Chapter 233
“Whether it’s an arm or whatever, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t just point it at people carelessly. If you show any sign of trying to use it in our bar again, or if you threaten others with it, I’ll kick you out immediately.”
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t slightly intimidated when a bizarre Bio-arm was shoved in my face.
But I glared with wide eyes and spoke forcefully without backing down in the slightest.
I couldn’t let myself be intimidated here. Not after everything I’ve been through.
If nothing else, I had to work with the mindset that the safety of the bar was completely under my control.
The Ascetic unexpectedly agreed quite easily.
“A reasonable demand. The cause of the previous altercation was not me, so if there are no more moths like them, there will be no reason to for further conflict.”
So… to roughly summarize, he was saying he didn’t start the fight. But he’d be careful from now on. Something like that.
Since he said that, it felt awkward to press the issue further. The primary responsibility definitely lay with the Bald Octopus Squad Leader who caused the problem first, anyway…
I had a premonition that something would happen eventually because the McMillan Supporters were acting so high and mighty in the bar, so it might actually be a relief that it was resolved relatively smoothly like this.
At least no one died, right? A beggar
…I feel like my standards for judgment have gotten a bit weird too. Ah, whatever.
After guiding the McMillan Supporters out as they left in droves with their tails tucked like beaten dogs (naturally, I didn’t get a tip this time either. Damn it!), I served the El Valentine Cocktail the Ascetic had ordered.
“When the devil is too busy seeking out people, he sends alcohol as his proxy.”
He spoke while taking a sip of the Blue Margarita contained in the ice glass carved with El Valentine’s face.
I shrugged and asked.
“I’ve heard that saying. Isn’t it usually a proverb used to mean you shouldn’t drink?”
When I pointed out that it was an unfitting thing to say while sipping a cocktail like he was doing now, the Ascetic answered shortly.
“The devil is a familiar entity to me, so I do not fear him. The proxy is the same.”
What is he talking about now? Can I just roughly understand it as him saying he’s an alcohol addict?
When I looked closely, the El Valentine Cocktail was already showing its bottom. It seems the drinker really is an alcohol addict.
Even though it tastes sweet and sour, the alcohol content is quite high, making it an easy cocktail to get knocked out by if you chug it like that, but since his face was tightly wrapped in a mask, it was hard to check his condition to see how drunk he was.
Seeing the Ascetic let out a loud burp and set down the ice glass, I asked impulsively.
“You don’t particularly support El Valentine, do you?”
“The reason for your question?”
“Just, you look like you don’t.”
It didn’t look like he ordered the Election edition Cocktail because he liked and supported El Valentine, from the way he was chugging alcohol to his demeanor.
Rather, the hypothesis that he ordered the El Valentine Cocktail to pick a fight because he didn’t like the McMillan Supporters seemed more credible.
But unexpectedly, the Ascetic seemed to ponder for a moment before shaking his head.
“No, I do support El Valentine.”
“Really? You didn’t exactly look like you liked him.”
When I spoke, to my surprise, the Ascetic shook his head again.
“You saw that correctly. I do not like El Valentine in the slightest. If anything, I tend to detest him.”
What the hell is he saying? Partly because I haven’t completely mastered the Dusk City Language, and partly because this Yangban is twisting his words using a difficult literary style, it’s not easy to understand him right away.
So, if he had to say, he dislikes El Valentine, but he supports him.
Does that mean there’s a reason he has to support El Valentine even though he dislikes him?
When I asked that, the Ascetic nodded this time.
“Accurate. The world is Hell, and Hell always forces a cruel dichotomy. Is it even possible to distinguish between what is evil and what is more evil? Does choosing the lesser harm solve the dilemma? It is unknown, but if not choosing one side means choosing the other, the only possible option is to choose.”
No, fuck, what the hell is he saying.
It feels like listening to a professor from my college days. Why do I have to suffer through this kind of pain while working?
Is that why he’s an Ascetic? An ascetic who bestows asceticism upon others, my god.
“So… you’re saying you don’t like El Valentine, but you support him because he seems a bit better than the opposition, McMillan? Because in a two-party system structure, not supporting one side results in supporting the other?”
