Dictator From Outer Space

Chapter 58: That Island Is Mine

The news of the battle reached South Korea, which was relatively far from the battlefield.

The correspondents reported on the situation of both countries as they hurriedly returned.

―Taiwan blocked China’s landing force with five railguns.

―New laser firing system made a splendid debut, shooting down many J10 fighters that entered Taiwan’s airspace.

―US forces pre-deployed equipment unloading negotiations in progress···China strongly protests.

President Jo Hyung-geun clicked his tongue as he saw these news.

“I thought the delusion of winning a war with new weapons ended with Nazi Germany···but Chairman Yu pulled it off.”

“Isn’t it too early to say that Taiwan has won?”

Yu Ji-ha said as he shook his head.

“Even if China bombards the whole of Taiwan, they lose if they can’t land.”

“I see. I don’t know much about strategy and tactics.”

“And you gave railguns and ion beams to Taiwan? Thanks to you, they are fighting a real battle against the Chinese army.”

And it was a fierce battle.

The five railguns blocked China’s landing force more thoroughly than expected.

The range was similar to that of an aircraft carrier’s operational radius, so China couldn’t muster the courage to land their troops.

It was almost impossible to destroy the batteries with ballistic missiles.

They had installed them under thick bedrock in the first place.

It was hard to penetrate even with bunker busters, so China’s landing seemed difficult for a while.

On the other hand, China’s air force also suffered, because the hastily installed iron beam showed tremendous firepower.

If they were caught by this laser battery, they would crash in less than a second.

Thanks to that, the 7th Brigade of the Eastern Front, which had guaranteed absolute superiority in Taiwan’s airspace, lost more than 20 J-16 fighters in one day and lost their mission capability.

Taiwanese media praised the iron beam as a laser that kills flies.

They just didn’t know that it came from Korea.

It was a secret project that even the US kept quiet about.

President Jo Hyung-geun emphasized this as he allowed all this.

“The important thing is not these things, but the weapons using antitrons or whatever. I trust Chairman Yu’s promise.”

“You will see soon.”

Antitron had finished its theoretical verification by a handful of nuclear physicists, including Director Ahn Yong-hoon.

The only thing left was the test, and President Jo Hyung-geun wanted something bold.

“There is an experimental reactor in Daejeon, right? Hanaro? Is it still running? That’s good. Let’s blow up an antitron bullet and see what happens.”

The shocked aides stepped forward and tried to dissuade him from this radical idea.

“Mr. President, you can’t do that!”

“It’s the only experimental reactor in Korea. How can you sacrifice it···”

They suggested using Yu Ji-ha’s smart reactor instead.

“The first one had much lower thermal output than planned, so it wasn’t used for research, right? We can use that one.”

President Jo Hyung-geun’s eyes lit up.

“That sounds good. Let’s proceed right away.”

It was a secret project that could not receive any help from outside.

If the US found out, it would cause a bigger wave than the war between China and Taiwan.

It meant that South Korea could make all the nuclear weapons in the world useless if they wanted to.

Some people gathered at the Solar Fusion Subsidiary Research Institute.

It was to test NCM bullets that prevent nuclear reaction suppression.

The smart reactor No. 1, which had much lower thermal output than designed, was selected for this test.

This reactor was not a medium-sized one that was exported to Saudi Arabia or UAE in the Middle East, but a very small one suitable for small-scale distributed power generation and regional heating.

It was originally designed to produce 20mw of output, but it actually measured only 10mw and was used for research purposes.

A slightly larger than car-sized reactor was installed deep in the Solar Fusion Research Institute site.

Yu Ji-ha and President Jo Hyung-geun, along with a few others, watched the work process at the institute.

「No. 1 installation complete, NCM bullet detonation ready」

The NCM warhead was waiting with a detonator connected 0.5km away from No. 1.

Yu Ji-ha looked at President Jo Hyung-geun as he received the report.

“We’re ready.”

“Let’s start right away.”

「Fuel rod inserted. Reactor output rising」

This test was only for the purpose of checking the function of NCM bullets, so it was carried out at low output.

Thanks to that, the test went smoothly until the control rod insertion.

「Uranium absorbs neutrons. Nuclear fission chain reaction starts」

Now they control the neutron absorption rate with the control rods.

If they make a mistake here, the core could overheat and cause a nuclear accident.

But it was so low-powered that even in the worst case scenario, it would end with the site being contaminated.

「Pressurizer working, water moving to steam generator」

「Reactor activated」

Now it was time to detonate the NCM warhead.

Yu Ji-ha ordered and one of the researchers ran the program.

The countdown continued and the spectators held their breath and looked at the monitor.

「NCM warhead detonated」

At that moment, President Jo Hyung-geun wondered what had happened and looked outside, but it was quiet.

