Chapter 1910: Aim for the top. The answers you seek are waiting there, Darling~

"Do you think this was the best idea?" Genome Beta asked quietly beside Lackey as she watched Torag curiously examine the tools and equipment placed across the floor.

Lackey nodded. "No."

"Huh?" Beta blinked in confusion. If it was not the best idea, then why had he done it? She stared at him for a moment, waiting for an explanation, but Lackey gave her none.

Lackey simply stared at Torag. Unlike most people, this man seemed loyal to his work rather than to any person or division.

That kind of loyalty was rare, and Lackey understood that it could be far more valuable than simple obedience.

"Oh? What are these?" Torag asked as he pointed toward the Twin Eclipse weapons. For some reason, his curiosity immediately settled on them, and he slowly stepped closer as though something about the weapons had caught his attention before he even understood why.

His trembling fingers touched the surface of the material, and he suddenly flinched. A deep and immense sensation ran through him, accompanied by an oppressive aura that seemed to linger beneath the weapon’s surface. It did not feel like ordinary material.

For a brief moment, it felt as though something inside it was breathing.

His expression changed from curiosity to genuine shock, his eyes widening as he struggled to comprehend what he was sensing. He knew that even after a monster was killed, traces of its will could remain within the materials taken from its body.

He had encountered that phenomenon before, but this was different. The presence within these weapons was far too intense, almost disturbingly vivid, as if it was still living.

He slowly turned his head toward Lackey and muttered, "D-Did you... create this?"

Lackey merely smirked and nodded without a hint of shame or hesitation.

Even Beta was surprised when she looked at the weapon. ’I didn’t bring that thing... so how did he make it?’ she wondered.

Her eyes then shifted toward the dismantled mech-suit lying on the table, something she had never seen before.

Her frown deepened as she glanced at Lackey.

Meanwhile, Torag had completely lost his composure after seeing Lackey’s calm nod. His expression remained frozen between disbelief and astonishment.

This masked rabbit man had come from another world, yet he had somehow created a weapon of this quality using their technology.

How was that even possible?

Torag stared at the Twin Eclipse weapons in his hands, unable to shake the thought that followed. If this man could create something like this, then what about the other people from his world?

Were there others like him?

Were there monsters even greater than this man?

Had Torag spent his entire life believing he was exceptional, only to discover that he was nothing more than a single drop in an ocean he had never known existed?

The more he thought about it, the smaller he felt. His fingers tightened around the weapon as an unpleasant realization settled inside him.

He had believed himself to be strong.

He had believed himself to be capable.

But compared to what stood before him, he suddenly felt like a fucking loser.

Lackey, however, noticed that Torag seemed to have misunderstood something. He did not bother correcting him. Whatever Torag believed about him did not matter. As long as this man remained on his side, that misunderstanding was useful enough.

"Are you not worried?" Lackey asked curiously, breaking the silence.

Torag blinked and looked toward him. "Worried about what?" he asked, still holding the weapon that almost weighed half as much as he did.

"I am an otherworlder, and you are helping me. You know what my kind has done to yours, yet you are still standing here beside me. Are you truly alright with that?" Lackey asked, his voice calm as he watched Torag carefully.

Torag parted his lips but said nothing at first. His eyes lowered toward the weapon in his hands, and his expression slowly became distant.

"Honestly... I despise your kind as well," he finally admitted. "You people came here, hurt our kind, and took lives that never belonged to you."

His fingers slowly tightened around the weapon.

"My parents were killed by monsters you created. I barely survived that day, and even then, I had only one reason left to keep living. My wife."

Lackey remained silent.

Torag lowered his gaze, his voice becoming quieter as old memories surfaced in his mind. "However... revenge has a way of changing the person holding it. At first, I only wanted enough strength to protect the people I loved. I thought that was all I needed."

He stared at the weapon again, but this time, there was no wonder in his eyes. There was only regret.

"What we were doing to others... it was wrong as well. We told ourselves that because they had hurt us first, anything we did in return was justified. We called it revenge.

We called it justice.

But somewhere along the way, we stopped asking ourselves what we were becoming."

Beta remained silent. It was as if she understood exactly what Torag was trying to say, even before he finished.

Torag slowly exhaled. "In our search for revenge... we lost what made us who we were. We stopped seeing them as living beings.

We stopped seeing ourselves as human."

His gaze fell upon the weapon once more.

"You see... I was desperate to find a way to protect my wife. I used whatever was necessary to survive. When ordinary weapons were no longer enough, I began using the monsters’ remains against them. I carved their flesh, shaped their bones, and turned what once belonged to them into weapons meant to kill their own kind."

His voice trembled slightly, but he did not stop.

"I kept doing it again and again. Every time I told myself it was necessary. Every time I told myself I was only doing it for survival. But eventually, something inside me began to change."

Torag slowly raised his hand and looked at his own fingers, as though remembering the countless things those hands had done.

"I started feeling them."

A faint shiver passed through his voice.

"I felt their presence within the weapons. I felt their hunger. I felt their fear. And eventually... I felt their despair."

