Chapter 54
“…I spoke with Liza.”
“Ah…”
Andrei was someone who knew the detailed circumstances. Enough to guess what kind of conversation had taken place.
“Yes, then you must have talked about that…”
“…”
Mason was someone who lived in a world with a low population density. Low population density meant that the density of emotions and relationships was also shallow.
He knew about conflicts between people, but it was only within the realm of knowledge. He had never experienced it directly.
To the man of tomorrow, raised in a sterile room of malice, the black, turbid, and sticky human malice, like tar, was truly like a deadly poison.
Even if it wasn’t malice directed at Mason, even if it wasn’t malice that Mason had experienced.
Just facing it, no, simply becoming aware of its existence, was enough to break Mason’s spirit…
“I talked about that.”
…It was fatal.
Screech.
“Boss.”
Andrei turned off the shower.
“Shall we go for a drink?”
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The place Andrei took Mason to was a secluded bar in a back alley.
The middle-aged bartender, who was wiping glasses, glanced at Andrei and Mason and then returned his gaze to the table.
“The bartender is also one of us. You can talk freely.”
As Andrei and Mason sat at the bar, three glasses of whiskey, which they hadn’t ordered, were placed in front of them.
“…?”
At the same time Mason looked closely at the third glass, the sound of clicking heels filled the bar.
The person who walked in through the rain was a familiar face.
“…Kacha.”
Yekaterina sat down next to Mason.
“It’s been a while, Mason.”
“…Yes.”
Yekaterina raised her whiskey glass. She only slightly wet her lips and put the glass down.
“You have a lot of questions, don’t you?”
“Liza talked about Auschwitz. You talked about Hitler. Then…”
“Yes, your thinking is correct, Mason.”
Yekaterina nodded with a bitter expression.
“Hitler learned about pseudo-humans because of me, and Liza was dragged to Auschwitz because of Hitler.”
“How many elves are left?”
“Two. The first elf, Liza, and the last elf, Celine.”
“How many, just how many died?”
“Before Hitler, the six elf tribes numbered in the thousands in total.”
“All dead? All of them?”
“Yes.”
Yekaterina spoke in a voice devoid of emotion, no, a voice that did not mix emotions.
“Do you know a place called Treblinka?”
“I don’t.”
“Auschwitz was a labor camp. It was for ordinary lower races like Jews and Gypsies. Pseudo-humans were taken straight to Treblinka.”
“What is Treblinka?”
“An extermination camp. An industrial slaughterhouse for humanoid creatures where they are pushed into gas chambers upon arrival.”
Mason swallowed his whiskey. To swallow the nausea.
“Most elves were taken to extermination camps. Only a few lucky elves could go to labor camps thanks to the sacrifices of their fellow elves or errors in paperwork. Liza was among the lucky few thanks to the desperate sacrifices of her descendants.”
Crash!
The whiskey glass in Mason’s hand shattered.
“Lucky? How can you call that lucky?!”
However, no one in the bar was surprised or reacted to Mason’s outburst.
Only Yekaterina spoke in a voice suppressing her emotions.
“Because she survived.”
Yekaterina said quietly.
“Liza survived. But… she lost her reason for living. Only the duty as the last survivor of a race remained. She sought the culprit behind Hitler to fulfill that duty, and eventually faced me.”
“For revenge?”
“No, it would have been easier if she had… She prioritized her duty over her emotions.”
“What was that?”
“Survival.”
Yekaterina said.
“Let the survivors survive. That was the order Liza gave me.”
“Why?”
“There’s no more mystery or the unknown in the world now. There’s no place to hide, so they had to live among people whether they liked it or not. But most pseudo-humans were hermits or lower class people who lived in hiding. They didn’t understand diplomacy or politics. The only king they knew was me.”
Even with her superhuman self-control, she could no longer hide the sorrow that seeped through her words.
“Because I’m the only one who can do it, she ordered me. To rule the pseudo-humans and make them survive. To use them as tools and sacrifice them if necessary to make more of them survive.”
“…Twisted.”
A twisted queen of a twisted people. A bond connected not by love or respect, but by hatred and disgust.
It was truly a relationship that could only be called twisted.
“So that’s why you were trying to create a nation of players? A nation of pseudo-humans disguised as players?”
“Yes.”
“Then… why do you expect something from me? You can just build that nation, can’t you?”
“The best I can do is build a nation of players. But that won’t be the best outcome.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because there’s already a failed case.”
“What’s that?”
“Israel.”
Yekaterina made a bitter face.
“The Jews built their own nation. They gathered money and power to create a sanctuary where they would no longer be oppressed. But… to create and protect that sanctuary, the Jews are persecuting and oppressing those weaker than them.”
