Chapter 177: Red Smoke
Ramin Solost glared at the mysterious figure in front of her.
‘Is it really Fang?’
Fang was known for existing for a long time, dating back to the days when Black Scale and Danly fought over Automation. Now, they operated throughout Black Scale, using all means necessary to make the Danly Union Empire achieve victory in war, and appeasing was of course one of their tricks.
Many notable figures, as well as ordinary individuals, fell for their tricks and betrayed Black Scale. Danly claimed that these people wanted to possess unique skills or research material, or that they trusted their own intellect, and that they were living a good life after going to Danly. But of course, it wouldn't be long before Black Scale’s newspapers would report that those betrayers died in an unfortunate accident.
‘They might not be Fang.’
There were other rumors as well. Rumors that the empire tested individuals they considered gullible, including those easily susceptible to seduction and those who would react sensitively to those situations. However, Ramin couldn't be sure whether any of that was true or not.
While the Fang agents of the Danly Union Empire had a not so secret side when carrying out their secret missions, it wasn’t known how the empire’s intelligence agents worked.
Though Vaseniol might seem peaceful because they were far from the battlefield, the war continued inside the city as well.
‘It doesn’t seem like Gorgota.’
Even though Ramin had a supervisor assigned to her because she was a Vampire, in her eyes, her supervisor seemed like an ordinary official. Compared to this person in front of her who claimed they were a Fang agent, her supervisor didn’t leave a strong impression.
‘This person seems like a different species to begin with.’
Ramin’s supervisor, Gorgota Falu, was a Frogman. While this Fang agent in front of her, despite wearing a mask, had a head smaller than an average Frogman, and the mask wasn't facing straight ahead but was slightly tilted upwards, so she assumed that they might not be Human or an Elf, but possibly a species with a protruding mouth.
“You’re taking a long time to think, I see.”
The agent slightly moved the blade against Ramin's neck.
Ramin said, "...If I were given the chance to wipe out Vaseniol? Of course...I'd go to the local security office and report it. Why would I destroy a city where I'm living well?"
"Hmm. Living well you say..." The agent continued to say, "You seem suspicious of me."
"..."
"Well, there's still time... Let me give you a gift. I'll come back and ask you again later. By then, you should be able to give a more proper answer."
"A gift?"
“Go out the west gate and head to the twelfth storage room in the third warehouse.”
The agent withdrew their blade, took something out from their coat and dropped it at Ramin's feet. The sound of metal hitting the ground rang. Ramin reflexively picked up the ‘gift’.
"...A key?"
When Ramin looked up, the agent had already disappeared.
***
The Pantheon had different floors, rooms, and sections designed to fit its owner as needed.
While Sung-Woon didn’t have a particularly artistic taste, other players certainly did. Therefore, when he walked through the simple wide, bright gray hallway illuminated with indirect lighting and entered RD's room, he felt a sense of bewilderment. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of white marble, and several chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The thirty six baths with several levels in the shape of staircases could accommodate tens of people at the same time, and they were no different than a swimming pool in terms of its size and depth. Each bath had hot steamy water that came out of a duck statue, and the edges were also decorated with art nouveau styled golden decorations.
"It feels like the number of baths have increased again."
As Sung-Woon said so, RD, who was floating in the middle of the largest central bath, rotated their body by swinging their legs. RD was wearing sunglasses.
"I’m very serious when it comes to resting. What brings you here?"
"Sorry to disturb you during your rest, but I have something to ask you. It's about the eastern battlefront."
Currently, the empire's war was happening in all four directions. The southern, northern, and western sides were all wars against Danly, and the eastern side was a war against the Ronante-Oroban Alliance, which was from the first continent.
Once war broke out, the western side succeeded in pushing back one of Danly's Union Kingdoms, which had remained in the third continent until now. However, there had been no further progress after that, with boring naval battles and occasional small-scale infiltration attempts on the northern and western sides.
Most of the war against Danly was going on at the elongated battlefront across the southern part of the fourth continent. About twenty years into the war, Black Scale had come close to completely occupying the fourth continent, but then the Ronante-Oroban Alliance from the first continent intervened, causing Black Scale to lose control.
The Ronante-Oroban Alliance had attacked the eastern side of the fourth continent, which was where Black Scale’s Fabirang Empire was located. So Sung-Woon had assigned RD to handle this battle in the eastern battlefront. The reason for this was because the Ronante-Oroban Alliance was not necessarily a strong force, while the fact that RD’s unexpected strategy of Rubberpunk convinced the other players that RD was a more competent player than they thought, capable of playing their own part alone.
‘It’s just that RD has a strange stubbornness.’
Sung-Woon thoroughly discussed the power that Black Scale employed with RD.
