Translator: Alpha0210
Tucker despised foolish people the most, which essentially ant that he harbored hatred for the majority of the world.
From his childhood, ever since he had gained the ability to think, this had been his constant sentint. The people around him always seed unbearably stupid. At tis, they felt like nothing more than hairless mutant chimpanzees.
It wasn’t about basic knowledge, morization skills, or conversational ability.
What Tucker valued above all else was human relationships and the positions that were ford within them.
There could be no such thing as an equal relationship. No matter how close two people were, there was always a hierarchy, soone above, soone below. Those who failed to hold the initiative were inevitably controlled.
Parents who seed to have a perfect bond, twins born on the sa day, or even best friends willing to lay down their lives for each other…
Even in relationships that appeared equal at a glance, there was always an unspoken hierarchy.
And these differences were the decisive keys that ultimately determined their fates during critical monts.
The power Tucker valued most was adaptability. In other words, the ability to handle situations and establish relationships. He was innately talented in such matters.
If he so wished, he could turn the kind and gentle young man working at a flower shop into a parricidal outcast who abandoned his elderly parents overnight. Likewise, he could transform a sadistic murderer into a benevolent neighbor without breaking a sweat.
Handling situations, deceiving the masses, and inciting them was easier than breathing for Tucker.
But intelligence wasn’t the only thing he had.
Tucker was naturally strong.
For soone who could beco a leader with just his mind, possessing monstrous physical strength as well was almost unfair. It was no wonder that Tucker managed to seize control of an entire city in this chaotic world.
“This isn’t enough.”
Of course, he had no intention of being satisfied with this.
In the dean’s office,
Tucker had renovated and expanded the office of the prestigious university’s dean to suit his own tastes, converting it into a private room.
“What do you an by that, sir?”
A man in a suit cautiously spoke.
His na… Tucker couldn’t quite recall it. For now, it wasn’t important enough to rember.
“I an that my assumptions are correct.”
“...?”
“The PFA is a golden lifeline.”
As Tucker spoke with a smile, the man hesitated for a mont before giving his opinion.
“Forgive , but there are still several mayors who maintain a negative stance toward the PFA’s peaceful actions…”
At that, Tucker’s laughter grew louder.
The man unconsciously swallowed dryly, knowing from experience that nothing good ever happened when Tucker laughed like that.
“Peace and force are intimately connected, my friend.”
“Pardon?”
“The PFA’s goal isn’t to promote voluntary peace. Do you know what President PeaceFinder did after gathering the absolute rulers of various universes in one place?”
The man’s unease grew more pronounced.
He tried to hide the sweat on his palms as he nervously glanced toward the door.
"Did she advocate harmony? Give a grand speech? Did the powerful leaders present shed tears and give her a standing ovation out of sheer inspiration? Hahaha. All of those guesses are wrong, do you understand? That woman forced her will upon us, and we had no choice but to obey. From the mont we stepped into that conference room, she held absolute control over our lives and deaths.”
Of course, this was an extrely classified secret.
Almost no one knew, and it was a truth that should never be revealed.
Certainly not to soone like the man standing before Tucker, a re servant of his.
“By the way, friend, what’s your na?”
“S-sir, please spare …”
The man fell to his knees and pressed his forehead to the floor.
“I asked for your na.”
“If I’ve made a mistake, please… Please forgive …”
“Your na.”
“S-sam…”
Only then did Tucker nod.
“Alright, Sam. I’ll rember that.”
For the rest of the day, at least.
Tucker then slowly pressed his shoe down onto Sam’s head. Sam struggled in terror as the pressure increased. The sensation of his entire body’s blood rushing to his skull felt unbearably grotesque, almost nauseatingly so.
The struggle didn’t last long. Soon, Sam’s head burst like an overripe fruit.
Tucker looked down at the faceless corpse for a mont before summoning soone to dispose of it.
Two attendants entered, their gazes laced with fear, and obediently followed Tucker’s orders.
“Hm.”
Tucker didn’t particularly enjoy killing. It wasn’t as though he felt any aversion to it, but he found the filth left behind, bloodstains, the stench, just ordinarily repulsive.
