Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Actor and Audience (3)
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The arena's lights stabbed at my eyes.
A heavy roar battered my ears. I narrowed my eyes as Asil and Ricardo dragged me along.
The pale corridor came to an end before I knew it.
We arrived at the fighters' waiting area, separated from the arena by iron bars.
A room with three or four milky-white plastic benches. The front was barred with iron grates, the back sealed by a solid wall.
A couple of players sat there with hollow expressions.
The mafiosi shoved us inside.
Kwang!
The door slammed shut with a deafening clang.
Barbie scowled and glanced back. But the two seniors supporting me paid no mind to the roughly closing door.
The two seniors dragged me to the bench in the corner without a backward glance.
I was quickly seated on the long chair.
"Thank you."
I said, satisfied with my vision that was no longer swimming.
"I'm okay now."
Ricardo snorted.
Asil completely ignored my words. The silver-haired senior twisted around to look at Ricardo.
The ex-cop senior asked calmly.
"It'll be individual matches, right."
"Probably... that's how it's been so far...."
[Everyone!]
The announcer's voice rang out from beyond the bars.
Heads turned in the waiting room. I squinted too, taking in the arena flooded with blinding light.
I couldn't see the announcer.
But his booming voice pierced my ears perfectly.
[We have a special guest today!]
Ha....
Already cliché.
I wished he'd get to the point.
But no such luck.
The announcer floating in the air shouted in an excited voice.
[A match that won't come again! A legendary showdown you can only see here, today! The scene you've craved deep in your hearts!]
Barbie, who had been eyeing the door, approached with a sullen look.
She plopped down beside me, fiddling with her eyelashes. She crossed her legs and picked at the mascara smudged on her eyebrows with her long nails.
Asil stared at the arena with his arms crossed, and Ricardo rummaged for a cigarette.
We rolled our eyes, waiting for the announcer to finish.
The preamble dragged on. A torrent of flowery words poured out. Captivating, impossible to look away from, stimulating, thrilling....
[Black Badger!]
Waaaaah!
The arena shook.
As the cheers poured down, I blurted out.
"Do we get weapons?"
"They won't give us any~."
Ricardo stuck an unlit cigarette in his mouth.
"That'll make it more stimulating...."
"If the order isn't set, I'll go first."
Asil cut in without taking his eyes off the arena.
I looked into the senior's ice-blue eyes rippling with cold fury.
"If we have a choice."
[First, let me introduce the fighters!]
The announcer's shout drowned out Asil's voice.
My ears hurt. Barbie grumbled irritably beside me. I nodded in full agreement and craned my neck. There was a TV screen among the audience seats. It looked like something had appeared on that massive screen. It was so ridiculously large that from the bench near the bars, I could probably make it out.
As I awkwardly stood from the bench, the seniors whipped their heads around to look at me.
Ah. I'm fine now, really.
"I'm just going to the front bench."
[Black Badger's first participant!]
Too noisy to talk.
[Barbie Winter!]
The seniors froze.
I froze in place too.
Widening my eyes, I stared at the screen beyond the bars. Being standing, I could see part of it. The screen in the center of the arena showed a familiar face.
Her bright yellow hair elegantly tied up.
Barbie slowly rose.
"What the hell is that?"
Her voice trembled faintly.
"What are they doing?"
[Barbie Winter. Physical age 28. Actual age 54.]
Crazy bastards....
My stomach twisted. I knew we'd drawn lowlifes. I knew our lives were at stake. I even thought I might have to watch a senior die.
But I hadn't braced for this.
Even if I'd expected humiliation, not this kind.
The announcer's voice echoed through the arena.
[Yes, that's right! Public recruit Black Badger, Barbie Winter. Daughter of Claudio Winter, owner of chains like Go-Kur, Walden Pie, Humble, and more! Few know now that the girl who clutched wealth from the cradle failed model auditions until she was 23. That was 31 years ago!]
"What? What the fuck?"
"Block your ears.... Nothing good will come of listening."
"Senior, ignore it."
[But some of you might know this! The blonde rich girl who dreamed of modeling but failed—yet luckily became a Badger and kept her taut skin. How she'd strike poses during missions inside the Core to get caught by paparazzi!]
Laughter laced with mockery poured out.
[How she couldn't let go of modeling dreams and posted glamorous photos on SNS after every mission!]
Barbie's photos flashed across the screen. Light selfies uploaded to SNS, paparazzi shots from missions, news photos.
Photos from who-knows-where flickered by at a nauseating speed.
I felt sick.
I whipped my head toward my senior.
And shifted to block her view of the screen.
"Don't listen, Senior."
"I'm not."
Barbie's face flushed red as she ground her teeth.
Her fury-filled eyes glared savagely at the arena. Her clenched fists trembled.
She huffed, then shouted.
"I've never once posed for cameras on a mission! I don't have the skills for that!"
"They're mocking you because you didn't do anything particularly wrong."
Ricardo replied in a stiff voice.
Clear hatred and contempt burned in his deep green eyes.
