Chapter 434
* * *
China, Presidential Palace
Around this time, Jang Hak-chae was having a secret talk with an old enemy from the past.
Of course, calling it a secret talk was a bit much; it was just an unofficial phone call between national leaders.
And the one who initiated it was Jang Hak-chae.
-So you’re saying you won’t buy our goods?
Ha Jeongseok’s bewildered voice grated on his ears through the communication magic gear.
He really hated hearing Ha Jeongseok’s disgusting voice, but that voice tinged with an uncharacteristic bewilderment was worth listening to.
Right. He must be surprised.
Since China, which until now had been importing Hunter weapons exactly as he had planned, declared it wouldn’t buy them anymore, those bastards would no longer be able to taste that sweet China money.
“Do we still look like some backward country begging for help? To begin with, Korea has been sucking our marrow dry way beyond what we deserve all this time.”
-Begging for help, you say. The International Community is supposed to help one another out. Does getting a little help hurt your pride that much?
Jang Hak-chae let out a hollow laugh.
A little, my ass.
Wasn’t that 'little' actually a trick to suck China dry?
Jang Hak-chae wasn’t stupid enough not to know that.
“Get your facts straight! Did you think I wouldn’t know that Korea and the Western Countries have been busy sweeping up money from our China?”
-So you just suddenly imposed sanctions. What about our Korean and Chinese companies that already signed contracts?
Was he telling the companies that already signed contracts to just go die?
At the very least, shouldn’t they put personal feelings aside and handle business as business?
Ha Jeongseok was saying that, but Jang Hak-chae had a backer he believed in.
No, to begin with, he still had one major move left to redefine his relationship with Korea, ruled by that damn Ha Jeongseok.
“We’ll take care of that on our end! Let’s just see how long your Korea can keep acting so high and mighty!”
-This bastard’s temper has gotten nasty.
Click.
Unlike Jang Hak-chae, who was huffing and puffing until the end, Ha Jeongseok remained relaxed right up to the moment he hung up.
Let’s see just how long that arrogance can last.
Putting down the magic gear, Jang Hak-chae glared at the woman standing next to him with her arms crossed, as if she were monitoring him.
A bitch named Pingping.
He heard she was definitely one of the refugees dragged to the research institute. Yet such a bitch had escaped the lab and barged right into the Presidential Palace.
He had tried contacting the lab back then, but the facility was already destroyed, and this bitch named Pingping was supposedly creating all the test subjects on her own.
A bitch whose head was still wet behind the ears dared to use the President.
“Are you satisfied?”
“You did well, President.”
Right. This was all done because this bitch asked (threatened) him to.
Of course, Jang Hak-chae had wanted to do this anyway against Korea someday, but this time it wasn’t his own intention.
“But I’m curious. In your eyes, am I not your enemy? So what’s your reason for saying you’ll help me? Did you awaken as a Chinese citizen and suddenly feel a surge of patriotism?”
“To me, ethnicity means superiority. That nation called Korea has the strongest Hunters in the world, and China is right next door - its Hunters might be terrible, but it sure has a lot of bodies, doesn’t it?”
It felt like he had just heard something he shouldn’t have.
That their Hunters were terrible compared to Korea’s, yet they had a large population.
Those words made anger flare up inside him for no reason.
“Are you saying we’d lose to Korea?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“You bitch!”
Jang Hak-chae exploded with uncontainable anger at Pingping for stabbing him with facts, but he soon shut his mouth.
The bitch named Pingping in front of him was just that strong.
Strong enough to put a dent in the President’s authority, a murderous aura spread around her.
“But do not worry. As long as you follow my lead well, I can at least tear down a place like Korea for you.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Yes. I can give you the revenge for your school days that you want so badly.”
Jang Hak-chae’s anti-Korean sentiment.
It didn’t stem from viewing Korea as a vassal state based on Sinocentrism - a brand of imperialism unique to the Chinese - and hating it because that vassal state had been acting up lately. It truly stemmed from personal feelings.
