The next day, I immediately returned to the Myongjin Shelter because I finally confirmed yesterday that I could not stop the Land of Despair no matter how hard I tried.
Since I knew that seeing was believing, I took out and played the Memory Beads that I had used from the moment I launched an attack against the Land of Despair.
In the video was the man who ridiculed me by boasting that the Land of Despair would completely cover Earth and make it a second Kuhana.
When the video ended, there was a heavy silence in the small conference room.
“…”
“…”
“…”
When they found out that I didn’t inflict any damage on the Land of Despair even after I used my limited skill Savant, they even became gloomy, and I understood their feelings. There were two options that the people on Earth could take. First, the only way for people to avoid the Land of Despair was to stay in the air using Fly for the rest of their lives. Second, they could live in the sea using something like a boat. Nobody except for me could take the first option because their mana had clear limitations like their health. So the second option was their only choice.
So I quietly opened my mouth.
“This is what I heard from the Carnabon Guild in Australia. Somebody from Kuhana allegedly told them while dying in the Land of Despair, ‘Do you want to survive? Then it wouldn’t be a bad choice for you to be a bird or a fish for this situation.’ Of course, it’s impossible for us to become a bird or a fish, so the only options are airplanes and ships…”
I didn’t finish speaking, for it was impossible for an airplane to fly in the sky for the rest of our lives, so the final option left were ships. But those who could survive using ships would be 5% of all human beings at most.
What about the rest of them? Of course they will die, starting off with the ordinary people. And those who have raised their reality actualization rate up to 10% would also face the same fate helplessly because their combat power would be reduced to almost nothing due to the Land of Despair
Even without the Land of Despair, those from Kuhana were much more powerful than the people on Earth. In other words, the average power of those on Earth was less than 20% of those in the low-level Rookie District, not to mention those in the Royal, Major and Regular Districts.
In such a situation, it was obvious that if they suffered the debuffs from the Land of Despair, they would be swept away like leaves falling in the autumn wind.
“I’m going to find the largest possible ship. If I can’t…” Director Sok said after understanding my point.
But even he, who was the head of the Intelligence Department of the Myongjin Guild, looked at me silently without saying a word, and I knew what he was trying to convey through his eyes.
The situation in Australia has already been known to the entire Earth, and at the same time, the giant guilds and groups realized that even I could not stop the Land of Despair’s indiscriminate invasion. I did not deliberately prevent world spies and drones from watching me fight a losing fight against the Land of Despair.
In other words they, unless they were idiots, must have realized by now that we needed ships, and large ships at that. But obtaining ships from them in such a situation was equivalent to asking them to risk their lives. So they would not provide ships to us.
So the reason Director Sok looked at me was because he needed my help in this situation. Of course, I had no intention of blaming Director Sok because his message to me was motivated by his loyalty to Myongjin.
So I opened my mouth softly, looking at everyone, including Director Sok, who could not hide their stiff expressions. Surely others may criticize me and Myongjin people as selfish because we only focused on our survival only, but I knew how to get over this difficult situation.
And it took me one day for me to return to the Myongjin Shelter after confirming it.
***
In the Holdridge Headquarters in New York, USA.
“So do you mean there is no way for us to stop that Land of Despair?”
“Nope. Even Juyoung Hong, who completely froze part of the Atlantic Ocean, failed to block it. Of course, I expected it, but Juyoung himself was not affected at all by the Land of Despair itself.”
It was already widely known that aside from the decrease in their combat power, anybody who set foot on the Land of Despair would leave behind traces which would trap them there for at least five hours.
But based on the Memory Beads filmed by their spies, Juyoung Hong could get out of the Land of Despair as if nothing happened even after setting foot on it, which made all of the Holdridge executives envious of him because that’s what they wanted.
Anyway, Austin, the head of the Intelligence Department of the Holdridge Group, answered the top five executives’ questions with a gloomy expression.
Then another executive asked all of a sudden, “Then how should we cope with it?”
“Unless we are as mighty as Juyoung Hong, we’ve got only one option. Actually this is what those from Kuhana told us on the recording.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, we should be a bird or a fish. But we can’t be birds, of course. In other words, we have no choice but to become fish, namely, going out to sea using ships. That’s why I’ve mobilized all of the aircraft carriers under our influence, battleships and cruisers, as well as commercial ships such as cargo ships off the coast of New York.”
“Hmm…”
“Hmmmm…”
When he said that, they groaned unpleasantly as if they were not satisfied with his proposed solution. They knew it was only a makeshift answer to the fundamental problem they were faced with.
It would be inevitably impossible for them to live their whole lives at sea on ships.
In other words, their future was bleak.
At that moment, one of the top five executives said, “What about Juyoung Hong and Myongjin people?”
“At this point, they haven’t shown .”
“The Myongjin Shelter is located in Gangwon-do, so the sea is not far away, right? But they are not collecting ships?”
“No. Of course, there are rumors that they are on the search for ships, but they are not that enthusiastic about procuring them.”
“Does it mean they know how to stay on the ground?”
“I don’t know,” replied Austin, tilting his head a bit.
But none of the executives rebuked Austin because they knew that Juyong Hong and the Myongjin people were far superior to them, so they could not dare to ask them about it.
Perhaps the hourglass of the extinction of mankind began to move, and Juyoung Hong was the only one who could overturn it again.
Anyway the Holdridge executives continued the meeting even though they knew they could find no answer. They put forward several agendas, and the first one they chose was to get Juyoung Hong and all the Myongjin people on the ships that the Holdridge Group prepared, for having him on the same ship meant that their safety could be assured to some extent .