Chapter 194. Where We Will All Arrive (2)
[You finally made it, Victoria.]
[You’re a little late.]
How long had Victoria been screaming?
Alpha’s voice suddenly came through the speakers installed in the corridor.
A monitor flickered to life in the darkness, revealing Alpha’s face.
As always, she wore an innocent expression.
The moment Victoria saw her, she snapped,
“What the hell did you do?!”
[Do what?]
Alpha looked as though she had no idea what Victoria was talking about.
Her calm expression only made Victoria even more furious.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know!”
“You did this to my friend!”
Victoria pointed toward Nova beyond the glass wall.
Alpha tilted her head as if genuinely confused.
[That’s strange.]
[I’m your only friend.]
[Why do you care so much about someone else?]
“Friend?”
Victoria glared at her in rage.
Seeing Nova reduced to this had brought her to the very edge of losing control.
“Who would ever want to be friends with a rotten kid like you?!”
“You’re not my friend at all!”
“You demon!”
[You’re hurting my feelings again.]
But Alpha remained completely relaxed.
She even asked in a probing tone,
[Victoria, you just called me a demon, didn’t you?]
“Yes!”
“You’re a demon!”
“I must have been insane to ever think you were a good girl!”
[A good girl?]
[Hehehe.]
[You called me a good girl?]
Alpha laughed softly and looked toward Nova behind the glass.
[Don’t you think it’s strange?]
[Ever since I became nothing but a brain trapped inside a flask, I’ve been ordered to do this exact same thing to people countless times.]
[And every time I did, they praised me and called me a good girl.]
[But now, when I do the exact same thing, I’m called a demon.]
Victoria stared at her in disbelief.
“Do you seriously not understand the difference?”
[I do.]
[That’s exactly why I’m saying this.]
No matter how much Victoria criticized her, Alpha remained calm.
[The world is contradictory.]
[At least, that’s how it looks to me.]
[The exact same action can earn praise one moment and condemnation the next.]
Her atmosphere changed slightly as she continued.
[So I started wondering...]
[What if I became the one who decided what was right and wrong?]
“What, are you planning to become a god?”
Victoria asked sarcastically.
Alpha did not deny it.
[Exactly.]
[I’ll obtain the Wisdom of God and become an absolute existence.]
[I’ll become the one who judges everything.]
[Then I can finally escape this contradictory cycle.]
There was no hesitation in her voice.
No regret.
Watching her, Victoria felt a vague but genuine fear.
Alpha was consumed by an almost pure and absolute certainty in herself.
There was only one thing Victoria could say.
“Alpha.”
“You’re insane.”
[Why would you say that?]
[I’m your friend.]
[The friend who used to play princess with you.]
“I thought we really could become friends back then too.”
[Maybe I would have been happier if I had just remained the little girl who played princess.]
[But I can’t stop myself anymore.]
[I’ve come too far.]
For a brief moment, bitterness crossed Alpha’s face.
Then the innocent smile returned.
She reached toward Victoria from inside the monitor.
[So, Victoria...]
[Let’s see the same things.]
[Let’s understand the same things together.]
[You can accept me.]
Victoria immediately shouted,
“Like hell I will!”
“I’m not getting dragged into your insanity!”
[That isn’t for you to decide.]
Alpha’s answer was as sharp and final as a blade.
Then footsteps came from the darkness.
Victoria’s eyes widened.
“Yukgap?”
It was Yukgap.
But something was wrong.
Normally, he always wore that relaxed, sly smile.
Now his face was completely expressionless.
He looked less like a person and more like a perfectly refined machine.
“Yukgap?”
“Who is that?”
“I am No. 6.”
Yukgap answered indifferently.
It seemed he had even forgotten his own name.
Alpha immediately gave him an order.
[Go ahead.]
[Prepare Victoria.]
“As you command.”
The moment she finished speaking, Yukgap moved.
He crossed the distance at tremendous speed and seized Victoria by the throat without warning.
“Ghk!”
Victoria failed to react properly to his completely unfamiliar behavior.
Yukgap spoke coldly.
“You are Alpha’s guest, so I will not treat you roughly.”
“Come quietly.”
“Let go of me!”
“Yukgap, wake up!”
“You’re not No. 6!”
“You’re Yukgap, the chef of my restaurant!”
Victoria struggled desperately, but Yukgap did not even blink.
“Chef?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I am a weapon.”
“I am No. 6, the fastest of the Twelve Archons!”
With those words, Yukgap hurled Victoria away.
It was a level of brute strength he had never shown before.
“Aaah!”
Victoria slammed into the floor.
She had fought Yukgap several times before.
She knew roughly how strong he was.
But this was different.
It felt as though something that had always restrained him had disappeared completely.
[Hehehe.]
[As expected, my sixth friend is dependable.]
Alpha merely laughed as she watched.
Victoria forced herself upright.
“What did you do to Yukgap?!”
[This is the sixth friend’s true strength.]
[Until now, his new personality was suppressing his power.]
[I simply removed the suggestion and returned him to his original state.]
[The kind chef you remember as ‘Yukgap’ was nothing more than a personality I created so he could approach you.]
Alpha added with a quiet sneer,
[Just like how you remember me as a little girl who played princess.]
