Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Guild Master Isn't Satisfied with Just the Game
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Fullminak had entered the central country and even seized control of the internal territory system.
Just hold on a little longer.
Time to pull some strings.
"Binu."
["Huh?"]
"Request a truce."
["What?! You serious?!"]
"I'm just heading out to support Goldbunker for a bit."
["Aha...."]
Binu, who had been wondering what was up with Dart, finally got it and replied in the affirmative.
It was the perfect timing for Dart to be thoroughly enjoying himself—the battle with America had just the right amount of thrill to keep things spicy, making a sudden truce seem out of character.
But if Goldbunker was struggling and needed help, a truce made sense.
Still, for Dart—not Fullminak, but Goldbunker specifically—to step up personally? Binu couldn't help being inwardly surprised.
No way Dart came up with that on his own, even if they were allies. It had to be Kaisha who requested it, like 200 percent.
Brushing aside the unnecessary thoughts, Binu asked Dart.
["What if America refuses?"]
"Doesn't matter. It's just a ploy to buy time. Tell whoever we send to take out at least three lives the moment they get rejected."
["Got it."]
As he replied, Binu immediately picked Shiva in his head as the messenger to relay the truce request to America—the guy with a foul temper, zero fear, and melee skills that ranked in the top handful.
["Good luck out there."]
Dart left, and America accepted Spaceking's truce request without much fuss.
Because, in truth, America had already dispatched a few scouts, spreading them out to probe the central forest.
And before long, the central mechanized forces, having pinpointed the hunters' positions from the scouts who poked something they shouldn't have, came charging toward the Han-American front lines.
* * *
Boom boom boom boom!
Lenox! Are you out of your mind?! Snap out of it, Lenox! Lenox!!
The noise from the family members and elders banging on the door beyond grew sharp, then faded, repeating the cycle.
On the massive screen in the control room, the barrier sealing off the forest began to lower.
A vast primitive woodland stretched out.
They said that when this world finally met its end, the very last safe haven would be these dense, tree-choked forests.
People who survived thanks to the forest, only to erect barriers right in its heart once more.
Lenox, please! Open the door!
Boom boom boom boom!
The family was being a nuisance. If his reason slipped just a bit further, he might call in the soldiers and slaughter them all.
He wanted to yell at them to stop provoking him and get lost.
"......"
But as time passed, Lenox felt his mind growing stranger.
His head swirled with all sorts of speculations and possibilities about Lea's death, clouding his once-clear reason like storm clouds.
He could vividly sense it happening, fully aware, but he had no idea how to stop it.
It was a loss he'd never experienced before.
If he'd known Lea's death would hit him this hard mentally, maybe he wouldn't have let her go.
In this world where bearing children was illegal, she wanted to birth and raise life, preferring the living forest over the city of scrap metal.
Everyone knew Lea, who had abandoned everything to run off there, wouldn't live long.
Even in that forest everyone had forsaken, his twin shared love with others.
In Linoxa too, Lea was a being who gave love to all. Thanks to her, Lenox's mental stability was unshakably solid compared to the rest of the clan.
Lea must have lived well in the forest.
Her lifespan was short anyway—she knew it too—so there was no need to grieve over it coming a little sooner.
Lenox tried to persuade his emotions that way, then let out a hollow chuckle and closed his eyes.
"Ha."
I want to die.
Lea.
My eyes, my heart.
To Lenox, Lea was his twin sibling from birth, his mother, his universe.
When Lea, who saw the future, chose the most beautiful visions and chattered about them like songs in communion, Lenox brought them to life, sharing stories and ruling the world alongside her.
Even without her physical presence, they always felt each other's existence.
They shared inspirations constantly—the lovely, beautiful visions rising in his mind and the deep sense of stability kept them together.
But then, it all vanished in an instant.
The moment the perfect sensation of the god connected to the womb through unconditional love snapped like an umbilical cord, Lenox plummeted into writhing darkness, tormented by the pain of parting and separation.
The beginning of fear.
Thus, the flawless life of a god came to a close, and the churning human life amid fear began.
Whirrrrr!
The central governance system linked to Lenox detected its master's extreme emotions and interpreted the external situation.
[Danger!]
[Survival impossible!]
[Extreme crisis detected!]
[System administrator cannot handle this scale.]
[Recognizing worst-case crisis. Activating world-end program, 'Perfect Repose.']
Lenox—!!
A scream rang out.
Rumble rumble rumble—
Every screen in the central control room flooded with crimson warning alerts, and the ground began to shake as if collapsing.
No one knew who made it or why.
The program that would destroy everything inside the central country's barriers—the doomsday system someone had prepared for this world's final moments—activated.
