Hopkin wakes up in complete darkness. He tries to reach for his smart chip immediately but of course, it was taken. His body stiffens. He tries to explore his surroundings, and the space he is in is small. He confirms heâs in a sealed box, which is probably that life support incubator.
He cannot feel movement. He cannot hear anything. There is only dead silence.
He focuses his mind and relaxes his breathing, calming himself down. He starts thinking over his current situation.
If he still doesnât know Bright knows he is the one who tortured him, then he cannot possibly be Gentleman.
This explains why Bright became so after interacting with Scientist. His antipathy is almost irrepressible, squeezing away his kindness and softness, throwing away his laughable justice. He created a brilliant spectacle of slaughter in the show.
Hopkin enjoys Brightâs transformation very much. This is almost a change of essence, the start of an internal corruption. It is the sign of a man descending step by step.
People always thought falling to the dark side is something instantaneous. This is because they have rotten to their core before they knew it. When they have completely descended into darkness, and they look back on themselves, they are surprised at how deep they have fallen, so they naturally think it was just one misstep along the way that led to that.
That is not the case. The descent has begun before they even realise it. It is minute, minuscule, undetected. It taints their soul bit by bit. The velocity that one falls in with also gradually accelerates. What increases it the most is often the last few steps.
He originally wanted to use the nearby environment to accumulate quantity to a certain extent to trigger a change in quality. To slowly pervert the man into the image he wanted. He was angry before only because the changes in the man is not brought by himself.
And now, despite being in an uncontrollable position, Hopkin can feel joy exuding from the deepest corners of his heart. He has worked diligently ploughing and sowing the land with seeds, making a grapevine fence, taking care of it daily, until the lush vines have bore bundles upon bundles of cute fruits. Now the colour of the fruits has deepened, and has become edible. There is sourness and sweetness mixed, with an aromatic aftertaste.
So this was the case, the one who caused the man to change so dramatically, is not anyone but himself!
This is truly fabulous!
Hopkin can feel his body exhilarated. His heartbeat hastens and his breathing intensifies. He isnât without fear for what will happen to him next, but the realisationsâââwho has influenced him is me,â âwho has played such an important role in his life is me,â âwho has hurt him and made him descend into madness is meâââhas planted a smile of happiness onto the Inner City aristocrat. It is a heartfelt, genuine joy.
This joy has even overpowered his worry for the future, and the regret that the secret has not been revealed under his own machinations. He has missed the expression and reaction the man has when he realised the truth. He must acquire video records of it from the Scientist, and treasure it greatly.
Compared to the past which is set and he cannot change, he should focus instead on the more important thing at hand!
What will the slave inflict on him?
Torture, insult, murder.
In the most excruciating way possible, perhaps, since he would hate him to the bone, hahaha, how wonderfulâŚ
Or maybe, he is one more interested in reflecting whatever was done on him onto the prosecutor? This seems to fit with the manâs modus operandi more. Yet that will be uninteresting. Electric shocks? While the process is painful and cruel, those wounds can be treated well. Treatment and medicine will quickly bury the experience until it leaves no more trace. More importantly, this will mean the man still has control over his anger. The man still abides by his principles.
He bites the tip of his tongue lightly, so that his body which was thrilled to the core calms down slightly. He cannot let these actual thoughts be exposed. The quick-witted man might discover them, since he is always exceedingly smart and highly creative, always bringing him surprises.
Like the way he has lured him in.
Many clues have now connected in his head, and images are flashing in Hopkinâs mind. The first time Bright has bought something from the Internet and asking about the drones, perhaps that is when he has been thinking about utilising the drone transport system, using it to escape and whatnot. It can perfectly escape the monitoring of the surveillance cameras, and leave the place in plain sight. Of course, thereâs still the bracelet, and the man cannot escape.
To be honest, this certainly was a good idea. He will have to inform the Inner City of this potential risk. A scanning system needs to be added to the drones, and undocumented people will be forbidden from transport. This might cause conflicts of interest with some human trafficking groups, but safety first. It is worth it to increase the surveillance.
Hopkin is waiting in the darkness expectantly, like a great beast locked deep within an abyss. Pretending, enduring, hoping the person on the front of the other side would just take that additional step, and fall down.
