Chapter 89: The Aftermath of Yu Ji-ha's Death
The news of Yu Ji-ha’s death turned the whole of Korea upside down.
People did not want to believe it easily.
—How could such a ruthless person lose his life to those idiots? It doesn’t make sense.
—There must be some behind-the-scenes manipulation. It’s common for dictators.
—But where did Arma go?
But when the leaders revealed Yu Ji-ha’s corpse in a photo, his death was finally confirmed.
The first ones to react were the foreign investors.
They knew well that Korea was not worth investing in without Yu Ji-ha.
As soon as the morning market opened, an unprecedented amount of investment money flowed out.
Hundreds of trillions of won evaporated in an instant, and the investors tore their hair out.
—Fuck, how are you going to take responsibility for this?
—Bring Yu Ji-ha back, you bastards!
The leaders who thought that the people would cheer when the day broke were very flustered, but they tried to cope.
“Anyway, the stock price is bound to recover. You shouldn’t make a fuss over a small incident on the first day.”
But even in the afternoon, the stock price kept falling.
Despite the pressure from China and Europe, the KOSPI 4,000, which had been holding steady, was collapsing.
Representative Han Seungjae and Colonel Jang Ik-hwan decided to take over the Blue House and the Silla Group first.
But something was going wrong.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, who belatedly grasped the situation, intervened.
—I can’t understand. Your actions are a coup that makes Korea’s situation difficult.
—And legally, it’s the death of the acting president. In that case, the baton should go to another minister. Not you.
It wasn’t a wrong argument.
Yu Ji-ha’s legal status was acting president, so if he died, the acting authority would go to a minister who could take over.
If Representative Han Seungjae wanted to get in there, he had to have someone step up and appoint him as prime minister, just like Yu Ji-ha did.
But the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Technology all shook their hands frantically, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Unification were almost dismantled, so there was no minister.
The Ministry of Justice also avoided it, and the only one left was Kim Cheol-woo, the Minister of National Defense.
He lamented with a pale face.
“I never thought I’d have to use that bullshit twice in my life…”
“We’re running out of time. Someone has to take charge, Minister Kim, please.”
“Representative. Do you know why I recommended Yu as acting president?”
“…”
“Because he showed me that much ability. I thought he could do it. But you don’t see that in you guys, so what can I do?”
Representative Han Seungjae turned his gaze away from him.
“I know I’m lacking, but I’m better than a dictator, aren’t I?”
“I’m not doing it anyway. Find another minister.”
“Minister, we don’t have time…”
Colonel Jang Ik-hwan stepped forward but had to face the angry gaze of his distant superior.
“Hey you bastard. What class are you? How dare a colonel like you do a coup?”
He forgot for a moment because he was too urgent.
That most of Korea’s defense ministers were from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Minister Kim Cheol-woo was no exception, so it was not a place for a colonel to step forward.
Colonel Jang Ik-hwan, who had made the biggest contribution in killing Yu Ji-ha, backed away without being able to refute him, but his inner thoughts were different.
‘Where do you see this as a coup?’
It was only natural for a soldier who supported democracy to oppose a dictator.
Wasn’t it right to go a little further and recommend someone who could be acting president?
But the defense minister didn’t seem to have that intention.
“I won’t say it twice. I don’t want to use that bullshit again.”
After being kicked out, they went to see the Minister of Interior Affairs.
Fortunately, he said he would appoint Representative Han Seungjae as prime minister if he couldn’t leave the president’s seat vacant.
But he also said words of resentment about sending Yu Ji-ha away like that.
“He didn’t have to die… Do you know how many issues are piled up now…”
“Don’t worry, I can solve them all.”
Despite Representative Han Seungjae’s bravado, the minister turned away from him.
After that, a more hasty process than when Yu Ji-ha was appointed as acting president took place.
They passed the paperwork and agreed verbally among themselves in just one day.
The judiciary and the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was too much, but Representative Han Seungjae pushed hard.
He had to get into the Blue House to get the full support of his sponsors.
And finally, he sat on the chair of the Blue House office.
“Congratulations, acting president.”
“Justice has finally been realized.”
The sponsors came in line to greet him as if they had been waiting.
Representative Han finally felt proud and relaxed his tense neck muscles.
This was the taste he wanted.
And in the secretary’s office, Bae Seong-min, the chief of staff, was writing something.
“I don’t know what sin I committed in my previous life…”
He didn’t know why he had to serve his third master.
