“Who on earth would do such a thing…!”
“They said they couldn’t catch the culprit. Since the veil disappears when the King dies, it must have suddenly gone dark. But apparently there were no attacks on civilians yesterday, so no other collateral damage occurred. But then what are the remaining people supposed to do? Who the hell did this…!”
Yang Yumi shouted with her face flushed red. Jaehee hadn’t imagined something like this either. For a King to die during a Global Mission where Kings were essential. When a King dies, the veil disappears immediately. The system hadn’t even announced beforehand that civilians wouldn’t be attacked before the preview started. Didn’t that mean they didn’t care whether the civilians inside died or not?
Moreover, no one who wasn’t a subject could enter inside the veil. If that had been possible, there would have been no need to advertise for people to become subjects. That meant the traitor who stabbed the King was one of the King’s own subjects.
“Jaehee-ya. What’s the subject count at now?”
“Just a moment…”
It had definitely been 200,000 before the preview started, so now it must be much higher.
“Uh…, it’s over 400,000 now. It’s more than doubled from yesterday. 400,000… I can’t even fathom how many that is.”
Jeongwoo fell into thought for a moment after hearing Jaehee’s words.
400,000. It certainly wasn’t a small number, but considering that South Korea’s total population exceeded 50 million, it couldn’t be called many. Moreover, becoming a King’s subject meant becoming a citizen of a new kingdom, so it had nothing to do with one’s nationality. Looking at the world’s population, there was still a long way to go.
“Yumi-ssi. Can you add subtitles to the broadcasts we’ve aired so far?”
“Subtitles? I can do English quickly if you give me time, but other languages…”
“Then even if you need help from other translators or interpreters, please hurry. It’ll be difficult, but please translate the key videos into various world languages.”
“But would that be meaningful? Each country would have its own King.”
“It will be meaningful going forward. And please tell the Management Bureau that if they have any leads on the culprits of this murder case, we’d appreciate them sharing. Please upload this morning’s footage and yesterday’s as well, but pay attention to the recorded audio and edit it once more. It would be problematic if everything we discussed among ourselves got broadcast.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll get to work on it now.”
“Ah, wait a moment, Yumi-ssi. Before you go, I have one more thing to ask. Do you know anything about the locations of the murdered Kings and other Kings?”
“There seem to be about five near us. But one of them was the King who was just murdered, so there should be four now.”
After hearing Yang Yumi’s report, Jeongwoo quickly spread out a map. After scanning over their location and the map of Seoul, Jeongwoo soon let out a light sigh.
“It’s not exact, but I think we’ll need to expand the veil by several times compared to yesterday.”
“Several times…? But then won’t you have to go too far away?”
“Think of those who lost their King as refugees. We can’t refuse them and they’re close by, so they’ll come to us first. Besides, we need to create several veils in the provinces too. We have no choice but to expand the veil as much as possible.”
Watching Yang Yumi leave, Jaehee let out a long sigh.
The words that Kings had been murdered wouldn’t leave his head.
“Ha, who would suddenly commit murder… and kill Kings during a mission? Jeongwoo-ya, do you have any guesses?”
“Who knows. I can’t tell yet whether it was simply to expand their forces or if there’s another reason. They could simply be crazy.”
“What kind of crazy person would do something like this? If they need subjects, they could just allow automatic enrollment like we did. That alone doubled our numbers and will continue to grow, so why do this…”
“Who knows. There’s no one I suspect right now, but the most likely intent was probably to kill and absorb rival forces.”
“…Surely not. They’d kill people in this crisis situation just for that reason?”
Jeongwoo smirked at Jaehee’s words. He must be quite anxious hearing that Kings had been murdered.
Seeing Jaehee like this reminded Jeongwoo that Jaehee was barely twenty years old.
“Jaehee-ya, people murder for no real reason, and with even a little reason, they do it even more readily. Power has historically been the reason parents kill children and children kill parents. This is just my speculation, but… you know what they do in beekeeping when multiple queen bees appear in one hive? They kill and discard the queen bees that don’t seem like they’ll grow properly, leaving only the healthiest, strongest one. That’s how the original hive’s forces grow properly. I think this incident might be someone trying to thin out the forces. The problem is whose idea this was and how far they’re planning to go.”
Night raids and murders in the darkness had happened before, in the past that Jeongwoo remembered.
Thinning out forces was sometimes done by Kings of similar small forces trying to expand, and sometimes by large forces trying to disperse and absorb smaller forces beneath them. So it was difficult to guess who had committed this act. There had been too many who had done such thinning in the past that Jeongwoo remembered.
Jeongwoo looked at Jaehee with various emotions.
Jaehee, still pure and untainted, was both lovable and pitiable.
If possible, it would be fine for Jaehee to stay this way. If only he weren’t a King.
But Jaehee was a King, and in the future, he would have to place all the people of this Earth beneath his feet.
A King could be wise, but must not be naive.
Jeongwoo suddenly reached out and brushed Jaehee’s hair back. He was the one who had gone outside and run around all night, yet deep fatigue was visible on Jaehee’s face.
“Get some rest if you’re tired, Jaehee-ya.”
“I am tired, but I’m not the only one who’s tired.”
Jaehee briefly looked around. Everyone had stayed up all night with their eyes open to get through the preview that the system had cheerfully called a gift. The atmosphere was strangely tense, mixed with fatigue and anxiety. Jaehee lightly clapped his hands to gather everyone’s attention.
“Everyone worked hard last night. Even those who didn’t directly participate in combat couldn’t have slept peacefully. I know everything is unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Irritation and anger must be rising. Even during rest, you won’t feel like you’re resting. But we can’t afford to be exhausted already. We have to repeat this for 100 days. The system said last night was merely a prank. From tomorrow, there will be fiercer attacks. For humanity to survive, each person has no choice but to faithfully do their work in their position. For 100 days, we will not give up on any of our colleagues, we will care for each other and move forward. So for now, please rest. To prepare for what happens tonight, force yourselves to conserve your strength now. I will reconvene the meeting at 1 PM after lunch.”
[ – Oratory lv. 1 (You can persuade the masses.) skill is being used.
– Charisma lv. 1 (You can persuade or subdue the opponent.) skill is being used.]
When Jaehee finished speaking, the system window notified him that skills had been used. Perhaps because of the skills, the expressions and atmosphere around them changed.
There were many things that needed to be processed urgently without a moment to spare, but driving exhausted people wasn’t wise. Especially when they had to continue this for 100 more days.
“We can’t rest for long, but let’s rest well during rest time and start again shortly. It’s a long journey, so let’s not get worn out.”
“Fighting!”
“Fighting!”
Cheers of “Fighting” rang out here and there in response to Jaehee’s words.
“You get some sleep too, Shin Jaehee.”
Jeongwoo lightly pushed Jaehee’s forehead, then pulled him into the guild master’s office.
“Huh? But stepmother and Yiyeong are here…”
“They left earlier. They said they’re going home to get some things. You lie down here and sleep until then. You know that nothing works here if you collapse, right?”
Jeongwoo took Jaehee’s hand and put him straight into the small room behind the guild master’s office.
Jaehee watched Jeongwoo spread out the blanket and prepare his bed, then reached out his arm.
“Then you close your eyes beside me too. Am I the only one who’s tired? What about you who ran around all night?”
“I was planning to sleep with you anyway.”
Jeongwoo pulled Jaehee into his arms and lay down on the blanket just like that.
