After parting with the president, Margreta and I headed for the warehouse in Namyangju.
It was because the items I had spoken to the ruling party leader and the chaebol chairman about before leaving for America had arrived at that warehouse.
The warehouse keeper I had seen before was guarding the place.
Standing in front of the warehouse, he grimaced when he saw me.
It seemed something wasn’t to his liking.
I tilted my head and approached him, and the man grumbled as he looked at me.
“Does it make any sense to come here by helicopter? If you’re going to show up like this, there’s no reason to come to this warehouse at all.”
He had said it loudly enough for me to hear, but I couldn’t refute him.
Because, just as he said, we had come here in a military helicopter.
Perhaps because I could now receive assistance from the Korean government, I was able to fly freely over Seoul by helicopter.
The U.S. military helicopter Margreta had called had carried her and me across the skies of Seoul, all the way to this riverside warehouse in Namyangju.
Thanks to that, we had saved a great deal of time, but it was also true that we had caused a commotion.
It was only natural for the manager of a warehouse that stored secret goods to be angry after seeing such a disturbance.
Just as he said, this warehouse could no longer be used as the ruling party leader’s secret warehouse.
Since we had flown here so openly, both the U.S. government and the Korean government must have learned about this warehouse by now.
Of course, I didn’t care whether this warehouse was secret or not.
The only thing that mattered was the items inside it.
Things that were difficult to obtain officially, or that would take time.
The reason I had dealt with the ruling party leader and the chaebol chairman was to acquire such items quickly.
This time as well, they had properly fulfilled my request.
It had only been a few days since I met them, but all the supplies I had demanded were inside the warehouse.
When I arrived in front of the warehouse, the warehouse keeper left the warehouse and said to me,
“Everything should be fine. I’m leaving, so take them quickly. And don’t ask me for this sort of thing again. I’m a warehouse keeper, not a livestock farmer.”
It wasn’t just because of the helicopter that he was angry with me.
He didn’t like the items I had requested.
It was understandable that he wouldn’t like them.
Among the items I had requested this time, there were living things.
After the warehouse keeper left, I opened the warehouse door, and an unexpected sound reached my ears.
“Cock-a-doodle! Cluck, cluck!”
The sound of chickens crowing came from a cage inside the warehouse.
From the cage beside it came the thumping sounds of something hopping around.
I didn’t even need to check with my heightened senses.
Both were things I had requested.
Those boxes contained chickens and rabbits.
I didn’t know when those boxes had arrived at the warehouse, but since he must have had to feed them until I got here, it was no wonder the warehouse keeper was angry.
We entered the warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, besides the two boxes containing chickens and rabbits, many other items were stacked up.
Electronics, all sorts of seeds, furniture, machine tools, even workbenches.
This time, I had prepared not only the products of modern civilization, but also the things needed to make them.
Not a blacksmith’s forge for hammering iron, but machine tools capable of making machines.
They wouldn’t be much help in fighting monsters, but they were essential for turning the underground city into a modern city.
If technicians crossed over one after another along with these machine tools, the underground city and Trappist should be able to create a machine civilization like Earth’s.
It would be impossible to make electronic devices, the culmination of modern civilization, with just that, but those could be brought over step by step as well.
I couldn’t ask the Korean government or the U.S. government for machine tools like these.
The U.S. government was probably beginning to suspect my ability, but I couldn’t show it to them directly.
Suspicion and certainty were two different things.
There was no need to let greed overcome fear.
The ruling party leader who had prepared these items would also have questions, but he alone would not be able to resolve those questions.
It would also take time for others to learn about the situation.
By then, it would be too late.
While I was putting the items into the space expansion box, Margreta examined the chickens and rabbits moving around in the cages.
“They all seem healthy.”
It seemed the warehouse keeper had worked harder than his grumbling suggested.
After checking the rabbits and chickens, Margreta asked me,
“They’re animals for experiments before moving people, right?”
It was just as Margreta said.
Before moving ordinary people to Trappist, we had to run tests.
The rabbits and chickens were subjects for that experiment as well.
“They’re also livestock to raise in the underground city.”
They were also the livestock to replace monster meat that I had told the spirit about.
If those rabbits and chickens succeeded, we would have to bring over more livestock.
Pigs and cows, ducks and fish as well.
For now, there was no place to raise fish, but that could be solved by melting the snow on the ice planet.
Hearing my words, Margreta stroked the cages with a regretful expression.
“That’s a shame.”
Was she sad that we would have to eat the cute rabbits?
“If living things could be put into the space expansion box too, we could have moved so many more.”
That wasn’t it.
She was disappointed that the number of livestock we could move was small.
It certainly was a shame.
If they could be put into the box, even if more than half disappeared during spatial movement, that meant half would remain.
