episode_0127

In the morning, the Violets were busy. Although they had packed all their belongings into their inventories, there were still quite a few things to take care of. Things like data on the dungeon’s environment and necessary information needed to be reviewed multiple times.

Once preparations were complete, the Violets loaded the others into the cars and set off.

“Let’s go!”

A truck led the way, followed by an SUV. Delivery Violets on motorcycles carefully followed, escorting them to their destination.

Their destination was the Arklight Ruin Dungeon in the Southern District. According to the guide, it was a vast area consisting of gentle hills and plains under a milky white sky. Its size was comparable to a small city.

Looking at the photos, ruins of large and small buildings were scattered everywhere. Unique wavy walls and twisted, pretzel-like pillars stood in various places.

This architectural style was unlike anything seen on Earth, truly impressive.

“It’s exotic!”

“Wouldn’t ‘alien’ be a more fitting description?”

Who created these ruins from another dimension? What kind of beings lived beyond that dimension? In a way, it felt like the remnants of victims who had been invaded by demon beasts.

Well, these weren’t things they could find out right away. Few had ever been beyond the other dimension.

As they headed towards the gate, I had a brief conversation with Irene, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck. The topic was the Helios Clan and the former employees.

“…My uncle is growing his own factions. He’s driving out everyone who followed my father.”

Over the past two days, with my help, Irene had met with employees who had voluntarily resigned – or, more accurately, who Rigel had forced out.

As I followed Irene, I saw a variety of people. Some had refused to meet at all, while others had poured out their anger the moment they first met. There were also those who spoke reluctantly.

“Gah! Is it a purge?”

“That’s how it seems.”

And Irene also met with the person she had been searching for so long, Mr. Cress. He was a black-haired middle-aged man with a gentle demeanor.

“-How did you know to find me here? I didn’t expect you to come…”

“-Mr. Cress. I have a lot I want to say, but I don’t have much time either. So please, be honest. What’s happening inside Helios?”

“-That’s…”

To summarize the long conversation, the uncle-like man was greatly expanding his faction. He had even joined hands with unknown outsiders, and it was presumed that several of Irene’s relatives were also involved.

“Who are these outsiders…?”

Irene seemed to be grasping at straws, repeatedly mulling over a few words: external forces, factions, relatives, shares. Suddenly, I remembered the cyborg weapon that had appeared during the raid.

“Ah, come to think of it, remember the weapon that appeared back then? The Stregonix…”

“Stregonix? Is that the weapon’s name?”

“Yeah. I heard it from an informant.”

After disguising my game lore knowledge as intelligence from a mysterious informant, I continued speaking.

“What I heard is that it’s a weapon being researched jointly by the Four Great Clans. They said it’s a weapon made by modifying Awakeners.”

“The Four Great Clans? Surely, it’s not Magnabyss again, is it?”

I shrugged at her reply. The possibility wasn’t small, but the Stregonix was a weapon created by the Four Great Clans, each contributing one of their specialties. It could be others.

“Whoever it is, it’s fine. For now, I need to gather the people who used to be with my father and investigate my relatives. I’ll also need to find more people within Helios who will be on our side…”

“That’s a good idea. If you need any more help, just say the word. I’ll help you!”

“Yes, I was able to do a lot thanks to you. Thank you.”

Hearing my friend’s gratitude made me feel good.

“More importantly, Awakener cyborgs are an unimaginable idea. To use people… they’re out of their minds.”

“Exactly!”

I shook my head.

While they were talking, the car arrived at the dungeon entrance before they knew it. A small, spherical gate shimmered in the distance beyond the exit. When the car stopped, a stern-looking Hunter at the checkpoint tapped on the window. I rolled down the window.

“Where are the documents?”

“Here!”

I handed over the documents I had prepared in advance. I didn’t forget to slip a few high-denomination bills in between the papers. The stern face of the guard Hunter softened slightly as he examined the documents.