It was his revenge and hatred toward Ha Jeongseok, which had expanded to target the entire nation when Ha Jeongseok became President.
Right. That was the past from several years ago.
That was the reason Jang Hak-chae came to hate Ha Jeongseok.
-That bastard! That guy Ha Jeongseok was the main culprit who ostracized me along with the Western bastards during our Swiss Academy days! I can’t accept that he’s the Korean President!
-The Chinese President should watch his words. When did I ever bully the President? Isn’t that right?
-That’s right. How closely did we all get along back then? As fellow Academy alumni, distorting the past is a betrayal of our memories.
-Our United Kingdom feels the same. We were once classmates, and we were all incredibly lucky to become leaders of our respective countries. No matter whether it’s for national interest, China is uniquely tormenting Korea.
He could never forget that humiliating past.
When Ha Jeongseok made his debut as President on the International Community stage known as the International Hunter Association, Jang Hak-chae had accused Ha Jeongseok as if he were a school violence victim. But as luck would have it, the classmates who had bullied him together had also coincidentally become leaders of Western Countries, and they all stepped up to cover for Ha Jeongseok.
Because if they admitted to it, they would be admitting that they had bullied him too.
In the end, Jang Hak-chae was ostracized in the International Community as well. Perhaps feeling a bit sorry, the Western Countries did provide some support to China, though only a very little bit.
Of course, their brazen attitude - claiming that this was a lot of support compared to the tyranny China had displayed pre-Cataclysm - only proved how hypocritical The West was.
“They devoured us so much during the Qing Dynasty, yet they teamed up with Ha Jeongseok to target only China.”
This was unforgivable.
Since the other Westerners were far away for now, he wouldn’t feel satisfied unless he trampled Korea at the very least.
That was when Pingping appeared, promising to fulfill his revenge.
When one looked into it, Pingping had already completely subjugated all the refugees - who knew how she brainwashed them - and massively enhanced them.
If they just used this to invade Korea, what would be the problem?
“Alright, then I will leave everything entirely to you without asking any questions.”
“A wise choice.”
“But who exactly are you?”
No matter how he looked at her, he couldn’t tell who she was.
It didn’t seem like she was simply born in a lab.
After all, there was no way that guy Kang Youwei would create a being that would put a knife to his own throat, nor was Kang Youwei such a foolish person.
“You can just know me as a Sin.”
“A Sin?”
“The Sin of Gluttony. Ah. You can consider me stronger than the situation you people speak of.”
“The Sin of Gluttony. Right. I’ll keep that in mind.”
The Sin of Gluttony.
Right. The Seven Deadly Sins, were they?
He considered dismissing it as the nonsense of an immature kid, but Jang Hak-chae wasn’t a Hunter that weak.
Even though he had suffered all sorts of bullying during his Swiss Academy days, he was still the man who had risen to the position of China’s President.
The position of China’s President wasn’t something anyone could get just by paying money.
Jang Hak-chae had ascended to the President’s seat as the most outstanding Hunter in China.
Therefore, he felt something from the being to his very bones just now.
She was not human.
She was definitely something much more massive.
So he decided not to mess with her recklessly, but to bow his head appropriately and listen to Pingping’s words while a compromise was still possible.
Besides, didn’t she say she would take down Korea for him?
Ha Jeongseok’s nation.
The nation had the world’s greatest Hunter, Yu Jinseok.
If it was a nation like that, it was only right to strike it down.
When Pingping said her piece and left, Jang Hak-chae’s close aide, the Hunter Public Security Department leader Tian Yuan, approached.
“Will this be alright?”
“We don’t have much of a choice anyway.”
If he had refused out of pride back there, she probably would have forced the issue anyway.
Jang Hak-chae’s pride wouldn’t allow that.
Furthermore, Pingping’s goal aligned with his own.
Honestly, the Enhanced Hunter Project was as good as finished because of Pingping.
At this rate, surpassing Korea would be difficult.
If so, he had to hold hands with a demon; what else could he do?
