Humans were given better armor made from monsters, and stronger weapons were coated with lethal venom. They also utilized small rifles that gave them the upper hand.
‘Khalodian!’
It was rumored that a group of new people and their weapons came from the Khalodian Empire’s hometown, and they had changed the entire war.
The lands were slowly being restored, but the world was now almost entirely under Khalodian.
‘How can we bring back our people to us?’
Marquis Ronald thought about it, but gave up. They were regaining their lands, but the people who left did not come back. They no longer wanted to come and serve the nobles or kings that abandoned them.
‘I am too ashamed to ask the empire to give them back too.’
There were some kings or nobles who requested the Khalodian Empire to return their refugees.
‘It’s shameful.’
“We’ve won! We…”
“The monsters are running away!”
Marquis Ronald was then brought back from his thoughts by the shouts of his soldiers.
‘There’s no other way but to be annexed into Khalodian now,’ he thought. There had been warnings in the past. The Khalodian Empire warned the world about the upcoming war against the monsters, but most, if not all, the countries ignored it, just as his kingdom did. His king abandoned the people and now it was the people’s turn to abandon them.
‘Most countries will now be under Khalodian… It’s only a matter of time.’
Ronald made up his mind.
‘If it’s inevitable, it’s better to get a headstart. The Tei Kingdom is done for. I’ll go to the Khalodian Empire myself.’
“Marquis.”
“Pffft.”
“Ugh, just call me like you used to when no one’s around.”
“I can’t just call you Taesoo like I used to though.”
“Yeah, especially when you are the Lord of this Seoul city now.”
“You should get used to it!”
“Right!”
Lee Chulmin and the others teased Taesoo for not being used to the title. It had been seven years since they moved into this new world. There was no more fear or despair gripping them. Seven years was a long enough time for them to recover from all the disasters they had gone through.
The disaster on Earth was unexpected as it was destructive.
The worldwide-scale earthquake and volcanic eruptions destroyed almost every part of human civilization. When the disasters finally seemed to be over, then came the monsters. The survivors of the disasters were left vulnerable without the help of civilization to defend themselves against the monsters.
In just a few years, Earth was now taken over by monsters. The surviving humans tried their best to fight back — they went around their old cities in search of various technologies and weapons. It was a vital part of their survival, but it wasn’t enough.
It was then that Taesoo told people of what he knew about the Gate. People did not believe him at first, and some even thought he was crazy. However, as he explained what happened to his wife and daughter, and then followed up with their testimonies, people began to change their minds. Besides, they did not have many options. It was their last chance for survival.
They worked together to find the place and dug up the old store buried underground to retrieve the weapons. More people gathered, but they still had a hard time fighting back the monsters. Their weapons were powerful, but they had no system in place to produce those weapons.
It was then, when everybody was counting their last days, that a guard who had been posted at the Gate sent an emergency report.
The Gate had opened and monsters were flowing into it. It was strange. Those monsters looked as if they were being lured into the gate. Countless monsters surged into the Gate and soon, almost all the monsters within Seoul had passed into the gate.
Some people then argued that they shouldn’t cross into the Gate as there were no more monsters in the region. However, that argument lost traction as more monsters from the other regions started invading. Even so, the Gate worked like a vacuum, sucking up all the monsters.
They had to make a decision. They argued whether they should cross the Gate or not, but they eventually divided into two groups. The ones who followed Taesoo decided to cross into the Gate, while the others decided to travel through the sea into the Busan region, a safe area from the monsters.
It was now seven years into their decision.
‘I was right then.’
Taesoo looked at the people around him. Seven years was enough to heal those people in despair. They had a total number of seven hundred and seven when they first arrived. The Empire began fighting back and hunted down monsters with newly developed weapons. Lethal venom was applied to bullets, killing monsters with ease. And when it was added to cannons, it proved to be very effective.
With such weapons in place in every town and city, Khalodian quickly found peace. The Empire provided an unlimited amount of food to the people, and gave especially more as babies were born in order to increase the population.
