Ubermensch – Chapter 80

Chapter 80

“…Ah, whatever. The eggheads can argue about the complicated stuff for us. Let’s eat first.”

As soon as someone’s grumbling ended, the tense atmosphere loosened up.

“Alright, you pseudo-human folks.”

The quartermaster with a gruff face asked with his arms crossed.

“Any ingredients you can’t eat for halal, kosher, or other religious reasons?”

Gwendolyn raised her hand.

“Ah, I’m a flexitarian lacto vegan.”

“…What the hell is that?”

“…It means I’ll eat whatever you give me.”

“Good. Then.”

The quartermaster turned around.

“I don’t care if you’re human or not, as long as you eat what you’re given…”

People gave bitter smiles.

The world will change, and the definition of humanity will change.

Countless things they can’t even imagine will change.

But right now, nothing is changing in this place.

Winter is not over yet, and the war is not over yet.

Right now, there is only one thing that matters to those who are in the Winter Defense.

Right now, it was mealtime.

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Simon Magus quietly approached Mason, who was eating.

“One thing. I want to ask you something about pseudo-humans.”

“What is it?”

Mason looked at him.

Simon Magus was also an influential figure. He had enough power to break the current fragile harmony.

Simon Magus coughed and asked the tense Mason.

“Are there any cat-eared girls among the pseudo-humans…?”

“…”

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Seo Yeonhee was sitting in the control room.

“…”

She was looking at the people who were eating with a calm face and complicated eyes.

No, to be precise, she was looking at the pseudo-humans who were eating.

“…”

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the side of the open door.

Standing behind Seo Yeonhee was Deroa.

“What are you doing without eating?”

“What about you?”

“I came to get you because I thought you wouldn’t be eating.”

“…”

Deroa sat down next to Seo Yeonhee.

“You look terrible.”

“How do I look terrible?”

“You look like you got punched in the gut really hard.”

Seo Yeonhee gave a bitter smile.

“I guess so.”

It was bound to be. In fact, she was… greatly struck right now.

Deroa asked in a calm voice.

“The rescue team. You intentionally delayed them, right?”

“…Yes.”

Seo Yeonhee nodded her head honestly.

“It was a chance to kill two raid leader-level executives, Andrei and Liza.”

“…”

“That’s probably why Yekaterina sent the Red Knight…”

Deroa was inwardly surprised.

It wasn’t because Seo Yeonhee had made such a plan.

It was because she would never have admitted it so easily if she was her usual self.

“You’re shaken.”

“…Yes.”

Seo Yeonhee was shaken right now.

“I… thought Yekaterina had gathered people and gained power.”

Yekaterina was once an ordinary player who fought in the field with them. She suddenly rose to prominence and quickly acquired political and economic connections.

Because of that, Seo Yeonhee had been suspicious of Yekaterina.

To gather people, you have to give them a corresponding reward.

Yekaterina would have gathered her subordinates to earn money and power, and used money and power to command more subordinates.

It was a common sense and rational judgment.

The combination of violence and power was the only way to gain power in a short period of time.

“But… that wasn’t it.”

The problem was that Yekaterina was an existence that Seo Yeonhee could not have predicted.

The Queen of Pseudo-humans. It was an outlandish story, close to a conspiracy theory.

But it was the truth, and that’s why everything went wrong.

Naturally, there had to be misjudgments because she had judged an outlandish existence with common sense.

“Then… that means I have to reconsider everything I thought about her.”

“…Including the Titan Core incident?”

“Yes.”

Seo Yeonhee thought that Yekaterina’s starting point was the Titan Core incident. That she had secretly stolen the Titan Core and used it as a power base.

But… her power base was somewhere else entirely.

“I don’t know.”

Then that meant… that she had to question the proposition that had guided her life.

“If she didn’t steal the Titan Core… If she’s not Sebastian’s enemy…”

Seo Yeonhee muttered in a weak voice.

“…What am I supposed to do?”

She had lived like a martyr and treated revenge like a religion. She had believed without a doubt and could pour everything into it.

If only she could destroy Yekaterina, Sebastian’s enemy, she could push herself, and even others, into the abyss of destruction.

But now, she had to question everything that made her up.

Because Yekaterina… wasn’t the person she thought she was.

“If it wasn’t Yekaterina… then who, and why, destroyed our raid team?”

She had to go back to the beginning.

She had to think, no, question everything from the beginning.

And within that, there could be the worst conclusion.

“I really don’t know…”

“Think about it, Seo Yeonhee. You’re the smart one, not me. Just… remember this.”

Deroa placed her small hand on Seo Yeonhee’s shoulder.

“I’m on your side. Whenever, wherever you are…”

“…”

Deroa patted Seo Yeonhee’s shoulder and said.

“Come eat. I’ll get your tray.”

“Okay.”

Seo Yeonhee hugged her knees.

