Chapter 90

Episode 6: Mafia Game / Chapter 90: Independent Troops (1)

TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk

The sudden group fight ended with the appearance of Commander Mack of the Virgo Cluster. She looked like a human and was beautiful. She had sapphire blue hair and a pair of golden horns that grew in a diagonal line near the back of her head. At a glance, however, they didn’t seem like horns but rather an elegant hairstyle.

“Haa…”

When she held her forehead and sighed, the aliens dropped to their knees with a thud.

“Cough… What’s this? Cough.”

Camilla, who had been hit by the aliens and knocked out, slowly got up and looked around.

She caught sight of the blue-haired Commander Mack. Commander Mack, who floated slightly in the air, was slowly sliding down towards the middle of the group fight.

“Pathetic fools.”

Her voice was chillingly cold. As if the four aliens in the group were pressed down by something, they couldn’t get up easily.

Commander Mack, who was a high ranked warrior (6-star), possessed an excellent ability that allowed her to invade and change other people’s karma. Alliance members called it ‘Laying down fate’ when she used her power. The fate the aliens were currently receiving was the fate of Atlas, who held up the sky. Commander Mack changed their karma and made their arms and legs rigid and heavy. To those experiencing it, it felt as though an enormous weight was weighing down on them.

“As those who are attending the welcoming event, you pick a fight with the main stars of the event? You who call yourselves warrior leaders of the Virgo Cluster?”

The four aliens, who fought against the overseers of Earth, were the warrior leaders of the Virgo Cluster division troops.

“Erk. For life and freedom.”

Tangka of the Armoured Soul Tribe, who was the leader of the four, stood on its trembling legs and saluted. It looked as though the 3-meter-tall, steel ‘robot’ was lifting the Earth as steam was emitted from its entire body. All it was doing, however, was barely straightening its legs and standing up. It displayed a karma light when it saluted, but it seemed even that was difficult as its shiny, metallic karma light swayed in different directions.

“Kik.” The Queen of England Diana, who had been hit by Tangka, laughed cutely, seemingly pleased at its current figure.

Commander Mack didn’t accept its salute.

“That’s enough. You guys are going to ‘lift the sky’ for the whole day. If any one of you frowns or if your legs tremble during the welcoming event because it’s too difficult… prepare yourselves.”

Mack said in a chilling voice.

“Bu-but commander. The new recruits committed mutiny!”

Tangka showed a dejected face as it protested.

Thud!

Its knees touched the ground once again. The burden pressing down on its body had increased.

“Looks like you have the strength to talk? You get double.”

“Keuk…”

Tangka couldn’t speak anymore and kept its mouth shut.

Mack clicked her tongue while looking at it.

“Pathetic, who’s a new recruit? They haven’t even been commissioned yet. Strictly speaking, what you committed was an abuse of authority and an assault on citizens. You’re lucky that you aren’t going on military trial.”

At the mention of a military trial, the four, including Tangka, became pale.

Only then did Mack turn her gaze towards the overseers of Earth.

‘How gruesome.’

That was the first thing Mack thought. The arms and legs of Earth’s overseers were broken, and their insides were injured, resulting in blood dripping from their mouths.

This was because of the big difference in levels even though they had the numerical advantage of 7 against 4. Tangka and the rest were above-average middle ranked warriors (5-star), while, on the other hand, Earth’s overseers were all hovering at the level of low ranked warriors (4-star) excluding Choi Hyuk, who had just become a middle ranked warrior. Even Richard was only at a level between middle and low ranked warriors.

‘But they fought well considering the difference in level.’

Mack glanced at the four warrior leaders standing as they endured the weight. They weren’t fine either. A bruised face wasn’t unusual, but there was even a fellow whose arm was broken due to burns.

Sighing, Commander Mack looked at the overseers and said,

“Nice to meet you. I am Commander Mack of the Virgo Cluster. Since Earth is part of the Virgo Cluster, if you get commissioned, you will be under my command. And you will occasionally see dimwits like them.”

Mack glanced at the warrior leaders again and then said to the overseers,

“You came here for the welcoming event, but you had a hard time from the start. Still… It was impressive.”

Grinning, she turned around and headed towards the event hall.

“Now, let’s head to the event hall. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“Huh? Do we just go like this? What about our wounds?”

When the Queen of England Diana asked, Mack didn’t even turn around as she replied,

“Wounds at that level will heal by themselves. Don’t worry about it. Everyone attending the welcoming event is a warrior. If you have a few wounds, there will be something to talk about so it’ll be fine.”

**

Even though a civilization was newly joining the alliance, there wasn’t a particular ceremony or order to the welcoming event.

When they arrived at the event hall, it was bustling with aliens from various places throughout the Laniakea Supercluster. These aliens identified the ‘earthlings’, whom they were seeing for the first time, and greeted them.

Going around, greeting others and eating was all there was to the welcoming event… and it wasn’t all too bad.

Like Commander Mack said, the attendees showed interest in Earth’s overseers’ injuries. Each and every one of them wanted to gather around and listen to the story of the group fight between Earth’s overseers and the Virgo Cluster’s warrior leaders.

They crowded around and greeted them to the point Choi Hyuk’s eyes felt dizzy. And Choi Hyuk was surprised at the fact he memorized all their names. As his karma grew, the limit of living beings gradually became non-existent.

There weren’t only warriors who attended the event. They were surrounded by the Seo tribe, who weren’t skilled in combat but could make incredible weapons, the Thumb tribe, who were responsible for gathering and analyzing information, as well as other various tribes.

“Cough.”

