Chapter 1: Do You Admit Your Guilt? I Admit You’re a Fool!
“There’s a need for a large and powerful unit that can operate in outer space.”
“And strong firepower too.”
“That’s right.”
Eve nodded at my words. To others, we might appear as a couple enjoying a secret affair on an apartment rooftop, but we were discussing something a bit more frightening.
“I have two methods in mind. One is complete replication through thorough acquisition, and the other is a combination through adequate imitation.”
“I see what you mean. Both seem to have their pros and cons.”
Eve’s proposed methods were divided between whether to perfectly replicate all the techniques of our enemies or to recreate them in a legion-style adaptation.
From my perspective, it seemed clear which route would be the answer.
“But no matter how much of a genius you are, Eve, you can’t replicate or create anything that isn’t biological tissue.”
The power of the Legion was by no means omnipotent. The mechanical civilization that human civilization boasted of.
If it was about learning how to use it, it might be feasible, but the Legion was incapable of actually producing it.
“Therefore, the rational choice is to create tactics and units by imitating them and reinterpreting them our way.”
“What do we need for that?”
“We need diverse large organisms comparable to colossal species. Also, we need beings that can lift their heavy bodies and rise into the sky. Using Formancy to cover all aspects would be terribly energy-inefficient. Thus, when creating a legion-style bio-spaceship, we will concentrate Formancy on firepower. The other aspects must be resolved through pure physical capability.”
Eve transmitted a piece of information into my mind. It was as if she had taken a snapshot of a site and displayed it for me.
“The Sandswimmer of the demonic realm, and… the giant sailfish of Elysium.”
I frowned. The Sandswimmer of the demonic realm resembled a gigantic amphibian living in desert terrain.
The demonic realm wasn’t a problem, but the giant sailfish was.
This enormous creature, swimming through the sky like it was the ocean, had only reports and sketches as data.
It was a being from a completely different place, neither Earth nor the demonic realm.
“Moreover, we need to understand how to operate and handle spaceships in outer space.”
“Everything you’re asking for can be obtained once we achieve the appropriate status.”
In this day and age, there were things that even the president of a country would not dare to know. However, if one belonged to the Guardian Alliance, one could access that information.
Of course, the officially known members of the Guardian Alliance, including ordinary citizens, numbered in the hundreds of thousands globally.
And among them, the number of people who could rise to important positions was limited.
“To achieve that, your identity is essential.”
I made a phone call right then and there. It was time to utilize the connections I had built.
“Thanks for your hard work today. A gate suddenly opened just before withdrawal, and a presumed A-rank high-ranking demon appeared.”
“It was handled fairly well.”
“Really? I think I understand why you called.”
The person on the other end chuckled. He was the team leader of my squad within the Guardian Alliance and a middle-aged hunter named Baek Jong-hoon, who had once made a name as an A-rank hunter.
His reaction was anticipated, so I simply sighed and waited quietly.
“Who on earth is that girl? I think everyone who should know already does.”
“That’s why I called you directly, Team Leader.”
“Well, this is suspicious.”
As expected, he didn’t deviate from my anticipation. Noticing something odd in my tone, he wiped the smile off his face and turned serious.
“I want to recruit that girl into our organization.”
“If that’s the case, you should follow the formal procedures and not just mention it to me.”
“Please pull some strings. She has some circumstances.”
I spoke candidly. After all, hiding and lying wouldn’t work with a team leader who could see through it all.
But if he, the intermediary, cooperated well, there should be no problem at all. The only basis for this was the trust built over time.
“Hmm…”
He began to ponder. I sincerely hoped he would agree.
If he rejected, I would not know what Eve, who was observing this situation, might do. She could infect him with a virus while he was still alive and turn him into a puppet.
“You know my character, right? I only look at skill. And humanity. Origins, status, past… I don’t care about any of that. As long as they can take down those monsters.”
“That I know well.”
“Bring her to the branch. If she passes the test, she can immediately get a trainee badge. If you say she’s good enough, I have to trust you.”
Changing his tone seriously, he ended the call by saying to bring Eve to the branch tomorrow.
I knew well his character. As he had just mentioned, he had lost both his parents before he became a hunter and had recently lost his twenty-year-old son to the war against the demons.
The depth of that resentment was very, very profound.
