I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 237 Misfortune and Fortune

We have clearly passed the most difficult time.

They had used all their wisdom to finally win the war.

I was about to retire gracefully and return to the empire amidst glory and cheers.

Now, is it possible that we'll be completely buried in this dark seabed because of such a ridiculous mistake?!
This kind of thing, this damn thing!

"How could I possibly agree to that, you bastard!"

Feeling a tearing, piercing pain in his lungs, John's eyes widened in anger, and he roared inwardly.

He then forcefully suppressed the urge to struggle uncontrollably as he was enveloped by seawater.

Then, he curled up his body with all his might, and after adjusting his body to lower his center of gravity, he used his only usable right hand to tightly clamp it between his knees.

Finally, after raising his head and confirming that the faintly glowing sea surface above was within his field of vision, he unhesitatingly released the magic circuit in his palm towards the deep sea below.

"Whoosh!"

The force generated by the magical wind lifted John rapidly into the sky.

Despite the constant flow of seawater splashing into his eyes, John's tear ducts involuntarily began to overflow with tears, causing his vision to become uncontrollably blurred.

But as he watched the sea level draw ever closer, his heart was filled with hope and excitement.

Right, that is it!

That's it! !
If we can break through the sea surface, if we can reach the sea surface...

Then, I can succeed...

"Buzz!"

Just as John was constantly encouraging himself and trying to use his self-deception to successfully escape,

The next second, accompanied by a tremor from the circuitry in his right palm, John immediately discovered a fact that filled him with despair.

Perhaps it was the instinct of the previous body that allowed it to successfully dodge a fatal blow by using a mysterious spell, but this consumed too much of its magical power.

His already limited magical power was completely depleted by these successive surges.

And this means...

"I'm dead!"

"Gulu!"

Upon realizing this, John's will to live, which he had been barely maintaining through self-brainwashing, was completely defeated.

Once the excitement subsides, a strong feeling of suffocation washes over the brain again.

John began to widen his eyes uncontrollably, and large amounts of bubbles kept coming out of his mouth.

A hazy vision and that seemingly so close yet as distant as the starry sky, the sunlit sea surface shimmering with hope.

At this moment, it seemed to have transformed into a being with concrete consciousness, looking down and mocking the weakness of this mortal.

It was as if it were mocking this dangerous pawn from another world, chosen by the gods of the Bamir pantheon, who was skilled in scheming but was about to fall because of his own most prized schemes.

Let those other gods who placed their hopes on this chosen one, and the misfortunes that plagued him, witness in this powerless manner the final defeat of this game.

It also forces the opponent, who is both a mortal and a pawn, to face the inescapable fate of death.

"..."

Dark, silent, suffocating.

These were all the emotions John could feel at that moment.

Watching the sea level gradually recede into the distance as the thrust disappeared and the water continued to fall uncontrollably into the depths.

John's pupils began to dilate at that moment.

The dark, deep sea in his field of vision gradually began to blur, and a large number of unfamiliar fragments of memory began to emerge before his eyes.

But unlike the third-person perspective when first entering the world and receiving memories, it is presented to him from a first-person perspective, allowing him to feel all the emotions and psychological activities of this body in that memory.

At this moment, he seemed to have completely transformed from a player into a human, and also seemed to have transformed from a soul from another world into a second being that always resided in this body.

For the first time, in a way never before experienced, witness and experience everything that the self named John Maslow went through.

Her peaceful and warm childhood was disrupted by the sudden war. In the same year, in order to replace her adoptive father who was forced to serve in the military, she chose to disguise herself as a man.

After saying goodbye to John's family, she became a frontline soldier and eventually received news of her death in battle. She is the adopted sister of 'Samantha Ann Schbeyer'.

And two months after Samantha's death, prices were inflated without any scruples by unscrupulous merchants due to the war.

This forced the father to become a miner, who ultimately died in a mining accident.

However, the nobleman who owned the mine only gave Brown 100 million in compensation.

