Chapter 47: Rising International Tensions
"...It's under the jurisdiction of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command. Security is extremely tight, and if our agents are discovered, the diplomatic repercussions could be considerable..."
"Then make sure they aren't discovered."
The Chinese President's voice was firm.
"That structure. They called it the Munitions Factory, didn't they? Start by surveying the surrounding terrain. I want its access routes, security arrangements, and patrol schedules. Find out everything and report back."
"...Understood, Comrade President."
"Find a way to obtain that Gatling Laser, no matter what. I don't care whether you get it from the Orc Gate or through some other means. An actual weapon, its blueprints, anything will do."
The aide lowered his head and took notes.
"And another thing."
The Chinese President pointed at the One-Star General on the screen.
"Make contact with that man as well."
"Do you intend to win him over?"
"Yes. Prepare anything China can offer him. Money, honor, status, whatever it takes."
"...The Korean government certainly won't stand by and do nothing."
"Whether Korea objects is none of our concern. I heard that Hunter wasn't even properly registered with the Hunter Association at the time. He's clearly a man who doesn't like being tied down. That might mean his loyalty to his country isn't particularly strong."
"Ah!"
The aide's eyes lit up as he exclaimed in understanding.
"How should we approach him? Sending an agent directly would involve considerable risk."
"Start with his business. It was F&C Refining Corporation, wasn't it? We could approach him under the pretext of investing. Have our state-owned investment funds inquire about purchasing an equity stake. There are plenty of people who'll make their own way to us as soon as they smell money."
The aide hesitated briefly before asking.
"What if he refuses even then?"
The Chinese President grinned.
"Then we'll simply create an offer he can't refuse."
Cold ambition flashed in his eyes.
"The People's Republic of China has never failed to obtain something it truly wanted."
A heavy silence settled over the President's office.
"To put it plainly..."
The Chinese President's eyes darkened.
"Even if the Korean government discovers what we're planning, what can it possibly do? How could a small country hope to stand against a great power?"
"...!"
Nobody dared challenge the Chinese President's words.
Perhaps such a belief in China's superiority reflected the general attitude of the Chinese people.
"More importantly, how is the NCO Training Project progressing?"
"Yes. The project is proceeding smoothly. There were several terrorist incidents during its early stages, but we're currently training more than a thousand NCOs every day, and..."
My house.
"Activate PvP."
[Would you like to activate PvP in the Tower of Fate's Korean region? Yes/No]
"Yes."
Ding!
[PvP is now active in the Korean Tower.]
Activating or deactivating PvP required a vote among everyone holding the rank of General or higher.
But since I was currently the only General, all it took was a single tap.
This is the authority of a General!
Anyway, I was switching it back on for the first time in several days.
I'd already tried kicking away the ladder and playing the role of an inspector at the Association.
Now it's time to get back to my real job.
I immediately opened a Gate.
"Knight Commander's Wings."
FWOOOSH!
Golden wings spread behind my back, and I shot straight into the sky.
How about starting with Floor 30 to warm up?
Below me, I spotted goblins wearing tattered rags.
Around them were several Hunters diligently hunting monsters.
PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!
I pulled the trigger without distinguishing between friend and foe.
Red beams poured down like torrential rain.
There are no allies in the Tower.
[Low-Rank Soldier defeated.]
[Mid-Rank Soldier defeated...]
[Low-Rank Soldier, Low-Rank Soldier, Mid-Rank Soldier...]
"Aaaaaagh!"
"It's a ranker on a killing spree!"
"Kieeeeek!"
The screams of humans and goblins echoed together.
Dozens of them disappeared within seconds.
"Next."
I immediately moved to the next floor.
Once a Third-Class Officer appears in a Tower, Hunters can begin earning Contribution Points through monster hunting from Floor 50 onward.
However, since a General had appeared in the Korean Tower, Contribution Points could now be earned on every floor.
In other words...
The Korean Tower is currently the only one in the world where Contribution Points can be earned throughout every floor.
Thanks to that, Korean Hunters were advancing through the ranks at a remarkable pace.
And once they'd accumulated enough points and climbed high enough to become nice and plump...
Rankers like me come along and eat them.
It was a solid pyramid structure.
PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!
Another group disappeared.
I didn't linger for even a moment before moving to the next floor.
The floors in the thirties emptied in an instant.
The forties and fifties weren't much different.
Whenever I spotted Hunters traveling in parties, I targeted them first.
When they're grouped together, I can eliminate several with a single attack.
In terms of efficiency, there was no better method.
Occasionally...
"Die, you goddamn ranker bastard!"
A group would gather its courage and attack me.
PEWPEWPEW!
"Urgh!"
"The One-Star General is seriously too damn strong..."
[Target defeated.]
And every now and then...
"Brother! Over here! Over here!"
"Hmm?"
Some people would wave enthusiastically to get my attention.
PEWPEWPEW!
Everyone gets equal treatment!
Had I imagined it, or had that guy been smiling happily just before he turned into white ash?
What a strange fellow. Why does he look familiar, though?
For the next several days, I traveled back and forth between the lower floors of the Korean Tower, firing the Gatling Laser.
I spent practically the entire day doing it, apart from when I stopped to eat.
My Contribution Points accumulated at an astonishing rate.
[Total Contribution Points: 18,048,300]
"Good, good."
At this rate, it wouldn't take long to reach twenty-five million points.
My objective was clear.
I need to become a Two-Star General as quickly as possible.
After that, I'd aim for Three-Star General, Four-Star General, or whatever came next.
For now, I simply needed to keep climbing as high as I could.
