Clearing the Game at the End of the World
Chapter 67: [Gaiden] The Dreams of the Collector

[Area 43]

D—d—d—d—d—d—

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

There was an army of black uniforms, and the black armored car that went with it had a distinct black scale pattern that any Wastelander would be familiar with.

“Pack Leader. We have surrounded the targeted area. Should we start the declaration right away?”

The soldier naturally thought they would confirm permission right away. The declaration mentioned meant merciless obliteration through mortars and anti-tank missiles. His superior, who was an extreme rationalist and perfectionist, hated any unnecessary pretense and justification when dealing with an enemy. The more time given to the enemy to prepare, the higher the loss of their troops would be. That was his theory, and that was why his men admired him and followed his commands.

“No, I want to converse with that man for a moment.”

So when the word ‘converse’ came out of Kesselring’s mouth, the soldier found himself talking back to him by accident.

“Did you say….. converse?”

Click!

The moment the soldier’s mouth opened, the man who was standing behind Kesselring like a shadow cocked his firearm to his head.

“Do not question the command, sergeant.”

Creak—

“It’s fine. They must have been wondering why they were given a different command thanfrom usual. Questions lead to chaos, and that leads to a slower completion of the operation.”

Just before the man pressed the trigger, a white glove stopped him from shooting.

A man with a burn scar covering over half of his face. After taking the gun from his adjutant’s hands, he kindly answered the soldier’s question.

“This operation is expected to be a long one. The Nest is planning to take over a large part of Area 43 while the enemy forces are not present. The facility in front of us is a medical facility, so it is more useful to take over and use it to heal our troops rather than just make it a pile of dust.”

“I-I se—”

Bang—!

Thud.

“Of course, the biggest hindrance when making orders are soldiers that ask questions like yourself.”

Kesselring used the gun he took from his adjutant to shoot the soldier in the head. Then handed the gun back with the white gloves that were now splattered with blood.

The adjutant provided a new pair of gloves right away, along with a square portable microphone, and Kesselring put on the gloves, then pressed a button on the mic to start speaking.

“This addresses ‘Woojin Urology.’ This facility has been selected as a support facility for the Raptor Society as of this moment, and the facility has no right to refuse these orders. We will give a five-minute grace period, and if you do not disarm all of the defenses of this facility in that time or do not respond immediately, then you will be considered an enemy, and we will open fire.”

Tzzz—

There was a commotion inside the hospital the moment Kesselring took his hands off of the button on the microphone. There must be patients inside who came to be treated. But unfortunately, the Raptors didn’t think about other people’s situations. Because they were inside an enemy’s territory, they were also treated as enemies.

Tzz— Creak—

There was a static noise within the commotion, then a voice came out from the hospital through a speaker.

“Ah, ah. Oi, Nurse Kim! Is this working right now? How would I know? This is my first time using it. Ah, you can hear it? Good. Good.”

A voice of an old man that was obviously cranky. He was old, but there was strength in his voice. That man was probably the owner of this facility, Woojin.

“Kingsley, how much time is left?”

“4 minutes and 3 seconds, sir.”

While Kesselring was asking for the time, Woojin’s voice continued to flow out of the speaker.

“That was a scary and useless speech you have right there. You seem to be foreigners, so I’ll explain it just this one time. First of all, our hospital is for authorized personnel only. The land you all are on is also owned by the hospital, so this is technically trespassing. If you guys properly apologize and provide compensation for trespassing, I’ll let you off the hook this time.”

“3 minutes and 46 seconds, sir.”

“No, we don’t need that time anymore.”

For the first time, Kesselring decided to play along with the man’s games and pressed the microphone’s button. The opponent was caught up in something worthy of his time.

“I see. There is one last thing I want to ask the doctor, then. I’m looking for some people. Do you happen to know a group called HIV? I’ve gone to their base camp recently, but the building was empty, and there were two tracks. One led to this place, and one went out of Area 43. Do they happen to be here?”

Tzz— Tzzzt—

There was silence between the two people for a moment, and what came next was the laughter of the old man instead of an answer.