With the soaring prices at the time, this compensation could only buy two pieces of dry, hard, and sour black bread that tasted like they had gone bad.

In fact, if the money wasn't exchanged on the same day, it could only buy one and a half loaves of black bread the next day.

In this helpless situation, the mother in the memory had no choice but to sell all the family property and try to take the young child away from the turbulent Kingdom of Brown, intending to go to the empire, which, although equally tyrannical, was relatively stable, to make a living.

But the tickets they had bought were stolen by thieves, who also stole their last remaining possessions.

In despair, the mother intended to jump into the sea with her son to commit suicide, but she was suddenly awakened by the sound of church bells and then hugged her numb son and wept bitterly.

Finally, she took five-year-old John to the filthy and chaotic slums and began to work tirelessly, doing everything she could.

But diligence did not bring any change in fate to this poor woman. Moreover, the Kingdom of Brown was in the midst of a change of monarchy at that time, and countless politicians were trying to get a share of the spoils in this usurpation of power when the crown prince was empty, completely disregarding the lives of the lower classes.

Thus, with the opportunistic manipulation of the Uriel Merchant Guild, known for its shrewdness and cunning, causing prices to skyrocket, finally, on a cold winter night, the mother, who had become skin and bones, weakly called John's name, held John's hands tightly, and uttered her last words, telling John to live no matter what.

And so, in John's blurred vision, he passed away suddenly.

What followed was John being sold back and forth by human traffickers. Ultimately, because of his black hair and black eyes, he was bought by an Imperial researcher who came to collect experimental subjects. He and the other experimental subjects were locked in cages and sent to the Imperial forbidden laboratory to undergo special modifications.

Previously, John Maslow's memories of this unfortunate childhood were not so comprehensive; rather, they were as if they had been fast-forwarded, with only a general impression of key moments.

Watching the story at double speed, coupled with John's constant self-perception as an outsider, meant that he could only feel sympathy and helplessness regarding the original owner's memories.

But now, on the verge of death, having truly experienced this authentic memory from John Maslow from a first-person perspective, he felt a deep sense of empathy.

From this memory of himself, who was only five years old, he also felt an indescribable hatred.

Hatred for the unscrupulous merchant Yuriel who profited from the national crisis.

He felt hatred for the Allied forces' forced conscription, which led to the death of his foster sister, whom he had grown up with, on the battlefield, and whose ashes were never even able to return home.

The hatred of those politicians who plotted to seize power, causing turmoil in the Kingdom of Brown and leading to the deaths of countless civilians in the wilderness because of their schemes!
The intensity of this hatred was so strong that even now, as he was on the verge of suffocation, John could clearly feel his soul trembling involuntarily.

Even his black eyes began to turn a strange blood-red color.

It seemed to come from his own flesh and blood, a power that had never been attached to any external object or divine gift, but was truly his own.

After the initial fusion of soul and memory, it began to attempt to truly manifest itself in this world.

However, just as John's eyes began to be gradually transformed, it seemed to be noticed by a great being whose consciousness resided in the deep sea, or perhaps it was a curse of misfortune.

The next second, a killer whale swimming in the distance suddenly flapped its tail fin.

The surging torrents began to rush rapidly toward John, whose body was involuntarily convulsing, and then rolled him from his bizarre standing position into a crawling one.

As if some ritual had been forcibly interrupted, John vaguely heard an angry roar in his ear and felt a strange sense of sorrow welling up in his heart.

The intensity of their emotions was so great that even John felt a sharp pain in his heart.

At the same time, he subconsciously opened his mouth and vomited a mouthful of bloody liquid.

"puff!"

The clumps of blood quickly dissipated into a blood mist as the seawater churned, as if a coordinated reaction had occurred. This intense stench of blood instantly attracted the attention of countless deep-sea predators, who, either spontaneously or under the control of some force, began to transform into streaks of black shadow.

They began to swim rapidly toward John's location, baring their menacing fangs.