He closed his eyes for a moment, his expression tightening as though those sensations had never truly left him.

"That was when I finally understood something. When you spend long enough killing something, while carrying a piece of it inside your own hands, eventually you begin to wonder whether you are still the hunter... or whether you have simply become another monster."

As he mumbled those last words, Torag’s expression tightened. "I didn’t know if this was a curse or a blessing... I started to feel those monsters’ emotions through their remains, and among all of them... do you know what I felt the most?"

He looked directly at Lackey.

Lackey shook his head. "What did you feel?"

Torag slowly clenched his fist around the weapon. "Their pain... Their screams... They were asking to be saved."

Silence followed.

Lackey’s expression hardened slightly. "You mean..."

Torag shook his head. "I don’t know if what I felt was truly theirs, but... yeah. I felt that these things had their own emotions, and they were crying out in pain. They didn’t want this either. Whatever is happening... something else is going on beyond our reach."

Lackey turned silent.

Torag stared at the weapon for a few more seconds, his eyes lingering on its surface as though he could still feel those distant emotions buried within it. Eventually, he glanced toward Lackey.

"I honestly hoped that instead of war, we could have become friends and survived through this shit together." He shook his head and gave a quiet, bitter chuckle.

"But a man like me had no power to change the world... ahaha. All I can do is hope that, one day, everything ends with peace."

Lackey quietly stared at Torag for several seconds before walking toward him. He stopped beside him and gently patted his shoulder.

"You have a gentle heart, Torag," Lackey said quietly.

Torag awkwardly smiled, a small blush appearing on his cheeks. He always became flustered whenever someone praised him.

Just then, Beta spoke.

"Go-Ahem, Lackey, I got a call from the Tournament. Your match begins in two hours," Genome Beta said in a serious tone.

Torag blinked. "Wait... the Tournament?" His eyes widened as he slowly connected the previous dots in his mind, and his eyebrows rose in realisation.

Lackey smirked beneath his mask. "Good... Very good. Just when I thought I needed a stretch," he mumbled before turning toward Torag.

"For now, watch the Tournament and see for yourself."

He turned and began following Beta, but after taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped as though he had remembered something.

Without saying a word, Lackey walked back, picked up the metallic cube, and then followed Beta again.

***

**

*

Alpha Division

The Grand Colosseum

The Main Arena was filled with thousands upon thousands of people. The spectators sat throughout the enormous stands, talking excitedly about the match that had just ended as the noise of the crowd rolled through the colosseum.

"Man, that was so fucking awesome..."

"Yeah, who would have thought that asshole would have died in just a few attacks? Haha..."

"Dammit! I bet on him and lost half of my Aevum! Damn it!"

"Who is the next participant again?"

"Oh? That would be... ah, right. Lackey."

"Lackey?"

"Yeah..."

"Come to think of it, I heard some news about Governor Beta bringing in a unique slave."

"Yeah, man. I heard the rumours too, and I even saw the news about it. They said he killed two thousand opponents in a single match."

"Wow... Are you for real? There’s no way, right?"

"I mean... I heard it on the news, so..."

"Tsk, tsk. Those lying bastards! There’s no way a mongrel could do something like that!"

"Yeah. That fucker from another world could never do that!"

"We are superior to it!"

The crowd continued muttering among themselves. The moment they heard that Lackey was from another world, whatever interest they had shown in him seemed to disappear. To them, he was no longer an intriguing participant or some mysterious warrior.

He was simply an outsider who did not belong to their kind.

Racist?

Maybe... a little bit!

"I am going all in with the Monster."

"What? Are you for real? What if he wins?"

"Haha... man, you guys are exaggerating that thing too much. He is nothing more than filth that needs to be cleaned. Only traitors would bet on him just to earn Aevum."

"Exactly. There’s no way that thing survives."

"Have you forgotten where we are? This is the Grand Colosseum. The Monsters here aren’t ordinary creatures."

"Yeah. Every otherworlder who entered this place thought they were special too."

"And every single one of them died."

Hearing those remarks, the people around them began to nod in agreement. Some laughed, while others continued discussing their bets.

It wasn’t their first time hearing about an otherworlder entering the Main Arena. It had already happened many times before, but not a single one had ever managed to pass even one Monster.

Everyone fucking died.

And because these were otherworlders, the people here truly loathed them to their core. To most spectators, an otherworlder entering the Arena was not a warrior arriving to prove himself.

It was simply another outsider walking willingly into his grave.

"Who wants to see this bastard’s fight?"

"I’m leaving."

"Yeah... fucking boring."

"There’s no point watching this."

"Wake me when the real tournament begins."

"I already placed my bet. I don’t need to watch him die."

Many people began leaving the arena without a second thought.

The enormous stands gradually emptied as spectators lost interest, some laughing among themselves while others continued discussing which Monster they expected to appear next.

Only those interested in seeing Lackey either get slaughtered or somehow earn Aevum remained in their seats, which, of course, still amounted to at least a thousand people.

Massive screens floated above the Arena, displaying the names and records of the participants.

