Chapter 11. The Little Prince in The Ossuary (11)
# lntermission, Nationalism and Totalitarianism
When nationalism is used as a pretext for defending the public interest, it is prone to degenerate into totalitarianism. The nations that once fell down the road of totalitarianism committed several atrocities—such as the Japanese Empire’s colonialism, the Nanjing Massacre, and Nazi Germany’s Holocaust—becoming evil empires.
However, totalitarianism can be one of the quickest ways to unify a great multitude of people whose interests do not coincide. Therefore, at the crossroads of human extinction, totalitarianism might be a necessary evil for the sake of the greater cause, namely, the perpetuation of the species. As to which one is the bigger tragedy—moral extinction or immoral existence—it is an arguable question.
Does the end justify the means? What would be your choice?
# Factions (3), Camp Roberts
Gyeoul’s message log was flooded with notifications of downward revisions to favor, some of them permanent.
Amidst the uncanny silence, Hwasoo ordered, “Put her away for a minute.”
The girl was then dragged, almost like a piece of luggage, to one side of the room. She didn’t stop screaming, probably not realizing she had just avoided being raped. It seemed like she was in too much panic to make a proper judgment of the situation.
Hearing her crying, Hwasoo lost his patience and suddenly burst into a fit of anger.
“Goddamnit, she’s fucking annoying! Make her shut up, will ya?”
The method the subordinates resorted to was very simple. It was violence. At first, they tried yelling at her. But since neither was she able to understand Korean nor was she in the right state of mind to listen to them, they began slapping her. Though her screams grew even louder, they didn’t stop beating her. It was only after the girl passed out from the pain that a grave silence filled the tent.
Hwasoo glared at the boy with eyes full of anger.
“How impertinent you young ones are these days…! What’s the world coming to? Nobody seems to have inherited the illustrious spirit of our ancestors, not a single person! This is all because of those damn Japanese…”
“Weren’t you just doing the same thing they did?”
“You’re rotten to the core!” Roared the old man, his face contorted in anger.
“Those scumbags deserve to be treated like this! Don’t you know what they did to us in the past? They tortured, raped, and killed our people! And to make up for what they did, they gave us nothing but hollow apologies. They haven’t done a single sensible action for the past century. If we just let them go like that, the same tragedy will occur all over again! They won’t learn! That’s just who they are! They had plenty of chances to correct their mistakes, it was they who threw them away. That’s why I’m doing this, to make them pay for their crimes! No one can blame us for whatever we do! This is a preemptive war, as well as an act of self-defense!”
Sophistry. Although the first half was correct, the latter was completely wrong. Japan was indeed accountable for their disgraceful past. However, that should not justify for the victims to commit genocide against the offenders.
What was the point of apologizing and reflecting? It was for the offender to ensure that they will not commit the same crime in the future, in hopes that the victims who are still alive will feel just a bit better before they die. Hwasoo’s logic was no better than saying ‘I will rape your daughter because you raped my daughter’.
A person deserves to be treated as a person. And since Gyeoul himself hadn’t been treated as such when he still had a body, he became angrier than necessary, thus responded sharply.
“Could you stop using Korean for your mental masturbation? It feels disgusting having the same nationality as you.”
“How dare you!”
Suddenly, Gyeoul’s skills, 「Survival Instinct」 and 「Crisis Detection」, sensed a man holding a knife closing in from his side.
Gyeoul instinctively twisted the arm that approached him from the side, neutralizing the stab, took the knife away from his attacker and pressed it against their neck. His movements were so agile that he felt like it wasn’t his own body.
A player with a high level of combat skills could manifest exceptionally intricate motions simply by envisioning the vague idea of ‘defending and subduing the enemy’.
The man who had jumped at the boy, perhaps in an outburst of anger or to show his loyalty, soon turned deathly pale. He’d be dead if the boy pushed the knife any further in.
Gyeoul, however, wasn’t planning on killing the man. What he meant to do was to trigger their sense of fear, enough for the hotheaded crowd to take a look back and worry about their lives. He didn’t want to trigger a bad ending in this situation, but he also didn’t think it would be possible to escape from this many people if they were to attack him all at once.
