Chapter 148
Let us briefly turn back time and closely examine the current political landscape of the Korean Peninsula—namely, the situation in Seoul.
As mentioned before, Seoul has effectively entered a state of anarchy due to the collapse of the central government and the National Assembly, resulting in extreme internal chaos.
Especially since they failed to suppress the early stages of the apocalypse, and on top of that, the city was struck by a massive downpour, this only exacerbated the situation—Seoul’s fall was all but inevitable.
The executive branch was torn apart, the members of the National Assembly were annihilated, and the one who gathered and reorganized the leaderless remnants was none other than Seoul’s hero, Kim Suho.
“How am I supposed to clean up this mess?”
The problem was, although Kim Suho saved the remaining forces of Korea and quickly rose to fame as the representative Awakener of Seoul, what he had inherited were merely administrative personnel—not a single shred of legal authority.
When Kim Suho stepped up to stabilize the situation, the president, members of the National Assembly, and even the cabinet ministers were all missing in action.
Faced with such a situation, Kim Suho had no choice but to accept reality.
“Realistically, I have no choice but to give up on Gangbuk.”
He had no authority, and as merely a leader of the remnants, it was impossible to control the entirety of Seoul.
What mattered to him was not retaking all of Seoul but finding and implementing practical solutions first—and that meant acknowledging the grim reality.
Recognizing this, Kim Suho judged that he had to give up on the Gangbuk region.
“With everything wrecked by the downpour, I can’t abandon the Han River and push into Gangbuk! Then… I must use the Han River as a defensive line and protect at least Gangnam.”
In truth, they had no capacity to advance.
The remnants under Kim Suho’s command were minimal. The only combat-capable Awakeners were Kim Suho himself and a handful of loyal followers.
Saving all of Seoul was nearly impossible.
What he could do was use the Han River, a natural fortress, to build a defensive line and proclaim that he would protect at least Gangnam.
“We need to inform those in Gangbuk about this!”
“That can be resolved quickly by using the emergency alert system, which is still operational.”
“Use it immediately.”
Of course, Kim Suho did not heartlessly abandon the people in Gangbuk to be used as undead fodder.
Using the remnants’ access to surviving government systems, he sent disaster alerts urging citizens in Gangbuk to cross the bridges into Gangnam.
He also confiscated supplies from local districts and established defenses on every bridge along the Han River.
“We will join you!”
“Let us smash those damned zombies!”
At that moment, Kim Suho revealed his incredible talent as a field commander.
Attracted by Kim Suho’s charisma and the drive to defend the Han River, Awakeners began to gather.
Most of them were former administrative workers or middle managers. These people, having quickly grasped the reality of the apocalypse, were drawn to Kim Suho’s leadership and vision.
“Only Kim Suho can save Seoul!”
“Following Kim Suho, who saves people, is the right thing to do!”
More than anything, the fact that he alone stepped up to reorganize the fallen Korean government and used its systems to save lives moved many.
To outsiders, Kim Suho seemed like a hero with the vision to survive the apocalypse and lead into the future.
“The Han River is an excellent natural defense line. There’s almost no way to bypass it. If we just guard the bridges, we won’t need to worry much about zombies from Gangbuk.”
He understood the value of the Han River and devised strategies to make use of it.
Seoul itself had been designed with war against the North in mind, so setting up defenses didn’t take long.
Once the line was established, Gangnam under Kim Suho became a de facto safe zone. Huge crowds of people started to flood the bridges, seeking refuge.
Up to this point, Kim Suho would have been hailed as Seoul’s undisputed hero, saving lives and establishing himself as a leader.
That is… if his policy had ended in success.
However, as more people gathered, social problems followed, and the radical nature of his policy began to produce side effects.
This might have been the prelude to the tragedies Kim Suho would face.
“Are you refugees? It must’ve been difficult fleeing the zombies. Please stay at the shelters we’ve prepared.”
“When are we getting our homes back? We worked hard to buy our house! If I don’t get it back, my life is over!”
