Rust - Chapter 691



Only Krnovel

RUST -691

Dan Brown jumped to his feet at the mention of getting rid of the Empire’s nuclear weapons.

“Without nukes, the Empire will collapse! Can the Holy Kingdom handle it after the Empire collapses? Do you plan to throw all those people to the beasts! I can’t believe it. Don’t you know that attacking a nuke base means immediate war? Are you suggesting an all-out war with the Empire?”

At the mention of all-out war, Maru gestured toward Erica. Erica, who understood the signal, timidly headed toward Den Brown.

“Excuse me… please extend your hand.”

“What are you doing?”

Are you reaching out to me because I heard that psychometry is doing it?

Are you planning to extract all the Empire’s secrets this time? Den Brown’s eyes were filled with determination.

Ki-soon was shocked to see Dan Brown’s emotions changing from moment to moment. As a former head of an intelligence agency, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had a special self-destruct device.

The emotions that had begun to change from blue to dark red seemed like they would explode at the slightest touch. Feeling the need to relieve tension, Ki-sun began to tell the story.

“I just want to see objective facts now.”

“······.”

“The bodyguard and secretary who came with the Führer attempted to assassinate His Majesty Vladimir Kalin and the Führer.

“······.”

“The President has no place to vent his frustrations since he was attacked by those he brought with him, but His Majesty the King of the Holy Kingdom was ambushed by those brought by the head of the empire.”

“······.”

“I think that rather than the Empire declaring all-out war on the Holy Kingdom, it would be more reasonable for the Holy Kingdom to declare all-out war on the Empire and blow up New York City. Above all, what should we think about the fact that the entourage that accompanied the Imperial Chancellor was an assassin?”

“······.”

In Ki-sun’s view, General Dan Brown’s control was considerable.

It was when the prestigious families, financial companies, and their employees in New York became cannibals. It was difficult to refuse their proposals that dominated New York’s politics and economy, but Dan Brown executed them.

The same thing happened when he took out those who controlled New York City and the state at the time, when Dan Brown risked his own life and used methods that were practically suicide bombings.

What about now? Since he knows Maru’s power, he might not be able to kill him, but he might be trying to use the threat of assassination.

“Is that so? What I’m saying is that it’s become difficult to take the Governor’s words at face value.”

Dan Brown’s emotions, which had been swelling to the point of bursting, were quickly subsiding.

“Erika’s psychometry is not about extracting information. It’s about reading recent events. I just need to know if the Empire is staging it or not, so I would appreciate your cooperation.”

“So. Did you just say it was a play?”

Kim Yang blurted out a word in Dan Brown’s slightly cracked voice.

“Isn’t what the American imperialists are good at staging? Wasn’t it all staging from the beginning, like beating Spain’s leader and pulling out Mexico’s spine to steal its land? How can we guarantee that it’s not the same now?”

What happens if Chancellor Den Brown dies in the Holy Kingdom?

“And honestly, isn’t it funny? If a new clone came out, where did you put that and come with a bunch of muscle-clad bodyguards? The muscle-clad bodyguard you’ve been with for years? The killer secretary who’s stretched out like a sledgehammer? Yeah. Yeah. Huh?”

As if to cut off Kim Yang’s ridicule, Ki-sun continued her story.

“Considering the strange behavior of the bodyguards and the secretary, it is a reality that the President cannot be trusted. Isn’t it?”

The once crimson emotion was turning into a deep blue again. Ki-sun let out a sigh of relief.

“I’ll cooperate if you only read recent memories. But please stop trying to do anything about the Empire’s core.”

Maru responded coldly to Den Brown’s request.

“Are you saying that? Stopping an operation that has already begun? Are you telling me to do so knowing that it would be dangerous to stop in the middle?”

“Isn’t Naruz a clone troop?”

Maru’s expression turned slightly grim at Dan Brown’s words that even if there were to be some sacrifices, it would only mean sacrificing a few clones.

