The Anti-Intellectualism Demon King’s World Invasion - Chapter 88



Only Noblemtl

Episode 88

I pictured the ‘Seohae Dongjeong Jin-gyeong’ in my head.

I think there was a picture of someone with their hands up, knees bent, and seemingly rising upwards.

I tried a similar gesture with my hands on the ceiling and my knees bent.

In that state, strength naturally entered my waist and arms.

Then suddenly, a flow of water seemed to form, like a rebound, pushing me upward.

I just brushed my head against the ceiling and floated into the manhole.

“Ouch!”

I screamed and jumped upward, water droplets splashing everywhere.

“Huh! What is it!”

“What a surprise!”

The surprised soldiers retreated, avoiding the water.

I landed on the floor excited by water.

“Intruder!”

The soldiers who recognized me hurriedly took out their weapons.

There were no firearms, for fear of getting hurt by grenades, as in the fight in the restaurant hallway.

“Wait a minute! All the officers you’re waiting for are dead. There’s no need to attack me anymore.”

“You bastard! You killed Sergeant Park and Captain Kim?! You should die too!”

A nearby soldier swung his fire axe at me.

I shouted, raising my shield to block.

“You guys! You knew what they were. And yet you followed them without saying a word. Was that really the right thing to do?”

The soldiers who had been raising their weapons at me flinched and stopped their attacks.

A soldier shouted.

“What are you talking about! Isn’t it natural for a soldier to follow orders from his superiors?”

“Does it matter? Then, what about Colonel Jang Do-hoon?”

I asked back, raising the corners of my mouth as if I was mocking him.

The soldier spoke as if making excuses.

“No. We stayed still. The officers locked up Colonel Jang.”

“I know. I’m not saying that you rebelled or anything.”

I shrugged and said,

“Rather, if you have been treated unfairly and wrongly, you should resist. However, what I ask is whether you have decided your life in the new world.”

“Deciding our lives? What kind of grand, old-fashioned talk is that, like a schoolmaster’s sermon! We are just privates. And what can we do in this new world, this world that is underwater?”

The soldiers laughed at me.

“What kind of youth movie are you making?”

“Are you a submerged opinion leader or an influencer?”

I sighed.

“Haa~ So this is what the parasite ordered you to do.”

“helminth?”

“The officers were infected with parasites and were controlled by a demonic creature, a cousin of the dog that claimed to have lived for a thousand years.”

“A thousand years, cousin of the dog? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”

The soldiers refused to believe it.

“Why is this happening? Didn’t you notice their strange speech and behavior? They were strangely obsessed with martial arts, and people would often go missing. Didn’t you feel suspicious? The evidence is down here, so if you don’t believe me, go down. And the dog-like cousin I killed is down there too.”

I pointed to the manhole.

The soldiers looked at each other and murmured, but they did not refute me.

“There is no one to tell you what to do now. It is up to you to decide how to live in this underwater world.”

The soldiers became quiet.

They looked at each other, deep in thought or with an embarrassed expression.

Although the soldiers were college-age, they were still young children with little social experience.

All of this, including the world being submerged in water, will be chaotic and desolate.

“How should I live?”

Unlike most soldiers who were wearing their training uniforms, the sergeant wearing his combat uniform asked me politely.

The name tag of the sergeant wearing the squad leader’s epaulettes read ‘Lee Yeon-su.’

“I already told you. It’s up to you to decide.”

“I don’t know what to do because I’ve been following instructions up until now. Please tell me.”

“What do you guys want?”

It seemed as if they were looking at each other for a moment, and the soldiers started shouting one by one.

“Land. I’m sick of boats now.”

“Food. The world is underwater, and food is the most important thing.”

“I want to meet a woman. I hate the smell of sweat from widowers more than the smell of ships.”

“My family. I want to know what happened to them.”

“Choco Pie!”

“I’m discharged! The world is underwater with only two days left until I’m discharged! Damn it!”

I chuckled as I listened to the sergeant’s desperate cries.

“If that’s what you want, the solution is simple.”

“Oh! Really?”

“Then. I will return to the island.”

“Are you surrendering?”

The soldiers looked daunted.

“Yes. The island isn’t land, but at least it doesn’t rock like a ship. It has hills and flat areas where you can see something like the horizon. And there are a lot of people, including women, living there. You can find out about your family from them. And there are Choco Pies.”

“But we attacked. There are dead people and wounded people. Do you think they will accept us?”

“If you get a navy to protect the island, you should welcome it with open arms. Everyone wants to end their military life, just get off the ship! They’ll compensate you for just the warship. I can guarantee that. But if you’re going to live in a world that’s going to be underwater, being a soldier isn’t a bad job. They’ll take responsibility for your status and life on the island.”

