Chapter 102: His Era is Over
The awakeners, including Hwang Sun-young, were not the only ones affected by the events in Megacity.
The world was suffering from the sudden appearance of ability users who possessed the black metal factor.
They went on TV shows and proudly displayed their abilities in front of the public.
What set them apart from the previous black metal ability users was their ability to emit energy.
On a popular TV show in the US, a host asked a man.
“We’ve seen enough of black metal transformation. It’s getting boring. We need something new.”
“I have that ability.”
“Tom, are you saying that you have become a psychic? A psychic power?”
“Something like that. You’ve seen it in movies and comics, right? Raising your hand and shooting energy.”
“When I was young, I asked my mom why I couldn’t do that with my hand. Can we see it for ourselves?”
“Sure.”
The man took a few breaths in front of a sandbag prepared by the staff and lightly swung his arm.
“Nothing happened?”
As the host shrugged his shoulders, surprisingly, a golden light burst out of his hand and sent the sandbag flying back.
“Wow.”
“Oh my god.”
As the audience gasped, the man proudly spread his arms.
“Isn’t that amazing? I can kill people with this.”
Then the host said with a smile.
“The truth is, we Americans have the same ability as you. We can use it to kill people anytime we need to.”
“What is it?”
“A gun.”
Laughter erupted from the audience.
In America, where there were more guns than people, this kind of ability was nothing special.
But the ability to shoot an unidentified beam from your hand was definitely fresher than black metal and attracted all kinds of spotlight.
The man became a celebrity and more cases of people claiming to have psychic powers emerged in various places in America.
It was the era of psychics.
As this happened, the political and business circles had high expectations.
―Finally, there are ability users who are more than Yu Ji-ha. They might be able to make a decomposer.
―If we can properly decompose black metal, making an ion thruster is not a dream. Naturally, it will lead to unobtainium and ion beam nuclear fusion reactor.
―Is Yu Ji-ha’s era over?
As if to prove these speculations, Japan succeeded in making a black metal battery.
It was a very meaningful event in the situation where they had severed ties with Korea, and the Japanese were in a festive mood.
―I was worried about what would happen… I’m so glad.
―We don’t have to be afraid of Korea anymore. Japan will rise as a black metal powerhouse.
―The only thing that bothers me is that they didn’t disclose the exact conditions.
The group that independently revealed the battery was supported by Shinilbohoe and had gathered many psychics in Japan.
The name of the group was Hyperman Club.
It was somewhat childish, but they had the ability to make proper batteries, so it wasn’t a problem.
They announced that they would build a black metal factory in Japan in collaboration with companies like Toyota and Panasonic.
“We can now make our own black metal in Japan. We don’t have to bow our heads to Korea anymore.”
The leader of Hyperman Club who made this announcement was a 30-year-old man named Sasaki, who had great showmanship.
He volunteered to appear on TV programs and did not refuse invitations from companies.
He was rather short but very passionate and most importantly, people were fascinated by his black metal Gundam.
Finally, Japan had its own Yu Ji-ha.
Not only that, but Hyperman Club had many superhumans with different abilities.
They relied on their enthusiastic popularity and entrusted themselves to Shinilbohoe to become political forces.
―Isn’t it too early for politics?
Some people felt uncomfortable with their moves, but most didn’t care.
―As long as we can defeat arrogant Korea, anything is fine.
―Severing ties doesn’t matter. The important thing is Tsushima.
―We need to focus on supplying black metal to car companies right now. Let’s ask America for help.
And so Shinilbohoe and Hyperman Club sent envoys to America as the main pillars.
America surprisingly agreed to sign an MOU to supply black metal.
It was just a promise, but the Japanese were happy as if they had already made black metal batteries.
And this happened not only in Japan but all over the world.
Because of the sudden appearance of many ability users, Yu Ji-ha was temporarily forgotten.
And each country’s government came up with some assumptions.
―Maybe Yu Ji-ha was just the first one to appear? There is evidence to support that right now.
―Some of the current ability users are not inferior to Yu Ji-ha in terms of resolution. The decomposer has been researched enough, and we can make it too.
