Endless Debt

Bologue knows and believes that many people have had the thought of wishing for some kind of cheat tool to reverse their unlucky and difficult lives, to gain status, wealth, and power, leading them to a completely different and bright life.

From Palmer’s wish to retire at thirty to Serey’s talk of love and peace, it’s all a kind of desire, a yearning to alter reality using a cheat tool.

Bologue hasn’t only seen these in life; he has also seen many in movies, such as a person gaining the power of the Celestial God, able to do whatever he pleases.

Whenever he wanted to see those youthful and beautiful bodies, a strong wind would lift women’s skirts, or whenever he hated the densely cloudy day, the sky would be clear and cloudless the next second...

At this moment Bologue couldn’t help but feel grateful that this was a comedy movie where the protagonist is a kind-hearted fool who never used that power recklessly; he is even more thankful that movies are just movies and not reality.

Ossana spoke, "I must admit, Bologue, although you are quite peculiar, you are indeed a kind person, you’ve never thought of using that cheat tool outside of work to satisfy any personal desires."

Bologue silently accepted her praise; it’s true, even when mastering Extraordinary Power and becoming a formidable existence beyond the ordinary, Bologue still pays the water and electricity bills on time and follows traffic regulations, and when Leviathan wrecks the living room, he even finds ways to courageously deal with the angry landlord.

Bologue looked at the woman’s back and said, "Condensers are too special; they are human but possess inhuman powers."

"Laws can penalize people but cannot penalize Condensers," Ossana complained, "No... there hasn’t been a universally recognized Codex of Condensers yet, people are more restricted by the forces they belong to and the conventions agreed upon between major forces."

Ossana continued, "Under such circumstances, often the only thing that can constrain Condensers is their own ethical standards."

Upon hearing this, Bologue helplessly showed a smile of sorrow and self-mockery.

"You also think relying on self-ethical standards is a completely unreliable thing, right?" Ossana asked.

"I do not deny the greatness of human nature, but neither do I doubt the evil of human nature," Bologue said gloomily. "If everyone had a perfect moral baseline, this world would have been an Earthly Celestial Kingdom long ago."

"In this view, Condensers are literally a group of lawless beings," Bologue remarked quietly, not often concerning himself with such matters as a lover of violence.

"Not only can laws not penalize them, but Condensers could use their energy to shake national agencies, reshaping the country to suit their interests."

Bologue’s gaze was like a torch, flickering faintly with ether sparks, "Just like the Kagader Empire, or you, the All Secrets Order."

Unknowingly, an extraordinary class independent of mortals is slowly forming its prototype.

"Yes, just like the All Secrets Order, just like how we distinguish between mortals and The Imperfect,"

Ossana frankly acknowledged all of Bologue’s accusations, "I’ve said it too, to a large extent, the only thing that can constrain Condensers is ethical standards, yet ethical standards are an extremely unreliable thing.

Some people start by abiding by them, but as they cross boundaries again and again, tasting the power of privilege, they’ll just fully unleash their savage nature, then blame the so-called ethical standards for repressing their nature as Condensers, and unite with other boundary-crossing Condensers to try and break this restraint."

Bologue could already guess their rhetoric, "A lion hunting a gazelle; they are completely different species, why should a lion sympathize with a gazelle?"

Ossana shrugged, her tone was calm but filled with unease for the future, "I’m very worried about such a future; you know, ethical standards are not unchanging.

A hundred years ago, the Lords and Kings we were loyal to fully adhered to the so-called knightly spirit, swearing to fight for the aristocratic bloodline to the death; this moral standard nowadays would only lead to people thinking the other got lost in too many movies and novels."

Ossana painfully covered her face, "No one can ensure that someday in the future, the Condensers of that time won’t view us the same way; whether they’ll see us as weak and merciful, hindering human evolution, and with roles reversed, whether we become despised existences."

It’s been a while since boarding the bus, and it’s still wandering aimlessly on the street, like a lost snake unable to find its den.

Suddenly Bologue laughed out aloud, "You’re really quite optimistic."

"Optimistic?"

Ossana doubted her ears.

"You actually think this change will happen in the future, and it’s merely a change in ethical standards," Bologue said while shaking his head with resignation, "That’s too optimistic."

Seeing Ossana’s confusion, Bologue stared into Ossana’s eyes, "Vision is our most informative and efficient means of perception, meaning that just by distorting the external form of ordinary people, one can very easily distort the so-called ethical standards and ideas, completely splitting humanity into two different species based on appearance.