"...Oh, so you’re saying that if we lost the three apostles from the eastern battlefront, there would be no one who could immediately make up for their places, right?”
"Yes. Gordius and Polpura should be enough."
RD then continued to say, "Is the war situation in the south bad by any chance? It looked fine until yesterday."
Sung-Woon shook his head.
"No, it's not because of that."
"Then what?"
"The leakage issue must be resolved."
"Oh."
In The Lost World, there were several phenomenons that were not easily understood, and the leakage issue was one of them. In this case, leakage referred to the player's Faith resources leaking, and it became a problem when the cause of the loss was unknown.
Faith resources were continuously generated through the number of believers, their prayers, and faith-related objects like temples, but at the same time, were also consumed through miracles, prophecies, and similar actions. Among them was the type of issue where Faith points were continuously consumed when creations were summoned to the real world.
But even if all these consumptions were accounted for, there was still an unknown portion of Faith resources being consumed. This was the leakage issue.
In past games of The Lost World, such leakage issues were considered a simple game error or random value that the player was simply unaware of, and because the leakage wasn’t great, the players didn't pay much attention to it.
However, now it had become a significant problem for Sung-Woon. The player Hegemonia, who was behind the Danly Union Empire that Sung-Woon’s empire was facing, was fairly powerful.
In Wisdom's perspective, it was quite impressive for Hegemonia to maintain a fight with a large nation like Black Scale and also once have their own territory on each of the four continents.
Moreover, the Hegemonia possessed the Unique Domain: War. Whenever Hegemonia used a small amount of Faith points, conflict and disorder would arise in a specific region, which would sometimes escalate into war. And the special forces known as Fang were the ones to fuel these situations. Not only that, but Hegemonia also possessed specialized abilities related to the act of war itself. Normally, an army would be considered wiped out if it lost even twenty percent of the troops. However, troops that received Hegemonia’s miracles were able to continue fighting with even greater losses.
Therefore, it was necessary for Sung-Woon to revise the doctrine of war when facing Hegemonia’s army. In the process of Black Scale going back and forth with Danly in who took the upper hand of the war, the leakage issue was very important. Faith points were a crucial resource for war, and if this issue could be resolved, it was calculated that Black Scale could break the standoff and overpower Danly.
Especially now, the amount of Faith point leakage from the Pantheon was significant enough to be worrisome.
RD said, "Are you sure you caught the loose thread?"
"It’s too early to say I’m sure.”
"Really?"
"For now, I think it might have something to do with the Vampires."
"The Vampires? Those species that the Evil God made?”
"Not made, more like...well, let's just put it that way. Go back to resting for now."
RD said, “Why don't you come and rest too?”
Sung-Woon turned around and waved his hand.
After Sung-Woon left RD’s room, he opened his system window. The window showed a bird’s view of the city of Vaseniol. What the bird was looking at was a Vampire.
“Ramin Solost.”
Beside Ramin was a status window, and even someone who had played many games until now would find it strange. The individual's history contained details that were difficult for Sung-Woon to believe.
He murmured, "There are so many things that I don’t know about even after playing this long.”
***
Ramin briefly glanced up at the parrot perching on the rooftop railing of a building before she continued walking.
Parrots were common birds in Vaseniol.
‘They said the twelfth storage in the third warehouse.’
There were two main depots in Vaseniol. One was located at the north gate, where goods were unloaded whenever the Moving Castle came. Today was the day that the Moving Castle came, so most of Vaseniol’s merchants and workers would be there.
The other main warehouse was by the west gate, and this one was for aircrafts. Because Yobuen was a high plateau, the railway from the north couldn’t be established here. Therefore, the military base for mass storage of military supplies was also by the west gate, and it was fairly big as it also served as a transportation hub for merchants and other people because the Moving Castle only came by Vaseniol about once a month.
Fortunately, the third depot wasn’t a military storage but a regular one, so aside from the entrance, there wasn’t much security.
‘But I’ll still have to get over the fence.’
Ramin walked past the Rakshasas who were standing guard at the entrance and continued to walk along the fence, all the way to the point where there weren’t any other vehicles, rubber-powered carriages, or people. Then she made sure no one was there and went over the fence.
‘Is this the place?’
All the buildings were marked with large numbers, so it was easy to find the right storage. A large padlock was hanging on the door, and the key given to her by the agent fit perfectly, making a click. As she opened the door and went inside, it was very dark. It seemed like an ordinary storage area. Stacks of wooden crates were everywhere, and apart from that, there was nothing particularly unusual.
‘What does this have to do with anything?’
After some time, the Fang agent putting a blade to her throat felt like a foolish prank. She had the thought that perhaps someone from her university had played an unpleasant joke on her and considered if she should just leave, but then she spotted a crowbar on one side of the door.
