Translator: Dreamscribe
The land of the white nights, Russia.
It had been one of the mightiest nations on earth, governing a vast territory, repelling countless invasions, and boasting military power rivaling that of the United States.
But who could have possibly predicted it?
That Russia's glory would be stopped in its tracks by Ukraine, of all places.
"......"
Russia's president, Patin, found his worries deepening yet again today.
The trophy ant to crown the final chapter of his life was Ukraine.
And yet the codian who used to clown around in front of him had beco Ukraine's president and was still fighting back, holding off Russia's advance to this day.
Fine. That much was acceptable.
Countries all over the world were making noise about helping Ukraine, but very few were actually providing aningful assistance.
They all talked a big ga on the surface, but deep down they were quietly hoping for the sa thing.
For Ukraine to just surrender already and let Russia take over the territory.
That was why they had all been dragging their feet on peace agreents and the like.
Given enough ti, Ukraine would collapse from within and beco a Russian vassal state on its own.
Ukraine was fracturing.
As always, it was because of the people at the top.
On top of that, soccer players and other celebrities with money were being exempted from service under the pretext of serving the national interest, which only fueled the public's anger further.
"So if we just wait a little longer, Ukraine will collapse on its own. That was our calculation."
Russia had been patiently waiting, banking on exactly that kind of internal collapse.
But then sothing blew up from a direction they never expected.
"We never imagined China would collapse first."
When the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, the United States and Europe ca out swinging with fierce criticism of Russia. Europe in particular had been raising its voice even louder, gripped by the fear that if Ukraine fell, they could be next.
The action they took was economic sanctions.
Freezing the assets that the Russian governnt and oligarchs had hidden overseas.
Over 300 billion dollars had been frozen, and exports and imports were blocked.
"We had at least been rerouting natural gas to Europe through back channels, but even most of that got cut off. That's why China was so critical for us."
Natural gas and oil accounted for nearly 50% of Russia's trade revenue.
When those were blocked, Russia had found another way to make money.
It was by partnering with China, shipping resources to them, and having China resell them to other countries.
It was sanctions evasion, plain and simple.
"And now that China, which had been fulfilling that role, has ended up like this, our Russian economy is shaking badly."
But China had collapsed.
The most reliable thod of circumventing sanctions had vanished.
"On top of that, with the civil war in China raging on, refugees are flooding across the border into Russia."
"It's not just civilians crossing over. Ard groups are coming with them, just like in North Korea, and they're creating chaos along the border."
With China's collapse, the Russian economy had effectively reached the brink as well.
And with Chinese refugees streaming northward alongside ard factions that had lost their battles, the situation grew even more dire.
"We're in no position to take in refugees right now, are we?"
"Correct. The problem is that the refugees are using ard groups as a vanguard to force their way into Russia. That's why we're bringing this proposal to you."
"You want additional troops deployed to the border?"
"Yes."
Patin let out a short sigh.
"To deploy additional troops along every border we share with China, we'd have to pull a significant number of forces currently stationed in Ukraine, you realize that?"
"That's correct."
"Then we'd be handing Ukraine an opportunity to counterattack. You think the U.S. and Europe will just sit back and watch?"
"But if we leave the border unattended, we'll lose territory to Chinese refugees and ard groups before we can even respond."
"......"
In short, it was a binary choice.
Pull troops out and deploy them to the border, giving Ukraine an opening to strike back.
Or stand by and watch the border descend into chaos because of the Chinese.
"Can't we split it evenly?"
"The border is far too extensive for that. Frankly, even if we pulled every last soldier out of Ukraine, it still wouldn't be enough."
Patin clutched his throbbing head.
How had things deteriorated this far?
If China had just held together, none of this would even be a concern.
To make matters worse, Trump, who had been sowhat friendly toward Russia, had lost the election, and Aiden had reclaid power.
Who knew what that wily old fox would do to keep them in check.
His already-thinning hair felt like it was falling out even faster.
* * *
With Trump losing the presidential election and Aiden taking power, global markets that had been on edge finally found so peace.
Trump had declared that if elected president, he would renegotiate trade agreents with every country that had one with the United States and slap tariffs of at least 25%.
"If Trump had won, the already-shaky global markets would have been rocked even harder."
"But the markets are already in this state. Would it really have been that much worse?"
"When everyone's already tightening their belts as much as they can, that man with zero sense of reality would have absolutely done sothing insane."
"Ugh. Thank God Trump didn't beco president, CEO-nim. If he'd been elected, who knows what would have happened by now... When he got shot and started screaming at the top of his lungs in front of the crowd, even I thought, 'That guy's definitely going to be president'."
A tiline where Trump beca president.
If such a thing had actually existed, what would the world look like right now?
"He probably would have dropped tariff bombs, triggered a global market depression, and ironically the non-U.S. markets might have bounced back while Arica beca an even more irrational place."
"Co on. No way."
Even if Trump was out of his mind, surely he wouldn't go that far.
Well, it was all hypothetical anyway.
The current president of the United States wasn't Trump. It was Aiden.
"President Aiden seems intent on pressuring Russia on all fronts, as expected. In coordination with NATO, the EU, and others."
Trump had been dogged by suspicions of shady ties with Russia.
On top of that, he'd boasted that if he beca president, he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine imdiately.
The odds were very high that he would have eased sanctions on Russia, cut off support for Ukraine, and pursued an Arica-first agenda.
"Aiden sees helping Ukraine as the greater benefit. Russia had avoided scrutiny for years because there was no justification for sanctions, and Ukraine handed him that justification on a silver platter. Between the economic sanctions and draining Russia's national strength, Aiden would want Ukraine to drag the war out as long as possible."
