Chapter 3 (2/2)
“Have you heard the phrase, ‘Those who seek to die will live, and those who seek to live will die’?”
“Yes. Didn’t Admiral Yi say that?”
“Well, it originally comes from China’s Wu Zixu, but let’s just say you’re right. That phrase used to work when we fought with swords and spears but not in modern days you see.”
“What do you mean?”
Joon-Young smiled as she wiped her tears and looked back with intrigue.
“Those who seek to live tend to make openings in search of a way out without repercussions. That means they are easy picking for their enemies. But for those who fight to the death, enemies will think ‘ah, I might die trying to kill him’ and tend to avoid them. Your enemies are humans too. They want to live just as much as you do. They would rather take the safe choice of killing the runners instead of getting bogged down in a life-or-death fight.”
It was a rather distorted understanding of the phrase, but had some logic behind it. The woman nodded hesitantly. Joon-Young quickly pulled out another cig, trying to hide the fact that he thought her nod looked cute for a second.
“But that doesn’t work anymore. Enemies can’t tell if you’re coming to fight or surrender, because their range is too long. That range also keeps them safe from combat injuries too. Who orders the infantry to charge into battle these days anyway? The artillery strikes first, the planes follow with their bombs, the tanks run through the ruins and then the infantry does the clean-up.”
“So what’s your point?”
The woman asked, unable to understand his words.
“Well, the key point is if you want to live, surrender properly and if not make sure it’s a ‘if I die, you die too’ situation. The way to the afterlife is better when it’s crowded after all. Come on baby, I guess?”
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PR Note: Bolded text will henceforth refer to text that was in English in the raws.
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The woman laughed, baffled by that answer.
“Do you even know what that means?”
“I may have only graduated high school, but I am rather proud of the knowledge I’ve gathered from movies and books. I don’t know nor do I care about the theory on nuclear fusion or fission. At the end of the day, they are both nuclear. Just do it.”
“Do you have any idea of what you’re saying? If we did that from this research centre, the radiation will encompa.s.s the entire southern half of Korea, including Daejeon.”
“Even better. From what I know, radiation can spread with clouds and rain, which would mean j.a.pan would get hit too right? Then every time they are hit by the irradiated rain, the j.a.panese will think of this: ‘Ah! Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. We should have left them alone.’ At the end of all that fighting, we s.h.i.+t all over the land they fought so hard to take, making it useless.”
“What about the Korean citizens who will suffer from the radiation?”
Joon-Young laughed at her question.
“Korean citizens? How can there be Korean citizens when Korea doesn’t even exist?”
She was lost for words from Joon-young’s outrageous answer. Joon-Young couldn’t stop himself from patting her head as she sat there with a blank expression.
“If you don’t want to see that, live on. Whether it means you live on as their slave in a laboratory or as their toy. My point is, don’t die later with regret. Either die now, or live on until the end. You must not regret. For the soldiers who died and will die out there believing in the false hope.”
Her eyes followed as Joon-Young pointed toward the battlefield, the explosions encroaching ever so slowly. As Joon-Young tried to leave quietly, she stood up and called out to him.
“Wait!”
“Yes?”
“… Can I ask your name?”
“Joon-Young. Sergeant Kim Joon-Young.”
Joon-Young gave her a proper salute. She gave a bright smile.
“My name’s Han Yoo-Ra. Remember it.”
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