Chapter 86 (1/2)

Isaac stood motionlessly, stunned by the meeting with an unexpected individual. Yoo-rah, on the other hand, led Isaac to the corner of the room, where a sofa and a table was arranged to accommodate guests. She asked him to wait a while and disappeared elsewhere. She soon returned with two steaming mugs in her hands.

Yoo-rah placed one of the mugs in front of Isaac and found her seat opposite to Isaac. She sipped at the drink in the mug, and Isaac’s nose began to tingle at the familiar scent emanating from the mug.

“This is?”

“It’s coffee. It’s been a while right? The taste is atrocious since they’re from military rations, but I’d consider myself lucky to even have this.”

One sip and the coffee’s distinct bitterness and scent exploded in Isaac’s mouth. It wasn’t like the bean coffees or stick coffees he drank often, but a military coffee with the sole purpose of overdosing its drinker with caffeine.

Isaac didn’t utter a word until he finished his coffee, and Yoo-rah too waited silently for Isaac to finish the drink, having two or three more sips herself.

“It’s been a while.”

Isaac muttered as the last drops of the coffee dripped into his mouth. Yoo-rah answered him with a smile on her face, seeing Isaac’s face cringing a little at the bitterness.

“Would you like some more?”

“No, I’m fine. I’d like to have a smoke instead. Am I not allowed to smoke in here too?”

Yoo-rah made an understanding smile in response.

“All laboratories ban smoking as a rule. But this place only looks like it on the outside, so you can smoke as much as you’d like.”

With Yoo-rah’s permission, Isaac took out his packet of cigarettes from his pocket and placed one in his mouth. Yoo-rah seemed puzzled at the sight and asked as she tilted her head.

“Isn’t the choyu leaf better than cigarettes?”

“This is all I have with me right now.”

“Really? Wait here for a moment.”

Yoo-rah took off and disappeared elsewhere once more. She soon arrived holding a wooden box filled to brim with choyu leaves.

Isaac contemplated between the cigarettes in his hand and the choyu leaves and decided to pick the choyu leaves instead. The cigarettes did feel good because of the nostalgia, but there was no reason for him to be stubborn about these harmful cigarettes when there were choyu leaves available.

Isaac made eye contact with Yoo-rah as he smoked the choyu leaf. Yoo-rah didn’t seem to have any intention of avoiding it, returning the gaze with a gentle smile on her face.

Seeing this, Isaac’s eyes turned even more complicated. Something was off. The image he had of her through that brief meeting in the past was gone, replaced with composure and elegance. That’s what really put his senses on the edge. Something was wrapped within her composure and hidden behind that smile, and that something put him on the edge.

“You have no idea how glad I am to see you again like this.”

“It’d like to say the same, but I don’t know how I should feel.”

“Do you feel perplexed?”

“Well, rather than perplexed, I just feel troubled.”

Yoo-rah seemed to nod at Isaac’s response.

“Truth be told, I didn’t think I’d see you so quickly. I received a report that a concentrated surveillance target was kidnapped, and I was so surprised to see the name ‘Joon-young’ in the following report, which detailed how the situation ended.”

“Concentrated surveillance?”

“When it is confirmed the target is from another world, Central places them under concentrated surveillance and initiates close surveillance. It’s Las Vegas right? What you did to New Port City.”

“Well, I did use it as reference.”

“Hoho. I never thought you’d make a city of sin and gambling in this world. This world has a bad image about gambling, just like in our world.”

“It’s not a bad image. It’s just bad.”

Yoo-rah laughed for quite some time when Isaac corrected her. She blushed when she finally came back to her senses, embarra.s.sed by her reaction.

“I’m sorry. I’m just a little excited. This is the first time I’m meeting with someone from the same nation.”

“Have there been others before?”

“Of course. There were prisoners and those who came over to this world because of unknown reasons like us. Strangely, there hasn’t been anyone from South Korea like us however. You are the first one to arrive after me.”

Yoo-rah gazed into the air with sorrow as if she was reminiscing something, but she quickly turned her gaze toward Isaac and asked him with great antic.i.p.ation.

“So, what do you think?”

“Think about what?”

“What else! The mysteries regarding aliens were revealed to you.”

Yoo-rah extended her arms out in an exaggerated manner. Isaac reminisced if her personality was always like that as he answered.

“… It was interesting.”

Yoo-rah sipped at her coffee, disappointed at Isaac’s reaction. Her face cringed at the bitterness and continued.

“I’m sure you’re aware from walking down the corridor, but you do realise that the Expeditionary Force is aiming for this world right?”

“Expeditionary Force?”

“We didn’t have any other names to call them.”