"They had nothing else to feed the crowd.... Winter, block your ears."
[Ah, but some of you might find this one even more intriguing than her. Far more famous than the rich girl struggling to model 31 years ago!]
If I get out of here, I won't let Jaeyeon live.
I swallowed surging rage and clenched my fist.
But the vulgar mockery didn't stop. Barbie's outburst of curses was buried under the announcer's smooth voice.
[Second participant. Police traitor, Asil Fisker!]
Waaaaah!
We pretended not to notice Asil flinch.
Hating the reality that we couldn't shut up that announcer's face.
The loathsome voice rang through the arena.
[Yes. Our dear Asil Fisker. The Asil Fisker we all love! Look at this photo. Him standing stunned at the police chief's assassination site. This composition, this expression! I've said many times it's Pulitzer-worthy! Yes, that's him. The detective who failed to stop the police chief's hit! The traitor who botched protection and fled to the Badgers! He alone survived unscathed! The chief died, his partner died, but he walked away without a scratch!]
My God.
Jaeyeon was his partner back then.
Amid the jeers and cheers, I stood as if struck on the head. Seeing Asil go pale, I knew what he'd been through.
Jaeyeon....
No, Colton killed the police chief. Using Jaeyeon's hand.
And Asil witnessed the truth.
He should have died with the chief too, but survived thanks to Jaeyeon's whim.
But no one believed his truth. Those who trusted him died for unknown reasons or vanished. In the end, only critics calling him a liar or insane remained.
So at some point, he left the police. Alone with a truth no one believed.
In a daze, I took in the senior before me.
Asil was furious.
Standing frozen like a statue, blood drained from his face.
The other seniors showed no reaction. Ricardo frowned, watching Asil's state but not speaking, and Barbie clutched her mouth, pale as a ghost.
Only after a while did I manage to move.
Looking into Asil's blazing blue eyes, I scraped out words.
"I believe you."
Asil blinked.
I couldn't promise to find and arrest the culprit with glib words.
But I said the best I could.
"The truth you alone witnessed."
His eyes widened.
But the silver-haired senior couldn't respond. Nor could I reply to his bewildered, astonished gaze.
Because the jeers, cheers, and vulgar broadcast never let up.
[Third participant. Ricardo Sordi!]
Waaaaaah!
The most fervent cheers yet rocked the arena.
Asil and I turned our heads at once. We looked at the senior staring at the arena with arms crossed. The most veteran of this mission. The war hero who survived the Second War.
He stared beyond the bars without a twitch.
The empty arena flooded with stark white light. The massive screen in the center of the audience seats and the old photo on it.
Clearly taken outside the Center Core.
The green-eyed senior gazed at the photo with a smile on his lips.
His eyes weren't smiling at all.
[A war hero who fought and survived the Second War. Ricardo Sordi. A celebrity. Even if you haven't heard of Asil Fisker or Barbie Winter, you've heard of Ricardo Sordi.]
The announcer didn't scream like last time.
But the subtle glee in his voice disgusted me.
[Black Badger's pride, boasting top skills inside and outside the Core! Many fans from his skill with guns and spears. His neat fashion sense and deep green eyes that crescent into smiles are charm points too.]
Jeers and whistles poured down.
The announcer's repulsive voice drowned out the whistles.
A creepy voice.
[But few know he's the son of a mafia boss based in Sicily.]
Ah.
Skar came to mind.
So that's the story. I hadn't wanted to know in such detail. I kept my eyes on the arena, unable to look. I lacked the courage to check Ricardo's face right then. Even what I'd heard from Skar had been heavy enough.
His personal history, unpermitted to hear, echoed through the arena.
[Giovanni Sordi revived a declining mafia. A legendary capo.]
A photo of the presumed Giovanni Sordi appeared.
[To rivals, pitiless as blood and tears. But he loved his family more than anyone.]
The announcer began recounting Giovanni Sordi's life. Loan sharking, drugs, sex trade, gambling. His countless crimes listed glamorously, then contrasted with family anecdotes.
During the graphic recounting, Ricardo stayed deathly silent.
No anger, no special expression.
The green-eyed senior only spoke after the announcer gleefully finished, "The legendary capo perished in the flames of war."
Ricardo chuckled softly.
"Thorough background check...."
"Senior."
I couldn't hold back and called to him.
The man raising one eyebrow expressionlessly.
The moment I tried to speak to the senior who'd taken interest in me since I fell to Earth, the mic crackled.
[And the final fighter!]
Ah.
[The rumored rookie!]
I turned my head.
I saw the massive screen go black.
As if it hadn't been brightly lit moments ago, it was pitch dark.
[A mysterious man with not a single past photo!]
The screen showed no sign of lighting up.
[No parents, no birthplace, no search history to find!]
As if saying there was nothing to show.
A second life built on deception.
Cheers swelled. I quietly took in the screen that wouldn't light. Until the audience screamed at the blank display, and the announcer's booming voice buried it all.
Amid the heated cries,
[Hildebert Talib!]
My name echoed through the blindingly bright arena.