Parallel (A Virtual Gamer's Story) [Vol.1 - Vol.4 Complete]

Chapter 147: Live

Taiga's eyelids twitched at the mention of the word 'reaper,' but he managed to hold in his discomfort. "What're you doing?" Taiga questioned, his voice barely above a whisper. For some reason, he found himself trembling, but he couldn't be sure as to why. He stared in shock at the field where several scientists lay dead. The teenagers silently stood above the corpses in their mobile suits. "Don't you know what they'll do to us!?"

Henri's grin widened, the whites of her teeth shining brilliantly against the bloodied dark armor. "What does it look like I'm doing?" However, despite her stunning beauty, a strange coldness in her grin sent chills down Taiga's back. "I'm setting us free." She walked up to Taiga and reached for his face. "Don't you want to be free?"

A terrible sense of dread shot up Taiga's spine as the hand approached. Bam! Taiga's body immediately reacted before his mind could catch up. He forcibly slapped the metallic arm aside and jumped several feet backward. Only when he came to a hard halt did he realize his breathing had turned ragged and cold sweat had pooled on his back. His eyes turned cold and hard as he instinctively reached behind his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Henri asked, her brows drawn together in hurt and confusion. "Am I suddenly disgusting? Just because I killed someone?" Her voice broke, turning hoarse as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I did this for us. Why are you rejecting me now?"

Taiga froze, cursing himself as his arm relaxed. What the hell was he about to do? Luckily, he did not have a gun. If he did, only Lord knows what he would have done. Still, despite these thoughts, Taiga had no intention of ignoring the warning from his instincts. Live in Hadet long enough, and you learn that neglecting your instincts is the surest way to get yourself dead.

Since his arrival at the Research Institute, Taiga had only felt this warning once: during the initial experiment when the scientists injected the children with the Rebirth Virus. Since then, even with all the crazy tests, he had never truly felt like his life was in direct danger. So, then, why did he feel this way now? Why was the smile on the girl he loved somehow the scariest thing he had ever seen?

In line with his instincts, Taiga kept a safe distance with the exit at his back. However, in an attempt to understand his body's response, he suppressed the overwhelming desire to run away. No, it was more that he could not run away from Henri's sobbing expression. It made his heart ache with unbearable pain, made only worse by the realization he still could not get himself to take a step toward her.

"I'm not disgusted," Taiga refuted in a voice so small he almost did not recognize it. "I..." He looked at his blood-soaked hands then at Henri. "These hands have taken far too much life for me to be disgusted by it." His pupils shook as he implored her, "I just don't understand. You never told me you wanted to be free. Why would you suddenly do this?"

Taiga's confusion could only be understood by someone who had suffered the way the teenagers had back in Hadet. Compared to the life where they could not be sure of their next meal, and death lurked behind every corner, the conditions in the lab seemed like heaven!

The children did not need to worry about food. Video games and movies were readily available for consumption, and the supervision wasn't all that strict. Aside from a couple of experiments that Akari ensured were not life-threatening, the children could be said to be living a life better than most middle-class families.

As such, although the children sometimes grumbled and expressed dissatisfaction with their environments, none of them had ever entertained the notion of running away. After all, aside from the difficulty of such an undertaking, they would then have to live the rest of their lives on the run.

And, there was no guarantee that life outside would be any better.

Instead, the children preferred to hold on to Akari's promise that they would be allowed to live their own lives as the corporation's employees upon completing the experiments. Compared to the blood-soaked alternative, this future was one they all preferred.