Pig.
It was as Jung Ilgyu said. Cactus Bill was very tall — he stood over 2 meters and he had a very broad body. However, Dohyuk was surprised by other things.
Cactus Bill was covered with metal. It was as if his body had wounds all over and was covered by metals to fill every part in very crudely. There were also fluid-like substances like ooze or oil that seeped between the flesh and the metal.
Cactus Bill stopped about 10 steps away from Dohyuk, looking down with his only eye at Dohyuk and the axe he was holding.
“Owner…”
Bill then turned to the owner of the axe who was being helped by someone to stand up.
“…is you.”
Bill then raised his chubby hands. Except for his middle and pinkie finger, it was all metal. The man who helped the owner of the axe became terrified and pushed him away.
Yet the owner of the axe did not fall to the ground. Rather, he was being held up. Then he flew over to Cactus Bill.
Bill crushed the man’s head right away after he grabbed it.
“Zillian.”
“Yes, Leader.”
A woman came out from the crowd and answered. She was well-built, and she resembled a soldier. Bill flicked his head toward a direction where a man was lying after Dohyuk beat him up.
“Gather them around. I’ll take care of them.”
“Yes.”
“Ask them why they started fighting without asking me. Finish it before I ask you again.”
“Yes.”
“And all of you…”
Bill then looked around.
“I’m going to give you three seconds. Go back to your work.”
As if that was a warning shot, all the men around Dohyuk and Cactus Bill scattered immediately. The woman named Zillian then took a few with her to the wounded, took their weapons, and continued with her work.
There were no questions or opinions. Only obedience.
And then, Bill turned to Dohyuk.
“Yoo Dohyuk. I apologize for what just happened. It was not what I wanted. Those who tried to hurt you will receive proper punishment.”
“…”
Dohyuk could have intervened if he wanted to, but he was tense right now. It wasn’t because of how Bill looked, what he had done, or even his Korean.
“You are wary of me.”
Cactus Bill was a beast. Dohyuk could sense it.
In the previous life, one of the other eight who withstood the corruption to the end… was already a part of the illumination.
“I understand your reaction.”
“So, I should be relieved?”
“I’m telling you the truth. I know you. I probably can share your experiences… as I experienced them also.”
“…”
Dohyuk frowned. Cactus Bill was speaking as if he was being cautious of Dohyuk. It was hard to see the same way as the corrupt ones.
“Do you want to go somewhere else? I don’t think this is a suitable place for a discussion.”
“…Sure.”
Dohyuk agreed and they began walking toward the sea, where a ship was docked there. It was much smaller than the other ships and had no cargo was loaded on it
As Bill put up his hand, there was the sound of dragging metal and a bridge came down to the dock. The ship was changing its shape.
“Is that your talent?”
“Yes.” Bill nodded, “It’s a blessing. The power to do more than what others can do. It is the same for your power too.”
Bill spoke and continued, “Of course, I couldn’t understand it at first. A lot of people tried to kill me.”
“I can relate to that.” Dohyuk nodded, “It was shocking to have someone in the middle of a supermarket trying to kill me.”
“Right. But I was more fortunate. I had my family.”
“They… had the experience.”
“Yes. They were with me until the end in the previous life.”
They spoke as they walked over to the ship. At the center, there was a table and a chair. To a side, there was a bar set in place that was filled with liquor bottles. Bill walked over to the bar.
“My family owned a metal-processing shop. Over twenty of my family members collected metals and processed them.”
“I see.”
It meant that Bill had twenty of veterans from the beginning. As with Giwon, even if they were corrupt, it was hard to break the relationship between families. Cactus Bill probably started off less lonely than Dohyuk.
“I was able to adapt and gather knowledge more easily. …Want a drink? I have almost every type of drink.”
“Anything.”
Dohyuk spoke calmly, but he was still tense. Bill took out whiskey, snapped off the top of the bottle, and poured some out for Dohyuk.
“We had my father as a leader and we moved. Just like before, my father planned to unite all of Australia so there would be no internal fights.”
“Until you grew in power?”
“…Yeah. Until I grew in power.”
Something did not end well. Dohyuk could clearly see that.
“I didn’t know anything then. I thought I did, but I didn’t. I thought our plans would go well. My father thought that our relatives who were sent over to all regions of Australia would return with good news.”
“…”
Dohyuk listened silently. He was now getting the picture.
‘He was with his family until the end.’
No one died dead. It also meant that Cactus Bill, was always with his family at the center.
Dohyuk did not know Bill, but even if it wasn’t Cactus Bill, there was no doubt that any man with power would treat their family better.
“What returned was bad news.”
“They refused?”
“Worse. They sent our relatives’ corpses.”
Then, the forces within Australia revolted against Cactus Bill and his family taking over Australia again.
“It was a dark night. We were mourning for our relatives who had lost their lives… and something dropped. I am not sure what it was. Maybe it was a bomb… or a rock. But it was the signal of an attack.”
Cactus Bill continued speaking calmly.
“Honestly, I don’t remember what happened. Maybe it was because of the shock, or because I lost part of my head. The only thing I remember is that I killed someone, again and again. Until I was knocked out.”
And when he came back to his senses, he was buried within scraps of metal. He didn’t know if he dug himself in to survive, or if someone tried their best to save him.
Even after he regained consciousness, he couldn’t come out of the scraps. His wounds were too severe.
“I heard screaming.”
It was his family. The victors were torturing him. They wanted to know their purpose, and where Bill was.
“None of them answered. I’m not sure if they were hiding it, or they really didn’t know. But I think they knew. One of them hid me within the scraps of metal.”
The torturing went on for days.
“I don’t know anything about the previous life. I only heard of it. That’s why I believed it was possible to create a better world. To reach a better result.”
He looked down.
“But it wasn’t.”
As he heard the screams from his family, Bill melted the metals away with his Nature.
“I filled them through my veins and flesh. Then I realized that I was wrong and that I needed to fix my way of doing things.”
When he finished filling up his wound, the last family member stopped screaming. It was his father.
Bill lost his consciousness once more. When he woke up again, and came out of the pile, there were only corpses around him. His family had been carefully torn into pieces to have them stay alive for as long as they could during the torture.
“That’s when I realized what I need to do.”
He was no longer the Cactus Bill from the previous life.
“I was reborn.”