Ch.311Work Record No. 044 – Time of Farewell (3)

The original investors in the Las Vegas Strip were not dissatisfied with the actions of the El Sueño cult. They weren’t exactly satisfied either, but since they had nothing to lose, they decided to wait and see.

The cult had essentially neutralized only the Strip’s leadership and security personnel, taking their positions, and with El Sueño’s official recognition, the investors’ rights were guaranteed, so they hadn’t immediately lost any money.

Of course, the cult would likely lack the management skills of the Strip’s original executives, but at least there would no longer be inefficiencies caused by a fragmented decision-making system, and the possibility of other mega-corporations getting involved was seen as a positive factor.

Many people thought it might be a scheme by Fitz & Morrison, who had long coveted the Las Vegas Strip, but the suspicions didn’t last long. This wasn’t Fitz & Morrison’s style.

If they had done it their way, they would have invaded with force and conquered it, like when they liberated the prostitutes with personality adjustment devices on the Strip, rather than establishing a cult and putting forward an icon like El Sueño.

Thanks to this, Fitz & Morrison was acquitted in the court of public opinion. The general consensus was that they weren’t responsible for all this just to take over the Las Vegas Strip.

Someone would always be shouting that it was all a conspiracy, but such people had always existed and always would, so there was no need to pay them any mind. I knew that much.

That’s why this freelancer wearing El Sueño’s mask contacted the Bitches of Sin City before anyone else. I willingly made a choice whose reason anyone could guess as plain as day.

The Bitches of Sin City were from Las Vegas. They were people who, according to El Sueño’s doctrine, had lost themselves to decadence and pleasure, only to barely recover. They were perfect candidates for El Sueño to reach out to.

But at the same time, I made an unreasonable request. I asked if the Bitches of Sin City could fill the positions of the security team that had been literally slaughtered in the cult’s attack. It was a request I knew was unreasonable when I made it.

As the CEO of Bitches of Sin City responded with a bewildered voice, I whispered in a relaxed and gentle tone. They shouldn’t know about this operation. All they needed to know was El Sueño’s skill.

“It’s an unreasonable request, truly so. What I really want from you is to say ‘This is impossible given our capabilities and authority, so please consult with Fitz & Morrison,’ and set up an appointment.”

“While there are plenty of reasons why Fitz & Morrison would want the Las Vegas Strip, why would the Las Vegas Strip… no, the El Sueño cult want Fitz & Morrison?”

At least they don’t believe I’m a god. They just believe I’m either lucky or skilled. So for once, it felt like I was having a conversation with a person.

Until now, I had to hide my emotions, and it’s still the same. The only time I could share my thoughts was when I called the Witch of the Wasteland to my office. Comfort awaits.

I mustn’t get carried away. I try to maintain a relaxed voice. After a month of catnaps, sleeping three hours a day, and discreetly handling every meal with liquid nutrition, I needed to stay focused until the very end.

“What wouldn’t be enough? They’re a leading defense contractor, they’ve likely planned to run Las Vegas longer than the Strip’s incompetent unbelievers, and they even saved you who were suffering from decadence, Gemini.”

She had never told me her name, but… I could access Fitz & Morrison’s information network right now, and in fact, I had memorized the names of a few important people when we worked together in the past.

“But their greed prevents me from talking to them directly. So, I’ll have to pretend that I sought you out for a valid and clear reason and coincidentally got connected to them.”

“Is that how you… usually talk?”

“Of course not. Should I recite the entire mercenary list of Bitches of Sin City to prove that I am someone who can be honest, show goodwill, and bestow mercy?”

Composure comes from power, and charity comes from the wallet. After flaunting that fact leisurely, I listen to the CEO of Bitches of Sin City making a voice that sounds incredulous.

“You’re certainly someone who could have three intelligence teams behind you and it wouldn’t be surprising. Fine. I’ll connect you with Fitz & Morrison. Let’s pretend that El Sueño… just didn’t know about Fitz & Morrison.”

The connection with Fitz & Morrison proceeds smoothly. And now, for the truth, I summon El Pastor to my office. He opens the door, enters, draws a circle, and makes a fist inside it.

After mirroring his gesture, I raise him from his knees and seat him in the chair in front of me. The refreshing feeling of removing the god’s mask… made my fingertips almost tremble.