The hand holding the glass was trembling, and Yekaterina reflected in the whiskey was also trembling.
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. The Jews are becoming the very beings they fought against. Violence begets violence, so only the direction of violence changes. Even if I build a nation of players, it will eventually become like this.”
“…”
“But this is the best I can do. This is my best. So I can only hope.”
Yekaterina tilted her glass.
“For a savior who will save me, who will save me who saves the pseudo-humans.”
“…Is that me?”
“Yes.”
“I… I’m just a fighter.”
Mason hesitated and then spoke.
“…I don’t know what I should do. What I can do. You’re smarter than me, how can I help you? I can’t even help one person like Liza, how can I save all the pseudo-humans?”
“I can’t see the future. What I see is fate (命運). Only the vastness of the possibilities that a person can achieve.”
Yekaterina smiled faintly.
“I don’t know. You might become a huge disaster, incomparable to Hitler. Or we might not be included in your great achievements. But… I only know one thing.”
Yekaterina looked at Mason.
“That you can do what I can’t.”
“…”
“Can I consider you hope? Can I rely on you? Even someone like me, can I believe that I can be saved?”
“I don’t know.”
Mason said with a calm face.
“I don’t know what I should do. And what I can do.”
Disappointment and frustration flashed across Yekaterina’s face.
However, Mason’s words weren’t finished yet.
“But… I won’t turn away.”
“…!”
“Even if I can’t find an answer, I’ll think about it. Even if I can’t achieve it, I’ll try. Your pain, Liza’s pain, the pain of others, I won’t run away from it, I’ll face it.”
Mason made an awkward expression.
“…Well, I don’t know if there will be a good outcome.”
Drop.
A tear rolled down from one of Yekaterina’s eyes.
Tears that were not of sadness, but of overflowing emotions, flowed without her permission.
“…It’s enough.”
She said in a choked voice.
“That’s enough. Just knowing that you’re on my side… gives me hope.”
“Don’t expect too much. I’m not like my uncle, I’m not very smart…”
“You’re not very smart, are you?”
Yekaterina said with a chuckle.
“I just said that’s enough.”
“…Ah, is that so?”
“Yes, Mason… being Mason is enough.”
Yekaterina leaned forward and rested her head on Mason’s shoulder.
“…That’s what hope is.”
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The operation to recapture the player fortification base in Yongsan District.
The operation, commonly known as
The government’s preparations were thorough, and the players’ progress was also easy.
The Holy Knights were a raid team whose main job was to cooperate with the government, and the Revengers had the experienced and resourceful Seo Yeonhee. The Forest Guard was also responding efficiently, as expected of Heavenly King’s raid team.
One week after the plan was established.
It was the moment when Operation Castle Defense, the first step towards retaking Seoul, took its first step.
“Alright, is everyone ready?”
Liza and Sung Kijun responded to Mason’s question through the communication network. Mason looked at Oh Junghee, who was riding with him, and she nodded.
“Then… let’s go.”
Three camp vehicles, and seven trailers of the same class carrying supplies and heavy equipment.
It was a large-scale operation consisting of a total of ten super-large trailers.
Liza’s Forest Guard was a raid team that emphasized mobility. They were adept at hit-and-run tactics, as well as moving shots that quickly moved and disrupted the enemy during engagements.
If ordinary raid teams like the Holy Knights used a formation where the main tanker held the enemy tight and the rest dealt damage from safe positions, the Forest Guard used tactics where the entire raid team moved quickly to control the enemy’s movement.
Thanks to this, they were unmatched in guerrilla warfare in difficult terrain like forests.
Sung Kijun’s Holy Knights boasted a special formation consisting of three main tankers. It was an unavoidable choice for them, who lacked firepower and recovery, but conversely, if they cooperated with an organization that could supplement their firepower, their stable defense shone.
“HQ, Revengers, departing.”
However, what overwhelmed them all was the Revengers, led by”Destroyer”Mason.
Originally, it was a deformed raid team specialized in firepower, especially ranged firepower. With Mason, who could engage in 1:1 combat with raid bosses, at the forefront, and Andrei, a sub-tanker at the main tanker level, as a reserve force, they displayed overwhelming combat power that was incomparable to any other raid team.
Boasting a power comparable to two or even three ordinary raid teams, they were truly the strongest raid team in Korea, no, in humanity.
Three of the top ten Korean raid teams.
The three raid teams, their swords and spears gleaming, had an overwhelming power that made the onlookers’ hearts swell with grandeur.
“Let’s go, to Yongsan.”
The trailers started to move.
