Rust - Chapter 683



Only Krnovel

RUST -683

No matter how urgent the situation was, isn’t this the same as trampling on the pride of the empire? Ki-sun was worried.

[What are you talking about when Virginia Langley was already being stripped and trampled by a vampire before I got there?]

[No···. Even if that were the case, you··· were the one who struck the final blow, Your Majesty.]

Maru got angry at the word ‘Makta’.

[Maktarani! The Imperial Senate Guard and the clones couldn’t touch a single truck of Virginia vampires. The entrance was completely chewed up and opened up, but Naruj and I cleaned it up. If it weren’t for us, they would’ve changed their name to the Vampire Empire right away.]

Maru’s words make sense, but that’s just his opinion. Ki-sun’s thoughts were different.

Even if you claim that you saved the situation from becoming a vampire empire, there may be no one who will accept that.

Let’s assume that there is CCTV footage of the battle and it is released. What would the citizens of the empire think when they see that footage?

Do you think the Holy Kingdom helped the Empire? Or do you think the Holy Kingdom trampled on the Empire’s pride?

[Don’t worry, CCTV was malfunctioning because of the strange smoke bomb that Joseph Meyer detonated.]

[Is that so?]

[Yeah. I stopped by the control room just in case. I thought there might be something recorded.]

[······.]

Maru was also good at taking care of things like this.

[I really held back from wanting to light a fire because I felt so uncomfortable.]

[You have truly endured well, Your Majesty.]

Ki-soon praised the King with a loud voice.

Several hours passed, but contrary to Ki-sun’s worries, the empire showed no response.

[How on earth did you cause such a mess that the Empire didn’t respond at all?]

[I guess that old man has come to his senses.]

Ki-sun was truly breathless at Maru’s cheerful judgment.

[No···. C- C- But still, it would be good if we reached out first. Send a special envoy and hope there are no misunderstandings, and explain the technology a bit.]

[What technology?]

[At least it would be good to share the mind wave blocking technology. Are you against it?]

[It’s a mind-wave blocking technique…]

If you block the mental waves unique to cannibals and vampires, it will definitely be easier to respond.

[There’s nothing to oppose. So it’s good if we don’t get tired of each other. Well, that’s true. But if I give you that and you ask me to show you other skills, I think it’ll really fall apart.]

[···No way? And you went too far. If they ask for more skills, you should give them an appropriate skill and let them vent their frustration.]

Maru didn’t really intend to block it. It was an action he took purely for the safety and survival of the Holy Kingdom.

It would have been the same even if I had gone back in time. Since there was no other sure way, I had no choice but to act the same way.

[Why can’t we just eat the Empire? If 20-30% of the heads were cannibalistic vampires, wouldn’t it only be those there?]

Ms. Kim, who had been playing around, joined the fight.

[Their relatives and important connections would all have become cannibalistic vampires. If they were to disappear, wouldn’t the imperial administrative power just collapse?]

Ki-soon slapped his forehead. He wondered why it was so quiet, and it turned out that the empire was conducting an internal crackdown.

‘Even the empire was centralized. It is dangerous to have a vacuum in the central administrative power.’

[So what if we eat it this time?]

[Ah- It would be difficult for us to take over the empire with our size. As I said last time, our population is too small compared to our territory.]

Even if you add up the state of Michigan and the Canadian provinces, the number would be only 4 million, and even if you assume there are many left, it would be difficult to exceed 5 million.

In comparison, the combined population of the nine states that made up the empire was over 50 million.

Even if the population had decreased due to the virus outbreak, mutant monster outbreak, and the subsequent severe cold weather, it was estimated that there were still 25 to 30 million people.

The population of New York City remained at around ten million, with a huge number of deaths due to two rounds of cannibalistic exterminations and a rat outbreak.

Even if we just count the population of New York City without going to New York State, it was more than twice that of the Holy Kingdom. Even if the population of New York City alone had been pushed in, it would have been unmanageable.

The reason why the empires adjacent to the Holy Kingdom must endure is that if the empires fall and refugees pour in, the Holy Kingdom’s system will inevitably collapse.

