Mister Zero, Her Story: Chapter 37 – “Mister” Zero, Her
As a brief but intense chaos gripped Yan City’s core district, an inconspicuous, hunched figure slowly walked down the street.
No one, neither the ability users from the Anomaly Management Bureau nor the ordinary citizens rushing past, noticed him.
The old man just kept walking.
He passed through bustling streets, crossed the core district’s security lines, and reached the most heavily guarded location in all of Yan City, the place where the Ice Coffin Weapon was stored, a top-secret facility known as the “Wall of Resentment.”
The old man looked up at the familiar building, his lips trembling slightly, memories flooding his mind.
After a long moment, he sighed.
“Long time no see, old friend…”
The guards weren’t dozing. The security at this crucial location was always tight.
This was a weapon capable of destroying the entire city; there was no room for error.
But no one could see the old man, not even the constantly patrolling surveillance drones.
He walked casually towards the main entrance of the Wall of Resentment.
Entering the Wall of Resentment required a series of complex procedures and multiple layers of authentication.
But as the old man approached, the doors silently opened for him.
The guards, as if seeing nothing, allowed him to enter.
The doors closed behind him, and the Wall of Resentment returned to its usual silence, as if nothing had happened.
Dark, cramped, cold.
The Wall of Resentment wasn’t a place for the living. When Yan City was first established, this mysterious structure of unknown origin had been discovered at the construction site.
After research, they discovered it could be used to store the “Ice Coffin Weapon,” and it had been used for that purpose ever since.
But the old man knew that storing the “Ice Coffin” was only one of the Wall of Resentment’s functions.
No one was more familiar with this place than him; those who knew more were already buried in the graves of the past.
The old man’s pace was unhurried, but his expression was unusually tense.
Few had ever seen such an expression on the face of this legendary figure who had lived through two eras, because there was no one left who could evoke such an emotion from him.
—Except for his “brother.”
Dawn’s Ninth Mister, the only confirmed surviving “Mister,” his ability unknown, speculated to be the demonic power of the “Sovereign of Greed.”
Even Dawn’s oldest Cadres, humanity’s most experienced veterans, even the most ancient “Slumberers,” weren’t worthy of being his grandchildren.
Endless greed consumed his body, uncontrollably feeding on “malice,” sustaining his frail form for nearly a thousand years.
But it had also brought him a thousand years of torment.
And yet, this ancient, legendary figure now wore a childlike expression of nervousness.
The long journey finally reached its end. Upon seeing his destination, the tension on Mister’s face melted into relief.
“Finally, I’ve come to see you… Sister.”
“Or rather, Eldest Brother.”
Before him lay a girl with short, icy blue hair, her body wrapped tightly in bandages, only one eye visible.
She lay in the Ice Coffin with her eyes closed, as if asleep.
Her sleeping face was peaceful.
But Mister knew she was dead.
She had died many, many years ago.
As the Eldest Mister, as the first test subject for the “Ice Coffin” device.
Now, only an unchanging obsession remained within this body, driving her unconscious actions.
“Sister…”
Mister approached, his hand trembling as he reached out.
He felt like that little boy from his distant memories, his hand gently held by his sister.
But that was no longer possible.
His outstretched hand was stopped by the Ice Coffin, unable to reach her.
Mister paused, then, after a long silence, whispered,
“It’s been so long…”
His sister had been sleeping for centuries, while he, the little boy from back then, was now old and frail, the sole witness to that history.
“Sister, you once told me that death is a train that always arrives full, and none of us will miss it,” Mister murmured. “You said that you and the other brothers simply boarded the train a little earlier, and this journey will eventually reach its destination, there’s no need to rush.
“But I, holding my ticket, stand on the platform, watching train after train pass by, unable to find my seat.”
The girl with icy blue hair in the Ice Coffin was identical to the sister in his memories. Looking at her, long-buried memories surfaced.
Joy, sorrow, endings, pain…
As he delved deeper into his memories, familiar figures appeared, standing or sitting beside him, in their past forms.
