Chapter 93 – Masquerade Party (7)

Clack, c-clack, clack.

“Excuse me… Mr. Manager?”

“….”

Siiip—

“…Argh! Manager Mon, sir!”

Sip!

“Agh, that’s hot! Let me drink my coffee, can you? What is it this time? Can you shut your mouth for just five, no, three minutes, Ezel?!”

The Department Manager of Investigation, Ralph Monclair, was about to go mad at his subordinate who, unlike the other staff who were quietly checking their gear for emergency standby or resting, was chattering off to no end even while doing paperwork.

“Exactly how many times do I need to tell you? This matter has already been decided! The Director already stamped it! That operation to tame Old Picture or something is under the Executive Department’s management! And 100% of it at that! There is no reason for us to interfere!”

“And so why is that Executive Department messing with the monster that the Investigation Bureau sealed up, sacrificing hundreds of lives, and managed for the past several years?”

Ezel was frustrated to the point he could die. He didn’t understand why those stupid idiots went into the Central District during these critical times or what exactly happened to those skilled people who came out of Area 45 with pockets full of loot and seemed to have triggered Old Picture.

Siiiiiip—

To Ezel’s question, Monclair silently sipped his coffee and then opened his mouth with a slight grimace on his face as if irritated. He was always a bit crooked, and not just in his hat and clothes but in his attitude as well. That must be why Ezel was so good at finding flaws in things that were similar to his.

“Ezel, you should know that this current period is an incredibly important time for both the Dome and the Investigation Bureau.”

“….”

“I’ll take that silence as a sign that you will stay quiet while I talk. There’s almost no information that was given to me as well about this mission.”

“Even to you? Is the information classified even to the Manager levels?”

“Yes. It’s that important and shady of an operation. From what I managed to learn, they handed over almost half of the interest to the Underdome to get the information on the entire operation briefing. The Director thinks that their plan is certainly going to fail. If the Director becomes mayor, that interest will come to us anyway, but it’s better to take it easy if possible. You know how it is down there. Criminals are guys that try to control people with drugs. You don’t know how many people are going to get hurt trying to find all of those connections in that spaghetti of wires. And it’s not like the weird project succeeding is going to affect the voting results much anyway.”

“But… isn’t it a problem that the plan is going to fail? Just two years ago, when it went completely berserk, not only did the actors die, but all of the staff did as well! And there were a lot of casualties from the Investigation Bureau calming it down too!”

“Huh? You weren’t in the IB when that happened. How do you know it so well?”

“A student usually knows the history of their group the best. It was written in bold letters on the IB Officials’ test book as a proud achievement of the Investigation Bureau.”

“Was it? Anyway, there shouldn’t be anything we need to worry about. Though we are rivaling the Executive Department, that also means that those guys are strong enough to rival the Investigation Bureau. They have also experienced the chaos Old Picture can cause, so there shouldn’t be a situation where it shows its true body as well. I’d say the worst it’ll get is triggered in the shoe and doll collector mode. The people nearby might have a bit of an aftereffect from the mental attacks, but that’ll all get better after they rest for a few months.

Tap tap.

Monclair lightly tapped Ezel’s shoulder, who had an incredibly worried expression on his face.

“I’ve heard you are acquainted with the BDSM members. Don’t worry. Nothing is going to happen. Unless the Executive Department is a group of idiots, there’s no way they’ll push Old Picture to its lim—”

[GRRRRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!]

At that moment, a pained cry rang out through the entire Area 47 region.

Ziiiiing—!

And through their minds, they passed on the tragedies of the past.

“M–Manager? This is….!”

“W… What did those Executive retards f—ing dooo?!!”

Monclair, who had been leaning on a comfort chair like a lazy bear, got up and roared to the others while enduring the familiar images that overwhelmed his mind.

“Investigation Bureau! All troops prepare for departure! Arm yourselves with high-density deflective shields! Thunder Clap! Get everything else ready yourself! Anything that can get ready, pronto!”

“When do we do something about the doping? It might take a while to get granted permission in such a sudden—”

“I’ll take responsibility! Cardiotonics! Relievants! The ones who are nauseous right now get the Whale Riser as well!”

Monclair rapidly shouted out the orders as he got into his Exosuit. Even if they are already getting ready right now, it’ll take 10 minutes to prepare the proper gear to neutralize the monster. If Old Picture approached the Dome and succeeded in screaming inside the city shield even once, 20% of the city was going to suffer from depression. It wasn’t just minor depression; it was a state where it could directly lead to suicide. They had no time nor intel.

