WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 47: Rule One: Trust No One (2)
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1.
A bloodstained alley.
Ceres, my savior when death had been right before me.
“Why did you smuggle out the True Progenitor?”
The moment I heard her, my heart turned cold.
“Or should I call it the fake Progenitor here?”
There was no way Ceres could know this.
I hadn't reported the fake Progenitor to anyone.
“How does Lady Ceres know about that...?”
How far did this connection go?
I pulled away from Ceres's embrace.
She didn't stop me.
Her black dress was patchily stained with blood.
Ceres took out a cigarette and lit it.
“Cedric, I'm grateful to you. You freed me from that tiresome Commandment. It was never a lie when I said I cared for you.”
Confusion. Chaos. Questions.
I didn't understand anything. My head was a mess.
“So I overlooked the parts that didn't make sense.”
Ceres closed her eyes as though exhausted.
Her eyelids trembled faintly.
“You knew about the Commandment that I told no one about and approached me because of it. You knew about confidential Project Z and tried to stop it. You even knew about Yiming and Gisela, whom I was planning to lure in with Project Z as bait. All of it. I let it go because I found you cute. But now there's even a fake Progenitor?”
“It's not like that...”
Listening to her, I suddenly understood.
I must have looked suspicious.
I'd regressed.
All that information had come from burning through my life alongside Jokers, gained through trial and error.
But what did I look like from Ceres's perspective?
Some strange guy who got his hands on incredibly crucial information and carried things out without failing once.
“Who are you? What purpose did you have in approaching me?”
It wasn't strange for her to ask that at all.
“Phew...”
She let out a long stream of smoke and opened her eyes again.
The warmth had vanished from those black eyes.
“Tell me. I'll give you a chance.”
“I'm Lady Ceres's loyal dog. I just... picked up the fake Progenitor.”
“That can't be true. It was an item managed by the Gold Carp Family. They had a perception-obscuring barrier around it, so you can't claim it was a coincidence.”
“A perception-obscuring barrier? It was just there when I found it...”
No, wait.
Could it be?
✧ [Fated Encounter]: The chance of encountering key figures in the scenario ▲greatly increases▲!
Could it have been this?
Fuck, that explained it.
Even if it was a fake Progenitor, it had seemed way too much like an obvious “Free Kitten, Please Take One” box.
So that was because of the Status Window's modifier.
But Ceres?
How did Ceres know that much?
“Be honest, even now. Then...”
Ceres trailed off.
“...I'll pretend none of this happened.”
I realized this was both Ceres's final warning and a major concession.
This was Ceres Mama, who had gouged out my eyes when we first met.
She was that suspicious, cautious, and meticulous.
Yet she was saying that she would forgive me, despite everything about me being suspicious, if I told her the truth.
Could I trust her?
Could I tell her my goal and every fact, earn her trust, and receive her help?
After thinking for a long time, I spoke.
“As for the fake Progenitor itself, I happened to retrieve it after receiving information from Yiming.”
“Yiming ordered you to?”
“Yes. But Yiming doesn't seem to know that the item he ordered me to retrieve was a fake Progenitor either. I didn't tell Yiming, either. The fake Progenitor ran away from home. I honestly don't know where it went.”
It was almost impossible to notice.
But Ceres's expression eased a little.
“Why did you hide it without reporting it to me as well?”
“I'm truly sorry about that. But I needed the fake Progenitor's power to save my sister.”
“You had a sister?”
“Yes. A sister who's practically dying.”
Ceres folded her arms as if something displeased her.
“You could've asked me sooner. Instead of causing trouble on your own.”
That couldn't be helped.
In my first iteration, I'd seen how much Ceres liked Arbel's corpse.
Of course I had to be wary.
Besides, saving Arbel wasn't such a simple quest.
This Premium Route could only be completed by killing Arbel in the end.
My goal was to bypass that by turning her into a servant of the fake Progenitor.
How would that plan look to Ceres?
I'd look like some vampire lover throwing a tantrum about making Arbel into a vampire instead of treating her with a single Universal Coin.
There was only one way to clear up all these misunderstandings.
Reveal my regression and the Status Window, then explain everything.
That would explain everything Ceres found suspicious, right down to why I needed the fake Progenitor.
If I showed her a Joker's effect, I could even prove it.
“...”
I wasn't sure if I should really do this, but...
“You're already deeply involved.”
Ceres spoke as if gently persuading me.
“Don't lie to me. Otherwise, I won't be able to protect you anymore.”
“...I'll tell you everything.”
The corners of Ceres's eyes, which had been heavily lowered, rose slightly.
Her tightly pressed lips softened as well.
She even seemed faintly relieved, as though she'd been waiting for that answer.
All right!
Cedric's secret secrets, opening now!
“The truth is, I...”
What interrupted that resolve was...
Ding!
A clear notification sound.
======
::: Warning :::
- A penalty will be imposed if you reveal information about Death Game.
- Be mindful of your words and actions.
======
FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was a thing?
It was genre convention that regressors got screwed if they revealed they'd regressed, but...
Wasn't this too much?!
I couldn't properly explain the current situation to Ceres without telling her about my regression.
But the Status Window was stricter than the Supreme Court justices who lived in YouTube comment sections.
Ignoring a penalty wasn't an option, either.
Fuck.
I was cornered, Cedric.
“...”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Ceres's lips twisted again.
“So you don't intend to tell me.”
