episode_0275

The wicked rebellion of the canned goods.

Violet and the others were startled by the rampage of the revived food, brought back from the past.

“Gah! The canned goods have resurrected!”

While Violet and the others, who had been trying to enjoy a leisurely morning, were suffering from an unexpected chaotic battle, demon beasts surged at the outer perimeter.

-Crash!

Scattering dust. Soaring flames. As the improvised explosives and temporary defensive spells shook the ground, the Violet Marine Corps, annoyed by hunger, defended against the assault.

“What kind of island is this?”

Enemies everywhere. Demon beasts in front, monsterfied food behind.

As Violet and the others suppressed the canned goods riot, a piece of information flashed through their minds.

According to statistics, the average survival time of a Federal Army soldier in the Red Zone is 18 hours.

“Gah! That’s incredibly short!”

Violet and the others thought. The Red Zone was definitely too dangerous.

Of course, there was a slight error in this statistic. The “soldiers” referred to in the statistic were non-Awakened infantry of the Federal Army. The Federal Army never deployed non-Awakened infantry into the Red Zone unless it was a defensive battle.

The reason was simple. It wasn’t a matter of humanity, but of efficiency. Even for the military, which conscripted men and women like drawing water from a well through a draft system in every managed area, it was difficult to bear unnecessary losses.

However, since the statistic itself wasn’t false, the phrase “18 hours” was often used to emphasize the danger of the Red Zone.

And at this moment, Violet and the others fully understood.

The wicked malice spread across this entire land towards intruders.

Thirty minutes after the start of combat, the air tasted bitter and spicy. If it were a normal person, wouldn’t they have been poisoned to death?

Every single step, every grain of sand crushed underfoot, felt hostile.

“What! Why is it like this?”

Unit 118, who was cutting down a centipede-shaped demon beast, was startled. The sandy ground turned slippery, trying to trip Violet.

Violet felt it. And received the feeling that the ground was alive. Clearly, though it was inanimate, emotions could be felt.

The blowing wind shrieked with resentment. The peaceful climate changed erratically, and rust gradually appeared on their swords.

“Hah… we’ve dealt with everything…”

Even after the prolonged battle ended, Violet and the others couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling.

“Burn it all!”

Mutated foodstuffs and demon beast corpses piled up neatly in a corner.

“What a waste…”

“No! They might turn into monsters too.”

The mutated food couldn’t be eaten. Several attempts had already made that fact clearer.

“Kyaooo!”

“Damn it! Why are you biting me?! How dare you! I’ll eat you!”

Unit 881, who had been struggling, bit and swallowed the hotdog sausage that had bared its teeth and struggled.

“Ugh, retch!”

The horrible taste emptied their stomach.

“It’s no good. We can’t eat it even cooked…”

The situation was the same for unmutated food. Food taken out of their inventory transformed into something completely inedible if not consumed quickly.

Crackers turned into sand and dust the moment they were bitten, and beverages smelled of rotten blood.

Everyone had to admit it.

“From now on, let’s take out new stuff and eat it right away.”

The Violet Marines burned all the foodstuffs.

After sprinkling oil, they ignited it using an incendiary bomb and a fireball as fuses.

Flames roared and shot up. The red flames, burning and emitting smoke, suddenly glowed green.

A bizarre portrait emerged above the flames.

“Kwhahahaha!”

The flames, shaped like a demon, cackled madly for a moment.

“Gh-ghost!”

“Hey! Get lost!”

Violet and the others whispered. They knew that strange phenomena occurred frequently in the Red Zone, but they hadn’t expected it to be this much.

“Unit 2501, do you know anything about this?”

“Wh-what is that… I don’t know either!”

They asked the Violet who was an Apostle, but no clear answer emerged. It was also a situation where she hadn’t properly absorbed the Apostle’s memories in the first place.

However, there were still more surprises to come.

“Everyone! Help me!”

Evening fell, under an ominous green sunset. Unit 2311, who had been on guard for a while, saw a Violet rushing towards them frantically.

“What’s wrong?”

“Help me! I’m Unit 1154! Demon beasts have appeared again! I need help!”

“I see. I’ll help you!”

Unit 2311 exchanged glances with Unit 2331 next to them. Immediately, they raised their crossbow and shot off Unit 1154’s head.

“Groan…”

“As expected, it was a fake!”

The sentries scoffed, thinking of the real Unit 1154 who was currently pioneering another island.

“Did it think we’d fall for it?”

With a cry unlike a Violet, the fake melted and disappeared into the ground.

“Now even fakes are showing up?”

The Violets at the command post just laughed in disbelief. To think even fake Violets would appear.

“Still, we’re lucky.”

Since they didn’t have network connections, they could immediately notice. What about others?

“Ugh… this place is weird…”

Everyone thought. Calling the Red Zone a hell was an understatement.

At least, there was one reassuring fact.

“What about the bodies in suspended animation?”

“They’re fine!”

The fact that there was nothing wrong with the Violets in suspended animation.

“It seems if they’re in suspended animation, they aren’t recognized as enemies.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

They had worried about being buried alive, but no problems occurred with the bodies in suspended animation.

“It seems it’ll be fine to store them here.”

They would have to experiment for a while, but if their prediction was correct, the Red Zone would become a protective barrier for the suspended animation Violets.

Thus, another day passed in the Red Zone.

“We won’t lose to the Red Zone!”

“We’ll endure!”

Violet will survive. With her unique tenacious vitality, today and tomorrow.

***

As they lived in it, the Red Zone wasn’t an entirely bad place. Except for the fact that a lot of strange things happened, that is.

On a Red Zone beach where an eclipse was unfolding, the Marines, who had been clearing the nearby forest and turning it into flat ground, encountered ghosts even in broad daylight.