It was a moment where they needed to harden their resolve. Their resolve to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the greater good.

‘I’ll take the body without armor and go buy some tim—’

“Boss! What’s taking you so long? I’ll leave you behind if you’re too old to move with me anymore!”

While Monclair had been thinking about his life insurance, Ezel had already finished getting into his Exosuit and was calling to him with the hangar door open.

“Wh…. you’re already ready?”

“I actually had everything prepared so I could sneak out!”

“That’s disobeying commands, you bastard!”

“A soldier prepared for battle to the point he disobeyed commands! Isn’t that promotion worthy right there?”

Whiiiir— Clack! Whiiir— Clack!

When he dragged the Exosuit out with no other preparations done, he saw Ezel, who already seemed to have finished doping as well.

A nonstop blabbermouth.

Mentality that doesn’t break down into any discipline.

A man who moved only at his own pace and was casually joking around, fully prepared to go, while the others were still rushing to get ready.

“There’s no one more suitable…”

“What? I can’t hear you!”

“I’ll give you a reward when we get back! Start heading out! The first response is the most important when dealing with Old Picture’s main body! The two of us will head out first and deter the monster!”

“Wait a minute! I just turned on my body cam, so say it one more time! That you’re giving me a reward!”

“Shut up and turn up the output! We’re moving at max speed! The destination is the center of Area 47, the model garden! Don’t worry about the battery, and turn on the highest-density shield! Psychowaves are waves, too, so it’s decent at blocking them out!”

“We’ll talk about that reward again when we get back! I’ve heard it with my own two—”

“I’ll reward you when we get back, so just go!”

Clunk— clunk— clunk—!

And with that, two Exosuits surrounded by a transparent bluish shield jumped out of the hangar connected to the outside of the Dome and started to run toward the center of the chaos.

Meanwhile, at the Central District’s model garden, Ian, who had been bracing for the impact, got directly hit by the psychowave and immediately collapsed down to the floor.

“Grrrgh! Aaaaghh!”

It was a horrifyingly oppressive wave of memories. The merciless rant of a monster that blanked out the brain cells of a person and overwrote them with its own life.

No matter how much he covered his ears, it wasn’t enough to block out its psychowaves. In one eye, Ian, who was struggling to get up from the floor, was looking at the giant getting up from the underground, but the other was wandering through the past of the human called Dojin Kim.

=====

He was a father. Another person who worked under a monthly salary and finished the day with a can of beer and some sports on the television, then looked at his sleeping son to harden his determination to live another day. Just a normal man.

=====

He could see it. The man’s face. He had a fatigued, slightly slim face, but one of a proud father for protecting another peaceful day of his family.

Old Picture’s memories flowed through his mind like a long river of pictures.

Skyrocketing oil prices.

News reporting about grave events daily.

Markets were emptied of resources from hoarding.

A child complaining about being unable to go outside.

His wife’s depression only got worse by the day.

Riiiiiiiiiiiing—!

Ian collapsed back down onto his knees after just barely managing to get up.

Dojin’s warm gaze toward his son stabbed into Ian’s heart like a blade.

“Damn this….. S—…. This is why I don’t like storytelling….”

Once the memories deep within its heart surfaced, amplified by the long time they had been suppressed, they swirled through the minds ferociously and despairingly.

His child. He also once had a child to protect and a wife he loved.

‘Daughter. My daughter. I promised on the day I saw you walk with your two feet that I would put everything aside and become a person of whom you could be proud to brag to others. Yet I still bear blood on my hands every single day.’

Thudd!

Thud-d-d!

He could faintly but clearly hear the sounds of something hard splattering onto the ground. The snipers that had been on the roof fell down. Did they lose their balance from the shock? Maybe. If it had been just one or two of them. But if the count was more than the number of fingers on one’s hands, it may be hard to call that an accident.

Every single living surviving in this world with despair in their heart. From the effects of the monster’s mental attacks, they have decided to end that despair eternally.

‘I envy them.’

It was a thought that unconsciously made it into Ian’s mind. I want to go meet them. The sorrowful longing within his heart filled beyond what it could hold and leaked out as tears down his face. As the tobacco he managed to keep in his mouth burned down, the thick layers of regret traveled through his lungs and out into the world.

There was a gun in his hand. Unfortunately, one with only blanks inside it. Can blank shots also kill a person? If he shoved the barrel up to his head and pulled the trigger, would the shock be able to make it to his brain? Can he finally make it back to his family’s safe arms?

