Chapter 127

Morning, the Violets were busy. They had packed everything into their Inventory, but there were still many things to take care of. Reports on the environment of the dungeon they were heading to, and necessary information needing several reviews.

Once they were ready, the Violets loaded everyone into the car and set off.

“Let’s go!”

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

The target was the Akright Ruins Dungeon in the southern district. According to the guide, it was a vast place consisting of gentle hills and flatlands under a milky sky. Its scale was comparable to that of a small city.

Looking at the pictures, one could see the ruins of large and small buildings scattered everywhere. There were walls with peculiar wave patterns and twisted columns standing like spirals.

This was a unique architectural style that could not be found anywhere on Earth. Truly impressive.

“How exotic!”

“Isn’t it more accurate to say it’s alien?”

Who could have created these otherworldly ruins? What kind of beings lived beyond that dimension? It also struck me as the remnants of victims who were invaded by the monsters.

Well, those were not things that could be known right away. Almost no one had ventured beyond that dimension.

While heading towards the Gate, I had a brief conversation with Irene, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck. It was about the Helios Clan and the resigning members.

“…My uncle is building up his own faction. He’s driving out everyone who followed my father.”

In the two days we had, Irene met with the resigning employees, who, in reality, had been chased away by Rigel, with my help.

As I followed Irene, I saw various people. Some refused to meet until the end, while others exploded in anger the moment they met. There were also those who spoke reluctantly.

“Ugh! Is this a purge?”

“I guess we have to see it that way.”

And Irene met that Mr. Kress she had been looking for. He was a middle-aged man with black hair and a gentle demeanor.

“…How did you find your way here? I didn’t expect you to come…”

“Mr. Kress. I have a lot to say, but I don’t have much time. So please, just tell me honestly. What’s going on inside Helios?”

“Well…”

To summarize the long conversation, that uncle of hers was expanding his faction. He had even partnered with unknown outsiders, and many of Irene’s relatives seemed to be involved.

“What could the outsiders’ identities be?…”

Irene seemed stuck, chewing on a few words: external forces, factions, relatives, shares. Suddenly, I recalled the cyborg weapon that appeared during the raid incident.

“Ah, speaking of which, do you remember that weapon that showed up back then? It’s called Stregonics…”

“Stregonics? Is that the name of that weapon?”

“Yeah. I heard it from an informant too.”

Transforming my gaming knowledge into suspicious intelligence from a mysterious informant, I continued.

“From what I gather, it’s a weapon being researched as a collaboration between the four major clans. They say it’s a weapon modified from Awakened Ones.”

“Four clans? It’s not MagnaVis, is it?”

Hearing her response, I shrugged my shoulders. The possibility wasn’t small, but Stregonics was created through collaboration by the four clans, mixing each clan’s specialties. It could be something completely different.

“Whoever it is, for now, we need to gather the people connected to Father and investigate our relatives. We should also find more people within Helios who would be on our side…”

“Good idea. If you need more help, just say the word. I will help!”

“Thanks to you, I could accomplish a lot. I appreciate it.”

Hearing my friend’s gratitude made me feel good.

“Still, the idea of Awakened Cyborgs is quite unexpected. Using people… that’s insane.”

“Exactly!”

I shook my head.

While we were talking, the car suddenly arrived at the entrance of the dungeon. A small spherical gate shimmered far beyond the exit. Once the car stopped, a grim-faced Hunter knocked on the window at the checkpoint. I rolled down the window.

“Where are the documents?”

“Here you go!”

I handed over the documents I had prepared earlier. I didn’t forget to slip in a few high bills between the papers. The grim face of the guard softened a bit as he examined the documents.

“All confirmed. Have a good hunt.”

As expected, a few bills of cash greased the wheels, reducing the hassle of the checkpoint procedure. After parking the car, I had all the team members disembark and dashed through the gate.

It’s time to begin.

While there are many jobs a Hunter does, many of the tasks from this specialized position dedicated to Awakened Ones are surprisingly close to primary industry.

From the very meaning of the term Hunter, it’s clear that many of their tasks resemble hunting and gathering. It’s just that stone axes and stone spears have been replaced with high-strength synthetic fiber weapons and super alloys.

However, running dungeons is tricky. The type of monsters appearing and the dungeon’s environment can change the profit-making process.

Bringing back monsters for simply grinding them is easy. The special materials unique to certain monsters may be the core. Monsters can sometimes merely act as obstacles.

In the latter cases, requests are given.

“Catch two Rusklins?”

“Yeah. The basic is two, but the more you catch, the more money they give you.”

This dungeon has monsters called Rusklins living in it. Due to their appearance, they are called Flying Dragons, but they do not breathe fire.

Monsters disrupted the excavation and relic collection of the ruins the clan was conducting, and as workers began to die, they publicized a request for applicants.

“It’s unfortunate we have to walk.”

Inside the dungeon, we occasionally spotted other Hunters who had come in after seeing the request.

Sadly, vehicle use wasn’t possible in this dungeon. That’s because the gate was too small. So we had no choice but to walk to the target point.

“How boring…”

After about twenty minutes of walking, it became tedious. As I walked, I recalled the times I marched back then. It was boring then too; how did I endure it?

“Songs! I would sing.”

“Okay, shall I give it a try?”

I sought the consent of the team members.

“Is it okay if I sing a bit while we walk?”

“This place is far from the monster’s appearance. Go ahead.”

Starting with Irene, I implicitly got the agreement from the other team members. The confident Violets cleared their throats and prepared to sing.