And, in front of her eyes, lay her cell phone. The answer she didn’t want to face, but had to, was right in front of her eyes.

“…”

Seo Yeonhee closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

She opened her eyes.

When Seo Yeonhee called, a familiar voice answered.

<It’s been a while, Seo Yeonhee.>

“It has been a while.”

Seo Yeonhee said, biting her lip.

“…Yekaterina.”

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Yekaterina said in a calm voice.

<Now you understand what I couldn’t tell you.>

“Yes.”

Seo Yeonhee said through gritted teeth.

“There’s one thing I want to ask you.”

<You’re going to ask me if I stole the Titan Core, right?>

“Yes.”

<If I say no, will you believe me?>

“Maybe.”

Yekaterina chuckled quietly.

This was the kind of woman Seo Yeonhee was. Strong enough to accept that she was wrong, rational enough to ask for advice from someone she had hated until just a moment ago, and cautious enough not to completely trust the other person even though her heart was shaken.

It was the Seo Yeonhee that Yekaterina liked, just the way she was.

<Start over. From the beginning. That’s all I can tell you.>

“From the beginning…?”

<If there’s someone who sold the Titan Core, there’s also someone who bought it. Start by targeting them.>

“Yes.”

Seo Yeonhee quietly hung up the phone.

Yekaterina smiled.

If Mason was a man like the sun, Seo Yeonhee was a woman like the moon. Even if she couldn’t shine on her own, she was someone who could reflect the light someone else emitted when it was darkest.

Perhaps that was why Yekaterina had tolerated the existence of Seo Yeonhee, her enemy.

Because she wanted to see her, who now emitted the ominous light of a malevolent star that burned even herself, floating in the night sky and shining softly.

“Now, then…”

The time for sentimentality was over.

Now was the time for reality. Dozens of calls were coming in.

They were calls she had to think about which one to answer first.

“I guess… I have to start my fight too?”

The Queen of the minority said, facing the world.

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The Winter Defense was not over yet.

While Mason and the Korean players were fighting the war on the Han River, the world was rapidly changing.

Mason’s superhuman declaration had brought about scientific change, but almost no social or political change.

He was a superhuman, but he was only one person, and because he came from the future, he was irrelevant to social issues.

However, the rise of pseudo-humans brought about social and political change.

On a minor level, it became an opportunity for conspiracy theorists like QAnon and the Deep State to spread, and on a serious level, political and philosophical discourses were exchanged.

Unlike the former, which could be laughed off, the latter’s discussion was serious.

It wasn’t that long ago that black people were given the right to vote, and women were given the right to vote.

The debate on racial discrimination was not over even in the most developed First World, and there were many countries that shed blood because of racial issues.

But with pseudo-humans… the situation was that they had to discuss the most fundamental issue of human rights, ‘Should we see them as human?’.

Countless claims and arguments were burning here and there.

‘So far, as expected.’

Yekaterina was calmly observing the trend.

Just as the debate on human rights is endless, so will the debate on whether pseudo-humans are human.

One thing was important, the trend.

It only mattered if the argument that pseudo-humans have human rights became the trend.

‘In Korea.’

No, to be more precise, it only mattered if the argument that pseudo-humans have human rights became the trend in Korea.

Right now, a significant number of pseudo-humans were gathered in Korea.

It didn’t matter if countries where pseudo-humans didn’t live didn’t recognize their human rights.

The country that pseudo-humans called home. It only mattered if Korea recognized their human rights.

‘Koreans are ignorant about racial discrimination.’

Koreans were a single-ethnic nation. And in effect, an island nation.

Although they were getting used to foreigners little by little due to globalization, the foreigners they experienced were ultimately individuals.

Koreans had little experience with ‘other races’.

Therefore, their understanding of racial discrimination was inevitably low.

‘In a good way, and in a bad way.’

Koreans sometimes discriminated unconsciously because of their low understanding of racial discrimination, but on the other hand, they rarely discriminated against other races consciously.

‘Now only one thing remains. The conclusion of the political circles.’

About 30% of Korean players were pseudo-humans. In particular, the higher the level, the higher the proportion of pseudo-humans, whose potential as a race was high.

In other words, it meant that the political circles… had to reach a conclusion.

Whether to see them as an armed dangerous group holding 30% of the players, or as a special interest group holding 30% of the players.

If they were seen as an armed group, they would be excluded by any means necessary.

If they were seen as an interest group, they would be dealt with selectively.

Yekaterina had done everything she could.

She had proven that she was a difficult but reasonable trading partner, and that she was sensitive to profit and loss but did not challenge the state or the judicial system.

Only one thing remained.

What conclusion the political circles would reach.

Yekaterina made many calls and received many calls, but what she was looking at was a single cell phone that was silent on her desk.

A truly important call, a call that would decide everything.

Yekaterina waited for the call to ring, with an anxiety she would never show in her voice.