“Maintaining auto-enrollment isn’t difficult. But there’s a limit to the King’s Veil I can deploy. So what do we do about that?”
– By limit, you mean geographical limit, don’t you?
“There’s a geographical limit, but there’s also a limit to the number of overlaps. Plus, the more they overlap, the weaker the defensive function becomes. Dungeon Breaks are a problem, but the Night of the Dead starting tonight is also an issue.”
– Huu, we’ll do what we can and the rest can’t be helped. First, we’ll select places that can accommodate the maximum number of people on our end and let you know, Jaehee-ssi, so please deploy the veil centered on those locations. How many maximum veils do you think you can deploy? No matter how few, we need at least five…
At Section Chief Yongtae Lim’s words, Jaehee bit his lip hard. While deploying overlapping veils last night, he learned that doing so consumed considerable mental and physical strength. But now wasn’t the time to say such things. He would just be tired, but for the people outside, it was a matter of life and death.
“I’ll try my best. Five or more, I’ll do it. Well. However, when veils overlap, the overall effect weakens. I’ll also look for another way to solve this problem.”
– It must have been a difficult decision, thank you. In return, we’ll do our best for your safety too, Jaehee-ssi.
“I should be thanking you, Section Chief-nim. Ah, and actually, after Yumi-ssi went to the Management Bureau, there was one more attack.”
– An attack? Then are you okay now?
At Section Chief Lim’s surprised voice, Jaehee quickly continued.
“Ah! I wasn’t hurt. There’s no particular civilian damage either. There was some damage to the building and property… Well, that can be dealt with somehow.”
– Haa…. Are they really trying to finish this? I have no idea what Lee Shinhoo is thinking doing this.
Yongtae Lim had just said he wasn’t certain who was doing this, but now he was definitively saying the instigator was Lee Shinhoo. In fact, there was no one in South Korea other than Lee Shinhoo who could pull off something of this scale.
“Don’t you have any idea at all, Section Chief-nim?”
– I wish I had something. Then I’d be less anxious at least. If we knew the reason, we could predict things. But right now, I have no idea what Lee Shinhoo is trying to do or what he wants. Haa. Looking at the international reports coming in now, it seems King assassination incidents happened overseas too.
“Over, overseas too?”
– Communications aren’t smooth right now, so it’s not accurate information. It’s not certain whether Lee Shinhoo instigated what happened overseas too. It could just be something done by greedy people. But the timing is really coincidental. Anyway, that’s the situation. I’ll deliver the details through Yumi. Jaehee-ssi, I’m counting on you. Your health isn’t just yours alone anymore, so please be careful.
Yongtae Lim’s voice was more polite and solemn than ever. That politeness felt suffocating now. Jaehee let out a deep sigh.
“Understood. Please be careful too, Section Chief-nim. I’ll contact you if anything happens.”
Jaehee hung up with Section Chief Lim, but his troubled mood continued.
Seeing that a disaster message went out like this, the civilians who had returned home would be coming back too. Everyone would be shocked seeing the office like this when they returned. Jaehee sighed once more, looking at the floor with holes and the completely messed up office interior.
Then Jaehee remembered he still hadn’t checked the system window and called it up.
The system must know about the current situation too.
If the goal isn’t human extinction, wouldn’t the system have opened some countermeasure or escape route?
Especially regarding the veil skill, there needed to be some change, because as it was now, he couldn’t protect all his citizens.
What Jaehee checked first was the citizen management window. He was curious how many had enrolled.
“Wa, wait, oh my god, this, how many is this…?”
At the tail of numbers too long, Jaehee slowly counted the units out loud.
Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, ten… ten millions?
13.5 million.
Jaehee opened his mouth in disbelief, staring at the inflated number. Even considering he couldn’t check while trapped in the nightmare, it was an absurd number. Even now as he was checking, the number continued to climb steeply. It seemed to be moving to see how high it could go.
