Chapter 178: Destroyer of Civilization
“Plagues are powerful creatures. Even the weakest ones can withstand a decent amount of firepower. But not all of them are physically strong.”
Yu Ji-ha, the leader of Russia, America, and Germany, had a hotline that could connect him with the heads of these countries 24 hours a day.
This was done through quantum communication satellites, which were immune to any interference or EMP shockwaves.
Yu Ji-ha rarely used this communication method unless it was an urgent matter, so the leaders listened to his words with a sense of crisis.
The reason why Yu Ji-ha called them this time was because 50 plague cocoons had entered the solar system.
And they were not ordinary ones.
“The beast-class and knight-class plagues that we have encountered so far were certainly strong, but we could destroy them with nuclear weapons or reactive shells. But these guys who are heading towards Earth are a bit different.”
Yu Ji-ha’s face went down to the corner and instead, the image of the cocoons crossing the vast space appeared.
President Mikhailov asked hastily.
“Is this a direct footage?”
“It happened to pass by the Mars L3 point. Fortunately, it was an unmanned base, so it didn’t attract the attention of the plagues.”
That meant that the plagues instinctively sought out where humans were.
The leaders recalled the conspiracy theories that monsters came from space because of Yu Ji-ha.
It was not entirely wrong.
“Plague creatures have a very developed psychokinesis field. Humans can also manifest it, but it’s too small to be meaningful.”
“This psy-field is used for communication among their own kind and for attacking enemies. And they also find their kin in distant space.”
“So these cocoons are coming here after detecting the psy-field from Earth after entering the solar system. In that sense, if I wasn’t here, there wouldn’t be any space monsters either.”
Even without Yu Ji-ha, they could detect other psychics.
Then, if they killed all the psychics, would the space monsters not come?
Theoretically, yes.
Only that psychics were being born at this very moment, so it was meaningless.
If they dug out all the Aether cores buried on Earth and got rid of all the black metal, it might be possible for a while.
But there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t come back to Earth again.
“Anyway, these cocoons are not regular troops by their size. They are definitely special troops, but we’ll know what they are when they arrive on Earth.”
President Bernstein asked.
“Can’t the United Human Federation intercept these cocoons in space?”
“It’s not difficult. But if we can’t destroy all 50 cocoons at once, the surviving ones will send a signal to their main force with their psy-field.”
“By main force, you mean…”
“There are thousands, tens of thousands of plague hordes somewhere in space. If we can’t block their psy-field, they might come to Earth. Of course, not for a good purpose.”
“…”
Shocked by the information, Bernstein closed his mouth.
The Earth was in a very precarious situation where it could be destroyed at any time.
Suddenly, the agitators who shouted about Yu Ji-ha’s ideology and the oppression of freedom in megacities seemed ridiculous.
Did they know this?
Yu Ji-ha probably didn’t reveal this information to prevent confusion.
It was better to be ignorant than to deal with 8 billion people flocking to megacities or spreading conspiracy theories.
That’s why Yu Ji-ha was getting all kinds of abuse for having foresight and not sharing information properly.
Bernstein was also one of them, but now he understood Yu Ji-ha’s dilemma.
The burden of preserving humanity from the powerful enemy called plague must have been beyond imagination.
Yu Ji-ha also mentioned the blocker.
“The United Human Federation of the future developed a device that blocks psy-field in the end. But there weren’t many of them, so only Earth Fleet is using them right now.”
“So if we don’t use that blocker and kill the plagues, they send a signal to their main force through their psy-field communication.”
“That’s right. It wouldn’t matter much if we were at war. They already know our location anyway. But if we let them know now, we won’t be able to handle it. Unless it’s sent by the prophet.”
The leaders were embarrassed by the additional explanation about the prophet.
“Sending space monsters by prophet or plague… Even if it’s a 50% chance, we can’t choose rashly.”
They all understood the current situation and the position of the United Human Federation.
The only thing left was what kind of troops the plagues were, but the information came out after they landed on Earth.
Arma found out their troops using analysis equipment installed in advance at landing points.
「They are plague swarms. And they are the kind that causes metal death.」
Yu Ji-ha’s face twisted.
“Damn, we got the wrong one.”
“Metal death? It sounds like a very noisy name. What is it?”
“It’s one of the most troublesome ones among the irregular troops. These guys cause metal death… that is, they crumble metal into sand. They cover a wide range of metals.”
They were all surprised by that.
Did he mean the metals in the periodic table?
“Does it include elements like iron or gold?”
Chancellor Walter of Germany asked and Yu Ji-ha nodded.
“Except for mercury, I think you can assume that it applies to most metals. They emit particle beams that completely destroy the bonding structure of metal elements. Humans don’t suffer much damage, but civilization is shattered. Let’s watch the video together.”
The video that Arma played showed the plague swarms jumping out in all directions as the cocoons opened and exploding in cities around the world.
Each individual landed on a city and emitted particle beams that destroyed metal completely.
