Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 358: For Your Majesty (173)

Dragon Raja 5

Su Enxi was taken aback. She had thought Auchinez was using casual conversation to ease the tension, after all, he was dealing with an extremely dangerous fusion reactor, but he had quietly regained control of it. And there seemed to be some subtle meaning hidden in his words.

“So should I call out to the whole city and wait for Alexander Bunin to come and lick my feet? Should I put on some nail polish to make the scene look better?” Su Enxi said calmly. “Then what should we threaten him with? Hand over the stockpile of serum? Or the serum formula? Or reveal the real mastermind behind it all?”

“If you still have the strength, run! Forget about your friends. You’re still young; you might even make new friends,” Auchinez said softly.

“Are you going to detonate it directly?” Su Enxi tried to keep her voice calm. “Is this some little trick you’re playing on me?”

She was extremely nervous, but the two sides were negotiating through an alloy door. She couldn’t rush over and grab Auchinez by the throat. It was all a psychological battle; whoever showed weakness would lose.

She had considered the possibility that Auchinez might detonate it directly, but she immediately ruled it out. She wouldn’t say she fully understood this old man who had lived for nearly a hundred years, but judging from his past behavior, he was cunning, ruthless, and unscrupulous—the kind of person who was the most dangerous.

Auchinez didn’t answer, humming a Soviet-era tune, seemingly busy at the control panel like a mechanic.

“Hey friend, was that incident really that big of a blow to you? So big that you don’t want to live anymore?” Su Enxi softened her tone.

“Of course, it was buried long ago, ever since I ingested the first vial of serum,” Auchinez replied casually. “We used to be the builders and defenders of this great nation, now we are vampire oligarchs, and our pride has long been broken.”

“Then what are you after? Do as we say. Now let me threaten Alexander Bunin and make him reveal the mastermind. As for the serum, if there’s any left, we can divide it equally. If there’s a lot left, you might live another hundred years. It’s free.”

Auchinez hummed for a while, then fell silent. After a moment, he spoke again, “Vishniak, Sonia, and I were good friends during the Great Patriotic War. I pursued Sonia, but she liked Vishniak. Vishniak was shy and beautiful. Maybe I was too competitive, always bragging to Sonia about how I was liked by this or that kind of woman.”

Su Enxi felt a slight jolt in her heart. These words really sounded like they were spoken at a farewell, without any concealment or embellishment, like a faded old photograph, real but imperfect. “Brother, calm down. You’ve lost your old friends and the old lady you liked, but that’s no reason for you to give up on life!”

Auchinez completely ignored her, continuing with her own story, “The night before Vishnyak committed suicide, I drank with that poor guy all night. I told him a lot of depressing things, saying that living like this was meaningless, and that I really envied those friends who quietly died of old age. But when I heard him say that he didn’t have enough time or money, I was actually happy. I didn’t had enough time either, but I still had money, enough for me to buy another vial of serum. I lost to that guy when I was young, and I’ve never gotten my revenge in my life. Seeing him so dejected made me really happy. But when I actually saw his body soaking in the bathtub, I was terrified, thinking that I had to live no matter what, even if it meant living like a begging dog.”

“Stop! I’m not your confessional!” Su Enxi slammed her hand on the iron pipe.

But Auchinez wouldn’t stop, completely lost in his own monologue. “Once I got the serum, all I wanted was to get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible. I didn’t even want to know Alexander Bunin’s secret anymore. But the snowstorm was too intense, and I hesitated before leaving. Sonia caught up with me. She was a woman I used to love, and I still remember how I felt when I loved her. But when I saw her point her gun at my serum, I forgot everything. All I wanted was to kill her to protect my serum. It was my life, something I had worked so hard to earn, something I had begged for on my knees. If the Auchinez who charged into Berlin with a gun saw the Auchinez of today, he would probably turn his gun on himself to avoid surviving and becoming this disgusting thing, right?” Auchinez sighed. “Living too long is really bad. You become someone else entirely.”

“You heartless bastard don’t deserve this kind of awareness! Calm down first!”

“It was that child, the child who looked so much like me. When he stood before me, I suddenly froze. I realized the world no longer needed me. If that child lived, Auchinez would continue to live. No one would care if that was the real Auchinez. The last person who cared who I was was killed by my own hand. All these years, I’ve used every ounce of my strength to survive, but what has survived is just this shell that looks so much like Auchinez; the contents inside have long since changed.” Auchinez let out a long sigh. “I was lying to you just now.”

“What did you lie to me about?” Su Enxi was stunned. It was such a surprising twist.

“When I confessed to you, I hadn’t yet figured out the system, but I needed to stall for time to avoid arousing your suspicion,” Auchinez said slowly. “But just a second ago, I successfully entered the password; the password from back then was indeed valid.”

“What the hell do you want? Are you crazy?”

“It’s possible. I have a hard time judging my mental state, but I can still control this reactor to overload it. I’ll first increase the magnetic field, then introduce more hydrogen isotopes. Within five minutes, the reactor’s power will increase to four times its maximum rated value, and it will be as hot as the core of the sun. The underground river will be heated to near boiling point, but the steam station won’t increase its output accordingly. The reservoir will explode first, then the steam station itself, but even this pressure relief vent won’t be enough to alleviate the high pressure of the underground river. The permafrost will collapse, and City 023 will sink completely below the surface. As I tell you this, the power has already increased by 300.”

“I’ve been used as your confessor for so long, can’t you at least listen to me for once?!” Su Enxi was really getting impatient.

If that suicidal old thief really detonates the reactor, she’s not sure if her group will have a chance to escape City 023. She doesn’t even know how Lu Mingfei and his group are doing.

“Let bygones be bygones, okay? If you live, at least you have a mouth to eat and breathe, and a brain to think about where you went wrong. Even if you miss, you can find an elegant way to die in some quiet park in Moscow, with fallen leaves poetically floating on you. You’ll even have a funeral and a tombstone. Isn’t that good? And you don’t have to drag us innocent bystanders down with you!” Su Enxi almost roared. “Now be good and listen to Auntie. Shut down that damn reactor and swim out of there! Whoever you want to kill or whatever you want to destroy, we’ll take care of it for you!”

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