Rust - Chapter 962



Only Krnovel

Rust [RUST] – Episode 962

There was a brief silence after Maru asked for it first.

“······.”

(······.)

The woman and the tree both seemed dumbfounded at the same time.

why?

You said you’d give it to me?

Are you telling me to at least make empty promises about safety?

Maru believed that he had to keep his promises, whether verbally or by stamping a document. That’s why he kept his promises to crows, wolves, mice, ants, and even artificial intelligence.

So you’re just talking nonsense to plants now?

There was no way something like that could happen.

[Why? You don’t want to give it to me when I ask for it first?]

The woman’s voice changed from the natural human voice to the distinctive sound a plant makes when it moves.

“Are you saying that you can’t guarantee our safety?”

[I don’t talk empty words. So I don’t want to talk empty words about safety or anything. Honestly, I don’t even know if you guys really want safety.]

“It’s hard to trust what we’re saying now.”

[Trust? Safety? If you hadn’t revealed yourself in the beginning. Or if our children hadn’t lured you here. You didn’t, did you?]

“We also tried to talk to humans at first. But when they got to know us, they started to set us on fire. We just wanted to talk to humans, but they wanted to kill us. So we chose to become one with humans. That way we wouldn’t have to fight.”

[You were trying to become one? Then you should have just kept doing that. I was trying to become one too, but when I looked closely, I realized it was dangerous, so I’m doing this?]

“Because you said you were the king of the Holy Kingdom.”

[Didn’t you ignore that and just rush in?]

“It was only after you wielded your sword that we could see that what you said about being a king was true. Because we could confirm that the king of the Holy Kingdom wields a sword. And we also had many opinions on what to do with you.”

The woman’s gaze turned to the slimy suit that was shedding pollen.

“When you ask for the data first, are you asking for something that will make us trustworthy first?”

[You can think for yourself. I just asked for what I was told.]

“I see. Okay, I understand.”

The woman looked at the main gate of the plant research center.

Squeak-

The door to the plant research center opened and a researcher in a gown came out, holding a server module in his hand. A stem that had entered one of the researcher’s ear holes was growing up around his head, sprouting small leaves.

“This is a backup of the research data studied here as well as data exchanged with other research institutes.”

The researcher held out the module. As soon as Maru received it, he placed it in a special container.

“The idea of ​​a slime suit is fascinating. Is that an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) shielding vessel?”

[Humble.]

It was a container that could block not only biological EMP, but also EMP that occurred when death was spread to some extent. The researcher showed interest in Maru’s slime suit and container.

[You said we. Are we a group or individuals?]

“The first tree, shall we say? It is connected to him, but at the same time it is individual.”

Maru’s gaze turned to a tree so large it seemed to pierce the ceiling of the dome.

[You said you wouldn’t spread it, but how can I believe that? Just looking at your appearance, you honestly look like something out of a horror movie.]

The researcher laughed at Maru’s not-so-joke joke. The plant in his ear shook its leaves as if it was laughing along.

“If you look around, you’ll see that they could have expanded using pollen, but they didn’t.”

[Check it out.]

“I tell you, at first we didn’t try to become one with humans. We only did it because becoming one with humans was the only way to avoid killing each other.”

[Is that so? So you also became one voluntarily?]

“I can’t say that’s true.”

The researcher laughed. The plant that came out of his ear swayed for some reason. It seemed like he had a hard time catching it.

[Are all the mutated plants connected to you?]

“No, we are only here in Zurich and around the lake.”

Maru nodded after thinking for a moment.

It is said that plants in other places are separate. That means that whether plants in other places are killed or kept alive is separate.

‘The same goes for the ant empire.’

The ant empires near the Holy Kingdom were destroyed, but the northern ant empires moved separately. The spiders were the same, as were the crows and wolves.

So the same goes for plants. The plants I saw in Zurich were different from the plants I saw in the western United States. Just as the countries of humans are different from each other.

‘It’s difficult.’

It was thought that humans had descended from their position as the dominant species on Earth due to the emergence of mutant animals and the emergence of cannibals and vampires, but that was not the case.

‘A human fused with a plant.’

Should we call it a human or a plant?

[···If you keep your promise not to leave this area, the Holy Kingdom won’t attack first.]

“We will not leave the vicinity of Lake Zurich unless they attack us.”

As Maru emerged from the dome and waved his hand towards the sky, a jetpack hanging from a parachute descended.

‧

‧

‧

The researcher, who was watching the latex suit flying through the sky, said to the woman.

“The slime suit he’s wearing is made from a mutant slug from France.”

The suit that used the plant’s natural enemy was meant to fight this side. The researcher was not directly connected to the tree.

So, although he answered that they were connected and individual, there was no strangeness in Maru’s gaze toward the plant that had come out of his ear.

“He wasn’t surprised to see me.”

“It means that we have already seen beings similar to us.”

“Can you trust that man?”

“Well, since animals are believers, time will tell.”

======

======

Empire. Temporary capital Boston.

Bang- ta-bang- bang-

Gunshots rang out, breaking the quiet night. What lay at the end of the collapse of infrastructure due to the great earthquake and tsunami was an unstable public security.

The population of the empire is approximately 50 million, and an earthquake occurred in about half of the empire’s territory, and a tsunami hit the eastern coast. Almost 30 million people were swept away by the earthquake and tsunami.

They mobilized over 200,000 troops to secure public order and begin rescue and recovery work, but it was not an easy task.

Let’s say 1,000 people looted one large supermarket. The number of large supermarkets in the nine states that make up the empire exceeded 2,000.