When it was Yu Ji-ha, he was persuaded by him and decided to try again, but it didn’t seem like that would happen anymore.
He prepared the data that the acting president ordered and wrote his resignation letter at the same time.
Bang!
“These crazy people have finally done it!”
The White House aides had never seen President McKinley so angry.
He was usually a nerd from Ivy League who had no charisma.
But now he was furious at the news of the death of a person from a distant country.
The aides were also confused.
Yu Ji-ha was clearly a dictator who tried to rule Korea with oppressive means.
But if he died now, there would be a big chaos.
The entire Silla Group, which was maintained by artificial intelligence, stopped.
Not only did the work stop, but the employees also dropped their hands as if they had made a promise.
One million drones stopped working and returned to their containers.
It was almost a joke that the android Lucia, who was connected to artificial intelligence, became scrap metal.
It didn’t last long anyway.
While the aides thought so, President McKinley’s anger continued.
“What are we going to do with black metal now! Are we going to dig up unoptanium with a few projectiles that don’t even work!”
“Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone! The future damage is unimaginable! How can we charge those idiots for that?”
Then one of the aides came in and reported that the hotline connected to Korea was ringing.
It must be a call from Representative Han Seungjae, who had just become acting president.
But President McKinley didn’t pick up the phone.
He came to his senses and gathered the aides and asked.
“Don’t you think it’s strange? How could such a meticulous person die by those scum… Maybe he set up a double?”
“You mean Kagemusha. But his face was too similar and even his DNA matched.”
“We didn’t confirm it ourselves, so we don’t know. Anyway, let’s watch a little more. I don’t think those writers can lead Korea properly.”
As he said, Korea was on the verge of a mess after Han Seungjae took power.
The table was not properly set, but everyone was drooling and waiting.
But it turned out that there were not many dishes on the table without an owner.
Everyone thought that Silla Group had amassed an enormous amount of cash, but there was no such thing.
“Most of the funds were going to North Korea. The accounts of Chairman Yu Ji-ha and Secretary Arma Ashford are only a few tens of billions.”
“There are some coins, but they are in the US, so it’s hard to cash them out without their cooperation.”
Acting President Han lost his mind and stared at the chair in his office.
He thought that everything would be solved if he killed the dictator, but it wasn’t.
The gap left by his disappearance was too big.
The North Korea Reconstruction Committee demanded an enormous amount of money and food, and protests from various countries continued endlessly.
Even Europe, which had cheered for the death of the dictator, had to lower its voice.
The starting point of the Fourth Industrial Revolution had disappeared.
Even scholars who were critical of him expressed regret that everything had gone back to before 2025.
—Most of the rapid technological development in the world came from Yu Ji-ha himself. Now we have no black metal, no unoptanium, no anttron.
—The stock markets of various countries are falling endlessly due to his death. It seems difficult to recover in a short time.
—They should have dragged him down instead of killing him and made him devote himself to research as an atonement.
But the Korean leaders had no mind to listen to these criticisms.
The complaints of the people were no joke.
The crime rate soared in just a month after he died.
Were the criminals who had been hiding under the surveillance of drones now spreading their wings in groups?
Even Lucia Premium lost most of its functions and turned into an ordinary AI.
There were too many inconveniences like this, and all the responsibility went back to Han Seungjae’s top brass.
—You killed Yu Ji-ha. Then you have to take responsibility.
—Your accession process was not democratic in the first place. How are you different from a dictator?
—I don’t need anything else, where is my android? I made a reservation but it got canceled!
—Give me back Yu Ji-ha!
Of course, the current ruling power did not have the ability to appease all these grievances.
Rather, they used martial law and mobilized military forces to suppress protests and even caused casualties.
As public sentiment plummeted to the bottom, Russia made a move on top of that.
For the first time in 27 years, Russian bombers invaded Korea’s air defense identification zone in large numbers.
Emergency sorties followed, and the Korean government protested to Russia through the embassy, but they expelled the Korean ambassador.
Expelling an ambassador usually means that the relations between the two countries are over and war is imminent.
Internal and external troubles.
Inside, a massive protest was about to erupt, and news came that the Russian Pacific Fleet had left its base.
And when Russia banned exports of grain, there was not enough food to go into North Korea.
The faces of Han Seungjae’s top brass turned pale.
The atmosphere of Korea’s cabinet meeting changed depending on the personality and ability of the presider.
Usually, the president listened to the reports of the participants and decided on the direction of the policy, but Yu Ji-ha acting president was different.