“I won’t give you another warning.”
Gyeoul threw the knife to a corner of the tent and pushed the man away. As soon as the man was freed from the boy’s grasp, he flopped down on the ground and coughed his head off as he clutched his neck.
Hwasoo glared at the boy red-faced, but he didn’t order his subordinates to kill him. Instead, he was preventing his subordinates from attacking him. It was a reasonable AI calculation. He wouldn’t be the leader of such a big faction if he was too hot-tempered.
“Hey, kid,” Hwasoo said, now without honorifics. It seemed like he had given up his pretentious act. “You think you can make it out of here alive? Against this many people?”
“No. If I were to fight with all of you, today would be the last day of my life. But please know that I won’t go down alone.”
“What a big mouth you’ve got there. You think your military affiliation will keep you safe, huh?”
“I think I’m sort of an example, more like a walking billboard that the U.S. military set up to show the refugees that they can also have the privilege of joining them if they prove themselves. And if you were to ruin that billboard, I don’t think they’d let you off with your crimes anymore. So, a wise man such as the great Magliji won’t be able to kill me, at least in here.”
“How reckless. Was that the only thing you believed would save your life?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t just count on the U.S. military. I’m also counting on my skills. I believe it’s not completely impossible for me to win even if I fight all of you here.”
“Ha! You can’t be serious about that!”
“You don’t think so? Then how about we start killing each other right here?”
“…”
“I wonder how many of your subordinates will willingly risk their lives to fight me. Should we find out ourselves?”
Hwasoo kept silent for quite a long time before trying to persuade the boy again.
“You feisty little thing, don’t you know that your audacity and all the other talents you possess are the legacies of our great ancestors? Our people have been charged with a great mission! Like all the other countries have, America will soon collapse! And when that happens, we, the descendants of the great Hwanwoong, will have to establish a new homeland over the ruins of America!”
“You know, my World History high school teacher taught me, any kind of nationalism that doesn’t reflect cosmopolitanism as its foundation is a satanic ideology. You, old man, are Satan himself.”
Hwasoo was once again left speechless by the boy’s random provocation. It must have been even more infuriating for him, since he, given his position, most likely had never suffered such a severe insult.
“I can’t talk to you anymore. Your words disgust me,” said Hwasoo. He sighed and put his hand on his forehead. His actions made him look like a sage shouldering all the anguish in the world by himself. But of course, Gyeoul knew that it was the typical behavior of a charlatan.
“Well, we are on the same boat. I don’t want to stay here another minute. Your rotten brain just stinks too much.”
The false sage then lifted one eyebrow and asked, “Maybe you’re right. We can’t kill you here. But what if it’s not here? You don’t want to live in fear of being hunted, do you?”
“You’re making me repeat myself. I won’t die alone. I personally don’t want to wage war against an entire faction. But if it comes down to it, I’ll make sure to pay you back with interests.”
The boy rose from his seat and walked in the opposite direction of the exit. He had a firm grip on his bayonet’s handle, causing the people to hesitantly move out of his way. It was a clear threat.
“I’ll be taking the girl with me. If you want to stop me, you’ll have to come at the risk of your life.”
And just as expected, none of them stepped up to stop Gyeoul. Even the strongest-looking person just stood there watching. He probably possessed 「Survival Instinct」 or 「Detection」.
“生きたいのなら、私の手を取ってください。 (Take my hand if you want to live.)”
His words were conveyed by relying on the game’s language correction. It was level 6 「Japanese」. Even though he might not have sounded like a native speaker, it was enough to deliver his message.
The shivering girl hesitantly grabbed the boy’s hand. She had no choice other than to trust the person speaking in a familiar language.
Holding the boy’s hand, the girl followed him from behind towards the exit of the tent. Nobody stopped the two from doing so. Only Hwasoo stared at them with a sunken expression.
Although Gyeoul had brought her out, he wasn’t planning on keeping her company, as she’d only serve to drag him down. Thus, the two of them went straight to the Japanese settlement.
