“How does it look, Doctor?”
“......”
Dr. Choi was barely managing to keep his wits about him in the face of the utterly unimaginable, colossal event unfolding before his eyes.
Dr. Barrett, who had happened to come to see Dr. Choi and had unexpectedly run into Suho before following along for a good look, was reacting much the same way.
Everyone who saw the super-giant Mecha Drake lying there so neatly felt dizzy just from facing that enormous body.
The monster was far larger than the world’s largest supertankers or container ships, and simply looking at it was enough to make one’s spirit wither.
“I-it is definitely dead... correct?”
“Of course. Don’t worry. I told you, I smashed its core for certain.”
“......I can hardly believe it...”
“Th-this is a monster... Inside the Tower, the Admiti fight things like this...?”
Dr. Barrett, too, stared in awe at the Mecha Drake, which could not even be taken in at a single glance, his voice trembling.
“They’re not all like this. This is a very, very special case. After all, it’s the boss monster from the top floor of the greatest and worst Tower in history.”
At first, they had considered renting a shipyard dry dock designed for building and repairing super-large vessels and laying it down there, but security issues made that difficult. If they put this thing in a shipyard, how many eyes would be watching?
And there was no way an ordinary shipyard specialized in ship repairs would have dedicated facilities for a mechanical monster. In any case, it seemed Suho would have no choice but to procure the special materials and equipment they needed immediately from his subspace warehouse.
Since there was nothing much to gain from a shipyard except a place to lay it down, Suho simply chose one of the plots of land he owned in Gyeonggi-do, had Rabi dig a gigantic pit there, and laid the Mecha Drake inside it.
Because the creature’s size was so tremendous, Suho and the doctors all wore personal flight devices—small jetpacks—and flew around it to examine it.
Without jetpacks, they could not even climb onto one of its toes.
“We look like gnats buzzing around a dead elephant.”
“......A dreadful comparison, but from a distance, I suppose that really is exactly what we look like...”
“What’s your opinion, Doctor? Can this thing be revived? No matter how you look at it, it’s mechanical, isn’t it?”
Dr. Choi, an authority in androids and robotics, spent several hours examining the Mecha Drake before stroking his chin and sinking into thought.
“As you said, Clan Leader, it is in the robotic category, but... its structure and operating method are completely different from machines on Earth.”
“They’re different?”
“Yes. It merely has a mechanical design... but it would be difficult to call this a machine as we understand the term. It is almost... a living machine.”
“Hmm......”
Suho had a rough idea of what Dr. Choi meant.
The Tower itself was a world of another dimension, different from Earth.
So the monsters that appeared there, too, would be either life-forms or machines of another dimension.
There was no way their structures would be the same as those on Earth.
“For now, since you destroyed the core that acted as its heart, Clan Leader, it does seem certain that its operation has stopped... However, its command system can still be considered intact.”
“Mm. Then, in a manner of speaking, you mean it’s been declared in cardiac arrest, but it isn’t brain-dead?”
“If we must use an analogy, yes. The core is its power source, so it seems possible to replace it with another Aetherium core... The problem is the intelligence portion, the area responsible for information processing.”
“Would the part that serves as its intelligence be in its head as well?”
“I’m not sure... We cannot know that yet. You said the core that serves as its power source was in the center of its body, correct?”
“That’s right. The one who destroyed it for me said so.”
“In that case, there is a high possibility that its central processing unit is in a similar location. There would be no need to separate the power source from the decision-making organ. That would only increase the number of vital areas that need to be defended, making it inefficient.”
“...Hmm. Then, Doctor, whatever costs or equipment you need, I’ll support you, so please look into it. I want to know where the organ that served as the intelligence moving this giant thing was, and how it operated.”
“Understood. I’ll give it a try.”
* * *
The regular session of the United Nations General Assembly opened again with the passing of the year.
All UN member states participated, and Suho was once again invited as a special envoy to the place where major global issues were discussed.
There were more than enough reasons for it.
Not only did Suho play a critical role in issues related to the Tower, he also had a record of resolving national and global crises. He was a self-made figure who had fundamentally solved the world’s energy crisis, climate crisis, and even nuclear waste problem, so he was recognized and invited as both an “expert on the Tower and monster issues” and a “symbolic figure of global problem-solving.”
Suho’s achievements carried meaning beyond the simple strength of an individual, and because they gave hope and inspiration to the entire world, the UN wished to use that to deliver a message of human unity and make Suho the face of international cooperation.
“The UN? You’re going there again?”
“Yes. That’s why I’d like you to come with me too, Danbi.”
At some point, the two of them had progressed from addressing each other formally with nim to using ssi, and even that small change in terms of address had brought a major shift to their relationship.
“Then, like last time...”
“No. This time, we’ll go by ourselves. The rest of the government people can use their own chartered plane.”
“Oh, I like that.”
Danbi smiled brightly, as if the decision pleased her.
On the day of departure,
Since his schedule was not so busy that he had to take a hypersonic jet, Suho chose the most luxurious private plane among the ones he owned.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Director Kim Gyusik of the Tower Management Agency, the aides, and the security team bodyguards used a separate chartered plane prepared by the government. All of them subtly hinted, while looking at Suho’s splendid private jet, that they wanted to go with him, but Suho pretended not to notice and boarded the private plane with only Danbi.
The extravagant aircraft, with golden patterns on a pearly white body, had a fantastical quality that drew the eyes of everyone passing by. Danbi was no exception.
