Chapter. 24. The Greatest Creditor (7)
****
The moment I felt the light under my feet, the shock quickly ran through my body from my toes to the roots of my teeth.
Before the water evaporated from his eyeballs turned white and shriveled, what Ian saw was Gustave and the thunderbolts on the ground raining down on their heads.
A secret blow that was not aimed at either Gustav or the spaceship, but was thrown into the air.
Don’t fall in!
The reason he can think like this and the fact that his form still remains is not because he was attacked by Zeus, but because he was exposed to the discharged side branches around that huge stream.
The victims were two people who were electrocuted by a very small amount of discharged power. And the bridge on which the two people were standing was cut off by the high-voltage current.
Zeus’ attack missed.
Kwajangchang!
It’s a success.
‘Probably right now, President Young, that bastard is spewing out every swear word he knows.’
A dry smile appeared on Ian’s lips as he fell along with the collapsing bridge.
It wasn’t a question of function or accuracy. The reason Zeus’ attack was aimed at the air was because he threw the case, which was a guidance device, in that direction.
———
‘Ashfield. This is Alexander Young. The channel you are currently connected to is a secure channel exposed only to you and me. ‘I contacted you to discuss operations before entering the combat zone.’
‘I told the professor that, but the actual operation doesn’t change. We will avoid artillery warfare as much as possible, but if the situation is not favorable, we will aim to destroy the spacecraft.’
‘You cheated? faith? Yes, I betrayed trust again. Just like in District 38. Then do you think it is right to sacrifice Professor Park again to protect that great faith?’
‘You know better than anyone else! That war moves in a direction that deviates from the wishes of both allies and enemies! What if the Raptor’s power is greater than we assumed? So what if our military is on the defensive? Are you going to beg the ‘Great Hero’ to save your life again? And while destroying his life?’
‘He is already at his limit. First his left arm, then his entire body, and he returned to a state where he could be medically declared dead, and he lay in that laboratory in a vegetative state for several months. It was only recently that he came back from that state alive.’
‘If you consume yourself further in that state, there really is no turning back. And he will. ‘With very high probability.’
———
Kwajangchang!
In the end, it failed to reach Gustave and the scaffolding collapsed, but the bridge that had been rushing towards the enemy until the end successfully completed its mission. Because his falling body was pushed by inertia and was heading towards Gustave.
Ian stretched out his carbonized, shriveled fingers.
The fleeting moment felt like an eternity.
———
‘I now believe in his value. In recent months, the number of suicides in District 47 has dropped incredibly. Crime rates have also dropped to record levels and productivity has increased dramatically.’
‘Exaggeration? Do you really think so? Was there a single person in the wasteland who didn’t know that we were slowly withering away and dying? Everyone in the wasteland of Dome Area 47! Even me! There is not a single person who has not felt death with their own skin! No one jokes and says things like [Do you want to die?] like in the past! Because that word can no longer be treated as a joke in our lives!’
‘As the years go by, winter gets longer and supplies run out! The survival materials left behind from the old era, solar panels, organic synthesizers, shield generators, are reaching the end of their lives one by one! There is no way to save it anymore! The Dome was not an outpost for human reconstruction! It was just a huge, well-maintained hospice ward! Everyone was just waiting for the inevitable death that would come one day, keeping it deep in their minds and ignoring it!’
‘The one who changed that perception… was him. Professor Park. He did it. It doesn’t matter that he has received professional training or that he is a special person with great will. The only thing that matters is that we have actually proven that [it is possible to survive even in such a situation].’
‘Proving that there is an answer to a problem that was thought to have no answer. With that, Professor Park pulled out the frustration deeply rooted in the hearts of all survivors in the wasteland. He is now a living, breathing legendary idol and a symbol of hope. ‘It’s not a sentimental story, it’s a fact proven by actual data.’
‘So I would like to refuse to exchange Professor Park’s life for the server room. ‘We are talking about preserving the hope that is already with us like a miracle, not the hope of an uncertain future that is only proven by the enemy’s remarks about the server room.’
‘That’s why I’m entrusting this guidance signal to you. Ian Desmond. It’s metal. Ashfield. ‘Because you know better than anyone else how much of a positive impact his presence has on those around him.’
‘I hope you save him. I hope that he will not oxidize for the sake of humanity all over the world in the distant future, but will selfishly stay alive by the side of our small community.’
‘Zeus destroys the spaceship. Even if it is by force, they prevent his sacrifice and interfere with Raptor’s event. Our operation aims at that.’
———
Memories flowing out slowly, infinitely slowly, like a stretched tape.
‘Like a fox… cub.’
Maybe that was why it was him.
President Young knew. As the head of the Dome, he understood Ian Desmond’s notoriety more deeply than anyone else, remembered his evil deeds more clearly than anyone else, and knew better than anyone else the ability that made it possible. General Young chose a man who could do the job better than anyone else on the battlefield, and it almost succeeded.
Unless he had intentionally thrown the signal in the wrong direction at the end, directing Zeus’ attack into the air.
“Hehehe… you’re not faithful enough…!”
Zeus missed. The spaceship was alive and well.
Raptor’s forces disintegrated.
Professor Park is alive. Even though I’m an asshole, I’ll somehow get here. We will do it somehow. Isn’t he really that kind of guy?
The list that remained in Ian’s mind was erased one by one, and only the most cutting-edge thing emerged from his fading consciousness.
Gustave. Al Harb. Raptor.
The bridge that collapsed and fell was hanging at an angle between the buildings.
Ian fell towards him, who was struggling to survive.
Quasak!
“Such persistence…!”
“You and I have done too much to disappear without a trace…!”
