SCT-Novel Chapter 98.2: Terrible Hal
Chapter 98.2: Terrible Hal
Chapter 98.2: Terrible Hal
Exile Town.
Hal's shadow got lighter once more as players entered his "altered mental domain."
This time, when Hal cast his gaze on his overlapping shadows, he was much calmer than the last time.
In the overlapping scenes, the undead were battling the monstrous amalgamation of Jim, Harlington, and Olive with great effort.
Hal watched this eerie scene in silence and, surprisingly, felt calm inside.
He knew that it wasn't Jim, Uncle Harlington, or Olive. It was a monster created by his own mind, a dark presence that bore all his weaknesses, filth, unworthiness, shame, and guilt.
A projection of his past self was in the scene as well, shivering and cowering in a corner, a pitiable sight.
...That's the real me, Hal thought as he watched his younger self. He was powerless and lacked the courage to stand against true strength, always relying on his own small cleverness to hide and avoid real danger.
Hal felt his face flushing... Such self-reflection was already embarrassing even with no one around, let alone being witnessed by so many undead.
Sighing inwardly, Hal had to admit that he wasn't as dauntless as he appeared to others. The weak side of his true self was carefully hidden away.
The undead who entered this time weren't a match for the monster in Hal's heart, and after holding out for about 10 minutes, they were all wiped out.
Shortly after the overlapping vision disappeared, a new batch of undead entered, and the scene reappeared. Hal once again saw his younger self dragging the body bag.
This is... really tortuous, Hal thought to himself. This is a punishment, isn't it? Yang, that bastard is doing this on purpose. He wants to see how pathetic I am."
Overlapping visions didn't just appear individually. Each time, Hal could see up to three distinct scenes. In each scene, nine to ten undead would appear first, followed by his younger self dragging a body bag.
In other words, Hal would simultaneously see two, or even three, younger versions of himself. They stumbled before different groups of undead and fell down pathetically. And when Jims crawled out of the body bags, the younger Hals were scared witless...
Hal was almost wishing that the undead would just stab the younger versions of himself to death.
Just as he was having such thoughts, some players actually did it...
Probably driven to frustration by continuous team wipes, a team of players decided to go off the beaten path the moment they reentered the instance dungeon. They didn't wait for the younger Hal to stumble and rushed up while shouting angrily, trying to see if killing the young Hal would help them clear the instance.
When Hal saw such a scene in one of three visions, he even felt a little hopeful, hoping that the actions of these undead would somehow free him—
But then Hal saw "himself," having been stabbed several times, not only surviving but crying out, "I've tried so hard to be a scumbag, why do you still want to kill me?" Then, "he" transformed into a dark adult version before morphing into a mutated monster and killing that bunch of undead.
Hal lowered his head, covering his face with his hands. This time, he genuinely wanted to die. How could he reject his younger self when the adult version of himself was a thousand times more pathetic than his younger self?
In the first half of the night, Hal and Tuttle, these two troubled pals, considered hanging themselves every half an hour.
In the latter half of the night, Tuttle didn't see much activity, though the undead kept entering Hal's side.
Eventually, they endured until daybreak. Tuttle, who managed to get a little rest, and Rex, who had spent the entire night peacefully undisturbed, silently observed the pale and exhausted Hal for a while.
After finishing the meager soup that barely filled his stomach, the former mayor was making his way back to his room together with the crowd when he saw a large group of people entering the militia headquarters.
The entire line of prisoners moving slowly forward came to a halt. Many looked at the newcomers, hoping to see familiar faces that could help get them out...
But clearly, they were destined to be disappointed—Weisshem was not a taboo topic, and as soon as men dispatched to assess the situation saw the town filled with skeletons from a distance, they ran away as fast as they could. Moreover, Adra III and the Radiant Sun Church that had military might had yet to make a move. Unless a third party appeared, Weisshem would remain "occupied."
The new lord, Charlie Rex, the new mayor, Ji Tang, the newly appointed town hall clerks, Madam Shirley and Miss Sybil, along with a public security squad, entered the courtyard, greeted Hal, who was in charge here, and began selecting people from among the captives.
That Indahl citizen at the end of Hal's angry outburst was picked out due to his fairly strong build. Ji Tang examined the man, who had a black eye and a swollen face, and nodded to the public security squad. Then, a squad member took a nylon restraint hanging on his belt and bound this captive's hands together.
The sight of the nylon restraints rekindled terrible memories for this Indahl citizen, and he asked fearfully, "Wh-what is this for?"
Members of the public security squad, who were merely here to supervise, naturally had no way to answer him. "Cut the crap and just obey instructions!"
"Don't be nervous; you're just going to work," Rex explained in a kindly tone. "Mayor Ji Tang needs some help cleaning the town's sewers. Although you're currently prisoners, you'll receive fair compensation for your labor."
The Indahl citizen stammered, "Th-this..."
"Do you not want to go?" Hal, who was standing by, uttered icily.
"I want to!" The Indahl citizen shuddered violently. "I'm very willing to go!"
Rex stared blankly at Hal, but the latter didn't even give him a glance, just a snort before walking away.
There was a limit to players' patience for manual labor quests. Assigning them a task like clearing the dirty sewers with years of accumulated waste would definitely cause the players to revolt...
Rex, the new lord, had the resources, and employing locals wasn't an issue. But the problem was that after the sanitation bureau and waste disposal were established, most of those that lacked skills and relied on odd jobs in the red-light district had already been recruited.
A notice was put up to recruit able-bodied townsfolk for the sewer-cleaning job, but there was no response at all. The underlying reason was that most of the townsfolk didn't have enough trust in the current new lord, the new mayor, and their leadership team. They were open to trading with the new lord but weren't necessarily willing to work under the new mayor.
Their concerns were very realistic. They didn't completely believe that this group of people who had taken over Weisshem for no apparent reason could last until the day they were supposed to receive their wages...
If they worked hard and didn't get paid before the new lord was driven away, wouldn't that be a waste of their effort?
Ji Tang couldn't force the townsfolk to take jobs, and Rex obviously wouldn't accept it. So, they naturally turned their attention to this group of freeloading captives.
Several dozen able-bodied men suitable for labor were picked out of these thousand-over captives.
Hal, who had been watching coldly at the sidelines, walked over with a sinister expression. He eyed each and every one of the selected men menacingly and said with a sneer, "I know you've all been dreaming of escaping. Now, your chance has come. Why not try it."
This bunch that had received their fair share of Hal's beatings turned pale and shook their heads vigorously. "No, we won't, absolutely not."
"It's no big deal. Go ahead and escape as you wish." Hal chuckled deviously. "The undead that caught you last time were quite polite. Not a single one of you came in crippled, and it seemed like intimidation was lacking... I don't really like this sort of atmosphere."
The citizen from Indahl that had spoken out earlier nearly collapsed to the ground...
The former bandit leader was extremely terrible!