“Well…”
“Why is this taking so long?! Our house is collapsing! Our family—!”
First came complaints from refugees.
Gangnam, now a refuge, still gave the illusion that Korea had not completely fallen.
With the Han River defensive line and Kim Suho seemingly in charge, the citizens began demanding answers from him.
Most complaints were about property left in Gangbuk, missing family, and other personal matters.
In short, they could be summed up as: “I’m suffering, so the government needs to fix it.”
These were people who could not accept that the apocalypse had begun. They were escaping from reality.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Don’t be sorry, just fix it! Please get me out of this hell!”
In a way, this was relatively mild.
It was a form of emotional escape, and Kim Suho could sympathize and was too kind to scold them.
The real problem came next.
“You. Are you using the government system without authorization? Which agency do you belong to? Do you have the authority?”
“Position? Authority…? I don’t have any.”
“So, you’re just an ordinary citizen.”
News of the safe zone spread, and surviving high-ranking officials and ministers began arriving in Gangnam.
Had they chosen to cooperate, Kim Suho could have carried out his plans more easily and saved more lives.
However, what they did was…
“What do you mean you won’t follow my orders?!”
“You have no right to command us. This is an abuse of presidential authority! This is state corruption!”
Instead of cooperating, they criticized Kim Suho for using executive powers without permission.
To them, the Republic of Korea had not ended. Their authority still mattered.
And they felt humiliated that Kim Suho had used it without their consent.
In truth, Kim Suho had no defense.
If this were before the apocalypse, what he had done would clearly be an illegal seizure of power.
Put bluntly, as a civilian, Kim Suho had committed an act akin to state corruption.
And the ministers and officials weren’t entirely wrong in saying so.
“I admit it. It’s true that I used your authority without permission.
But this is an enormous disaster called the Apocalypse, isn’t it?
I sincerely apologize for acting on my own authority. So please, just this once, let it go.”
The problem was that this was the Apocalypse—a situation that required quick decisions.
And from the start, if Kim Suho hadn’t made a decision, Gangnam wouldn’t even have been able to become a shelter.
Considering that, Kim Suho couldn’t understand the ministers’ opposition.
Sure, it was an abuse of power. He acknowledged that his actions were beyond legal boundaries.
But if he hadn’t used it, many people would have died, or they wouldn’t have been able to be here at all.
Still, Kim Suho tried to persuade the high-ranking officials and ministers of South Korea with the logic that he had saved people, while at the same time apologizing for using authority on his own.
“We cannot allow that. We follow only the president’s orders.”
“No! If you don’t cooperate, the defense line we’ve built might collapse!”
Was it blind loyalty to the president, or were they simply that stubborn from the beginning?
They blatantly ignored and excluded the fame Kim Suho held as the Hero of Seoul.
The high-ranking officials who had survived the Apocalypse in South Korea had declared that, except for a very few who understood the reality of the Apocalypse, they would not follow Kim Suho’s commands.
That meant the authority of the executive branch, which had functioned normally until now, would be severely limited, and that this would affect the upcoming battle to defend the Han River.
At this point, it would have made more sense to think that staying together wasn’t beneficial to either side, and to either ignore their authority or completely separate from them and act on his own.
“Isn’t this an emergency situation!? Please, follow the commander’s instructions!”
The unfortunate truth was that Kim Suho wasn’t that heartless.
He just couldn’t bring himself to send them back into certain death.
So in the end, Kim Suho accepted some of their demands, and South Korea’s nameplate was preserved.
In fact, Kim Suho probably never imagined that absorbing those former government officials and preserving the name “South Korea” would become a tremendous blunder for him.
Because of this, many people in Seoul and survivors in provincial cities came to believe that South Korea hadn’t truly ended.
“I’m a member of the National Assembly.”
“I see. Please evacuate to the shelter quickly.”
“No. I will take command of this site.”
