[You have temporarily resolved the conflict between the wanderers and the miners, but the event has left you mentally and physically exhausted.]
[Your Stress value has increased significantly. Your current Stress value is 150/100.]
[You have triggered a Stress Collapse Event—]
[You have gained the temporary Trait: Confusion (Grey)]
[Confusion: The future of the Underworld and its responsibilities rest on your shoulders. The immense pressure is suffocating you. You vaguely realize you have reached a crossroads in life, but as for which of the thousand paths the people of the Underworld should take—whether they will fall off a cliff or step into Eden—you do not know.]
[Until this Trait is removed, you will find it difficult to make choices autonomously, and your Stress value will increase by a fixed amount daily.]
Confusion... huh?
Seele looked at the text on the screen and couldn't help but sigh.
It was only natural to be confused.
In fact, she had encountered this same event in the last simulation.
Due to the lack of resources in the Underworld, after she had managed to unite with the robot settlement in the previous simulation, the wanderers had similarly flooded into Boulder Town, causing some conflict.
But at that time, she had already been in control of Wildfire for about half a year and had trained a squadron of capable guards. She had successfully suppressed that conflict without causing too many casualties.
Even so, she had still collapsed from the immense pressure back then, gaining the "Confusion" trait.
However, before she could become completely lost in her confusion, Ron had arrived in the Underworld, opened the passage between the districts, and allowed the people to return to the surface.
The conflict had thus dissipated, her stress was relieved, and the "Confusion" trait had disappeared.
But this time... she couldn't just imitate the last simulation.
This matter... was a bit troublesome.
Seele frowned slightly as she watched new text appear on the screen:
[The confusion and doubt in your heart leave you feeling drained. You subconsciously seek out the person you feel is most capable of answering your questions.]
[Under Ron's patient guidance, you confide your confusion to him.]
The text on the screen faded, and a new scene began to emerge:
In the hotel room, the dim light cast a dreary pallor over the space.
Seele and Ron sat opposite each other at a table. She looked at Ron, bewildered, and said:
"Faced with this situation, what should I do?"
Ron looked at Seele's melancholic expression, then suddenly stood up and gently plucked a "butterfly" that was fluttering beside her.
He watched as the wondrous phantom, condensed from Quantum energy, beat its wings in his hand, then flew towards the sky with an illusory trail, and a smirk touched his lips.
He smiled at Seele and, completely out of the blue, asked her:
"Seele, why do butterflies fly?"
Seele was taken aback, not understanding why Ron hadn't answered her question directly but had suddenly changed the subject.
But after a moment's thought, she still answered seriously:
"Why do they fly... Because they want to fly to the heavens?"
"That's impossible."
Ron just smiled faintly and shook his head, watching as the butterfly flew into a dark corner of the room and vanished into an illusory bubble.
"That is merely the wishful thinking of a romantic. We all yearn to leave this cramped underground, to once again see the blue sky, clear as a mirror, and to walk in an Eden flowing with milk and honey... but that is not something you can achieve just by wanting it."
Seele was a little baffled by his words. "Then... what is your view?" she asked, still confused.
The smile on Ron's face vanished, replaced by a seriousness and coldness that crept across his features.
"Because they must fly to the heavens."
"When the Anti-Matter Legion burned Jarilo-VI and the Terminal Stellaron brought down the cold tide, only a free butterfly could leap out of the set path of destruction."
"We are not birds of salvation. There is no one after us who can surpass us, who can fly to a higher place."
"In the face of this world-ending tide, we are nothing but the last, frail insects."
"Birds have their way of living, and butterflies naturally have theirs—"
"We must break the [cocoon] that traps us, beat our magnificent [wings]... As the final firework of our civilization, even if we are to fly to the sky and explode, we must do so in a blaze of glory!"
As he spoke, Ron suddenly grabbed the dinner knife from the table and stabbed it down violently, sinking it deep into the wood.
"Seele, we cannot be so indecisive."
His words were as cold as the wind on a vast ice field, sending a shiver down Seele's spine.
"They are the [cocoon] that traps us. They are the weights hanging from our wings..."
"Only by getting rid of this dead weight can we fly higher and farther, to escape the final fate of this planet's complete destruction!"
But Seele hesitated for a moment. "But... is that really okay?"
"I don't really want to treat everyone in the Underworld so harshly... I was a wanderer when I was a child, too. I understand why they do what they do."
"The truth is, everyone is only doing this because they can't survive. No one is wrong. There should be a gentler way to handle this..."
But Ron just shook his head, cutting Seele off.
"Their actions are not wrong, but does 'not wrong' mean 'right'?"
"Saving the world is not a dinner party. Salvation requires bloodshed!"
"I know you understand them, that you care about everyone in the entire Underworld... You are very kind, Seele."
"But just as 'wanting' cannot make you fly, 'kindness' cannot save Belobog."
"A leader also has a leader's way of living."
"Pick up your scythe, Seele."
Ron picked up the dinner knife from the table, as if demonstrating for her.
"This is the final struggle of our entire civilization."
"It's time our blades... were stained with blood."