Dark Fate, Chapter 162 (Patreon)

Chapter 162 – Bombshell

Ambassador Carl Thurston sighed, and said, “Yeah, I’ll admit that we’re still trying to figure out what you’re doing in North Korea. The analysts can’t see any benefit to your actions, unless you’re looking to set the stage for a corporate-style hostile takeover. But, having met you, that doesn’t really seem to be the way you operate.”

I nodded amiably. “Yes, I’m really not the corporate shark type. While I can hum a few bars, that doesn’t mean I can sing on Broadway. Of course, personal skill matters less when you have talented people around you, who have their own skills, and your strengths give you a solid foundation to build off of.

“As for North Korea,” I said, “you could call that an experiment. The goal is to take a failed state, which was only hanging on due to the sheer stubbornness of their political machinery and the totality of their propaganda, and see if I can’t change it into something else.”

“That sounds rather difficult.”

“Oh, but I have some real-world, pre-System examples to draw from. Namely Russia and China. The Cold War ended as the Berlin Wall came down, but it was having a McDonald’s in Moscow that sped the death of the Soviet Union along. China, on the other hand, slowly transitioned their economy, from the 70s to the 90s. This slow transformation allowed the power base to remain intact, which is why China is more powerful than Russia today, in all the ways that matter.”

Thurston nodded. “So, are you aiming for the Russian or the Chinese approach?”

“Neither. Not exactly, though I’m using them as reference points, as well as everything I learned from prior timelines. The System turning on makes for a perfect inflection point, a way for reforms to be introduced without anyone losing face or being forced to admit that they were wrong. After all, they can just say that whatever happened was the best course at that time, but now the world is different, and so on. Much like the Harris administration is doing with some of your reforms.”

Thurston nodded. “Fair point. So, what is the end goal?”

“Simple, really. With the last ‘dear leader’ getting turned into a werewolf, and being summarily killed by his guards as he tore through them on the first full moon, the new leader Oh Shi-Won has been busy consolidating her power base. However, there are limits to what she can do on her own, especially considering that there are other factions.

“That is where I step in. Offering an infusion of trade and capital, as well as some advice on different ways to go? That allows her to pivot the nation in a new way. Especially since some of the leaders in rival factions have had unfortunate accidents when they tried to go into dungeons to improve their levels. So, she looks good, and her rivals are in no position to oppose her. And, since the population dropped from twenty-six million to fifteen million, there are suddenly a lot fewer mouths to feed, which helps with the whole starvation bit.

“Then, you have the System itself. Those with the [Farmer] profession will find that they get solid boosts to their work, both in quantity and quality. Meanwhile, Adventurer is a valid job, and can bring in resources of all types from the dungeons. And some of their dungeons have interesting materials that can be found as drops, or harvested through [Botany], [Woodcutting], or [Mining]. This means that, for the first time, North Korea actually has something worth trading for, that isn’t a natural resource that can get depleted.”

“And since Ceres and China are the only ones who really trade with North Korea, you get all the benefits?”

“Yes, though Ceres has benefitted more than China, if I’m honest. China has their own dungeons, of course, and there is little that the North Korean dungeons have that the Chinese dungeons don’t. But Ceres, on the other hand, only has a handful of dungeons, and it is unlikely we’ll get more, until settlements in the outer system start reaching certain milestones.”

“Trading for materials and dungeon access, then?”

“Something like that. All while I encourage Leader Oh to make some changes that will bring the country out of the depths of the Cold War, where they’ve basically been frozen for decades. Ideally, it will even lead to an actual peace with the South, instead of the current status quo. Not reunification, but peace.”

“And Ceres will be able to sit back and say that you helped broker the new peace, right?”

“Not without undermining the Leader. Any peace process will need to be organic. However, if you set the stage, get people to a mindset where they think it is in their best interests, and where ‘peace’ doesn’t sound like ‘surrender’ or ‘defeat’, then half the work is done, assuming that the South is willing to deal.”

“And you think you can pull this off?”

“I think there is a better chance of it happening than there was of peace breaking out on the peninsula before the System came on. And there’s a better chance of it happening this way, with me working to change the board behind the scenes, rather than just going down and getting personally involved. I mean, I could single-handedly destroy the entire regime and install a puppet government of my choosing. However, I’m not an idiot. Puppet governments are rarely good as long-term solutions. You have to either transition to local governance, or just lay the groundwork for annexation outright, before it becomes a quagmire with freedom fighters and revolutionaries coming out of the woodwork.”

“If I hadn’t seen the broadcast of you walking through Jerusalem, taking everything the IDF threw at you, I probably would have thought that you being able to single-handedly overthrow a country was hyperbole. But why the soft touch and long game with North Korea? Why not bring the hammer down like you did to the Israelis? Seems to me that would be a faster way to get what you want.”

“Yeah, it probably would be, in the short term. But to truly succeed, I need both carrot and stick. Carrot: I can help North Korea modernize, and jump into this new world with a System, skirting sanctions that Ceres is not a part of, and all of that. Stick: I start promoting people to fill bloody voids in the government until I get what I want. However, if I never need to use the stick, then it is better for everyone. Plus, I barely get any experience from people in Tier 1 anymore, so there really isn’t any benefit to wholesale slaughter for the sake of slaughter.”

