Chapter 260

Screams echoed throughout the Exhibition Hall.

The sounds of mutated humans’ roars and the groans of people in pain mixed together.

Amidst the chaos, a girl was curled up underneath a desk.

“It’s scary… Please, someone help me…”

With every scream that rang out, Ariel’s body trembled.

When her parents transformed into grotesque monsters and lunged at her, had she not quickly hidden into the crowd, she would not have escaped.

The monsters indiscriminately attacking the people in front of her turned their attention towards the armed hunters who posed a greater threat.

Seizing the opportunity, Ariel crawled underneath a desk at a booth belonging to an unknown company.

– Crash! Bang!

– Ratatat!

The noise of monsters’ roars, battle cries, gunfire, and magic filled the air.

Overwhelmed by fear, Ariel quietly sobbed.

She never imagined her parents would turn into monsters…

“No, that’s not Mom and Dad…”

It couldn’t be.

How could humans turn into monsters?

Denying the situation, Ariel muttered to herself.

Surely, they must be fakes. Monsters wearing the likeness of her parents, and her real Mom and Dad must be somewhere else.

“They must be looking for me.”

So, she had to survive.

She had to endure this situation no matter what.

Yet, the horrifying scene from just moments ago continued to replay in her mind.

Her parents calling out to her with twisted faces like she had never seen before.

The sight of them contorting before her eyes was something she could never forget.

That wasn’t all.

Her head throbbed, and the pain was unbearable.

Her eyes burned as if they might fall out, and she had no strength left to escape.

She had hidden for what felt like forever.

She didn’t think someone would come to save her. The unbearable heat of her head made it impossible to even wish for salvation.

All she wished for was for this nightmare to pass.

The girl helplessly curled up in the corner of the desk.

Somewhere, footsteps that sounded like splashing grew closer.

Ariel quickly covered her mouth.

Shadows from strange, dark legs passed over the desk.

As the shadows wobbled and grew larger, Ariel tightly shut her eyes and held her breath.

“Please, just move along!”

The shadows haphazardly approached the desk where she was hiding before disappearing.

Just as she felt relieved, thinking they were chasing someone else, one shadow stopped.

– Clunk!

“I found you!”

The monster lifted the desk and threw it aside.

Ariel froze, unable to even think of running away.

In the dimly lit Exhibition Hall, facing her was…

“Now, for the great throne!”

With drool dripping from its grotesquely twisted four-jawed face, it roared, revealing those who had once been human.

The monster in front raised its arm, transformed into something resembling a sword.

“Ah…”

The grim reality made even the young girl instantly grasp what death was.

Thoughts flooded into her mind like a tidal wave.

Am I really going to die like this?

I wanted to get into Aegis Academy so badly…

I wanted to make lots of friends and earn money to make Mom and Dad comfortable…

For some reason, the last thought that surfaced was of a blonde girl who might become a senior.

Foreseeing the impending pain, Ariel tightly shut her eyes.

– Bang bang bang!

The successive gunshots pulled her back to reality.

The monster staggered backward, disoriented by the impact of rapid shotgun fire.

A heavy stomp vibrated around her.

“Die, monster!”

“Ah! I got hit in the head!”

When Ariel opened her eyes, she saw a girl in combat uniform instead of the monster from earlier.

“Ugh… She’s stronger than I thought…”

With a broken Recognition Interference Device and a torn mask.

The grumbling Violet belatedly realized the girl in front of her was staring at her intently.

“Sister Violet?”

“Oh, wow! It’s Ariel! You’re alive!”

After the initial cheer, Ariel cautiously posed her question.

“Um, sis. What are those? And who are those people…”

“Oh, this? This is my gear, and those are my clones. And—”

Violet’s face suddenly stiffened as she was explaining in front of her junior.

“Long live the Ariel Group!”

Hearing the battle cry from the other Violets, Ariel’s vision narrowed.

Just as she was about to ask more questions, she staggered and collapsed into Violet’s arms.

“Oh my gosh! She’s burning up!”

“I need Daphne!”

“Um, sis, you’re not—”

“Answers later! Let’s evacuate first!”

Violet 1 picked up her junior and sprinted to a safe place.

She wasn’t alone in her rush.

“Forward! Forward!”

The double front line where mind and body intersect, countless Violets charged forward.

In the middle of Violet Plaza, the Apostles were thrown into confusion by the sudden emergence of two front lines.

Even for their race, skilled at split-second decisions, a situation like this was absolutely, never familiar.

“Let’s kill them! Let’s kill them!”

Of course, the current Apostles had a plethora of excuses.

Even scientists who faced mice with Von Neumann-like intelligence in a labor dispute would not be as astonished as they were.

“How could these humans build such a mental space?”

The sharp instincts of the Aedos race meticulously scanned the structure of the Violet Network even amidst the crisis.

The incoming information was increasingly despairing.

The Apostle lamented.

“Is this theoretically feasible? Can this be implemented?”

What they recognized was a structure that was only dealt with in theories of the Aedos’ mental phase philosophy.

Who would have thought it would be discovered among a race they considered inferior?

“Does this even make sense?!”

The Violet Network.

This inferior insect had named this mental space after itself, but its true form was a higher-dimensional structure without inside or outside.

The Apostle grabbed the head of the Violet hanging from his shoulder and crushed it.

The Violet whose head was crushed quickly regenerated from a nearby rooftop and jumped back down again.

They attempted again and again to toss Violet down and fight her off.

They had to break free from these obstacles to escape this place.

Each Violet acted like magnets, continuously anchoring part of their minds.