―We can now declare that Yu Ji-ha’s era is over.
In reality, only a small amount of batteries and railgun cannons with poor detail were made, but each country couldn’t hide their expectations.
The high-resolution black metal decomposition that was thought to be Yu Ji-ha’s monopoly was achieved.
Now, in a few years, a real Yu Ji-ha-like ability user might be born.
The Korean media still tried to downplay the significance by saying that the detail was poor, but they couldn’t hide their nervousness.
It was because Yu Ji-ha didn’t show any reaction.
―What is he doing at this time? Doesn’t he have to make some announcement?
―There are more and more awakeners in other countries. What does he say? Congratulations?
―This could lead to international isolation if we’re unlucky.
―Hey, just because Hyperman can handle black metal, what happens to Yu Ji-ha? Does he lose his ability?
―That’s not what I mean. It’s just that the things that Yu Ji-ha did might come back to haunt us. The stock price is plummeting. Foreigners are bailing out.
―If you think about it, the only truly original ability of Yu Ji-ha is artificial intelligence. Everything else is derived from black metal.
―Battery, railgun cannon, capacitor, ion thruster, new type of projectile, drone, unobtainium, anttron… They all come from black metal.
―He’s just a black metal one-trick pony.
―That’s why the foreign media are saying seriously that they can catch up with him in a few years.
―Fuck, Japan is making a fuss about making railguns. We’re screwed.
―You idiots, what are you panicking about? Don’t you trust Yu Ji-ha?
―That’s not the point. The situation is so serious that he should say something… anything.
―Please rest assured and engage in your livelihoods. Something like that?
―I’m frustrated.
Meanwhile, Yu Ji-ha was still paying attention only to the nuclear fusion plant and the mass driver without any separate discourse.
No, that’s how it looked.
…
In the early 2030s, the major news of the world was filled with stories about black metal and ability users.
But Yu Ji-ha didn’t care much and was looking around the Settler with Arma.
To be precise, it was the artifact of the Prophet that was mounted on the Settler.
“It’s finally repaired. It took a long time.”
Yu Ji-ha looked at the long tube that pierced through the hull of the ship.
This golden tube was one of the highest-ranked artifacts of the Prophet, and Ark had named it the supermassive particle accelerator.
There were many particle accelerators on Earth, but this one was different.
It could produce anti-particles.
The length of Settler was 700m because it was designed to accommodate this equipment.
The most important facility on the arkship was the ether fusion reactor, but the supermassive particle accelerator was also equally important.
There was no weapon that could harm Plague except for anti-particle reaction shells.
Hafnium-2 was for construction purposes and hydrogen bombs only made Plague stronger.
Arma flipped through the hologram data and reported.
“Currently, the output of the artifact is about 77%, which means it can accelerate ether to near 96.85% of light speed. It can produce about 300 grams of anti-particles per month.”
That meant it would take months to produce one reaction shell.
“You can’t fill your stomach with one sip.”
The output of the particle accelerator depended entirely on the ether fusion reactor, which couldn’t be raised recklessly.
“Arma, when will the second artifact arrive?”
“According to the timeline, it should be in the summer of 2031. The location is, as you know, Mariner Valley on Mars.”
The first artifact sent by the Prophet was a kind of warning letter and the second one was an ether core.
It was different from Plague core in that it specialized in spreading ether around.
In fact, it was speculated that the fusion reactor, Plague core, and ether core were all structurally similar, except for their names.
It was Lucia who said that confidently, so it must be true.
“Ether core… In the original history, that’s when psychics started to appear.”
“There’s not much record left, but it’s likely.”
“We advanced the schedule artificially, so we might not need to secure it. The output of that core is not very high.”
“It seems that the Prophet was very considerate. Maybe he thought that humanity would be surprised if powerful psychics appeared from the start.”
The Prophet tried to awaken humanity step by step, but humanity itself was busy using his technology and power.
They didn’t seriously prepare for the existence of cosmic monsters.
Arma speculated that there might have been a war to secure that core.
“We don’t know how important that core is at this point, but we didn’t know then. So there’s a high possibility that they fought for it.”