If so, we could have moved a lot of livestock at once.
The space expansion box could not accept living creatures.
[It creates a virtual space, so it cannot accept living creatures capable of perceiving space.]
Soph explained the reason, but as always, I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.
If I hadn’t learned magic through sensation, I was certain I never would have become a mage.
Because I couldn’t put living creatures into the box, I had to carry livestock on my back or in both hands when making a spatial movement.
This time was no different.
Unlike the other items I had placed inside the space expansion box, I had to personally carry the two cages containing the rabbits and chickens.
[It is better that living creatures cannot be placed in the box. If they could, you might have had to make a terrible decision.]
Since the same thought had crossed my mind, I understood what Soph meant.
If living creatures could be put into the space movement box, then when Earth began to perish, I might have had to put people inside the box.
Even if half disappeared during the spatial movement, the other half could have been saved.
But that was truly a horrifying thought.
I shook my head to drive away the thought, then carried the cages in both hands and went outside.
This time as well, the warehouse behind me was empty, and outside the warehouse, someone else had arrived.
This person, too, was someone I had met at this warehouse before.
National Intelligence Service agent Han Seongjae.
He was the agent I had seen when rescuing people from the Russian agents, and the hot-blooded agent who had come all the way to this warehouse with the reporter.
I had sent him a text telling him to come to the warehouse, using the contact information he and the reporter had given me back then.
“You came right on time.”
“Seeing how things are going now, I couldn’t exactly not come.”
At my words, he gave a bitter smile.
Since he had heard the situation from me last time and worked for the National Intelligence Service, he must have had a good idea of how the world was turning.
“Why did you call me?”
“To let you know how things are progressing.”
At my words, the agent’s expression darkened.
I could tell at once what that expression meant.
“Looks like you tried to tell someone else what you heard last time.”
If that weren’t the case, there would be no reason for him to make that face at the mention of giving him information.
“What did you do to my head? I couldn’t tell anyone else what I heard, and I couldn’t even write it down. The reporter’s so shaken he’s drowning himself in alcohol right now!”
As expected, neither of them had kept their promise.
If not for the magic contract, rumors would have spread, or both of them would have lost their lives.
“I told you last time. There’s a relic that can make people keep secrets. The reason rumors haven’t spread until now is because of that relic.”
I hadn’t used that relic, but there was no need to tell him that.
“So something like magic really existed?”
As expected, he and the reporter had only half-believed what I had said last time.
“You’ve confirmed it now, so believe me properly this time. And you’ll have to promise, won’t you? That you won’t tell anyone else what is said here.”
Unlike last time, the agent wore a grave expression after hearing my words.
Because he now knew that this was not merely a verbal promise.
Even so, he couldn’t refuse to promise.
He made the promise, and after that, I told him everything that had happened.
After listening to me, the agent’s face turned ashen.
He looked up at the sky and asked me,
“Then, is that a sign of the end?”
The hazy sky, with the sun half-covered.
I looked at the sky as well and answered,
“It’s what’s delaying the end.”
That hazy sky was humanity’s last desperate struggle to postpone annihilation.
“Tell the reporter properly too.”
“I’m having a hard time believing it myself. I don’t know whether he’ll believe it.”
Hearing my words, the agent let out a sigh.
“That’s up to you.”
I shrugged, then recited a phone number.
“If a problem you can’t handle comes up, call this number.”
After hearing the number, he asked me with a puzzled expression,
“Where does this number connect to?”
“It’s a number the president answers directly.”
His eyes widened again.
Just as I had told him, this phone number was the president’s number I had received moments ago.
Because I was often not on Earth, it would be difficult for me to help him if a problem arose.
That was why I had given him the president’s phone number.
At least the president I knew would not ignore my request.
“If you’re connected to the president, then why me?”
He asked me with a puzzled face.
“They say rabbits dig several burrows. To me, you’re one of those burrows.”
I told him the truth.
I used the rabbit comparison, but rabbits weren’t the only ones who dug multiple burrows.
When I went on operations, I also used to prepare several escape routes.
Even now, I had prepared multiple burrows, including the U.S. government, but all of those burrows were connected to governments and powerful people.
I also agreed with them that if people learned the truth, the world would change in a terrible way.
But before the final moment came, I wanted people to know what had happened.
To tell everyone the truth, at least one burrow had to be connected to ordinary people.
That was the National Intelligence Service agent and the reporter before my eyes.
The last tunnel I had prepared for the people.
I could only hope this tunnel would never be needed.
After leaving those words with the agent, I boarded the helicopter.
The helicopter carried me, Margreta, and the cages containing chickens and rabbits, and headed for Baekdu Mountain.
Transporting Livestock