“Why won’t it fall apart?!”

It was absurd.

These beings’ egos wouldn’t crumble no matter the attempt.

Killing one individual would not completely extinguish it.

The consciousness of each collective ego was bound to this mental network structure.

Therefore, the Apostles had to accept the fact that they could not eliminate individual existences until they destroyed the structure.

“Don’t waste your energy! Killing one individual won’t destroy them! Focus on escaping!”

One of the Apostles swatted away the Violets clawing at them and savagely slashed the ground.

A part of the network tore, revealing a gap, but it regenerated immediately.

“…!”

They could not collapse the collective consciousness structure.

This mental network structure belonged to and was connected with each individual.

The individual is whole, and the whole is individual.

Unless the mental structure was shattered, they could not eliminate these individuals.

However, if they didn’t eliminate every single individual, destroying this network would be impossible.

A paradoxical and contradictory constructed mental structure.

Could this really be human?

The Apostles felt a sense of fear in this circulatory and illogical reality.

How long had it been since they felt such emotions—this fear.

“Let’s escape! This is beyond our level!”

The first Apostle to fall into despair shouted urgently.

“To break this mental structure, it’s impossible unless we annihilate everything with one powerful force! Unless it’s the magnificent Monadic lords…”

“And if it’s His Majesty, it would indeed be possible. First, we must extract our minds completely and report. That’s the best approach.”

At that moment, one of the Violets tilted her head.

“Monad? Your Majesty? What does that mean? Do you monsters even have a country?”

“…!”

The Apostles realized they had been there too long.

The abyss had begun peeking into their depths.

“Quickly extract your consciousness! I’ll handle this! Open the gate and execute the plan quickly!”

– Boom!

“Kyahhhh!”

“That guy’s escaping!”

While a comrade bought time, the second Apostle successfully managed to escape the divided mind outside the network.

‘Who is that?’

Striking through and busting out of the network, the Apostle’s mind captured a strange sight.

On the outer edge of the mental structure they had pierced through, a more mature being lay dormant than the one they were facing.

‘Is it another being? No, that’s not important. Before it awakens—’

The Apostle’s mind escaped from the network.

A moment later, the eyelids of a woman who had been quietly keeping her eyes shut trembled.

As soon as they seized the upper hand in the mental battlefield, our Violets returned to the real world.

First, saving the people was the priority.

“Oh, no! Please don’t abandon me… don’t abandon me…”

“I won’t! I’m right here!”

The Violet rescue team hurriedly shook off their daze, grabbing Levi and the Ballista before standing up.

They didn’t see where the Apostles had gone.

Next came the swift cleanup of the Exhibition Hall.

Inside the Exhibition Hall, surprisingly strange-looking monsters were causing havoc.

“Is that…?”

The moment Ariel spotted the monsters, knowledge flowed into her mind.

Those Apostles must have somehow transformed people into those.

“Oh my gosh! How…?”

“We can hear you, you know? Shut up!”

While half of our team tussled with the illegal intruders in the network, we quickly wiped out the puppets created by the Apostles.

“Um, sis…”

Fortunately, Ariel was alive.

And there were more familiar faces to greet.

“Wow, you’re alive! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine! It’s time for revenge!”

She briefly reunited with Lucian, who was casting spells while besieging survivors.

She also found Sophie El, who had been catching her breath among the ruined frontline, burning armored vehicles, and soldiers’ corpses.

“Sis! We’re here!”

“Violet, are you alright? You looked—”

With concern and worry filling her gaze, she pressed forward.

There was so much to be done.

After swiftly organizing the Convention Center, we headed towards the smoke-filled defenses.

We pulled artifacts from our inventory.

The rookie Violet waved a nameless regiment’s flag, and magical energy scattered like grains.

With every flap of the flag, strength surged a little more.

“Regiment, forward!”

A wave of monsters surged towards them.

Without a doubt, the Apostles were controlling them.

They must have toyed with people as if playing a strategic game.

Those guarding here must have been wiped out pathetically.

Inside the network, once again, Violet’s strategy map unfolded.

What spread before their eyes were red dots filling the map and the fog of battle obscuring their view.

The fun and games were over.

“I’ll show you true war!”

Soldiers and hunters gathered behind armored vehicles and barriers, engaged in battle.

Did they hear footsteps? The people who recognized us turned their heads, bewildered.

The leading Tenth Clone raised a megaphone.

“Soldiers of the Federal Army, and hunters! Do not be afraid.”

Confusion only increased with the echoing voice.

“We are the Ariel Group.”

A few soldiers who appeared to be officers turned their guns toward us instead of the monsters.

The hunters also startled and started glancing our way.

They did not stop. If they wanted to shoot, let them.

“Don’t worry. We’re on your side. We came here to eliminate those monsters.”

Bravely, we strode right in front of the monsters.

“Wow, that was quick…”

The officer who had been desperately holding the machine gun on the armored vehicle chuckled bitterly.

Major Klein’s dark face, wet with sweat, brightened immediately.

“We are on humanity’s side.”

“We are the Ariel Group!”

The Violet regiment was ready for battle. All that remained was victory.

Those Apostles controlling the monsters—the Aedos race.

Thoughts of the resisting Apostles began to subtly creep in.

“Rank? Great Lord? Emperor?”

Emperor, empire.

Now they understood why these beings had acted so arrogantly.

The enemy of the academy city, and humanity itself, was none other than imperialists.

“Imperialism!”

We had to stand against the empire.

The Violets cried out.

“For democracy!”

Countless military ranks collided with the Violet regiment.

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