Even so, there was one reason why he killed Sam over sothing so trivial.
To instill fear.
Wasn’t it a simple matter?
By crushing a weak subordinate, soone incapable of proper resistance, soone insignificant, soone whose presence or absence made no difference, he could increase the loyalty of his organization mbers and invigorate them.
By the ti Sam’s corpse had been removed from the dean’s office, Tucker had already forgotten about him entirely.
Instead, his thoughts had moved on to the senior mber of the PeaceFinder Armlet who was set to visit this city soon.
“The President is far too busy to co, so one of her subordinates will be there.”
Who could it be? If it were soone from the inner circle of the council, things would proceed much more smoothly.
Lost in thought, Tucker suddenly let out a low chuckle.
In truth, it didn’t matter who ca.
*
He was having a nightmare.
It was a place where a teor shower rained down like a torrential downpour.
Residue stood blankly on the surface of the water, staring up at the sky.
He couldn’t move. Not even a single finger. For a mont, he felt as though a hollow laugh might escape him. To think he was being swayed by sothing as insignificant as a fleeting dream. How fragile had his mind beco?
He couldn’t continue his train of thought.
Sploosh.
Without a sound, one of the falling teors plunged into the water’s surface. A spray of droplets rose into the air as ripples spread outward.
Monts later, at the center of those ripples, a human figure erged.
A single face, two arms, two legs.
The figure had an uncertain body, like a mass of clay dripping endlessly. Its face bore no expression, only an eerie shadow flickering unsettlingly across it.
The figure spoke.
─For the fool who deludes himself as the "Thunderous Lightning God", I’ll say this clearly.
Residue sucked in a sharp breath at the sound of the Lightning God’s voice.
─You are no longer a Ruler, you trash. Know your place.
His breathing quickened.
anwhile, the teors continued to fall, one after another, with no end in sight.
The clay figure rose again.
One, two, three, four… until there were too many to count.
Now they had beco a group, walking toward Residue.
─Where is Lukas, and who are you?
─…When you looked at like that, with that body, that face, those eyes… How do you think I felt?
The figures wavered like candle flas flickering in the wind, waving their hands.
Their gait reminded him of the walking dead.
─Even if everything you say is true, I still can’t accept it.
─I cannot accept his final choice. That he entrusted everything to soone like you.
The voices emanating from within them… He had never once forgotten them.
─No one will ever accept you or acknowledge your existence. I respect his judgnt, but… in his final monts, he made the worst possible decision.
Yes.
Now, even Residue himself agreed with that thought.
'Trash.'
'It shouldn't have been you.'
'What did you think you could possibly do?'
'Pathetic. How intoxicated were you with your own sense of self?'
Even words he had never heard before beca arrows piercing into him.
And yet, Residue was still fine.
Yes, it’s fine. He could endure this.
If it was only to this extent… if the nightmare ended here.
But there was still one last teor left in the sky.
...It was falling.
Thud.
The final clay figure rose from the water’s surface. Its appearance was no different from the others.
And yet, Residue couldn’t take his eyes off this one. So much so that he couldn’t even notice the other figures encircling him.
A shadowed, grotesque face… but within its hazy features, soone’s distinct countenance flickered faintly.
“……!”
The mont Residue realized the figure's identity and widened his eyes in shock, the clay doll closed the distance in an instant. Clench.
“Guhk.”
His throat was being strangled.
Residue still couldn’t move.
─I should never have entrusted it to you.
The man whispered.
─Giving it to you was the biggest mistake of my life.
A face filled with hatred stared directly at him.
Out of all the faces he had ever seen, it was this one that hurt the most to look at.
─I’m truly disappointed in you, Residue.
Stop.
Stop it.
He doesn't speak like that.
He doesn't make such expressions either.
'Do you really think so?'
Now, yet another voice whispered.
'Do you think he could’ve foreseen how pathetic you’d turn out to be?'
'You should have done better.'
'You couldn't unite the Void Lords, nor could you keep the secret thoroughly from those left behind.'
