[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 167 - Localized Apocalypse

Freddy simply sat there for a moment, frozen in disbelief. “Huh?”

The adjudicator sighed. “I would love to be able to tell you that it will be taken care of, but, truth be told, I have little confidence that the situation won’t spiral out of control.”

“Hold up. Slow down.” Freddy raised his hand. “So… someone is amassing a horde of monsters? Who? How? And what happens next?”

“We’ll get into the details in a moment. As for their means, we aren’t sure. It appears that they’re using a sort of ether virus to influence monsters into behaving unnaturally. The symptoms are quite obvious, at least. Anything with square pupils is already infected.”

Freddy froze as he heard that. “Square pupils?”

“Hmm?” The adjudicator straightened a bit. “Do you have information on this phenomenon? I assure you, the empire would reward you quite generously if you—”

“No, no,” Freddy said. “It’s nothing. I just found the detail… bizarre.”

He thought back to his time on Faralethal and the two strange people who tried to kill him. Were these two things connected? Given the interconnected nature of interspace, it would hardly be unusual. But if that was the case, this was bad. Really bad. An ether virus that kicked monsters into a frenzy? That was something that could cause some real trouble for… well… the whole world.

Freddy frowned as he looked back at the adjudicator. “Does it affect humans, too?”

The adjudicator scowled a bit at the question. “We don’t know. The person doing this is indeed human. But the hunters who came into contact with these monsters, even those who were directly injured, have shown no signs of being affected so far. We speculate that this contagion has some sort of limit to the way it spreads.” He chuckled awkwardly. “Just based on the fact that there aren’t a billion different such ether contagions going around, it is likely that they can’t spread infinitely in the first place.”

That made plenty of sense. Freddy thought back to what Insanity had shown him. The nature of ether. It was an existence that aimed to be at least somewhat fair. An infinitely spreading ether virus went against the fundamental principles of what this world aimed to be.

“How bad is it?” Freddy asked.

“Very bad,” the adjudicator said. “While it hasn’t affected humans yet, among monsters, it appears to be spreading without an end in sight. Large hordes are already beginning to migrate towards populated areas. And behind them, it is likely that even bigger ones will follow.”

Freddy squinted. “Are you perhaps here to recruit me to fight back against this?”

“You catch on quickly, I see. But I’m here to do more than just that.” He coughed and straightened his posture. “Mr. Cliff. As an imperial adjudicator, I officially extend you an invitation to fight back against this crisis. Any contribution you personally make, as well as any contribution made by anyone you recruit, will be handsomely rewarded when this crisis is resolved.

“Now, with that out of the way, I will give you a word of advice not as adjudicator but as a private individual—please leave the Northern Belt as soon as humanly possible.”

Freddy released a displeased grunt at that. “The empire won’t step in to help,” he said matter-of-factly.

“They will step in, but I assure you, they won’t go out of their way. At most, they will turn this into a sort of expedition for young fighters so they can get some experience before things get too bad. But I fear it will not be nearly enough to stop the incoming catastrophe.”

“Shouldn’t it be in their best interest to ensure that it doesn’t spread anywhere else?”

“If it’s capable of spreading that far, it is already unstoppable. All it takes is one monster to step into a wild passage, and due to the nature of the interspace, it won’t be long until it spreads everywhere. Either it’s already out of control, or it isn’t. At any rate, protecting the Northern Belt is low on the list of priorities. They’ll only take it seriously if it directly threatens the mainland empire.”

Freddy released a long sigh. “Fucking hell.” He leaned back, burying his fingers in his hair.

Sophia looked at him expectantly, waiting to see what he’ll do. He eyed her for a moment. Then, he turned to face the adjudicator. “You promised me a personal favour.”

“That I did.”

“Then”—he pointed at Sophia—”can you get her out?”

Sophia’s eyes widened.

The adjudicator sighed as he looked at Freddy. “You are going to stay.”

Freddy shrugged.

“Hold on!” Sophia shouted. “Don’t I get a say here?”

He hummed at her. “What? You actually want to stay?”

“Well you didn’t ask for my opinion!”

“Okay then,” he said. “Do you want to stay?”

She opened her mouth, but then closed it. Her head bent down slightly. “Can I think about it?”

Freddy eyed the adjudicator.

The man shrugged. “As long as the Northern Belt still exists, I will be staying here. I can send your friend away whenever you wish.”