The penetration power was so great that within a minute of the explosion, street lights collapsed and passing vehicles sank like sand castles.
There was no need to describe the drivers rolling on the ground.
Anyway, they all doubted whether this was really happening while watching the video, and Yu Ji-ha had to explain further.
“The United Human Federation of the future also suffered a lot from these plague swarms and built megacities. They started using different methods after the defense system was completed. I guess they couldn’t use them in frontal battles.”
So the 80-year war between plague and United Human Federation was a history of development of spear and shield.
The leaders began to wonder if they could win this war.
Didn’t the United Human Federation of the future lose in the end?
President Bernstein, who saw the whole city collapsing, swallowed a groan.
“Hmm… Can we win?”
“If we don’t win, humanity will be extinct. And this is just the beginning. Arma, explain the plan.”
「The 50 plague cocoons have landed at these locations. They were small in size, so the damage was not that great.」
About 50 bright spots appeared on the world map.
There were some lands, but most of them were seas.
「There are hundreds of pods stored inside these cocoons. As you know, pods have bio-ion thrusters installed, so they are very fast.」
They were slower than Settler or Assault Armor, but the former was not agile enough to respond and the latter required Yu Ji-ha to board to perform properly.
「It is almost impossible to capture the opening point of the cocoons and respond to them. Therefore, we have to select the places we have to protect in advance and respond accordingly.」
The megacities and candidates that had been built so far were revealed.
“Are we supposed to give up on the other cities? If they explode in the metropolises, it would be a huge disaster…”
It was not an exaggeration to say that modern civilization was a metal-based civilization.
The Iron Plague could destroy that civilization from its roots.
“So you’re saying we can’t defend them perfectly. It’s because we lack the blockers, and we can’t develop them right away, so we have to choose and focus.”
The leaders reminded themselves why the megacities were the arks for preserving humanity.
They felt they had to hurry up with the integration work with the United Human Federation.
After the meeting, various countries kept an eye on the movements of the cocoons.
Numerous investigation teams were dispatched to hover around the cocoons, and some people from underdeveloped countries even flocked to touch them.
The UN convened a global plague countermeasure committee, but it was useless at a point where the major powers were absent.
The United Human Federation and several countries were faithfully walking the path of integration, and the UN was now nothing more than one of the declining international organizations.
Some countries complained that they had no place to discuss the response to the plague, but they failed to attract Yu Ji-ha’s attention.
“What discussion? They just have to follow what I tell them.”
The implementation included extreme measures such as abandoning cities, and it was uncertain whether they could really do it.
Anyway, while there was a lot of talk about the new form of plague cocoons, Arma reported something.
“Master, I have something to tell you. I have found a possibility for blocking the psy-field. I need your help.”
Even if it was Arma, there were many unexplained parts in Aether-related technology, so he needed the help of a psiker.
If it was about blocking the psy-field, he couldn’t delay it.
“Really? Let’s check it out.”
“I found strong evidence of a virtual organ in Ms. Fatima’s procedure. It is located in her right chest.”
Arma showed him the mithril implant surgery that Fatima had received when she became an adult.
Mithril itself was harmless to the human body, but when you underwent the procedure, a slight trace remained on your skin.
It looked like a tattoo at first glance, but some psikers considered it as proof that the United Human Federation recognized them and secretly boasted about it.
Psikers below a certain level did not even receive a proposal for the procedure.
Fatima’s level was so high that she had received the procedure recently, and Arma had been analyzing her data continuously.
He looked at the screen and noticed something strange.
“…Is that a heart?”
A distinct heart-shaped mark appeared on her chest every time Aether circulated through the Aether receiver.
It was flashing from inside, not on the surface of the skin, and he didn’t understand it.
“That’s weird. The skin permeability shouldn’t be that high.”
“I didn’t find anything special when I analyzed the skin sample. That must be an Aether circuit formed by mithril.”
“To see an Aether circuit with your eyes.”
He was an omega-level psiker who didn’t even need mithril implants, but he couldn’t see Aether circuits with his eyes.
Many psikers he knew, even Lucia who had researched psikers called psikers by the United Human Federation, couldn’t see Aether circuits either.
They weren’t supposed to be visible in the first place.
“Is it because she’s a rare mentalist? No. I knew some mentalists too.”
Maybe Fatima was a special case.
He suddenly remembered the relic of the prophet he had absorbed on Mars.
The pain in his right chest that came from time to time after absorbing the relic was not a coincidence.
“Does a virtual organ form in the right chest when you become a psiker…”
Aether circuits were just a simplification of the process of psikers manifesting Aether, but he didn’t know that they could develop into actual organs.
Arma handed him some data.
“I did a little test after putting Ms. Fatima to sleep, and surprisingly, she was able to artificially block the surrounding psy-field. However, this does not apply to stronger entities than herself.”
“So the strong oppress the weak. Well, that makes sense.”
At least for the plague, that would be natural.