The reactor was also buried underground, and the NCM warhead didn’t have much effect.

It just made a weak sound like a firecracker.

But the effect was tremendous.

「Neutron absorption stopped. Nuclear fission chain reaction completely stopped」

「Reactor output down. Control rods coming out」

“···What happened?”

The impatient man asked and Director Ahn Yong-hoon started to explain.

“Uh···right now, neutrons can’t move inside those fuel rods. That means nuclear fission has completely stopped, and there is no chain reaction either. In other words···”

“Simply, simply.”

This time Yu Ji-ha answered.

“That reactor is scrap metal. You have to change the fuel rods if you want to use it again.”

Chairman Yu is really quick-witted.

“Is there any problem with radiation or something?”

“It would have been different if the core had melted down, but there is no problem caused by the explosion.”

“So there is no problem and the reactor just stops?”

“There will be some heat. The core must be hot. But there is no problem because the cooling system is intact.”

“The nuclear warhead…”

“As I told you before, it will become scrap metal if we just approach the intercontinental ballistic missile.”

Most nuclear missiles are ballistic missiles and they are very fast in the terminal phase.

Moreover, the recently developed nuclear missiles have increased the interception difficulty by changing their orbits and using decoys.

But it was not difficult for a country like Korea to approach the warhead within 500 meters.

Just detonate it near the warhead and it will become useless metal. All kinds of countermeasures are futile.

“…”

President Jo Hyung-geun looked anxious and started to pace around with his characteristic red face.

Then he stopped and ordered.

“Only Chairman Yu stay here and take care of your business. And remember, today’s matter is top secret. Do you understand?”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

As soon as Director Ahn Yong-hoon left, he spoke.

“Is it the same if we fire at China’s reactors? Even if they have a huge output?”

“It doesn’t matter what the output is, as long as it’s within range. And it doesn’t mean that the reactors themselves become unusable. They can be used again if they replace the fuel rods and check the equipment.”

“It takes months to operate a reactor properly…”

It might take more than a year to check every piece of equipment.

And the most important thing, the nuclear warhead.

“…The nuclear powers won’t sit still for this.”

“Especially the US. They’ll go crazy. That’s why you should only use it when necessary and never announce it. You have to hide it well.”

If the nuclear powers find out about the existence of NCM warheads, they won’t stay still.

In the case of the US, they would lose 10,000 warheads, so they might try to station their troops again.

And they would try to control everything.

No one except Americans wanted such a future.

“Didn’t Chairman Yu tell me before? If you give him six months, he can neutralize all of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.”

“The accelerator is ready, so we can start producing now. The schedule is unchanged.”

“I trust you. With this, we can get closer to advancing north.”

This guy probably shouted ‘advance north’ instead of crying when he came out of his mother’s womb.

“We’re almost there.”

Yu Ji-ha didn’t have much time left to seize power.

…

The war between China and Taiwan showed signs of dragging on.

The large-scale landing force was tied up by five railguns and couldn’t move an inch. 

And their air force, which was supposed to free them, melted down by the new iron beam without any resistance.

Especially, the air force suffered a lot of damage. 

They entered Taiwan’s air defense network thinking it was nothing and lost 10% of their fighters in just five days of war.

The only thing that did its job was the ballistic missile and cruise missile, but they couldn’t cope with the consumption because of the poor logistics system.

The military experts’ diagnosis of the current situation was mostly consistent.

—China is unable to properly push its landing force into Taiwan and there is no coordination between units.

—The special forces that should have infiltrated Taiwan’s rear were all exposed by US reconnaissance assets. It must be infuriating for China.

—It seems that the US provided intelligence to Taiwan. The anti-submarine patrol aircraft have been detecting Chinese submarines more frequently since last week.

In summary, the cross-strait war showed signs of dragging on.

The front line that showed discord between units was a problem, but the inside was more serious.

Initially, each faction announced to their soldiers and people that they would start a war like this.

—The territorial recovery movement will end in a month. Taiwan will join us and the US will no longer interfere. China is one!

Many people were enthusiastic about this and red flags were everywhere on the streets.

They could endure the miserable economy, all kinds of corruption, and even the damage caused by meteorites for now.

They had an unfounded belief that everything would be fine if they absorbed Taiwan.

But as the war dragged on, social problems began to pop up one by one.

Especially, the 300 million migrant workers were a problem.

They were trapped in cities and couldn’t go home because of the lockdown order.

Most construction sites were shut down, so they had no way to make a living.

No one cared about them.

To urban Chinese, migrant workers were nothing more than rude and dirty lower-class people who did hard work for them.

-Please give us something to eat…

Migrant workers gathered around the foreign car that was moving slowly.