Beta had already taken her seat in the VIP section, staring down at the Arena with a serious expression.

She had already given Lackey all the information he needed and explained what he had to do.

Still, this was completely different from the previous match.

Lackey did not possess any weapons, and despite being offered them, he had rejected them without hesitation.

Beta rested her chin against her hand as she watched him from above.

’What exactly are you planning?’

Soon, the enormous display screens suddenly shifted.

The previous participant’s information disappeared.

A new announcement appeared across every screen in the Colosseum.

[Next Participant]

[Lackey]

The enormous display screens suddenly showed the massive entrance gate at the opposite end of the Arena.

The metallic doors began to part with a deep mechanical rumble.

Then a figure stepped through the enormous doorway.

A rabbit-masked man wearing nothing more than a normal T-shirt and pants walked into the Arena.

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Lackey continued walking forward without hesitation.

Then,

"BOOOOOOO!"

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

"BOOOOO!"

"GET AWAY, LOSER!"

"DIE, YOU MONSTER!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"GO BACK TO YOUR WORLD!"

"WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE!"

"DIE!"

"BOOOOOOOOO!"

"MONSTER!"

"FILTH!"

"KILL HIM!"

"GET HIM OUT OF OUR ARENA!"

The spectators began stomping their feet against the metal flooring, creating a thunderous rhythm that spread throughout the Colosseum.

Some raised their middle fingers.

Others threw empty containers toward the Arena.

A few even threw pieces of food.

"COME ON! LOOK AT US!"

"TAKE OFF THAT MASK!"

"SHOW US YOUR FACE, COWARD!"

"YOU THINK YOU’RE SOME KIND OF HERO?"

"YOU’RE NOTHING!"

The shouting grew louder and louder.

It was no longer simply booing.

It was hatred.

Beta awkwardly smiled as she watched the scene unfold, as though she had expected this much.

Some spectators even began throwing objects directly toward Lackey.

The Arena’s defensive barrier had been turned off, apparently so they could watch him get humiliated without anything protecting him.

Beta’s expression hardened.

Her fingers slowly curled into a fist.

She could stop them.

But she couldn’t.

This place belonged to the President, and whatever rules he established were absolute. The Arena itself operated under his authority. If she interfered without permission, she would not simply be protecting Lackey.

She would be challenging the rules of the Grand Colosseum.

And nobody here would respect even her authority if she acted on her own.

But Lackey didn’t even look at them.

Not once.

His attention was focused somewhere else entirely.

The centre of the Arena.

That spatial crack.

According to Beta, the crack had been created by a Goddess who had created humans to train against the Monsters, allowing them to grow stronger and eventually reach the strongest.

Lackey still couldn’t understand why a Goddess would create something like this for humanity.

’Wasn’t she a little too generous on this side?’ he wondered.

Lackey eventually came to a halt before it.

He stared into the fractured space. He slowly raised one hand toward the crack.

The moment his hand pointed toward it, the fractured space trembled.

The crack widened.

Reality itself appeared to split apart as the distorted space stretched open.

Then, without warning, Lackey’s mind went blank.

His eyes lost their focus.

An ethereal, seductive voice echoed directly inside his mind.

"Aim for the top. The answers you seek are waiting there, Darling~."

Lackey’s eyes instantly snapped open.

In the very next second...

A thick claw shot toward his chest.

Chuck!

The sound of flesh being pierced echoed through the Arena.

Lackey barely had time to react before the impact sent him flying backwards.

His body rolled several times across the ground before he planted one hand against the floor and stopped himself.

He slowly stood.

His breathing remained calm.

Then he touched his chest.

Blood had already begun to seep through his shirt from the fresh wound.

Then he saw what had attacked him.

A ten-legged, monstrous spider-like creature stood near the fractured space.

Its body was enormous.

Its limbs were unnaturally long, each leg ending in a sharp, hooked appendage capable of tearing through flesh with ease.

Its eyes glowed with shifting rainbow colours.

The creature slowly lowered its body.

Then it crawled across the Arena with horrifying speed.

!!

A shiver ran down his spine at the sight of it.

The way it crawled was fucking disgusting to him.

The spectators, however, erupted with excitement.

"KILL HIM!"

"Hahaha! There we go!"

"RIP HIM APART!"

"COME ON, MONSTER!"

"EAT HIM ALIVE!"

"TEAR HIM TO PIECES!"

"WE’RE ROOTING FOR YOU, MONSTER!"

"SHOW THAT OTHERWORLDER WHAT THIS ARENA IS!"

The stands erupted once again, but this time the noise wasn’t directed at Lackey.

They were cheering for the creature.

They wanted blood.

They wanted to see the outsider torn apart.

Lackey slowly looked around at the screaming crowd.

His lips twitched.

’These fucking assholes...’

He lowered his gaze toward the approaching Monster.

Then he casually flexed his fingers.

Blood continued dripping from the wound across his chest.

A dangerous glint slowly appeared in his eyes.

Lackey smiled beneath his mask.

"Let’s have a nice chat, shall we? Hehe~"