Chapter 360: Praise of Life
One of them was a man dressed in a black overcoat, wearing a short hat and gloves, with most of his face covered by a scarf around his neck, leaving only his eyes slightly exposed. The skin around his eyes was much darker than those around him.
While everyone else was immersed in joy, this man wrapped tightly in his clothes remained unmoved. He watched the performances on stage and the crowd around him, thinking to himself:
‘Celebrate… Celebrate your festival one last time. The pain brought by the breaking of joy will be extreme, and this pain will be the price you pay.’
The man named Kumm silently thought these thoughts amidst the crowd. His gaze held both anger and unease. He was one of the s*icide bombers planted by Sado among the audience. When the time came, he would detonate himself along with two other accomplices, shocking the white people with a New Year’s surprise.
Like Sado, Kumm’s tribe had suffered greatly in conflicts with white colonizers. Many of his relatives and friends died or were severely injured. He vowed to seek revenge and thus appeared here.
Driven by his bl**d feud, Kumm hated all the whites around him. Their display of joy at the celebration made him feel nauseous. On one hand, he wanted to immediately detonate the bomb and destroy everything around him. On the other hand, he felt a deep unease about the imminent d*ath, as no one could remain completely unaffected by it.
“There’s no need to be afraid… I will return to the Great Soul as a hero and reunite with my tribesmen.”
In the midst of his mixed emotions of anger and panic, Kumm whispered in the Spiritual Seal Language, trying to calm himself. Then he pressed his coat, feeling the cylindrical object tied around his waist. He suppressed his unease and strengthened his resolve.
Kumm patiently waited in the crowd, waiting for the predetermined moment to arrive. To avoid drawing attention, he occasionally looked up at the performances on stage. The whites’ performances seemed dull to him, and his complex emotions left him without the heart to watch carefully.
Enduring patiently, Kumm continued watching the show. After what seemed like the nth performance, the host appeared again on stage, announcing something in a language Kumm couldn’t understand. As the host finished speaking, the crowd erupted in cheers louder than before. This unusual cheer heightened Kumm’s alertness, and he began closely observing the stage, noticing changes. Then he saw a familiar figure walk up.
It was a beautiful woman whom Kumm recognized. She had performed once before in the earlier shows, causing a shock of cheers from the audience. Even as a native of the New World with deep hatred towards whites, Kumm couldn’t help but be moved by her beauty. Her dance was the only thing that captured his attention during the entire performance. At that time, Kumm even hoped that she wouldn’t be affected by the subsequent explosion, and he breathed a sigh of relief when she left the stage. But now, she was back.
In Kumm’s eyes, the female dancer had changed into a white dress. There were no other dancers accompanying her, and as the music started, she began to dance again.
This time, her dance was very different from the previous one. Her previous dance was full of sensuality, while this one was slow and graceful, refreshing to the eye.
Wearing a pure white dress, the dancer gracefully moved across the stage. Her dance started slowly and gradually accelerated, from subtle to vibrant, like the budding of life, growing from a small sprout into a towering tree.
The dancer’s performance seemed to embody vitality, and Kumm was captivated by it after just one glance. He continued to focus on the performance, feeling his emotions stirred by her movements. His mind was filled with myriad thoughts.
Seeing Adele dance, Kumm recalled the lush forests of his homeland and the joyful hunting times he once had there. Suddenly, he yearned for this life. If he died here, would he never experience such moments again?
Throughout, Kumm had always remembered his deceased relatives, those killed by the colonizers. Their deaths fueled his determination to seek revenge. But at this moment, he thought more about his living relatives. He wondered if they would be more heartbroken if he died here. Who would take care of them…
As he watched the dancer on stage, such thoughts grew stronger within Kumm, making him indecisive. The instinct for survival, which he had barely managed to suppress with his thirst for revenge, rapidly surged. His already uneasy heart became agitated.
‘No, I don’t want to d*e… I’m not ready to d*e! I don’t want my life to end here! I have so many things I still want to do! I don’t want to sacrifice myself for revenge!’
These thoughts took over Kumm’s mind. The primal urge for survival, inherent in every being, rapidly expanded. His hand, reaching for the bomb, began to tremble, and tears involuntarily welled up in his eyes.
“Sorry… Sado, I… I can’t do it anymore…”
With a choked voice, Kumm wept in the cold wind, whispering in the Spiritual Seal Language. After wiping away his tears, he removed his hand from the bomb.
Driven by the desire to live, Kumm turned around in the crowd and silently pushed his way out. Having abandoned his mission, he no longer wanted to perish alongside these strangers. He needed to leave immediately.
After some pushing, Kumm squeezed out of the crowd. He walked silently from a hidden corner of the square. His actions were noticed by a crow perched on a lamppost.
In the crowd, in front of the stage, Dorothy, viewing through the zombie puppet’s perspective, smiled slightly.
‘There were three s*icide bombers. All of them abandoned their mission due to Adele’s influence, which triggered a collective will to survive. The threat of the s*icide bombers has been resolved.
“Huh… Indeed, people driven by hatred are fragile. A slight nudge can easily tip the balance. After all, the desire for survival is the strongest innate desire of every living being. The will to survive is the most basic and intense of all instincts, one that cannot be taken away.
‘Even strong beliefs like hatred cannot completely suppress the will to survive. For someone like Adele, manipulating such powerful instincts should be effortless.’
Watching Adele perform a dance called ‘Praise of Life’ on stage, Dorothy thought to herself. This dance subtly guided the will to survive. While normal spectators wouldn’t notice, it could trigger the abandonment of their missions for those who intended to d*e.
‘Now that the s*icide bombers have been identified, it’s time for others. The spiders of the Eight-pointed…’
Glancing around, Dorothy’s smile became even more evident.