Of course, since it was Arican taxpayer money funding Ukraine's support, public discontent was inevitable.
But if you have the ans to keep your most powerful adversary pinned down, using it to the fullest is simply good national strategy.
"And apparently, they're planning to tighten the economic sanctions even further. With China's sudden collapse cutting off Russia's exports entirely, the Russian economy is in a state of ergency."
Russia had been using its ally China to circumvent economic sanctions all this ti.
But with China gone as a conduit, Russia now faced a serious crisis.
And Aiden wasn't about to let that slip.
"He did the sa thing with China. The man really does know how to apply pressure."
"Yes. That's exactly why he managed to overturn that impossible election and win a second term."
He'd been branded as running a do-nothing administration.
Yet as if none of that had ever happened, he revived his presidency and even won reelection. The man was impressive, no question.
"The problem is that Bitcoin is included in the sanctions targets."
As the saying goes, when whales fight, the shrimp get crushed.
That was exactly what was happening now.
"Apparently around 300 billion dollars in Russian assets are currently frozen worldwide. And the White House seems to believe that hundreds of billions more in Russian funds are sitting in Bitcoin."
"Is there any way for us to verify that?"
"No. It's an open secret that Bitcoin is widely used for criminal funds. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to tell whether a given coin is actually criminal money or just an investnt."
But the U.S. was calling on Europe and Asia to join in on the economic sanctions.
What would happen if they refused?
"There would inevitably be repercussions for Korea. Especially for its corporations. But if we blindly follow Arica's lead and enforce the sanctions, Bitcoin will nosedive. The whole appeal of Bitcoin was that it was free from central governnt control, and we'd be proving that wrong."
That was why they needed a clever approach.
"So the KW Exchange held an internal eting and ca up with several proposals. This is the list."
I looked through the list carefully.
There were opinions suggesting they just lock up every suspicious coin as the U.S. wanted, and others suggesting they ignore the whole thing entirely.
But none of them triggered my instinct.
"...?"
Then my eyes stopped at one entry.
"AML?"
Anti-Money Laundering algorithm.
An AI would flag suspicious funds and freeze them in place, preventing the money from moving.
"But it's not a permanent freeze. The funds are frozen for ten days for investigation, and then released."
"So... it's just for show?"
"Yes. If we actually froze everything for real, the situation would beco critical. Everyone would panic-sell."
Then people would flee the KW Exchange, now stripped of trust, and one of the subsidiaries they'd painstakingly built up would shut its doors for good.
There was no guarantee that such a massive company wouldn't collapse.
Even China had crumbled from internal strife in this world, after all.
"......"
Doing things just for show.
It didn't exactly sit well with .
But if my instinct was tingling like this, perhaps this was the best option for now?
* * *
Oligarchs.
The term referred to those who had beco plutocrats after Patin seized power.
This group of Russian tycoons known as oligarchs had pledged their loyalty to Patin, and in return, they had driven out the existing business elites, seized their assets, and claid the power they held today.
That was why they remained loyal to Patin.
But if forced to choose between money and Patin, every last one of them would pick the forr without hesitation.
"But... what do you an it's frozen?"
Abrahimovich was stunned by the news that ca in during the eting.
"Apparently the KW Exchange has implented a new system and is conducting a large-scale asset freeze."
"Those crazy bastards! If they do that, Bitcoin's price will turn to toilet paper!"
"However, they're not freezing the funds permanently. They'll freeze them for ten days for investigation and release them afterward."
The oligarchs, who had already gathered for a eting about the China situation, could feel their mouths going dry.
"They're not using Arica as an excuse to steal our money and spend it, are they?"
Everyone knew that the White House was already under Kwangwoon's thumb.
For Kwangwoon, which controlled the White House, to suddenly buckle under its pressure and join the sanctions made no sense.
"This is a threat, plain and simple."
Abrahimovich was furious as well, but he forced himself to regain his composure.
"Why ten days?"
Had it really been just for show?
No.
Kwangwoon, which was pulling the White House's strings, had no reason to care about Arica's opinion.
Then what was it?
They could have just seized the money outright without giving any grace period.
"To soften the market impact? If they just took our money however they pleased, Bitcoin would crash instantly. Maybe they're trying to prevent that?"
"No. If that's what they wanted, they would have done it already."
What was the reason Russia was struggling this badly right now?
Kwangwoon.
"Those bastards blew up the pipeline to block our natural gas exports and seized control of the oil market to shut that down too. And the only lifeline we had left, China? China also got torn apart because of Kwangwoon."
Kwangwoon had been slowly tightening the noose around the Russian oligarchs' necks.
"And now they're going after the last thing we have left, Bitcoin? Our final stronghold, worth hundreds of billions of dollars!?"
And giving them ten days to work with... what did that an?
It ant they had that long to make a choice.
"A choice about what, exactly?"
"What choices does Russia even have right now?"
"That would be... a ceasefire with Ukraine?"
"Right. But a ceasefire is effectively impossible. As long as Patin hasn't taken all of Ukraine, he has no intention of agreeing to one."
In other words, as long as Patin remained in power, a peace agreent with Ukraine was off the table.
"S-so you're saying we just sit here with our eyes open and let them take every last cent we have? To Kwangwoon, of all people!?"
"Or......"
Abrahimovich tapped the table with his finger.
"We could choose a different path."
*****
TL Note: This novel has now been fully translated and is available for Patreon readers.
*****
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