NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 59
Chapter 59: Give It to the Kids! 2
“Kids, everyone gather up.”
Before attacking, I first gathered the kids.
The sight of 20 children, dressed in monster-mouth masks and blood armor suits, gathering right in front of me was somewhat endearing.
Even if their appearances seemed a bit grim, the clumsy steps of the little girls made their actions cute, to the point where it would be strange if they weren’t.
[Are we playing now?]
[Are we playing now!?]
[Play, play! Let’s play! Let us play!]
[Play!]
[Still not playing?]
[We’ve been so patient.]
[We’ve been waiting so well…]
[Let’s gooo…!]
“No, today we’re not going to play like we did at the shelter.”
[What?]
[What!?]
[Whaaat!?]
[What the heck!?]
[Why, why not!!]
[Aren’t we playing?]
For a moment, the atmosphere grew heavy.
The children were already bursting with hunting urges and a pent-up desire to unleash their inner energy.
In this state, they had obediently waited like good kids following my orders, but when I suddenly announced that we wouldn’t play, they all pouted.
Some of the girls looked as if they were about to cry, others sat down in despair, and a few even radiated an aura of near murderous rage in their anger.
[Why aren’t we playing!]
[Teacher is mean!]
[Mean!]
[We wanna play!]
[Yeah, yeah!]
[Let’s gooo!]
“Now, now, calm down. You should always listen until the end.”
I didn’t know if they would actually disobey my command codes and go berserk, but there was no reason to antagonize the kids unnecessarily.
Above all, it was selfish of me to avoid watching these kids commit murder, and that’s the real reason for this.
“Do you know what Christmas is?”
[Christmas?]
[What’s that?]
[Oh, I know!]
[What is it?]
[Actually, I don’t know…]
[Let’s goo…?]
In this civilization on the brink of collapse, could there really be no one left who remembered Christmas?
Maybe it’s because these undead girls had been trapped in the closed cage of the Saya Guild.
“It’s a day to celebrate the birth of a great saint. In simple terms, it’s a day when children like you receive gifts and have fun with their families. To put it simply, it’s a day for kids.”
[Wow!]
[Gifts!]
[But I don’t have a family.]
[I don’t have a mom…]
[I don’t have a dad either!]
[I don’t have a family either…]
[But we have Guild Leader Sohi and Teacher Alice!]
“Anyway, today is Christmas!”
Actually, it wasn’t.
I hadn’t checked the exact date, but I was sure it wasn’t December.
【According to Ark’s system, today is October 19th.】
Oh, thanks, Theresa.
October 19th, she says.
Not a significant date.
There was no snow, no sparkling Christmas tree, but Christmas was usually a day to celebrate the birth of a saint, an excuse to gather with loved ones and enjoy a day of rest and parties.
The celebration was so joyous that, apparently, Christmas was the day with the highest birthrate among the 365 days of the year.
I had once heard that the reason pretty girls who leech off lonely single guys with their internet broadcasts suddenly claim to be sick or busy during Christmas is for a similar reason.
The story had drifted off-topic, but in the end, Christmas is a day of joy.
It’s a day for kids to be happy, and if they eat delicious food to their hearts’ content, wouldn’t that be Christmas enough?
【Human, commemorative days and holidays are not determined by such illogical standards.】
‘What does it matter? These kids don’t even know what Christmas is.’
If the kids didn’t know about Christmas, then I just had to give them their first Christmas.
“Do you see that over there?”
At my words, the kids’ gazes turned.
I had already finished scouting the surroundings.
Thanks to Theresa’s enhancements to my glass pupils, I had completed the structural analysis of Earnest Rail’s base, including pinpointing the locations of the food storage and kitchen.
“You know how Guild Leader Sohi always tells you not to eat too many snacks, right?”
[Yeah…]
[Yeah, the Guild Leader is so strict.]
[But snacks are so tasty…]
Honestly, would kids who could reconstruct themselves after being hit by swords or bullets really suffer health issues from eating a few snacks?
Restricting their diet was probably Sohi’s way of treating them like real humans, not monsters or products of undead processes.
Of course, from the perspective of these innocent kids, that kind of reasoning would be hard to understand.
“But over there, there’s a ton of food, including snacks and meat, all piled up.”
[Wow!]
[Let’s goo!]
[Meat, meat!]
Meal kits.
The only entities capable of manufacturing and distributing these were the wealthy organizations like the Barrier Agency or megacorporations with dedicated factories.
Simply put, the very name “meal kit” guaranteed above-average taste and quality.
Especially since the satellite city Zain used natural ingredients supplied by the Saya Guild, rather than sawdust or artificial meat like Ark, the flavor was much better.
[Do they have chocolate too!?]
【Search results confirm that chocolate is included in the standard supply kits of Earnest Rail.】
“Yep, they do.”
[Whoa!!!]
[Choco!]
[Give me choco!]
[Chocolate!]
[Whaaa!]
The mere mention of chocolate sent the kids into a frenzy.
Some of them even removed their masks, drooling uncontrollably.
“That’s why today’s mission isn’t just an ordinary game. We’re going to do something greater and more righteous!”
[Wow!]
