WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 92: Green Dream (1)
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This wasn't going to become a bigger problem later, right?
I had tensed up, but my seniors seemed to think the opposite.
Bobby and Asil especially. They both looked much more at ease as they relaxed their stiff bodies.
Bobby even came over and asked me.
“You don't use social media at all?”
Honestly, I didn't understand why anyone would take selfies.
When I said so, Bobby blinked and scrutinized my face.
My senior seemed to have recovered somewhat from the shock. After blinking a few more times, she clicked her tongue.
“What a shame. With that face, you'd get quite a few followers. You have that face, and you don't want to take pictures?”
“Uh, no.... Not really.... It's my face, after all.”
“Doesn't looking at photos make you happy?”
“Photos of my face?”
I saw my face in the mirror every day. Why would seeing it in a photo make me happy all over again?
When I looked at her in confusion, Bobby snorted.
With a regretful sound, she took a step back.
“It would've been nice if they had at least one photo of you up there.”
Why?
It wasn't as though I was the only one here who looked presentable....
I was about to say that when the announcer interrupted.
[The matches featuring these highlight contestants will be held at the very end!]
Boooo!
Despite the wave of jeers, the announcer only smiled pleasantly. I really wanted to go over there and smack them.
Not that the audience sitting out there was any better.
I turned back toward the empty arena. The announcer finished that cheerful smile and continued explaining.
[And their matches will proceed a little differently than usual!]
What?
[Since they came to the arena together, they should compete together too. Ah! Of course, all four of them won't enter the arena at once. That'd split the audience's attention, wouldn't it?]
A team battle?
Was the Hildebert Taleb Meat Shield Strategy possible? Hope appeared before my eyes, and I craned my neck forward.
The announcer continued with a simple explanation.
[They will enter the arena in the order they were introduced!]
Then it would be Bobby, Asil, Ricardo, and finally me.
[Also, earlier contestants may forfeit their match and pass the enemy they faced on to the next contestant. If they wish!]
This was incredible.
It felt as though a bright light had suddenly shone down on me. There was no problem at all with the Meat Shield Strategy now. It was even better because I'd been assigned the final position.
It seemed I'd been picked last because I provoked Mick.
I was really glad I'd gotten under that bastard's skin.
I broke into a wide smile.
Ricardo seemed to be glaring at me, but I pretended not to notice.
[As you know, the final contestant is a green rookie. A rookie who must have joined the Badgers with conviction! That's right! We will see with our own eyes just how much Black Badgers care for their juniors!]
Wonderful!
I cheered inwardly along with the outpouring of cheers.
Then I turned around with a satisfied expression.
Ricardo was smiling brightly at me.
...That was a little frightening.
But I'd been run ragged under a senior partner who wanted to cut me open, so I'd grown bolder lately. Besides, this wasn't something I could keep quiet about because I was scared. The lives of all three of my seniors were at stake.
I smiled back at Ricardo, who was smiling sweetly at me.
“Senior.”
“Mm-hm.”
[The matches will resume after a fifteen-minute break!]
As the announcer stopped speaking, frantic music began to play.
Bobby and Asil, who had been looking toward the arena, came over.
Ignoring the other contestants in the waiting room, we gathered near a bench. Still dragging my unsteady body along, I rested one knee on the bench.
Standing awkwardly beside my seniors, I spoke.
“I have a proposal.”
“Well, let's hear it....”
Ricardo took a lighter from his pocket.
He looked unhappy, but I didn't care. At least I was in a better mood than before.
Without making any particular effort to hide that, I declared it.
“The Hildebert Taleb Meat Shield Strategy!”
Puff.
Ricardo blew cigarette smoke into my face.
That was harsh.
But as a cigar smoker, I didn't even blink at the smoke. Instead of coughing, I looked at Asil staring blankly through the smoke, Bobby with her eyes wide open, and Ricardo, who was smiling menacingly.
“If it looks like you're in danger during your matches, pass your opponents on to me!”
“For a half-wit, you're awfully confident.”
“With all due respect, Seniors, you aren't even functioning at half capacity right now.”
I pointed it out, ready to be hit.
Fortunately, no one struck me. But Asil, who had only looked surprised until then, frowned.
Asil glared at me with a furrowed brow.
“Who's your senior partner?”
“Choi Yoon.”
Asil was briefly at a loss for words.
When Asil couldn't attack, Ricardo joined in.
“Then you're saying you'll have to face at least four of them.... You can barely handle one. Do you think you can deal with four at once?”
“My skills have improved quite a bit. Please trust me just once.”
“And you have no intention of trusting us?”
Ricardo coldly shot back.
I'd expected that response. But I had no intention of giving in.