The lively and cheerful Second Brother, the quiet and reserved Fifth Brother, the honest and dependable Sixth Brother…
The phantoms of his memories gathered around the aged “Nine,” their expressions just as they were back then.
Dawn was originally a family.
They were family to each other.
Lonely and helpless, they only had each other…
Finally, a tall, indistinct figure appeared before Mister, reaching out a hand.
Mister looked at the illusory hand and slowly raised his head.
All the phantoms vanished, along with the tall figure he had been searching for all these years.
“It’s… like this again…”
Mister murmured, looking up blankly.
“But… it’s becoming clearer…
“I think I’m about to find you, Sister.”
Mister shakily stood up, walked to the Ice Coffin, and sat down beside it.
“I can feel it, I’m about to die. I can hear the train, the one with my seat, it’s rushing towards me, and I will finally board it.”
“But before I board, I have to fulfill… my brothers’ last wish, to find that figure.”
The world only knew of Dawn’s nine Misters.
Those more informed also knew that the nine Misters possessed the powers of nine Primordial Demons, incredibly powerful and terrifying, yet also incredibly fragile.
But what no one knew, except for the Misters themselves, was…
Dawn had a tenth “Mister.”
Or rather, a “Zeroth” Mister.
Even the Misters didn’t know who “Mister” Zero was, where she came from, or why she had gathered them, those with demonic powers.
Indeed, it wasn’t the nine Misters who founded Dawn, but one.
“Mister” Zero.
She had found them one by one, those “Misters” who suffered from pain and torment, and brought them together.
She had given them a home, warmth, hope, everything, but in the end…
—She had destroyed it all.
Mister still remembered the moment when all his brothers, including himself, lost control of their demonic powers.
“Dawn City,” the home they had painstakingly built, was destroyed.
And “Mister” Zero had watched coldly, because she was the culprit.
It had all been her plan.
Nine children with demonic powers, a close-knit family, “Dawn City”… they were all just tools for her scheme.
She claimed to want to save the world, but she destroyed everything.
In the end, she vanished without a trace, leaving only the ruins of “Dawn” behind.
Since then, all traces of “Mister” Zero had been erased. No method could uncover her existence.
Their only chance to find her had been during the “Witch of Absolute Death” incident centuries ago, but they had found nothing, only a seemingly meaningless name.
“Luo Yan.”
The name was meaningless. Anyone could be called Luo Yan, but Mister was searching for a specific person, not just anyone with that name.
“We… just want an answer, an explanation,” Mister’s eyes flickered. “It’s alright, soon… we’ll have our answer.”
The only remaining Mister, “Nine,” possessed the demonic power of the “Sovereign of Greed,” manifested as a “morbid craving for malice.”
Driven by this craving, every part of his body fed on malice.
Malice sustained his life, but it also brought him endless torment and pain.
This body, steeped in malice, yet carried a human soul and will.
The fact that “Mister” Nine had endured until now was nothing short of a miracle.
And when his ability activated, he could absorb more malice, amplifying his greed.
Then, he could transform this “greed” into a craving for “truth,” granting him a limited ability to glimpse into the future and the past.
Each use increased the malice within his body, but also strengthened his craving.
In other words, Mister’s final use of his ability, before his death, would be his strongest.
He could even, with his human body, touch upon “Cataclysm” level power.
“I will find the truth,” Mister whispered. “Sister, you just rest peacefully at home… with Mother…”
—Yan City was built on the site of the settlement destroyed by the bandaged girl’s first uncontrolled outburst.
This was her home.
This was why a relatively new city like Yan City possessed such a powerful “Ice Coffin Weapon” from the Free Federation.
—Because Mister had learned through certain channels that his sister’s body was being used as an “Ice Coffin Weapon” by the Free Federation, but no one knew her true identity.
Therefore, Mister had manipulated events, using the Free Federation to send his sister to Yan City, her former home.
The reason Mister had returned to Yan City in his final days was also to be with his slumbering sister.
To be by her side, to uncover the truth of the past before boarding the train of death.
“Wait for me, Sister.”
Mister stood up and walked unsteadily towards the exit of the Wall of Resentment.
“The truth… will soon be revealed.”
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