Chapter 197

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Popi?”

“Yeah. Popi.”

Popi is… the name of the pet dog my parents suddenly brought home one day.

People who had never looked at pets their whole lives brought home such a creature for some reason.

I heard they were feeling lonely.

It made me wonder if my filial piety was lacking.

Thinking about it, I had been too busy with work to spend time with my parents.

Still, though it was awkward at first, whenever that little one wagged its tail and came over, the explosive cuteness made me understand why people raise pet dogs.

“What happened with Popi?”

“Last night it suddenly got really sick. But Mom and Dad didn’t notice at first and only realized later, so they hurried to take it to the hospital.”

“Really? Is it okay?”

“Yeah. Fortunately, it’s okay. The emergency treatment went well too.”

That little one who used to wag its tail and cling to me and my sibling when we left for work—no wonder it seemed missing.

“That’s a relief. Mom and Dad must have been really surprised.”

“I know right. I was shocked too? Who knew it would suddenly get sick like that. If they had found out a little later… phew. Isn’t there a way to detect these things early?”

Just thinking about it made me feel dizzy too.

“These days, watching our mom and dad getting older, I’m honestly worried. What if something happens to both of them at night while they’re asleep? We wouldn’t know, right?”

“That’s true.”

“Even if I wanted to know in advance, it’s not like they can wear all that equipment like in a hospital to measure heart rate in real-time, and I want to find something useful like a watch to wear but there really isn’t one.”

These are thoughts that naturally come when your parents get older.

What if something happens to them in the middle of the night?

That kind of anxiety that any child thinks about at least once.

“And Popi too. We can’t even know in advance where it hurts…”

But why?

While listening to my sibling’s complaints, suddenly my whole body was trembling as my intuition was reacting.

“…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Hm? Ah. Nothing.”

Did my intuition reacting here mean there was something?

“But oppa. You can’t come home these days because of that, right?”

My sibling pointed to the TV where breaking news was playing.

They were briefing on North Korea and China all day long.

“Foreign guests at our hotel have all disappeared. They say the Korean War might break out again now that China has collapsed into civil war. Everyone’s really anxious.”

I was anxious about that too.

China’s collapse was shaking North Korea.

Since we don’t know what crazy things they might do, Korea is currently in a state of extreme tension.

“This won’t really lead to war, will it, oppa?”

“I don’t know…”

“Gasp. Is war really coming?!”

I couldn’t be sure about that.

All I could do was pray for the situation to end quickly.

***

“So all of this happened because of the civil war in the Three Northeastern Provinces?”

Aiden blinked his dim eyes while looking at the map on his tablet.

“Yes. China’s Three Northeastern Provinces are closest to North Korea. The civil war there created refugees, and they’re crossing into North Korea to escape the war.”

“You said there are armed forces. What does that mean?”

“They’re troops that lost in the civil war. They’re heading south to find a way to survive, but the problem is the equipment they have is no joke. Not only are they armed with heavy weapons, they’re heading south with tanks and armored vehicles.”

Dandong and Sinuiju are connected by a long bridge and can be considered the largest trade hub between North Korea and China.

But conversely, that means China could go south through that route and strike North Korea anytime.

“Chinese defeated soldiers used exactly that route to suddenly occupy the bridge, and as a result, military units armed with various tanks and armored vehicles entered.”

It’s not a place with strict guard and minefields like the North-South Korean DMZ.

It’s an adjacent border city that’s always open for trade during peacetime, so they didn’t predict that Chinese forces would come down.

“What is North Korea doing?”

“Kim Jeong-woon immediately declared a national emergency and dispatched troops to the border to block the refugees and defeated soldiers coming down, but… it doesn’t seem easy. Since this bridge has already fallen to Chinese forces, refugees and soldiers keep coming down.”

“Then just destroy the bridge? They can bomb it.”

“They seem to have tried, but apparently failed to blow up the bridge. More importantly, North Korea currently doesn’t have the capability to use their air force…”

“The North Korean military is in that bad shape?”

He already knew the situation from North Korean society to the military was serious.

But they didn’t even have the capability to bomb one bridge?

“Blowing up the bridge could somehow be done even without the air force. But North Korea’s condition has gotten much worse than before. Multiple financial crises and energy price surges have further destroyed North Korea internally.”

North Korea was originally not in good condition.