‘This guy?’

“I understand that you are attached to your sister because she is the prototype of the clone, but right now we are in a position where we must think about the future of the Empire and the Holy Kingdom first. Destroy the Empire’s core? Do you think that will make the Holy Kingdom safer? In fact, it could make it more dangerous.”

During the war with China, all nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities remaining in China were completely destroyed.

So is that the end? It wasn’t the end.

The seven Chinese will make nuclear weapons again no matter what, and if it is difficult to make them, they will arm themselves with nuclear weapons again even if it means importing them from Russia and North Korea.

What about the seven Chinas that are rearmed with nuclear weapons? It would be nice to continue the war to unify China, but the moment they arm themselves with nuclear weapons, the seven Chinas will not fight each other.

They will join forces and project their power externally. They will target Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia in the near future, and they will aim for Alaska and Canada across the Pacific Ocean in the distant future.

Russia was equally at risk. Could Ukraine survive without Western support? If not, what would happen next?

While Maru was struggling to build just one sacred kingdom, Den Brown was worrying about all sorts of things.

“The empire that succeeded the United States must have nuclear weapons to maintain a minimal deterrence. If it becomes known that the empire does not have nuclear weapons, the seven Chinese and Russian states may miscalculate.”

There is talk that even East Asia and Europe could be swept up in the phone crisis.

“The Middle East is the same. Do you really not know what would happen if it became known that the Empire did not have a nuclear deterrent?”

Would the Middle East, which was already starting to stir, remain still? The moment the empire lost its nuclear weapons, the shadow of the United States that remained as a thin thread would be completely erased.

The existing order was collapsing in an instant. The only thing that would put a stop to it was the Empire losing its nuclear deterrent.

‘So what?’

Maru was honestly dumbfounded. The international situation was important, I admit, but what was more important was the safety and survival of the Holy Kingdom.

Europe is going to be a mess? There must be a reason for it to be a mess. Look at Britain and France, the central governments have evaporated and what is left is a paradise of strangely mutated monsters.

Right now, the great powers of Europe, Britain and France, are like that, so if we talk about the empire’s nuclear deterrence, will all the problems suddenly disappear and everything will be normal?

“Just as the citizens of the Empire are important to the Führer, the citizens of the Kingdom are important to me as the King of the Holy Kingdom.”

Even if the person with citizenship is a clone, Maru clearly said that he would accept the clone with personality as a citizen.

So, in Maru, Naruzu was not simply a clone produced as a biological weapon for war, but a person with a recognized personality, a soldier who needed to be protected by the Holy Kingdom.

“And honestly, I feel really bad.”

There was a hint of cold murderous intent in Maru’s eyes.

If Den Brown dies in the Holy Kingdom, there must be some force in the Empire that would take advantage of that.

What do they believe?

It must be nuclear.

So what happens if we get rid of the nukes through Naruz?

How can you still be frothing at the mouth and whining about Den Brown dying in the Holy Kingdom when the nukes are gone?

Those guys who don’t even have nukes?

So, no matter what the future international situation was like, or how the empire that lost its nuclear weapons would bleed, there was no need to stop the orders given to Naruz.

“Extend your arms. Or stick out your neck.”

After thinking for a moment, Den Brown looked into Maru’s eyes and extended his arm. Erica cautiously grabbed one of the fingers on Den Brown’s outstretched hand and turned her head.

“The empire is a mess?”

There was a reason why Dan Brown came to the Holy Kingdom himself.

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Power has always been subject to challenge.

If it had been a sacred kingdom that started with the sword of Maru from the beginning, it would have been different, but it was not an empire. There were vested interests, and it was impossible to avoid fighting those vested interests.

Although he seized power by defeating the vested interests through the subjugation of cannibals, two years was too short a time for Dan Brown to completely take control of the empire.

That is why he chose to inherit the socio-economic structure of the United States. He used democracy and the free market economic system in his empire as well.