Their faces lit up at my suggestion and they became noisy.

“Oh! It doesn’t seem so bad.”

“What are you going to do, Private Choi?”

“I think it would be better to just drive a stake in. What about Sergeant Nam? He should be discharged.”

“No, should I just stay?”

I gave them enough time to talk.

And to what extent has opinions been converged, the sergeant said.

“Excuse me, can you help me get back to the island?”

“Surrender. It’s possible. But rather than just going in, how about negotiating and signing a contract?”

“Negotiation? A contract?”

I proposed a negotiation plan that would allow me to get the Congo from both the island and the navy, as if I was taking the margin in the middle.

“Oh! I would appreciate it if you could do that.”

The soldiers smiled brightly and seemed satisfied with my suggestion.

This sergeant summarized my proposal in one word.

“It’s a mercenary contract.”

“That’s right. Since it’s a contract position rather than a regular position, employment stability may be somewhat lacking, but you won’t have to receive the absurd instructions or orders you’ve experienced so far. And since you’re not a private soldier who was forcibly drafted and served for free, you can demand fair compensation.”

“It’s so good. Please sign the contract right away.”

“Wow! Awesome!”

The soldiers shouted excitedly, pleased with the contract.

But the sergeant seemed skeptical.

“But you can’t just sign a mercenary contract on the island. Like the Germanic mercenaries who defeated Rome, you can become an enemy within just by turning the handle of your sword.”

The soldiers’ mood changed completely at the sergeant’s words.

“Oh. That could be the case.”

“Yes. We could go on strike and ask for more money.”

The sergeant seemed to be trusted by the soldiers because of his title as squad leader and his cautious and intelligent personality.

They say that heroes emerge in troubled times, so we should raise this sergeant as a leader.

“That’s why I’m going to hire you guys. Even if we can’t make a contract with the island, we’ll still be able to make a living.”

“Intruder, no, you… … .”

“Call me Detective Kim. Even though I beat up a cop, that’s what everyone else calls me.”

“Detective Kim, what is your identity and why are you hiring us? Are you a member of the island’s committee?”

“No, I’m not an islander.”

“We’re not even islanders, and you still want to hire us? Can we trust you?”

“How can you trust me? Oh! Wait a minute.”

I took a bottle out of my bag.

And handed it to the sergeant.

“What is this?”

“Drink it. When you drink it, you won’t know who I am, but you will no longer have any doubts about my abilities.”

The sergeant sniffed around.

“No way! This is it.”

“Taste it to see if it’s real.”

As I waved my hand, telling him to try it, the sergeant carefully tilted the bottle and drank its contents.

When I put the bottle down, a white mark appeared on my upper lip.

“What is it, Sergeant?”

The soldiers looked at the sergeant with curiosity.

The sergeant licked his upper lip and handed the bottle to the soldier next to him.

“Don’t drink it alone, just taste it and then pass it on to someone else.”

The soldier who drank the contents of the bottle cried out in surprise.

“Wow! Milk! Milk! Real raw milk! Raw milk!”

“really?”

The soldiers rushed in as if they couldn’t believe it.

“Me, just a little bit.”

“me too.”

“Hey! Private Joe. What the! Are you standing in front of me?”

“Private Kim. Didn’t you hear me say just now that you have to decide for yourself what your life will be like in the new world? I decided to take off my rank badge to drink milk.”

“What? This kid! Do you want to die?”

They were fighting over who would drink milk.

It’s not that I don’t understand why he was so obsessed with milk.

If the world had become like this, all the cows would have drowned and died, so milk would have become a heavenly drink that we would never be able to taste again.

And because you remember the taste, you will be tempted even more intensely.

That’s why I thought there was nothing better than milk to demonstrate my abilities.

Actually, looking at the soldiers’ mood, it seemed like they were overflowing with proof of their abilities.

“You risked your life for milk, so let’s kill it.”

“This kid! Do you really want to die!”

The soldiers who had been bickering with each other in words began pointing their weapons at each other.

It seemed like bloodshed was going to break out.

No matter how delicious the milk was, and how many months they hadn’t had it, the soldiers’ reaction seemed over the top.

Perhaps it was the throes of youth and the pent-up discontent and anxiety about the future that had been building up.

If this continues, I might actually see blood.

“Hey! Stop it! What are you doing! Put your weapon down!”

The sergeant tried to stop him, but once the violence started, it was ready to run wild.

I shouted.

“Stop, stop! Stop! Stop right now. Or there’ll be no more milk!”

Then, as if it were a lie, the soldiers stopped moving.