Director Oh Min kept running his mouth.
"Military-standard weapons, high-speed recovery drugs, even a force-field generator. Do you really think this level of armament should be allowed? You are already receiving the very best of preferential treatment."
This will not do. I need power. Not power for the kind of patriotic nonsense that the fucking fat bastard in front of me is spewing.
I have something I must do.
The memory of the moment I witnessed your death seeps into my chest.
Every time my heart pounds, a burning rage and desire for revenge, hot enough to scorch my veins, spreads through my body. The instant that rage and vengeance flowing through my blood reach my skull,
the head that had frozen in panic melts away in an instant. Finally, I can think properly again.
I can do this. Reflexes, improvisation, situational response, quick thinking, grasping the situation... Compared to Gapsoon's place, seizing the upper hand in a situation like this is nothing.
In a fleeting moment, streams of thought bloom and vanish in my mind. Then, at some point. The thoughts that had been whipping around like a box of spilled jigsaw pieces click together with a soft sound.
I opened my mouth.
"So, anything beyond this level of support is difficult?"
There is no reason to keep up polite formalities anymore.
"It seems you do not understand just how much risk the Republic of Korea is currently bearing..."
My gaze met that of Director Oh Min.
"Do I need to ask the same question again?"
"Ha."
Oh Min's gaze sharpened further. And the temperature in the room began to drop endlessly.
"You dare speak casually to a major general of the Republic of Korea Army? Live long enough and you experience all kinds of things."
"You're the one who made a mess of things."
I was not the one who wrecked this relationship first.
"Support is already sufficient, so stop complaining and go into the contaminated zone, wander around that hellhole, scrape together contaminated material, and offer it up?"
If someone hears that kind of bullshit and still speaks politely, then that person is impressive.
"Get lost. Labor is supposed to come with fair compensation."
"You damn subversive bastard!"
Woo Gil-young, who had been listening, cautiously opened his mouth.
"Director, may I try talking with him...."
"No. Stay out of it."
Woo Gil-young seemed to be trying to smooth things over, but Oh Min rejected him immediately.
I thought they were about to play some good-cop bad-cop routine.
But it looks like even Woo Gil-young truly did not expect things to turn out like this.
"Hey, Director. You think you're in a higher position right now, don't you? You think the kid in front of you is just a trainee janitor?"
Leaning back against the sofa, I looked at Director Oh Min. A major general of the Republic of Korea Army and a rookie trainee janitor. On the surface, that is the relationship.
But it is not.
"You're a replaceable part. If we use a ship as an analogy, maybe a somewhat usable oar?"
"What the hell did you just say?"
"I get why you'd think that. Once you get a bit older and stack up some experience, it's a common delusion. You start thinking that without you, the Korean military would face some catastrophic problem."
Everyone does that. In any organization, once you reach a certain level, you start believing that without you, something terrible will happen.
The so-called 'the company can't run without me' delusion.
"You're not that important. If you dropped dead right here, someone else would temporarily do your job, and once a new person is appointed, that would be the end of it."
That is generally the weight a single person carries in an organization.
"But I am irreplaceable."
If you look across not just Korea but the entire planet, there is no one but me who can enter contaminated zones and bring back contaminated material.
"Ha, do you really think that ability to bring back contaminated material is that important?"
I gave a small snort. Knowing the true value of what you possess is a prerequisite for making a proper deal. And I had prepared extensively.
"Did you know? There are a huge number of vicious dictators in this world."
"What kind of bullshit are you suddenly trying to spout."
"Shut up and listen. All of those dictators share one thing in common."
The internet is really convenient. If you look, you can find it.
Director Oh Min did not answer.
"When it comes to contaminated zones, they go all out to clean them up. Why do you think that is? Because they feel sorry for the people dying horribly?"
Absolutely not. If they cared about that, they could not become vicious dictators.
The single reason dictators, even if they abandon livelihoods and human rights, desperately clean contaminated zones is this.
"If they get caught in a contaminated zone themselves, they die."
The countless mysterious and grotesque phenomena caused by contaminated zones do not discriminate against their targets.
The President of the United States nearly died after vomiting fifteen kilograms of LEGO in the White House bedroom over the course of four hours.
A brutal African dictator was swept away and killed by a subspace-type contaminated zone that appeared in his palace-like residence.
A French lawmaker was found dead in a bathroom, with his skull packed full of clockwork springs.
"The greatest power holder? If he dies coughing up wire, what good is any of it?"
That is why, when it comes to contaminated zones, even dictators go insane scrambling to deal with them.
I clapped my hands once loudly and looked at Director Oh Min.
"Now, shall we return to Korea? Our President Lee Sam-jun."
A man who has been serving consecutive terms as Korea's president for twenty-three years. He succeeded in five terms, and once this term ends, after a token election, he will become president yet again.
"Do you remember what can be done with the contaminated material I can bring back?"
The possibility of accurately measuring the contamination level of a contaminated zone.
If you can measure the contamination level precisely, you can deploy appropriate janitors and quickly clean the contaminated zone.
