The Baekdusan base I arrived at by U.S. military helicopter had changed again in just a few days.
Its security had been strengthened even further, but more than that, people from other countries were now walking around a base that had previously held only Koreans and Americans.
Most of them were Westerners, but they did not look American.
People walking around in the same tracksuits we had once worn during training.
They passed by me, grumbling and chatting just as we had back then.
“I’m not even asking for alcohol, but not giving us tea after training? I feel like I’m going to get homesick before we even go to another planet.”
“They don’t have wine or cheese. Even the bread tastes awful. If this keeps up, I’m throwing everything away and going home.”
“The food isn’t bad. It would be even better if they gave us vodka, though.”
Their words were translated automatically, but the sounds reaching my ears were all different languages.
I couldn’t tell which countries’ languages they were, but Margreta was different.
She told me what countries they had come from.
“It looks like they’ve opened Trappist to all the first-tier partner nations. From his accent, that man seems British, and the people speaking French must be Canadian or French. There’s a Russian beside them too, and the man reciting the Torah must be Israeli.”
She finished speaking while pointing at a man muttering to himself.
I looked at Margreta in surprise.
She understood all those languages without a translation relic?
When I stared at her in surprise, she shook her head.
“There aren’t many languages I can actually use. For the others, I just know what languages they are.”
Even that was impressive enough.
If not for the translation relic, I would have stumbled even in conversation with Margreta.
In truth, there was nothing strange about seeing people from other countries here.
What had been strange was that, until now, I had only seen Americans and Koreans.
When I showed my confusion, Margreta explained the situation.
“For other countries, the destruction of Earth hadn’t felt real until recently. They had only been keeping the secret because they were promised tickets to Paradise.”
Hearing Margreta’s words, I understood.
Their situation could not be the same as that of the United States, which had confirmed Venus’s destruction and developed Paradise, or Korea, which had even gone to war under America’s coercion.
Destruction had revealed itself before their eyes, and they could no longer watch the fire from across the river.
I understood the situation, and it would also help Trappist, which had been short on manpower, but with this, another problem was bound to arise.
“If people from other countries start crossing over too, it won’t be easy to manage.”
“Yes. It will become several times harder.”
There had already been plenty of problems with only people from the United States and Korea.
And now, five more countries had been added.
Moreover, those additional countries would not be the end of it.
Even if China, which had its own planet, was excluded, Japan, Brazil, Italy, and India would soon be added.
At that thought, my body shuddered.
No matter how I thought about it, it had been a truly good decision not to take the position of expedition commander.
“Catherine and David will handle those problems well.”
Catherine would definitely do a good job.
David would support her well too.
At my words, Margreta glared at me sidelong, but I felt no guilt.
After all, this time I had even obtained documents from the President of the United States to make it easier for Catherine to work.
[Was that not a document you received for a different reason?]
I had received it for another reason, but it would still make Catherine’s work easier all the same.
The wizard clicked his tongue, but as always, I ignored him and moved on.
As we crossed the base, people’s gazes poured toward us.
Their gazes were not directed at Margreta, but at the cages I held in both hands.
The cages were blocked on all sides so that the inside could not be seen, but the thumping noises and the clucking of chickens were bound to draw people’s attention.
I had left it alone because I did not think I needed to use magic for something so trivial, but it seemed I had ended up attracting unnecessary attention.
Perhaps because people from various countries had gathered here, the third-generation chaebol heir who had always come to see me whenever I visited the Baekdusan base was nowhere to be seen.
Thanks to that, we were able to head straight to the underground ruins.
As always, we entered the central tent and took the elevator down for quite some time, and then the underground ruins came into view.
Inside the underground ruins, the American and Korean user candidates who had not been visible outside were gathered.
People gathered in order to go to Trappist.
When we entered the ruins, nearly a hundred people waiting in front of the altar looked at us.
Ignoring their gazes, I went to the place where the supplies were piled up.
In one corner of the ruins were the American and Korean supplies that needed to be sent to Trappist.
Some of them were being carried by the people standing in front of the altar, but compared to the piled-up supplies, it was not much.
When I went to the supply pile, the person in charge greeted me warmly.
“Welcome. We were waiting for you, Captain Hyun. Since many people will be crossing over, there are more things that need to be taken.”
He had greeted me with a bright expression, but when he saw the cages in both my hands, his face turned troubled.
“Don’t tell me you’re taking those cages as well?”
I answered his question honestly.
“They’re for testing.”
At my words, he looked at the cages doubtfully, but immediately nodded when he heard the sound coming from inside.
Cluck, cluck.
“Ah, I understand.”
He was not the only one startled by the sounds coming from the cages.
Everyone in the underground ruins looked at the cages I was holding.
While everyone was surprised by the rabbits and chickens inside the cages, the person in charge checked the documents and scratched his head.
