Chapter 95: Division in East Asia
A truck loaded with luggage was already parked in front of the officetel registered as Hwang Seon-yeong’s residence.
The luggage consisted of a few clothes, some necessities, and books. It wasn’t much.
They moved the luggage into the officetel.
“Wow, this place has a very sci-fi vibe, doesn’t it?”
The interior of the officetel was the epitome of simple and neat.
Most of the furniture was designed with straight lines and had storage functions. The color scheme was based on monochrome.
“Wow, this place would show every speck of dust. It’s a harsh house.”
“You’ll grow to love this house, trust me. There’s no noise from other floors here.”
“That’s awesome.”
For her, who was a homebody, the most important thing was the noise from other floors.
She hated it when she heard thumping sounds in her quiet house. It was very stressful.
That’s why she always insisted on living on the top floor.
They quickly unpacked their luggage and finished cleaning.
Lucia updated some information and explained a few things to her.
“You can find groceries and other necessities at the mart. You can either ask me to get them for you or just take them yourself. They’ll automatically deduct credits from your face recognition.”
“Do you want to go there together later? I’m curious about what they have.”
“There’s nothing special and the variety isn’t that great yet. And there are a few things you need to be careful about while living here…”
“Like what?”
“The most important thing here is your score. You’re familiar with CP, right? Let me see… You’ve already collected 117 points.”
“Yeah, I’ve never dropped below that.”
“You’d have more chances to drop your score if you went outside, you homebody.”
Lucia’s expression was very human-like as she teased her.
If it weren’t for the metallic parts that were barely visible inside her mouth, she might have mistaken her for a human.
Hwang Seon-yeong suddenly grabbed Lucia’s wrist and examined it closely.
“Oh, the texture is slightly different.”
“Are you curious?”
“Yeah, I never thought androids would be commercialized in my lifetime.”
Could Lucia think for herself?
Or was she just a program that acted based on basic algorithms and data transmitted from the server?
It was impossible for Hwang Seon-yeong to tell the difference, and it wouldn’t be easy for the world’s top scholars either.
‘Let’s think simply, simply.’
She had a friend who understood her heart, supported her firmly, and nagged a bit. How nice was that?
She spent 100 million won, but she didn’t regret it at all.
Now they lay down on the floor and started reading the book they got from the immigration checkpoint.
“Hmm… So we just throw away the trash in the disposal chute. That’s simple.”
“Do you know how they deal with the trash? They shoot it into the sun with a huge cannon.”
Hwang Seon-yeong’s expression turned pale.
The mass driver was developed in 2029, or even earlier?
“Really?”
“You just entered Megacity and you’re still surprised by everything? Let’s go see it later.”
“Uh-huh.”
At this point, she wanted to believe the conspiracy theory that Yu Ji-ha wasn’t developing anything but just taking out things that were already developed.
She read the book further and found some creepy content.
“If your score falls below a certain level, your residency will be revoked and you will be forcibly deported and never allowed to enter again… This is scary.”
“You have no possibility of that happening to you.”
“Still, you never know what will happen to people. Why do they say that no one lives without making mistakes?”
“The system takes that into account too. You won’t fall into hell because of one mistake. It’s more dangerous to commit minor offenses. If you don’t correct them after being warned, your score will be deducted in real time.”
Hwang Seon-yeong knew that too.
The best thing that happened after CP was introduced was that behaviors that weren’t crimes but annoyed people disappeared.
As a result, the stress levels of social welfare workers decreased significantly.
Anyway, there were many things to be careful about in the booklet, but most of them were common sense.
They would probably apply anywhere in the world.
“If you raise your score above 120 points, you can upgrade to free citizen E-class without an exam… The house gets twice as big.”
“You also get more allowance and coupons. And more facilities to use.”
The United Human Federation had a very systematic reward and punishment system.
They gave more benefits if you raised your CP and took away benefits if you lowered it.
There was only one person who was exempt from this rule.
Yu Ji-ha, the creator of Megacity and the owner of the United Federation, did not have to follow this rule.
Hwang Seon-yeong tilted her head as she read the text.
“There’s a complete citizen above free citizen A-class? How do you get there?”
“I don’t know that. There’s no data yet.”
Hwang Seon-yeong wasn’t surprised by the fact that there was a de facto class system.
It wasn’t so much that she had confidence in climbing up, but that she didn’t care.
“Hmm.”
Anyway, Megacity was a very unfamiliar but exciting place.
She didn’t know what her job would be like, but she decided to stay here for a while.
She stayed at home until Lucia dragged her out to see the island.
Passenger planes and ships were coming in one after another.
…
As the number of residents in Megacity Pacific increased, information began to leak out.
The exact location of Terra Island, as well as the size of Megacity, became known, and many people showed great interest.
—It’s not even the size of a small city? It doesn’t live up to its name as Megacity.
—They built a city on an uninhabited island in a year and you’re mocking them?
—They say the whole city is made of black metal. Isn’t that a waste of resources? Some places are barely researching it with gold prices.