Suddenly, the space shakes and Hopkin feels it. He shudders, perhaps more from fear, or perhaps more from anticipation. He turns his head with great effort, and looks upwards.
A point of brightness pierces the darkness, then it becomes a line, and a rectangular quadrangle in the end. He first sees a low, grey ceiling that is marred with marks here and there, and then it is the man. Hopkin lifts his head, withstanding the numb fatigue from his neck, looking into those brown pair of eyes.
âYouâve been reckless,â Hopkin says indifferently, as if the one kidnapped and stuffed into a box wasnât him, âif my sign of life disappears, the Inner City will be notified and a warning will be issued, unless you plan to kill me and immediately escape⌠But your bracelet is still here. You have not come up with a way to deal with it yet. So you will not kill me.â
Admit it, I have forced you into a corner.
Admit it, I have forced you to irrationality.
âWith all that said, how do you plan to deal with this?â As long as you donât kill me, I will entangle myself onto you forever, and become the nightmare of your life. No matter what you do to me, you will face a torturous retaliation hundreds or thousands of times more severe.
(TLâs change of perspective reminder here. The following takes place before Chapter 48 )
Someone is breathing haggardly, pushing themselves onto him. Someone is pulling on his hair, dragging his face out from the shadows on purpose, while remarking condescendingly. Someone has stuffed something into his body, making him spasm from a sense of being torn apart. All sensory signals seem to have left him far away, but is so close at the same time, because the irritation and pain are reminding him of the tragedy occurring on his body.
In between his consciousness, he can hear a voice full of disdain and insult. He wants to hide, but it was futile. They can always find him, catch him, then treat him cruelly. This cat-and-mice has become his lifelong nightmare. Then they have tired of it, they think of new ways to play, and have rescinded even the right to escape, the right to move away from him. His body is fixed in place, and put into a posture embarrassing to death, displaying his figure to people.
âHe looks so painful, so hopeless. He wants to die but he cannot, what an impression!.â
âArenât you powerful? My brother has been killed by you in the show. Heâs an asshole whoâs been a dick to me, but if he can see the erotic pose youâre in right now, he will laugh himself back to death! Hahaha!â
âWhat a champion of the seventh season âKilling Gauntlet Reality Show,â your body sure can suck hardâŚâ
âIâm a hardcore fan of yours. Iâve liked you since the beginning, especially the pair of eyes. Thank the mercy of the Inner City bigwigs, and the benefits from the show, that let us have a go at this top-notch hole as well.â
Bright wakes up from his nightmare, back to the real world.
He hasnât had a nightmare for a long time, especially such a vivid one. It is as if these have already happened on him.
A whole stretch of grass in the game world has been held in his hand.
He doesnât remember at all how he returned that day from Snake back to his apartment. His whole mind is filled with the horrifying âShithead = Gentleman = Hopkinâ equation.
The pain of being betrayed, the anger of being toyed with, the resentment of being tricked, are all mixed together, indistinguishable from one another. It is dancing about in his blood vessels. If the Shithead appeared in front of him at that moment, he would not have hesitated to lunge at him and bite him to death!
Compared to that, what the man felt most, was fear. Fear for the inevitable.
He remembers that classic tale involving prophecies. Oedipus the King killed his father to take his mother as consort, is precisely because his father has received a prophecy of him âkilling his father and taking his mother as consort,â so he threw his son who was still a baby into the hills. In the end Oedipus survived, and helped make the prophecy come true, resulting in the fated tragedy.
Bright is also thinking, whether it was himself, who has transmigrated, treating âGentlemanâ as his enemy from the start, which attracted the attention of Shithead to result in the final tragedy, or whether his transmigration has caused fate to misalign from its course. Is what he is experiencing right now as foretold or is it already different from the original book?
It is a shame he has only read the first two pagesâŚ
Bright stops wallowing in regret. He cannot let this pessimism envelop him further, or he will be in for an unbreakable vicious cycle. He has way too much to be regretful about!
He swears to himself that he would rather die and blow himself into pieces than to leave his corpse for the Inner City residents. Not even a complete chunk of flesh!
Due to the nightmare, even when he has completed a trip that would normally take two days in the game in a day with Latiao almost failing to keep up and ended up successfully reaching the coordinates of the City, he does not cheer up much at all. With his heart completely down in the dumps and shadowed by thick, dark clouds up in the sky, the shooting of the seventh episode starts.