“...There are circumstances that mean I can't tell you everything.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“...I truly wasn't trying to do anything that would harm Lady Ceres. Please believe me on that much.”
A long silence followed.
As Ceres breathed slowly, her cigarette burned down completely.
Ceres flicked the butt onto the ground.
“Cedric...”
There was weakness in Ceres's voice.
At least, it wasn't the cold voice of someone resolved on an iron-blooded purge.
“How can I trust you?”
Disappointment. Betrayal. Regret. Melancholy.
Her troubled voice held all of it.
She lowered her head and clasped her own elbow.
“You've worked hard until now. Don't worry about your sister. I'll take care of her.”
Ha, so this iteration was ending like this too.
This was so frustrating I could die.
I closed my eyes.
How was I supposed to handle the next iteration...?
I closed my eyes.
No matter how much I struggled, I'd be killed in one hit anyway, so hurry up and get it over with.
“...”
But even after time passed...
“...?”
Ceres didn't kill me.
She simply vanished, as if she had never been here in the first place.
Then, shortly after, as if taking over from her in a relay...
Voices came from the far end of the alley.
“Do we really have to handle a pipsqueak like this ourselves?”
“If the bosses say do it, we do it. Don't let your guard down. They say he can use Death Sentence.”
“Fine. Let's wrap this up cleanly and go have a team dinner.”
“What a surprise. It's funny seeing Ceres Cassian protect someone like this. She's not that kind of woman.”
“Heh heh, maybe he's her favored concubine.”
Two men and one woman strolled into view.
Their black clothes were embroidered with several flashy carp.
They weren't wearing ID badges, but I could tell their affiliation and rank.
Gold Carp Family hitmen.
Their flashy clothes and their aura.
Everything about them differed from the run-of-the-mill fixers I'd fought until now.
It wasn't hard to guess the situation.
As expected, the fake Progenitor was connected to the Gold Carp Family.
And somehow, Ceres Mama had a hand in this as well.
They had found out that I'd smuggled out the fake Progenitor.
How had I been caught after things had been quiet for so long?
Maybe that idiot Shion had gotten caught after running away with the rice cakes?
Based on what Ceres had said, “Otherwise, I won't be able to protect you anymore”...
I had lost Ceres Mama's trust before I could clarify the facts.
Her protection was over.
My execution had been decided.
Well, then.
The only difference was whether I got chased down and killed by fixers or murdered by elite assassins.
“Hello, brothers and sisters!”
For now, I rubbed my hands together ingratiatingly.
Even if I was going to die, shouldn't I squeeze out as much information as possible first?
“I really don't understand this situation. If I'm going to die anyway, could you at least tell me why?”
“Bwahahaha! What a hilarious bastard.”
The guy in front holding a saber burst out laughing.
“Bwahaha! I hear that a lot.”
You couldn't spit in the face of someone smiling, so I laughed right along with him.
“Did you think you could steal Gold Carp Family secrets and survive, punk?”
“That part is true, but... I'm Brother Yiming's right-hand man. If you do this, things could get tiring for everyone...”
“Khahaha! This bastard said Brother Yiming!”
“Bwahaha!”
The laughter stopped abruptly.
“Know your place, asshole. You're just a piece of shit-stained tissue to use and throw away. You think Yiming would pick a fight with the Gold Carp Family to save trash like you?”
“Let's finish this. How long are we going to keep talking to him?”
“Let's do it.”
Fuck.
They were being so damn petty in front of someone about to die.
“Stay still, and I'll send you off in one hit.”
My mana was almost depleted, but I still had the strength to fight.
What good was living a long, skinny, healthy life? For a man, girth was what mattered.
It wasn't fair to die without being able to say a word, was it?
I'd take at least one of them with me using Echo of Death.
“Come on!!!”
Thump!
The three of them sprang forward at once as I drew up my mana.
Just as I formed hand seals to fire Death Sentence, a pale blade flashed before my eyes.
No, fuck, already...?
The man had already reached me.
He was swinging his sword right in front of me.
His speed was impossible to understand, as though the middle frames of a film had been removed.
He was on a completely different level from everyone I'd faced so far.
This was a Gold Carp Family hitman?
He was moving faster than even Sunming at full strength, with that calm expression on his face.
Even if I reacted and dodged this attack, there was no escape route.
The other two had predicted my retreat and covered every place I could flee to.
They were on a different level from miscellaneous fixers.
They were professionals in this line of work, people who had honed the skill of killing to an extreme.
Wow, fuck. These bastards were no joke.
Right before the sharp blade could split my skull horizontally...
KABOOOM!!!!
The air before me exploded in a blinding white flash.
A deafening blast. Vibrations that shook my bones.
The guy swinging the long saber was launched like a cannonball into the exterior wall of the next building, his upper body bent from the waist.
Rumble...!
The building collapsed as he crashed into it.
The other two, who had been rushing in behind him in coordination, paled and rolled across the ground.
What?
What the hell was that?
Forced to the ground by the pressure, I stared blankly with my mouth open.
Could it be?
“You fucking bastards...”
A cloud of acrid dust rose like heat haze from the center of the blast.
Against the glaring red lights stood a back as imposing as a mountain range across the continent.
“You had the nerve to lay a hand on my little brother?”
Uncontrollable fury filled the huge man's low growl.
“Are you hurt anywhere, Rowan?”
“Brother Yiming!!!!”
You came to save me!
Not that I was counting on you!!!
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