Wasn’t 13 million the entire population of Seoul? Jaehee was suddenly shocked while looking at the citizen list.
Looking at where the citizens’ names appeared, there were not only Koreans but also quite a lot of foreign names.
“Ha…. Really, what is all this?”
Goosebumps rose. He’d only seen numbers like this in statistical data, never in reality.
Moreover, even now the numbers were rising without stopping.
If citizens increased at this rate, it wouldn’t take long to exceed a million people.
After seeing the numbers, he broke into a cold sweat. They must have all entered expecting his protection, but what if he couldn’t deploy the veil? Thinking that made him anxious.
Then suddenly, he thought that if the number of citizens had increased this much, maybe the skill itself had changed.
In name, the final goal of this mission was to select Earth’s King, but with the current method, there was no way to cover everyone with the veil no matter what. This time, Jaehee entered the skill window and began examining it closely. Actually, it seemed like several notifications had popped up, but he hadn’t had time to check them.
[ King’s Veil lv. 3: Can be deployed without constraints on size or number. However, the more veils there are, the more their effectiveness decreases, and more concentration is required. If concentration decreases, the King’s Veil may cease without warning. A single veil where the King resides is granted special effects. However, to maintain the veil, the King’s strongest retainer must maintain maximum distance. ]
“Ah…!”
It was fortunate that the veil skill level had risen so timely. The fact that effectiveness decreased and concentration was required was concerning, but it was better than being able to do nothing.
[ Territory Declaration (Inactive): Territory can only be declared in regions without a King. When territory is declared, that territory is recognized as that King’s domain and war is declared when other forces invade. There is no healing effect, but there is some defensive effect against external forces.
* Activation conditions partially unmet: Number of Kings remaining on Earth (met)/ Number of citizens (unmet)
* Territory Declaration is activated when the number of Kings falls below a certain number and you have a certain percentage or more of the total population as citizens. However, Constellations with stakes in Earth are also qualified to declare territory, and declaring territory may lead to war with Constellations afterward. Since Earth is still a protected-grade planet, King candidates of Earth should be mindful of this point. ]
Territory Declaration. In the current situation, there seemed to be no skill as useful as Territory Declaration, but seeing the precautions attached, it felt like it shouldn’t be used carelessly.
Well, it wasn’t even activated yet, so it wasn’t something to worry about now. However, if the number of citizens increased steeply like now, it seemed only a matter of time before the Territory Declaration skill opened.
The situation was changing very rapidly.
Come to think of it, there had been more than one or two strange things in the past few days.
Why was Guild Sahae suddenly doing this? He couldn’t understand it at all.
The first attack, he thought it was something Lee Shinhoo did to obtain King qualifications. He thought the other assassinated people were perhaps Lee Shinhoo’s maneuvers to cover his tracks in the process.
But what happened last night wasn’t that. Lee Shinhoo tried to eliminate all the Kings.
Why on earth would he do such a thing…? Did he want to become the only King…?
He didn’t know Lee Shinhoo in detail, but at their last meeting, he didn’t seem to want to be King that badly. Was he still young and didn’t know people well?
“Haa, Woo Jeongwoo. Hurry up and wake up. Even if the skill leveled up, you’ll have to work hard tonight.”
Could he trust someone other than Jeongwoo and deploy the King’s Veil?
Jaehee shook his head. He heard vaguely from Yumi-ssi that because of conditions like this, there seemed to be people who were Kings but couldn’t properly deploy the veil.
Looking at Woo Jeongwoo who wasn’t moving at all, Jaehee sighed quietly.
It was even more bitter after seeing the wound on Woo Jeongwoo’s body earlier. Deploying the King’s Veil itself was difficult, but it couldn’t compare to Jeongwoo’s difficulty having to remain outside the veil and fight alone.
While thinking about it, Jaehee checked Jeongwoo’s wound again where he had applied potion.
“What the…”
With bruises and wounds at this level, they should have disappeared when potion was applied, but the wound still remained vividly.
