128: South Korea's biggest crisis!

The screen displayed local news from the South Goryeo Settlement, densely packed with content scolding him.

“Kim Geun-seok, coward! Aishiba!”

“Such a person is not fit to be the head of the Jin Family, and the Jin Family is not fit to be the first chaebol of the Settlement!”

“Kim Geun-seok is truly the disgrace of the South Goryeo Settlement, a disgusting existence!”

“Is that all? First, he fell out of the TOP50, and now he has completely shamed South Korea. Such a person is purely a parasite of South Korea.”

“If I had that many points, I would have eliminated Lin Ye long ago!”

“The Jin Family, Cui Family, Li Family, and Park Family are all vampires! They suck the blood of all Koreans!”

“I suspect Kim Geun-seok has Great Xia blood and is intentionally sending people to their deaths for Great Xia!”

“Jin Family Conglomerate! Go bankrupt! Get out of Goryeo!”

“…”

The overwhelming negative news made Kim Geun-seok tremble with fear.

This world cannot implement violence. As a chaebol, the Jin Family's means of controlling Koreans are actually only on an economic level.

The reason they can achieve economic monopoly relies on the support of the public.

Once the public loses confidence in the Jin Family, the Jin Family's economy will quickly collapse, and their status will cease to exist.

This is also a characteristic of the chaebol system under the Sky Curtain's rule.

The only true ruler of the entire world is actually the Sky Curtain; everything else is a paper tiger.

Whether it's the so-called chaebols of South Goryeo or the Emperor of Great Harmony, at most, it's a kind of spontaneous public support and cannot be considered a true ruler.

However, there is still one major difference between the South Goryeo Settlement and the Da He Settlement: the people of South Korea generally have lower loyalty.

When you are in your prime, you are a master; when you decline, you are worse than pigs, dogs, cattle, and horses.

Kim Geun-seok swallowed, his Adam's apple trembling slightly.

He truly did not expect that this instance's failure would have such a significant impact on the situation in South Korea.

Kim Geun-seok continued to look back and found even more explosive news.

That is, Great Xia was actually forming teams to attack various instances in South Korea! Within this single day, hundreds of young Korean Designers had been directly eliminated!

Because he had been in the instance all this time, Kim Geun-seok was only just learning about these matters now.

Suddenly, he felt unwell, his mouth wide open.

“How could this be?!”

“How dare the Great Xia Settlement?!”

Kim Geun-seok couldn't believe such a thing was true for a moment, because for so many years, Great Xia had always been tolerant.

Previously, when the South Goryeo Settlement made several despicable small moves, the people of the Great Xia Settlement endured them.

Once upon a time, his father, Kim Chan-hoon, to test the strength of his instance, eliminated several Great Xia researchers in a row. Even when things went to that extent, Great Xia did not turn hostile.

But this time… they retaliated so decisively and directly.

“How could this be? Do you know that my, your father's, instance has also been breached by several high-level fighters from Great Xia?!”

Kim Chan-hoon roared furiously.

“Before, Great Xia only had one Long Yuan worth mentioning, so they acted cautiously and swallowed their pride. Now, with the sudden emergence of Lin Ye, Great Xia has gained another TOP50!”

“Their backbone is naturally much stiffer!”

“This confidence was given to Great Xia by Lin Ye!”

The reasoning is simple: it wasn't that they couldn't defeat them before, but because of other matters, they didn't focus on the Koreans.

Now, with increased strength, it's natural to seek complete satisfaction in all things.

After speaking, Kim Chan-hoon slapped Kim Geun-seok's face again.

Smack!

With this slap, Kim Geun-seok was directly sent flying, stumbling and falling to the ground.

“Father… I…”

“Do you know why I slapped you these few times?!”

“The first slap, I hit you for deserting in battle! I hit you for being spineless!”

“The second slap, I hit you for dragging down the entire Settlement, for dragging down the Jin Family!”

“And this third slap, I hit you for being blind!”

After speaking, Kim Chan-hoon pointed at Kim Geun-seok's nose and cursed, “With your meager ability, why would you provoke Lin Ye?!”