[Yay!]
[What’s righteous?]
[I don’t know!]
[If the teacher says it, it must be good!]
This was essentially a scorched-earth tactic…
No, the scorched-earth tactic refers to utterly destroying everything so the enemy cannot utilize any resources or food.
What we were planning to do was simply move the supplies from here to another place, carefully and deliberately.
It wasn’t “scorched” in the destructive sense, so perhaps “bright-earth tactic” was a more accurate term.
After all, it was a tactic devised by a youth leading children—doesn’t that sound plausible, even if the phrasing is odd?
【That doesn’t sound plausible at all. What nonsense are you spouting, human?】
I decided to appropriately ignore Theresa’s remark.
What mattered was helping the kids understand.
“But, Teacher…”
One of the kids removed her mask and spoke in an unaltered, ordinary voice.
“Isn’t this stealing?”
[Huh!?]
[Stealing?]
[Is it?]
Why were kids who looked like they’d gladly slice people up with knives and guns so sensitive about stealing?
“It’s not stealing.”
“What? But it totally is!”
“Stealing means forcibly taking something, doesn’t it?”
“Right?”
“But this is just relocating the food to our Saya Guild for Christmas. You could call it transportation, or even a distribution business.”
“Wow!”
[Oh, I see!]
[Teacher’s the best!]
[Aha!]
[Isn’t that the same thing…?]
[Let’s gooo!]
“So, to put it simply, the bad adults aren’t even eating the meal kits, food, or chocolate, and are just letting it go to waste, right?”
[Yes!]
[Men are all bad…!]
[Yeah, yeah.]
“We’re not stealing food; we’re rescuing it from those adults’ hands!”
[Woohoo!]
[Yeah!]
[Let’s teach those bad adults who don’t appreciate food a lesson!]
Honestly, even I wasn’t sure what nonsense I was spouting, but since the kids seemed to understand it well enough, I decided to leave it at that.
“Alright. Since everyone agrees…”
[I haven’t agreed yet.]
“Do you count as a person here?”
[Gasp.]
[Whoa!]
For the record, neither the kids nor I were pure “humans” in the traditional sense.
So there wasn’t anyone here who could truly “agree” in the first place.
“Then, let’s start moving food for Christmas. Anyone against it, raise your hand?”
No one raised their hand.
Even the kids who had hesitated earlier, feeling uneasy about whether this was stealing, agreed once they realized they weren’t stealing meal kits with chocolate—they were simply moving them.
However, there was an important step to take before executing the infiltration.
Earnest Rail wasn’t a fool.
Of course, the garrison and its surroundings were equipped with all sorts of detection sensors, traps, and CCTV.
【Checking the wiring.】
Theresa had identified the power grid connected to Earnest Rail’s surveillance system.
It wasn’t feasible to run electricity lines from Zain to here, so they had brought generators to supply power within the base.
This was the main reason I had come all the way here with the kids.
“Found it.”
The generator, equipped with a cloaking shield, was located deep in the forest.
They had likely used optical camouflage to prevent external forces from destroying it, but as an android, I was more sensitive to electricity than anyone else.
I may be a bit dull myself, but Theresa would never miss the sensation of nearby electrical currents.
【Beginning charge.】
-Zap!
“Ah, ahh…!”
[What are you doing, Teacher?]
[Your eyes just rolled back, Teacher!]
[Why are you sticking out your tongue?]
【Internal energy reserves at 87…88…89…】
“Ah, ahh…ah, nothing…nothing at all!”
[Teacher, do you need to pee?]
“No, that’s…not it…just, give me…just a moment…”
Ah, ahh.
This is the best.
It’s like the pure essence of nature.
What does it taste like, you ask?
It tastes like milk and a fresh breeze, clear and clean water, the scent of grass and leaves, the vitality of untouched nature, and pure mana.
Everything was distilled into this generator.
It tasted much better than Ark’s electricity.
【Internal energy reserves at 99…100. Full charge complete. Additionally, connection to the surveillance system initiated.】
Ugh, ah.
I wanted more, but the kids were giving me strange looks.
Consuming too much electricity could cause a full blackout across Earnest Rail’s garrison, alerting them.
I just needed to disable the surveillance system along our route enough to make it seem like a minor malfunction.
“Haaa…”
[Teacher, are you okay?]
[Is your back broken? Are you cold?]
“No, no. I’m just excited.”
[So are we!]
【All traps along the route have been disabled. Surveillance network shutdown confirmed. System is OFF.】
【Human, all surveillance systems have been temporarily neutralized.】
‘How long until the surveillance system is back online?’
【Estimated time for natural system recovery is 23 minutes and 19 seconds. If Earnest Rail’s guards or staff notice the issue, you’ll have a 10-minute window.】
Great.
10 minutes is more than enough to steal the whole world.
Theresa had seamlessly connected to Earnest Rail’s surveillance network without raising suspicion and had disrupted power just enough to make it seem like a generator malfunction.
All that was left was to act.
“Alright, let’s go!”
[Yeah!]
[Let’s loot it!]
[Let’s go!]
[Futosto!]
[What’s that?]
[I don’t know!]
[Let’s gooo!]