Chapter 231 – The Red Queen’s Race
After Solaver returned, I started working out at the gym in the cultural district.
Near me is Artemis, who has changed into a sports bra and short leggings.
Boom!
There is a kickboxing machine in front of us as we stand side by side. It is a somewhat violent exercise with a lady.
“I want to hit something comfortably.”
But this was Artemis’ wish.
After I started exercising like that, if I look closely, my physical performance was clearly superior to that of any woman I know. It’s just bad control.
Pow!
Artemis’ outstretched leg kicked the side of her machine, causing it to vibrate from the intense impact.
The back of the legs stretched out in a straight line was as delicious and shiny as a whole roast on a skewer.
Slowly, like a ballet dancer, she regained her feet and rotated her upper body around her original leg.
Pow!
Intense punches hit one after another.
Every time, the silver hair tied in a ponytail fluttered fantastically.
Her large breasts bounced around, ignoring the tight hold of the sports bra.
… I can’t concentrate on my exercise with all the attention from the side.
Bang!
“Whoa.”
After finishing her last punch, Artemis catches her breath and looks at me.
Now that she’s heated up through her workouts, she’s alluring with her intelligence and passion.
“Jinsu.”
“Huh?”
“Have you ever had a dream in your life? “It’s a job or something I want to do.”
It’s a sudden question.
“I have to become the president that I vaguely dreamed of when I was young, but that won’t work.”
“Of course.”
“There doesn’t seem to be anything in particular. “I was busy making a living, so I got swept around here and there, but it was in the military that I stood out.”
“What, it’s not fun.”
Artemis is surprisingly talkative. She usually asks me a lot of questions.
For example, if you develop a new menu and feed it to me, I always ask what you think.
At this time, she should not reply with something like, ‘It’s delicious,’ as she usually does with women. Not only is it not what she wants to know, but she immediately knows whether the answer is sincere or not.
She should answer in detail whether she likes the sweet and salty taste, whether the flavor won’t get old quickly, whether it’s not too hot, and what she wants the fat percentage to be if it’s meat.
Then, she says, “You’ll like this one,” And presents a dish that has been carefully adjusted down to 1%.
Should I say it’s a different version of the Husband Coding that has been circulating on the Internet as a joke?
I was embarrassed by her at first, but the more I got used to it, the more I realized that there is no other woman I would be as happy to live with as her.
Since I recently became a physical body, I have been asking a lot of questions about my past. It’s surprising that the story about dreams has only just come out.
“Thanks to our boring lives, we are now exercising side by side, right? “If I had a dream, I wouldn’t have been stuck in the military, and by now I would be buried somewhere out there or living a miserable life.”
“That too. Thank you for living without any trivial dreams.”
“You’d rather speak evil.”
Boom!
When I threw my fist, a powerful hitting sound incomparable to that of Artemis rang out from the machine.
“Why are you suddenly asking about my dreams?”
“Now our city is back on track. “If you have a dream you’ve always wanted to pursue, I thought it would be a good idea to pursue it.”
Blah!
Artemis looked at me as if savoring my movements with the punch machine.
A rotating back and shoulders, a strong back that maintains balance, and powerfully extended fists and strong muscles in the arms.
I feel her satisfied gaze on all of it.
Could it be said that it is the pride of a craftsman looking at pottery in addition to the way a woman looks at a man? It seems like various thoughts are mixed.
“When I was living in an orphanage or school, I just had to get a good job and make good money. So all I could think about was eating well and living well. “I was so jealous of my classmate who went to eat pork ribs while holding her parents’ hands.”
“That has already been accomplished. There’s a mountain of money in your collection room. “No one is living more luxuriously than you right now.”
The collection room refers to the items I selected among the loot brought in from outside by the robot exploration team.
After Artemis collects her loot and disinfects her, she always shows it to me first.
If there is an item you like among them, you are encouraged to take it as part of your collection. She sees this process as contributing to my stress relief and emotional satisfaction.
“What wasn’t there in the military? “If you listen to the social stories of your subordinates who joined the military, your classmates, and your superiors, wouldn’t there have been at least something worth dreaming about?”
“I heard a lot of stories. “There were also the only children of wealthy families, those who had failed to make ends meet, and some of my classmates who had been soldiers for three generations.”
Whenever the first two opened their mouths, they only talked about beating up numerous women.
She said that she has passed through hundreds of women and that she tried to seduce an actress who often appears on television at her club.
Although it was interesting to hear, it felt like something from a completely different world to me.
“I was tired of my classmate, both my grandfather and father, who were generals, talking about promotions every time they opened their mouths. Well, as a professional soldier, it was nice to get some useful information.”
“So you applied for long-term service?”
“Now that you have become an officer, let’s move up to general. Are you thinking about getting discharged with at least 2 stars? Since my promotion to captain was confirmed, I thought it might be worth a try. I was convinced that I had talent in this field.”
“That too has already been accomplished. You are already a general now, right? As the leader of the most powerful and loyal army in history.”
“That’s true too.”
When I thought about it carefully, it turned out to be true. Now I am rich, eat delicious food every day, and lead a powerful army.
All the dreams I vaguely had from childhood to adulthood have come true.
“Do you have any other dreams besides that?”
“You’re persistent.”
Artemis had a face that seemed to be looking into the distance.
“There’s a tourist spot you really wanted to visit. It would be nice to travel around the world.”
“You probably know better than me that this is nonsense in today’s world, right?”