“Hohohohoh….. I seem to have made a mistake. I have mistreated you all gravely. I shouldn’t have kept you waiting outside for so long and let you all in right away.”

Whiiiir—

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

In an instant, what seemed to be just the metal walls of the hospital all turned into turrets aimed toward the black-uniformed army.

“I forgot to mention one thing earlier. The ‘personnel’ for this hospital means patients. You black pieces of garbage over there. You are all invited to be my patients from now on.”

Kesselring could almost see the expression of the old man through the snarling voice coming from the speaker.

“All troops. Initiate attack.”

Vroom! G—d—d—d—d—d—d—d—

Click! Creaak!

Clunk, Clunk, Clunk, Clunk.

Tzzzt—

“Kekeke…. You all seem excited to meet your end. It seems like I need to send today’s patient list directly to the grim reaper.”

The old man, Woojin, took out the old weapons that were neatly organized inside the treatment room cabinets.

“And my name…. Yes. I should put it at the very top of the list. They’re my patients, so I ought to lead them to their end myself.”

Click.

And with that, lead rain poured down around the only hospital facility in Area 43. It was the sound of gunshots instead of raindrops, but the ground became wet anyway.

[The Dome, a small office located somewhere inside the Investigation Bureau.]

“Why’s the damn Director asking for a new report? It looks like they’re more interested in recruiting Gyosu’s group than I thought…….. did our relations with the Executive Department get worse? We’re going to have a civil war at some point if this goes on.”

After returning to the Investigation Bureau, Ezel suffered from the discipline of his superiors for a while. His incredibly red, swollen cheeks were the problem. Ezel had repeatedly confirmed that he wasn’t attacked, but it was still true that he got beat up while he was working as an investigator for the Dome. So, as a result, Ezel had no choice but to reveal the relationship he had with Gyosu, whom he had just vaguely described in the past. If he didn’t tell them that this happened because they were playing around as friends, it seemed like they were about to shoot a missile toward Gyosu’s shelter to uphold the Investigation Bureau’s honor or something like that.

And after listening to Ezel’s side of the story, they talked among themselves, then told Ezel to write down every single detail of the conversation he had with the BDSM Caravan, and they gave him his own office space with even authorization for confidential information.

Flip, Flip.

Because Ezel was guilty of having the ability to draw a little better than others, he was following the order to also create a detailed description of the people he met, but he decided to look up the person who was continuously nagging at the back of his mind with the authority he currently had to look at classified documents. So here he was, inhaling layers of dust, sifting through old, confidential documents that were inside the archive room.

“I definitely saw that face before. Ian… Ian Malcom. This guy’s dead. Ian McGreeger, also dead. Ian Coff— was exiled last year, I think? Ah, he’s still imprisoned in the Underdome. Ian Joe, Ian Johns…. Damn it, there’s too many of th—”

Flip.

“Uh……”

=====

[Level 2 Classification]

List of High-Risk Persons

• Enemy Forces

• Raptor Society

• Missing

. . .

-Rank: Pack Leader / Swarm Alpha (Information Last Updated : 2054.03.17.)

One of the early members of the Raptor Society who served as a mercenary during the Great War period and specialized in large-scale attacks and destruction. Age, nationality, and origin are all unknown, but survivors commonly describe his distinct appearance (see Reference #2). With his excellent combat and commanding skills, he was quickly promoted to a high-ranking position of Swarm Alpha, but he has not been seen on the front lines for the past three years, so it is presumed that he withdrew from the front lines or died in battle.

A person who caused tremendous physical and mental damage to the Dome, and who strives to protect order and justice. Any information about the person in question must be reported immediately upon discovery.

• Bounty: Dead or Alive / 450,000,000 sil.

• Important Information Provided / 4,500,000 sil.

Attachments:

#1 An early Raptor recruitment poster (White man located in the middle of the poster under the phrase ‘Those who want proper treatment, join the Raptor Society’ is presumed to have been modeled by Ian Desmont.

#2 A montage that was created based on the descriptions of the survivors.

=====

Deep, dark brown eyes that let off a decadent feel. Even from just a rough sketch, you could feel the strong impression of the man called Ian Desmont. He couldn’t exactly explain their similarity, but……

“No way. If I wasn’t able to recognize a Swarm Alpha rank officer, then I need to quit my job as an investigator.”

