Chapter 411
* * *
We gradually drew closer to the light, the only passage to escape this damn space.
“Yeah. So get ready to see Ray. You’ll be surprised.”
“I really will be. I’ll be incredibly surprised. And so will you.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Hey, Yu Eunha. I never thought I’d be asking a girl for this, but… please continue to love my daughter. Can you promise me that?”
Unbelievable, she calls that a favor.
That’s a given. Now and forever.
After all, I made her that way, made her body so arousing, so even if Ray told me to leave, I have no intention of doing so.
Naturally, I plan to fuck Rachel too.
She’ll probably be quite surprised to see her daughter’s new appearance.
“Why ask something so obvious? I’ll love you too.”
“Haa. I really don’t know if I can trust such a flirtatious girl, but… for now, okay. That’s enough. Thank you. I’ll trust only you.”
As we were about to leave, I saw a warning sign made of light posted near the door.
They really post a lot of trivial warning signs.
-You cannot take any records out of the Archive of Records.
Ah, the Lizard Maid. I wanted to take her. What a shame.
It seems taking the Lizard Maid out is actually impossible, as my hand is somehow blocked.
Now then, how will Ray react when she sees Rachel?
“I’m heading out then.”
“Yeah.”
As I stepped out, I briefly turned my head to look inside the archive.
Hmm, I don’t know if there will be a time to come here again.
It feels like I’ll come back again. For now, let’s just leave.
I opened the doorknob and stepped outside.
“”Yu Eunha!””
The voices of my pretties welcomed me as soon as I stepped out.
The mass of light that was the door I came through had already disappeared.
I wonder if I can drop by there again if I do something similar next time.
Right. Seeing my heroines is what’s important right now.
“Hisashiburi? Long time no see? Did you wait long?”
I must have made my pretties wait too long.
Look at them all. Every single one of their faces has become drawn and haggard.
At this rate, what will happen to my heroines if I’m gone for even a day?
Would they be Yuri Rubbing with each other? Or would they just do masturbation quietly while desperately crying out for me?
Hmm. Yeah. Seeing them each do Masturbation would definitely be arousing.
“We were really worried! But why are you standing in such an awkward pose?”
An awkward pose? Can Ray not see Rachel piggybacking on my back?
I brought back a whole piece of the Mother and Daughter Threesome, for crying out loud.
“Oh, right. The Elf Rachel on my shoulders is your Mother.”
“What? Who is on your shoulders? There’s nothing but a bag.”
“Huh?”
Now that I think about it, my back is excessively light.
Just in case, I straightened my back and turned my head around.
There was nothing on my back where Rachel had been piggybacking just a moment ago. Only the bag I had brought fell to the floor.
And.
Suddenly, the warning sign I saw on the bulletin board near the back door at the very end came to mind.
That warning sign that had inexplicably made me feel unpleasant.
-You cannot take any records out of the Archive of Records.
I couldn’t take any records out of the Archive of Records.
And the corpse of the Elf that looked similar to Rachel.
The Four Heavenly Kings Ancient lich that had become a record in a book.
Add to this the somewhat lacking Yuri Rubbing.
Gulp.
It all connected into one.
Rachel, too, was a record consumed by a book.
I moved my trembling hand and reached for the bag I had brought.
Inside the bag were the clothes Rachel used to wear.
And on the chest of those clothes was a nametag.
[Rachel Ryuk]
The name on the corpse was Rachel’s nametag.
I had been conversing with a dead Rachel.
#
New Cheongwadae
Ha Jeongseok, who had successfully returned home after concluding the summit, clutched his head at the recent news.
It was because China had recently become quite proud.
Although trade volume had dropped post-Cataclysm, China was still a huge market for Korea, but these Chinese bastards had started throwing their weight around again.
“They’re placing sanctions on the export of Hunter equipment?”
“Yes. They are ignoring equipment not just from Korea, but from other countries as well.”
“Hmm. Meaning these Jjangkkae bastards are acting suspicious lately.”
Placing sanctions on equipment exports.
This wasn’t just a simple problem. Whatever else might be true, China was currently lacking in Hunter equipment.
In such a situation, they were imposing sanctions by banning equipment imports from Korea and the rest of the world.
There was something more to this than simply trying to hide something.
It wasn’t a severing of diplomatic ties, but exchanges had definitely decreased.
“Indeed.”
“Aren’t those bastards pulling some dirty trick in the Mongolian Steppe recently?”
“Yes.”
Post-Cataclysm, Mongolia had been completely ruined once before being retaken by China, who employed human wave tactics.
But since it practically faced the Erosion Zone of Siberia, it was said to be a frontier that China didn’t pay much attention to.
Recently, suspicious movements had been observed there.
Things like the Chinese military standing strict guard there.
Or a research facility being installed.
“Is there no way to know what they’re doing?”
Since it was those Chinese bastards, he couldn’t quite grasp what they were up to.
But it was definitely something useless.
Ha Jeongseok had a rather shrewd side to him, enough to maintain a dictatorship in this chaotic nation of Korea.
What did this mean?
It meant he could deduce the current situation at least somewhat.
To Ha Jeongseok, whose intuition was incredible from ruling as a dictator for so long, alarms seemed to be ringing that China would now become a threat to Korea.
“We are mobilizing the secret intelligence agency, but it seems they aren’t making much headway.”
“Damn it. What are they doing?”
“Aren’t they just making a fuss about raising Hunters again, at most?”