What has been the most fortunate was that his wariness of Hopkinâs identity as an Inner City aristocrat has saved him from revealing any more critical information that would have caused irrecoverable consequences. This is probably why he can still keep his sanity in this situation.
He is determined to acquire the âBattle Refusalâ card, because he has a target he must not ever kill.
Not Ginger, not Wolfie, not Beauty, not Piers, not anyone among his team.
It is Alpha, the leader of the Wolves.
The Alpha who has forged a secret alliance with him is the only hope for Bright to remove his bracelet right now. He cannot kill him, or he will completely antagonise all the werewolves. The next leader of the pack will never work together with him.
As for the reason of slaughtering all the apes, on the one hand, it is to force the appearance of their leader, on the other hand it is a gift for those ill-suited teammates of his, so that they can survive for as long as possible. Though they have not communicated beforehand, he is certain that generally frail but sly bunch will rally behind him.
Itâs not that heâs charitable, but he needs them.
Like right now, when he has mailed Shithead to Gingerâs home. He canât do it at Beautyâs. The club is too complicated and showy a place. None of the othersâ would be appropriate either. Only where Ginger lives possesses the least amount of cameras and the weakest security. The Cityâs influence is thinnest here.
The Shithead who is in his hands is still accurately piercing into his weak spots. He is so collected and calm, adamant in his belief that Bright will not kill him, that he is the one to have the last laugh.
He is correct, Bright thinks. He cannot kill him right now, he will be saved for later.
Bright is still clear on what his ultimate goal is. Revenge, dignity, and other aspects are all only secondary. At the same time, he knows that if he does not retaliate at all and hold it all in he will go insane.
He does not scream âfuck off from my life!â at the Shithead because that is an exercise in futility. Bright is not sure about how his future might go, whether he will become a human fleshlight, whether anything else might happen, but one thing is certain. His fate has been bound together with the Shitheadâs. He canât tell since when, but the destinies of the two have now tightly wound about each other. Their relationship, the good and the bad, are not something that is explainable in a few sentences anymore. They hate each other to the bone, and only death will do them apart.
After unpacking the delivery box, Bright has not said a single thing. He lifts Hopkin out from the incubator, and gives him an injection to control it. The needle is a freebie demo that came with the Dog-ear Boy that relaxes the muscle and is also an aphrodisiac. He then starts undressing Hopkin, from top to bottom, not leaving a single piece of cloth behind. He wraps his body in a large black robe, only revealing his eyes. During the whole process, the gorgeous aristocrat is completely expressionless. His dark pupils are the same as what he can recall of the Shithead, deep and depressing, like black holes.
Fucking hell, was he that blind before? How could he not have noticedâŚ
He lifts up the weak and powerless Hopkin, walking outside.
Ginger who is standing outside has given him space. He has not said a word about his unusual behaviour, nor did he take a look at the person held in place by Bright. He seems to think it is Dog-ear Boy and Bright is only trying to have fun, so he only asks about when he plans to be back.
Bright is silent. He is having dark thoughts, how about playing with the Shithead until he is dead, then removing the bracelet forcefully to commit suicide, and bam, everything is over cleanly and tidily.
âYou⌠will still come back, right?â Ginger sees Brightâs expression mired in an aura of death, and swallows out of concern. He seems to notice how his question is a little inappropriate, and adds, âI want to ask about how to deal with the box, and, if we might have time for dinner together?â
Bright sighs in his mind, while being intrigued by Ronaldâs perception, saying, âIâll be back in the afternoon.â
âOh, alright. Iâll get some ingredients. Do you want to make dinner together? I heard Wolfie say your cooking is amazing.â
Bright can feel the person in his arms moving a bit. He hasnât moved at all from the start, and it seems he is urging for him to hurry and ignore other unrelated persons. Bright half-heartedly fail to consider the reason behind it, nods to Ginger, and carries the aristocrat to his execution grounds.
Authorâs notes: Bottom wants Top to do cruel things to him, firstly because Top will not kill him unless Top is willing to die with him together, which is nice; secondly, the more depraved Topâs actions become, the more it shows how Top has fallen to become like him. He will be the creator of the blackened Top, and Top will never be able to escape from him.