“Do you think you can handle someone even the Emperor can't deal with?!”

“Do you know that on the Instance Leaderboard, Lin Ye alone occupies two of the top three spots! There has never been such an amazing person in the history of the entire Azure Star!”

He didn't need his father to tell him; in fact, Kim Geun-seok regretted it more than anyone now.

He gained nothing from these three instance challenges, but only got himself into trouble.

Just because he spouted some trash talk online and eliminated an insignificant minion from a Great Xia Instance Research Institute, it led to the exposure of the Strong Clan Plan and the direct outbreak of war between Great Xia and South Korea.

“Father, what should we do now?” Kim Geun-seok was a bit panicked at this moment. Although it didn't show on his face, his heart was already in a mess.

Although he was the top-ranked individual in South Korea after Park Chengwan, this power was actually inherited from his father.

He hadn't experienced many major events himself. Now that the situation had suddenly become like this, he was truly scared to death.

“Hoo…”

Kim Chan-hoon let out a long sigh and slumped onto the sofa weakly.

The cane in his hand also fell limply to the side.

“Things have come to this; this is no longer a war between you and Lin Ye… but a war for the entire South Goryeo Settlement.”

“If I'm not mistaken, Park Chengwan will personally lead the team for Lin Ye's next Winter is Coming instance.”

“Later, Park Chengwan will definitely summon you. Remember to pin the blame on the people from the other three families.”

“Also… regarding your suicide, just say the gun went off by accident. Understand?”

Kim Geun-seok gasped, taking in a cold breath.

At this moment, he dared not resist in any way and could only obediently follow his father's instructions.

The arrogance he once possessed had long since vanished.

------------------------------------

An hour later.

In the Commander's office of the Lotte Building.

Park Chengwan furiously swept all the documents on the desk onto the floor.

Then he picked up several folders and threw them at the faces of Kim Geun-seok, Choi Tae-won, Park Jung-young, and Lee Tae-yong respectively.

“You call yourselves the Four Great Families?”

“I put you in this position, and this is how you repay me?”

“Exposing the Strong Clan Plan, wielding the most top-tier military strength, and then fighting like this? Making the entire Azure Star laugh.”

Kim Geun-seok, Choi Tae-won, Park Jung-young, and Lee Tae-yong looked at each other, saying nothing.

After a long silence, Lee Tae-yong spoke.

“Commander Chengwan, the Li Family truly has no choice. The Li Family's howitzer vehicles are strategic weapons, and if we were to truly fight head-on, they would definitely not be a match for tanks.”

“This overall Commander is Kim Da Shao; he should give an explanation, shouldn't he?”

Choi Tae-won, on the side, also had a strange smile, saying coldly, “Leaving aside the command, Kim Da Shao's suicide was indeed played skillfully.”

“The instance wasn't even finished, and the Commander committed suicide first. This must be ranked in the history of Azure Star.”

Kim Geun-seok forced himself to remain calm, gritting his teeth and speaking.

“First of all, I did not commit suicide; it was because of the battle's turbulence that the gun went off accidentally.”

“Furthermore… I don't think there was any problem with my command. We lost to Lin Ye not because of tactics, but because of a power gap.”

“If the esteemed family heads have objections, why not tell me how you would have deployed? I don't believe it would be better than what I did!”

The room was filled with tension. Park Chengwan rubbed his temples hard and slammed the table.

“Enough!”

“Did I call you here to listen to you shirk responsibility? If the challenge failed, then all four of you are useless, with no distinction between good and bad.”

“Do you know what the situation in South Korea is now?!”

As he spoke, Park Chengwan directly played Lin Ye's provocative video on the large screen in the office.

In the video, Lin Ye's words were brief.

But every sentence was a deadly blow.

Finally, he even challenged the entire South Goryeo Settlement to come at him all at once.

After watching the video, Kim Geun-seok and the other three fell silent again, each clenching their fists.

Because Lin Ye's actions were blatant humiliation.

He explicitly named the South Goryeo Settlement to continue challenging Winter is Coming, completely putting them on the spot.

If they didn't accept, then the people of the South Goryeo Settlement would become actual cowards…

“Commander… do we really have to accept this challenge?”