“Wow... This plane is really beautiful. The exterior alone looks like a work of art.”
“Haha, thank you for seeing it that way. It’s my favorite private jet.”
Suho said proudly as he boarded the new ultra-luxury private plane he had not even revealed to his family yet.
Once inside, high-end android flight attendants indistinguishable from humans guided them, and all functions, including piloting the aircraft, were handled by AI.
In the central lounge, where large Aether crystal lights glittered,
Suho tossed his luggage roughly beside the soft leather sofas and marble table, took a seat, and called an android flight attendant.
“Bring us something to drink. What do you have?”
“We have alcoholic beverages, carbonated drinks, tea and coffee, fruit juices, dairy products, health drinks, and bottled water. I will display the detailed list.”
As the android flight attendant knelt in front of Suho, a holographic menu appeared before her, displaying numerous beverages along with images.
Suho turned to Danbi and asked,
“What would you like?”
“Ah, I’m fine.”
Suho chose a beer and chuckled as he watched Danbi, who was still busy looking around the interior of the private jet. If she was surprised by every little thing like this, he thought, there would be far too many things to surprise her in the future.
“When I first went to the UN, I went with my family, and back then, our private plane was nearly hijacked.”
“What? Really? Where?”
“Near Midway Island in the Pacific. We ran into an international terrorist organization based there.”
“Whoa... That’s terrifying. I suppose if they target you in the sky, you’d be defenseless, wouldn’t you? So what did you do?”
“What else? I just wiped out Midway Island itself.”
“Ah... Mm... That does sound like your way of solving problems, Suho.”
When he had traveled to New York with his family before, the thirteen-hour flight had felt so long, but with just the two of them chatting away, time seemed unbelievably short.
“Huh... Rabi, you say... Wow, a baby dragon. I definitely want to see it someday.”
“Don’t expect too much. That guy has no manners. I really want to invite you into the subspace too, Danbi... I’ll seriously have to find a way.”
“Yes, I’ll look forward to it. I really thought there’d be nothing left to surprise me about you, Suho, but you’re like an onion. The more I peel, the more there is.”
“Haha, actually, there’s still a long way to go.”
Since they were sharing their private lives instead of talking about work like clan operations or Tower raids, time passed so quickly that the chartered plane had already arrived at JFK International Airport before they knew it.
Even though there were several luxurious bedrooms, they had not had a chance to close their eyes even once.
* * *
The delegation’s accommodations had been prepared by the Korean Embassy.
After resting from the journey at a hotel in Manhattan, New York, the entire delegation moved together the next day.
“Oh, they seem to have put quite a bit more effort into security than last year.”
“I suppose it’s because things have been getting rather unsettled...”
At Director Kim Gyusik’s answer, Suho widened his eyes and asked back,
“Was there some kind of incident?”
“Rather than an incident, the UN General Assembly is a place where each country’s policies and positions are revealed publicly, so it can become a potential target for terrorist groups seeking to deliver political messages or draw attention.”
“Ah, if that’s all...”
Indeed, the UN Headquarters in New York, where the regular session of the General Assembly was being held, maintained the highest level of security.
The Secret Service, the New York Police Department, the FBI, and the UN’s own security team were controlling traffic for several blocks around the venue and conducting strict entry inspections.
At the same time, it was also noticeable that the Admiti security team and the UN Headquarters building had installed Aether-based defense systems.
The regular session of the UN General Assembly began, and the topics being addressed were uniformly dull.
Determining priorities for conquering Towers, the status of Towers in each country and the issue of international conquest priorities,
Organizing joint raid teams,
Strengthening monster defense systems,
Discussing the international standardization of urban defense systems and the fairness of sharing the cost of developing those defense systems,
Developing advanced monster detection systems and response measures,
Concluding international agreements in preparation for Tower Break incidents,
The equitable distribution of resources and Aetherium obtained from the Towers,
And even the management of monster corpses and remains.
So many of the meeting’s topics concerned the Tower that it was hard to tell whether this was the United Nations General Assembly or the “International Tower Response Summit” (ITRS).
Representatives from each country emphasized the threat of the Towers and the catastrophic consequences they could bring to their own nations, pouring out words whenever the microphone reached them.
Then energy issues, environmental issues, and the current state of climate change were briefly addressed,
And toward the end of the meeting, as human security and human rights issues were discussed, matters such as the massive refugee problem caused by Tower Breaks and strengthening international refugee protection systems were brought into public discourse.
Before the Towers appeared, the “global hunger problem,” once a central topic of discussion at UN meetings, now seemed trapped in someone’s forgotten speech materials.
In one corner of the conference hall, the representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) sat silently, fiddling with his notepad.
After a long while, as if he could no longer endure it, he turned his head toward a diplomat sitting right beside him.
“It seems this room is filled only with people who eat three full meals a day. The fact that half the world is starving is completely outside their concern...”
“The Towers are an immediate, visible threat too. Monsters destroying cities appear often on live news, but children dying of hunger rarely appear on the screen.”
The WFP representative let out a deep sigh.
“Indeed. This General Assembly has been completely plastered over with Tower issues. Aetherium distribution, monster defense systems... They are certainly important matters, but...”
The WFP representative looked down at the limp manuscript beneath his hand.
The title “Food Crisis Response Strategy Through 2050” was clearly written there, but somehow, it seemed unlikely he would even get a chance to present it.