“And he’s someone with as much ambition as Ji Chang-hyun, the branch director. If she shows her skills tomorrow, there should be no problem. If I introduce her as a girl who has lost her memory, they’ll create an identity for her.”
“Sounds good.”
“I don’t think you understood anything.”
Eve nodded confidently, but knowing her inside, I shook my head.
It seemed like a little more education would be necessary. Especially in terms of humanity? Expecting human traits from Eve was utterly absurd.
—
“What are you looking at?”
“Just this and that. I need to know what’s trending in this world, where we will be deeply engaged moving forward.”
“Impressive.”
She scoffed. The man connecting to Earth’s internet on the holographic terminal only chuckled.
On the screen, a cam footage of a soldier taking down a strong enemy with a female student was playing.
“You look quite unhappy. Our alliance’s cooperation with Evolution was announced ahead of time.”
“…Don’t worry about it. The people there might not know, but no Earthling would enjoy the idea of being vivisected.”
“Vivisection? Please don’t underestimate our technological capabilities. History shows that we, too, once had primitive times like Earth, but that’s no longer the case. We can thoroughly examine your body without anesthesia, so you don’t need to worry about pain.”
He shook his head at Chae Yeon’s grim expression.
She kept her mouth shut. In any case, this was the player’s wish. She had no choice.
[The technology of the alliance could never compare to yours. Given the situation, it’s the player’s judgement that cooperating with them isn’t a bad idea.]
‘Oh, I know…’
With a sigh, Chae Yeon lowered her head. The player had been aware of the human alliance well beforehand.
They were keenly aware that the power they had obtained was immensely strong in Earth with just a single battleship.
Chae Yeon and Chris, who barely survived against the demon king Garthin in the demonic realm, had resumed activity after a recovery period, but the opponent’s strength was increasing progressively beyond expectations.
Therefore, her player was attempting to partner with the alliance while concealing his identity. And the price of that was this.
Offering hunters affiliated with Evolution to them as test subjects.
“This way.”
A woman in uniform approached and guided her.
On the surface, the members of the alliance closely resembled Earthlings.
Chae Yeon watched these alien beings with curiosity, but in reality, they were just as intrigued by her.
“I can’t believe this…”
The researchers of the alliance widened their eyes at the blue lightning she exhibited.
The psychic power Chae Yeon displayed was something they had only imagined, even as they dominated the vast universe.
‘How is this possible?’
Of course, Chae Yeon felt the weirdness of their reaction. It was incomprehensible that such an advanced civilization, with dominions over numerous planets, was unaware that humans could wield such psychic powers.
“This might be an important research result that could advance the level of humanity across the entire universe…”
As she entered the large, oddly shaped, transparent chamber in her naked form, the researchers outside began to chatter.
Thus began the experiments where two different human races began to understand each other’s peculiarities.
—
“What do you think, Director? Can the power they possess be utilized by our Elysian people?”
“Honestly, I’m still at a loss, Captain. What is this mysterious power they handle? Some say that if you learn it, you can use it, but we can’t know what it is, so we can’t learn to use it.”
He shook his head firmly at the captain’s words as he observed the real-time output from the nanomachines injected into Chae Yeon as she entered the test chamber.
The captain’s frown deepened at the disappointing report.
“That’s a disappointing report.”
“We’ve just started, so we should wait a little longer. After all, they are the same human species, and if necessary, we can always hire or conscript them. There are too many mysterious phenomena to worry about right now.”
However, regardless of the captain’s feelings, he showed no signs of wavering.
“That strange land the Earthlings call the demonic realm, where those extraterrestrial races reside. The gate technology that rivals warp technology is astounding, but it’s amazing that we can’t obtain the coordinates of that place.”
“They said the energy is like it’s hiding the entire planet.”
“That’s why we can’t send a fleet. Could it be that this is related to the bizarre waves we experienced when warping here?”
His eyes sparkled. The unidentifiable waves that occurred as they received information about Earth during their warp had been felt by all the thousands of crew on board the vessel.
“It felt like passing through a barrier that disconnected the universes. Upon reflection, it is strange. If it’s Earthlings, they certainly must not have missed the signals or presence they were emitting.”
“Are you believing in such a childish conspiracy theory? As a scientist?”
“If there’s evidence, then it’s no longer a conspiracy.”
His thinking developed into the notion that some enormous entity must have created a wall, dividing the universe.
The realization that beings not classified as units or players were beginning to infer some relation to the game was taking shape.