Don’t rush to refute me; within our Order Bureau, there’s such a person, affected by the Extraordinary Disaster: Inverted World, her perceptions were utterly distorted, where all humans appear to her as hideous and terrifying monsters.

Like lions and gazelles, like distorted perceptions, when you face a deformed creature exuding a rancid mucus all over, no matter how much you convince yourself the other is a pure-blood human just externally twisted, you still cannot muster the courage to embrace them forcefully."

Bologue described that dark world, "Ossana, this is an occurrence in human history."

The silent and unseen Olivia spoke at this moment, her voice echoing in Bologue’s ears.

"Humans under the rule of the Eternal Night Empire..."

Ossana’s voice overlapped with Olivia’s, completing the latter part of the sentence.

"The enslaved blood citizens."

"Yes, those blood citizens," Bologue nodded affirmatively, "Blood is the currency of the Night Race. Within the rule of the Eternal Night Empire, they enforce a stringent blood tax. To extract more blood tax from the ruled humans, they underwent a long and tortuous transformation of them.

Initially, there was a differentiation in their appearance. The blood citizens’ skin became pale, losing all hair, like naked monkeys. Compared to the Pure Blood Night Race, the blood citizens look more like monsters... you understand what I mean?"

Without waiting for Ossana’s reply, Bologue continued, "Next was the deliberately enhanced blood production capability, allowing blood citizens to pay the high blood tax on time to satisfy the Pure Blood Night Race’s need for blood."

Recalling the materials he had read in the archives, Bologue felt the blood scent around his nose growing ever stronger. "It is said every blood citizen had an indwelling needle, facilitating blood extraction at any moment. They were like livestock, bred by the Night Race, with their only escape from rule being death or being converted into new Night Race through blood donation.

But that was an eternally undead Empire. Every new Night Race member was a burden on the Empire, thus the Night King decreed laws to strictly control blood donation among Night Race, meaning even if blood citizens were allowed to donate blood, at most they would transform into the lowliest Bloodthirsty, becoming beasts for their conquests."

Bologue lamented; every mention of these things made him feel Serey was like a hero, a damned hero.

"The Eternal Night Empire was a cruel and entirely stagnant society, for all life living in the dark night, existence itself became a torture. This is why the Order Bureau rarely considers a society structure derived from the Night Race as an Extraordinary Disaster."

Ossana whispered, "Extraordinary Disaster: Eternal Blood Tax."

Bologue stood up from his seat, but the gap between the seats was too narrow, he couldn’t stand for long and had to lean against the seatback.

"Fortunately, the Eternal Night Empire has been destroyed, and now my job is to further reinforce the Empire’s grave," Bologue probed, "This is one of my purposes here."

Things like supremacy of Condensers were leftovers from the Eternal Night Empire, everything Ossana worried about can find similar shadows in past history."

Therefore, Bologue held a very nuanced attitude towards Ossana’s envisioned dark future, being both pessimistic and optimistic.

Optimism lay in that under the rule of the Ultimate Condenser, it couldn’t be more brutal than the Eternal Night Empire, and maybe they could indeed lead human civilization to ascend at the cost of blood. Pessimism lay in that the Eternal Night Empire could be destroyed, but Condensers were endless, and supremacy of Condensers’ social structure was like a bomb buried in the progress of history."

"Don’t you feel powerless about this?" Ossana was puzzled this time, "It’s like facing an invisible monster, you don’t even know who to swing your sword at."

Bologue responded in a somewhat impatient tone, "How can it be invisible? Just kill those leading people."

"But if you kill them, others will just fill the position."

"Then keep killing, until it’s clean."

Ossana wanted to say more but was blocked by Bologue’s violent words, "I’m the Undead, I have time to spend with them."

"You think you’ve become the greatest violence and can stop all this, aren’t you afraid you’ll become an Evil Dragon yourself?" She questioned.

Bologue, without any thought, responded almost instinctively.

"Evil Dragon? I won’t."

Ossana’s aura weakened; she sat in the seat and said weakly, "You’re as arrogant as us, Bologue."

"Let’s speak practically," Bologue placed his hand on the sword handle, "This bus has circled long enough; what exactly do you plan to do?"

Suddenly, the voices of conversation in the carriage paused. After a brief silence, everyone turned to look at Bologue, including the woman who had been used as an example by the two.

The woman said, "Your way of striking up a conversation is awful."

Bologue didn’t understand, "I thought it worked quite well, why?"

The woman stood up and swept her hair, "Because I’ve seen that movie too."

Bologue laughed again, and he marveled that the people in this obscure place still had some taste.

For the sake of shared movie preferences, this place is worth saving.

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