Choi Hyuk, who was surrounded by all types of aliens, was conversing with them with a mixture of bewilderment and joy, occasionally coughing up a bit of blood. He had been hit in the chest by Tangka of the Armoured Soul Tribe, and it seemed as though it was taking a while to heal since it was an internal injury. Looking at this, the alien warriors made a fuss.

“Oh, earthling’s blood is red too?”

“Of course, blood has to be red to be genuine.”

“What are you saying. Warriors without blood are true warriors. Like me.”

Unsure whether they were always like this or because they could finally let loose after a long time, but the aliens joked non-stop amongst themselves and laughed as they floated around.

The event hall was a zero-gravity area made with a specially produced dark matter. It was dark and transparent all around them, but they could occasionally see a bright comet rotating around the event hall. The comet had a set rotation and, like a replaying video, continuous circled around, and when one saw it, they would become hazy as if hypnotized.

“Of course, blood has to be red to be genuine… Huh? Didn’t I say this already?”

“You did. You did. Puhahaha. You were caught by the time gap!”

Deja vus didn’t cease throughout the event.

“Aah, is this the first time in a <Time Repeating Zone> for earthlings? Since we are in the middle of a war, we don’t have enough time. That’s why they set up this <Time Repeating Zone> when we need to gather like this. Inside, time continuously repeats, so if we play all the time, time doesn’t pass. Only, the side effect is that you constantly say the same thing. Meaning there are a lot of deja vus.”

It was good anyways. Choi Hyuk swallowed the ‘Karma Pop’ drink floating next to him. The moment he swallowed the drink, the karma within his body bubbled like soda and gave him an exhilarating feeling.

“Keu…”

When Choi Hyuk’s body shivered, an alien warrior laughed,

“This guy here knows how to drink some Karma Pop, doesn’t he?”

“However, nuclear bomb candies are the best at giving an exhilarating feeling.”

“Let your Dark Tribe eat those.”

Drinks and food floated around, and time continuously repeated itself, giving off a pleasant mood that seemed like peace would continue forever.

Thud.

Someone hit Choi Hyuk, who was enjoying himself. When he turned around, it was Tangka of the Armoured Soul Tribe. Since it was still pressed down with weight, its actions were somewhat unnatural, but it seemed like it was enjoying itself as well.

“Hey, you were quite good at fighting. I was honestly surprised.”

It put out its hand as if trying to reconcile with him.

“Although I don’t know which troop you will be assigned to, please take care of me. To be honest, it’ll be good if you came under my command.”

Choi Hyuk grabbed its hand and said,

“… Can we assign ranks through battle?”

“What? Puahahaha!”

At his words, Tangka burst into laughter and introduced the other warrior leaders.

1023-quasarling Whalubo, Bilu of the Dark Tribe, and Lamiain Dalaenalae. They too held Choi Hyuk’s hand and said, “You were pretty good.”

As they talked, other overseers of Earth began to gather one after the other. The mood was pleasant. The four warrior leaders told them the general information about the Virgo Cluster.

“To be honest, the Laniakea Supercluster is at the border among the other superclusters in the universe, and among them, the Virgo Cluster we’re in is at the utmost border. As the exploration isn’t complete, we don’t know exactly how many civilizations are inside, but currently, there are over 1,000 civilizations that have been discovered. Among them, only three have obtained citizenship. Now that you guys joined, there are four. Among them, there are some who haven’t yet been granted independent operational authority and have been organized as the division troops of the cluster army, and those who have been granted operational authority and have independent troops… I don’t know how it’ll be for you.”

Lamiain Dalaenalae, who came from a galaxy known as the Large Magellan Cloud on Earth, gave the overseers a meaningful look.

“What is the difference between independent troops and division troops…? Do the division troops receive more dangerous missions?”

The one who asked was the Sovereign of Opportunity Nasir. As he was one of the seven overseers, he had also attended the welcoming event.

Choi Hyuk’s mood spoiled when he saw Nasir, so he swallowed a Karma Pop floating next to him. Karma bubbled inside him. Since he had already made a promise with the Sovereign of Balance, he had no intention of acting against him.

Dalaenalae replied to Nasir’s question,

“That depends on the mission. Since independent troops can choose their own missions, it could be safer… but division troops are made up of a mix of different species, so they will be able to deal with a variety of situations more safely. I can’t straight out say which is more dangerous… Why? Do you want safe fights?”

Dalaenalae gave a provocative look.

However, Nasir didn’t pay any heed as he asked again,

“Then does that mean there are only two cases? One where all seven of us become part of the division troops or one where we are combined together to form an independent troop?”

At Nasir’s composed reaction, Dalaenalae replied with an unsure gesture.

“I don’t know. Depending on the civilization, there are cases where they are all moved together and cases where only a portion become part of the division troops and the rest become independent troops. It all depends on you. You could be organized as a group, or each of you may lead your own independent troop.

Listening to their conversation, it was an interesting and important topic. This time, the Sovereign of Balance Richard joined the conversation and asked,

“How do we decide?”

“It’s obviously based on your test results. Once the welcoming event ends soon, you will be commissioned under the supervision of the Exalted Wing Dark-Sound. Then you will be appointed once you complete your training and assessment test.”

‘Exalted Wing.’

Choi Hyuk brooded over that name.

The moment he heard it, he felt as though his surroundings had become quieter and darker.

His heart pounded.

A survival game that started one day. And Choi Hyuk who had lost everything dear to him because of it.

Unsure of the reason or when it would end, he had overcome countless drastic changes and catastrophes to finally get here.

Existences he would come across if he went up the stream of events which caused all the disasters that occurred on Earth. He would soon be able to meet one of the Exalted Wings.

Although he was only meeting one,

‘It all begins now.’

This place was the starting line. A signpost clearly lit by his rage and pain, which had been previously faint and vague.