Chapter 91
Episode 6: Mafia Game / Chapter 91: Independent Troops (2)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
Dark-Sound appeared suddenly.
The noisy event hall abruptly became quiet. There were still people talking, but as if they were muted, only their mouths opened and closed, no sound was heard.
Then, it became dark.
Like a TV suddenly shutting off, a pitch-black darkness suddenly entered and covered their eyes. There was no difference between closing your eyes and opening them. It was simply dark. Choi Hyuk couldn’t even see his own hand.
‘What’s this?’
A frightening feeling sent shivers down his body. He became dizzy as if he was falling endlessly. He had never felt this facing any opponent before. Even Commander Mack, who was a high ranked warrior and was so strong Choi Hyuk had no chance at winning against her… he still felt a desire to defeat her. However, this was different.
Choi Hyuk had never experienced this feeling from anyone until now. This emotion he was feeling for the first time in his life tickled his heart. It was the emotion known as ‘fear’.
His heart trembled nervously. His vision narrowed, and it felt as though his already dark surroundings became darker. Trembling impalpably, Choi Hyuk’s hand moved up, as if he was floundering, and abruptly stopped, seemingly stuck in the air.
Grit.
He ground his teeth.
‘… Fuck.’
His chest trembled nervously, and then, the emotion known as fear turned into ash and faded away. A rage, more deeply rooted than fear, began to burn. His body began producing adrenaline, and his karma began to boil. Each of Choi Hyuk’s hairs stood on end one after the other.
Although his surroundings were still dark and he couldn’t see anything, for some reason his eyes felt a bit brighter and refreshed.
Then, he suddenly realized the man standing there. In the corner of his eye. A man whose tall, thin figure looked sharp. He was motionlessly staring at Choi Hyuk with his pale face. Choi Hyuk couldn’t place the man at the center of his vision no matter how much he turned his head. Like a picture stuck to his cornea, only the man’s pale shadow followed behind. In the darkness when he closed his eyes and in the darkness with his eyes open, the man was there.
“You got out of it yourself. Is your source rage? Amazing.”
He said. His gaze turned towards ‘Choi Hyuk’s Imprint’ hanging on the left side of his waist.
“On top of that, a Sword of Vow… Someone already made you a karma-sword? Ah, is it her?”
“… Are you Dark-Sound?”
“Yes.”
At the same time as his answer, the world brightened.
In front of him was Tangka with its mouth agape. The Queen of England Diana looked around as if she had just woken from a nightmare. However, there continued to be no sound. Suddenly, he heard a faint, echo-like voice in his ears.
{Welcome, earthlings on joining the alliance. I look forward to you becoming warriors powerful enough to end the long war between karmalings and monsters. In the name of Dark-Sound, an Exalted Wing, I grant Overseer Choi Hyuk with the title of middle ranked warrior and Overseers Camilla, Richard, Diana, Yohan, Nasir, and Jessie with the title of low ranked warriors. As overseers representing Earth, they will carry out the mission of a commander. I hope they will be able to obtain peace and freedom with their swords.}
Everyone heard that voice at the same time.
That was the end. Their surroundings became disorderly. A few of the aliens who had been noisily enjoying the welcoming event said their farewells to the overseers of Earth and left the event hall.
It felt like it had ended abruptly.
“… Is this the end of the commission?”
The Ethiopian Sovereign Yohan rippled his black muscles as he felt this was strange. Dalaenalae replied,
“Since there was a speech by Dark-Sound, it’s the end. Anyways, haa… I thought I’d be scared to death.”
She rubbed her skin, which had become bumpy and was reflecting light like a mirror, as she calmed herself.
“Why did he appear so terrifyingly?”
The moment Sovereign Jessie grumbled, a message appeared.
{You have faced the source of your heart. Your free karma increased by 10 points.}
“Ah?”
Looking at Jessie who let out a foolish sound, Dalaenalae showed a ‘Now you know’ expression.
That was how the welcoming event ended and the recruit training began.
