235Th Chapter. □□ Flower (2)
[How······?]
It took a long time.
Right after I cut off the guy’s limbs, I immediately had the Extreme cut off the antenna communication line.
Now, the only output device left for Linda is the microphone.
“How did you know?”
[······.]
Rumble.
As the group behind me pushes in, Linda closes her eyes tightly without a word.
Belphegor and Myeong.
It seems that they figured out why this hideout was discovered just by looking at these two.
There was no way to find Linda by normal means.
Linda’s main body has already completely disconnected from the communication network and is in hiding.
Finding this is like finding a needle in a haystack.
“I used your natural enemies.”
[Ah.]
But what if there was a magnet?
A very powerful magnet.
Myeong had acquired the ability to see souls early on.
No. I don’t know if he acquired it or if he had it from birth.
His quality is excellent in that area, but it’s not to the level of distinguishing each soul.
However, Myeong is different.
‘Did you see Linda’s artificial soul? Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a soul. But I could see something else that wasn’t a soul.’
Myeong could see the ‘something’ that was in Linda.
It’s called an artificial soul, but there’s no way that Linda, who is a wind-up doll, could actually have a soul.
What Myeong saw must have been the traces of Draken in Linda.
We used Myeong’s vision to track Linda down.
However, even with that vision, the fact that we had to go through the entire continent remained unchanged.
Belphegor was the one who made up for that.
‘Belphegor. You’re the amplifier. Use your contractors’ eyes to help Myeong access all of them.’
-What, what, what?! Co, contractors? I broke all the unequal treaties I had with humans a long time ago?-
‘Just stop sweating and talk. We’ll discuss the punishment for your prank later, but for now, hurry up because it’s urgent.’
-Ah, there’s no point in assuming that something that doesn’t exist does. No matter how much you pressure me, I can’t do magic like bringing back contractors who have already disappeared–
‘Do you know that you’ll be punished more severely if you’re caught lying? If you tell the truth here and help me, I’ll take it into consideration. What are you going to do? Are you going to keep fighting a fight you can’t win?’
-······-
It was fortunate that Belphegor was a sinister guy.
He said that he had completely cut off his ties with his contractors in front of me.
The light of the Extreme showed the thin threads that stretched from Belphegor to many people on the continent.
The contracts with the contractors were still valid.
It’s annoying, but thanks to that, it’s helping me now, so I think I’ll take it into consideration.
After Belphegor took over the bodies of all the contractors, Myeong connected to them and looked around the continent with Myeong’s vision.
This was the basic outline of the plan.
And it succeeded without a hitch.
Of course, the demon contractors all broke their contracts and were arrested right after that.
[This is······ This is not what I expected. You coming back, and finding me.]
“Who are you? Tell me straight, Linda.”
[You know who I am. I’m Linda. Your loyal wind-up doll.]
“······.”
For a moment, my hair stood on end in disgust.
I can’t find a single lie in Linda’s brazen answer.
It’s the complete truth.
······Or, she firmly believes that this is the truth.
“Linda.”
[Did you call me, master?]
“What the hell happened?”
[······.]
“······Answer. Eugene, I’m asking you.”
Silence.
But it’s not complete silence.
She’s mumbling something, but the microphone isn’t working.
It’s no use even when Mijeong swings Blini’s wooden club (strengthened +1) and shakes it.
It was the first time Linda had ever made a mistake.
“Linda, but not Linda.”
Only then did I understand.
Why Linda’s actions and thoughts all felt exactly the same as the old Linda.In the meantime, Linda was still Linda, with only a slight sense of discomfort.
Something alien had simply crept into Linda and turned her perception upside down.
For example, ‘unconditional loyalty to the master’ had become ‘the master must be eliminated if necessary’.
Or ‘for the happiness and well-being of the world’ had become ‘for his coming’.
That’s why Linda now has no doubts and believes she is doing the right thing.
It’s quite malicious.
‘It’s no use changing my memory or backing it up.’
It wasn’t Linda’s storage device or motherboard that was contaminated.
To be exact, nothing was contaminated.
It was only natural that Kern didn’t find anything wrong.
The opponent can interfere with the processing of data, not the data itself.
The world Linda sees is perceived differently.
The words Linda tries to say come out distorted.
This is like…
Isn’t it like me when my existence was erased?
[Ahahahahaha. I’m sorry? I guess I didn’t live up to your expectations, Master. I always try to be devoted to you… … .]
“It looks like something’s stuck to it. Can you take it off?”
[It’s impossible, Master. Would you rather just dispose of me? Of course, it won’t be a fundamental solution, but at least it will eliminate the dangerous strategic weapon that is an artificial soul with access to the world’s communication network. It’s as simple as it sounds… … .]
“Huh? I took it off.”
[… … ?]
While Linda was murmuring with a vague expression, I managed to get rid of it.
I extended the light of the extreme into Linda’s interior, detected something alien, and focused on distinguishing its boundaries.
And then I cut out only the unknown alien thing.
Then it wriggled wildly and came out of Linda.
[Huh? Huh? Uhhhhh?!]
Linda looks around her in confusion.
There is no more discomfort in her expression.
However, I don’t have time to worry about Linda, who is now struggling with her limbs.
“Ugh?!”
-Damn it! I see when I put it out! This is his power… … . No, it’s part of him!-
Whoa!
The black figure held in my hand grows and stretches here and there, convulsing.
What should I call this?
It’s not matter, nor is it energy made of mana.
It is not bound by space, and it even tries to cross the dimensional wall naturally.
Normally, it is impossible to catch something like this.
It should be normal if it doesn’t even interact with physical force in the first place.
The will entwined in my hand kept the black figure from escaping to any other place.
“Ugh, this is part of Draken… … ?”
“It’s dangerous! Let me go, mister!”
“I can’t do that. If I let this go, it will stick to someone else and parasitize them.”
You can’t even observe it with normal methods.
Are you asking me to release this dangerous thing that cleverly rearranges people’s perceptions and brainwashes them?
That’s ridiculous.
“I’ll kill you here.”
The black figure gradually covers my hand.
I immediately began to gather my will from that hand and throw it away.
Through the black figure, the strong and sharp will emits a red light.
[Master! If you make contact with your will there… … !]
“What?”
And that was a mistake.
The moment my will touched the black figure.
I felt like I was being sucked somewhere forcibly.
“This is crazy… … !”
Will and will meet.
I was invited into the world inside the opponent.
I can’t stop it!
The flow of gravity has already reached its peak, and in an instant, I arrived at a place I didn’t know at all.
And right then.
I felt something red wriggling inside me.
Something that had been asleep for a while.
What the girls inside me had been holding back broke through and devoured the world.
My eyes opened.
A much softer landing than I expected.
I raised my body in the fluffy feeling that enveloped my body and quickly performed a perimeter check.”Where is this······?”
And then I couldn’t help but laugh in vain.
The whole world is red.
The ground is red, the sky is red, and everything is just red.
However, there is no creepy feeling when facing blood.
It’s not particularly disgusting or scary.
If I had to say, it feels refreshing.
It’s like being forcibly dragged into someone else’s inner world, but that’s how I actually feel.
“Wasn’t it just red······?”
I soon noticed that there were foreign substances mixed in between the red.
It wasn’t pure red.
I dug into the ground I was stepping on and quickly realized the reason.
“What······.”
This.
It wasn’t red paint or light.
All of this red that filled the sky, the earth, and the void.
“Camellia······?”
A familiar flower.
I’m so used to it.
It was a flower that I no longer doubted.