we check.

While the gunsmith was frantically checking his bag, a closed window opened with a bang. The crow and the gunsmith’s heads suddenly turned to the open window.

A voice heard from a blurry outline.

“I thought it was a crow instead of a field mouse, but it’s doing something funny. Are you smuggling?”

Foodduk-

A crow quickly pecked at the vague outline of its head. It was a sharp surprise, but the voice that turned its head slightly grabbed the crow by the neck.

Puddle-

Foodduk-

Fierce wingbeats and flailing legs.

The sharp claws and feathers like blades mercilessly tore at the forearms of the one grabbing the neck, but it was no use.

Kkeuddeuk-

Crunch-

A crow crouched with the sound of its neck cracking. Its voice muttered with a hint of regret.

“It’s solid, but it’s not as great as rumored···.”

The blurry outline snickered as it saw two crows swooping in from either side.

“They said you were smart, but you have no discerning eye?”

The outline of the crow’s corpse being thrown away was like a flapping sound – the crow’s wing was grabbed and torn apart as it rushed towards him.

Kaaaaaaaaaah!

Clang!

As if it had been arranged in advance, the crows escaped while one was caught.

Tsk-

“The goal wasn’t empty.”

A crow that had its wings torn off while it was still alive was trembling in shock. It looked like it would die from shock at any moment.

“Crows aren’t my style.”

Kwajik- jjuup-

The sound of blood flowing from a wound.

“I don’t like being fat either.”

“Ah-uh-uh-”

Fragments of memories coming through the crow’s blood.

Although he was a nobleman of the Confederacy, the reason he came to such a remote location was because he had the ability to glimpse into the memories of others through blood.

‘I knew where you lived.’

Knock knock knock-

The flow that had been continuing was interrupted by the sound of knocking on the main door on the first floor.

“Police. Please open the door.”

Police? The man who dropped the crow that died from shock on the ground glanced outside the broken window. There were two police officers, and the ones surrounding the area were regular troops.

“We received a report that crows carrying bags entered.”

The man wiped the crow’s blood from the corner of his mouth.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one chasing crows.

By the way, you said you were friendly with the Holy Kingdom, but you mobilized the military to catch crows?

bang!

The main door on the first floor broke and the suppression force rushed in.