Rust - Chapter 897



Only Krnovel

RUST -897

Even though the gun was pointed at him from close range, Maru calmly pressed the button. With a beeping sound, the mental wave blocking device began to activate throughout the bunker, from the walls to the ceiling and even the floor.

“You said you liked your good little brother, so you’re pulling out your gun first. Do you hate being that good? Or is it a combat program pretending to be your little brother?”

“What are you talking about? What did you just do?”

So, it’s either a fake personality created through a brainwashing program, or a combat personality created to be injected into a clone. The self-proclaimed Naru went into a fit at Maru’s words.

“Are you really crazy, oppa?”

“Who is pointing a gun at me? Is it normal for someone to point a gun at me and ask if I’m crazy?”

At the same time that black vines sprouted from Maru’s body, the trigger of the pistol was pulled. With a reaction speed similar to that of Ms. Kim, shots were fired at Maru’s chest and head.

Chest. Chest. Head.

Head. Chest. Chest.

He fired six shots in an instant, but the vines of death were faster. The bullets lost their power in the leaves of the vines of death that spread out as if they ignored space and time.

Thud-thud-

The Hollow Point (HP.) bullet that touched the leaf fell to the ground intact. As soon as he realized that the bullet was not working at all, the vines of death wrapped around Naru’s legs as he tried to escape outside. The vines dried up his legs without taking his life in an instant.

Naru’s fingers, struggling to escape from the slowly encroaching death, pulled the trigger.

Taang- and taang-

When shooting at Maru was useless, the gun pointed at her own head and fired. A tendon bulged out on Maru’s forehead.

‘suicide?’

Naru committed suicide? The hole in her head was splattering blood on the floor, and something like a scream could be heard.

Gyaaaaaaaaa-

Something like a ghostly cry emerged from the dead body and tried to escape from the bunker.

Dismissal-

Something transparent bounced off the anti-psychotic device.

■ ■■ ■■ ■—

As the wall closed, something transparent shot upwards, caught on the psychic device blocking the ceiling, and fell to the floor.

Maru, who realized that there was no opening no matter how hard he poked around in every corner, opened the door and went outside, ignoring something rushing towards him.

The transparent ripples that were trying to follow the floor were pushed into the room with a crackle and sparks flying in the air.

■ ■■ ■■ ■—

Maru, who had been watching something screaming and moving around the interview room, closed the door.

Phagejijik-

‧

Ki-soon tensed up as he saw something invisible flailing about, trying to escape.

“What is that? Is it a ghost?”

“Don’t say things like that. You’ll become a real ghost.”

Maru scolds him, saying that if he finds a ghost on the board where his thoughts are visualized, it might turn out to be a real ghost.

“No. If it’s not a ghost, then what is it?”

“Considering that it is under the influence of a psychic blocking device, I guess it must be some kind of psychic entity.”

“A spirit? That’s a ghost.”

“Ghosts are souls. Can something that gets filtered out by a mental wave blocking device be called a soul?”

Ki-sun sighed, looking as if she was dumbfounded by Maru’s interpretation.

“Okay, let’s say it’s not a soul. So what are you going to do by locking it up?”

“I have to check to see if there’s anything else like that.”

“What? Can there be something like that? If there is another one?”

“We need to clean everything up this time. So let’s build a new bunker and an interview room. Let’s finish up what we were doing.”

Fortunately, there was no strange reaction from Naruzu during the interview. The story is that there is only one, whether it is a spirit or a command entity.

“When an entity dies, does it switch to another marked body?”

“That’s very likely.”

Maru’s intuition was certainly good. Should we just skip the process and go straight to the results? Ki-sun nodded.

‘If it is true that there is a high possibility.’

Ki-soon went back to the results to find possibilities.

“That’s right. The purpose was to control the clones, but if they split and there were two or three, there would be confusion in control.”

“······.”

That was also the reason why he locked up the entity that claimed to be the reincarnation of Director Yoo. He also left it as a child without allowing it to grow rapidly.