“Actually, we can just ignore Lin Ye,” Lee Tae-yong said in a low voice.

“Of course you can refuse, but as you've seen, the people of Great Xia are already taking action against South Korea. Are you going to ignore that too?” Park Chengwan looked at Lee Tae-yong with a hint of sarcasm, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Also, you need to know that Lin Ye, as a Designer, has 20% direct designation authority. Even if we don't engage in battle, he can still drag at least a million people into an instance and torment them.”

“If he specifically targets low-level Challengers from South Korea and then eliminates a million of our South Koreans at once, how would you respond?”

Park Chengwan's words sent chills down the spines of all four of them.

From this perspective, South Korea had no choice but to accept the next challenge of Winter is Coming.

Taking a deep breath, Park Chengwan became very serious.

“After this, I will issue an international statement, as the Commander of the South Goryeo Settlement, accepting this challenge!”

“At the same time, I will set a wager for this challenge. If we win, Lin Ye will be eliminated, all his technology will belong to us, and the Great Xia Settlement will not be allowed to retaliate.”

“If we lose, then I will step down from my position as Commander of South Korea, and I will hand over the South Goryeo Settlement to Lin Ye's management.”

“Such a wager, I believe Lin Ye will agree to, and Great Xia will also agree to.”

Upon hearing this, Kim Geun-seok and the other three were all dumbfounded.

This was truly gambling with the fate of an entire Settlement!

“Commander… Commander, do we have to play such high stakes?” Kim Geun-seok was scared stiff, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

“If we hand over the Settlement to Lin Ye, then our Korean people will have no place to live and can only reside under other Settlements.”

In fact, in the initial regulations of the Sky Curtain, there was no true concept of a Settlement.

A Settlement was merely a cluster of races. Large races could occupy territory and form Settlements, while smaller races could only live under others.

If the South Goryeo Settlement were handed over to Lin Ye's management, the Korean people would be forced to migrate from the Settlement.

And the concept of South Korea would no longer exist!

Park Chengwan frowned, lit a cigarette, and slowly began to smoke.

“You're right, this is indeed a do-or-die gamble, but there's no other way now.”

“If we simply drag this out, we won't outlast Great Xia. On the contrary, this method offers a glimmer of hope!”

“My decision on this matter is final. All four of your great families must participate in this, to fight for the Settlement's last stand!”

The room fell silent.

Regardless, Park Chengwan was still the Commander of the South Goryeo Settlement, and his orders had to be obeyed by the Four Great Families.

“Commander Chengwan, our Jin Family is naturally willing to go through fire and water, but…”

“Our South Goryeo Settlement's fighting strength, even counting all four great families, probably doesn't amount to five million top-tier fighters.”

“Even if we count all Challengers of LV2 and above from the four great families, and call upon all elites from the entire Settlement, it won't exceed one million LV2s… The remaining LV1s who enter the instance are essentially cannon fodder,” Kim Geun-seok said helplessly.

The South Goryeo Settlement, after all, was small in scale, far inferior to the previous Da He Settlement.

All LV2s in the Da He Settlement combined numbered about one million; at that time, Emperor Takakawa led these one million people to attack Raging Sea.

But the South Goryeo Settlement did not possess such strength.

Kim Geun-seok's words were actually spot on, because only LV2 individuals had the ability to carry weapons.

If this standard wasn't met, entering Winter is Coming would purely be sending people to their deaths.

“Then quickly cultivate LV2s for me. Don't your four great families have a lot of points? Spit them all out!” Park Chengwan said coldly.

Choi Tae-won on the side had a bitter expression, his eyes full of helplessness. “Commander, we are certainly willing to contribute to their cultivation, but even so, it's impossible to gather five million LV2s for the Settlement in a short amount of time.”

Park Chengwan held his forehead with both hands, a strange glint flickering in his eyes.

“When did I ever say that this matter had to be handled entirely by us South Koreans? There's no rule that these five million people all have to be Koreans.”

“Hmph… A scale of five million is an excellent opportunity to breach the instance, and we are not the only ones on Azure Star who have a grudge against Lin Ye.”