The Japanese territory which was said to have collapsed after the fall of 「Sumiyoshi-kai」 looked surprisingly stable. It seemed like several other Japanese factions had united to prevent the Japanese community from falling apart.
Before the boy could approach the entrance, one of the guards stationed near it shouted at him.
“おまえは誰だ? (Who the hell are you?)”
“落ち着いてください。あなたの同胞を連れてきただけです。悶着を起こすつもりはありません。(Please calm down. I’m here to bring one of your people home. I don’t mean to cause any trouble.)”
The guards looked skeptically at the boy who was holding both of his hands up. Gyeoul then brought the Japanese girl forward and lightly nudged her towards them. She kept on looking back with teary eyes as she walked towards the guards.
The guards didn’t lower their guard until the girl was already in close proximity. It was only after they conducted a body inspection that they began talking to her. Though they spoke in a very quiet voice, Gyeoul’s augmented senses, attained by Survival Instinct, allowed him to overhear their conversation.
“You, are you Japanese?”
“Y-yes. My name is Kushinada Setsuna. I was kidnapped by a group of Koreans.”
“Who’s that guy?”
“I think he’s Korean too… but he’s a good person. He fought with the people who kidnapped me and brought me out of there. I owe him my life.”
“Ha! Good person? Chongs are all the same. By the way, do you have a family?”
“My parents should be here. If… they haven’t passed away…”
“Is that so? Hey, Daisuke. You go help her find her parents.”
“Yes, sir!”
Just then Gyeoul turned around and stopped listening to their conversation. He neither expected to be thanked nor did it seem she would thank him. But as the boy was about to take a step, the Japanese guard shouted at him from behind.
“You, Chōsenjin*! Give me your name. We’ll spare your life when we take our revenge on the other Chongs.”
Gyeoul looked back for a second and bluntly responded, “Don’t need it.” He then left the Japanese settlement area and headed straight back to his quarters.
Several factions approached the boy on his way back to the military quarters. There was nothing new about them, except for one faction. 「The Church of Full Gospel」. These people, calling themselves ‘children of God’, worked in pairs and stopped random people on the street to give them a full sermon. Gyeoul tried to quickly slip past them, but unfortunately, one of them spotted him. Within a few seconds, dozens of them surrounded the boy and started to babble on.
“Brother! The great tribulation has fallen upon the world, there’s not much time before our Lord Jesus returns! Those who do not believe in the Lord will not be saved! But fear not brother, for you are not too late! You can still gain God’s favor if you truly repent for your sins and pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith, Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death. Faith is the only way to eternal life!”
“Our church is lead by Reverend Park Taesun, the righteous prophet of the east. Only those with faith can attain salvation from this disaster!”
“Would you believe that all the hardships that have come to us were written in the Bible this whole time? 「I will sweep away both man and beast; I will sweep away the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea—and the idols that cause the wicked to stumble. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth」 This is what the Lord declared!”
“Also, in the Bible says「Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited.」 Those mutants, infected by epidemic, devouring life, they are the ones that eat the sacrifices, and we are sacrifices to the Lord! Faith is the only way to survive the wrath of the Lord!”
“Reverend Park will tell us how we can be saved! Just meet him once and you’ll feel the shivers running through you! The shiver of revelation! Now, young brother, it’ll take you just a minute. Come with us!”
Gyeoul tried to ignore them and carry on, but they kept on pestering him.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not interested.”
“He who does not listen to the voice of the Lord is the servant of Satan!”
An old man suddenly lifted a sign that read ‘Faith, Heaven, No Faith, Hell’ and tried to strike the boy with it. The boy, however, simply grabbed the sign and took it away from him. It was only when the boy threw the sign away that the fanatics scrammed.
* Chōsenjin/Josenjing = Derogatory word for “Korean”. Not exactly a swear word, but it’s how they called Koreans (Joseon people, from the Joseon dynasty) when Korea was colonized by Japan, so it has a bad connotation due to historical context.
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