The rich man who was scared out of his wits ordered the driver to step on it and many migrant workers were crushed or hit by the car.

The car didn’t get far and broke down and angry migrant workers surrounded it.

“Kill him and take the car!”

“Drag him out! Drag him out!”

The fact that he was driving a foreign car with a driver in wartime provoked the anger of the migrant workers.

“Kill him!”

The glass shattered and the man was dragged out and beaten.

Armed forces arrived late and fired their guns, but all they found were two corpses.

From then on, migrant workers began to roam around in groups.

When they reached a thousand or more, neither the police nor the soldiers dared to touch them.

They roamed around the city, stealing good clothes and shoes and looting shops.

The command post belatedly ordered some troops to fire, but the number of migrant workers increased.

Especially in Beijing, where thousands of them roamed around the city, causing chaos.

So 50,000 troops were drawn from three group armies belonging to the northern front and moved to Beijing.

They judged that Beijing was more urgent than deterring the Korean Peninsula.

Naturally, border surveillance became lax and the number of defectors increased.

Of course, this was not something that the North Korean regime could ignore.

In the third floor of the Workers’ Party Central Office, they ordered that all the residents crossing the river were enemies of the republic and should be shot to death.

The Tumen River turned red with blood and corpses floated around.

…

A big event happened as soon as the new year of 2028 began.

A large island appeared in the middle of the North Pacific.

The first people to discover the island were the crew members of a mining ship built by Silla Heavy Industries, who were delivering it to the US.

They reported to Yu Ji-ha, not the Korean government, and he was the first one to set foot on the island.

He got off his yacht and walked around the island with his secretary.

A US reconnaissance plane that arrived late captured this scene and reported it to the White House, where they discussed it with geologists.

“Is it possible for such a large island to be created by seismic activity?”

“That area is relatively shallow, but still impossible.”

“It’s impossible for such a huge island to be created in just a few months.”

“Then someone must have made it artificially.”

“Maybe aliens did it?”

“I can tell you that both possibilities are low.”

“It’s hard to imagine what kind of technology can create that island.”

“An amazing technology…”

They thought of the technologies that Yu Ji-ha had shown so far.

Some people seriously claimed on SNS and other platforms that Yu Ji-ha was an alien.

—Does he have a spaceship hidden somewhere?

It was a joke, but there were many suspicious aspects about him.

“But there’s no reason to hide it.”

The aides said and President McKinley nodded.

If he had the power to create such an island, his actions so far would not make sense.

Why did he waver under China’s threats and suffer from terrorism?

He could just overthrow them and make them surrender.

“Or he has a purpose that requires him to hide his power.”

“It could also be a coincidence.”

The opinions of the staff were different and they all had some logic.

In fact, many scholars had pointed out that something strange was happening on Earth.

Black metal was not normal to begin with.

No one knew what kind of energy corroded the surrounding metals and changed their shape by will.

If they thought of the various technologies derived from that material, this island would seem trivial.

President McKinley decided to focus on the situation that would unfold after this rather than the island itself.

The scientists would do the scientific analysis.

“That guy seems to like the island.”

He looked happy walking around with his secretary.

“We can annex it as US territory if we send a warship.”

“The first discoverer becomes the owner in case of unclaimed land, but it’s hard for an individual to make such a claim.”

It’s common sense that if you don’t have power, you can’t keep it.

But it was hard to find a country that could mess with the person who was walking on the island now.

President McKinley made a decision.

“Let’s hear what he has to say for now. Connect me with him.”

No one knows what kind of conversation they had.

And a week later, the US announced that an island had emerged in the Pacific Ocean under the name of the Bureau of Land Management.

“It seems that the crust itself rose up due to continuous underwater earthquakes for several months. We are currently investigating the details and we will not disclose the location.”

The reporters swarmed like bees.

“Who was the first discoverer? Is it US territory?”

“I can’t tell you who the first discoverer was and it’s not US territory.”

“Then whose property is it?”

“I can’t tell you that either.”

“How big is the island?”

“I’ll just say it’s very big.”

It was a careless press conference and the Bureau of Land Management and the White House were under tremendous criticism.

—The US discovered the island but it’s not US land? Send troops right away!

The Democrats immediately stepped up but lowered their criticism level after meeting with the president.

They realized that Yu Ji-ha of Korea was involved.

Of course, they were not afraid of Yu Ji-ha, but it was clear that the US owed him a lot lately.

If it weren’t for him, Taiwan would have fallen in the beginning and US intervention would have been necessary to stop it.

In the worst case scenario, World War III or nuclear war could have broken out.

The Democrats shut their mouths and the world’s attention focused on him.

And Yu Ji-ha held a press conference in South Korea.

He declared in front of the reporters:

“That island is mine.”