“First, Fitz & Morrison will help with running the Las Vegas Strip. They’ve always coveted this place, and they have the strength and passion…”

“If we just give them direction, their strength and passion can be used to create proper enjoyment! As expected of the guiding dream. We…”

Is now the time? It seems… now was the time. I interrupted his words and said:

“No.”

As El Pastor looks at me as if he doesn’t understand my words, I slowly remove the closed reinforcement suit. From within it, I reveal the figure of a person wearing a mask.

The feeling was incredibly refreshing. While I have skill in playing god, just as I do in killing, it’s not a hobby of mine, so I felt like a newborn child tearing away the amniotic membrane and seeing the world for the first time.

“The guiding dream is not here, Pastor. What’s here is their mission… and another tool to accomplish that mission.”

“Are you testing me, El Sueño?”

I slowly shook my head at his shocked expression. It wasn’t the voice of a god, but I spoke in a voice that set the mood.

“If anyone was being tested, it was me. Whether I could borrow their name and receive the worship and praise that should rightfully be theirs without becoming arrogant.”

I slowly reached out my hand to him. He lightly took my hand and withdrew it only after confirming I was a person of flesh and blood. His expression showed confusion, but not despair or disappointment.

“Then, all those miracles and powers…”

“About half were done by me. The lightning… I expected lightning to strike, but it was El Sueño who sent down such lightning. The revelations were also given to you by them…”

I then explained that I hadn’t eaten because I had taken all my meals as liquid nutrition for a month, and that I appeared not to sleep because I got by on catnaps of thirty minutes or an hour.

I mix myth and truth. I mix what I did and didn’t do, leaving only the most human parts to show him. He rolls his eyes as if incredulous, but then takes a deep breath.

“To think you worked this way… So I wasn’t the first believer. Well. Honestly, I’m a bit jealous, but… what’s the mission you’ve been entrusted with?”

“Don’t worry too much. This is it. To decentralize power so the cult can operate stably, to find those who can take care of the Las Vegas Strip… and that’s the end. It feels a bit bittersweet.”

“Decentralize?”

“La Roca has El Sueño’s miracle. Jimena Castello has El Sueño’s relic… and now you have the truth. Who could claim superiority over whom?”

El Pastor nodded slightly as if understanding my words. Dividing it into three was El Sueño’s will, and no one can easily go against the will of a god.

“El Sueño isn’t everywhere, so people are needed, El Pastor. They don’t want us to die crushed under their image. They want us to move forward, abandoning even ourselves if we’re not happy.”

“That’s blasphemous for an apostle to say… but also very apostle-like. But, there’s one thing I’d like to ask…”

I could guess what he wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to be any harsher to a man who had just lost his god. Instead of predicting his words, I simply nodded.

“The real El Sueño… what are they like? You must have met them. Unlike us.”

“Don’t worry about that. I tried my best to convey exactly what I saw to all of you. I spoke the words I heard and showed the appearance and authority I saw. It will surely be as I showed you.”

El Sueño will not return. For me to don El Sueño’s reinforcement suit again, rally the wasteland, and declare a holy war beyond this wasteland… would be as dangerous as using the Phaeton Station.

If using the Phaeton Station would simply invoke the flames of that war era, raising El Sueño’s holy war would… prove that I am truly the same as the gods of the extinction war.

As I slowly collected my thoughts, El Pastor nodded after calming himself. He took both my hands and gave a big thank you.

“You… did very well. Thank you for showing these people a god. I’m not even a real priest, just a temporary shepherd, but you actually met El Sueño…”

“I’ll pass on the nickname El Padre. I’m not someone who should be remembered. The one who should be remembered is El Sueño. And the city full of joy they left behind. I’ve finished talking with Fitz & Morrison.”

In reality, it wasn’t finished, but it might as well have been. Fitz & Morrison would naturally cooperate with the cult for smooth proceedings. Their mercenaries would say the same.

Contacting the Bitches of Sin City and requesting a connection was just a formality. El Pastor looked at me with a slight smile on his face.

“You’re amusingly ordinary. And if it were up to me, you’d be El Cardenal, a cardinal, not El Padre, a priest. Don’t you think?”

The selfish undertaker who had tattooed the Mother of Death on his body was no longer visible. Now he looked almost like a cleric with red mint flowers and radiance tattooed on him.