‘Well, they did give me the key to check, so it shouldn’t be a problem to just open some of them and see.’
Ramin dragged out one of the heavy boxes and used the crowbar to open the lid that was nailed down. Inside, she found something she hadn't expected.
‘A glass bottle...? There's something inside.’
Specifically, it was a cylindrical glass tube, sealed at the top and bottom with brass plates.
‘Wait, this is…’
Ramin picked up the bottle and walked towards the entrance where it was brighter, holding it up to the sunlight. Then she almost dropped the bottle in surprise. The bottle was filled with red smoke.
The war between Black Scale and Danly led to many inventions. Among them, the greatest inventions lay in weapons. Scholars from Black Scale and Danly pondered how to kill more people, leading to the creation of efficient mass-killing weapons that people in the past wouldn’t have even imagined. Among them, there was a weapon known to have been used in ancient times, which was then recreated.
'The Zombie epidemic.'
The red smoke in the bottle was a symbol of the Zombie epidemic.
Ramin looked around the storage in disbelief. All the boxes were the same shape.
'Everything inside those boxes are… No, it can't be.'
Ramin examined the box she had just opened. The contents inside that box alone could completely destroy Vaseniol if they were shattered in various parts of the city because Zombies spread on their own.
Ramin hesitantly put the bottle back in place, loosely closed the box, locked the storage door, and climbed over the fence again to leave.
‘It’s true.’
There was no way around thinking that.
Ramin decided to return home to organize her thoughts. As Ramin returned to Vaseniol and was heading home, she heard a voice.
“Ramin Solost?”
Ramin turned to the familiar voice. It was a Frogman wearing a suit. Their skin was turquoise. Usually, recognizing the face of another species wasn’t easy, but due to the dark pattern above their eyes, Ramin was able to recognize them immediately.
“Oh, Gorgota?”
“Yes. I've been looking for you. Due to the Moving Castle arriving unexpectedly early, I had to adjust the regular supervision schedule."
"Oh, I see."
"You weren't home. I thought you'd head straight home after classes."
Ramin’s mind raced. Gorgota Falu was Ramin's supervisor. The reason why Ramin had a supervisor was because according to Black Scale’s standards, she was someone who required close monitoring. The empire no longer killed Vampires, but they still kept a close watch on them.
“I went on a walk around the airport because the weather was so nice today.”
“Even though you’re a Vampire?”
“Old habits don’t vanish easily. Humans like sunny weather.”
"Hmm."
Noting the suspicious look on Gorgota’s face, Ramin shook her hand.
"Actually, it's because of the Moving Castle."
"Because of the Moving Castle?"
"My attic lets in all the noise from the streets. I thought I might head back home after the excitement dies down. But that doesn't seem to be of much use."
A group of children passed by the two of them, chattering noisily. Then, on the other side, a steam car let out smoke and rolled out down the road.
Gorgota nodded.
"I am very sorry that our institution couldn’t provide you with a better living environment."
"Oh, I’m already grateful that you’re paying my boarding expenses.”
“Should we go to your room now, if that’s okay with you?”
“Sure.”
As Ramin led the way, she calmed her trembling heart.
'Gorgota couldn't have noticed, right?'
The Parallel Nation was an institution that resolved conflicts between various species and addressed unique issues that each species faced. For example, an ointment called the Delluba ointment was given to the Frogmen every month. This ointment helped maintain moisture in the Frogmens' skin, allowing them to live comfortably even outside rivers and lakes.
Occasionally, outsiders who had come from outside of Black Scale, which were species that didn’t receive Night Sky’s blessings, were given medicinal waters to control their violence or enhance their social functioning. However, for some species, the institution was tasked to surveil them rather than showing them consideration, and that was the case for Vampires.
Regular supervision was never a pleasant thing.
Once they reached the house, Gorgota took out a file, looked around the place, and said, "Since you've been through this a lot now, please answer comfortably."
"Yes."
"Do you possess any bladeware such as daggers or axes that could be used as weapons?”
"No."
"This time, the question is about firearm possession. We’ll go through them one by one… Do you possess a firearm that uses gunpowder?"
"No."
"Do you have a rubber-powered firearm?"
"No."
"Do you have a magically powered firearm?"
"No."
Gorgota nodded and checked each question off one by one.
Just when Ramin thought the questioning was over, Gorgota asked another question.
“Ramin, this is the last question. Have you ever met a suspicious person that hid their identity?"
Ramin replied, "Oh, that's new."
"We added it recently. We received an order."
Gorgota showed the file that displayed the printed question.
"Anyway, have you ever had such an encounter?"
Ramin answered, "...No."
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