The Ascetic pondered my interpretation for a moment, then nodded.
“That is not incorrect. Though it would be more accurate to say that I detest McMillan twice as much as Valentine, rather than weighing whether Valentine is better than McMillan.”
The Ascetic’s rough voice truly carried hatred and contempt as he said that.
It’s puzzling. In the Underground, D.D. McMillan is someone everyone truly likes, or at least doesn’t dislike.
Why on earth does this person hate McMillan so much?
[ - come to think of it, coincidentally, the last corporation among the medical Big 3 that was left out of the End Pandemic cure public development project, Tech/Nano, was a subsidiary of Valentine, wasn’t it? This smells a bit fishy, doesn’t it?]
[On the contrary, Valheim Med International recently announced that it formed a collaborative relationship with Militia Private Security Service. There were also reports that D.D. McMillan had been accompanied by Mili-Tech ex-escort agents at his rally venues… Is it just my imagination that it feels like the Dusk political arena has become a proxy war, a power game between two giant megacorps?]
[Then does that mean the number 1 Megacorp in the global corporate overall ranking and the number 2 corporation closely chasing behind it are fighting with Dusk City caught in the middle? If that’s true, the atmosphere is ripe for Militia to break Valentine’s stronghold and cause some real trouble. McMillan’s support base is just that extraordinary!]
Hearing the contents of the DBC News on the Holo Channel that followed right after the commercials ended, another thought occurred to me.
Come to think of it, the place where the crazy scientist committed the terrorist act was also in front of the Militia Headquarters Building.
And the ones who mobilized and cleared up the situation were the Mili-Tech special forces back then.
In a way, it was natural that the mastermind behind the Opening Plan was Militia.
If McMillan is seen as Militia’s proxy, then perhaps the Ascetic hates Militia, not McMillan? That could be it.
Even I hate Militia, for one.
I hate a Dusk City ruled by Militia even more. Just imagining it is terrible.
The Ascetic probably doesn’t hate Militia for the same reasons I do, but he might have his own circumstances.
[This System Assistant raises an objection to the test subject’s dangerous ideology. You, the test subject, as a super-human experiment resource of the Militia Superhuman Development Research Institute, have an obligation to comply with the headquarters' directives rather than questioning them, and…]
Ugh, so noisy. The Ascetic Yangban alone is enough of a headache, but with the System Assistant making a rare appearance and nagging in my head, it is driving me crazy.
I already had some things to say to this System Assistant bastard from before, anyway…
But the customer comes first, so let’s deal with that later.
Hina
However, it feels a bit off to just bluntly ask, “Do you hate Militia?”
You don’t just casually mention megacorps like that, even by mistake, especially not in a negative light.
So let’s ask something a little different.
For instance…
“What do you think about the Opening Plan?”
At my question, the Ascetic answered with his metal-scraping voice.
“Is it a foolish act to forcefully tear off the scab of an unhealed wound? Or is it extreme wickedness, to a degree hard to measure? Or is it difficult to distinguish, so it can be seen as both?”
He’s incredibly hard to understand again.
If I had my way, I’d just let it go in one ear and out the other, but it bothered me that it was so similar to what the crazy terrorist scientist had said back then.
The metaphor that the Quarantine Zone is Dusk City’s unhealed wound, and opening it is like tearing off the scab…
Is the overlap really a coincidence?
“…So in short, you’re saying the Opening Plan is a stupid and terrible policy, in your opinion, customer?”
The Ascetic nodded once again. A slightly satisfied look could be seen in his gestures, perhaps because I understood his words well.
It makes sense. How high could the education level in the Underground of Dusk City possibly be?
I guarantee there are very few people who can properly understand the difficult words that Yangban uses.
Seriously, it’s not even my native language!
Is this where I should praise the education level of 21st century Korea?
Regardless of his satisfaction, he didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping his bizarre Zen dialogues, as he launched into another random story when asked why he opposed the opening policy.
“Bartender, do you know the ghost stories of the Quarantine Zone?”