Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: Chapter 10 Lead and Silver Coins (32)
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[Screen 9453]
“Sniper fire... the sniping has stopped!”
“Clear all cover! Any live positions with chargers or cannons, call out your numbers on this channel!”
“27th cannon! Operational!”
“9th cannon half-destroyed!”
“3rd cannon good to go!”
“42nd cannon! Two... three shots on stored capacity!”
“No need to aim—just blast away! Secure some space!”
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[Screen 4271]
“‘Eye,’ the box is ready.”
“That endless void which once seemed so impossibly distant... now right before our eyes. What of the ‘sheep’s’ evacuation?”
“It’s complete. The caves prepared for this moment will suffice.”
“And the battle situation?”
“Just as they said. After heavy sacrifices, the Dome’s horde has gained the upper hand.”
“Excellent. Then... is the martyr ready to open the box?”
“...Gloriously so.”
“...You’ve worked hard all this time, Shepherd Bernard.”
“No need for such words. Becoming fertilizer for the new world—that’s the true value of our labors, isn’t it?”
“I had hoped you’d remain as shepherd to the sheep.”
“...Please take good care of my children. O Eye that lights the path.”
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[Screen 8223]
“Mikhail Pletnev.”
“Ashfield. Then as now, we always meet amidst the corpses of my subordinates.”
Click—
“Pant, huff! The 38th District execution chief running the field himself? Isn’t that a bit much?”
“Against former Raptor Swarm Alpha, it’s barely enough—hardly excessive.”
Thud—roll...
KABOOM!
.
.
.
.
Rustle—
“...Damn it all! What the hell is this for! You’re the only one among all these lunatics here who actually gives a damn about the Dome! You know damn well what happens if we let those fanatic bastards have their way...!”
Bang bang!
“Yeah. So I’ll kill you quick... then go deal with them!”
“Damn it, you haven’t changed one bit, you bastard—!”
“...As chief of the Enforcement Division, I commence execution for the 2,400 citizens you burned in the 52nd District Dome four years ago.”
—Bang!
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[Screen 64]
“I have observed you! At the end of peril, you shed the husk of humanity layer by layer, reborn as a true adversary! Come forth, wolf! I shall forge you into my ultimate end!”
“Goddamn it! Surviving an anti-tank mine is bullshit! How the hell do you even kill that rotten furball!”
“Did I not tell you? Sever my breath with your sharpest claw! Cast aside petty tricks and face me once more!”
Crunch!
Bang!
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Click. Click. Click. Click....
In a vast, dark ruin somewhere.
Endless screens illuminated the darkness, where a man in a white suit faced a small girl.
“...And so, as shown on Screen 2359, the Dome’s reinforcements have lost most heavy weaponry yet turned the tide in their favor...”
“Could any situation suit the word ‘watershed’ more perfectly?”
“...Happy Blind will soon fulfill its duty, and the box has completed final preparations, heading to its position.”
“Yes. Everything flows according to your plan, W. No one holds the advantage; they devour each other evenly, the battlefield strewn with the greatest number of fallen lives. The people you gathered wandering the 30s Districts, the Dome’s 38th District residents, and the countless mutants and humans lost in this battle. Orpheus will resound with a high, beautiful voice matching the sorrow she faces within the box.”
The girl, Collector, gazed at the ever-businesslike W with a wistful smile. Poor man. If there were gods, why create us—self-aware beings trapped in someone’s nightmare?
“...With all the lead actors on stage, my room to intervene is minimal. From Screen 1493, the survivors’ talk—”
“W. Don’t you know? Such radical actions go against Father’s will—and I don’t welcome them either.”
“...Visiting small survivor groups, planting subtle wedges in public opinion would suffice...”
“I resent you, W. Our contract wasn’t meant for moments like this.”
“......”
For the first time since arriving, W’s ceaseless report halted.
“A method crafted for you, who cannot linger in one place by your own will, only through others’ tasks. Yet you’d commit acts I despise just to stay by my side? If I break this contract for Father’s sake—”
“Then I’ll find another way.”
As his body began fading the moment their exchange turned from business to true conversation, W reached toward one of Collector’s myriad screens. [Screen 29]. It showed a man in white suit and mask.
He did not waver. It was nearly here. The end of a lifetime’s wandering shimmered before him.
“...Even that hatred and resentment—emotions I can only receive at your side. I gladly endure—”
Swoosh—
The white-suited man vanished before finishing two sentences. W must have detailed every minute event in the 30s Districts just to linger here a bit longer, knowing full well how viscerally she loathed such deeds.
“Father. In this broken world... is there truly still a chance?”
Every screen brimmed with blood, death, agony. In her eyes floated Father’s face, speaking of hope amid this hellscape.