This is probably because the moment you step out of the mental blocking facility, it could affect the U+ entity that Heeyeon is linking to.

“So. What do you plan to do? After all, that’s Naru’s spirit.”

“I have to send them to where they should have gone.”

At the calm answer, Ki-sun unconsciously checked Maru’s feelings and asked.

“How? It’s a mental entity, so it’s immune to physical damage.”

“······.”

“You’re going to harvest in the Garden of Death? Arthur. What if I get possessed like a ghost?”

“I committed suicide because my foot got tangled in the vines.”

“······.”

“It must have been because the vines of death were threatening. Is Naru the kind of person who would commit suicide?”

Considering Naru’s personality, it was certainly strange that he would try to escape from the vines of death even by committing suicide.

“···I guess so.”

“If you committed suicide, it means you have the confidence to change your body.”

I’ll have to unfold the Garden of Death to find out, but I thought it was a floor that would definitely have a reaction.

If not.

We can just keep it locked up like this and find a way out.

“There are scholars who view the soul as a kind of energy.”

Na Ju-yeon said this while looking at something transparent caught in the force field created by the Chijijik mental wave blocking device.

“The same goes for the mind.”

In her view, the mind was also a type of energy. As a result, emotions and sensations could also be interpreted as energy.

“In many cultures, both Eastern and Western, it is believed that the soul of the deceased does not ascend to heaven right away, but stays in this world for a while. That is why most funeral rituals involve a final greeting between the dead and the living.”

And the funeral process was a process of resolving the remaining emotions. Accepting death means letting go of emotions.

“If you can’t release your emotions, your emotional energy will affect other things.”

A funeral is a system that manages the mental energy generated by the death of a loved one so that it doesn’t run wild… Na Ju-yeon thought.

“So that’s also a type of energy.”

“Yes. If you just lock it up, it’s likely to disappear naturally over time. However, it’s also a rare spirit, and it could be used as material for research on clone independence, body swapping, and resurrection…”

Na Ju-yeon’s eyes slowly began to sparkle. Maru cut her off mid-sentence.

“No. I’m sending you back to where you should have gone.”

“We can study resurrection instead of cloning. We can eliminate the confusion that people who are resurrected as clones would experience. If we can secure the technology to switch bodies using the spirit body···”

“That’s it. It’s good to research whatever you’re researching. But do you have the tools to experiment on the psychic? Is there a way to research it? You said it would naturally disappear over time? Are you going to throw in a healthy Naruzu to keep it from disappearing?”

“······.”

“Let’s start by planning the research method and making the equipment. The world has changed so much that new spirits will emerge.”

“···all right.”

Na Ju-yeon couldn’t take her eyes off the glowing spirit body, as if she was feeling regretful.

“Start by researching weapons that can attack the psychic body.”

“···I will do that.”

Faith was exerting a tangible power. There was a high possibility that by absorbing faith, beings outside the laws of matter would emerge.

‘No. It must have already come out somewhere.’

If you kill those guys, they might shed their physical bodies and turn into spirits to wreak havoc. Even if that weren’t the case, a weapon that could hit spirits was essential.

“Whether the Empire intended it or not, there is a high possibility that a psychic could be created within the clone control system.”

The moment the command entity died, there was no fatal weakness if the entire clone force was rendered powerless. So when the command entity died, one of the clones would have taken over the role of the command entity.

“If the Empire relies on clones, it will eventually run into mental problems.”

When the sun rises, there will be chaos with spiders, ants, and rats. Even if they move important facilities and personnel to the sea city, they cannot abandon the mainland.

It was impossible to abandon the population that could not enter the maritime cities, and it was equally impossible to abandon the facilities and resources on the mainland.

After all, the clone forces would be divided up to defend and subdue key areas of the mainland. It was difficult for anyone to predict what would happen if the commanding entity died and was replaced repeatedly.

What is certain is that, looking at Naruz’s case, it could be quite dangerous. If Naruz had a strong hostility towards the main body, then that would be a good thing, but what if he didn’t?

“This is going to get serious.”

“okay.”

