12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

After testing the Editing skill with a soccer game, I decided to move on to the real one I wanted to edit, the nuclear war that would take place two years from now. I got out of the news of ‘E 12 Hours After’ and moved on to ‘E 12 Years After.’ The way to bring in the nuclear war news was simple, to use the Ranking News.

The first and second highest news items I’d seen in the twelve years list had never changed, because after that news, there was no more news being printed. I scrolled down and went to the Ranking News. I could now see all the first, second, and third places. I clicked on them without hesitation.

[No. 1 – U.S. nuclear bomb hits Beijing. Ten million civilians are estimated dead.]

[No. 2 – China’s nuclear bombs were launched and Washington, D.C. was left in ashes.]

[No. 3 – Defcon One issued. The whole nation is in a state of war (Breaking News)]

After the first and second places I had seen last time, the third place was that my nation was in a state of war.

‘The enemy is probably North Korea, China… and maybe… Russia?’

The details were unknown. What was certain, however, was that the nation’s civilization would collapse to the point that no more news would be available after the next war.

‘I hope it will be stopped…’

I activated the active skill ‘Edit’. The cursor changed into the scissors-shape.

‘Well… but what shall I edit? There is no point in changing the war in Korea. If a nuclear bomb falls on China anyway, the nation will end up in a war because of the nuclear power facilities on the east coast. If I edit, it is number one or number two.’

‘I’ll have to get rid of the first shooter. I’m sure one of them shot first and the other one retaliated. But which side shot first?’

But for now, there was no way to know.

‘Then shall I go to number one news, since there are more view counts on it?’

I clicked on the first article. As it was a breaking news, the full text wasn’t that long.

[100% probability – probability cannot be modified less than 50%.]

[A nuclear bomb believed to have been fired from the Pacific Ocean, dropped in the Chinese capital, Beijing. All of the key administrative bodies, including the palace of the president, were destroyed, with an estimated ten million civilian casualties.]

I read it for a moment. ‘But how do I fix this? Should I get rid of it all?’

I went to the end of the sentence and pressed the Delete key to get rid of the article. Where there was news, there was no news, only a framework. And at the same time, a notice came up,

[42% probability – Current article cannot be posted.]

The probability was forty-two percent.

‘… forty-two percent. It’s not impossible to disappear right now, but it’s not easy to make it go away.’

Seeing this, it seemed that the nuclear war had not just happened by accident.

‘Forty-two… forty-two…’ I muttered the figures in my mind. But if I thought positively, it didn’t seem to be a bad number again.

‘It means that if I raise it by eight percent, it will work. Then what should I do? How do I increase the probability by eight percent?’, I thought my arms crossed. As the relations between the United States and China would improve in the future, the probability would gradually rise. That way, the article could be deleted in a few months, if not immediately.

‘So… I’m not going to start by getting rid of this article…’ Suddenly, at a thought, I looked up. I changed the state setting from Korea to the US, and I closed the email.

——————–

That evening, I got the future news set for the United States of America. I went to the People Search and wrote ‘Donald Trump’ on all the news. Of course, U.S. President Donald Trump’s articles appeared. While I was watching Donald Trump’s news, I found the news I wanted:

[E. 12 Days After – Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed China to not to slow down its financial opening.]

[President Donald Trump said during a White House press conference at ten a.m. that ‘China is delaying the opening of its financial market. In view of this, the Chinese seem to be failing to learn a lesson from the last financial crisis, and if it is delayed further, it could create another financial crisis for them.’ China’s Foreign Ministry has replied, ‘It is rude to ignore the country’s 1.5 billion people,’ and has indicated China will not cave in to any pressure from the United States.]

In any case, there was no good story. I clicked on the article with ‘Edit’ and touched it slightly. I started to edit with the first sentence. ‘President Donald Trump said in a White House press conference at 10 a.m. today that he was concerned that China was slowing down its financial opening a little.’

I patted my chin and muttered, “Well, good. Gently, softly…”

I tapped the keyboard once again. This time was the second sentence. ‘President Trump has urged China to act responsibly, insisting that China, which caused the financial crisis, should reduce its imbalances and increase its stability by opening up its finances.’

‘It’s good. It’s much softer.’

I also corrected the Chinese response to this. ‘The Chinese Foreign Ministry has expressed its understanding of the U.S. position and will try to open its market and strengthen fairness in line with President Trump’s demand.’

‘Is it enough?’

I looked up. [Fifty-seven probability.]

It was breathtaking but safe. I read the corrected article again, and thought, ‘It’s hard to get rid of the nuclear war overnight, but if I do a little bit like this, I can raise it by eight percent.’