Aside from their overall vibe, the person he saw that day and the drawing of Ian Desmont were entirely two different people.

A handsome man with a decadent aura who could make dozens of women faint with just one look. A macho man with a metal jaw who could make at least a dozen people fall with just one look and a couple of explosions.

Snap!

After sealing the old document back in its place, Ezel returned to finishing his report. There wasn’t time to dilly-dally around. With a new potential base appearing in Area 45, the internal disputes within the Dome were becoming fierce. If the Dome isn’t able to overcome this crisis, it might actually fall apart.

[Area 32. Happy Blind Basecamp.]

An old woman wearing heavily decorated clothes was standing on a podium, looking down at the people. The podium barely had any room to stand on, and the strong wind made it seem like she would fall off at any moment, but there was not a single bit of fear inside the old woman’s icy blue eyes.

“Raise your heads, ones that close your eyes.”

To her call, the countless members standing before her raised their heads to look up at the woman.

“We are living in an era of pain and crises. Every single one of those alive in this world is suffering from the lingering effects of the war’s evil and bloodshed. Not one soul is free from the cries of despair.”

Dnng— Dnng—

Next to the podium that the woman was standing on was a man who was hitting a large drum with a thin blindfold covering his eyes. The louder the sound of the drum pierced through the gusts of the Wasteland, the more the heartbeats of the believers became in sync with the beat of the drum.

“Raise your heads and look at the ashen heavens! Look down and see the lands without a single blade of grass, and look around to see the small bodies of lives held in your arms!”

Dnng— Dnng—

At the old woman’s loud cries, the believers looked at the children they were carrying or were holding hands with—their eyes full of sorrow. Most of the people gathered here have, or have had, children.

Within the strong gusts of the desert, the woman’s glowing eyes burned like those of a beast.

“What sins have these children made? Why do these innocent souls have to suffer just for being born into this world? They have no sin! Because they are pure, there is no reason for them to suffer!”

Dnng— Dnng—

“Unfortunately, the world has been destroyed. We will no longer be able to see the fresh breezes ever again and gaze at the green mountains that provide peace to our minds! If we cannot go back, we must forget! We forget and forget! And forget once again! We cannot inherit to the children our melancholic memories of the past!!”

Dnng— Dnng—

The old woman lowered her gaze to the church members and met their eyes. Tears were streaming down the faces of the people’s eyes, which were also covered with a thin cloth. From both the old woman’s eyes and theirs, tears with the same meaning behind them fell down to the dry earth.

“Close your eyes, my friends. Forget the technology of the past! So that our children do not long for the black asphalt roads and tall buildings! Close your eyes! My people! So that the painful debris of the past does not creep back into our children’s hearts and bring upon that painful war once again! Grow hatred for iron and oil! Even if that means closing the eyes of those who want to repeat the past! We will gain peace within the times of this era!”

Dnng— Dnng—

All the people closed their eyes once again. The darkness, the comfortable darkness, where they could not see the deserted Wasteland and where they couldn’t see their bloody uniforms, gave them peace of mind.

“Close your eyes.”

The humans of the past, who have the tragedies of the past engraved into their minds, will lead the innocent ones to peace.

“I, a sinner who cannot close my eyes, will become your shepherd and lead you down the path.”

Dnng— Dnng— D—dnnng—!

With the sound of two short hits on the drum, the torches surrounding the podium were turned off, and the gentle darkness of the Wasteland enveloped them.

‘Even living in the same world and having the same experiences, how could people become so different?’

The girl collected these precious dreams and tucked them away. She was different from any other human. These dreams were her precious collection.

Those who want the world. Those who want to go back to the past. Those who want to, even if it means destroying the rest of the world, should forget about the past.

In a world without color, taste, smell, or even light. This collection was the most precious part of her empty world.

“Ah, the lives of humans are so, so beautiful.”

With that, the girl held on dearly to the dreams saved to her database.

She was a Collector. What she collected was something that overflowed inside the world, but not one was the same—the lives of humans.