“God, huh... well? At first I thought it was me, but after a proper thrashing, my thinking changed. Whatever it is, something superior to me exists. Superior to this android Gedroits? That’s gotta be God. If that bastard made this mess, he’s planted the solution somewhere too. ----, I intend to find it now, to atone for my arrogant past mistakes.”
Hope sought per Father’s will. The screens illuminating them winked out one by one for myriad reasons.
Even now, like that man pursued by Noho, seeking to face his past.
“Please... become the path.”
The girl, trailing countless tendrils like antennae, clasped her hands.
The screen she knelt before showed a man holding a box shuddering as if its contents might burst forth.
Orpheus. The era’s worst mass-slaughter weapon, a fusion of flesh and machine.
The man’s hand bore no hesitation as he flung it open,
—SKREEEEEE!!!!
And as his head exploded, a piercing melody began resounding across the battlefield.
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Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Thud, boom! Crackle crackle!
Before its sound arrived came the bloodspray erupting like fireworks in the distance.
Indiscriminate fountains from humans and mutants alike, surging like an invisible tsunami.
If anything, it was fortunate. Staring wide-eyed to shake the pursuing corpse-tiger had let me spot the onrushing bloodspray early.
The instant I saw 2.5-types collapsing intact amid the decapitated masses, I maxed Bubble Shield output without hesitation.
—SKREEEEEE!!!!
“Guhhhhh!!!”
An eerie noise piercing my lungs. Followed by pain beyond words.
Like my back split open, spine scraped by a blade. No—like nails pried up to embed knives, clawing bare earth; skin flayed, nerves plucked one by one, crushed in a mortar; killing me with death, death, death...!
Grrrrr!
[Snap out of it!]
“Gahack! Huff, huff!”
Nearly fell for it—spitting out the breath I’d unwittingly held.
Consciousness returned with the sharp bite of cheek-flesh. Reality’s pain and illusion’s yanked at my mind in turns; head spun from thick blood-scent.
“So they used it after all. Orpheus... Thought I could relax since it doesn’t distinguish friend from foe... but it ignores that entirely.”
No idea their preparations, but this dwarfed the distant echoes from inside 38th Dome. Bubble Shield’s total isolation meant nothing as visions burrowed into my skull.
The battlefield, once screams and blasts, turned surreal: eerie melodies, heads popping, living things crumpling.
“Guhhhh... grraaah!”
Riiip!
Buru’s state behind me was dire too. Exposed raw to Orpheus without shield filters like me, he hadn’t died but seemed utterly deranged.
“Out of my way... get that face away! I overcame you! I’m not that wretched past self clinging to life! You can’t mock me with that face! I’m not you! I’m Noho Buru, not some regret-spawned memory-scrap!!!!”
Rip! Rip!
Tearing his near-human skin revealed decayed beast-flesh beneath. Buru slashed fiercely at the hallucination before him.
‘Whatever... this is my chance. The chance I’ve longed for.’
Common mutants headless corpses, but 2.5s merely down—some twitching, others rising. Renewed assault inevitable.
Our lines? Dire. Shields drained in the melee, survivors fighting bare or linking last batteries to gear. Most frontline troops dead, some rising as 2.5s, others 3s.
Only those near max-output gear shields survived, guarding remaining equipment.
One activation reduced two armies’ war to skirmishes.
‘This... old-era strategic weapon...!’
Not mere killing. Indescribable... like offloading colossal agony. Couldn’t shake the sense my sensations stemmed from others’ experiences.
‘Orpheus’s original dev purpose. And GG dev team tech... pure malice beyond imagining.’
Suddenly struck me: in this vast field, I alone could stop it.
Near-total ally wipeout.
Friends’ fates unknown.
Versus me: pain-hardened, Hyde sub-persona resetting my mind endlessly; squad-to-platoon firepower personally; strength to shatter alloy gear.
Never believed in fate, but grateful for this luck.
In wrong hands, this could end the world.
Pain intensified root-deep approaching; memories flashed like a montage: 38th, 47th Dome passersby; faceless 47th chat companions years-long; Chief Yeong; Audit Division; Ezhel; Bex; Ian; Dana.
“...Unscathed guy’s gotta step up.”
No grand reason. Just hated imagining myself sole survivor.
Crack!
Joints twisting. Rare but fresh; tame vs. ‘Hero Professor’ days.
Agh!
Like yanking teeth raw, grinding gums. Fresh one. Vision blurred briefly, but clenched teeth stifled the groan.
Dragging shredded body, leaden legs through myriad phantom pains toward the altar.
—Boom.
Piercing the silence, an encouraging blast echoed from distant rocky hills.
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