WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 448: Stuffed Paradise (10)

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While Esther was still alive, the U.S. military broke through the green desert of the Yucatan Peninsula and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas in Chiapas State. After establishing a new blocking line on the isthmus where the old territory of Guatemala narrowed the most, they temporarily halted their advance south.

There were two reasons.

The first was fulfilling the promise made to Russia. In other words, an unavoidable delay occurred while the Russian military took over the newly occupied territory from the U.S. military. It took time to coordinate details such as transferring strongpoints, changing garrisons, moving units, forming communications networks, and cooperating on the maintenance of future supply routes.

The second was preparation for the first round of force reductions. Continuing the offensive while carrying out force reductions at the same time placed too much administrative strain on the military. The sheer size of the Army only made that problem worse.

One day, a blocking position shown on a broadcast had a joke of a signpost set up there.

「869 miles to the Panama Canal! Fuck! :)」

869 miles. It was by no means a short distance, but compared to the 1,200 miles, roughly 2,000 kilometers, from when they had just passed Oaxaca and left Mexico's central plateau, it had shrunk a great deal. Looking at Central America as a whole, they had now crossed roughly two-thirds of it.

That did not mean the remaining battlefield was one-third of Central America. The closer they got to the Panama Canal, the less land area remained.

It also meant the variants' rear areas were shrinking fast.

Now that the capture of the Panama Canal had cut off the inflow of variants from South America, the variants in Central America could only increase their numbers through their own breeding and a small number of new infections. In that situation, losing rear territory for breeding was naturally fatal.

That was why many officials viewed the remaining 869 miles more optimistically than the ground covered so far.

Gyeoul's opinion was much the same.

'It won't be a battle given to me anyway.'

The idea that Gyeoul and the 201st Independent Battalion should be sent to the front had not disappeared completely. There were a few who pointed out that it was inefficient to keep special forces with such exceptional combat experience in the rear, and another few who were simply captivated by Gyeoul as a soldier and wanted his battles to continue.

But even those people did not argue that the Independent Battalion should be deployed right away. Reorganizing a unit after radiation exposure required a long period of time even for an ordinary unit.

And the vacancies in 「Ever Winter」, a special forces unit, could not be filled with recruits fresh out of boot camp.

For example, the SEALs accepted new members only after a total of thirty-two weeks of education and training. Before that, time was also required to gather and screen applicants from among active-duty soldiers. The Independent Battalion and the SEALs were different units in many ways, but they were no different in how difficult it was to qualify.

How much armored airborne training had the soldiers of the Independent Battalion gone through before seeing actual combat?

According to what Gyeoul had been told as battalion commander, Special Operations Command expected the 201st Independent Battalion to complete full reconstitution eight months from now.

Of course, even before reconstitution was complete, separate operations by platoon or Company would be more than possible.

But unless it was an operation of extraordinary importance, the chance of Gyeoul being called in for a deployment of that scale was practically nonexistent. The advanced education Gyeoul was receiving was part of the plan to establish a U.S.-Russian joint emergency response system. The longer the Independent Battalion's reorganization was delayed, the later the response system would become operational.

On top of that, the economic interests of the western region were at stake here.

Gyeoul remembered the news that real estate transactions in the West had increased after the federal government announced the emergency response system plan.

The stakeholders with a foot in those interests, and the politicians bound by the votes of local residents, could only be opposed to the idea of sending the Independent Battalion to the front.

'Would the fighting even continue until the day the reorganization is finished?'

So at this point, Gyeoul was enjoying a strangely empty sort of leisure. It felt as though he was becoming an onlooker regardless of his own will.

Whenever he felt that way, Gyeoul thought of Anne. Sometimes her scent, sometimes her warmth, sometimes her voice. Everything that could fill the empty space in his heart. No image could replace Anne's actual presence.

Meeting her in person, though, was not easy. Just as she had come all the way to Denver to see Gyeoul before, this time Gyeoul had tried to go to D.C. But the work of an FBI deputy director, who was often called to the White House even on days off, became the obstacle.

A massive refugee migration was underway, so it was natural for the workload to increase even for departments not directly in charge of it.

In a recent call, Anne asked Gyeoul to be careful about one thing.

「Idiots calling themselves Yangists are running wild online.」

Yangist. It was a name formed in the same way as Maoist. In other words, it meant people who inherited the spirit of Yang Yongbin. Gyeoul wondered why anyone would choose to inherit that, of all things, but he guessed most of them were not genuine.

「That's right. You're always so wise.」

Anne agreed with Gyeoul's guess, but she did not hide her concern.

「Most of the Yangists actually caught are attention-seeking lunatics who have lost their minds. They spread fake but convincing manifestos, videos, terror warnings, and the like to stir up hatred toward people of Chinese descent. Then once they're arrested, every last one of them bawls their eyes out and begs for forgiveness, saying it was a story they made up for fun.」

"...."

「From the position of having to waste investigative resources when we're already busy enough, it's absurd. And there is no such thing as a joke when it comes to plotting terrorism. Leaving aside the length of the sentence, once they're caught, prison time is guaranteed.」

"The problem would be the people who get swept up because they think it's real."

「Yes. The general public's reaction is one thing, but there are even cases where people come across those things and become Yangists in the true sense. Mostly ethnic Chinese citizens or refugee workers who hold grudges because of discrimination... It's truth born from a lie. In other words, even a terror warning that was nothing but falsehood can become true somewhere.」

"And there's no guarantee it would be the work of a real Yangist."