“If you can’t use both hands, we’ll have to reduce the items. If it has to fit into a backpack, we’ll need to cut more than half of it... This is a problem.”
“Let me see the documents.”
Hearing the worried man’s words, Margreta held out her hand.
The person in charge handed her the documents, and Margreta used the pen she received with them to cross items off the list.
“We can take this out. This can be removed too...”
“You can’t remove all of that.”
“It’s fine.”
The startled person in charge tried to stop Margreta, but she was doing it properly.
Most of the items she erased from the list were food.
The number of people would increase, but there was no longer any need for me to carry food from Earth.
Grain was being grown in the greenhouse at the terraforming ruins, but now it was about time to start distributing the grain grown in the underground city on the Ice Planet.
With those grains, there should be no food problem even if several times more people came over to Trappist.
Once the food was removed, the things that had to be carried decreased by more than half.
If the amount to transport decreased, the money earned from shipping would decrease as well, but there was no longer any need to concern myself with transport fees and the like.
The newly decided baggage was placed on top of the backpack.
A lot had been removed, but that did not mean it was a small amount.
It was still a huge load, two or three times the size of my body.
When I rose with that load on my back, the people seeing such a sight for the first time opened their eyes wide.
“Will you be going first?”
Seeing the baggage on my back, the person in charge and the technicians tried to send me off, but I shook my head at their words.
“I’ll go later.”
I intended to go not to the underground ruins, but to the Ice Planet.
If I departed before them, people would realize that I had not come to the underground ruins.
That would be troublesome.
I stood there and waited for the others to depart first.
As I leisurely observed the people, I realized that the ones gathered here were different from before.
There were still many young people among the Americans, but among the Koreans, there were more older civilians.
Seeing even elderly people who looked to be in their sixties and seventies, it seemed Korea had truly scraped together people from the very bottom.
If not for the “awakening drug” I had brought, this would have been Korea’s final expedition.
As I was thinking that, a portal opened above the altar.
“Enter in order! You’ll arrive in an instant, so there’s no need to worry. Once you arrive, even if your bag is gone or your clothes disappear, don’t look for them and keep moving!”
The administrators shouted as they pushed people into the hole that had appeared in the air.
It was a scene I had experienced not long ago myself.
But what had happened then felt like something from a very long time ago.
People disappeared one after another, and then it was our turn.
“Since we can’t hold hands, place your hand on my shoulder.”
Margreta took hold of my shoulder, and I took a deep breath while looking at the hologram before my eyes.
This was the first time I would bring ordinary living creatures to Trappist.
I was confident, but nothing in this world was certain.
Still, I could not stop here.
I stepped into the portal.
Flaaaash!
White light covered the world.
I could feel Margreta’s hand on my shoulder.
I could feel the cages in both hands, and the backpack and spear on my back as well.
The livestock inside the cages were the same.
I came to understand that all of it belonged to me.
And if it belonged to me, that meant I could move it.
I could move it all to the newly created “Taepyeong” and “Paradise,” and I could also move with it to Mars or Venus.
While traveling along the path toward Trappist, I could also slip off to the side.
So I set foot on the path toward the Ice Planet.
Flaaaash!
The light vanished, and beyond the transparent wall, an icy plain came into view.
We had arrived on the Ice Planet.
I turned my head and confirmed the hand on my shoulder and Margreta standing behind me.
Margreta was smiling at me.
After confirming she was there, I checked the cages in my hands.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck.”
In truth, there was no need to check.
Perhaps startled by the spatial movement, both the rabbits and the chickens were making a fuss.
I had succeeded in moving livestock, living creatures.
Now that I had confirmed the livestock, the next step was people themselves.
I could now bring ordinary people to this planet.
While Margreta and I were rejoicing as we looked at the cages, the spirit shot up from the ground.
“Welcome!”
She was happy to see Margreta and me, but when she saw the cages in my hands, her eyes went round.
“They’re livestock from Earth, right?”
The spirit pressed herself close to the cages.
“They’re rabbits and chickens.”
Hearing my words, she put her ear to the cage, then tilted her head at the sounds coming from inside.
“So this is what they call a rabbit. But the rabbit sounds strange.”
“That one is the chicken.”
“Ooh, so this is the chicken they say is so delicious.”
The spirit lifted both cages with magic and flew toward the underground city.
We followed her toward the underground city as well.
With the livestock the spirit was carrying and the machine tools in the boxes inside my backpack, the minimum preparations were complete.
Now, all that remained was to fill this underground city with people.
Of course, filling it with people would not be the end.
To maintain the city, we had to retake Trappist’s home planet.
And to retake the home planet, we would eventually have to kill the Demon King.
Now that nuclear missiles had been prepared as well, it was time to find the place where the Demon King slept.
Seeking the Demon King (1)