Sovereign of Judgment

Full name: Alexei Romanovich Ivanov.

Alexei was a 15-year-old boy who had come from Russia. He was also a famous Berserker who was amongst the first to awaken through the {Ring of Rebirth}.

The reason why Alexei, who was Russian, joined Korea’s main clan, Choi Hyuk’s ‘Berserkers’, was purely because of Lee Jinhee.

He fell for her at first sight after coincidentally watching a video of her fighting. He came to Korea and became a member of the Berserkers partly because of his puppy love and longing, and partly because he seriously respected and wanted to learn from her.

Although he was young, like many members who were the first to awaken, he had lost his family and had become an orphan so he didn’t have anything holding him back. At first, he used the Language Resonance Device to converse with Koreans, but perhaps it was because he was young, he quickly picked it up.

Alexei was tagging behind Lee Jinhee. Lee Jinhee looked at Alexei who appeared to be holding filming props and let out a sigh.

“Lyosha, Youtube again?”

‘Lyosha’ was a nickname only his family members and close friends could call him. Out of all the Berserkers, Alexei had only told Lee Jinhee his nickname. There was a time when a Berserker shouted, ‘Hey Lyosha!’ and that day, an intense fist fight broke out. Although he was a boy with a small figure, Alexei was an expert as one of the first to awaken, and the majority of the Berserkers never called him Lyosha after that day.

Only Baek Seoin would occasionally tease him with a ‘Lyosha~’. Alexei had become famous for never replying back.

“Yes! Please take care of me, Director Lee Jinhee!”

Alexei replied in fluent Korean and began to film. Lee Jinhee said, as if dumbfounded.

“Just from where did someone like you join our clan? You should have gone to Jessie’s clan, why’d you come here?”

Jessie was a popular American sovereign. He was handsome and had gained popularity from both his stylish fighting style and lectures on fighting techniques posted on Youtube. He liked to be in style and was known for being showy. Even the name of his fate was ‘Superstar’. ‘Superstar’ was a fate that increased his karma the more his fighting techniques were complimented and the more people were influenced by his techniques. It matched well with Jessie. As the sovereign was like this, his followers were the same. The fighting lectures and best battle videos that dominated Youtube were mostly from Jessie’s clan.

Lee Jinhee often teased Alexei, who liked to film, with this.

And whenever she did that, he would hop up and down.

“What mean words…! I have no interest in those with flashy outer appearances. The legit ones are those that are compact and fatal! And if you combine that with Director Lee Jinhee’s beauty! Keeu…!”

“The heck…”

As if embarrassed, Lee Jinhee pressed her hat down.

“In any case, for Baek hyung to permit something so useless… Haa.”

“Useless?! How is filming Director Lee Jinhee’s techniques and using them as the Berserker’s training aids useless?”

“You said you’re going to release it to others.”

“That’s to promote ourselves. You can’t ignore the effect of promoting ourselves. Even I came running here after watching a video. You need to show something cool if you want to gather really talented and passionate clan members. Berserkers are already known for their small numbers, and the flow of new recruits is declining as more time passes. Promoting ourselves is very important.”

“Brrr…. Did you know you’re saying exactly what Baek hyung said?”

“Although Director Baek does a lot of useless things, I think he really did well with this decision.”

Alexei replied without a moment’s hesitation. Of course, his heart was filled with happiness for being able to film Lee Jinhee’s movements to his heart’s content and being able to show such treasures to other people.

“Haa… I don’t know. Anyways, what I am going to teach today is running vertically using karma.”

Lee Jinhee eventually surrendered and looked away from Alexei to stare at a building in front of her. It was a high-rise apartment with 30 floors. Lee Jinhee put her foot on the wall.

“There are two main methods. One where you focus on body control and another where you focus on your karma control. First I’ll show you the method focusing on body control.”

Lee Jinhee jumped slightly and stepped on the wall with her right foot before dropping down.

“In parkour, we usually tilt our upper bodies back when we step on walls. If we don’t and we lean forward, our bodies get too close to the wall. If we do that, our strength isn’t applied vertically but horizontally, and we slip. Like this.”

Lee Jinhee explained with her words before showing a few good and bad examples.

“We can now apply original parkour movements to go up even further. I mean, our physical abilities have completely changed, right? First, you run towards the wall faster than before. The trick where you lean your upper body slightly back and step is the same. It’s like shooting towards the wall like an arrow. Next, you need to move your body in rhythm. The movements of your upper body and toes are important. You need use your toes to create thrust while you still have vertical momentum to go up the wall. At the same time, you need to lean your body forward and kick upwards. Then, when you step forward with your left foot, you need to lean back slightly to get a better grip. And you repeat that. Like this.”