「Exactly.」

"It must be hard."

「This is not the time to worry about me.」

"I know. There must be plenty of people saying I'm the target anyway."

「....」

"People trying to stir up hatred, and Yang Yongbin's spiritual heirs. I'd be a good target no matter which side looked at me. The former would take a shot at me because there's no better material for provoking citizens, and the latter, well... To them, I would practically be Yang Yongbin's enemy."

Even if they believed the rumors that Yang Yongbin was alive, Gyeoul was still a criminal who deserved to be punished. After all, he had interfered with Shangjiang's nuclear attack.

They would lack any rational judgment about what effect that nuclear attack would have had on their own survival. For people who wanted to hate and searched for reasons to hate, reason functioned only as a tool for rationalization. They were people driven that far into a corner. Socially, and emotionally.

The more a community sought profit through discrimination and conflict, the more strongly these side effects appeared.

'The road to the outside world....'

It was the muddy current Gyeoul had stayed wary of all along. Would the world, flowing murkier and murkier like this, one day converge into something like that outside world? With Gyeoul's ability, all he could do was protect one clear pool. Gyeoul was still human.

"It would be useless even if I told you not to worry about me, wouldn't it?"

「Of course.」

Her request continued.

「I'm so worried I feel like I might die, so make sure you wear body armor for the time being. The rating must be Level 4, no exceptions. Every morning, take a picture of yourself wearing it and send it to me. Refrain from going out as much as possible, and if you do go somewhere, make sure you tell me too. It would help a lot if I could identify your destination right away in an emergency. No, actually, mandatory contact every thirty minutes... Why are you laughing?」

"I was feeling a little depressed, but thanks to you, I feel better."

Because Gyeoul kept laughing even after saying this, Anne finally grumbled.

「I'm saying this because I'm really worried.」

"I know, I know. I'll wear the body armor properly. I'll send pictures every morning too. But scheduled contact is a little... Even without that, when we have time, we already exchange messages every ten minutes or less, don't we?"

「...Ah.」

Gyeoul and Anne knew each other's free time almost by heart. When they had no education or work, countless sweet words went back and forth.

"Are you telling me to send fewer messages from now on? Because it interferes with your work?"

「Don't tease me.」

"Or maybe you got tired of me...."

「Stop.」

Anne got embarrassed and put on a serious face, so Gyeoul had to chuckle for a long while after that.

Then Gyeoul thought that even if some lingering attachment and regret remained, as long as Anne stayed by his side, there would be many more times when he could laugh like this. Did he need to wish for anything more than that?

After that, Gyeoul wore body armor at all times. Level 4 ballistic plates were heavy, but not heavy enough to get in Gyeoul's way. They only felt a little uncomfortable because he wore them under his Dress Blue. But Gyeoul liked even that discomfort. It came from his lover's affection.

'Even across the entire U.S. military, there would only be a few snipers skilled enough to threaten me....'

And the chance of someone that skilled joining a half-baked conspiracy was extremely low. But if asked whether it was completely impossible, he would have no choice but to say no. An ambush by a top-class sniper was hard to detect even with Gyeoul's sensory correction. He would only notice right before the shot. So it was better to wear body armor as Anne had said. It helped reassure her too.

Not long after, broadcasts began covering related topics as well.

『The Rise of Yangism. A Fabricated Phenomenon, or a Real Threat?』

『Chinese Peril Continues to Spread Because of Yang Yongbin's Followers.』

『George Washington University Professor Joshua Holbrook Criticizes "Recent Racial Discourses Are Nothing More Than a Second Yellow Peril." Calls for Mature Civic Consciousness Across Society.』

『Terror Threats Increasing Day by Day! A Time When Special Action Is Needed for National Security.』

『Citizens Taking Up Guns to Protect Themselves. What Is the Government Doing?』

Because of this, the time Gyeoul spent browsing the web to examine real public opinion increased too.

The chaos online was no different from what he had expected before looking.

Among it, there were also opinions expressing hostility and contempt toward citizens of Korean descent, especially immigrants and second-generation Koreans who maintained a Korean identity. No, there were quite a lot.

「Isn't it so ugly how they go around making it obvious they're different from Chinese people? When they were worse than Chinese people at not following labor standards even before. Of course, they look similar too.」

「I'm sick and tired of them asking, "Do you know Gyeoul?" No, fuck, how could I not know? Are they bragging that they can pronounce Lieutenant Colonel Han's name? These yellow dumbasses. I might not know the pronunciation, but when it comes to respecting Lieutenant Colonel Han, I'm much better than you. Because you people aren't pure.」

「Lieutenant Colonel Han is the one who actually risked his life fighting, but they're the ones with their noses in the air. LOL」

「I had a Korean friend before, and that person said Korean immigrants scam each other like crazy. I only heard it, so I'm not sure.」

"...."

Why would those feelings not have existed before? Some of them were probably true to a degree. The reason they stood out more often now than before was likely because the social atmosphere had made it that much easier to show contempt.

'Making it obvious they're different from Chinese people is an unavoidable choice for survival....'

It was a kind of chain reaction. The impact of one kind of discrimination did not end with the discrimination itself.

Footnotes:

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