Thurston frowned. Don’t think he liked where this was heading. “Well, that’s good, at least.”

“Yeah, I basically averaged about two XP per individual killed by Ceresan forces, including my own actions. Absolute shit XP, and not worth talking about, really. However, grinding levels wasn’t the point of that whole thing. The point was to give a shock to the system so strong that people were forced to stop, and consider their actions. To be so utterly horrific that people had no choice but to stop.

“The destruction of so much, so quickly, will be like Hiroshima and Nagasaki all over again. Once the monstrous deed is done, I can turn things over to the diplomats, who might find that those who remain are the cooler heads, with the zealots on both sides either dead, or forced to take a back seat out of fear for what happens next, and that actually working out a lasting peace is possible. But there was no other way that conflict would have ended, unless someone was willing to spend billions of dollars keeping hundreds of thousands of troops in the country, forcibly separating the two sides like schoolchildren who keep fighting. All the while, both sides would have their zealots out, stirring up hard feelings and sabotaging any possible peace process, as both sides have done before.

“No,” I said, shaking my head, “this was really the best thing, in the long run. Anyone angry enough about what happened to do something about it turns their gaze upon me, and to do anything but wave their fists in rage, they actually have to get to Ceres. Obviously, easier said than done. In the meantime, everyone is recovering from having their entire world upended. Therapists will be working overtime in the coming years, but the doctors should have fewer explosions to deal with, so I call it a wash.”

“That… is disturbingly pragmatic,” Thurston said, evenly. There was no anger in his words, just a hint of sadness. “I can’t fault the logic, but the ethics, the morality? You are right. You are a monster. Only a monster could think of something like that, and say it was a net positive.”

“HAH! You’re officially my third-favorite Ambassador, now. Most people, even in a relaxed setting like this, wouldn’t have the balls to call me a monster to my face, even if I already said it. And you did so without cursing or getting fired up. Yup, you’re definitely number three in my list of Ambassadors, so far.”

Thurston shook his head at my laugh, and the reply. “Well, I am guessing the Ambassador from Japan is number one. But who is number two?”

“Oh, that would be the lovely ambassador from China. The recent state dinner at the embassy went swimmingly, I think. Sorry, Ambassador, but you really aren’t my type. Though you might consider chatting up Princess Lilith, when you see her out and about. I’m sure she’d jump at the chance for some ‘diplomatic relations’, especially if she gets a juicy snack out of the deal.”

Whatever the Ambassador had been expecting, it clearly wasn’t that. The man didn’t look scandalized, just shocked. With some effort, he managed to pick his jaw off the floor before he started attracting flies (not that there were any flies on Ceres), and said, “Your Majesty, are you really pimping out your daughter?”

“Oh, gods, no,” I laughed. “But you have to understand that, to an incubus or succubus, sex is looked at very differently than more puritanical cultures. For a succubus, a good, hard fuck is basically the same as getting a meal. In fact, because we heal during sex, that’s often part of medical treatments in the wider galaxy for an injured Incubus. Especially if the healer involved has some variant of the Sexual Healer class, which allows them to heal patients through sex.”

“There’s really such a class out there?”

“Oh, yes. Not good for emergency medicine, because of their restrictions, but for non-emergency care, or dealing with diseases and the like? They’re some of the most sought-after healers. When a blowjob can set a broken leg, and sex can cure diseases like AIDS, well, there’s really no question who you want to treat you, unless you have some religious arguments against it.”

I paused, considering. “Actually, if you wanted to know more, you could visit Out of This World Pleasures, a brothel out in the Merchant district, or arrange a meeting with the madame. She’s a Sexual Healer, as are some of her people, and they not only ensure that her workers are healthy and clean, but the business is also licensed for general non-emergency healing. The madame’s name is Mareta Ben, if you want to learn more about what the System can do.”

“Ahem,” Thurston cleared his throat, blushing slightly. “I do believe that my wife would find new and interesting ways to kill me if I did something like that. She is still very religious, despite everything that has happened.”

“Of course,” I nodded. “Well, to earn you points with your wife, you can tell her that while the idea of ‘one true god’ is demonstrably false, the God of the Abrahamic faiths is definitely as real as Thor and Shiva and the other gods throughout human history.” I saw the Ambassador’s eyes widen, and smiled. “Oh, yes. But it will take some time for all those gods and goddesses to properly wake up. More time if there have been different schisms in the faith, or if they are worshipped by multiple faiths with very different points of view.”

“What do you mean?”

“Simple. The God of the Torah is the God of the Bible is the God of the Quran, yes? And then you have things like the Catholics and Protestants for Christians, and the various denominations and schisms in all three religions. Those muddy the waters, and tear the deity in different directions. It will take time until one breaks into three, or all three merge wholly into one.”

Thurston leaned back in his chair, eyes locked in a thousand-yard stare. “This is above my pay grade.”

“Sorry to drop that bomb on you at the end, but people were going to figure it out, sooner or later.” I checked my watch, and sighed. “Unfortunately, Ambassador, I’m all out of time. I need to meet with the North Korean delegation in twenty minutes, and I really ought to give them the respect of preparing.”