Chapter 147: Invaders (7)
‘Have you given up on life? Have you lost all hope?’
“Damn it… Get out of my head, monster. Just kill me…!”
‘What can I give you to persuade you?’
Eve deliberately transmitted her will through the Collective Consciousness, shaking Liam’s mind. She rummaged through the data she had gathered on Liam.
The main source of this information was surprisingly not the Rebel Alliance, but the Alliance. Richard, the head of the spy research lab planted in the Alliance, and researcher Pyles had found and shared the relevant materials.
‘Liam Christopher, 42 years old, rank of Brigadier General, from Planet Riman, unique in that he became an officer by achieving merit as a low-ranked soldier, unlike others who took the elite course.’
“Cough…”
‘After that, he was called a ghoul of the rebels on the western front, having consumed too many of the Alliance’s troops. However, his personal inclinations are closer to anti-Alliance and anti-Alliance.’
“What a biased report. Could it be that my background check was also obtained through the Alliance? You… Could you be the combat bioengineering experiments created by the Alliance?!”
Liam realized that the information being recited by Eve was excessively focused on the perspective of the Alliance, which he had been fighting against. He quickly lost his footing, his eyes widening in shock.
In fact, the repeated nuances of Eve appearing to have deep connections with the Alliance were, in a way, a reasonable suspicion.
“Shut up. How dare you associate me with those humans. No one can stand above me. Especially you, the primitive ones.”
“Gah…”
However, Liam’s remarks about her being a mere experiment were extremely irritating to Eve. As the intense wave of force emanated from her, Liam groaned under the pressure.
‘Continue the story, Commander.’
Still, Eve quickly calmed herself and did not go into a frenzy. She could somewhat ’empathize’ with why Liam thought that way.
Once she calmed down, her ability to control her emotions was remarkably quick.
Liam, however, turned pale as he watched Eve’s expressions change moment by moment, feeling as if he was seeing a ghost.
‘There was something particularly noticeable among the unique aspects. He has a very good reputation among his subordinates. People trust and follow him to the point that political maneuvering is difficult due to his unique abilities.’
“…”
Liam tried not to listen, but closing his eyes was all he could do. However, Eve, who already held control over his nerves and muscles, forcibly opened his eyes.
‘If you care for your subordinates, how about this?’
Based on the information, Eve chose a means she could use immediately.
The mucous membranes on the floor ripped, and the flesh walls cracked as dismembered bodies entwined with tentacles began to rise like a flood.
Who could say those chunks of meat were human, that they were alive? But as Liam’s eyes began to shake, he could not bring himself to speak.
In his present condition, he was no different from those chunks of meat.
‘Even without a heartbeat, even without lungs, I can tell. You wish for them to live again, don’t you?’
“Ah… No, I don’t…”
‘Moreover, you seem to react particularly to this face.’
Watching his reaction closely, Eve moved the tentacles to show him the remains that had just partial head and upper body left.
He could neither avoid it nor deny it.
“Amy…”
That pitiful corpse was his aide, Amy. From his reaction, which he could not conceal, Eve was convinced that Amy was the trigger to shake his heart.
Then all that remained was persuasion and negotiation.
‘What kind of world do you want? You know there is no world where you can have everything. Even I have to give up something to gain something. So you must choose too.’
The whispers of a devil. That fatal temptation flowed into Liam, who could not even close his eyes on his own, along with the face of his cold, lifeless lover.
‘If you become one with me, you must give up everything you once had as a human. But in exchange, I will let you keep this woman alive with you. Forever. You will live together, just the two of you, in your own world.’
Eve employed all the knowledge she had acquired so far. Among them, the most useful knowledge was fundamentally about human psychology under duress.
By becoming human alongside Shin Woo and fighting with them, acquiring data by killing humans, including numerous Legionnaires.
Starting from the cave, with a brain that had grown to the size of a city, Eve cornered Liam to his limits and pressed him to make a choice, utilizing knowledge that could not yet be fully comprehended.
“It can’t be. It can’t be possible… Amy is already dead.”