—Are you French? If you wanted to use black metal, you shouldn’t have called Yu Ji-ha Hitler.
—What’s wrong with calling a dictator a dictator?
—It’s your freedom to call him that, but it’s his freedom not to deal with you, right? What’s the problem?
There were arguments that were close to fights on the internet of various countries, and photos were uploaded one after another.
—It’s totally barren. It would be perfect to call it the gray city.
—Is that all black metal? How much waste are they making?
–-But isn’t black metal usually black? Why is it gray?
—Maybe Yu Ji-ha is an android. That would explain how he died and came back to life.
—They’re all drones and androids… Am I really living in 2029? Why is it only Sci-fi there?
—A true dystopia indeed. Everything is monitored and those who enter there can never escape the control.
—They say you can raise your rank with CP. This is a complete class system.
—I thought Korea was a country where democracy was established, but I don’t know how such a monster was born.
—That monster made a beautiful city. You get the right to stay for free and an allowance for your residence if you get a residency permit.
—If you like being watched, go ahead. It might seem nice to live there now, but it will be different later. All dictatorships eventually lead to oppression.
As such, the evaluation of Megacity Pacific at this point was very negative.
The world claimed that even Korea was pursuing a policy of human rights destruction, and Megacity was a step further than that.
In fact, countries with reconnaissance satellites such as the United States and Russia already knew the location and size of Megacity Pacific.
They just didn’t know what facilities were there, but when some of them were revealed, they seemed to be shocked.
—No matter how much black metal factor he has, building a city of this size in a year is abnormal.
—That giant cannon seems to be a mass driver that shoots trash into space. This means that there is a powerful energy source under Megacity.
—Yu Ji-ha must have prepared for today since he woke up from being a vegetable. The construction of Megacity is not his final goal.
—Maybe he’s really an alien. We don’t completely deny aliens either, so it might be better to tell the truth and ask for cooperation…
Many media outlets tried to cover Megacity, but the answer from the administration was the same.
—You cannot enter unless you are a resident.
This also applied to the heads of state of various countries, and there was a rumor that McKinley, the president of the United States, was also denied a visit.
At this point, some countries began to realize that cooperation was needed.
What Yu Ji-ha and the United Human Federation had shown so far was not something that could be ignored.
—Yu Ji-ha has established a powerful dictatorship system and class system, as well as a de facto state to spread it. I don’t know what he’s going to do with it, but it won’t help world peace given his personality.
—He’s a very dangerous person. The United States should focus on the United Human Federation and Yu Ji-ha instead of Ukraine.
The EU and others criticized, but the United States did not immediately apply sanctions.
They would suffer a lot of damage if the Moonlight Project was suspended.
Fortunately, Yu Ji-ha declared that he would not use the mass driver for military purposes.
“All mass drivers are managed by Silla Group, so they won’t be used for military purposes.”
He had plenty of other weapons, so there was no need to put a military image on the mass driver.
According to the announcement, each country could invest money and introduce equipment.
However, there was a fee for using it, and Silla Group was solely responsible for managing it.
In other words, pay up.
The countries were stunned, but they couldn’t refuse to use it.
The cost of throwing 1kg into space with a mass driver connected to a nuclear fusion plant was less than $5 according to the announcement.
It was a high cost for disposing of trash, but it had more meaning than that for countries with small territories.
It could also handle nuclear waste.
The countries calculated hard and concluded that they had to introduce it.
—If the Moonlight Project expands in the future, we can get helium-3 cheaply. In that case, the cost will be reduced further and we can even handle trash.
However, in order to introduce the mass driver, a nuclear fusion plant was essential.
There was no negotiation table for some countries that had crossed Yu Ji-ha and the United Human Federation, and the United States, Russia, Germany and others had priority negotiation rights.
Meanwhile, the United Human Federation began to deal with the garbage island that spread widely in the North Pacific.
The garbage island that was several times larger than the Korean Peninsula gradually shrank over time.
The EU and others sneered that Hitler was also vegan, but Yu Ji-ha did not respond.
It was natural to clean up around his house.
“The internal cleanup is over.”
President Putin’s words meant that he had purged domestic forces that opposed giving up Russian land permanently.
No matter what he said, he couldn’t ignore the opposition or the people’s backlash completely, and he had to go through a vote.
It took a long time to hand over a huge area of land to Korea, but now it was time to reap the fruits.
His finger drew a long line.
“China, or Zhongmeng, gave you land, right? From here to here, I’ll give it to Korea.”
The line started from the left end of the Korean Peninsula, bypassed Manchuria slightly, and went up to the East Siberian Sea without hesitation.
It included a huge area of Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin, East Siberia and Chukotka.
If this plan became a reality, Korea would face the United States’ territory of Alaska.
The oil field and natural gas reservoir with an estimated reserve of over 10 billion barrels were a bonus.
Yu Ji-ha was calm even after seeing the territory that was more than 20 times the size of the Korean Peninsula.
“That’s fine.”
“Some of the residents will start moving soon, but there are quite a few who say they will stay. They probably expect your ability, President Yu.”