Lee Jinhee swiftly dashed forward and ran up the wall of the building. Her body swayed rhythmically. Her breathtaking balance between her toes and body was beautiful.

Alexei filmed her figure with a blank expression.

Lee Jinhee, who had climbed to the top, shouted,

“This is the technique that focuses on body control. Now I’ll teach you the second method! If you are confident with your karma control, you can move karma between you and the building and grip the wall yourself. If you try hard, you can even do this.”

Lee Jinhee walked down the wall. She used her rotating karma to grip the wall. As if gravity had been reversed, she walked down the wall to the ground naturally. A few drops of sweat hung on her forehead.

“Even though I invested a lot into Control because my trait is Explosive Blood, it’s still not easy. However, those guys with the Mind’s Eye trait should have an easier time. Also, in my opinion, the best method is combining these two techniques.”

She said before going up and down the wall a few times. She used her karma to create a decent grip while performing effective movements to minimize her karma consumption.

Alexei filmed each movement with shining eyes.

After she finished her demonstration, Lee Jinhee came down and said.

“That’s enough. Stop filming.”

“No, a bit more…”

“Shush. Now you try, Lyosha.”

After refusing Alexei’s right to talk, Lee Jinhee sat on the floor. Alexei ran up and down the wall while being criticized by Lee Jinhee and had even fallen a few times due to mistakes.

Lee Jinhee grinned while she looked at him. Although he said he couldn’t be bothered to, Alexei was a talented warrior, and she enjoyed teaching him. He was cute too.

“Lyosha! You have to move your hips there! Are you going to move like that?!”

“I’ll do it again!”

“Of course you will!”

Alexei and Lee Jinhee were, in fact, quite similar. They both became Berserkers because they longed to make everyone stronger.

Of course, not everyone felt that way.

**

South Korea was under martial law.

To be honest, they should have already declared martial law when unknown hemispheres covered Kangdong, Seongbuk and other districts. However, it couldn’t be helped but be pushed back until after the awakenees had returned because the military, including full-time reservists of the reserve forces, had all disappeared.

After the awakenees returned, and Choi Hyuk killed Song Simin’s group in front of the president, the South Korean president, Shin Woojin, did his best to not fall behind global changes.

He accelerated weapon production and established a new military called the Superpower Headquarters, which was an army of awakenees consisting of the surviving military, youths with conviction, and veterans from the Alliance of Comrades in Arms.

What he had been most concerned about was establishing a system to maintain the current industry. A way to keep people working in their companies and getting people to purchase items with Korean currency. He used all his energy trying to continue their normal lifestyle. Public order, economy, diplomacy, national politics, he need consider all of them.

Once it was predicted that there would be a food crisis caused by the international drought, he used his right as a ‘preliminary sovereign’. He mobilized awakenee troops to pass through a portal and created a new colonized land. He used the mission points of awakenees as currency to bring farmers, researchers, and miners over. Sometimes he would dispatch awakenee troops to protect Korean national treasures located overseas and to protect trade, which had become dangerous due to increased acts of piracy. He would either suppress internal conflicts with strength or compromise.

As it was impossible to conduct these acts under existing laws, he had activated martial law in order to be above these laws.

And there were two results. One was, like his original motive, that he somehow maintained their daily lifestyle. The other was… dictatorship.

It was like this. Presidents served terms. However, ‘sovereigns’, who possessed colonized lands and were essential to human survival, were permanent positions. As long as the survival of Korea rested on Shin Woojin, who was both the president and a sovereign, absolute authority and dictatorship had become expected.

Also, the new troops Shin Woojin established did not have the culture and order that came from a long history like the original military, and because they were hastily established, they couldn’t help but have problems with discipline and morals. However, because Shin Woojin needed them to maintain his authority, he didn’t aggressively restrain their deviations but rather accepted a moderate level of these acts and would occasionally encourage these acts to strengthen his footing. Illegal and evasive acts were committed as an open secret.

Because of this, safety was a distant goal. Chaos continued to spread. Disharmony would spread day after day, and each day would bring about more and more absurd rumors. Despite all this, normal people still went to work, shoved food they bought from the market into their mouths, and occasionally, even enjoyed dates… but the world had changed immensely.

Bars were packed early into the night. Alexei, who had finished filming Lee Jinhee, sat in front of the bar and drank a beer. No one cared that he was underage. In a world like this, minor rules like these weren’t properly upheld. This was especially the case for awakenees.

