NOVEL NEXT Chapter 216
Episode 216. Administrator Raven (2)
Administrator Raven looked down at me.
He’s taller than I thought. I kicked Raven’s shin, and the Administrator, still sore from somewhere, collapsed.
“Where are you looking?”
“Why are you doing this?”
Why, you ask? I poked Raven with the butt of my gun. Raven flinched.
“As promised, I will install the supernatural phenomenon ‘Teleportation Gate’ and bring the Korean Special Forces under the Special Phenomenon Response Agency to Thule Island.”
“Why soldiers there?”
“Because there are a lot of them.”
“Fine. Do as you please.”
The Administrator sighed.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something, Dr. Kim.”
“What?”
“The Administrator Council is not the pinnacle of the Foundation.”
“I’ve heard this boring story many times. Real power lies with the Directors, the Special Forces Team Leaders’ Council is important, the Foundation’s military is important.”
Just passing the buck.
Honestly, I thought it was meaningless talk.
“This time it’s real. Facility No. 1, which actually runs the Foundation, is beyond the reach of the Administrators. Being an Administrator doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. If that were the case, I would have caused chaos, and so would the other Administrators.”
I get what he means.
The Foundation’s internal checks and balances, where everyone points guns at each other, aren’t just among the Administrators but also among the core ruling and command bodies.
To compare it to our country, imagine all the members of the National Assembly, high-ranking officials, and judges going to work with guns and tanks… I’m not sure.
I can’t think of a situation to compare this to. Maybe it’s similar to Nazi Germany where the SS and Luftwaffe had a lot of tanks?
Let’s skip the meaningless stuff.
Back to the current situation.
I left Raven on Jörmungandr’s head and returned to Thule Island. The barrier or whatever that was blocking teleportation should be gone now.
“Mr. Raven. If a proposal to promote me to Administrator comes up in the Administrator Council, will you support me?”
“If I say no, I die, right?”
“Yes.”
“Fine, I’ll support you.”
“Do you know why I’m sparing you?”
“I have no idea.”
“Because I’ve already captured all the necessary Administrators.”
Acacia was already gone.
Five had agreed to my purge. Five opposed, and three abstained. Since I captured Pixel, the opposition is now down to four.
I could have ended it here.
Iris, who abstained, will soon be captured, and Raven is already caught. If avoiding the purge is the goal, I’ve overachieved.
I’ll bring the proposal up again.
It’s a shame I couldn’t kill all the Administrators who supported the purge, but maybe they’ve learned something from this situation.
I don’t know how they’ll vote if the proposal comes up again, but they probably won’t support my purge twice unless they’re fools.
I looked at Raven.
“This is it. Administrator, you can leave Thule Island now and go on your way. Just support me in the next Council meeting.”
“Understood.”
I thought about injecting Raven with the Popo Serum, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. I couldn’t predict what might happen.
Considering the Popo Serum only worked on humans, it might not have any effect on beings like Raven who are on the edge of humanity.
There could be other dangerous situations.
I’ve accepted the surrender of Raven’s soldiers and secured his support, so my business with Raven is done. Of course, if he breaks his promise, that’s a different story.
Here is the interior of the central bunker on Thule Island.
I captured Raven and easily walked in here. There was no resistance. Raven had already issued the surrender order.
With the surrender order confirmed, no one wants to be the last fool to surrender. Thule Island’s defenses collapsed faster than expected. Now, all that’s left is…
The Teleportation Gate.
A supernatural phenomenon that can be considered a replica of the ‘Mahogany Door,’ which once served as an entrance to the Infinite Library, retrieved from Yulje-myeon.
The Teleportation Gate opened, and the Korean ‘Blue Dragon’ Special Forces, fully armed, came through.
[Special Task Force Blue Dragon, ready for combat.]
I nodded.
“From now on, we will take control of the central bunker on Thule Island. The enemy has surrendered, and you are authorized to eliminate any resistance.”
One more thing. I handed the soldiers a box of ammunition. They knew very well what was inside.
