Chapter Nine: The Village of Sorrow

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Her name was Virin, and she said she was from Weeping Village. She spoke with considerable fear, as though guarding against some hidden danger—perhaps demons, perhaps us.

“Could you come with me to the village?”

I studied her. She was thin, but not frail, more like one of us scavengers accustomed to running. What did she want us to do in Weeping Village?

I opened the vehicle door and leaped down in front of her.

“What is it?”

Virin answered urgently, “We need your help.”

“Where is Weeping Village?”

She pointed toward the Yukos Reactor.

“Right beside the Big Iron Ball. We live in an underground shelter beneath it.”

“You’re residents of the Big Iron Ball? How many of you are there?”

“More than three hundred. Please, come with me at once.”

I nodded toward Solace and Broken Bell.

“Lead the way.”

Virin hurried off, hunched low as she crossed the rolling hills. About three hundred meters from the Big Iron Ball, I unexpectedly found myself gazing upon an enormous lake—so vast that its far shore was nowhere in sight. The view left us stunned. We did not continue until Virin urged us onward.

Beside the lake was a concealed cavern. Inside, I saw iron frameworks and a sturdy elevator. Like Drywell Village, this was another underground shelter.

Virin pressed a switch and called out, “It’s me! Virin!”

A surveillance camera caught sight of us, and someone inside shouted, “Why have you brought outsiders here? You know the rules, Virin!”

Virin said anxiously, “The three of them killed an elephant demon! They can help us! Isn’t that better than sitting here and waiting to die?”

The person inside sighed. The elevator doors opened, and we were carried underground.

When the doors opened again, I saw familiar lighting. The shelter’s gloom lent the white lamps an oppressive yet comforting quality, reminding me of my years in Drywell Village. Several burly men stood along both sides of the steel corridor, rifles trained on us. That was another difference from Drywell Village, where firearms were forbidden.

“Lower your weapons!” Virin shouted. “Even an elephant demon couldn’t crush them. What do you think you can do?”

A Black man yelled, “Why are you taking their side? Haven’t we got enough trouble already?”

“What do you mean—” Virin began, then caught herself. “Your nerves are stretched too tight. We need outside help! Take me to Yubin!”

We walked down the corridor, our footsteps clanging against the steel plates. The cavern was immense, somewhat larger than Drywell Village, resembling an underground town. Almost all the buildings were connected, constructed from silver-colored steel plates, like a subterranean aircraft carrier. The villagers watched us with distrust.

The farther we went, the more armed guards we encountered. They worked in pairs, keeping watch over us. Behind an iron door, three people stood behind a desk: two heavily built Black men and a pale, middle-aged woman who reminded me of a sandwich cookie from ancient times.

The middle-aged woman looked exhausted. The dark circles beneath her eyes were striking; she had clearly gone without proper sleep for a long time. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore an old military camouflage uniform. She was athletic, with two pistols hanging at her waist.

“Yubin!” Virin announced excitedly. “I’ve brought reinforcements!”

The middle-aged woman glanced at her, then at us, and finally back at Virin.

“Even as my daughter, you’ve gone too far this time!”

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Virin’s complexion bore the features of someone of mixed Black and white ancestry. I had no idea which of the two Black men was her father.

I extended my hand.

“We are rangers from the Black Coffin.”

Yubin did not take my hand. Instead, she asked, “Never heard of it. What is the Black Coffin?”

I patiently explained, “The Black Coffin is a human settlement not far from here. We are opening up new territory, hoping to unite and protect the remaining human survivors. We possess considerable military strength, abundant resources, and advanced technology. We can protect you from demons and disasters.”

“Considerable military strength?” Yubin said. “What exactly do you mean by that? Are you showing off your power to me?”

“You—” I began angrily, but then remembered that I had come to negotiate, not seize the village by force. With great effort, I suppressed my temper.

“I can help you.”

Hesitation flickered in Yubin’s eyes. She turned toward the white-bearded Black man on her left. He asked, “What can you do?”

I pointed at Virin.

“She witnessed it herself. The three of us fought an elephant demon head-on and butchered it! That was not even the full extent of our strength. We can—”

Mask had once told me that, when promoting our services, we should lie as much as possible—and lie extravagantly. The bigger the lie, the harder it was to expose.

After a brief pause, I continued, “We can even move freely in and out of a horde of hundreds of demons.”

The two Black men said in unison, “Stop boasting!”

I gave a cold laugh.

“We are elite rangers. Compared with us, you are frogs at the bottom of a well—I mean no disrespect. I am merely stating the truth.”

The younger Black man on the right raised his gun and aimed it at my head.

“If I shoot you right now, what can you do about it?”