Someone had now appeared, intending to use their status from the era of South Korea to take command of the defense line in place of Kim Suho.
The problem was that the National Assembly had been virtually annihilated.
No one could tell whether this self-proclaimed assemblyman had actually been elected or was just claiming the title.
Even if he said he had succeeded a deceased proportional representative, there was no way to verify that here and now.
To Kim Suho, this person—someone he had never seen before—calling himself an assemblyman and trying to take away everything he had built just looked like a knife-wielding robber.
“Pardon?”
“South Korea hasn’t ended yet, has it? Then it’s time for the National Assembly to act. Don’t you agree?”
Using the excuse that South Korea wasn’t over yet, they claimed it was time for the National Assembly to step in.
And Kim Suho, utterly baffled, looked at the self-proclaimed assemblyman and opened his mouth.
“I refuse.”
“You will regret this.”
This self-proclaimed assemblyman most likely wasn’t elected as he claimed, and more importantly, his declaration that he would take over the Han River Defense Line—something Kim Suho had built—on the grounds of being an assemblyman, was not something even a fool like Suho could accept.
If he had instead proposed building a better defense line, Kim Suho might have listened seriously. But wasn’t this just a knife-wielding thug?
‘There shouldn’t be a problem. Who would follow a National Assembly member with no backing?’
Though the assemblyman warned that Kim Suho would regret it, Kim Suho wasn’t too worried.
Having already been ignored by the ministers, Suho didn’t even register the assemblyman’s threats.
Besides, even if they warned of future regret, at that time, the loyalty of the on-site field workers was firm, so there was no chance Suho would waver.
“Why are you not following orders!?”
“Because… you’re not the president, are you?”
“Th-That’s true. But this is urgent! It’s true I overstepped my authority, but still…!”
The real problem came next.
“It doesn’t matter. If it’s not the president’s words, we have no obligation to obey.”
Because Kim Suho preserved South Korea’s nameplate, those former government officials were under the illusion that their positions were still valid, causing interference.
By now, this had become an everyday occurrence, and Suho could just let it slide.
However, the real issue was…
“Still, shouldn’t we save people?”
Even though saying they would save evacuees wasn’t a problem, Kim Suho himself caused another problem by saving more people than Gangnam could handle.
What Kim Suho had truly failed in was not the rescue, but in the public support and mental care that followed.
In short, the post-rescue support had been poor.
“I cannot stay with these people! I’m not some leftist who ruined this country! I can’t be with a pro-North sympathizer!”
“You damned far-right bastard! What have we even done!? You’re the ones who caused this nightmare!”
“Did this pro-North sympathizer just threaten a citizen of South Korea!?”
“Enough with the damned pro-North nonsense!
What era do you think this is!? That’s laughable, you damned pro-Japanese traitor!”
As a result, people who couldn’t accept the reality of the Apocalypse began falling into extremism, reviving ideological conflict long discussed in South Korea.
It was a ridiculous situation, and the fact that even in the Apocalypse people clung to these extreme ideological battles meant that Gangnam’s public order inevitably worsened as it split into two factions.
However, Kim Suho was busy managing and maintaining the Han River Defense Line, so it was perfectly natural that he couldn’t focus on other matters, and thus, it was hard to blame him for it.
“Everyone, please calm down… No, we’ll prepare separate shelters for you.”
“I cannot live with those leftist scum!”
“I won’t live in the same zone as those far-right lunatics!”
Even so, while he was already busy maintaining the Han River Defense Line, Kim Suho still made time to try resolving this conflict, and unintentionally extended the lifespan of the nation called South Korea once again.
If only there had been a large-scale clash that awakened people to the harsh reality, perhaps something might have changed.
But with no real change and continued reliance solely on Kim Suho’s ability, his goodwill ended up reducing the conflict to just a minor matter in their eyes.
“Kim Suho…Is this really the right thing to do?”
“I don’t know either.”
Above all, this was merely the beginning, and the true despair yet to come made the situation all the more hopeless.
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