The Returner

D +60.

“Sir, it’ll be difficult to hold on any further.” (defense minister)

“It’ll be difficult?” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su’s face hardened at the defense minister’s report.

“But why?” (Song Jeong-Su)

“...The cumulative damage is far too extensive, sir.” (defense minister)

“Which section is the worst hit, then?” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su asked with an annoyed face.

Normally, one could criticise the prime minister for getting annoyed by his subordinate making a reasonable report, but it wasn’t possible to do that at the moment.

No one would be able to criticise him after taking one look at his face. Maybe all the continuous stream of heavy workload was to blame, but whatever the case might be, Song Jeong-Su’s current state couldn’t be described as a normal person’s.

‘Godd*mmit.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

He thought that the words weren’t registering properly in his head, so he abruptly stood up from his chair.

“Hang on for a minute.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Sir.” (defense minister)

“Wait for me first.” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su headed to the bathroom attached to the conference room. He turned the water on and washed his face.

‘I might collapse if I’m not careful.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

He couldn’t exert much strength with his body.

Song Jeong-Su had acquired the level of endurance incomparably mightier than regular people all thanks to his experiences in the other world, but even then, the unending stream of heavy workload kept shaving away at his stamina until very little remained.

‘At this rate, others won’t be able to hold on, either.’

As he understood the differences in the level of endurance, he was able to somehow manage the workload among themselves. Yun Yeong-Min’s workload was probably not even a quarter of what Song Jeong-Su had taken on, yet the former’s state was almost at the doorstep of a cripple by now.

‘Just when was the last time I slept properly?’ (Song Jeong-Su)

He did take a short nap whenever chances presented themselves, but when combining all the hours he slept for the past week or so, the figure wouldn’t even reach ten hours in total. Or at least that’s what it felt like. Song Jeong-Su might be able to endure that somehow, but for the others, well, the accumulated fatigue had basically turned them into quasi-zombies. f𝔯𝒆𝚎𝚠𝑒𝚋𝓃૦νℯƖ.co𝘮

But the biggest issue at hand was that when one’s stamina fell, their judgement would suffer alongside, as well.

‘Something bad might happen at this rate.’

One decision could have a major impact in the current climate. The current situation called for the leaders to instantly make the best decision available among countless choices branching out like a huge tree. So, having a muddled head could have the absolute worst consequences for everyone in the world.

Song Jeong-Su wiped away the water dripping off his face with a towel and shook his head, before exiting the bathroom.

“My apologies.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“No, sir. It’s fine.” (defense minister)

“Alright, let’s continue from where we left off. You say it’ll be difficult to endure any further?” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Yes, sir.” (defense minister)

Click. f𝐫𝑒𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧૦𝘃𝗲l.c𝚘𝘮

Song Jeong-Su lit his cigarette up and asked back with some difficulty.

“What exactly is our issue?” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Sir, it feels like finding out what isn’t an issue should be our priority at this stage.” (defense minister)

The defense minister sighed at length.

“The issues with supplies, problems with combat personnel, dilemmas with our positioning... If this was normal warfare, I’d have the army retreated immediately. Sir, it’s now time to make the decision. Either we retreat from the current defensive line, or all of our men will perish in that location.” (defense minister)

“If we do retreat, what is our alternative?” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Sir, we create a new defensive position by Daejeon.” (defense minister)

“Look here.” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su was about to rebuke the defense minister, but instead sighed deeply after noticing the dark circles below the latter’s eyes.

“I’m still your superior officer, aren’t I?” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Sir? Yes, of course.” (defense minister)

“In that case, please go.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Sir?” (defense minister)

“Go, and get some sleep. Three hours should suffice.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“...But, Mister Prime Minister?” (defense minister)

“I’m sure you won’t feel happy to hear this coming from me, but my man, you are currently not in a state to make normal decisions.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“But sir, I’m perfectly fine.” (defense minister)

“I’m sure you are. I’m not saying you’ve developed abnormalities, but simply that you’re overworked right now. Go and sleep for three hours or so. There is a sleeping quarter next to the conference room. We’re already wasting precious time like this, so go and take a nap this instant.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“But, sir. If I’m not present, the command structure might become chaotic.” (defense minister)

“Direct them all to me.” (Song Jeong-Su)

“But, sir!” (defense minister)

“Enough.” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su stopped the defense minister.

