Empire of the Ring

People in civilian's clothes in a military camp were usually just civilian employees or people who belonged to intelligence groups. They usually treated common soldiers without respect since they looked down on them.

Youngho would look exactly like one of the two kinds since he was in civilian's clothes at a military camp. He had asked for a cigarette to a soldier shamelessly and even asked why he was there.

"Your daily routines should be done now. What brings you here?"

The soldier was reluctant to answer. He seemed nervous.

"It must be something you can't share. Okay, you can do your job and leave."

"Thank you, sir."

The soldier thanked him and saluted Youngho. Then he hastily reached to a chain of many keys on his waist and opened the entrance of the warehouse.

Youngho's head spun due to the cigarette smoke because it had been so long since he last smoked but he pretended to be fine and scanned the inside of the warehouse through the open entrance.

The lit warehouse was messy with all sorts of tools and disassembled guns. The warehouse that the soldier had opened was a gun repairing shop.

The soldier quickly grabbed a plastic bag that was located underneath a table and left to the direction of the barracks after locking the entrance. The plastic bag showed the form of what was inside it. It seemed to be a bottle of liquor. The soldier's superior must have gotten the liquor through some kind of route during the day. Now that their daily routines were over, he would have assigned his underling to retrieve it for him. This kind of situation was common in any military camp.

Most of arms repair shops in a military camp were not strictly guarded. The only thing that was locked was the entrance but windows were not carefully taken care of. Many soldiers would smoke during the day, so windows were always open and even when the shop was shut at night, people did not care to lock them.

As Youngho had guessed, the windows on the side of the warehouse building opened without any resistance. After getting into the building with ease, using his enhanced vision, he looked around to see if there were any useful arms.

Most of the weapons in a regular military camp would be easily fixed by replacing parts and lubricating. It was because there were not a lot of high-technology weapons. Especially Russian weapons were simple and sturdy that many of them could be easily fixed by precise disassembling and reassembling even if they seemed to be broken at first. This meant that any of the weapons in the shop could be used by Youngho.

Just in time, a weapon that stood out among others was spotted by Youngho's eyes.

At one corner, a newly fixed portable rocket launcher was nicely displayed on the display stand. Now if he could find some rockets, he would be able to bombard the oil pipeline.

"What took you so long? I was about to fall asleep."

Jong-il was careless even though his friend had risked danger to sneak into an enemy's camp.

"Dude, I was so nervous I thought my balls had shrunk."

"What made you took so long? It doesn't seem to be so complicated."

"I had a hard time locating rocket launchers."

"Oh, yeah? Well done."

"Dude! At least pretend to show some sympathy for your friend."

Not caring whether Youngho was upset or not, Jong-il began checking out the rocket launcher.

Three rockets were taken from an armored vehicle standing nearby the warehouse. Because Youngho did not have something to carry the rockets, he took an old military uniform that was in a corner of the armored vehicle and wrapped it around the rockets.

"They'll freak out if we blow out three different parts."

"Before we get to Georgia, let's mess up with this camp just a little. I think the whole unit will flip out if we mess up with the oil tank."

"Man, we'll be sweating a lot this time."

"I've already come up with a plan to get paid for our sweat. Just wait."

"…"

Not knowing what Youngho was talking about, Jong-il only blinked his eyes.

He had no idea that this operation was a claim for damage that would make up for what Youngho had lost because of Russia. He was only thinking that they were doing it to distract Russia.

***

The Caucasus Mountains in late September was quite chilly.

Chechnya was sized as Gyeongsangbuk-do Province in Korean. It was located at the north pardon of the Caucasus Mountains between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Most of the country's regions were at high altitude, and the winter started in October.

"Man, it's chilly. Let's not try to camp outside in this weather. Why don't we blow out the pipeline tonight?"

"Because of the Chechen rebels, the security of the oil pipeline is strict now. I say we should wait until tomorrow. I don't even want to go over the mountain in the dark."

It was not a good idea to climb a mountain at night. There were too many obstacles and because of the uneven surface, it could drain people out pretty quickly. Therefore, Youngho refrained from climbing a mountain in the dark, especially when he was in the enemy's ground.

As the night fell, it got even colder.

The two made a fire but their backs were still cold.

"What could we have done if we didn't bring parka?"

Since Youngho had visited Chechnya multiple times before, he prepared something warm to wear and a sleeping bag.

"What did I do wrong in my previous life that I get to sleep in the open so often like this?"

Jong-il grumbled as he put on his parka.

"Well, we've got to do what we've got to do. We can live a comfortable life, but we always get ourselves into something bigger than us."

Youngho felt sorry for Jong-il.

Establishing the autonomous state was irrelevant from Jong-il but he was always the one who was dragged into what Youngho had started.

"Hey, hey! I didn't mean to blame you for this. I was just wondering if we weren't from the special forces unit, would we still be doing something like this?"

"All I can say is that everything is possible because we have the ring and leather shoes."

If it were not for the mystical rings and leather shoes, which gave supernatural power for people who put them on, Youngho and Jong-il would not have risked coming here and getting involved in dangerous matters.

"I still don't understand this. So, exactly how did the people with abilities to make these magical relics fall? And why wouldn't people like that appear in this era?"

Youngho also did not understand why.

The relics that were in his hands had the power to annihilate any enemy before him. If these had fallen into bad people's hands or if there were still people who could make these kinds of relics, the world would look different by now.