“Die die die die die”

“You die!”

Unit 882 swung her sword, conserving strength appropriately. The form, sliced by her sword energy, scattered. Feeling resistance in her wrist, it seemed to have a physical substance.

“It’s unfair, it’s unfair, it’s unfair!”

“I’ll curse you! I’ll curse you!”

The problem was that there wasn’t just one or two of them.

“Violet! Help me!”

“Gah! It’s Daphne! But why are you here and not at the dorm?”

“Magnabyss kidnapped me—”

“Get lost!”

-Bang bang bang!

To make matters worse, now even the forms of their friends were appearing. To think it would imitate their friends, who were perfectly fine back in Academy City.

To vent their frustration, they sliced all the visible ghosts with their swords and bashed them with maces.

“Not even real ghosts!”

“Demon beasts imitating humans are unforgivable!”

They didn’t know why, but it was clear that some demon beast in this Red Zone, or perhaps the entire area itself, was doing these things to provoke them.

But what was dispatched to the Red Zone now was the Marine Corps, specialized in hunting humans and demon beasts.

“Let’s kill, tear, and burn!”

They were surprised the first time or two, but now they were used to it, so they beat them up like punching bags.

“Yahoo!”

Was it because they were too complacent? The Red Zone succeeded in sharply stabbing their weakness.

“Violet! Violet!”

At the sound of her name being called, she instinctively turned her head.

A gray-haired girl in a military uniform walked out of the forest.

An appearance that felt familiar.

“Who are you?”

The girl made a tearful face.

“You… don’t know me?”

The sentry Violet snorted and raised her gun.

“Probably a demon beast. Or some other trick!”

No sooner had she finished speaking than the enraged girl shouted.

“No! Why can’t you recognize me?! That’s too much!”

The girl genuinely seemed wronged. Although she secretly knew that anyone encountered in this uninhabited Red Zone wasn’t a normal being, for some reason she felt compelled to ask.

“Hmm… I don’t know. If you’re someone I know, I’m sorry! Who are you?”

No sooner had she finished her answer than the girl sighed, as if exasperated.

She wondered why the girl was acting like this, but the next moment, the words the girl uttered left them dumbfounded.

“It’s me, me! Cheolkwon of Ruzilin!”

“Gasp, what?”

She carefully examined the girl’s appearance. A small build, Federal Army tank crew uniform. Adorable appearance.

“No way!”

It was unlikely, a low possibility, but.

Perhaps.

Could the Red Zone’s mysterious power have materialized their bravest tank friend?

“It’s Cheolkwon of Ruzilin!”

The sentry Violet immediately called the other Violets. In an instant, the girl was surrounded by Violets.

“Violet’s friend!”

“Federal Light Tank!”

They roughly understood what it was. That its true identity was similar to the ghosts they had previously cut and beaten.

However, when a girl claiming to be their brave friend who had fought alongside them appeared before their eyes, it was so novel they couldn’t stop talking.

Representing everyone’s curiosity, Unit 2110 asked,

“But Cheolkwon, what brings you here?”

Cheolkwon of Ruzilin glared at them with sharp eyes.

“You’re asking because you don’t know? You abandoned me!”

What was this sudden talk about? While the Violets were collectively dumbfounded, this small tank ghost squawked, spewing out its rage.

“I got hit by a nuclear bomb… I burned black and melted… So you abandoned me? You said we were friends! You said we’d crush and destroy enemies together!”

It shrieked and swung its fists wildly. She retorted.

“That’s why we took your identification plate. Your spirit and soul will be passed on to the next Cheolkwon of Ruzilin!”

Unit 1139 chimed in.

“That’s right. Into a bigger and stronger body! Someday, you’ll become a tank equipped with a railgun, an autocannon, a laser cannon, and an even larger nuclear reactor.”

“A super-heavy tank!”

They each said a word from around her, trying to comfort this ghost friend. Cheolkwon of Ruzilin lowered her head, looking blankly as if half-listening to her words.

“…So we didn’t abandon you! Understand?”

“Hey, are you even listening to us?”

The ghost of Cheolkwon of Ruzilin raised her head. Its eyes were dyed crimson.

“No! You abandoned me! Abandoned me abandoned me I hate you it’s unfair I’ll curse you I’m wronged!”

“I told you it’s not—”

The next moment, Unit 1139 witnessed the tank ghost’s hand embed itself in her chest.

-Crunch!

“Argh!”

The first casualty by a ghost occurred.

“Gah! Cheolkwon of Ruzilin attacked us!”

“As expected, it was just imitating a friend!!”

They had been complacent. They should have killed it immediately when they realized it was a ghost.

“I’ll kill you all I’ll kill you all I’m going to kill you!”

“You fake!”

-Slice!

The tank wraith was instantly sliced into pieces. Its remains melted and disappeared as if seeping into the ground.

“The Red Zone is truly a difficult place to live…”

“To target people’s weaknesses!”

From now on, the Violet Marines resolved never to let their guard down in the Red Zone.

***

While the Violets in the Red Zone struggled, most Violets settled on continents and islands.

“The soldiers are strict! Too many inspections…”

“This neighborhood is too dirty…”

Violets unpacking their luggage in rented rooms on the continent.

“This island really has no owner! I’ll build a house.”

“We’ve acquired machines. Now we can mass-produce bolts and bullets!”

Violets beginning small-scale production activities.

By the time midterms approached, their numbers, which were around two thousand five hundred, instantly grew to between three and four thousand. Even this was a relatively restrained amount, as there were many uses for magic power in various ways.

While the Violets steadily multiplied and spread, some of those who spread across the sea came up with a new idea.

“Why do we have to stay on land? Let’s make a ship our home!”

“That sounds fun. Let’s try it!”