Chapter 10: The Resistance Organization

At the Delta Medical Center, there was a designated recreation area for patients, and since the daylight was quite pleasant today, at Kyoka's eager request, Jin decided it would be best to take the little girl for a walk in the sunshine. A young girl of her age should not be confined to a hospital ward.

With the money Shimazaki Yuji had traded his life for, Kyoka now had the means to undergo surgery. The medical technology in this world was remarkably advanced, and through his conversations with the doctors, Jin knew that the likelihood of Kyoka's surgery being successful was very high—so much so that there was hardly any need to worry.

Jin watched as the wheelchair, pushed by Yoshikawa Hiroshi, slowly strolled through the small park, while Kyoka appeared utterly delighted. Her gaze constantly darted toward the butterflies fluttering among the bushes and paused on the occasional grasshopper jumping out. Her tiny figure in the sunlight bore a trace of unhealthy paleness, making one's heart ache with pity. Jin felt as though he had finally found something to anchor his soul; this world was no longer unfamiliar and one-sided to him.

He now had the desire to protect this beautiful little girl as she grew up.

"Jin?"

However, a voice sounded from behind him, pulling his attention back. Jin turned his head and saw a man also wearing a black trench coat standing not far away. Upon seeing Jin, the man looked overjoyed and walked over with a smile:

"I saw your back and just knew it had to be you, Jin!"

Looking at the smiling face of the newcomer, Jin hesitated for a moment before asking, "You are R?"

R nodded. Compared to the man Jin had known previously, R had undergone a dramatic, night-and-day transformation. In the past, R's brows had always been tightly furrowed; having lost all hope in life, he had pinned his spiritual sustenance entirely on the unknowable and ethereal "Ship."

The current R, however, appeared completely different. If there was any noticeable change, it was that he smiled much more than before, as if he had found a direction for his life.

The two of them casually found a bench and sat down. Jin's gaze would occasionally linger on Kyoka for a moment, out of fear that she might encounter some danger.

Noticing this, R asked him with a smile, "Is this your sister?"

Jin hesitated, but ultimately nodded without denying it.

"A very pretty, very cute little girl," R praised. However, his focus did not seem to rest primarily on Kyoka; compared to her, he was far more eager to understand Jin's situation.

"Jin, I'm very sorry for dragging you onto the 'Ship'."

Jin waved his hand dismissively and said, "That was just my personal choice. It had nothing to do with you, nor was it your fault."

"Do you know how we managed to break free from the Ship?" R frowned, looking at Jin with some confusion as he said:

"When I woke up, I was already in a public square. Many other people were lying around me as well, but I couldn't find any trace of you."

"Is that so," Jin said with a slight nod, "I just woke up a bit earlier."

Seeing that R wanted to continue asking, Jin interrupted, "I don't want to talk about those things anymore."

Pausing for a moment, and recalling R's demeanor just now, Jin asked, "What is your life like now? You look full of fighting spirit, as if you've found your own goal."

R smiled, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Jin:

"Jin, I was just about to talk to you about this!"

R stood up and said solemnly, "Jin, join us!"

"Join you? You are—"

"The Resistance!"

Jin paused for a moment and tentatively asked, "What are you resisting?"

"The Government!"

Hearing R's firm words, the corners of Jin's mouth twitched, momentarily not knowing what to say.

"We discovered that a great deal of darkness and ugliness in this world is covered up by the government, kept hidden from the people. The government is trying to turn people into mere puppets—puppets who only know how to work."

Jin spread his hands and said, "Putting aside whether your viewpoint is true or false, what benefits would the government gain by doing this? They are humans too, they—"

His heart gave a sudden jolt. Jin seemed to have realized something, and he looked at R in disbelief.

R understood the meaning in Jin's eyes, so he nodded and continued:

"As for whether what I'm saying is true or false, you will naturally find out in time. Your guess is also our guess, but since we cannot yet find substantial evidence to prove it, there's no point in speaking of it. You handled the Margintean case quite well, by the way."

Just as Jin had managed to suppress the shock in his heart, another wave was stirred up by R's words.

"What do you know?"

"In fact," R gazed up at the blue sky overhead and said:

"This mission you and K undertook was issued by me."

Pausing for a brief moment, he explained, "We cracked the encryption methods the Deus organization used to transmit information to agents, and thus, through the Deus information stream, we issued this mission to you. Without us, such a matter probably never would have been assigned to agents as a mission in the first place. Because things of this nature are inherently covered up by the government. You know how ridiculous that propaganda about achieving a zero percent unemployment rate is, yet they relentlessly pursue it, and the method they employ to achieve it is precisely this kind of thing."

"The government made a deal with the Marginteans, and the Marginteans recruit humans to do this kind of work. A work network like this spans almost the entire world!"

R looked at Jin with firm conviction: "Our Resistance opposes this exact kind of government. It is stripping people of their right to survive. Whether it is the Social Stray Dogs Act or the deals with the Marginteans, these all reflect their true nature!"

Resisting the government?

Jin raised his head to ponder, his gaze lingering on the sky for a long time. The sky was so blue; it was hard to imagine that beneath such a clear sky, there existed such a distorted government and people.

However, he was not just an ordinary human; he also bore the mission of Light.

Should the Light interfere in the disputes among humanity?

"No," Jin shook his head and said:

"I will not join you." After a pause, he continued, "But I will not stand on the side of your so-called opponents either. No matter how you fight among yourselves, those are internal human affairs and should not involve my intervention."

"Sigh," R did not press the matter further. He merely sighed and said:

"When I woke up in that square, I finally realized that the so-called utopia and the so-called Ship were nothing more than a dream. You cannot understand my frame of mind at the time; I almost wanted to jump into the nearby sea and let the schools of fish devour me."

"But Eriko said that since there is no utopia, we will just have to build one ourselves." R laughed at himself and said:

"Of course, we found that to be impossible, but in the process of exploring, we also uncovered the truth about the government. That was why we joined the previously loose and disorganized Resistance, reorganized it, and managed to achieve some results. This feeling of fighting for a conviction is truly amazing."

"No matter what, I will keep walking down the path I have chosen!"

He stood up and said with a smile, "My sentimentality is over, and I had already guessed your choice anyway!"

"Actually, the real reason I came to see you this time is that there is a matter I would like to entrust to you."

"Perhaps you haven't received any related missions concerning aliens? This matter is being tightly suppressed in secret. As long as the government doesn't want it revealed, the public will never obtain any information."

R pulled a bulging envelope from his breast pocket, handed it into Jin's hands, and without waiting for a reply, waved his hand and left on his own.