Laborer Mr. Kim Reaps Sweet Rewards with Auto-Hunting - Chapter 82

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 82

A conference room in Tokyo.
Half-bald men sat across from one another, their expressions grave.

“The United States refused outright, and China actually passed this intelligence to Korea? Is this really true?”
“Yes. Li Wei, who traveled to Korea in secret, made contact with the Awakening Management Bureau, and it appears he disclosed everything we proposed during that meeting.”
“Can we trust this information?”
“It came from someone who entered Korea with Li Wei, so we can be certain of it.”
“Sigh……”

Prime Minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister—and others.
Everyone in this conference was a senior Japanese official.
The matters under discussion were all of grave importance.
And this particular agenda was graver still.
Why?
Because Japan’s future hung in the balance.
Just days before.
That is, the conclusion of a meeting held several days prior.

“We should pressure the major powers alongside those who want the Manager’s weapon. If I recall correctly, this was the plan the Prime Minister originally championed—nothing has changed, yes?”
“Heh heh… wasn’t this a conclusion we all reached through discussion?”

Japanese Prime Minister Miyamoto Hayato answered quietly.
‘That sly fox of a man.’
‘Trying to slip this one past us so smoothly?’
‘That’s right.’
‘He brought the agenda forward.’
‘But you all agreed unanimously too.’
‘In truth, there was no other option anyway.’

“Quite right, Foreign Minister. If Japan is to escape our current predicament, there is no plan but this one. Wasn’t that what we all agreed upon at the time? Now is not the moment to assign blame to the Prime Minister—we must discuss countermeasures. Please, compose yourself.”
“Yes, of course. Once North Korea’s Hunter Park Moo-pal failed, there was no alternative, was there?”

What was Japan’s greatest weakness at present?
Everyone in this room knew it.
No—
the entire world knew it.

[Japan has no strong Hunters.]
[Had there even been a single world-class Hunter, Japan would not have fallen so far in status.]

It was spoken openly everywhere.
Japan’s top-ranked Hunter: Ito Kazuya.
His current Chaos Tower Level was…
Only fifty-five.
Even that was a hard-won achievement.
As a result, he could do little now.
Reports said he had even failed at level fifty-two.
Their only hope had been Park Moo-pal, a North Korean Hunter—
That too, failed.
And worse still.
Relations with the Manager had deteriorated.
The outcome was.

[Weapon Crafting Request – Japan / Result: Rejected]

Meanwhile, the deadline for clearing the Tower grew shorter by the day.
Each day the noose tightens around my throat.
Should I just sit here with my thumb in my mouth?
This is impossible.
The very survival of the nation hangs in the balance.
With no other choice, I changed course.
You won’t hand it over willingly?
Then we’ll take what we can by force.
This is the new direction.

“Looking back now, it was probably for the best. The logic was far too flimsy.”
“The logic was flimsy?”
“Wasn’t it? Weapons manufactured by a Personnel Management Office director—and now that the world has fallen into chaos, we’re supposed to share them globally for the sake of all humanity? If that’s not a desperate reach, what is?”

A desperate reach?
Everyone knows it.
But desperation works fine if you shout loud enough.
Especially in international affairs—it’s easier than you’d think.
When the strong nations align, that’s the end of it.
As part of that strategy.
I reached out quietly to several countries.
The United States, England, China—and so on.
I trusted the Americans most.
For the right price, they’ve always been willing to take our side.
I was confident they’d back us this time, but···.

England waffled, slippery as an eel.
China flat out refused.
And the United States···.

“Well, Ralph Carter has weapons from the Personnel Management Office director. Surely not those ones.”
“In the first place, the United States was historically the strongest of the major powers—the situation is simply different.”
“True enough. There’s a world of difference between a country at Tower Level 70 and us at 55.”
“Even so···, shouldn’t we revise the plan now, while we still can?”

The United States refused, and China turned its back.
We’ve already failed. We should change tactics.
There’s logic to what he says.
But what good would that do?

“Minister of Foreign Affairs, you’ve made an excellent point. Perhaps you could tell us how we ought to revise the plan?”
“Ahem.”
“Or perhaps you’ll take personal responsibility and secure the weapons from the Personnel Management Office director yourself?”

That’s right.
You have no alternatives either.
So···.
It’s possible, I suppose.
If we abandon everything and submit entirely, maybe they’ll make something for us?
The problem is.

“How much will we have to give up in that process? Is there anyone here who can bear that cost?”
“That is······.”

What could we possibly offer to Korea?
Plenty, it seems.
After all, sentiment between the two nations has run incredibly high.
Economic concessions for starters, then the Dokdo issue, historical grievances, and more···.
Even a rough estimate suggests it’s not just one or two things···.
If we hand all that over?
My political career is finished.
No.
There’s a chance it might cost me my life.
So listen.

“It’s one thing if we’re talking about other nations, but bowing to Korea is unthinkable.”
“Then what can we do? According to the Prime Minister’s plan, the major powers are supposed to lend their strength, aren’t they?”

Which countries would stand with them?

“Why wouldn’t there be? China is there. England’s testing the waters too, so if we bring in China and a few others, they’ll join.”
“China? But hasn’t China already sided with Korea?”
“Li Wei’s China has, yes. But the other China is on our side.”
“The other China?”

Li Wei, the newly appointed Director.
In all that chaos, he’d somehow clawed his way to a position no different from being first among equals.
But then again…
Would there be no one harboring resentment?
Surely not.
Of course there were.
Quite a few, actually.
If even Li Wei’s inner circle—those who’d followed him into Korea—could harbor discontent, what of the rest?

“After Li Wei committed to the pro-Korea line, we’ve already brought the disgruntled party cadres into the fold. By now, internal purges should be proceeding quietly.”
“Ohhh…!”