There were internal factors, but external factors played the biggest role.

“Wait. So North Korea’s condition got worse because of Gwangwoon?”

“Yes. The financial crises that dealt blows to China and Russia who help North Korea, the energy crisis from the Russia-Ukraine war, and so on. Isn’t it all related to Gwangwoon? If not for Gwangwoon, North Korea’s condition wouldn’t have gotten this bad.”

In other words, if not for Gwangwoon, North Korea could have defended more easily than now.

“Are you saying Gwangwoon designed even this far ahead?”

All along, he thought Gwangwoon triggered various financial crises and shook the world economy for other reasons.

For company acquisitions or to target certain stocks rising.

But that was because he couldn’t see the whole forest. He only saw the trees.

“Gwangwoon’s purpose may have been aiming for this from the beginning.”

“China and North Korea?”

“Yes. With China’s collapse, the world will become more dependent on Gwangwoon. Gwangwoon already laid the groundwork in Africa. Companies will build factories there, and beyond the Asian financial hub role that transferred after Hong Kong, Korea and Gwangwoon will become the center of Asia.”

This meant Gwangwoon’s plan was progressing step by step.

The productivity that China controlled.

The Asian hub role that China controlled, and so on.

“But what Gwangwoon is most worried about is North Korea. As long as North Korea exists, Korea can never be considered completely safe.”

North Korea could explode anytime, in any way.

Korean markets don’t waver just because North Korea launches missiles like before, but the risk of North Korea always remains like a tumor, making it difficult for the Korean market to be highly valued.

“They’re trying to solve that North Korea problem?”

“If what Gwangwoon wants is control of Korea and the Asian market, North Korea is the biggest variable. They’ll try to put it under their feet somehow.”

Indeed, Aiden had always been curious what Gwangwoon thought about North Korea.

Since there was no particular involvement with North Korea, he thought they were just ignoring it.

Because isn’t North Korea the most closed country in the world? Operations are difficult, infiltration is difficult, so he thought they had completely given up.

“But while our attention was elsewhere, they were secretly doing groundwork behind the scenes. So that North Korea could collapse with just one shock.”

Of course.

There was no way Gwangwoon would leave North Korea alone.

Right now, the world is increasingly revolving around Gwangwoon.

Because they control social media and networks.

But the places directly denying their ideology are China and North Korea.

If they leave those two places alone, they can never create the world Gwangwoon wants.

So they did all that work, building up over that long period to bring down those two countries.

“What is Korea doing?”

“They’re already in real-time contact with us, preparing for military operations. All units are in combat readiness and closely monitoring North Korea’s condition. So they can respond immediately if Kim Jeong-woon does something insane.”

What would North Korea’s insane action be? Nuclear missiles.

The Kim family is a selfish dictator family that thinks it’s better for everyone to die together than have their power taken away.

They have never once thought of the lives of North Korean people their whole lives.

If they had, they would have opened borders long ago and developed the country.

But they are demons who sacrificed people’s lives solely for their own power while enjoying wealth and glory.

“Can we stop them if they do something reckless?”

“Yes. We’re monitoring in real-time via satellite. If there are signs of nuclear missile launch, we can strike immediately. Training for that is all done, and North Korean technology can never detect our stealth fighters.”

Military experts these days say this.

If war breaks out between North and South Korea now, it would be over in 20 minutes.

That’s not entirely wrong.

“What does the UN say?”

“They’re also in a difficult situation. As long as international sanctions are in place, the UN has no way to help North Korea, and they can’t just provide food aid. Everything…”

“Depends on Gwangwoon’s choice?”

“Yes. Whether it’s food aid or relief supplies, it’s ultimately in Gwangwoon’s hands. They’re holding materials in large quantities. Especially those Gwangwoon ships that stopped in the middle of the sea because of the coup while heading to China—aren’t they carrying enormous amounts of food?”

In the end, it meant that whether to help or collapse North Korea was in Gwangwoon’s hands.

Aiden was now starting to wonder where this madness would end.

***

“Did you convey it properly to the UN?”

“Yes. We’ve requested that the UN cooperate so we can somehow provide a helping hand. Unless they lift sanctions and dispatch peacekeeping forces to mediate, we can’t predict what will happen to North Korea going forward.”

I don’t want North Korea to collapse.

Their dictatorship and human rights violations are clearly wrong, but if a country shows signs of collapse like this, our country has to bear the full brunt of the aftermath.