The central country collapses.
* * *
Fullminak guild members who had crossed the barrier into the central country gaped in awe.
Lights flickered on in unmanned shops everywhere, and things like autonomous flying buses zipped through the skies on autopilot.
"Whoa whoa whoa."
"Totally a cutting-edge sci-fi city."
"Wow. Up close, it's almost all automated systems. But even with tech like this, they couldn't stop the world from ending."
"Humans gonna human, I guess."
"The tech's insane, but thinking about the outside world? Nah, not dying to live long here."
"Suddenly wanna go home."
"Speaking of, when can we even leave? No timer or anything."
"Like gates—probably ends when we take down the boss mob. That Lenox big shot or whatever, the top dog here."
The guild members chattered.
Ophen had used the gap from Lenox's city explosion to lead the group into the agricultural city next door where it happened.
Even late at night, the city buzzed with activity from people still awake.
Because of the neighboring district.
It wasn't visible well at night, but come daytime, they'd see that whole area turned to rubble from the blast.
This place was right by the barrier, so fairly quiet, and deeper in toward the center lay even more impenetrable mechanical cities—but Ophen had no plans to go that far.
Having brought outsiders in, Ophen scanned the surroundings for their guide.
Ophen met the "god"-like appearance standards revered in the central country. That made befriending locals not too hard for him.
Not everyone was friendly, of course, but plenty opened up quickly out of curiosity.
The "internal collaborator" they were meeting now was one he'd built a long rapport with that way.
"Ophen!"
Someone called out brightly to Ophen, running toward them, drawing all the guild members' eyes.
A woman beamed as she welcomed the group.
"This way. Uh, those kids though......"
Her puzzled gaze landed on the two children cradled by Kaisha's bound heroes.
It flicked briefly to Yugeon standing nearby, but he wasn't in central country garb.
Ophen said.
"Victims from the neighboring Celertician district. Found them fleeing outside the broken barrier and took them under protection. They say their mom's in the capital."
"Oh no! I'll definitely help!"
Even at night, central country residents kept chatting online, so the neighboring district news was the hot real-time topic everyone was on edge about.
She trusted Ophen, but that didn't mean zero doubt or questions.
Still, hearing mysterious outsiders had saved Celertician kids endangered by their own ruler's tyranny washed away any lingering suspicion toward them.
As Kaisha's bound heroes, Terra and Whistle, set the kids down, they toddled over to the woman, babbling about what they'd been through.
Trailing the young collaborator, a few guild members muttered among themselves.
"So this country's dictator went nuts?"
"Looks like."
"Hmm. Even crazy, he wouldn't just wreck a city for no reason."
"Probably some political crap we don't know about. But hey, doesn't that girl kinda like Ophen?"
"Dunno about that, but she's definitely into his looks. Central folks worship white hair, blue eyes as gods, and yeah, he's hot—temper's foul as hell, but still."
"True that."
Oblivious that Ophen—with his exceptionally sharp ears despite the distance—heard every bit and narrowed his eyes, Mino and Enker gossiped away.
By modern standards, Ophen was a tough-looking long-haired cool beauty with a razor edge.
His clothes seemed too stylish for a forest civilian, and sure enough, he'd been influenced crossing into central culture often.
The guide woman's outfit was quirky but pretty refined even by modern fashion sense.
It hugged the body perfectly, made of some super soft, comfy material.
Enker glanced back.
Beyond the sturdy, towering iron barrier outside lined guns and unknown mechanical devices densely packed.
They'd entered through a safe gap Ophen scouted ahead, but Enker had overheard him chatting with another civilian that the barrier's operations seemed fully halted.
["Territory system here!"]
A guild member raised a hand, alerting via guild chat, and Hyunwoo and others rushed over.
Half-expecting it, but it was real.
The central country had a territory system inside too.
"No way."
"Didn't expect one inside."
"Contacting Kaisha-nim right away."
"How far's the lodging from—"
Then.
Boom!
Screeeeech—
Suddenly, the barrier they'd just crossed shuddered and began lowering.
The guild members tensed up.
"What the—?"
"No way it's us, right? Illegal entry caught?"
"Has to be."
"Damn it, seriously?"
Frightened kids wailed for their mom, guild members shifted to combat ready in the tension, and Hyunwoo bellowed.
"Stay calm!"
The woman, equally shocked staring at the barrier, told Ophen and his guildmate companions.
"Barrier doesn't drop entirely just for outsider intruders! Lenox has definitely lost it! His army's coming soon to slaughter everyone! Follow me, quick!"
The guild members broke into a run.