He looked at the data and suddenly thought that this case might apply to him as well.
“Can I do that too?”
“If I apply Ms. Fatima’s data, it might be possible.”
“Good. Let’s try it right away.”
That night, he boarded his settler ship and entered a bio-bag.
As he spread his psy-field according to Arma’s data, surprisingly, a clear heart shape appeared on his chest as well.
It was much larger and clearer than Fatima’s, and it had a golden color.
“Amazing Aether… It’s beautiful.”
But there was a problem as the psy-field spread.
A situation occurred where many psikers on Terra Island fainted.
“You are forcibly blocking the psy-fields of the psikers, and it seems that they are shocked by the backflow of Aether. I will send them to the hospital for now and let them rest.”
He checked that the megacity Pacific was noisy and smirked.
“I can’t use it recklessly around psikers.”
If he developed his ability further, would it be possible to block the psy-field of a specific entity?
For example, like the Plague Queen…
Her psy-field was almost at the level of thought waves, and he couldn’t even withstand it.
Well, it was natural since she controlled so many plagues.
“Arma, let’s move the settler ship for a while and test the exact range. I need to check how much I can block.”
It might help him not only for this plague swarm, but also for the future.
That night, the settler ship moved to the South Pacific and conducted a test.
He got a good psy-field blocker.
—First of all, I need to give a proper explanation.
Of course, he had no obligation to explain anything to anyone.
The story of the plague swarm, the iron plague, and the lack of blockers was complicated.
But he decided to give a final explanation to the countries.
—There will be no more information sharing. You have to make your own decisions from now on.
He delivered the information about the plague swarm, the iron plague, and the blockers to the governments of various countries.
Arma was worried about the possibility of information leakage, and it turned out to be true.
A US official leaked the information to the media.
The yellow press exaggerated the report, and it caused a great confusion in the US and the world.
—The city is collapsing? What the hell does that mean?
—How can metal turn into sand grains? This is not some black plague.
—This is Yu Ji-ha’s conspiracy! He wants to drive us out and take over the city!
The anti-Yu Ji-ha sentiment that had subsided erupted again.
They marched through the metropolises with hate flags, and they seemed tireless.
President Bernstein apologized for not managing the information properly.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re not the ones who are harmed.”
All megacities had already prepared for the plague swarm.
They couldn’t defend them perfectly, but they thought they could minimize the damage by covering the main parts with black metal and using blockers.
What about the rest of the cities?
“The psy-field of the cocoons is getting stronger. At this rate, they will open within a week. We will try to block and deal with them as much as possible, but we can’t guarantee it.”
“Can you select which cities are in danger in advance?”
“It’s difficult because there are so many of them.”
There were hundreds of pods hidden inside each of the 50 cocoons.
One pod could cover a small city, so it was not an exaggeration to say that all cities in the world were in range.
“The pods tend to go in certain directions. Probably because there is a higher concentration of psy-field where there are more psikers.”
It meant that they wouldn’t go to an empty wasteland.
“Can you catch up with them and activate the blockers? They are very fast.”
“It depends on how many there are. If there are a few, we can manage with Earth Fleet.”
“What if there are too many?”
“I’ll take care of it myself.”
Bernstein wanted to ask how he would do it, but he held his tongue.
Anyway, Yu Ji-ha was criticized a lot for this information leak.
They said he was hiding too much as a self-proclaimed prophet.
—Why doesn’t he just tell us everything? Is he trying to boil us or something?
—He must be trying to profit from this. He only gives us bits of information so we have to keep paying him.
—He must have made a lot of money this time.
Of course, Yu Ji-ha hadn’t received a penny.
He was so notorious that people would mock him even if he did something good.
As a result, there were hardly any people who fled from the cities.
The existing cities had become desolate due to the megacities, but many people still lived there.
They would also struggle to enter the megacities after experiencing this situation.
Baeseongmin, chief secretary of state, entered his office with a tired look and knocked on the door.
“The plan for accommodating citizens is ready. As soon as the alarm goes off, they can go into shelters.”
There weren’t many decent shelters in Korea, but they built new ones with B-class black metal for this occasion.
Nearly 20 million citizens didn’t want to leave the city.
He nodded his head after checking the report.
“You did the minimum preparation. Anyway, most of the pods will fly to megacities, so you don’t have to be too scared.”
“Sir… Can I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“You said you would take care of it yourself, but how… You don’t have a personal spaceship or anything, do you?”
He was asking how he would catch up with and block the pods that dispersed very quickly.
It might be possible if there were a few, but what if there were too many?
“It’s nothing. Just like the plague evolved over and over again to exterminate humanity, we also made various weapons. This is one of them.”
“What kind of weapon are you talking about…”
“It’s coming now.”
A moment later, the Blue House garden was filled with light.
The first floor became noisy, and Baeseongmin looked out the window and widened his eyes.
He saw a machine he had never seen before in his life floating in the sky.
This content is taken from freewebnove(l).com