“How could it not be possible if you only travel in the sky?”
“It’s very inefficient.”
Originally, we were in a relationship where she scolded me for being inefficient when I told her ideals, but today it’s the opposite.
“You said you get cheers from women when your band performs? Men like that kind of thing. Because there are a lot of women here who will applaud.”
“I’m tone-deaf. “I don’t even know how to play a musical instrument.”
Artemis looked dissatisfied.
“You already know as well as I do what I like and dislike, right?”
“Growing up in an orphanage with nothing, I envied the snacks and family restaurants that families go to. That’s why, even as I get older, I still have cheap taste.”
She said sarcastically.
“I know.”
“A wandering bear-like person who does not have extensive interpersonal relationships and enjoys leisurely loitering in his own territory.”
“Exactly.”
Boom!
After she delivered a full-force blow to the punch machine, she turned to Artemis.
“Why am I suddenly so anxious about my dream?”
Artemis, who was silent for a moment, reluctantly opened her mouth.
“Do you remember the romantic movie we saw together a while ago?”
“We watched one or two movies together these days.”
“A movie about a female protagonist who first gets a job for a man who is the vocalist of an unpopular band and is unemployed in his later years, helps him with his living expenses, and when he gets the performance bonus, buys him a nice guitar and gives it to him as a gift.”
“Oh, that?”
The whole time I was watching, I cursed at the man a lot. If it’s a dream you can’t pursue, give it up quickly. Why are you putting your woman through so much trouble?
“Jinsu tried to leave halfway through, saying he wouldn’t be able to see it, but I didn’t particularly hate it.”
“That movie that gives you cancer? I think it would be more annoying for women. “In order to release an album that didn’t sell, you borrowed money from a woman due to circumstances and didn’t pay it back.”
“There were a lot of ugly scenes. Still…”
“Still?”
“Seeing him work so hard to support a man’s dreams, support him, and even prepare gifts for him made me feel envious.”
I felt dizzy from Artemis saying that.
“Did you ask about your dreams because you wanted to try helping someone after seeing it in a movie?”
“… Are you dissatisfied?”
Did you feel like you were being treated like a child or an idiot? Artemis made an angry face.
“As I said before, I have already achieved all my dreams. Then it is important to keep it. “It’s the insignificant daily life I spend like this.”
She stretched out her hand towards her glorious head. She enjoys the feel of her hair, which is so soft, between her fingers.
Unlike her past self, she doesn’t resist this type of skinship these days.
Grumbling.
Rather, she herself untied her hair and placed her voluminous hair in my hands.
“…”
Perhaps out of embarrassment, he avoids his eyes with a red face.
Afterward we did a few more exercises at the sports center.
While I was moving my body and breathing heavily, I didn’t say anything.
Just strong swings of our arms and legs, the heat of our bodies rushing toward each other, and the occasional shouts of energy that went back and forth between us instead of language.
* * *
As time passed, we were able to know the condition of the spacecraft in more detail.
The most important thing covered was the space leap system.
The simple jump, which sends only a small mass through two terminals, and the large-mass jump, which sends the spacecraft itself, have different mechanisms.
If the spacecraft itself attempts to warp, a huge load will be placed on the hull, so it cannot be used carelessly.
It’s like when a submarine goes down into the deep sea, huge water pressure is applied, and even a small crack can cause a catastrophe.
The currently damaged spaceship would not be able to withstand it. In order to completely repair it, we first have to catch up with shipbuilding technology, but I have no idea how long it will take.
The same goes for sending robot soldiers. There are only so few attendants for the 2nd generation.
Of course, on a planet with a vaccine, erosion would have ended long before Earth. It is also possible to make a hopeful prediction that many infectious agents will have gone into hibernation because there is nothing to contaminate further.
Even so, when facing a completely hostile ecosystem, four is better than two, eight is better than four, and as many as possible are better.
In addition, Old Man Solaver will not be of much help to the military due to the aftereffects of lifting his body forcibly.
I thought of tricks to send a lot of power on my own, but Artemis, who understood the system in detail with the help of the old man, shook her head.
“Imagine if a woman shows up at a large supermarket every day. She is thin when she enters, but her stomach is bloated when she leaves. The first time or two she might think she ate something to fill her stomach at the food court, but if it happens again, the staff will suspect theft. This logical suspicion also applies to areas such as smuggling or illegal immigration.”
“I guess so.”
“Civilizations in space are not stupid. Over a long period of time, every kind of trick we can think of has already been attempted or predicted and blocked.”
Artemis looked at me with a stern face.
“Honestly, only one coalition member can bring two entourages. There are restrictions on the number of times and procedures. The world’s international organizations each have their own strict regulations, but could they possibly be more lax than that?”
Her face softened. He holds my hand and looks at me affectionately.
“Take your time a little more. I’m sure we can find some way. “I’ll think about it.”
Even in the face of an impossible proposition, Artemis will think and think infinitely.
That’s her machine’s way, that’s her way for me.
But not everything works out the way you want.
The outside world wasn’t going smoothly enough for us to take our time.
Just as we progress day by day, infectious agents also evolve.
Bunbong.
A phenomenon in which a large colony of infectious agents spreads its influence externally.
A disaster of a gigantic scale, incomparable to anything we have prevented so far, has begun to move south.
Farming is a fundamental activity for humans to live like humans. Do you remember the Honam plains that revived it and ignited hope and fighting spirit?
That was the first target of their claws.