The Holy Kingdom said that clones would be granted rights if they had individual personalities, but if the Empire or other countries were to mass-produce clones, it would likely be to make meat shields and meat rifles.

‧

The psyche that had been convulsing relentlessly for several days realized that it could not escape and became quiet. It stopped moving as if to conserve energy.

“Where are you now?”

“Left corner. Looks very uneasy.”

When Ki-soon Han used his ability, an emotional energy rose up in an empty space where there was nothing. Ki-soon’s ability had detected the emotions of the spirit body.

“What size?”

“No change from yesterday.”

Na Ju-yeon predicted that the spirit body would naturally disappear in about 40 to 50 days, but after examining it with Ki-sun’s abilities, it seemed that it might last even longer.

“Are there any problematic ones among the Naruzu?”

“We made them walk around fully armed and installed mind-wave blocking devices in the barracks and bunkers, so there haven’t been any problems yet.”

Although it was invisible to the eye, there was a spirit crouching in the left corner. Maru looked at the left corner where the spirit was.

I wish it would just go back to normal. The fact that it hasn’t changed in size even after a few days means that the mental body’s obsession is just imagination.

Na Ju-yeon and her research team have already conducted four experiments to develop a weapon to attack the spirit body. Since Ki-sun can tell where the spirit body is, they used the experimental weapon in that direction and observed the spirit body’s reaction.

ha-

Maru took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

“···I have to send it.”

“okay···.”

The hatch with the psychic barrier opened and Maru stepped inside. The psychic body that tried to escape through the gap in the open door squeaked and convulsed, unable to get through.

Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

The sound of the gong echoed through Maru’s head, but it was no use.

Where did the problem start? What was the problem? A garden of death unfolded from Maru’s body. As death unfolded, weeeeeing- the mental wave blocking device instantly went dead.

Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

The Garden of Death was what blocked the rising spirit body as if it would not miss the opportunity. Vines and blades of grass sprouted from the Garden of Death that covered the floor, walls, and ceiling.

As if it knew where the invisible spirit was. The vines and grass were rising. The spirit that had been swarming here and there rushed toward the floor.

Clang-

But before it could even reach the floor, a death rat leaped up and dug into the psychic’s face. In the brief pause, the psychic, wrapped in vines shot out from all directions, disappeared with a final thud.

“······.”

“······.”

======

======

Empire. Temporary capital Boston. Presidential residence.

It was already March. Even though it was mid-March, the temperature was still below minus 10 degrees Celsius. Compared to the inland temperatures of 15 to 20 degrees Celsius, it was still a temperature that could be used to mobilize troops.

“We have to catch the spiders and ants before the weather completely clears up.”

Based on last year, there was a good chance that the lowest temperature would rise above zero from May. As the weather gets warmer, spiders and ants will be free to move around, so now was the chance.

“How are the preparations?”

“100,000 exosuit troops, 150,000 mechanized infantry, and 500,000 clone troops.”

A purge operation was imminent, mobilizing a whopping 750,000 people. Of those, 500,000 were clone troops. The Empire had produced a whopping 500,000 clone troops from last fall to this winter.

Dan Brown recalled the information from the Holy Kingdom. It was a warning that building a force around clone troopers could be dangerous. The Holy Kingdom had said they would not intervene, but they had sent this information.

‘Do you still hope that the empire will not collapse?’

If the empire collapsed and over 35 million people became prey to cannibals, vampires, mutant monsters and insects, the aftermath would be unbearable.

That was why it was Den Brown who did not listen to the information sent from the Holy Kingdom. However, the situation in the Empire was not favorable.

There were more spiders and ant holes than I had thought, and there were also quite a few field mice. Even though it wasn’t a big force now, if left alone, it could grow hundreds of times larger in a few years, no, in a few months.

In order to suppress them in a short period of time, a large number of troops were needed. And the only way to increase troops in a short period of time was through clones. We had already started mass producing clone troops last year, so we couldn’t just leave 500,000 clones lying around.

Den Brown gave the order.

“Operation commencement.”

The empire began a punitive operation.