What if coups break out one after another in North Korea and nuclear war erupts?

Even if not nuclear war, what if the chemical gas they can spray over 50 times across our entire country is spread everywhere?

The brilliant Korea could become hell in an instant.

So I wanted to prevent the worst-case scenario no matter what.

“We’ll have to wait and see if America and the UN resolve it well.”

“Yes. There’s no other way but to watch. Ah! And here are the materials you inquired about last time, President.”

“Did research send them?”

“Yes. After checking the businesses you mentioned, we’ve selected and brought the most developed ones. If you proceed with investment, funds can be injected immediately.”

I looked through the list.

The research team must have looked into it thoroughly, as the list detailed development potential and current progress for each business.

After absorbing a certain amount of information, I briefly closed my eyes.

Then opened them again following the feeling transmitted from my fingertips.

Sure enough.

Colors that weren’t there just now appeared on the list.

“…”

I checked off a few companies and projects, then handed it to the manager.

“Please proceed as is.”

“Ah, yes sir.”

Even if we’re anxious about what will happen with China and North Korea, we still have to do what needs to be done.

***

“How’s the domestic and foreign stock market situation?”

“As expected. After North Korea and China became like that, the global financial markets are full of panic.”

Vice President Kang Ji-hwan let out a short sigh.

He felt like it had been a long time since seeing such a turbulent market.

That was probably because China and North Korea, which no one predicted, were collapsing.

Because of that, all financial markets were now selling off and struggling to escape this hellfire.

“But… what is this?”

“Ah. A few days ago, President Jeong Jin-ho asked research to look into companies in a specific business, and it seems he received the materials and decided on an investment.”

At a time like this, of all times?

Vice President Kang Ji-hwan quickly examined the file with rising curiosity.

But it listed an unexpected business.

“Pet RFID chips?”

“Yes. Originally, pets over 2 months old are supposed to have RFID chips implanted. As a requirement. But this is a step beyond that. It’s technology that can check pets’ status in real-time through RFID chips. They even plan to incorporate AI technology to analyze where the pet is uncomfortable, stress levels, emotional state analysis, and more.”

“The President really decided to invest in this?”

“Yes. He’s even allocated 100 billion won as the first investment.”

It was a really random investment.

Pets out of nowhere.

“And the next one is…”

But the next one, while different in nature, looked somewhat similar.

“This is similar too. It’s technology that immediately notifies children if something happens to elderly parents while they’re sleeping.”

“But this is also related to small chips?”

“Yes. They’re researching to put in small chips to check heart rate, blood, and various health conditions in real-time. Smartwatches exist now, but unfortunately, even if they detect cardiac arrest or abnormal heart rates, guardians don’t get notifications. There are also technical limitations.”

“So they put in small chips to check health status?”

“Yes. Ultimately, it’s about creating technology that can detect illnesses in real-time without needing medical checkups. Combining AI and technology.”

On the surface, it looked very good.

You could know pets’ conditions faster, and it could relieve the anxiety of “what if something happens to my parents at night and we don’t notice?”

But you have to know who made this investment decision.

None other than Jeong Jin-ho.

Kang Ji-hwan knew Jeong Jin-ho’s true nature well, didn’t he?

On the surface he always smiles and seems really innocent, but he’s no different from the incarnation of a demon.

Few people in this world know his true nature.

Creating the Trinity guild like that, establishing Sentinel to conduct countless operations—all of it was Jeong Jin-ho’s work.

Would such a person really pour thousands of billions into this project just to care for people’s health?

“What if this technology really succeeds and becomes commercialized?”

“They probably won’t be able to detect all illnesses. But they’ll be able to know to some extent. Especially if used in places with poor medical facilities, it would be easier to identify diseases.”

“Like Africa and North Korea?”

“…Yes. T-That’s right.”

Moreover, if technology advances further, later everyone will want to implant this chip in their bodies.

It might even become a national requirement.

If that happens—

“Vice President. Could this investment possibly…”

When an executive spoke in a trembling voice, Vice President Kang Ji-hwan raised his hand to shut their mouth.

“Everyone quiet. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t say it out loud. This is advice for your sake.”

“!?”

The executives, alarmed, clamped their mouths shut and swallowed dryly.

They too realized what the true meaning of this investment was.

End