“Confirmed. May you have a good hunt.”

As expected, a few bills as lubrication reduced the troublesome inspection process. After parking the car, I had all the team members get out and then rushed through the gate.

Now, it begins.

**

Hunters perform many tasks, but surprisingly, despite their formidable image, many of the duties of this Awakener-exclusive profession are closer to those of primary industry workers.

As the meaning of the name ‘Hunter’ suggests, much of what these people do is similar to hunting and gathering. It’s just that stone axes and stone spears have been replaced with high-strength reinforced fiber tools and super-alloy spear-swords.

However, the dungeon business is tricky. This is because how one earns money varies depending on the type of demon beasts appearing in each dungeon and the dungeon’s environment.

Catching demon beasts and simply grinding them up is easy. Sometimes, the core value lies in special materials possessed only by specific demon beasts. There are also cases where demon beasts are merely obstacles.

In the last scenario, requests are given.

“You want us to catch two Ruskreens?”

“Yeah. Two is the minimum, and they pay more the more you catch.”

A demon beast named Ruskreen lives in this dungeon. It’s called a ‘flying dragon’ because of its appearance, but it doesn’t breathe fire.

Demon beasts had greatly interfered with the clan’s ongoing excavation of ruins and collection of artifacts, and workers were dying off. So, they issued a public notice and accepted applicants from outside.

“It’s a shame we have no choice but to walk.”

Inside the dungeon, other Hunters who had come after seeing the request were occasionally visible, just like them.

Sadly, vehicles couldn’t be used in this dungeon because the gate was too small. So, they had no choice but to walk to the objective point.

“This is boring…”

Walking for about twenty minutes became boring. As I walked, memories of old marches came back to me. It was boring then too, how did I endure it?

“Songs! I sang songs.”

“Okay, shall I try singing one?”

I asked my teammates for their understanding.

“Can I sing a bit as we go?”

“This is far from where demon beasts appear. Do as you please.”

Starting with Irene, I implicitly obtained the consent of the other team members. The Violets, gaining confidence, cleared their throats.

Soon, the Violets began to create harmonies with their voices, one by one, like an a cappella group.

Each taking on the role of an instrument and starting the accompaniment, the once quiet hills filled with the sound of song.

“La la la~ la la la la~ la la la la la~”

As the singing grew louder, friends nearby turned to look at them, their faces full of curiosity. They surely had never heard this song before.

“Doo doo doo!”

Recalling memories from before my possession, I finished the accompaniment. Soon, the Violets loudly sang the rewritten lyrics.

“Braving the fiery sea of shells~ for friends and the peace of Academy City~”

As the clear voices spread around, the teammates who had been moving for a while stopped. Lucian scanned them with a look as if he had seen something strange.

“What kind of song is that?”

“It’s a song to build fighting spirit! You’ll probably never hear it in your life.”

No. 668, who was in charge of guiding and thus not participating in the singing, explained.

That guy keeps pointing out things every time I speak. I felt like sending him to a place where he could sing this song to his heart’s content. Why doesn’t Academy City have conscription?

“Is it a military song? I didn’t know there was a song like this among the Federal Army’s military songs.”

When her friends asked, No. 668 continued her explanation.

“This? It’s a song I heard somewhere a long time ago!”

I could ignore the copyright since it belonged to another world, but I felt guilty and couldn’t do that. So, I vaguely mumbled that it was a song I had heard somewhere.

“Beneath the torch of anti-communism— we risk our lives!”

And they safely finished even the chorus. A perfect chorus without a single discord!

I wondered how my friends would praise them. And then, Irene opened her mouth.

“Excuse me, Violet. What is anti-communism?”

“Huh?”

No. 668 stared at Irene, not understanding the question.

“You don’t know? It means to destroy the Communist Party. I’m talking about communism.”

“…?”

Observing her reaction, she was staring blankly at me with a bewildered expression, as if she had never heard of it before. Perhaps she had always ignored politics and current affairs.