That is why the Holy Kingdom maintained relations with the Empire, even though the Empire allied itself with the Confederacy on the pretext of bombing London and Paris.

If you look at it in the long term, this incident was also an extension of that.

If the empire were to turn into a vampire empire, it would have to face its enemies and borders. In order to prevent that, the Holy Kingdom had no choice but to intervene in the affairs of the empire.

When the population issue was mentioned, Na Ju-yeon summarized the research results to date.

[Research is still ongoing, but those with the ability are virtually infertile.]

Those who awakened their ability had difficulty getting pregnant. The probability of getting pregnant naturally was less than 0.03%. This was lower than the probability of getting pregnant when using condoms or taking birth control pills.

Ki-soon added the content.

[The problem is that while the capable are capable, the birth rate of the general public is also continuously decreasing.]

[Even though it’s winter?]

Since about half of the year was spent in the bitter winter, people spent a lot of time at home. Naturally, there should have been plenty of time to have children, but the birth rate continued to fall.

[That’s why it’s a bigger problem. Because it means that you are trying not to give birth, whether consciously or unconsciously.]

[That’s because there’s oil on the boat.]

Kim Yang thought back to the cannibal Bunker that he had previously subdued. If she couldn’t get pregnant quickly, Bunker would slaughter her and turn her into a piece of meat.

At that time, the cannibal’s farm was full of women who got pregnant and gave birth to children easily, so they were looking at the liver because it was good for them to live.

Why do birth rates increase in countries where war broke out?

It was because of the survival instinct and the instinct to reproduce the species.

So, the fact that the birth rate is dropping in the Holy Kingdom right now means that it’s so damned good to live that there’s no need for survival instinct or desire.

That’s because your stomach is full of shit.

huh.

Hood, who had been quietly observing Kim Yang’s thoughts, gave his opinion.

[There may be other reasons, but you could think of it that way. How about giving extra points to families with newborns when it comes to moving into the floating city?]

The new city, which is pouring in technology that has reached the point of singularity, is expected to become the safest fortress city on Earth. What if a newborn gets extra points in the bid for housing in such a city?

[As I said last time, I have no intention of forcibly increasing the population.]

Drones and robots combined with artificial intelligence were rapidly replacing human labor.

[You can’t just increase the population without thinking about the Vladislav Tower.]

This was the case with the smart farm in Vladivostok Tower. No matter how much mechanization there was, the core players in farming were people.

But now that we’ve passed the singularity, there’s no longer a need for human labor in agriculture. That’s because drones and robots are completely replacing human labor.

The same goes for various manufacturing industries. They have completely replaced manpower, to the point where you could almost believe they were handcrafted.

Even at home, most of the daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry were performed by artificial intelligence robots.

Maru decided that it would be effective to give bonus points to the other side.

[In the new city housing competition, we will give extra points to military personnel. Applicants will be limited to military personnel and their spouses.]

‧

‧

‧

The Governor’s Residence in Montreal, Canada.

Ki-soon shook his head at Maru’s decision.

When I see this, really. Oh my-

“That’s right. As the world continues to crumble, there will need to be a clear reason to fight···.”

The one-armed woman standing next to Gi-sun as her escort asked a question as she muttered.

“What does that mean?”

I don’t know if he did it on purpose or intuitively, but Maru was naturally creating a reason for the soldiers to fight.

“People all think the same. In dangerous times like these, people want to be in a safe place. The same goes for soldiers.”

What would happen if all the soldiers’ parents and relatives were allowed to move into the new city? What if they had to be dispatched to the border area or other regions?

Do you think the soldiers will be willing to go?

You have to follow orders, but what if the situation gets worse and more dangerous as time goes by? The soldiers’ families will start to shout against the deployment, and the soldiers’ morale will drop.

But what if the soldiers’ parents and relatives lived in border areas or other regions? Since their families were not there, there would be less public opinion against sending troops, and soldiers going to be sent would have no reason to lose morale. They were going to save their families.

Likewise, what if the spouses of the soldiers are in the new city or floating city? When the new city is in danger, the soldiers will desperately try to protect the city.