It would have been nice if they had acquired historical data. It was a pity.
“Anyway, let’s scatter it on Earth as another possibility. The location is… near Moscow.”
“I’ll scatter it in the form of a meteorite when I get it.”
They didn’t need it, but for current humanity, ether core was the first alien artifact they encountered.
It would be better if a friendly faction got it and they had no power over them.
Arma looked at other data and said.
“By the way, Master, the public sentiment in Korea is not good lately.”
“Is it because of those psychics popping up?”
“Yes. They’re even saying that your era is over.”
“Well, I guess they would say that.”
There was one thing that people who hated Yu Ji-ha added when they explained him.
―He’s just a black metal one-trick pony.
Most of the technology and concepts he had shown so far were based on black metal, so it was understandable in a way.
But this was because there was no need to explain it separately.
There was black metal on Earth, and the person who could decompose and use it at high resolution was fixed. What could they argue against that?
In fact, many scientists had denounced Yu Ji-ha as a fraud in the beginning.
They said that science that couldn’t be explained was no different from pseudoscience.
Anyway, because of those things, Yu Ji-ha had the image of a black metal one-trick pony even though he had a clear achievement of artificial intelligence.
Arma cautiously presented the data.
“The stock price is falling… and foreigners are taking money out of Korea. They seem to be very anxious.”
“There are two choices. Either expose it right away or wait for them to self-destruct.”
“It might be better to wait if you just make a statement.”
“Then let’s just make a statement to reassure them.”
At this point, only alpha-level or higher real psychics were appearing in Megacity and Korea.
Hwang Sun-young was a typical example.
Arma used the psychic scanner to identify them and quietly pulled them in.
If he mounted the scanner on Settler and circled the Earth, he could identify all the psychics in the world, but he didn’t do that because they were just a kind of by-product that couldn’t even be mass-produced.
“Weren’t most of them blasters?”
“Yes. They’re causing a commotion right now, saying that the psychics we’ve been waiting for have appeared. The media is busy hyping them up.”
“Well, it’s amazing to shoot energy from your hand.”
Blasters were the most useless type among the psychic classifications of the Human Alliance.
They could use ether for offensive purposes, but it was meaningless in the war against Plague.
No matter how much energy humans poured out, they couldn’t even tickle the metal monsters that crossed hundreds of meters of battlefield.
Of course, they could be useful at an individual level.
They could fly in the sky if they got used to ether.
“He’s like a theme stock without performance. You could also call him a mackerel among fish.”
It was technically a fish, but it didn’t get much respect as a food ingredient.
Even so, if a few blasters gathered, they could make a decomposer that was slightly inferior to Yu Ji-ha’s.
They had the data accumulated by various governments and corporations over the years.
But there was a fatal problem with the black metal they made.
“Apparently, the problem hasn’t surfaced yet. Let’s watch for a while and prepare to buy the tantalum mine.”
“Yes. I’ve already contacted Russia.”
They could produce anti-particles and hafnium-2 as much as they wanted with the supermassive particle accelerator, but they needed at least some excuse.
Yu Ji-ha clicked his tongue when he saw the news that Japan was building a railgun battleship.
“America gave them the cannon and capacitor data. It doesn’t seem to be President McKinley’s intention…”
“It’s probably the pressure of the Democratic Party. They need Japan’s rearmament.”
They wanted to regain their influence in East Asia by any means.
But it was impossible as long as Yu Ji-ha existed.
“Let them self-destruct and we’ll do our own thing. Prepare to operate the nuclear fusion plant and the mass driver.”
“Understood.”
…
“I understand your concerns, citizens. But Korea’s superiority in the black metal market will not change in the future. Trust me.”
Yu Ji-ha’s statement on the situation was released, but the negative public opinion did not subside.
It was because many countries had proven that they could produce a series of black metal products by securing psychics.
The products that could be made without Korea’s help were relatively simple ones such as black metal batteries and railgun cannons.
But that was enough to excite Japan and France.
The former had severed ties with Korea, and the latter had almost no trade with Korea on black metal matters because they kept mentioning Hitler.
They had fresh water in their suffocating situation, so why wouldn’t they drink it?