It was said that there were 200,000 criminals who simply participated in the looting. Even if we assume that half of them, 500, looted, that’s still over 100,000.

How long can we keep so many criminals in detention camps when the military is mobilized to maintain public order?

So the method that came out was the penal unit. As a result of sending all the criminals who were caught for looting, arson, theft, robbery, fraud, and organized crime to the penal unit, as many as 250,000 criminals were able to be sent to the Panama front.

Tang- tada-dang-

A quarter of a million were sent to Panama, but what is that gunshot that shakes the Boston night?

As the complex-looking Den Brown closed the window, the faint sound of gunfire in the distance seemed to suddenly stop.

‘Where on earth do I have to go?’

As if to break Den Brown’s thoughts, the secretary submitted a report.

“Your Majesty. I have a report that the Panama Canal attack is proceeding smoothly.”

Casualties were reported to be in the hundreds every day, but most of them were from the penal units. The clone units in charge of supply, fortification construction, and stronghold defense were experiencing almost no casualties.

“We have currently occupied about 30% of the canal, and the bombardment of the ant colony in the southern region is progressing smoothly.”

“The military is requesting additional troops.”

“We sent 250,000 penal troops, so we need to send more?”

“Yes. They say they need at least 250,000 more.”

“I heard the operation is going smoothly?”

“They say that if we work in three shifts, we won’t have enough troops.”

If you divide 250,000 into three, it means that the front line must be maintained by about 83,000 people. It is true that even properly trained soldiers find it burdensome to work 24 hours a day.

Moreover, if the penal corps were operated without rotation, the result would be obvious. So the talk about a shortage of troops was also reasonable.

However, the scale of the request was not easy. It meant that if there were 500,000 penal units and 100,000 clones, there would have to be 600,000.

“600,000. What did the Congress and the military say?”

“Congress sees this as an opportunity to deal with all criminals. There is growing support for sending all criminals to the front lines, including thieves, robbers, and violent criminals, as well as those convicted of embezzlement, breach of trust, fraud, and drunk driving.”

The response was that there was nothing to be afraid of since it had been proven that the penal corps could fill the quota.

“This is driving me crazy.”

“······.”

The reason Congress could act like that was because Dan Brown took the brunt of the public criticism.

Although the decision was made by the Congress and the military, it was General Dan Brown who held the full power. The general opinion was that Dan Brown could have prevented the attack on the Panama Canal and the mobilization of the penal corps if he had tried to refuse.

“The protesters declared armed struggle?”

“yes.”

Those who objected to the presence of a certain race in the penal units began to stage armed protests.

‘Abolish racist penal units!’

‘We oppose racist penal units!’

‘Abolish the coastal urban migration policy that discriminates against certain races!’

‘Is Führer Den Brown trying to revive Nazism?’

The announcement of a policy restricting entry into coastal cities for those with criminal records has once again sparked controversy over specific racial discrimination.

Committing a crime is a thing of the past and punishment for it is enough. Why do we discriminate against someone who has been properly punished?

Isn’t this discrimination against a certain race with a high crime rate? Is it right to exclude people from a safe life in the future because of past mistakes?

The result was another outbreak of violence and a lack of security.

And regarding this security crisis, the government was silent, but instead, the National Assembly was pushing for martial law, saying that martial law should be declared.

From the invasion of Panama to the penal corps to martial law, Congress, the military, and the press were all tied up with Dan Brown.

I knew that was what politics was like, but even at this point, people were still doing it. Dan Brown closed his eyes for a moment.

‘Did you expect this to happen?’

If it weren’t for the declaration of non-intervention by the Holy Kingdom, we would have been involved in everything from rescue operations to reconstruction, the invasion of Panama, and the maintenance of public order, and it would never have turned out well.

‘Let’s say responsibility is like that… Are you trying to frame it as a dictatorship by declaring martial law?’

It wasn’t the dictatorship frame that was scary. What was really scary was that the parliament and the press were buried in political power and were eating away at the future of the empire and the future of humanity.

‘If it goes any further than that, I guess there’s nothing I can do.’

Dan Brown signed the martial law order.

======

======

Maru returned to Detroit with Naruz and sent the samples and the Plant Research Institute server data to the lab.

[These are the Zurich plant samples and research materials.]

[He’s conscious even though he’s been torn to pieces. Isn’t this dangerous?]

Na Ju-yeon, who was exhausted, just had a twinkling look in her eyes. Ki-soon, who checked that the sample was still conscious despite being split left and right and separated into upper and lower parts, had a worried expression on his face.

“It’s dangerous?”

[No. I’m not saying that negotiating with the Zurich plant was dangerous. I’m saying that the mutant plant itself seems dangerous.]

[Humans are the most dangerous.]

Na Ju-yeon said with an expression like a red panda.

[So what emotions are left in the sample? Revenge? Anger? Despair? Fear?]

Ki-soon shook his head at her words.

[Regeneration and perhaps··· reproduction.]

There were also plants that propagated by cuttings. Even sweet potatoes would come back to life if you cut off a stem and planted it. Green onions would continue to grow if you planted only the roots and cut off the part that grew above and ate it.

[Because among the reproductive strategies of plants, there are strategies that reproduce by being eaten. There are also strategies that reproduce by using death.]

Just as ants judge by different standards than humans, so did plants that merged with humans. It was not that they did not have human emotions, but the emotions of plants were more powerful.

“however···.”

Maru, who was about to say something, suddenly became speechless. For some reason, he felt something strange.

[?]

[why?]

Waaaaa …

The artificial intelligence Diana began broadcasting a warning along with a sudden siren sound.

Urrrrrrrr—

Holy Kingdom. The tremors that shook Detroit began.

.