Alexei, who was drinking leisurely, poked a fellow Berserker next to him and asked.

“Hey, aren’t they ‘Super Soldiers{1}?”

Alexei pointed towards a table with three or four awakenees who were drinking and had their arms around women. The awakenee troops President Shin Woojin had established, the Superpower Headquarters. Their members shortened the name and called themselves ‘Super Soldiers’.

Although the nation propagated that they were martyrs who possessed ‘loyalty and patriotism’… they weren’t all like that. Like how the majority of any group were more interested in the food offered for sacrifice than the ancestral rites{2}. The police, military, and especially the Super Soldiers benefitted a lot during these times of extreme chaos. First of all, they had a free pass in any store. It could be said that it was a very good job that allowed one to enjoy all sorts of pleasures for free.

Perhaps it was because of this, but the relationship between the Super Soldiers and Berserkers was rocky. The Super Soldiers thought they were the best in Korea and believed that everyone else had to crawl beneath them, while the Berserkers subtly looked down on them.

So, as per normal, Alexei decided to provoke the Super Soldiers. Still sitting, he raised his voice.

“Since when did Super Soldiers crawl to this area to drink alcohol?”

There were many bars near Yeouido Park that catered to awakenees, but the ‘Frontier’ pub Alexei was currently in was a bar Berserkers frequented. This was why Super Soldiers didn’t usually come here to drink.

At his provocation, the drunken Super Soldiers, who were groping the women next to them, turned around in a fit of rage. However, Alexei stared directly at them and shouted.

“It’s okay you’re drinking here, but at least pay for your drinks. Okay?”

A very drunken Super Soldier tried to jump up from his seat when he heard Alexei’s words. If the person who looked to be his superior didn’t grab his wrist and sit him down, he may have tried to start a fight.

“Sit. He’s Alexei of the Berserkers.”

When his superior whispered those words, as if spitting them out, the Super Soldier, who had been about to get up, revealed a nervous expression. Alexei was well-known as an elite amongst the Berserkers.

His excitement died down when he saw they weren’t getting up, so he continued to drink his beer.

That moment, a group of Berserkers entered through the door. Alexei raised his hand up and acted familiar.

“Lee Kijin! You came here too.”

Lee Kijin was a man with a hazy focus in his eyes. He looked around at Alexei and smiled brightly.

“Ohh! It’s Alexei.”

Lee Kijin was a Berserker who possessed a similar ability to Alexei. He was also an elite amongst the Berserkers. He was also one of the comrades Alexei was a bit competitive with.

“Did you hear the news? The Sovereign Mission carried out by the leader! You were assigned to it as well, right?”

Alexei brightly asked Lee Kijin with a ‘You’re going to the party too, right?’ tone. As someone who longed for strength, he loved fighting more than anyone else and being assigned to a great mission like the Sovereign Mission was really exciting to him.

However, Lee Kijin’s reply was gloomy unlike Alexei’s.

“Well… I was assigned. How tiring.”

As he said that, his eyes really did exude an exhausted aura.

“Ha. As someone who goes crazy in the battlefield, stop being so coy all the time.”

As this wasn’t the first time Alexei had seen him like this, he ended their greeting with a raised glass.

Lee Kijin grinned, and the group of Berserkers joined the table of Super Soldiers.

“Huh? They knew each other?”

Alexei looked at this scene with a strange look. They chatting noisily amongst themselves, and not long had passed before they got up to leave.

Alexei suddenly shouted after continuously looking at them.

“Hey! Pay before you go!”

The Super Soldiers, who were leaving in a good mood, suddenly became angry and turned around at his words. Lee Kijin consoled them. Then he shouted at Alexei.

“They are my friends. Don’t mind them!”

At his words, Alexei tightly shut his mouth. Although he personally didn’t approve of eating food for free because they had a bit of power, he didn’t want to say something to fellow comrades who had gone through life or death situations with him.

Lee Kijin smiled as if thanking Alexei, before leaving with the group.

Alexei looked at them with a sullen expression before asking another comrade next to him.

“Since when were they close with the Super Soldiers?”

His comrade didn’t seem to know as he simply shrugged his shoulders.

________________________

{1} The raws say 초능사 which is taken from 초능사령부. Although this isn’t the literal translation, I chose to use ‘Super Soldiers’ as their short version instead.

{2} I couldn’t find a good English equivalent to this. It means putting the reward before the cause.

{TN} Alexei’s nickname has been corrected. It is Lyosha. Thanks to al103 for the correction!