“No, even so. That’s a bit…”
“You mean it feels uncomfortable?”
“Yes.”
“But it can’t be helped. We don’t have that many options. Korea will continue to soar even higher, and we’ll just keep going downhill.”
So it couldn’t be helped. If he missed this opportunity now, Jang Hak-chae couldn’t even guarantee his own life. And other countries weren’t in a position to easily come to help if a war broke out in Korea right now.
Holding Pingping’s hand was the best option right now.
Anyway, since the old era’s navy and air force had all been wiped out after the Great Cataclysm, there was no way to strangle Korea, if they could really just take down Korea.
It would be like paying back all the pent-up resentment he had harbored until now.
* * *
After the phone call with Jang Hak-chae, Ha Jeongseok felt a sense of unease.
Right. For instance, Jang Hak-chae. That bastard was up to some trick.
Otherwise, there was no way that foolish bastard would be so determined to defy Ha Jeongseok like that.
Of course, looking at national standing, China was still threatening even with half its population wiped out. But still, Korea had Yu Jinseok-i.
Thus, Ha Jeongseok visited the Korean Hunter Association.
“Ah, Chairman Choi, good to see you. It’s me, Ha Jeongseok.”
“President, Your Excellency. What brings you all the way here?”
It was simple.
He didn’t know what that bastard Jang Hak-chae might have done.
Like, what if he had created something like enhanced humans?
Perhaps, if that foolish bastard had conducted some sort of human experimentation and created new Hunters, a war could break out.
That was why he visited the Hunter Association.
“I have something to discuss regarding Jang Hak-chae.”
“By Jang Hak-chae, you mean…”
“It seems this bastard Jang Hak-chae has found a backer to rely on.”
No matter how he looked at it, it only seemed that way.
Because otherwise, that cowardly bastard wouldn’t come out so strongly.
“You mean Jang Hak-chae.”
“Yeah. Can you look into it?”
“Isn’t it simply China being China?”
“It feels different this time.”
Ha Jeongseok knew the person named Jang Hak-chae very well.
Because most of the Western Countries in the International Community were former classmates, Jang Hak-chae was quite intimidated.
Separately from that, the Chinese Hunter delegation was always drawing massive aggro by claiming they were amazing. But Jang Hak-chae himself wasn’t the type to openly yell at Ha Jeongseok without a backer.
This meant he had something to rely on.
“Honestly, it shouldn’t be the United States or the United Kingdom.”
“Right. To begin with, as long as Tom remains President, the United States can’t touch us.”
“Is that so.”
“Because I have that bastard’s sex tape.”
During their Swiss Academy days
At the parties held occasionally, an orgy was basically a given.
Naturally, Ha Jeongseok and his classmates also enjoyed the orgy, but Ha Jeongseok had accidentally discovered Tom Jackson - now the President of the United States and America’s first S-rank Hunter - having sex with a woman from China at the time.
He had recorded it on video to tease him.
He never imagined it would now be used so greatly for the national interest, though.
“Ah. So that’s why the United States has been taking our side so unusually well compared to pre-Cataclysm.”
“Of course, the United States isn’t a nation run by the President alone, so it does listen to Japan from time to time, but that was necessary for us too, so it couldn’t be helped.”
If the United States ever acted unreasonably toward Korea, Ha Jeongseok would threaten it with the US President’s sex tape every time.
He had been extracting whatever he could within the limits of the US President’s authority.
Thanks to that, Korea was maintaining a much tighter ROK-US Alliance than the pre-Cataclysm one.
Honestly, with the appearance of Yu Jinseok-i, the sex tape was no longer strictly necessary. But a sex tape was an item with many uses at any time.
“Then, is the reason you specifically sought me out that you have a war in mind right now?”
“Yeah.”
“No, that doesn’t make sense. Maybe pre-Cataclysm, but it makes no sense for the current China to target Korea.”
Korea was, after all, a nation that possessed Yu Jinseok-i.
No matter how out of its mind China was, would it really pull a dirty trick?