The one-armed woman’s brow furrowed at Gi-sun’s story.

“Isn’t that like a hostage?”

“It’s not like that. You can just give up moving into the new city and choose to live with your parents in the countryside.”

It wasn’t something that was forced, it was purely a matter of choice. So Ki-soon was a little curious as to whether Maru had made that decision knowingly or if he had made that decision intuitively.

‘That Maru guy – he sometimes surprises people. Blinker too.’

By the way, what happened to Joseph Meyer’s head?

[How about information pulled from Joseph Meyer’s head?]

Na Ju-yeon replied to Gi-sun’s text.

[Joseph Meyer’s brain had an information leak prevention device.]

When they tried to extract information, Joseph Meyer’s brain was already in a tangled state. What’s more, even the information extraction device was contaminated, and his brain had melted into a tangled mess.

[Then what about other things?]

[CT and MRI scans show that. All brain nerve tissue has fused.]

The story goes that everyone’s brains have melted.

[So we don’t know how much of Virginia Langley’s remnants are left, or where they are. Everyone, always be careful. If you capture a terrorist, anesthetize or quickly freeze them immediately.]

[Okay.]

[Ah. Then, what I said earlier. I will start normalizing relations with the Empire.]

Since it was obvious that he would be left to himself anyway, Ki-sun raised his hand and said he would do it himself.

[Okay. Good work.]

[You said you would hand over the mind wave blocking technology, right? Other than that, what other technologies will you reveal···]

While I was texting, there was a long, high-pitched sound coming from the speaker and then it cut off.

[Tieeeeeeee—–]

“You came.”

Ki-sun’s expression suddenly hardened.

[come.]

As soon as the text was posted, Maru replied immediately.

[I’m going now.]

If Virginia Langley were to strike, it would likely target the Empire’s Dan Brown and the Holy Kingdom’s Governor-General of Canada, Gyshun.

‘Sir- The timing is coincidental···.’

Ki-soon’s eyes narrowed even further as he headed toward the panic room.

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The Confederacy aimed for feudalism from the beginning, and divided the lower-level cannibals and vampires into villages to take control.

In each village, they took control of the people who would become the center of attention by controlling them or eliminating them by disguising them as accidents, and sent cannibals with the rank of knights to protect the village.

The knight was essentially a cannibal and the village became a manor, but the people could not resist. If the knight abandoned the village, the only result would be the monsters trampling on it.

But the empire was different.

The empire was centralized, and the villages were protected by a central army dispatched from the center and militias drawn from local villages.

If cannibals and vampires attempted to take control of the central army, civil war would likely break out without the active support of the rank-and-file officers.

That’s why Dan Brown couldn’t believe that the cannibalistic vampires would act so hastily.

Although it was not completely impossible, it was difficult to predict that Joseph Meyer would personally enter the Imperial Council and carry out construction work in this way.

And that actually happened.

For what reason?

‘He must have tried to take over the empire at once.’

After taking control of the Imperial Senate and Executive Branch in one fell swoop, we could buy some time by launching a nuclear attack on the Holy Kingdom.

So what are the memory transfer ampoule and the ampoule that can make you a top noble?

According to Vladimir Kalin, the memory transfer ampoule had the same effect as a previous life. It consumed the user’s brain and turned them into a being with Joseph Meyer’s memories.

‘Were you trying to persuade me?’

Judging from the fact that he asked to be spared at the end, it seemed like he had a gut feeling that his death was near. He might have guessed his end the moment he saw Vladimir Kalin. Did Joseph Meyer act simply after anticipating that?

‘That can’t be true.’

So he came out hard on Vladimir Kalin. So that Vladimir Kalin would not have to worry about anything else.

In the face of Den Brown’s strong opposition, Vladimir Kalin quickly backed away, without even thinking about turning over the drawer containing the ampoules.

Dan Brown turned over the chest of drawers in which Joseph Meyer had kept the ampoules. There was a thin metal box attached to the top of the chest of drawers.

A case containing two red ampoules and three clear ampoules. Dan Brown gave orders to the new clone.

“Ambush.”

It was time to uproot it.