But at some point, the atmosphere on the Hunter Inventory forums began to change.
[Title: I Know You Have to Work Hard to Become a General, but Isn't This Going Too Far?]
[Author: EternalLowRankSoldier]
- Let low-rank Hunters do some hunting too. We have to make a living! I've died three times today alone. How is this even PvP? It's a slaughter.
[Comments: 324]
- Agreed. I was hunting today and lost more than half my Contribution Points.
- General, I'm sure you have your reasons, but please give us a little room to breathe...
- The lower floors are completely hopeless. Hunting in the twenties is practically impossible now.
┗ I've never seen the General on the floors in the twenties.
┗ He's talking about rankers... Other S-rank Hunters visit Floor 20 all the time...
Complaints from low-rank Hunters were increasing by the day.
However, there were posts expressing a very different opinion, too.
[Title: Essential Tips for Encountering the One-Star General and Officer-Rank Rankers! (Required Reading for Low-Rank Hunters)]
[Author: TowerSurvivalKing]
- If you're weak, just die. That's all there is to it.
[Comments: 1,082]
- LMAOOOOO. Facts.
- If you don't like it, get stronger, rookie.
- That's the answer. What else is there to say?
- Honestly, once you reach High-Rank Soldier and get about half a set of Squad Leader equipment, you don't die that easily. People don't mess with you as much.
┗ Rankers still do, though.
┗ Then hunt when the rankers aren't around.
┗ They're around all damn day! Especially Hero and Light, those fucking bastards. Ever since PvP came back on, they've been camping inside the Tower twenty-four hours a day!
┗ They're rankers precisely because they're there all the time.
┗ ...Well, I guess that's true...
Perhaps because the post was so provocative, the comments had exploded.
Some people had even begun openly defending me.
[Title: If You Encounter the General, Just Go Over and Let Him Kill You]
[Author: PatrioticYouth]
- After everything the General has done for our country, are you really going to complain about donating a few hundred Contribution Points? Tsk, tsk. Just go and die already.
[Comments: 2,415]
- FutureOfficer: I lose more than 3,000 points, you know?
┗ Thanks for confirming you're a low-rank grunt. There's no rank that loses exactly 3,000 points.
- Seriously, I make sure to find him and let him kill me at least three times every day.
- Isn't that our duty as citizens?
- LMAO. This guy's a huge fan.
The opinions were sharply divided.
There were plenty of complaints, but just as many people were defending the current system.
The reason was simple.
Tower Knights equipment.
Even compared with equipment sold on the marketplace or black market, its performance wasn't particularly inferior.
Yet it was effectively free equipment that anyone could obtain simply by accumulating Contribution Points.
Although it had been introduced as PvP equipment, it was also useful when hunting monsters.
That made it difficult for even low-rank Hunters to oppose PvP unconditionally.
Regular equipment has always been ridiculously expensive.
[Title: Let's Think About This Objectively]
[Author: Realist]
- We're only losing a few hundred Contribution Points when we die anyway. Instead of whining that we can't hunt because we're afraid of losing those points, wouldn't it be much better to save up for a Tower Knights ring? If we don't get proper equipment, we'll fall even further behind later.
[Comments: 1,204]
- That's a fair point too.
- But that doesn't change the fact that dying every day is stressful.
- Contribution Points versus stress. Both sides have a point, so there's no clear answer.
- The real answer is that a utopia where nobody gets stressed and everybody obtains high-grade equipment doesn't exist.
I rested my chin on my hand.
Have I been going a little too far?
To be honest, I did feel a little uncomfortable.
Not enough to feel genuinely guilty, though.
Should I hold back a little?
But if I backed down now, the gap I'd worked so hard to create might close in an instant.
Still, maybe I should give them a little breathing room.
Just as my mind became tangled with conflicting thoughts, a brilliant idea occurred to me.
Then I'll apologize while killing them!
I slapped my knee and smiled at my own ingenuity.
PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!
"Aaaaaagh!"
"He's back again!"
"I'm sorry, brothers!"
PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!
"My apologies. I'll just collect your Contribution Points!"
Surely the low-rank Hunters wouldn't feel so wronged if I did that.
The following week.
The East Sea oil field Resource War resumed.
So we're doing this again after all.
But I didn't feel particularly upset about it.
Well, we just have to win again.
In fact, there was a reason I could accept the situation so generously.
Korean Hunters: 6,077. Japanese Hunters: 7,495.
Compared with the previous week, the number of Korean Hunters had increased noticeably.
Meanwhile, Japan's numbers had fallen slightly.
People really are fickle.
There were far more low-rank Hunters on the Korean side this time.
That was because we'd won the previous week.
Now everyone wants a piece of the action.
Of course, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Quite the opposite.
It means Korea's morale has improved.
The Japanese Hunters, on the other hand, looked visibly nervous even before the battle began.
They're afraid of what they experienced last week.
That was why fewer of them had come.
At that moment, I realized something.
This system... is designed so that the side that wins keeps winning.
Establishing dominance from the beginning was everything.
The outcome of the first battle would inevitably have a tremendous effect on morale.
And once a defeatist mentality took root...
We can't win.
Participation in the Resource War would decrease with each passing day.
Eventually, that belief would become reality.
However...
"You bastards! Today will be different! We'll definitely take your oil field!"
"Go back to being the resource-poor Korea you originally were!"
"Petroleum is wasted on Korea!"
I frowned.
Not because of the Japanese Hunters' provocations.
It was because their average ranks had risen so much that they were almost unrecognizable compared with last week.
So the ones who survive become stronger, huh?