**
Because they were in the <Time Repeating Zone>, they didn’t have to worry about Earth during their training. They turned the event hall into a new recruit training area and used it. They said they specially made it familiar to earthlings, but it felt weird since they set it up to look like a school. It looked like a combination of different schools on Earth, and the chairs and desks seemed familiar. When they sat there and looked at the blackboard, an alien instructor would go on with the class, and holograms would appear on blackboards and around the classroom, clearly displaying images. It was strange as if it were a dream.
The training started by explaining the system which began the awakenings on Earth. An instructor from the Thumb tribe, who was as small as a thumb, stood on the podium and began her lecture.
“Your karma development is on the quicker side. You should have especially experienced rapid growth up until the 3-star level.”
According to her, it was all achieved through the artificial intervention of the alliance.
“Although earthlings have been assessed as having high combat skills, in reality, the karma earthlings are innately born with isn’t anything special. This is because your species hasn’t accumulated a lot of retribution. It is said that it would take 1,000 more years until there would be a naturally self-awakened person. But, how were they able to dispatch a middle ranked warrior, so a 5-star warrior, within 3 years? Simply put, it is because of the alliance’s new recruit fostering system.”
And, as everyone already knew, it wasn’t all good.
“The karma you awakened for the first time, the karma you obtained by killing your species, the karma received when you unlocked an achievement, and the karma given after you completed a mission… Where did it all come from? It is all karma obtained by burning your homeland, Earth. We unsparingly released the karma that had accumulated in the last 6 billion years, a period where the Earth was formed, and on it, life was born and continuous reproduction occurred, leaving behind descendants. Although, as a result, Earth will cease to exist… But you should all know this.”
She said these horrible words in an unconcerned tone. As if this sort of tragedy was common throughout the universe.
Earth’s overseers weren’t shaken up when they heard this. They already knew all this. There was no one who would express themselves about something like this as their rage had already cooled and solidified, taking root deep within their hearts.
After the explanation of the system concluded, an introduction on the composition of forces in the alliance began.
4 species existed within the alliance who were strong enough to be called the top 4.
Among them, the Flame Wing Tribe was first.
They were a species born alongside the beginning of the universe. They were born right after the Big Bang, when the universe was filled with extreme heat and energy. When hearing this, they could naturally understand why they were a species stronger than any other in the universe. Unlike other species born in the cold universe, their world was filled with extreme heat and energy. They lived in a world which living beings on Earth couldn’t endure for even a second before turning into ash. This was why species of the cold universe would turn into ash at the flick of their hands.
On top of that, the Flame Wing Tribe was born with strong karma. It was because they, being a species that was present since the formation of the universe, had accumulated a massive amount of karma. They awakened karma before they were born, and their karma would reach 3-star level without any effort or training.
As a species with such an outstanding talent, they established karma skills more excellent than any other species. It was part of their struggle to survive as well. Since the universe was quickly cooling after the Big Bang, they had to research karma to adapt to the cooling universe. The Flame Wing Tribe, which was born in a fiery world, could live in the cold universe without any discomfort because karma, the energy of the fate of the universe, allowed living beings to overcome their limits and allowed one to communicate with the universe itself. The Karma Heart Discipline, which Choi Hyuk was familiar with, was developed as the foundation for the Flame Wing Tribe to move as freely as possible within the cold universe.
“… What the? Isn’t that too much?”
Sovereign Jessie’s mumblings were heard during this explanation. He slouched in his chair as he sighed,
“The reason why earthlings are able to develop karma quickly is because we are burning and distributing the karma Earth had accumulated over the past 6 billion years… Even then, we have to kill each other or monsters to reach the 3-star level… But they have a free pass to the 3-star level once they’re born.”
As if she heard him grumbling, the instructor from the Thumb tribe shrugged her shoulders.
“Well… The universe is unfair.”