“That’s too much, El Pastor. Ah, what will you tell the other two about how El Sueño departed? I think I should be going soon.”

“I’ll make a new gospel from what you just said. People need something to believe in and rely on. Even if it was your portrayal of El Sueño, how much has that image of El Sueño changed this wasteland?”

“Starting with the wasteland? A worthless undertaker now exudes the aura of a kind and gentle cleric. Ah, lastly, there’s something I’d like to ask too…”

This was the highlight moment. There was something I had included in the first vision of El Sueño that I created but intentionally omitted from the second vision. El Pastor would notice.

He nodded readily to my question. He smiled warmly as he looked at my face, rippling behind the mask, as if to say I could ask anything.

To him, this mask would now seem like a courtesy. Since it was El Sueño who should be here, not me, it would appear as a declaration that I would leave without even leaving my face or name.

“The revelation, what exactly was it? I only received hints.”

He smiled good-naturedly as he chose his words… then dropped his head with a deep sigh. He drew a circle with his hand and clenched his fist inside it several times.

“At first, it was El Sueño making lightning strike the wasteland, showing us the entire wasteland, and the second was a scene of the cult holding a victory ceremony in the Strip… Wait, El Sueño.”

Yes. El Sueño appeared in the first vision, but there was no image of El Sueño in the second vision. Leading is the work of gods, and enjoying is the work of people. I feigned ignorance and asked:

“What’s wrong, El Pastor? Is there a problem?”

“No, no. Just… El Sueño had prepared everything. It was a scene of the cult holding a victory ceremony in the Strip, but no one said El Sueño was there. I understand what that means.”

“It means that even my departure now is El Sueño’s will. I can leave without guilt, El Pastor. Well… give my regards to everyone. And live joyfully! With only pure joy.”

“With only pure joy.”

Receiving El Pastor’s farewell, I climb back into El Sueño’s reinforcement suit. I connect to the vast field of vision where everything is visible, and slowly activate the optical camouflage in front of him. I disappear.

The bag containing all the equipment I needed to take had already been placed in the wasteland. Thus, like a ghost, I brush through the corridors of the Las Vegas Strip’s executive building one last time and leave.

I was a bit tense when La Roca, who was preparing for the victory ceremony, briefly looked in my direction… but in a world where miracles were mere coincidences and souls were collections of electrical signals, she didn’t see me.

After getting far enough away from the Las Vegas Strip, I connect a call to Mr. James McKernihy, who would have received a call from the Bitches of Sin City. Waiting to hear Talos’s voice after a long time… the connection is immediate.

“Got a call from the Bitches of Sin City. Made a clean connection… shouldn’t be any problems. Fitz & Morrison will respect the cult. Since you’ve made them worthy of respect.”

“Personally, I think it might be better to bring in N-Enter capital as well… but you know it’s just a suggestion, right? Now that I’ve done my job, I should return your authority.”

Talos output a leisurely laugh. He seemed to notice that I was naturally giving up everything I had achieved and leaving Las Vegas.

“Did you even have time to study management or external politics, Boogeyman?”

“Even skipping all the headache-inducing administrative procedures, what I’ve been doing for the past month was precisely that management and external politics? Well, it was a good experience. Enjoyable too.”

Talos output a hearty laugh this time. He seemed to like my answer quite a bit. All of this had been a little preparation and, in comparison, an incomparable amount of improvisation.

“Unbelievable. So, what do you want right now? I’ll send it along with the team coming to retrieve the reinforcement suit.”

“You won’t be able to send it.”

My voice… even to my own ears, seemed a bit grinning. I didn’t know that the feeling of throwing off the burden of being a god would be this refreshing.

Hearing that voice, Mr. James spoke leisurely in a knowing tone. I was good at acting, but… right now, acting was off the table. It was time to return to being a person, not a role.

“Seeing that foolish grin, you want to spend time with your lover. Fine. We’ll keep the retrieval procedure simple and send you… Even for a freelancer mercenary, you’re not talking about money?”

“Credits are just values written as numbers. I showed you value. I’m already enjoying imagining your face, Mr. James, struggling to decide how big a number to write.”

Finishing those words, I removed the dust-proof cover that had been tightly wrapped to prevent dust from accumulating on the bike hidden in the wasteland and got on. It was time to return to Los Angeles.