'You fulfilled neither Lukas’s role nor the Beginning Wizard’s role.'
'Look at yourself now. In this city drowning in endless rain, confined to a room smaller than ten pyeong, what exactly are you trying to do?'
What followed was always the sa.
He struggled, but nothing changed. The clay dolls clawed at his entire body. Dissatisfied with rely tearing at him from the outside, they lted into a murky ss and invaded his body from within. Residue suffered unbearable pressure, both inside and out, until the brink of waking.
And yet, Residue accepted all that pain as sothing he deserved.
*
Fortunately, he didn't wake up from the nightmare dramatically.
Residue woke up quietly.
However, as he sat up on the bed, he had no choice but to acknowledge a truth he had been avoiding until now.
He was hungry.
Had it been two days since he last ate? As expected, having a physical body was an annoying inconvenience.
“……”
The rain hadn’t stopped yet. Of course, it hadn’t. If not for that damn torrential downpour, he wouldn’t have had such a nightmare in the first place.
Residue shook his head and looked at the legless chair.
It was where Luca slept. When had he last seen her? Probably two days ago. Since Residue hadn’t left this room during that ti, it naturally ant Luca had been away for two days as well.
That was a first.
Of course, it didn’t matter to him whether that botherso girl with the irritating na had gotten into a fight with soone, been beaten up, or collapsed and died on the streets.
But… he was thirsty.
Food was one thing, but if he didn’t drink sothing soon, it would start to beco dangerous.
Residue got up from his spot.
He opened the door and took his first step outside the room.
Though he hadn’t counted himself, it was his first ti leaving in exactly three weeks.
*
Ssshhh…
The mont he stepped outside, the sticky humidity clung even more persistently to his skin.
Splash. Residue walked through the puddle-filled streets.
“……”
“……”
But it wasn’t just the humidity that clung to him.
In the dark streets, amidst the broken window fras and the flickering streetlights, the lifeless eyes of the city’s residents were fixed on Residue.
Well, it wasn’t surprising, considering his attire was different from theirs.
In these tis, when everyone had curled up to survive under Hide’s oppression, such a reaction was only natural.
Residue thought that far and then suddenly realized sothing odd.
In a world overflowing with suspicion and wariness, Residue was an outsider who belonged nowhere.
─Why, then, has Luca never once doubted , a suspicious man who fell from the sky out of nowhere?
“Ah, stop. Stop.”
As Residue reached his destination, a man standing at the entrance waved both hands dramatically.
Residue looked up at the building indifferently.
It was one of the places he had noted from the balcony earlier as a building that probably had a lot of food.
“What business do you have here, outsider?”
“I’m hungry.”
“……”
At Residue’s response, the man looked dumbfounded for a mont before smirking slyly.
"I guess our sign does make this place look a bit like a restaurant."
RUMBLE!
At that mont, the sky flashed, and thunder roared.
Residue felt his dull headache intensify several tis over in an instant, and he frowned deeply.
“Hey, Bill. The guy says he’s hungry. Escort him politely to the dining hall. Oh, and take care of his clothes and belongings first.”
“You heard him. Co here.”
The dark-skinned man standing behind the first one grinned broadly as he pulled sothing from his coat and aid it.
A handgun.
“If you cooperate, no one has to bleed. Got it?”
“Rainy days are the best. Makes cleaning up bodies so much easier.”
Several others, who had been hiding nearby, erged and began laughing mockingly.
There were seven of them in total, each ard in so way.
Residue turned his attention back to the man he had first spoken to and said,
“I’ll say this only once, so listen carefully. A girl around fifteen years old… No, a boy. He would’ve co here. If you’ve detained him, release him. If not, tell where he went.”
“What?”
“And prepare food. Enough to last two people for about a month. Preserved food would be preferable. Lastly, I’m thirsty, so bring a glass of water right now.”
“……”
The expressions of the n subtly shifted.
Then, the man closest to Residue let out a sigh and took a few steps back.
“Bill?”
“A crazy bastard’s not even good enough to use as a grunt.”
Bang!
The gun’s muzzle flared with fire.
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