The situation had worsened because of Jaeyeon's intervention. I knew I wouldn't die here. But the lives of these three weren't guaranteed.
Frantic EDM kept pouring in. Flashing lights. Acrid cigarette smoke. Amid sensations that wouldn't settle, I spoke calmly.
“I'm recovering the fastest here. This is the most rational method.”
“Your senior partner couldn't have taught you this.”
“Yoon always taught me to think rationally.”
I quickly answered Asil's stiff remark.
I had no intention of conceding even a single point. I could give in on anything else, but not this.
No.
I'm telling you to value your lives!
“I really did think about this rationally.”
“My honest opinion.”
Bobby, who had kept quiet amid the hostile atmosphere, raised her right hand.
We turned to look at her.
Her blond hair, tied back again at some point, caught my eye.
Bobby blinked, then spoke slowly.
“I think the kid has a point.”
“Senior!”
Was she not a genius?
I let out a cheer. Asil furrowed his brow. Ricardo let out a long sigh and pressed his thumb against the space between his eyebrows as though he had a headache.
Bobby lowered her hand, wearing a strange expression, and I smiled brightly at her.
“Excellent judgment.”
“No, I mean, I'm going to hold out as long as I can, okay?”
She firmly grabbed my shoulder as I smiled.
The fact that I couldn't feel any strength in her grip made reality sink in again. No matter what happened, I had to drag these people out of the arena alive.
Whether she knew what I was thinking or not, Bobby tightened her grip.
“I will. I'm really going to hold out until the very end, but if I can't, I'm counting on you. I can trust you, right? Don't say all this, die alone, and haunt my dreams forever.”
“Yes. I'll never die, Senior. No matter what happens.”
“Is that really up to you?”
Asil joined the conversation without letting go of the anger on his face.
The emotion in his tired eyes was clear. I knew I'd said something that got under my seniors' skin. It wasn't that I couldn't understand why they were angry.
But I thought I had every right to be angry too.
I couldn't explain it, but I knew I wouldn't die. That made it worse. It also made me a little sad that they wouldn't trust me. Were they telling me to stand by and watch them die?
“I don't want to see you Seniors only in my dreams either.”
When I replied quietly, Asil pressed his lips into a straight line.
I had the upper hand now.
“I'm not acting out of bravado. This is the most rational method. In truth, all three of you already know that.”
Silence settled over us.
Unpleasant noise pounding at our ears. The waiting room shifted from blue to white to red. We stood in that unpleasant place without moving for a long time.
Until Ricardo, who had been smoking with his head lowered, let out another breath of smoke.
Puff.
The snake-shaped ring on the man's finger liquefied.
“Hildebert.”
Ricardo raised his head and looked at me.
“What kind of sword do you use?”
Before his ominous voice had even faded, silver liquid approached me.
I watched it become a sword before my feet. Slowly, steadily building itself into the shape of a blade, the form-changing weapon created a silver hilt as well.
An elegant longsword.
Its graceful blade resembled the swords used by Ricardo and his close friend, Jonathan Kudo.
I smiled faintly and reached out.
“I've used thicker swords.”
I lifted the sword embedded in the floor.
Asil and Bobby looked surprised. Ricardo scrutinized me as though assessing me.
“But as long as it's a longsword, I don't mind.”
On the battlefield, you couldn't choose your weapon.
The Hildebert Meat Shield Strategy had begun.
* * *
We weren't dragged out right away.
We were the main course. Our turn would only come after everyone else in this waiting room had been taken out.
There were three people with illegally enhanced bodies in the waiting room. A woman raking through her hair in the corner, a man on the floor inhaling something like drugs, and a man sitting motionless on a bench.
Their matches must have been exciting enough before.
But now, they were only side dishes.
We were the main attraction. The audience eagerly awaited the moment the Black Badgers, rendered helpless by Green Dream, would be dragged into the arena.
They hated us.
Because we didn't die of old age.
Because Black Badgers didn't need to feel the despair they felt. At least, that was what they thought. The helplessness and fear they felt while living their daily lives. The urgency and emptiness that came from having a fixed lifespan. They believed the Badgers knew nothing of such things.
And they couldn't accept that. They felt deprived when they looked at the Badgers, and that sense of deprivation soon became hatred.
Eternal youth, which everyone desired so desperately.
What we had come here holding in our hands.
I clearly knew this would become a problem....
“Prometheus.”
A familiar word reached my ears as I stretched in the middle of the waiting room.
I whipped my head toward the man sitting on the bench.
“Let's talk.”
I found the owner of the voice.
Disheveled silver hair and bluish eyes.
It was an Elder driven out by my longtime troublesome friend.
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