The instant he finished speaking, I activated the Shepherd’s Thought Blade. He seemed to be bound by invisible ropes. His expression became one of terror and strain, yet he could not move a single finger.

The feeling of bullying a weakling was 1024.

I released him. He lowered his pistol dejectedly and stood with his head bowed.

“We came here to help you.”

Yubin considered the matter again and again before sighing.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch. What exactly do you want?”

“As I said, we were sent by the Black Coffin to help you. We will provide you with protection and build a town for you, so that you can live and work in peace.”

“You want us to submit to you?”

In truth, our real objective was the Yukos Reactor. But she had a point. Since they had settled here, they were an obstacle we could not simply bypass if we wanted to claim the Big Iron Ball.

“Not submission. Cooperation.”

She placed both hands on top of her head and pushed her hair back, letting out a long, anguished cry.

“Oh, God!”

Virin watched us nervously, deeply uneasy. Perhaps she was beginning to wonder whether she had invited wolves into the fold.

After a moment, Yubin said, “I cannot agree immediately. But if you help us solve our problem, I may be willing to consider it.”

“What problem?”

“The problem inside the Big Iron Ball. It is extremely difficult.”

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Was I a harbinger of disaster? Trouble seemed to erupt wherever I went. I vaguely remembered someone from the last century—a cursed schoolchild, perhaps—who brought murder wherever he appeared. Maybe I had been cursed in the same way.

“Whatever the problem is, leave it to us. Just tell us about it.”

Yubin took out a map and spread it across the desk for us to see.

“Weeping Village has two passageways. One leads to the basement of the Big Iron Ball; the other leads to a temporary dam on the Offset Lake. We usually enter the Big Iron Ball through the basement and gather fruit from the factory to use as food. Then we collect water from Offset Lake. That is how we ensure our survival. Do you understand?”

I memorized the entire map at a glance. That was one of my specialties. The village was indeed enormous, large enough to house one or two thousand people. What was more, it lay close to a source of fresh water. This was nothing short of a gift from heaven—a blessed place of exceptional strategic value.

We had to seize it. It would become the most important strategic center in our territory, and a far more suitable capital for a revived nation than the Black Coffin.

“What about now?” I asked. “Has the factory become unsafe?”

“About a month ago, a group of strange demons occupied it. Those demons…” Yubin shuddered. “They are utterly disgusting, and terrifying beyond words. The scavengers we sent to the factory for food… none of them… came back.”

“None of them came back? What does that mean?”

“They were imprisoned and transformed by the demons into pitiful monsters. The demons have a leader named Sokan. He released one of our people—a girl. By then, she was neither human nor ghost. She brought us Sokan’s message: ‘I will make every one of you die in unbearable agony.’”

The white-bearded Black man said, “We sent a team of scavengers into the factory to wipe out the demons. They were all armed, but we never heard from any of them again.”

The younger Black man said, “That isn’t quite accurate. Sokan deliberately let us see what had become of them. They had all been turned into miserable, wretched… livestock. Oh, God. Oh, God…”

“Our village is a close-knit community,” Yubin said. “We would never abandon our… our people. But every attempt to rescue them ended with the rescuers falling victim as well. We have no idea what they suffered, why they were transformed like that, what kind of firepower Sokan possesses, or what despicable… tricks he has at his disposal.”

Helpless, we had no choice but to close the gate to the tunnel leading to the factory. But then Sokan sent us a letter. He said he would continue to strike at us and torment us until every one of us became his slave. He kept his word. Over the past month, people have disappeared every day. Later, at night, we began hearing the cries of those who had vanished.”

The white-bearded Black man said, “Everyone is… extremely tense. The village is almost on the verge of collapse. We have been discussing whether we should evacuate.”

Their despair was obvious, no longer something they could conceal. According to Mask’s theories of commerce, this was an excellent opportunity to profit from war. Perhaps it was unscrupulous, but every situation had to be judged on its own merits. They could barely protect themselves, while we possessed the strength to protect them.

I told Yubin, “We will protect you. We will defeat Sokan. But if we succeed, Weeping Village must come under the protection of the Black Coffin from this day forward and become one of its members.”

Yubin shouted angrily, “You’re taking advantage of our crisis!”

I sighed.

“Isn’t that obvious? The world is full of danger—not only Sokan, but other demons, other monsters, other diseases, and other disasters. You cannot survive by relying solely on yourselves.”

“Are you threatening us?”

“I am helping you. Now I require you to promise me that once Sokan has been eliminated, the gates of Weeping Village will remain open to the Black Coffin forever.”

Yubin bit her lip.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we will leave at once and do nothing. You can deal with Sokan yourselves. I doubt you will be able to stay here much longer. Once you have departed, we can take control of this place afterward.”

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