“I’m not questioning your ability. However, you seriously need to get some sleep. Do you understand what I’m saying?” (Song Jeong-Su)

The defense minister slowly nodded his head (defense minister).

“But, how can I fall asleep in our current circumstance, sir?” (defense minister)

“The moment you lay your head down, sleep will come to you. Because, you’re at your limit already. Whether we die from getting defeated or the lack of sleep will kill us first, it’ll still be death either way, so I’m telling you to and get some sleep. You’re wasting too much precious time by standing around arguing like this. We’ll finish our discussion in three hours’ time. Understood?” (Song Jeong-Su)

“...Yes sir.” (defense minister)

“Then, go get some rest.” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su watched the defense minister stagger back up to his feet and exit from the room, then spat out a long groan.

‘Everyone’s at their limit...’ (Song Jeong-Su)

He could only say that it’s a miracle for them to endure for this long. Korea was still standing and fighting back well beyond the Americans’ predictions. Of course, that didn’t change the fact that the situation at the frontlines was still rushing headlong towards the absolute worst outcome.

“Can’t be helped, since we’re all human.” (Song Jeong-Su)

It wasn’t just him and the fellow higher-ups fighting without a break. The combatants at the frontlines were fighting tooth and nail for the past two months without a proper break, either.

Their endurance was indeed a serious problem, but another issue at hand was the fact that they had been exposed to a two month-long merciless slaughterfest without a safety net in place. The higher-ups tried hard to provide as much counselling as possible, but there was not much point in ‘psychological healing process’ when the combatants had to pick up their weapons again as soon as the counselling sessions came to an end and start fighting right away.

Incidents of fragging and friendly fire were occurring frequently already.

Not only the incidents of soldiers giving themselves in to despair and firing their weapons indiscriminately occurred every other day, some even madly rushed at the monsters with nothing but their own bodies, as well.

‘That’s why it’s not entirely wrong to suggest that we pull back our defensive line.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

It wasn’t about searching for a more advantageous positioning, but to give the combatants psychological assurance of safety by escaping from that hellish location. The soldiers should all be shouldering the twin burdens of ‘if this place is overrun, we will all die’ and ‘everyone behind us will die, too’ while fighting back, after all.

“It seems that the losses to the KSF are getting worse by the minute.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

“You’ve come, sir?” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su raised his head to look and found Yun Yeong-Min stepping inside the conference room.

“The office of the General Chief of Staff called earlier to let me know that the losses to the ability users are too extensive to maintain the battle line any further.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

“...I’ve also heard about that as well.” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su groaned helplessly.

He told the others not to call the president if they could help it, but it seemed that some punks decided to use the presidential hotline nevertheless. Although, Yun Yeong-Min did say that people should utilise the hotline as much as possible...

‘But, the president is still a human being.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

One person might be making only one report at a time, but if all those ‘single’ reports arrived from everywhere and gradually piled up, then Yun Yeong-Min would have to deal with hundreds of calls coming through the hotline every day. Reports that continued to flow in day and night didn’t seem to understand the concept of taking a breather at all.

Song Jeong-Su had recently stopped answering the hotline, but some still insisted on calling through it. He was the type to stick to his guns rigorously, but as Yun Yeong-Min was known to allow some leeway, others began avoiding Song Jeong-Su altogether now.

“We need to come up with a response.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

“I know that, sir. But...” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su sighed grandly.

If one could think up of a ‘response’ simply by agonising over it the whole day, then none of them would be suffering this badly.

‘I never expected the term limited resources would weigh this heavily on us.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

The rather obvious-sounding assertion that there was a limit to natural resources and commodities was driving itself home hard in his head.

If one suffered from the shortages of combat personnel, then you’d have to replenish them. Unfortunately, there was no spare manpower available.

This wasn’t some video game. You couldn’t just start manufacturing more soldiers just because you didn’t have enough. Sure, if it was the regular combat personnel, then you could potentially do something as crazy as training the civilians a little in the military basics and shoving them in the frontlines to fill up the shortage in the numbers, but the ability users could not be created by training regular people.

Korea had already reached the limits of its combat personnel supply and had to receive support from both Japan and the United States of America. In such a situation, where would they find extra ability users?”

What’s even more absurd was the fact that a portion of Chinese ability users had already been deployed to the Han river frontline. Other countries understood the significance of the Korean battlefront and they somehow managed to squeeze out some spare manpower to send them over.