“You heard the man,” Freddy said, turning back to Sophia. He was about to say something, but remembering they were in the presence of an imperial adjudicator, he said, “We’ll talk later.”

She nodded.

“So,” Freddy said, turning back to face the adjudicator. “You seem to believe that there is no chance to successfully fighting back?”

“Yes. There are simply too many monsters in the Frozen Wastes. Even if we somehow managed to kill all of them, just due to their sheer numbers, it would be difficult to do so before they completely destroy all civilian infrastructure.”

“And there are no plans to evacuate the civilians?”

The adjudicator shook his head. “The odds of that happening are nonexistent.”

Freddy bit back a curse. While the man didn’t seem to be entirely in agreement with the empire’s ways, he was still an imperial official. Freddy shouldn’t recklessly criticise the empire in front of the man. It was even possible that he was putting up a front to judge Freddy’s reaction.

So Freddy decided to put up a front of his own. “That makes sense,” he said calmly. “It would be a wide-spread crisis for the empire if they were to move all these people. Not to even mention the criminal tendencies of the population. And like you said, either its already out of control or it isn’t. Investing too many resources to save a sinking ship would be a waste.”

Sophia scowled at his words with evident distaste. Freddy did his best not to react outwardly, even though he was a bit worried that her opinion of him was going up in smoke.

For a brief moment, the adjudicator revealed a slight smirk. It vanished as quickly as it appeared. “If you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Cliff, why do you insist on staying? As you seem to already understand yourself, protecting the city is just delaying the inevitable.”

“There is a whole army of monsters coming this way.” He smiled. “Seems like a good opportunity for growth.”

The adjudicator nodded. “It makes sense that someone with your power would be ambitious. Very well. Consider letting your friend out of the Northern Belt a minor gift from me. My offer of a personal favour to you still stands.”

“Thank you,” Freddy said. “Now, onto this person that caused all this trouble. What do we know about them?”

“It’s a man in his thirties, a three-star. He was once known as a prodigy, but due to some messy family politics, his life was derailed. He moved to the Northern Belt for unknown reasons and then seemingly lost himself in a life of debauchery. A few weeks ago, he suddenly changed. His body morphed in grotesque ways, including the change to his pupils, and after attempting and failing to murder his allies, he ran away. His name is Nahar Kraven.”

Freddy froze. A sudden chill ran through his entire body. “Is… is that ‘Kraven’ with C… or K?”

The adjudicator raised an eyebrow. “It’s K. Are you perhaps familiar with the Kraven Clan?”

A numbness spread through Freddy. He fought not to let it show as he forced himself to speak. “Yes. I’ve heard of them. They’re based in Pittersville, if I recall correctly. I read a few things about them back when I was doing research about the blood affinity,” he lied.

“Ah, yes. Well, spoiler alert, that clan no longer exists.”

Freddy’s eyebrows leaped up his forehead. “Wow, uhm… Whoa. Bro that’s crazy, haha!” He chuckled nervously and then coughed. “That… that uh… should have been a rather… uh… recent development?”

The adjudicator eyed him strangely for a moment. “Yes… Relatively.”

“Do you mind telling me what happened? If it’s not too besides the point, of course, I wouldn’t want to derail the conversation.”

“It’s no issue,” the man said. “They suffered the most common fate of any organization—they lost their leader and had no clear successor in mind. For a while, Nahar reigned as their interim patriarch, but an ambitious elder ended up backstabbing and overthrowing him. The elder’s plot was pretty thoroughly executed, but he made a crucial mistake. He failed to account for the possibility that Nahar and one of his allies would just barge in, execute him, and slaughter half the clan.”

Freddy’s eyes widened. “Wow. Talk about dramatic!” he said, laughing with no small amount of shadenfreude. “From what I know—I mean… from what I’ve read about them… that isn’t really that surprising. They were a rather hateful bunch. Also, given that he was the interim patriarch, I presume that means that Nahar is…”

“The son of their former patriarch, yes.”

“Right… Right, right. Yes. That’s… Yes, makes sense. So, uhm. Nahar Kraven, huh?” He chuckled. “He’s… the person who is here doing all these things. Right. And you said he had allies?” He shifted a bit.

The adjudicator scowled. “I can’t tell you anything about them. One of them is a very… special person. Let’s just say that I don’t have the authority to speak on this any further.”