“…Thank you for your foolishness! Because I didn’t expect Dom to do something like that! A moment of misjudgment almost caused everything to go to waste, but your humble spirit of revenge made things right! The spaceship and I are alive, so nothing has changed! The plan is complete! Yes, thanks! “Just because of one man’s desire for revenge!”
“Even luck follows you! okay! This time I finally found the answer! “It must happen, so the world is helping it!”
Just like him, his entire body was full of electric shock marks, but Gustave was smiling.
“Could it be a desire for revenge?…”
A deep smile appeared on Ian’s face as he faced that.
“Just as Professor Park, President Young, and you each had different visions of the future, I also had my own vision of the future!”
If Gustave’s laugh was a mockery, Ian’s was infinitely closer to a triumph.
Two men standing precariously on a tilted railing.
A wind blowing sand. Rough breathing
, a place where no one can come amidst the chaos
. Bloodshot eyes.
The electrocuted body is unable to use its strength and all the high-tech equipment hanging around is broken due to the electric shock, so all that is left is to first pull out the iron in the arms.
Isn’t this a very good Mexican stand?
Ian felt that he had finally reached the moment he had been waiting for so long.
Ian’s hand moved and Gustave’s hand hurriedly headed towards the holster in his arms.
A moment that feels infinitely slow. Unlike the imminent reality, his consciousness was returning to the past.
‘It’s black and white.’
Black and white. His wife, who finally transformed his colorless world into a lively human life.
The reason he chased after something so provocative and rough was because he was afraid that the world she had changed after her death would return to the insensitive world of the past. That’s where his quiet voice became rough, how he started laughing like a bandit, and how he started drinking strong alcohol and smoking cigarettes like crazy.
In order not to return to the past ‘Ian Desmond’ even in a world without a wife and daughter, he lived as ‘Metal Joe’, a spice dealer in the wasteland.
but. If this is the situation right now.
‘Black and white goes well with westerns.’
It would be good to put down Metal Joe for a while and return to Desmond. Right now, I’m holding a small, white derringer with the name [Molly Desmond] engraved on it, which is embarrassing to call a gun.
There was one reason why Ian, with his half-burnt body, was faster than Gustave.
The other person’s gun was deep in his arms, but
bang!
Because he wore that gun around his neck, just waiting for this moment.
A bullet as small as a small gun passed through, leaving a small dot-like hole in Gustave’s forehead.
“If I had harbored something as passionate as revenge until now, it would have already burned down to ashes.”
click!
Tangrang!
Empty shell casings tumbled down like a crumbling Gustave.
Chamber with only two rounds. One was where the bullets used for suicide were placed, and the other was where the empty shell casings that had already failed to be used in that way were placed.
Inside the empty bullet casing that Ian took out was a rolled up note.
[Think again!]
Round letters that resemble his wife, Molly. She hated violence to the point that she removed the live ammunition from the gun he gave her and put something like that in it.
Ian held it in his hand and leaned against the railing as if it were falling apart.
“Let’s just say it’s not a desire for revenge, it’s a duty as a head of the household. Self-respect… is good….”
Gruck.
The gun tumbled out of his hand. The heart, breathing, and eyelids were sinking one by one, fading away quietly.
‘Vex was saved. The spaceship was also saved. I’ve cleared away the obstacles and Professor Park… will take care of that bastard.’
At the moment of death, the idiot-like faces of these two people came to mind instead of the wife and daughter I had longed for, probably because I had just sent Gustave away. If I meet my wife and daughter when I die, I’ll think, ‘I’ve done enough!’ I can confidently say that, but I feel like I still owe those two guys one way or another.
‘But unlike you… there’s no one I want to grow old with anymore.’
So it was decided. If there’s one person who deserves to die among the three, it’s him.
“okay. So… that’s how it happened.”
Whoa whoa.
Ian let out a deep sigh that he had been holding in. Along with that, the blood that was stuck in his throat flowed out.
-I
fixed my broken sunglasses with my few remaining fingers.
Chik Chik Chik Chik –
“Civil….”
Despite the joy of finding the cigarette that had miraculously survived in his arms, Ian could not hide his disappointment at the fact that the lighter had died. It was such an important issue that I once had a discussion with them for about 3 hours on the topic of ‘the mast of life’.
Damn it.
“If you keep biting it, I will come later and put it on you…
– Shake it off.
That was his last thought.
On a tilted iron bridge in a shadowy gap between collapsed and charred buildings that no one can see.
He disappeared like that.
****
Whoop. Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Tongue. Tongue. Gigi geek teuong!
A few minutes later, someone struggled to climb up the spaceship. He had a clear scar on his forehead and was moaning like an animal, muttering words to himself with unclear pronunciation.
A few minutes later, after completing all preparations, the spaceship ‘Next Space’ carrying passengers began counting down.
[6-. 5-. 4-. 3-. 2-. One-. 0—-]
Couuuuuuuuu-!
The spacecraft was finally launched, despite numerous fires and countless deaths, and was launched into a thick cloud of dust.
Although there was someone who jumped into the rocket storm just before departure.
It was a meaningless story to the bloody man left behind. His breath had already stopped, and unlike other failed idiots, he was a person who perfectly achieved everything he had planned and reached the end. The rest belongs to those who were left behind.
….but.
It was a different story when the pillar of fire spewing from the rocket collapsed upon launch of the spacecraft, pouring down on the bloody man on the bridge below.
The flame pushes close to 2,000 tons of iron into space and burns the man’s body left below without a trace
.
It was powerful enough to light a cigarette covered in blood and soot in his mouth.
Perhaps there was a reason why his last appearance was a satisfied smile.
****