The self-governing province of Shandong in China had been sending what little ability users they could spare in order to maintain the Korean battlefront.

But now, more was needed?

Just what was he supposed to do about that?

Song Jeong-Su hugged his face in frustration.

“Godd*mmit, just when are they coming back home?!” (Song Jeong-Su)

Baaang!

Now that his anxiety had reached an extreme level, the arrow of criticism had turned towards Yi Ji-Hyuk next.

“We must not blame them, Mister Prime Minister.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

“Sir, I know. I know, but...” (Song Jeong-Su)

“Even right now, they should be struggling hard while bearing the heavy burden of the fate of the world on their shoulders. So how can we dare to criticise them?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

‘Bloody hell, we ain’t even some upright sages or something, so why...’ (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su spat out a lengthy groan.

He knew already. But despite knowing, it was also true that he wanted to blame somebody.

“While he was leaving, he didn’t request us to take care of his family members. He must’ve predicted what might happen to Korea during his absence yet he left without saying anything about his family. You must have understood what that signifies.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

“...Yes, sir. That I did.” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su leaned his back on the sofa.

‘However, we don’t have any other method left to us.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

They had been enduring, and had to endure some more.

They tried everything they could, and even forcibly appropriated the civilians to manufacture necessary supplies. South Korea’ current situation was that it had transformed all of its industrial complexes into manufacturing combat supplies in order to support the all-out war efforts.

‘At this rate, it’ll be a problem even if we win.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

Indeed, the various industries were as good as completely wrecked by now. Even if the war came to an end today, it’d still be hard to predict just how many decades humanity might need to regain the prosperity of the past.

The thing was, it’d be nice if they could get that far.

“We really need a response. A response...” (Song Jeong-Su)

Yun Yeong-Min groaned deeply.

“Instead of continuously whining like this, we...” (Yun Yeong-Min)

It was then, someone began knocking on the conference room’s door.

“Enter.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

The secretary hurriedly strode in and spoke up.

“Sirs, it’s a call from the Americans.”

“Connect it through.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

Even before the secretary had a chance to leave, Christopher McLaren’s face filled up the giant screen.

– “Good day to you, although I have to say, you all look like crap.” (Christopher McLaren)

“Right back at you.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

Yun Yeong-Min studied Christopher McLaren’s face and chuckled hollowly.

The Korean higher-ups somehow were managing to keep some semblance to living humans, but Christopher McLaren looked like he had been fermented for many years or some such.

‘Which isn’t surprising, really.’ (Yun Yeong-Min)

Considering the amount of information he had to deal with, he wouldn’t even have enough to time blink his eyes.

Someone like Yun Yeong-Min would never pull something like that off. Indeed, only someone on the calibre of Christopher McLaren could continue to hold on.

“What can we do for you?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

Too bad, pity had to wait as work was work. They even had to decrease the period of time that could be spent on useless thoughts.

– “I called you today because I’d like to get your permission regarding something.” (Christopher McLaren)

“You say... our permission?” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su’s face rapidly hardened.

There shouldn’t be an American matter that required the Korean leaders’ permission, other than one thing – withdrawing the American forces currently deployed in Korea. But if they did that, the battle line set up in the Korean peninsula would crumble down in an instant.

The frontline was barely being maintained with the assistance from America and Japan. If it weren’t for the fighter planes launched from the aircraft carriers out in the oceans as well as the bombers from the Korea-America military airport set up at the rear providing bombardment, the defensive line would’ve been lost one month ago.

“We won’t be able to spare you combat personnel.” (Song Jeong-Su)

– “No, that’s not it. It’s unfortunate, but our situation wouldn’t improve even if they come here. Sure, it might help a little if we were in a position to quickly transport them through the air, but we just don’t have the necessary wherewithal to do that.” (Christopher McLaren)

“In that case, what do you need our permission for? Is there a matter requiring something like that in our current situation?” (Song Jeong-Su)

Christopher McLaren sucked in a deep breath for a bit, then as his eyes began burning dangerously, he chewed out his next words.

– “We’d like to deploy a nuclear arsenal on the Korean peninsula.” (Christopher McLaren)

“What the f*ck?!” (Song Jeong-Su)

Song Jeong-Su’s eyes quaked powerfully.

< 462. With something powerful and unmissable -2 > Fin.