“Oh. Okay,” Freddy said, wondering who the hell this could be that even an adjudicator’s hands were tied.

“I can say one thing, though—Nahar’s allies appear to have been found at least partly responsible for whatever happened to him, and they will be forced to help fight the incoming disaster off. Well, I highly doubt the penalty is anything more than posturing, but you still might get a chance to meet them.”

“Right. So what do I do now? Do I just go and run off into the wilderness and start fighting monsters?”

The adjudicator shrugged. “For now, you don’t have to do anything. These monsters haven’t even reached the settlements yet, and probably won’t for another week. If you’re planning to stay and help deal with it, I highly recommend you use this week to settle all your private matters. You will be busy for a while.”

With that, they shook hands and concluded the meeting.

Freddy walked out of the building, followed by Sophia. She was quiet, but her thoughts were written all across her face.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I only said what the man wanted to hear. I am not nearly so flippant about this whole thing.”

“Who do you take me for?” She looked up and scoffed. “You think I don’t realize you were just buttering him up? Please. That’s the part that bothers me. So what, to keep the favour of the empire, you’re willing to say whatever it takes? Will that extend to your actions, too?”

His steps halted. He sighed. “Maybe to an extent.” He turned around to face her. “What, does that bother you?”

“Of course it bothers me! What kind of society is this? This is hell! How many millions of people live in the Northern Belt? And they’re all going to die just because the empire can’t be bothered to do anything about it!? How can you stomach playing along with that… at all!?” She glared at him with her lips twisted into a disgusted frown. “Even just saying what you said—”

“Sophia,” he cut her off. “Let me make something abundantly clear—I am not staying here for the sake of practice. The talk I had with the adjudicator about that clan—that’s the clan that kidnapped and tortured me,” he said. “Everyone just let it happen. Everyone lets that kind of stuff happen all the time. Do you really think I like the empire? That I actually want to be like that? That I want to join them in crafting a fine hell on New Earth, the same hell that I burned in my whole life?” He took an aggressive step in her direction and pressed a finger to her collar bone.

She stared defiantly at him

He continued, “I will literally eat shit off the ground if it makes them feel like I’m safe enough to be given a chance at power. In comparison, words are cheap. I’ll say whatever the fuck it takes. And while I’m not ready to become a martyr for no goddamn reason, I am willing do what I can to make things better. Since that’s the only way anything is ever going to change.

“As for you, you have the chance to leave and do whatever you want. Go open another commune somewhere and leave me alone. But if you’re going to stay, then please, for the love of everything you hold sacred, don’t moralize at me!”

She kept his gaze for a few long moments, biting her lower lip in frustration. Then, she slowly looked down, her shoulders drooping subtly. “Okay.” She deflated. “Okay, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

“I get it. I’m not exactly happy to be part of this, either. So… I get it.” He deflated, too.

“Also, I guess you were serious about the whole ‘madness in the wind’ thing. And man, you really are cursed!” she said. “The son of the man you killed, really? What the hell are the odds of that?”

“Not as low as you might think. And… it’s more complicated than just coincidence,” he said. “The thing about this curse I have is that it gets people with similar fates tangled up.”

She appeared a little disturbed for a moment. “Do you think that… you are indirectly responsible for this?”

“No,” Freddy said, shaking his head. “That’s not how this stuff works. It doesn’t make terrible shit happen to everyone in the whole world just to target one individual. If that were the case, the fates of the most powerful people in the world would have destroyed everything a long time ago. To be precise, this fate doesn’t really do anything at all. I am the one who walks into these absurd scenarios. Sometimes, I just don’t know that it’s happening. And this time, I do.”

“Yeah… that makes sense, I guess. Anyway,” she clapped her hands together. “We have a week, the man said. Perhaps we should get going?”

He smiled. “So you’re gonna stay?”

She groaned. “Do you really think I’m going to walk away at this point?”

“How am I supposed to know? I don’t exactly know you all that well as a person.”

“That’s… fair. I guess. But I’m really nice, I promise! I am absolutely the type of person who will be the hero when others need me?”

“Just for the record, this is the same girl who almost buried herself to hide from terrorists?”

She punched him in the shoulder. This time, he didn’t bother mock flinching. He just beamed his best shit-eating grin at her. Then, his grin died as he returned to reality. “Right. A localized apocalypse is coming. I think we should go and let Travis know first.”