“You all know what this is. It’s a stimulant. If injected into the injured or recently deceased, there’s a chance they’ll come back to life.”
The Blue Dragon members saluted me.
Search begins.
It shouldn’t take long. The important thing is how well and how quickly the Blue Dragon Task Force can secure the facility.
The Blue Dragon squads entered the facility with soldiers carrying human-sized shields at the front. I followed one of them with my gun.
“We’re heading to the command center.”
Even though we’re deep inside the facility, there’s still a way to go to reach the deepest part.
Thule is a well-hidden natural fortress.
In other words, I honestly doubt the soldiers guarding Thule Island, completely hidden and protected from the outside, have ever seen real combat.
Judging from their response, it doesn’t seem like they have.
The response to my attack, the brief resistance, and now the surrender process. Thule Island was not properly prepared.
An army that has experienced real combat, an army trained with real combat in mind, and an army that hasn’t. These three are bound to be very different groups.
The Blue Dragon Task Force expelled most of the people inside the facility. Most followed orders.
The military discipline inside the facility had collapsed long ago. There were people in military uniforms, but I hadn’t seen anyone armed yet.
We soon secured the central control room of Thule Island. I could finally see what kind of place Thule Island was.
They must have been in a hurry; they left the computers on. The control room, which should have had dozens of officers and operators, was empty. They must have all fled.
The soldiers kept watch.
I sat in the central control room’s main seat and fiddled with the Foundation’s interface. It was easier than I thought to take control of the room.
After pressing a few buttons, sirens started blaring across the island. I’m not sure why I couldn’t hear the sirens properly.
“Ah, ah.”
This time, my voice was connected to a massive speaker system. I cleared my throat.
“This is Administrator Dr. Kim. As of now, control and command of Thule Island’s Foundation assets have been transferred to me. Please comply with the Foundation’s control.”
“Let me repeat. Command over Thule Island’s Foundation activities has been transferred to me. Those on Thule Island, please cease hostile actions against the Foundation and comply with control.”
Thule Island was smaller than I thought. There were civilian residential areas, but not many people.
The Foundation occasionally used it as a port, but even that wasn’t certain. They said it was the source of magic, but most of the island was covered in concrete. Nothing impressive.
The only unusual thing was the tree growing in the glass dome at the center of the island. The local researchers called it Yggdrasil.
[It must be a supernatural phenomenon.]
The Crystal Clock muttered.
Of course.
A tree called Yggdrasil, grown in the center of a magical island under a glass dome, couldn’t be an ordinary tree.
While the Blue Dragon Task Force secured the central fortress, I moved to check out Yggdrasil. Let’s see what this is.
I looked up at Yggdrasil.
There are more than a few supernatural phenomena claiming to be the World Tree. In the end, this Yggdrasil at the center of Thule Island was just one of them.
I hadn’t researched it yet, so I could only guess. Maybe it was the source of the mysterious power protecting Thule Island.
As I looked at Yggdrasil, I noticed something strange. The tree seemed to be cradling a glowing sphere, like a chicken with an egg.
At first, I thought it was an egg, but upon closer inspection, it wasn’t. It was more like a glowing sphere. I squinted and looked again.
“It’s a door.”
A door leading to the Garden.
It looked just like the door to Cernunnos’s Garden I had seen in Korea. It probably connected to the Garden.
As I said, the Garden has been with the Foundation for a very long time. Another link.
Until now, spatial movement in and out of Thule Island had been blocked, so the gate seemed inactive, but I couldn’t be sure.
The center of the Ivory Tower. Nanami pointed the tip of a spear at Iris’s neck. A replica of the Spear of Longinus, a weapon said to be capable of killing gods.
“If I said I foresaw this, would you believe me?”
Nanami shook her head.
“Sounds like pride.”
“I see.”
“Just get up already.”
The Administrator stared blankly at the soldier. Nanami held the Spear of Longinus upside down and poked Iris with the blunt end.
“I’m disabled and can barely walk. Don’t you have a wheelchair? Or a stretcher?”
“What.”
Nanami frowned.