The Dark Tribe was a species that had become powerful enough to compare to the Flame Wing Tribe. They were karmalings born from dark matter, which made up 24% of the universe. (The instructor said, “For reference, matter you can see, like on Earth, only makes up 4% of the universe.”) Although they were collectively known as the Dark Tribe because they shared a common ancestor, apparently, there would be a big difference in their individual capabilities depending on where they were born and their lineage. That was why those who were born in the heaviest and densest dark matter regions and were pure-blooded were separately called the Dark Clan. The Exalted Wing Dark-Sound was from this Dark Clan.
Also, there were occasionally cases where extremely advanced machines and artificial intelligences would inherit the fate of the extinct karmalings who created them, and those existences made one of the top four, the Armoured Soul Tribe.
Lastly, the Speckled Light Tribe, who were weak individually but displayed powerful group intellect and willpower, took the lowest spot of the four.
“To be honest, you can think that these four are supporting the bulk of the war. The Laniakea Supercluster is like the countryside compared to the regions these four are active in. In terms of Earth… It’ll be like the difference between the U.S. and Greenland.”
Greenland was a self-governing country in the Danish Realm and had a population of 55,000. Their individual GDP was $37,000, and their capital city, Nuuk, had a population of 18,000.
“Isn’t it difficult to call Greenland an independent country as it is still in the Danish Realm?”
Camilla raised her hand and asked. Like a star student, she straightened her back and wrote notes from the beginning.
The instructor from the Thumb tribe shrugged her shoulders at her question.
“That’s why the Laniakea Supercluster is, in fact, maintained through the support of the army from the alliance. More than half the personnel in the Virgo Cluster army you will be part of have been dispatched from the central.”
This time, Jessie asked,
“But is our military strength even helpful? I mean, from the start, the Flame Wing Tribe, the Dark Tribe… Why is the war taking so long when we have such powerful beings?”
The instructor’s small face made a stern expression.
“The monsters are strong. We have been able to defend because they are from another dimension, if that limitation didn’t exist and there was an all-out war, it is difficult to predict what would have happened to the universe already. Every time the monsters slaughter karmalings and expand their territory, they are able to create a bigger passageway into our universe… That is why this is a war determining the fate of all karmalings. Whether you are weak or strong, we need to resist them. At first, when the number of monsters coming into our universe was small, the major species who formed the alliance didn’t find their invasion all too serious. But then, they occupied more and more galaxies, and there was a point where a ‘demise-rank’ monster crossed over. It was a disaster. During the fight that day, the one known as the strongest, the King of the Flame Wing Tribe, Flame-Sky, died in battle. It was an event which alarmed the entire universe and made them unite their power under the alliance.”
“Flame-Sky?”
Choi Hyuk mulled over that name. The Thumb tribe instructor turned her gaze towards Choi Hyuk.
“Yes. Because of that incident, the Flame Wing Tribe, which had been a monarchy, changed into a parliamentary system. This was because the successor of Flame-Sky was too young to lead the entire tribe.”
It seemed like the aliens had their own complicated circumstances. He had thought that they were toying with earthlings… but they too had quite the intense history.
Choi Hyuk felt a slight sense of remoteness.
This war might be a long, intense war that earthlings couldn’t even imagine with their narrow vision. Just how long would it last? Where would it go?
The instructor’s explanations continued. They heard introductions on the indigenous species within the Laniakea Supercluster and the species within the Virgo cluster.
There was no break, but none of them tired with just this much.
Choi Hyuk suddenly looked out the window. When they said they designed it to be familiar… They even made the sky outside the window the same as the one on Earth.
He felt a sense of déjà vu.
It was strange.
When he closed and opened his eyes, it was almost like the math period before the Ring of Rebirth was made. That time when he would blankly stare at the sky whenever he got the chance. The classroom where Kang Minho and Lee Mingi bullied him and Jung Minji would look at them with an irritated expression.
However, when he opened his eyes again, he was at the core of the Laniakea Supercluster, Dark City. He was sitting in class beside Jessie, a sovereign from the U.S., and Richard from Germany, and an instructor from the Thumb tribe, who came from a place much further away from the Laniakea Supercluster, was lecturing them on top of the podium.
Choi Hyuk shook his head.
The blue sky tilted to reveal a red sunset.