Of course, maintaining democracy and a free market economy has the advantage of less confusion because it maintains a system that people are familiar with, but the problem was the current situation.

Outside the city, mutated monsters are rampant, and the future is uncertain due to rapid climate change. With cannibals and vampires claiming to be the new human race and taking over the Southern Confederacy, it is clear that the end is near.

Dan Brown dreamed of rebuilding the United States. He believed that no matter what trials came, Americans would overcome.

The media was important for civic consciousness to mature properly.

If the media provides false information, citizens with the right to vote will vote based on incorrect information, and this will shake democracy.

Therefore, the media should have fairness and objectivity above all else, but most media companies were controlled by vested interests.

Politically, the easy way would have been to take over the unleashed media, feed them and tame them, but Dan Brown sided with the media’s autonomy, and that was perhaps a misjudgment.

As the vested interests disappeared, media outlets with no outlets to turn to began to look for sensational articles to survive, and criticism of the Dan Brown administration began to appear.

At first, I was happy about it. Power that is not monitored or criticized is bound to become corrupt. That was the extent of the problem.

‘The policy of the Chancellor Den Brown to spread throughout the Holy Kingdom.’

‘How long will the empire’s core asset, the modular nuclear power plant, be sold off for cheap?’

‘The Imperial Intelligence Service’s Coercive Search. From Suppression of the Press to Dictatorship?’

‘Failure of grain negotiations with France? No response from French central government.’

‘British Government. Silence on Imperial Request for Cooperation. International Isolation of the Dan Brown Regime?’

People gradually lost confidence in the Dan Brown regime.

‘Special Report – Hydrogen bomb dropped on London, Holy Kingdom of England. London obliterated!’

‘Special Report – The Holy Kingdom Drops a Hydrogen Bomb on Paris, France. Demonic Action!’

‘The death toll in London and Paris alone is expected to approach 30 million.’

‘The day the hydrogen bomb exploded without warning, humanity was silent.’

It was the same when the scoop came out that the Holy Kingdom had dropped nukes on London and Paris, but it was even more discredited after the special edition that the Holy Kingdom had launched a preemptive nuclear strike on the Confederacy.

‘Special Report – Unilateral Termination of the Holy Kingdom Non-Aggression Pact.’

‘Special Report – The Holy Kingdom’s Confederacy launches a preemptive nuclear strike on Texas!’

‘Is the Confederacy the main enemy or is it the Holy Kingdom?’

‘Enemies of humanity. Holy Kingdom. Empire be silent.’

‘Is the Dan Brown regime heading towards dictatorship? They are ignoring the voices of the people.’

‘Possibility of food shortages in the Empire next year as grain imports from France become uncertain.’

‘Will the Holy Kingdom’s food supply hold the empire’s leash?’

Erica sighed as she read Dan Brown’s recent memories with psychometry.

“so?”

“It has also been reported that the Imperial Reichstag terrorist attack by Joseph Meyer and his party was a fabrication by Chancellor Dan Brown, who attempted to purge the opposition by borrowing the power of the Holy Kingdom.”

That’s what it looked like when Maru and Naruz reorganized the Imperial Council.

Ki-soon muttered in a disbelieving voice.

“It’s twisted, but it’s twisted tightly. We’ve become the axis of evil. Huh.”

Kim Yang didn’t care about the ‘axis of evil’ or anything.

“Then why didn’t you bring those new clones?”

“I think they were waiting in anticipation that a coup might occur.”

Dan Brown’s eyebrows quirked slightly at Erica’s explanation.

“You’re waiting for a new clone? Wow-”

Ki-sun’s eyes widened slightly in admiration.

So, doesn’t that mean that even in that mess, you’ve hidden a stepping stone for a comeback?

‘No…. Could it be that he was calculating the situation that had been unfolding until now? He was holding his breath in order to seize the opportunity to rally the opposition and push them all away…’