"I don't know and there are so many things that we don't understand. The old literature did not mention anything about them. It just said that they'd show great supernatural powers in time. I didn't believe it at first."

"Your ring's color is turning transparent, and your physical abilities are enhanced but a single thing had changed with me."

Youngho wondered why.

This could only be affecting a person that the ring had chosen or maybe it only happened to the first person who found and touched the ring.

Come to think of it, Szechenyi also did not show any change. The color of his ring had changed until a certain point, and then it stopped changing its color. The ring maintained Szechenyi's health, but other than that it was nothing more.

"I am the chosen one."

"Oh, boy. It's a supernatural relic but I don't think it's conscious."

It was a mystery.

Could the relics have chosen for Youngho, who had cleaned them carefully after he found them? Could they have made him attracted to Fatima?

One thing he was certain was that he was drawn to her from the moment he saw her, regardless of the truth of the rings and leather shoes. If connecting him and Fatima was a destiny set by someone else, it would make sense.

Youngho shook his head.

It is a matter that would take him some time to figure out.

For now, he would have to focus on destroying the oil pipeline.

Many people would suffer for this but this was the only option he had to stop Russia from its expansion plan towards the whole world.

He was also determined to make up for the loss this time. He would, in fact, make more than he lost from the commission given by Eriksson through the Information Agency.

***

"Those guys look like they're specially trained. Look at their equipment! They're just like American soldiers."

Jong-il spoke in a nervous tone as he looked down with his telescope.

The sections that were easy to access were all occupied by three soldiers as a team. They wore special armors. Their trenches were also hidden quite well that even Youngho and Jong-il could have overlooked them. They almost looked like bunkers.

"Jong-il. Let's go to other sections where it's not so easy to access."

Flat areas were easy to attack but it was easy to be attacked back in reverse.

"I should've brought a sniper rifle, man."

"We'd get found as soon as we fired a shot in this short distance."

There was no guarantee that the enemy would not have a sniper as well. Also, they must have great communication network between trenches. Youngho and Jong-il could fire the rocket and run but that would fail to fulfill their plan to shoot three shots.

They might get trapped in the mountain of Chechnya even though they had the mystical leather shoes since they could be surrounded by the enemies. They decided to look around other sections to find a spot where the security was not tight.

Investigating here and there in secret, another day passed.

"Man, we really underestimated the level of security here."

The Russian government was strictly guarding the oil pipeline. The two could not find any chance to get in there.

"Do you think they might have known ahead that we were coming?

At Jong-il's remark, Youngho felt a prick at his conscience.

'Could Eriksson's agency have messed things up? Or did he sell the information to someone that's connected to the Russian government?'

However, there was no way for Youngho to find out the truth for now. He decided not to doubt without any leading clue. Eriksson and his relationship were based on trust and if that trust was damaged, he would not be able to have business with Eriksson anymore.

"How would they know already? It's only between us. There must've been terrorist frequent attacks lately."

There might have been several attacks on the pipeline by Chechen rebels even though they were not featured on TV news.

"It doesn't feel right that their security is too tight."

"We should strike several sections where security is not so tight tonight."

It was the best to bomb different sections, leaving some space between them since that would elongate the restoration work. Bombing only one part would only take a few days to fix by shutting down the pipeline valve and replacing the damaged section. Then, there would be no point for Youngho and Jong-il's attack on the pipeline.

"Hey, why don't we blow up the pressurizing facility? That'll delay the repairing process."

"Would three rockets be enough?"

"We'll first fire two shots and fire another when the oil and gas leaks. Then it's going to make a bigger explosion."

"We shouldn't make it too big, or it's going to have a huge aftermath effect."

"Hey, you came here to commit a terrorist act. Now you're worried for others? What an irony!"

Youngho worried that if he made too big of damage, the economy of whole Europe would shake but it was already shaken by the Crimean Peninsula situation.

"Alright. Russia will retreat from the Black Sea only if something big happened in its courtyard."

A pillar of fire rose high to the sky.

Youngho still felt the heat although he was standing 400 meters away from the fire. As heavy smoke reached where he was standing, Jong-il tapped him on the shoulder. He was ready to leave.

The oil pipeline's pressurizing facility was being consumed by a fierce fire.

That much of smoke and light could be caught by a satellite. Now that the work was done, the two had to get away as far as they could from the pipeline.

The two flat out ran toward Urus-Martan for about 90 kilometers with the help of the mystical ring and leather shoes. Even running 30 kilometers would be extremely hard for specially trained people, especially if it was on a mountainous path. However, the two had to distance themselves that much, so they would not be suspected.

Only after they could see the light of a city under the mountain, they wiped their sweat and began to catch their breath.

"Man, there's nothing more spectacular than watching the fire burn. What a waste."

"My heart is still pounding like crazy. It startled me to see how high the fire pillar went up."

"You don't remember the fire on the oil exploration ship in the Baku's sea?"

"That was half water and half oil, but this is an explosion of both gas pipeline and oil pipeline at the same time."

They truly had done something big.

Russia would have to spend at least two to three months to restore the damage.

All there was left to do was to mess up with the rearguard Russian unit in Urus-Martan before leaving. Then, Russia would have to solely focus on the region of Chechnya. When Russia's profit line was in trouble, the government would not be able to focus on other matters.

There might as well be the second and third terror attacks on the pipeline. The Chechen rebels or Islamic radicals might mimic the terror attack, thinking that it was effective on the Russian government.