Judging from their fierce gaze and the bits of prey hanging from their teeth.

If these monsters reach John's location.

It probably won't take them more than three seconds to completely devour John, leaving not even a trace!
In addition, John had already lost the ability to move due to lack of oxygen, and his own magic power was also completely exhausted.

Everything seemed to have reached a complete dead end.

Even John himself believed that his life would come to a complete end in the deep sea.

The black pupils also began to gradually become dull and lifeless.

However, it is unclear whether this is a case of things turning around for the better, or simply because misfortune and good fortune are always intertwined.

Just a second before John was about to die from suffocation, he vaguely saw a figure rushing towards him at an astonishing speed, accompanied by a large number of bubbles.

As it broke through the distance barrier like lightning, it also emitted a large amount of blue, ribbon-like radiance.

Like a goddess who could control the flow of water, countless dazzling water jets shot out in an instant, killing all the monsters that tried to attack.

In the dazzling light, the other party finally arrived in front of him.

Then, in John's dazed gaze, the figure with short, ear-length hair, but whose face was somewhat indistinct, suddenly reached out and hugged his face, then kissed him without hesitation.

"It's a reassuring feeling, like being in a mother's arms."

Feeling the soft touch on my lips, the breath I received from the other person, and the indescribable sense of peace in my heart.

The thought unconsciously popped into John's mind.

Then, whether he had reached his limit or the sense of security the other person gave him made him subconsciously ignore all the potential dangers around him, he didn't know.

Under the other person's anxious gaze, John involuntarily closed his eyes, and a peaceful smile slowly appeared on his lips.

She then desperately hugged herself and rushed towards the sea, but with her face obscured by numerous bubbles, the figure, with anxious eyes, fell into a deep sleep.

"Gulu!"

……

"An, why did you suddenly stop? Did you leave something at the camp?"

On the northern front, within the Iron Legion led by Sword Saint Elena, a female colonel with long green hair couldn't help but look at her friend who was inexplicably standing there in a daze, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes.

“Avril, just now, I suddenly felt a strange sense of panic, as if I had lost something very important.”

He had short, purple hair, wore a black bodysuit, and a light gray metal armor over it. On his back was a heavy sword that was eighty centimeters wide and of a terrifying size.

Standing two meters tall with bulging muscles, yet strangely possessing a feminine beauty, Ann Schbeer was frowning, her eyes filled with doubt.

"?What's the meaning?"

Avril looked at her old friend beside her with a puzzled expression.

"Never mind, it's nothing. It's probably just my imagination."

An shook his head, forcibly putting aside the discomfort in his heart, and urged his comrade who was staring at him with curiosity:

"Let's go. Didn't Lady Elena say she was going to hold the next military operations meeting? After all, it's a joint operation. As Lady Elena's right and left deputies, if we're late, we might be looked down upon by those guys from the Kingdom of Brown."

"You have the nerve to say that to me? It's clearly your fault for being late! If you hadn't just discovered that your pocket watch containing photos of your family was missing and hadn't gone back to the battlefield like a madman to find it, we would be at the command tent by now!"

Avril muttered to herself, speechless, as she looked at her friend beside her, who was scratching the back of her head, grinning foolishly, apologizing to her, and looking at the pocket watch containing the photos in her hand with an enviable happy smile on her face.

Immediately, as if remembering something, Avril couldn't help but reveal a mischievous smile. She then moved closer to her friend of twelve years and teased her playfully:

"Oh, right, An, I remember you told me you had a younger brother. After this battle is over, why don't you introduce him to me?"

"After all, my family has been pressuring me to get married more than once, and besides, regarding my character, I think you..."

However, before Avril could finish speaking, she heard a warning voice that sent chills down her spine:
"Avril, do you want to die?"

Ann stared expressionlessly at her friend beside her. The smile on her face had vanished without her noticing, replaced by a murderous intent that even made Avril, a super-ranked mage, tremble.

……

(End of this chapter)