Just as the horrid thoughts overwhelmed his mind and he slowly raised the muzzle to his head, in the distance, he saw someone he had been watching from the start collapse. Its curled-up, shaking body went completely limp.

Gyosu Park, Professor, Hepburn. His friend had been called many names. Though he was ten years younger than he was, Ian internally looked up to him.

Twenty-four. If it had been before the disaster, he would have been in college or just starting his life as a member of society. No, he would have just been a high school student when he participated in the war.

However, he survived that battle. Not only did he survive, but he also succeeded in protecting. That one little thing that countless people in the Wastelands threw away without hesitation in order to endure it all. That one thing that made its empty spot known was when the moon was too bright and the skies were too blue. He continued to hold it close to him as he made his way through this crazy world.

‘As fast as his mind thinks, that’s how many more thoughts he has.’

He could see it. As a person who left behind the heart of a human and became a cold-blooded killer and saw the eyes of countless people who met their end, he could clearly see the conflict within the eyes of the person Gyosu Park every single time he pulled the trigger. Because he also once felt that emotion within his own heart.

‘You’re always thinking. Although that doesn’t add hesitation to your movements, you always think of the reason why you had to kill that person and add that burden to yourself. That you killed them to survive. And because you killed them to survive, you need to live your life that much more valuably.’

It wasn’t that he just helplessly cried from guilt. The man had a stronger will to live than anyone, and he used the guilt that came from his kind heart as a reason to push himself that much more. In this current world, exactly how many people add the weight of something other than the spring at the end of their gun?

Gyosu had that. Something shining that no one living in the Wastelands could bear to ignore and walk past. Anyone who has encountered him could not describe his merciless ability to pull the trigger for his survival as kind.

But they could say he was humane. Gyosu is humane. More than anyone else he has met until now. It wasn’t a bright light that lit the world with its brave kindness but more like a torch that lit the path within a pitch-black darkness.

And that light was currently dying in front of his eyes.

With a calm expression that had not a single iota of regret.

Through his heart, which had been wandering in search for comfort, a small strand of anxiety was made. He could feel his heart start to race.

Ian knew that expression. It was the same one that his wife made as she was left behind in a city that would soon disappear. During the last moment, when she smiled at him.

He swore he could hear his wife’s voice. The voice he heard back when he was still a hunting dog of the Raptors and was being scolded in the hospital bed.

‘What exactly are you doing out there?’

.

.

.

.

His wife had placed her hands on her waist and scolded him, who was known as the most savage killer and fighter in Raptor.

Putting down the empty gun, Ian used his hand to grab the cigarette in his mouth.

P-p-plop—

“Hahhhhh— Molly. Even if death has taken your sweet breath from me, it hasn’t taken your nagging, my love.”

Tap, tap, tssssss!

After shaking off the burnt ashes of the cigarette, he rubbed the fiery tip against the top of his collar, where his skin was the thinnest, to extinguish it.

With the smell of burning flesh, the sizzling pain pulled him out of his foolish longing for eternal rest and back into reality.

“Molly. You and Joanna….. will have to wait a little longer for me. I know it won’t be too long, but there’s this guy I want to watch over for a while.”

His limbs felt heavy, and the relentless waves of the monster’s sorrow continued to wash over his mind, but Ian decided that he was more than able to move now.

“It looks like my life was a little s—tier than that monster guy over there, and I still managed to live through it. I guess why not continue to do so.”

Ian decided to stay in the uncertain, depressing reality for a little longer.

P-pt!

The moment strength returned to his body, Ian ran straight towards where Gyosu had collapsed. He heard a gunshot, but there wasn’t any need to worry about it. The sounds of the shots that came from above were not pointed down but to the side.

Rustle—

‘He’s still breathing. He isn’t dead yet. He’s still alive!’

But looking at the blood flowing out of his nose, he wasn’t in a state that was stable at all.

That psychowave had made him, who was quite a distance away, feel like his brain had melted down. Gyosu was much closer, basically right in front of Old Picture, so the impact of the wave was on a completely different level.

“….Hold on and don’t lose your balls, Gyosu Park! I just threw away my chance to go meet up with my child waiting for me to come back to these damned Wastelands!”

Ian smiled savagely as he saw Gyosu’s finger flinch as if answering his call.

“Yeah, don’t think of running away by yourself, mein freund (my friend).”

After taking off his top uniform and securely tying Gyosu to his back, Ian ran towards the alleyway that was about two blocks away from them. In the distance, he could see Vex, covered in blood, crawling out to the street by pulling his body forward and using the bayonet as a crutch.

He was a little dull, but he always got the job done better than anyone else.