“I will treat them as Koreans if they wish. But I can’t guarantee autonomy.”
“I guess you want a perfect governance system… I wish I could do that too. But the land around Siberia is really messed up.”
“There’s always a way.”
President Putin brought out a picture.
It was a picture sent by a Russian research team that had moved to Megacity.
“Is that the city you’re talking about? I never imagined building a city with black metal.”
“Are you interested in this city, Mr. President?”
“I’m not doubting, but wondering if I can annex it. I’m talking about the Ukrainian region that we merged with recently.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was successful and was nearing completion despite the interference of the Western world.
As always, the United States did not intervene much in Eastern Europe, unlike Western Europe.
As a result, Poland and Romania, which bordered Ukraine, were in a tense situation.
Western Europe, such as Germany, increased their defense spending as Russia’s advance became a reality.
Anyway, despite the concerns of various countries, Ukraine became part of the Russian Federation after Belarus.
If Yu Jiha’s cooperation continued, the glory of the former Soviet Union was not impossible.
“It seems you need a new area to focus on.”
“Russia and Ukraine are one. Now you are Russians and we will not ignore you. We need a symbolic city like this.”
“A city… This would be a good place.”
Yoo Jiha pointed to a place that was a neglected area with only a few villages in Romania and Belarus.
President Putin nodded his head as he looked at where Yu Jiha’s finger pointed.
“You think the same as me. It’s an attractive place as a propaganda city. It will be perfect when the city made of black metal is built.”
“By the way, just to let you know, you can’t make batteries or anything with the black metal that goes into the city. They are different types.”
It was known to the world that all black metals were the same, but in fact they were divided by types.
If you control the plague core well, you can make black metal that has a very fast erosion rate but low effect.
You need at least a behemoth-class core, not a kraken-class one.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that… Well, I guess it’s understandable since you are the only black metal expert in the world. It doesn’t matter. I want a city.”
“The population will be around 500,000.”
“Excellent. Will it look almost similar to Mega City? Our scientists were so shocked.”
There were Russians among the residents of Mega City Pacific.
They were mostly researchers who had obtained doctoral degrees, and they were shocked when they moved in.
They couldn’t believe that such a city was built on an uninhabited island.
Most of the systems were unmanned and there was no error.
The control was strict, but the range was quite wide, so they could enjoy the infrastructure that was incomparable to Russia as long as they didn’t cause any major accidents.
They immediately contacted their homeland, and it reached President Putin’s ears.
He clenched and unclenched his fists.
“The nuclear fusion plant is also progressing well… Now we can start operating it properly when the moon base is built. When will the mass driver be available?”
“It consumes a lot of electricity, so we have no choice but to operate it with the nuclear fusion plant.”
“Just in case, what if there is a defect in that mass driver? Radioactive waste will fall to Earth. Can you handle that?”
This was one of the reasons why countries could not easily adopt mass drivers at this point.
If something goes wrong, they might end up dropping radioactive waste on someone else’s territory.
It was mostly high-level waste, so it would be a serious nuisance if it fell into the sea.
After the existence of the mass driver was revealed, researchers expressed their concerns through IAEA and other countries also backed off.
If Yu Jiha didn’t like it, he didn’t have to do it. That was his position.
The mass driver was made entirely using Settler’s blueprint, so the probability of malfunction was very low.
There was an unknown output drop once every 50 million launches in simulation, but that could be easily covered.
The high-level waste would be wrapped in B-class black metal for construction purposes.
“We will make sure there is no problem.”
If Yu Jiha said so confidently, he had no choice but to believe him.
President Putin decided to bring up the main point.
“By the way… There is a very secret rumor going around in various countries these days.”
“It must be about my identity.”
“It’s hard to say this face to face, but you don’t seem like someone who lives in the same era as me. I mean, it feels like you brought science and technology from the future.”
“I understand. You can think that way.”
“According to some reports, the US intelligence agency is digging into your past. They are looking at all your records.”
Maybe something will come out on the day Settler entered the atmosphere.
But Yu Jiha had no intention of revealing his identity yet.
It would cause more global chaos if he announced it afterwards.
Of course, even now, the world was in turmoil because of his actions.
But it was not a big problem because it was within his control.
The more people who knew about the future, the higher the possibility of leakage.
Arma predicted that if he revealed his identity or information about the future, it would spread all over the world in 30 days.
It was so shocking that it was bound to leak.
‘If that happens, there will be global refugees.’
It was an unpleasant situation that even Arma could not control.
President Putin spoke in a serious tone.
“Now I can’t dismiss the rumors that you are an alien or a time traveler as nonsense.”
“I have no comment on that.”
He knew there was something, but he couldn’t ask any more.
Economic cooperation was much more important now…
They discussed the extension of Russia’s oil and gas pipelines.
“ESPO is connected to Kozmino. We just need to bring it into North Korea.”
“Good. Let’s proceed right away.”
Korea had become a major oil-producing country in the world, but it would take some time to receive the data and start exploration.
Until then, they had no choice but to get supplies from Russia.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m