He was the only one who turned the cabinet meeting into a dictation time.
The ministers, the mayor of Seoul, and the governor of the Bank of Korea did not expect that a young man in his mid-thirties would have such a wide and deep knowledge of all kinds of issues.
Whenever an agenda was presented, detailed regulations automatically popped out of his mouth.
So most bureaucrats had to learn from him and receive instructions.
There was no need to say that they would review it.
Most of his orders were in line with the situation and laws on the ground.
Since then, the word desk administration has not come out of the people’s mouths, which means that it was thanks to him.
But this time, Han Seungjae acting president was different.
He didn’t even know the basic skills that cabinet meeting participants should have.
He didn’t even know that he had to submit an agenda to the Ministry of Interior Affairs in advance, and he hardly knew anything anyway.
So meaningless time passed by, and the participants felt a deep sigh in their chests.
It was too different.
He was restless from the first cabinet meeting presided over, and now that Russia’s pressure had materialized, he rolled his eyes as if he had committed a crime.
It was different from Yu Ji-ha, who always seemed calm and made people wonder if he was an android.
Of course, it should be taken into account that the pressure from home and abroad is severe, but Yu Ji-ha showed excellent leadership and led bureaucrats in more difficult situations.
The main agenda for today was friction with Russia.
“What kind of promise did that bastard Yu Ji-ha make for Russia to come out like that!”
“…”
Well, you wouldn’t know exactly unless you were him.
But you could roughly guess from the fact that Russia had been carrying out a lot of military provocations in Eastern Europe recently and that Shilla Group’s key executives had visited Russia frequently.
Silla Group had a deep military cooperation with Russia.
It wasn’t for nothing that the US put pressure on Yu Ji-ha for that reason.
The price was speculated a lot, but major bureaucrats expected it to be land.
The Russian federal government had recently forced residents of Primorsky Krai to move, which could be a clue.
But Acting President Han ranted without knowing such basic things.
“Even at this moment when you are sitting there like mutes, the Russian Pacific Fleet is entering the East Sea! Come up with a countermeasure!”
Kim Cheol-woo, Minister of National Defense, advised him.
“How about sending a special envoy first? We need to know exactly what President Putin wants.”
“They expelled our ambassador. Do you think that will work? They’re not listening to us at all.”
“We still have to do what we have to do. We also need to ask for help from the US and UN.”
It’s not enough, but it’s omitted.
When Yu Ji-ha was here, UN and US wanted his help and came to see him often.
But it changed so much in just a month after Han Seungjae took office…
He also had trouble supplying food to North Korea.
Russia had banned exports of grain, so he had to get it from somewhere else.
“The US is asking for a deposit for food exports. They don’t trust us.”
“Southeast Asia says they won’t export food unless they finalize the details of the nuclear fusion plant.”
“Just buy it with money. Don’t we have enough money in our country?”
We don’t have enough money!
The cost of the Second Korean War was astronomical, and most of the budget was spent there after using a lot of short-term bonds to end it.
On top of that, there was a new tumor called North Korea.
It might have turned into a lump later, but for now it was just a tumor.
That tumor opened its huge mouth and demanded food.
If money management was blocked for even a few days, cracks would occur everywhere.
UN said it was your fault for going north, so you have to take responsibility, and the US was no different.
The pillars that kept this precarious situation were Silla Group and Yu Ji-ha’s purge.
Yu Ji-ha’s brutal purge made the bureaucrats happy by reducing the places where money went out.
On top of that, Silla Group’s finances were invested a lot in North Korea’s reconstruction.
He knocked down both of those pillars at once, so it was obvious that the finances would be shattered.
It was no joke that the Minister and Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance resigned overnight and the bureaucrats at the director level sighed deeply.
What was more gloomy was that the groups that demanded money were increasing everywhere.
The civic groups that Yu Ji-ha had cut off the funding line demanded a stake, and Acting President Han had a lot of interest in it.
He had such a weak support base that he had to make civic groups his side.
Of course, this meant a deterioration of finances.
It wouldn’t cost much to go to civic groups, but even that was precious now.
Today’s cabinet meeting ended without anything being decided.
When Yu Ji-ha was here, there were so many issues to push forward that the ministers had to study separately.
Acting President Han smoked cigarettes in his office when Bae Seong-min, chief of staff, came in.
He was pitifully unable to resign and forced to serve his third master.
“Representative, Japan has occupied Dokdo by force.”
It’s pouring when it rains.
A deep groan came from the chair.
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