Fight for the liberation of all mankind.
The ten simple, direct words brought a soul-deep tremor to David.
What kind of person, what kind of event could be worthy of these ten words?
The story in the book takes place in a small town in Ukraine after the end of World War I. The protagonist is nad Pavel Korchagin. He was reprimanded for questioning the knowledge of God creating the world as taught by a priest, which differed from what his teacher taught. In revenge, he put ashes in the Easter bread, angering the priest and getting expelled.
For so reason, David saw a reflection of his past self in him; the sa single-parent family, the sa poverty, the sa defiance of school discipline, a love of fighting, a disdain for the children of wealthy families...
Can soone like also beco a legend?
David read quickly, his cybernetic eyes scanning at high speed so he wouldn't miss a single word, yet many parts of the book perplexed him, like what the White Army and the Red Army and the Bolsheviks were, and why Germany and Poland wanted to fight Ukraine...
Fortunately, there was soone nearby patiently explaining the terms David didn't understand, so he could continue reading little by little.
The experience of reading a physical book was entirely different from wtwo, the scene descriptions in the text were not as directly impactful as dynamic visuals, nor as invigorating as wtwo's sensory engagent, but the blanks left in the text gave David plenty of room for imagination.
He felt as though he had arrived in that simple town, rging with the young man nad Pavel, returning to that chaotic, tumultuous era.
Stealing a German officer's pistol from the barracks, eting the beautiful girl Tonia, risking capture and imprisonnt by attacking the White Army to rescue Zhukhray...
Goodness, it seed like sothing David himself would do.
David could assure that if he were to switch places with Pavel, he too would do those seemingly rebellious things, and that snitching rich kid Victor was just as detestable as Tanaka in his class.
Such an imrsive feeling was an experience David never had with the forced mind-driving wtwo. A new world was opening up to him.
And the increasingly mature, increasingly steadfast image of Pavel Korchagin, who was growing ever distant from David himself, made him understand why this man could be called a legend by the Red Killer Demon, and why the title of the book was How the Steel Was Tempered.
Pavel's revolutionary will was so resolute and fervent that even if it was his own life and body being consud, he would not hesitate to struggle against the stubborn White Army, against the corrupt within the party, and against the pains of his own illness, as though nothing could defeat him.
Those easily obtainable positions and power seed like re dirt to him.
Yet such a person had none of the fortune found in wtwo of turning danger into safety; poverty, illness, and ostracism and criticism from colleagues, Tonia's lack of understanding, it was as if misfortune clung to this man. His short life was so unlucky, leading to paralysis and blindness before he reached thirty.
Having beco accustod to the short, quick thrill brought by wtwo, David found it hard to accept why good people in this book did not receive good endings. Why were there no prosthetics in that era?
If his injuries could be healed, this iron-like man could achieve so much more, for there were still so many poor waiting for Pavel's help, so many enemies yet to fall.
But when Pavel ca to the suburban park to give up on suicide and interrogate himself, David understood.
It was precisely the cruelty of fate and the brevity of life that made this man's iron-like will all the more precious, and it was his noble will that highlighted the despicableness and baseness of those opportunists.
He might die, but his indomitable iron will lived longer than all the vile survivors in the world.
"Does this person... really exist?"
David closed the book, unable to calm his heart for a long ti.
By comparison, even the most glorious achievents of Johnny Silverhand seed slight.
"Of course he exists, and he had many comrades fighting alongside him."
The Red Killer Demon said so.
"But why... is there still a Night City?"
David didn't understand, if soone like Pavel really existed, then why was the world still as it is?
Why could such heroic resistance and loyal revolutionaries like Pavel not change the world?
"If even Pavel couldn't change the world, then who can?"
"There's still you, David."
The Red Killer Demon slowed down his voice, as the son of Gloria, a rebellious young man full of vigor, he was more suitable than anyone else.
"Don't forget, Pavel was initially just a poor kid like you; nobility of will and character does not depend on birth."
"Pavel could be from the industrial housing of Santo Domingo, from a basent in the Kabuki District, or from the shantytowns of Taiping Continent and Watson District."
"Don't lose heart over a temporary failure, David."
"Thoreau once said that most people live in quiet desperation, so don't fall into this state, David, you must break through
[It's not too late to seek a newer world]
[I am determined to sail beyond the sunset]
[Though we no longer have the power we once had to move heaven and earth]
[We still carry the sa heroic hearts]
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