The Japanese government succumbed to the pressure of Shinilbohoe and announced an investment plan of several trillion yen and confirmed the construction of a railgun cruiser.
―Let’s name it Yamato. The second ship should be Nagato.
―That name is too extravagant for a ship that doesn’t even weigh 20,000 tons. It should be over 50,000 tons at least.
―By the way, how did they get America’s cooperation? America was the one who imposed economic sanctions on them for failing the nuclear test.
―Recently, America has been actively pushing for Japan’s normalization… They chose to side with Japan rather than Korea.
―The appearance of Hyperman was like giving them wings. We don’t have to bow our heads to Korea anymore.
France was in a similar mood.
When Germany, their neighbor, attracted a nuclear fusion plant and mass-produced black metal batteries, showing pro-Korean behavior, they criticized them harshly.
―Germany doesn’t seem to realize that dictatorship is sweet but bitter in the end.
―France will never succumb to a tyrant like Korea. There can be no compromise on freedom and human rights.
―We don’t care if we sell fewer cars. We don’t mind if our passenger planes are less efficient. We can replace nuclear fusion with eco-friendly renewable energy.
In summary, France was too proud to bow their heads.
They had defied America’s interference and achieved independent nuclear development, so their pride must have been immense.
Also, there was no significant impact on the lives of French people at the moment.
―Black metal? It’s great, but we lived well without it. So we shouldn’t break our pride.
The stock market froze and the economic growth rate fell consecutively, but the French were willing to accept it.
They would rather live poor than compromise with a dictator.
For them, the emergence of these psychics was a tremendous boost.
A politician even shouted in an interview with a media outlet:
“Long live France! France has become an even greater nation. A country that has surrendered to a tyrant will never know this feeling!”
The atmosphere was so heated that a picture of Hitler and Yu Ji-ha merged together was burned at a festival in Paris.
The Paris authorities dismissed it as an irresponsible act of some extremists, but the citizens applauded it.
It showed how deep their resentment towards Yu Ji-ha was after more than a year of sanctions.
While both countries were burning like this, America stepped back and watched.
Russia kept silent as always and China was in trouble.
They had given up land to get Yu Ji-ha’s cooperation, but it was exposed by another faction and met with fierce backlash.
―Let’s purge Wang Xian who changed the country name without looking ahead!
―We can’t take it anymore. It’s time for China to rise again!
It was a time when anti-Yu Ji-ha fever was blowing all over the world.
Many political and economic experts analyzed that it was a backlash from Yu Ji-ha’s monopoly on black metal processing.
―He should have done it moderately… Now, any decent country can process black metal. His absolute position is gone, so his downfall is not far away.
―If Silla Group had been exposed, the Korean stock market would have experienced the worst panic sell ever.
―But Yu Ji-ha doesn’t seem to be flustered. He seems to have predicted this situation.
―Anyway, Yu Ji-ha’s era is over. Artificial intelligence is still there, but it’s not very influential unless it’s a super artificial intelligence.
They all seriously predicted the end of Yu Ji-ha’s era.
And in such a situation, a Japanese Atago-class Aegis destroyer was docked at the dock.
It was recorded as maintenance on paper, but in fact, this ship was undergoing a refit to remove its armament system and mount a railgun.
They had succeeded in making a railgun cannon and a high-capacity capacitor by giving a lot of concessions to America and getting the Zumwalt-class data.
Dozens of Hypermen had exhausted themselves, but that didn’t matter much.
Japan finally had a railgun-armed warship.
The Atago-class was undergoing the refit work quietly with such expectations.
But a maintenance worker who was polishing the cannon found a crack.
‘Why is there a crack here?’
It wasn’t there when it was delivered, so it must have been new.
He looked around and confirmed that no one was there and pretended not to know.
‘I’ll only get in trouble if I tell the higher-ups. They’ll ask me why I told them.’
The Maritime Self-Defense Force and Shinilbohoe were obsessed with this warship and wouldn’t tolerate any noise.
It’s just an external crack, so it won’t affect the arc discharge…
‘Ignorance is bliss.’
The maintenance worker forgot about the crack.
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