Page 236 of Light Leech

She touched the hardware, her eyes and fingertips flashed with light. “It’s dead.”

“So we have to trap the next one that comes for us?” Boyband asked. “Cause you know another will.”

“Do we really need to understand them?“ Abbas asked.

Denji nodded. “While that might be helpful, I think he is right. Understanding the enemy’s tools is secondary to finding the Correction. If you can’t inform the world about what is actually happening, we won’t be able to stop the Gongtide from feeding their god. The world will break again, despite our best efforts to preserve it, and Gong will continue to consume worlds.”

Boyband groaned. “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”

“Do you? You’re brushing this off like I’m some annoying preacher. I’m wasting away extracting every day to hold back a literal god.” He laughed. His face winced with a shadow of repressed pain. “Even if my efforts give this world a single second longer, it’s worth it. It’s not easy. Spending every zegging day extracting while the world sees me as nothing but a sheep to some Arabasian cult. I’m giving this my all, but what kind of monk complains this zegging much? Curses in a holy place? I just… I’m sorry. Sorry to throw this on all of you when you know well how I feel. Look at you, defying the world and the lucre it lives for. Fighting the world’s destruction just like me while everyone out there scorns you like some crazed… Nuwa forgive me.”

“I’m sorry,” Boyband said. “I didn’t mean to–”

“No.” Denji sighed and laughed it off. “I’m being dramatic.”

“We know how it feels to fight an uphill battle,” I said. “Each day the hill gets steeper and like you said, the world is scorning us for it.”

“But it will get easier with more people to keep you going,” Denji said. “Look, I understand that this is important. You shouldn’t just push off some assassination attempt. Call it blind trust, but I think you’ll find your answers as you go. Enemies won’t stop coming at you until this is truly done. They’ll come in greater numbers and with new abilities just like the therapist the closer you get to victory. You’re not going to reach it without some help. Let me and the other Luxists around the world worry about keeping Gong’s growth back. Leave the existential problems and world-shattering consequences to us. This has been our battle for far too long. We just need you to let the world know. Proselyting won’t do it. You need to get to the moon. You’re not going to get there without focusing. Let’s start now.”

“But what will we do when we get to the moon?” Akna asked.

“The planetary ship that has become the moon serves as the epicenter of all of the Correction’s labor. If there is a way to reveal the truth of the world, you’ll find it there. I know it sounds like a longshot, but the world’s data and informatics are connected to Dokkaebi’s moon. It’s a lot to take in. A lot that I don’t understand. I’m just telling you my best guesses, but we have to start somewhere. I do know that as long as Dokkaebi is on the moon, there is no hope of changing this world’s narrative.”

Everyone nodded, letting silence marinate their thoughts for a moment until Boyband spoke.

“Are we sure there is nothing left at my parents’ place?”

Denji nodded. “Now you truly know why Deleon wiped them out.”

“To Water Hills, then?”

“But we can’t just all storm in,” Akna said.

Boyband laughed. “Zeg, I love this.”

“What?” I said, hesitant to hear.

“Akna, Abbas, and Ral can stay behind–”

“No,” Ralia interrupted. “You need my prowess.”

“I thought your Bite mod wasn’t working?”

“First of all, that is not why I couldn’t find anything about the therapist. Without the mod I am just fine. I don’t need that crutch all the time. I’m–”

“Rest up, girl. I have my coercion mod–”

“Which is also buggy, right?”

“Fine. Oldschool interrogation, it is.”

“Just say what you were going to say,” I said. “Ral, if we need anything from you, we’ll be in touch. I’m sure we can link you up to any database we need through the neuroset you have to someone else, right?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Tell me, how much can you do right now without that mod?” Boyband asked.

“I didn’t lose my knowledge, only my personal touch.”