A contaminated zone being cleaned quickly means that the probability of Lee Sam-jun being caught up in its effects and dying drops sharply.
"Which do you think is more important, a part like you, or me?"
Director Oh Min could not answer. If he has a brain, he would think about it, and if he thinks about it, the answer is obvious.
A brief silence followed. I once again swallowed the tea down my throat.
"You brought guards, right? You are a major general, after all."
Of course. If a major general came here all alone, that would be the real joke.
There would be snipers, and perhaps drones on standby.
"Right here... I could have you shot dead immediately."
"And I would just die?"
At my words, Director Oh Min swallowed.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm already wearing a force-field generator. I will never die in a single shot. The moment I'm hit by a bullet, what do you think I'll do?"
I jerked my thumb toward the window.
"I'll jump out of here and run like mad to the U.S. embassy. It should take about thirty minutes if I run the whole way."
Snipers, drones, whatever....
"Could they accurately hit a janitor running at full power? And how many shots would it take before the force-field generator runs out? Ah, and the more important question."
I said it as if in passing.
"What do you think the probability is that I make it to the U.S. embassy somehow after sprinting from here?"
A long silence followed. He was definitely not calculating the success rate of what I had said.
At my declaration that I would flee to the U.S. embassy and request asylum, both of them wore expressions that said they had no idea how they were supposed to react.
It seemed like a good time to lighten the mood again.
"Well, things ended up going this way, but... it's not like I want to make such an extreme choice either."
The other side also seemed to understand the situation in their own way, so there was no need to keep snarling like this.
To put it metaphorically, the knife shown for intimidation had done its job, so now it was time to put it away.
"So, shall we have a proper discussion now."
You did not come here just to have this kind of conversation, did you?
"...To derive meaningful results, it looks like roughly fifty tons of contaminated material will be needed."
Fifty tons of contaminated material.
You could say it is a lot, or you could say it is not. It is about the weight of a tank.
And it is not even a 'this will be enough' amount. It is the amount needed to derive meaningful results.
"That is an enormous amount."
And that means Director Oh Min had been planning to hand me a single rifle and make me scrape together fifty tons of contaminated material.
The more I think about it, the more irritated I get. I am not some graduate student.
"Is the argument that just took place between Director Oh Min and me the Ministry of National Defense's answer?"
That ridiculous idea of giving me one gun and telling me to go scrape together fifty tons. Woo Gil-young immediately shook his head.
"That is not the case."
"Then I can expect that you have separate trade terms prepared."
As I spoke, I glanced at Director Oh Min.
"So, what was it that the Ministry of National Defense originally wanted to propose?"
Director Oh Min did not answer my question and remained silent. I clapped a few times right in front of his face.
"Hello? Anyone home?"
After frowning briefly, Director Oh Min seemed to come to his senses and finally spoke.
"We cannot just hand out support indiscriminately. We will take the form of a barter."
An exchange of contaminated material for equipment.
"What is the basis of the trade?"
"At present, there is no separate way to measure the value of contaminated material, so how about using weight."
A purely quantity-based trade. I fell into brief thought at his words.
I, too, cannot measure the value of contaminated material. Perhaps once more research data accumulates, it will become possible to assess its value properly.
And what the Korean government needs right now is also simply a large amount of contaminated material.
"Very well. Until we have a means of measuring the value of contaminated material, we will trade solely by weight."
In any case, most of the contaminated material I will be providing to the Korean government will end up being monster corpses. From that perspective, trading purely by weight poses no problem at all.
"If possible, I would like to receive the goods first."
It is more convenient to receive the equipment first and then provide a corresponding amount of contaminated material.
"...We will do that."
Director Oh Min nodded and contacted someone. Shortly after, about ten soldiers entered my residence carrying armfuls of items.
A domestically produced heavy machine gun and a rifle-mounted grenade launcher, and two metal cases about the size of document briefcases.
And five types of grenades, detonation cord, and directional explosive mines known as claymores.
"Setting the rest aside, what are these cases?"
I had seen heavy machine guns and grenade launchers before, but this was the first time I had seen those cases.
"They are domestically produced automated fixed turrets known as Sentinels."
They are fixed to a surface and monitor and attack a ninety-degree forward arc.
"You can get the detailed explanation from them. For now, let's decide the weight."
"How much do you require?"
At my words, Woo Gil-young and Oh Min briefly exchanged glances.
"We are thinking around seven hundred and fifty kilograms."
I made a low sound of consideration at that. Picking a fight over quotas here to try to haggle it down did not seem like a good idea. It already felt like the first button had been fastened slightly wrong.
Instead, it might be better to make concessions while confirming the conditions.
"What about maintenance and ammunition for the equipment provided?"
I do not want to hear later that I need to bring more contaminated material if maintenance becomes necessary.
"We would like to exchange consumables for contaminated material, but maintenance will be free. Ah, and."
A small box was handed to me. Inside was a pile of in-ear devices. They are used by janitors for communication inside contaminated zones.