I checked the news date for the last time and pressed the “Register” button. A message appeared soon, ‘Edited article has been registered. If you press the ‘Publish’ button, it will immediately apply in the future. Do you want to publish the edited article?’

I pressed the “Yes” button, and got another message, ‘Edited article has been posted. The future news of the edited article does not have any correction news.’

I thought as I closed the message. ‘Obviously, this is the news in five days. Actually, it is at ten a.m. five days later in the U.S… what is that in Korean time?’

——————–

In the evening, six days later…

I search for “Trump, China” on a Korean portal site and got a news article at eight o’clock. It was the speech of President Trump.

‘All right, this is it.’

I clicked it right away. The video began with the words of an announcer. “Yesterday at ten a.m. local time, there was an official press conference for President Trump at the White House. The news conference drew attention as President Trump, who has been pressing China with his hard-line stance, made an unexpectedly soft remark. Correspondent Ha Ji-seok reports from New York…”

The screen changed and showed President Donald Trump. He talked to the camera, “China’s financial opening is more beneficial to China than to any other country. China should open its market as soon as possible to increase fairness and show responsible behavior for triggering the last financial crisis.”

Unlike normally, he was being extremely polite. If it were the way it was, he would say something like, “Why don’t you keep your promises? You said that you would open your financial markets. Didn’t you hear me? So, we’re going to push you one more time because of the financial crisis.”

But that line was changed by my hand six days ago; I changed what the President of the United States would say, with my own hands. On top of that, the Chinese side’s answer was also changed like I wanted. “China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi says he understands President Trump’s concerns and they will work harder to change the country’s financial markets to meet the needs of the world.”

‘It’s… it’s amazing, isn’t it?’ While I was thinking about it, the correspondent continued, “… President Trump’s change may be intended to improve U.S.-China relations in the future. I’m correspondent Ha Ji-seok from New York.”

I thought as I listened to the correspondent’s voice. ‘I’m sure… this is a score. This is a small, but big step. If I continue to smooth the relationship between the two countries in this way, friction between the two will decrease and eventually, war will be far away.’

I was sure. ‘In a few months, I’ll be able to increase the probability by at least eight percent…’

——————–

Since then, a few more months passed. In the meantime, I had not asked Paul Ocean to continue the bunker expansion work again. I was confident that I could prevent the future nuclear war. Every month, I gathered news from the U.S. president and the Chinese president for speeches and news conferences, and I changed the lines that came out of them to fit my taste.

‘Okay, here… China is going to pocket its pride a little bit…’

“China announces its efforts to open up its finances, being aware of its own priorities and set to achieve shared growth in line with the global era.”

I could get the hang of it after revising the articles a few times. I was getting used to making the probability move. If the probability was too close to a hundred percent, I decorated the reality more beautifully according to my tastes, and if it was less than fifty percent, I changed the reality little by little. Under the limit level, I manipulated reality to my desires.

On the morning of December fourth, 2024, the day before the U.S.-China nuclear war, I finally managed to get rid of the nuclear war story, which had risen to a fifty-four percent probability.

——————–

8:55 p.m., the night I deleted the nuclear war article…

In my study, I received the future news with a slight tremble. As soon as I got it, I opened the news of 12 Years After. More than any other news, there was just one piece of news that showed the year. [Sports – Chelsea won the 2028/2029 English Premier League.]

I didn’t have to click it to find out what it was. This was the 2029 news, which would be three years after the original nuclear war. When I saw the news, I stood up with my fist clenched. “It’s done!”

I had finally stopped the end of the world! Hopping with joy, I ran out into the room and shouted outside of my study. “Ah-young!”

Outside the study, from the living room, I heard my wife’s voice, “What?”

I ran in that direction. My wife was sitting on the sofa and watching television with our daughter Seo-hyun in her arms. I approached my wife and shouted, “Ah-young! Seo-hyun!” I hugged my wife and my daughter Seo-hyun.

The sudden hug made my wife laugh and she said, “What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”

My daughter Seo-hyun looked for her mother as I held her, “Mamma!”

I gave Seo-hyun a long kiss on the forehead. Now the crisis of the end was over. The Invictus Investment Empire would continue, and my daughter Seo-hyun would be the daughter of the emperor and grow up happily.

My wife asked me, “What’s wrong, oppa? What’s going on? Did a good thing happen?”

I looked at her. When asked by my wife, I couldn’t reply, ‘The world was about to be destroyed, but I stopped it!’ I just smiled and hugged my family again.