Soon, one by one, the Violets began to harmonize. Just like an acapella.

Each took on an instrumental role as a reverberation began, filling the silent hills with song.

“Ra la la~ ra ra ra ra~ ra ra ra la~”

As the song grew louder, the nearby friends turned to us with curious expressions. They probably had never heard this song before.

“Ba bang bang!”

Recalling memories from before the reincarnation, I concluded the accompaniment. Soon, the Violets passionately shouted the rephrased lyrics.

“Braving the sea of shells, for the sake of friends and the peace of Academy City!”

As my clear voice spread around, the team members who had been moving around stopped in their tracks. Lucian scanned us with a peculiar gaze as if he had seen something strange.

“What’s that song?”

“It’s an anthem to rally courage! You’ll probably never hear it in your life.”

668, who was leading, explained because she hadn’t participated in the singing.

That girl, why is she nitpicking everything I say? I wanted to send her to a place where she could sing to her heart’s content. Why doesn’t Academy City implement conscription?

“Is it a military song? I didn’t know there was such a song in the Federal Army.”

When the friends asked, 668 continued her explanation.

“This? It’s a song I heard somewhere before!”

Though I could overlook copyright laws from another world, I felt a bit guilty, so I avoided details and mumbled that I had heard it somewhere.

“Under the torch of the anti-imperialists— we vow our lives!”

And so we safely finished the chorus. A perfect choir without a single discord!

I was curious how my friends would praise us. Then Irene opened her mouth.

“Uh, Violet. What does anti-imperialism mean?”

“Uh?”

668 looked perplexed and stared at Irene.

“Don’t you know? It means to destroy the communists. The communist ideology.”

“…?”

Watching her reaction, she stared blankly at me, as if hearing that for the first time. Perhaps she had steered clear of political or current issues.

Suddenly, Kalia asked.

“Hey, Violet. What’s communism?”

“Uh…? Don’t you know socialism?”

“I’ve never heard of it before.”

Kalia flapped her eyes with a confused expression. Hearing my friend’s answer gave me a blank feeling in my head. How could they not know socialism or communism?

I looked around, wondering how they could be so oblivious. The friends acted like they had seen aliens.

“Does socialism refer to something like anarchism?”

“First time hearing that concept, I suppose it’s a thought of futurism.”

Upon hearing my words, Daphne pondered for a moment before whispering to Irene. The siege weapons duo tilted their heads in confusion, not understanding, and were probably rolling around words like ‘commonly manufactured items.’

Meanwhile, Lucian glanced at me strangely and chided my friends.

“Ah, he’s saying something peculiar again. Why are you analyzing it so seriously?”

“It’s not peculiar.”

We all turned our heads in unison.

Seeing that, Lucian shrugged slightly, saying, “Well, if you say so…”

Suddenly, I realized something from my friends’ reactions. There’s no concept of communism or socialism in Academy City.

“When did the first dimensional invasion happen?”

“Probably about a century ago? If we were to compare it to Earth, it would be akin to the level of civilization in the late 19th century.”

The Violets pondered. When did ideologies like socialism truly come to forefront? Wasn’t it the mid-to-late 19th century?

In truth, we couldn’t directly compare Trist to Earth. This isn’t Earth, and there are no hairy old men holding sickles and hammer-wielding revolutionaries.

Looking back, the ideologies in Academy City were simpler than those on Earth. Perhaps the invasion of monsters obstructed an environment where diverse ideologies could flourish.

Yet, I suppose it’s a relief that there’s no mention of Nazis or imperialism.

“Instead, there are crazy clans that see people as consumables, and corporations!”

“Ugh!”

It’s a cruel world. Perhaps before society matured, monsters invaded, and that’s how the world turned out like this.

Long ago, entrepreneurs thought it was perfectly natural to hire mercenaries to shoot laborers who wouldn’t listen with machine guns.

It’s possible that in such a world, when monsters invaded, the exploitation and abuse of humans became justified under the pretext of protecting humanity. What the massive clans do is all about that.

It’s truly a bad world.

So we must not retreat. To create a happy Violet paradise, we must continuously move forward. The day would come when we, the Violets, could freely carve out our own destiny.

Thus, in the distant future, perhaps we might buy a small island and establish a country just for Violets. A humble and peaceful independent nation.

A country by Violets, for Violets, and solely for Violets!

In the land inhabited by Violets and a few of our permitted friends, there would be neither kings nor presidents. All Violets would be equal, have the right to bear arms, and will receive according to the work they put in.

“Wow…!”

“I hope that happens!”

No, founding a country? Especially when I can barely handle one clan yet, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I shook my head to clear out those distracting thoughts. What matters is our impression of the song.

“What do you think? Isn’t it awesome?”

The debut of the Violet Choir, what would the results be? Starting with Irene, the team began to voice their opinions one by one.

“It’s the first time I’m hearing this song, but it’s not bad. I think you sang well.”

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

“I’m not an expert on songs. But you still sing well!”

“I think it’s not bad.”

“Umm, feels kinda intense…”

The results were a great success. Relatively positive feedback.

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

Even Lucian acknowledged my singing. But that guy, why would he say such a thing? Perhaps he realizes the spirit of the place that the song conveys. I chuckled inwardly.

A little while later, we discovered a horde of monsters blocking the path. They looked like humans draped in armor woven from white stone pieces. Reports say these monsters are called Spartoi. They are considered a troublesome enemy.

“Everyone, prepare for battle!”

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