Suddenly, Kalia asked.

“Hey, Violet. What is communism?”

“Eh…? You don’t know socialism?”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

Kalia blinked, her face puzzled. Hearing my friend’s answer, I felt like my mind had gone blank. They don’t know socialism or communism?

I looked around, wondering how they could not know such things. My friends were acting as if they had seen an alien.

“Socialism, are you talking about something like anarchism?”

“It’s a new ideology to me. It sounds like some kind of futurist philosophy.”

Hearing my words, Daphne pondered something deeply and then whispered with Irene. The siege weapon duo tilted their heads with blank eyes, unable to even approach understanding, let alone grasp it, merely muttering words like ‘manufactured goods?’.

Meanwhile, Lucian looked at me with a strange expression, then reprimanded my friends.

“He’s probably saying something weird again. Why are you analyzing it seriously?”

“It’s not weird.”

They all turned their heads in unison.

Seeing their movement, Lucian flinched slightly and then shut his mouth, saying, “Well, if you say so…”

Suddenly, observing my friends’ reactions, I realized something: Academy City had no concepts of communism or socialism.

“When did the First Interdimensional Invasion happen?”

“Almost a century ago, I think? If you compare it to Earth, it was a civilization level of the late 19th century.”

Violet racked her brain. When did ideologies like socialism truly emerge? Wasn’t it the mid to late 19th century?

Actually, Trist and Earth cannot be directly compared. This isn’t Earth, and there are no bearded men with hammers and sickles or bald revolutionaries here.

Looking back now, Academy City’s ideology was simpler than Earth’s. Perhaps the demon beast invasion prevented an environment where diverse ideologies could emerge.

Still, it might be fortunate that there’s no Nazism or imperialism.

“Instead, there are crazy clans and large corporations that treat people like consumables!”

“Waaah!”

It’s a cruel world. Perhaps monsters invaded before society could mature, and that’s why the world is in this state.

It was said that in the old days, entrepreneurs considered it natural to hire mercenaries to riddle disobedient laborers with machine gun holes.

In such a world, with monsters invading, exploiting and tormenting people might have been justified under the pretext of ‘humanity’s protection’. The actions of the giant clans are full of such things.

It truly is a bad world.

Therefore, they must not retreat. They must continuously advance to create a happy Violet paradise. That way, the day will come when Violets themselves can freely forge their own destinies.

Thus, far in the future, they might be able to buy a small island and establish a nation solely for Violets. A humble and peaceful independent nation.

A nation by Violets, for Violets, and only Violets!

In a nation where Violets and a few chosen friends live, there would be no king or president. All Violets would be equal, possess the right to arm themselves, and would receive as much as they worked for.

“Wow…!”

“I hope it happens!”

No. Nation-building? That’s going too far when they can’t even handle one clan yet.

I shook my head, clearing away the distracting thoughts. The important thing was their impression of the song.

“What do you think? Isn’t it cool?”

The Violet Chorus’s first debut, what would be the result? Starting with Irene, the team members offered their opinions one by one.

“It’s a song I’ve never heard before, but it’s not bad. You seemed to sing it well.”

“There are some parts I don’t understand, but it’s okay.”

“I don’t know much about the song. But you sing well!”

“It doesn’t seem bad.”

“Well, it’s… intense.”

The result was a great success. It was relatively well-received.

“…It’s good. Though I wouldn’t want to sing it myself.”

Even Lucian acknowledged my song. But why did he say that? Perhaps he perceived the spirit of the place the song embodied. I chuckled to myself.

Soon after, they discovered a group of demon beasts blocking their path. They looked like humans clad in armor woven haphazardly from large and small white rock fragments. According to the investigation, these demon beasts were named Spartoi. They were said to be troublesome opponents.

“Everyone, prepare for battle!”

The battle between the Violet group and the six boys and girls began.