Preparations were complete.
Li Wei, who’d cast aside all pride and clung to Korea like a beggar?
Go ahead. Struggle all you want.
There’ll be no place for you to return to.

* * *

Japan’s plan, proceeding in secret.
Did that mean no one knew?
Not at all.
There were those tracking it in real time.

“Damn it, those lunatics. They’re really going to cause an incident.”
“From the moment we heard that nonsense they called logic, it was absurd—and now they’re actually going through with it.”

The US Intelligence Agency.
Intelligence agencies had their eyes everywhere, after all.
Especially when it came to China?
They saw through every crucial internal detail.
This situation was no exception.
From the very exchanges between Japan and China
to the operations currently underway—
they had it all mapped out.
Their assessment?

“They always say ignorance breeds courage. This is exactly that picture…”

Well, they understood well enough.
The US had been growing increasingly uneasy lately.

“Is Ralph Carter still stuck?”
“Yeah. He’s been failing ever since, can’t even break Level 67.”
“Man, we should be grateful he hasn’t died yet.”
“He’s got enough ability to run to a Safe Zone if things get bad.”
“Still, that’s quite a mess.”
“Well, we’ll keep pushing forward. Even setting aside the Manager, Ralph’s situation is undeniably among the best in the entire world.”
“True enough.”

A fair point.
The Manager is a separate matter entirely.
That man, well…
Since he builds everything himself, he’d be wrapped head to toe in his own creations.
Still, Ralph isn’t in a bad position.
Both weapon and armor.
Unique in the entire world.
Japan, on the other hand?
Not a single thing.
And there won’t be one anytime soon, either.

“That’s why they shouldn’t have touched the Manager in the first place.”
“Greed got to them, I suppose. They’ve always had a limited Hunter pool and no top-tier rankers, so they were perpetually desperate.”

I understand that much.
But…

“They should have avoided getting caught.”
“Fair point.”

The Manager.
He doesn’t seem like someone particularly forgiving.
Once you cross him?
You’ll spend a very long time being on the receiving end of his displeasure.
Look at China for a perfect example.

“If only they’d humbled themselves and bent the knee, there might have been some chance of redemption…”
“Japan would have no way of knowing that. We’re only speculating based on intelligence our Agency gathered.”

Right.
Of course they wouldn’t know.
But from all the options available, they picked the absolute worst one.

“I can’t believe they’d even make such a proposal.”

The proposal Japan sent to the United States.
Just help us create the right atmosphere, they’d asked.
But here’s the thing:

“The very fact that they’d suggest something like that proves they never understood the Manager at all.”

World peace?
Anyone listening would call that nonsense.
It was propaganda, plain and simple.

“As if the Manager would care about global opinion or any of that.”
“Exactly.”

What other people think?
What they whisper about?
Those are things the powerless worry about.
Someone like the Manager…

“Could crush Japan flat with sheer force, and so what? Even then, there’s almost nothing anyone could say against him.”

Of course, they might offer a token warning.
What if you don’t listen?
There’s no choice.

If it actually came to that, we’d be completely finished.

“Besides, we’ve concluded that his personal combat capability alone qualifies as Asymmetric Warfare Capability.”

I’d thought it wouldn’t reach this level even through the China incident.
Of course Guan Yu was shocking.
Demolishing buildings is shocking too.
But this?
High-ranked Hunters can do things like that.
Blowing up a battleship is no different.
The real issue is what we’ve seen from North Korea this time.

“If he blocked rocket artillery without taking any damage at all, he’s already crossed beyond human limits.”
“And the fact that he summoned Yi Sun-sin this time suggests he might have the ability to borrow the power of historical figures···.”
“That’s not even all of it. He appears in China, then England, then North Korea. And he’s got this ability too.”
“Sigh··· The more I think about it, the more I have to say—this is a monster beyond all reason.”

From that point on, the United States made its policy clear.
Any action of hostility toward the Manager?
Absolutely forbidden.
The deadline: at minimum, until we understand what his ability actually is.
If we touch him before then···.
America won’t be safe either.
Would that monster spare America?
No.
Never.
If that were true, he would’ve spared China in the first place.
Guan Yu appeared in China.
Yi Sun-sin appeared in North Korea···.

“Unless you want to see the horrifying spectacle of Oppenheimer appearing in the middle of Washington and dropping an atomic bomb, don’t touch him.”

But then Japan goes and causes trouble.
Crazy bastards.
Well, this works out nicely.

“We should transmit everything to Korea’s Awakening Management Bureau.”

We need to score some points out of this opportunity.

* * *

“As soon as we received the call from the US Intelligence Agency, we contacted Director Li Wei··· but it seems China’s already moved past it.”
“Sigh···”

A briefing from Min Taek-jin, the deputy director of diplomatic affairs.
Section Chief Yun Ji-hyuk let out a quiet sigh.
He’d just thought the hectic business was finally over.
Then suddenly this···.

“Director Li Wei?”
“Fortunately he’s unharmed. The security personnel who received word before the traitorous aide came at him with a blade moved in first.”
“Well done.”

The director’s expression was equally creased with tension.
Well, that’s true.
Everyone’s just coming back after clocking out.
If they were in a good mood, that would be strange.
Still, there’s one thing I need to press on.

“Deputy Director, is there a possibility this could escalate to the worst-case scenario?”

Japan’s public opinion campaign.
We’ve already caught wind of it and started our response.
The United States agreed to help too.
The problem is whether this could spiral into actual war.

“Unless Japan loses its mind, surely not.”

That’s the real problem, though.
They’re crazy enough to do it.

“Actually, the US Intelligence Agency said something odd.”
“Yes? What did they say?”
“They’re worried the Manager might not stay quiet about this.”

What?
What kind of thing is that to say?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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