‘Of course, she is dead now. But I can bring her back to life. Proof? The proof is you. Are you alive or dead right now?’
Eve responded with a smirk to Liam’s trembling voice that denied it.
That was enough. After all, Liam was not in a normal state.
“Is it really possible to bring her back to life in a normal state?”
‘Just watch.’
Judging that she was almost there, Eve moved her tentacles to inject universal cells used for the creation of higher beings into Amy’s corpse.
The cells, receiving nutrients endlessly, began to divide and grow at an astonishing speed, forming a new body.
Soon, she, Amanda Lynn, perfectly restored her existing flesh and slowly opened her eyes. Tears flowed from Liam’s eyes as he looked at her.
‘But Eve. That person is…’
‘That’s right. In the end, she is a being that moves because of me, clearly different from before. So what?’
Upon hearing Kang Do-yeon’s words while watching that scene, Eve scoffed.
The question of whether the resurrected Amy is truly the same person as before or if she truly came back to life will undoubtedly be divisive among humans. However, Eve did not even blink.
‘Though I lost her soul, Amanda Lynn will become one with the Legion and share our consciousness. Some of her memories were lost due to brain damage, but she retains most of her memories. She is preserving her ego. Isn’t that enough? What more do you need?’
Eve laughed as she watched Amy embracing the head of a tearful Liam. Even if she got to know humans better, Eve’s values remained steadfast.
“Have you made up your mind, Commander? How about the revived aide?”
After some time had passed, Eve intervened between the two.
Amy had now transformed her skin cells to perfectly recreate the uniform, hat, and stockings she had previously worn. She flinched and blocked Liam’s path with her body.
“G-get away, monster.”
Then she revealed her hostility toward Eve.
Although she had become one with the Legion, Eve did not intend to touch her ego nor reveal the truth to her. If anything, she was in a similar state to Richard and Pyles, the spies planted in the Alliance.
“Not just anyone can become a Submind. You need to be able to withstand your body being reconstructed while fully conscious. Being half-fixed like you doesn’t add up.”
Eve pointed a finger at her, her eyes sparkling.
For Eve, the Hive Mind, who governs and embodies the Legion, instinctively recoiling from continually expanding a new ego that only halfway reflected her body, mind, and soul, was natural.
“It’s fine to step aside, Amy.”
“Commander…”
And making some kind of decision, Liam started to move the small figure blocking his way.
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“I want you to become the commander of our fleet.”
“…You want me to side with the monsters and kill humans?”
“Think like a human, flexibly and from various perspectives. Before I even came into existence, you had already killed countless people. Does that mean the soldiers you killed from the Alliance weren’t human?”
As he spat out in disbelief, Eve scoffed. In that moment, both Liam and Amy stiffened. Eve never expressed the rapidly changing attitude of humans as hypocrisy or selfishness.
“I told you. There are things you have to give up. You’ve gained her back, and in exchange, you can discard your past. Good? Evil? Those are merely illusions made by weaklings like you. The struggle to survive is the essence of life and everything.”
Eve’s eyes glowed softly as she preached her beliefs. Meanwhile, Liam’s gaze sank deeply.
His heart, forced into two limited choices, reached its breaking point.
If he agreed, he would become part of the monsters and have to kill the people he had worked hard to protect.
But what if he disagreed? He saw Amy standing by, unsure of what to do. He could not bear to lose her again, not after she had just come back to life.
“I won’t particularly give you a mission to destroy your hometown.”
Eve’s final proposal nailed it down.
In the end, Liam accepted Eve’s proposal and agreed to become part of the Legion, ready to exert his abilities.
‘It seems like the advantage and disadvantage of humans is that they’re swayed by such verbal tricks.’
“…”
With her back turned to Liam, Eve left him behind as reconstruction began.
Eve certainly intended to attack Liam’s hometown, Riman. She simply would not leave it to him. Kang Do-yeon looked at Amy, who was weeping as she embraced Liam’s body covered in slime, with a complicated expression.