“Well, I guess they are an expedition, seeing how they want to conquer another world. It seems all of the players who boast their strengths have joined together.”

“They profit quite a lot each time they visit.”

“What I don’t understand is the reasoning behind spending so many lives and this many resources in their struggle to come to this world.”

It only happened once every 10 years here, but it was every 2 to 3 months in the other world. The amount of resources being spent could not be compared between them. They should have given up on it or used a different method such as diplomacy after failing so many times, yet they still pushed through like this?

One phrase from Yoo-rah answered Isaac’s question.

“The Age of Discovery.”

Isaac seemed to understand after hearing that phrase.

The Age of Discovery. Many of the European nations gathered great wealth thanks to establis.h.i.+ng colonies throughout Earth. Creating a slave market in the current era would be impossible, but all kinds of minerals, natural resources, and even rare materials were left untouched in this world. Not to mention they don’t need to worry about pollution or destruction of the environment. They had free labour that was the natives, and it would also create a new giant of a market. If they managed to conquer this world, they could recoup their investments in mere moments.

Though nations in the Age of Discovery suffered losses from the long sailing trips and such, but it took 10 years for the gate to open in this world. That meant the other world could gather resources that had been stockpiled for 10 years every few months.

“I can understand why they are so possessed by it.”

A planet-sized colony… not only did it provide resources and financial solutions, it could even solve matters regarding social conflicts and overpopulation instantly. It made sense that everyone would flock to it, eyes bloodshot with greed.

Exterminating the natives in order to extract the resources was the basics of colonial policies. The Empire knew this, and that is why they are desperate to stop the gate no matter what.

Diplomatic negotiations? It may have been possible if this was contact with a brand-new world, but the Empire had already seen the history of the other world from the skies. It was obvious what the Empire’s response would be if they began saying ‘let’s talk it out,’ especially when they’ve already crossed the point of no return with the countless battles they’ve had.

“Is that why the Empire had been blocking the gate all this time?”

“Yes. There is no point in negotiation.”

“I guess. There won’t be much in it for the Empire since they already know all about our world.”

“That’s right. Most of the technology in the other world can be replicated here and is already being applied into daily lives. It’s just the advances are scheduled in a way that can be controlled with minimal chaos, filtering out all of the bad things from the good. There’s plenty of resources here, and there aren’t any crucial resources that exist only in the other world. If the culture, perspectives, and ideologies from the other world were to circulate here, it would have a negative impact on the Empire. Since the Empire already gathered all that is useful, the Empire has no reason to initiate diplomacy.”

“I did notice that the level of civilization was rising to a similar level.”

“The inventions of our world are being rebranded as products of research from Campus laboratories or their inventions as they are released. It was the perfect method too, since no one would ever doubt whenever a never-before-seen object suddenly appeared when all of the Empire’s greatest geniuses reside there.”

“I guess so. No matter how mind-boggling the invention is, they’d just consider the inventors geniuses.”

Yoo-rah nodded at Isaac. It finally made sense how the Empire could remain a single nation despite giving away the power and authority matching a king’s to the lords of their fiefdom. There was great disparity between the Emperor and lords when it came to how information was received. Anyone who even schemed of becoming a king themselves would be detected while in the planning phase. Even if they managed to cunningly avoid detection during their planning, the news would travel immediately to those with authority as soon as the plan was initiated, so it became a simple matter to respond against it.

“There isn’t a single object that hasn’t been touched by me ever since the Empire was founded, although I only provided the theories involved for most of them. It was Campus which actually constructed these inventions. You are really lucky, Joon-young. Do you know how horrible it was when I arrived here first? I couldn’t even talk with them, nor could I do anything. It’s gotten much better recently. Although there is still a gap, it won’t be long before they catch up to the current era, since the process of technological advancement is accelerated the more advanced it is.”

Isaac nodded at Yoo-rah’s complaint. Could he possibly survive and achieve his current quality of life and leisure if he were in her place? Unlikely. He could only live on as lazy as he was because the infrastructure could support it, otherwise… hm? Wait a minute.

“You’ve been here since the founding of the Empire?”

“Yes.”

“Wow! So your age is…”

“It seems the body of Type 1 invaders like myself follow the laws of the previous world’s timeflow. Me standing here as of now would be its proof. Ah! Type 2, 3 and 4 invaders follow this world’s time flow of course.”

“I guess I would still be a 15 year old brat if that weren’t the case.”

He was a teenager when he first fell into this world, but now that he was a grown man, it didn’t seem likely that he’d live as long as Yoo-rah. Although he didn’t have any plans for that… hm?

“Wait. But it should still have been at least 10 years? Is it the makeup…”