Right. That would be the case.
But then their refusal to import Hunter equipment was really bothering him.
There was definitely a reason. He didn’t know what that reason was, but it was certainly there.
Refusing to import ultimately meant they were preparing for self-procurement.
And they were actually proving that it was effective right now.
'War.'
Even so, it couldn’t be that. He thought so, but…
There were still many suspicious points and many things that bothered him.
Daring to wage war against a country that possessed Yu Jinseok?
He could look at it that way, but what if these bastards were doing biological experiments? Or if not that, what if they had joined hands with an incredibly strong Villain Group?
No, even excluding all of that, there was one more problem.
The fact that the President was a guy named Jang Hak-chae.
What kind of guy was Jang Hak-chae?
He was the target Ha Jeongseok had bullied during their Academy days.
The one who had suffered from school violence, which was so controversial pre-Cataclysm, was Jang Hak-chae.
He would be more full of grievances against Ha Jeongseok than anyone else, and it was only natural that this would affect the Korea currently ruled by Ha Jeongseok.
And if things had stabilized a bit like they were now, it was worth an attempt.
“That bug Jang Hak-chae is suspicious. Keep looking into it for now. Also, we need to strengthen our military power. Support the Hunters, and we should also support and rebuild the old-fashioned ROK Armed Forces. Talk it over well with the Ministry of National Defense and the Hunter Association.”
“Yes.”
Right. Let’s leave it at that for now.
“And have you looked into that Baekhwa TV?”
Jang Hak-chae was a problem, but internally, the existence of Baekhwa was also a bit of a problem.
Baekhwa, who had been the subject of much talk lately.
He wondered if she was aiming for something else besides broadcasting.
But that wasn’t it either.
She was just broadcasting from the Erosion Zone and drawing people’s attention.
After all, that was the topic of the summit just a while ago.
Making contact with Baekhwa.
Goodness, the thoughts of the heads of state are truly unfathomable.
Even the United States President was like that.
“Yes. The IP cannot be traced. It seems she really is operating in the Erosion Zone.”
“I see.”
So that’s actually the case.
Then it’s somewhat of a relief.
If by any chance she incited people and attacked from the outside, that would have been annoying.
“The Chinese bastards are acting like that, and Baekhwa is moving in the Erosion Zone.”
“How about using Baekhwa instead?”
Chief of staff Choi Jisu said that while pushing up her glasses.
If by any chance China was considering war, wouldn’t that be a method?
“Baekhwa?”
“Yes. What do you think is the reason Baekhwa is acting like that?”
“Well, streamers are attention seekers who live off of receiving attention, aren’t they? A Mutant would be even more so.”
Of course, he knew that wasn’t the end of it.
Honestly, things were complicated enough with just China, so he hoped Baekhwa was nothing more than an attention seeker.
If by any chance Baekhwa tried to cross the line, it would become annoying.
“Is it simply just that?”
“Then what is it?”
“She is deliberately showing the life of a Mutant and displaying a different side of Mutants. This means she is trying to put an end to the established image of villain equals Mutant.”
Certainly, Baekhwa’s broadcasts were somewhat different.
She was truly different from the Mutants seen so far.
Her personality was amiable, and she was strong. She didn’t overreact to viewers picking fights either.
“Oho. I see. That makes sense.”
If Baekhwa really desired that direction.
They could aim for various things.
If a war broke out with China, they could use her as a meat shield.
Since that was all Mutants were useful for anyway.
* * *
It had been quite a while since I came out of the Archive of Records.
Now, when it was hard to even go back in, the crying Ray caught my eye.
“Mom. Mom. Heuk. Waaaaah!”
Ray was hugging the letter, nametag, and other keepsakes Rachel had left behind, crying.
Lee Yujeong was comforting Ray.
I was still bewildered.
Was Rachel really dead?
Suddenly, the words she had said came to mind.
-Nothing. Hey, Yu Eunha. I never thought I’d be asking a girl for this, but… please continue to love my daughter. Can you promise me that?
-Why ask something so obvious? I’ll love you too.
-Haa. I really don’t know if I can trust such a flirtatious girl, but… for now, okay. That’s enough. Thank you. I’ll trust only you.
Had she been hoping for someone to appear and take her keepsakes out?
Then again, being trapped in there for a long time was enough to kill her.
Rachel probably died while looking for an escape route.
But because she died there, she ended up becoming a record in a book.
Couldn’t it be seen this way?
“Akashic Record. Rachel is definitely dead, right?”
[Yes. She died there and was recorded. She is likely still trapped inside that book even now.]
“Does she have to stay there for the rest of her life?”
[Unless someone burns the book she is recorded in. She will likely have to stay there for eons. It seems she somehow tried to hide the string connecting her to the book, pretending not to be a record.]
Then that means she has to be there for the rest of her life. Truly forever.
Isn’t that too sad?
That’s no different from Hell. If it were me, I would never be able to stay there for long.
It’s dark, and there’s no one there.
Even though there are things that came out of the records, even if what I saw was only a fraction, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say there are no humans with egos.
“Akashic Record. Can I enter that Archive again?”
[It is possible. However, it is literally a space where time and space are intertwined. The number of future possibilities that would occur upon Master’s reentry into the Archive is uncountable.]
“I still have to go.”
Whether it’s finding a way to bring Rachel out.
Or at least letting Ray go in so they can have a mother-daughter reunion.
I have to find a way like that.