Hearing footsteps, drug lord Idalgo raised his head, his deep eyes behind his sunglasses looking at Javier and the others before him, and he spoke softly.
When he saw his daughter Manuela, who was glaring angrily at him from the front, Idalgo, as a father, had a complex expression. To be honest… he wanted to see his daughter Manuela one last time, but he didn't know how to face her. After all, he was a useless father.
"Father!"
"When Mother disappeared, you injected her with that so-called biochemical virus, didn't you? Because her endemic illness couldn't be treated, you injected her with that terrifying virus, and then Mother turned into a monster. You lied and said Mother was dead so I wouldn't find out, right?"
As soon as they met, before Idalgo, as the father, could speak, Manuela clenched her fists and retorted. The truth… she had to hear it word for word from her father Idalgo's own mouth.
Her grey-blue eyes were resolute, a brilliant light of stubbornness gleamed in her pupils, and the lingering anger on her small face had not subsided, still full of indignation. With her fair fists clenched, Manuela's defiant and rebellious posture in her questioning did not anger her father Idalgo; instead, it made him feel an unusual nostalgia, because he seemed to see Hilda, when she was still a young girl, in the figure of his daughter Manuela.
Back then, Manuela's mother, Hilda, also bravely questioned him, a fierce drug trafficker. After that, Idalgo noticed this brave and interesting girl, and their fate began from there…
"…"
"Yes."
However, dreams are bound to be shattered.
Idalgo, regaining his senses, was silent for a long time, and finally gave an honest answer to his daughter Manuela. After all, he could lie to anyone, but he could not lie to his own daughter. He did not want to teach his daughter bad habits like lying, nor did he want Manuela to become a social parasite like him in the future…
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Evil of This World
Father Idalgo's answer completely shattered his daughter Manuela's illusions. She had thought… there must be some unavoidable reason, but she never expected her father to answer so directly. This plunged Manuela into deep silence.
"…"
"Then, Father, why did you harm those innocent fifty-plus young girls? Those girls were around my age. What terrible wrong did they do? They could have lived happily in this world!"
Taking a deep breath, Manuela continued to question her father Idalgo. If injecting her mother with the virus was to treat an endemic illness, that was understandable. But what about harming over fifty young girls? This was an unforgivable sin, and Manuela wanted to know the real answer.
However,
"That was for you, Manuela…"
"You were also injected with the virus, but you are luckier than your mother Hilda; you didn't turn into a monster. However, your organs are severely failing, and you can only survive by frequent organ replacements. Father stored those girls as organs for you. What's more… their lives are lowly."
"Born in this desolate Amazon Rainforest, never able to step half a foot out of here their entire lives. What does it matter if they die? I have given enough help to Cloud Serpent Village. Now it's their turn to repay me. Come back to my side, Manuela, my dear child!"
"I have already lost your mother; I cannot lose you, my daughter, now. Come back to my side; only then can you continue to live. Be obedient. If you hate what I have done, I can compensate you. The villagers of Cloud Serpent Village are not all dead; I can let them live and give them countless wealth, allowing these natives to rebuild their homes."
"So, come back to my side, my dear child. Father, I don't want to lose you anymore. Do you know? You are my last hope for living in this world. I cannot be without you…"
The drug lord Idalgo, who had fallen into evil, still did not realize his mistake, and continued to persuade his daughter Manuela. However… he did not notice that with each sentence he spoke, Manuela's head lowered a bit more, her fists clenched, and her accumulated anger grew.
It seemed she had made a mistake.
That is, the father before her was no longer the father he once was. She had originally expected her father to repent and reflect before her, but Manuela was wrong. Her father still only had himself in his eyes, never valuing the lives of those around him, still wantonly slaughtering them like grass.
A man who only has his daughter and wife in his eyes, he is a good father and a good husband, but a father and husband who thinks nothing of wantonly killing people does not deserve to be called human—
"…"
"Shut up—!!!"
"Trampling on the lives of others to prolong the lives of those who should die, what kind of love is that?"
Suddenly, Manuela, clenching her fists, could no longer bear it. She raised her head, her resolute small face glaring at her father Idalgo. A line of crystal tears had fallen from the corners of her eyes, and with extreme indignation, Manuela for the first time loudly reprimanded and roared at her highly respected father.
Almost for the first time, this was Manuela truly sounding the horn of rebellion against her father Idalgo, and it was the only direct confrontation. With a strict father and a kind mother, Manuela in the past would not have dared to defy her father Idalgo's words, but now… Manuela could no longer bear her father Idalgo's cold and chilling words after he had gone mad.
"What do you mean 'lowly lives'?"
"Aren't their lives lives too?"
"Mother was just an ordinary young girl in this dark and sunless rainforest. What's the difference between her and those dead girls? Or… is it that her status became noble after she climbed up with you, Father?"
"Javier Hidalgo, you were just an unknown drug trafficker back then. How noble was your life?"
"They were at the age of flowers, not entangled by illness like me. They should have lived under the warm sunlight, but because of you, they are forever cut off from this beautiful world."
"What's more, they also have their parents. Father, since you know that Mother's and my departure would be an unbearable pain for you, then how is their death not a severe torture for their parents? What parent in this world can calmly and indifferently accept the passing of their children? Who doesn't understand the pain of a white-haired person sending off a black-haired person!"
"I want to live, and I still want to live. I am afraid of death. I don't want to leave this world so soon. I still want to feel the warmth of this world, run freely under the sunlight and the green shade of the rainforest, and fully enjoy the refreshing feeling of rain wetting my face…"
"But, exchanging others' lives for your own survival is wrong, Father! I would rather die myself than harm anyone. Life… is one's own. No one is allowed to trample on it or take it."
"Turn back, Father!"
"Go to confession, go to prayer, go to accept your punishment. Your sins need to be repaid. Then I will accompany you to leave, to hell to accept our karmic evil. If you continue to be mad, then… Javier Hidalgo, you are no longer my father. I do not acknowledge having such a vicious devil for a father—!!!"
Her already weak and slender body erupted with immense energy at this moment. Facing her father Idalgo's twisted reasoning, Manuela, with tears dried up, hysterically retorted and questioned. Her lips were bitten until they bled by her silver teeth, her fists clenched, and her face was extremely pale and sallow. But none of that mattered, as long as she could make her father Idalgo realize his mistake.
Manuela did not want to die without being able to pull back her father, who had one foot already in the abyss. Making mistakes is not terrifying; the most terrifying thing is when the person who made the mistake does not realize it…
Clearly, Manuela's efforts,
It was indeed a heavy blow to drug lord Idalgo, but… it also plunged Javier, the father, into an abyss.
Did he realize his mistake? Yes, but what good would that do?
The living only care about the living; repentance? That's for the dead.
His wife and daughter both chose death without hesitation, so what use was his repentance?
Moreover, he was already a notorious drug lord; would anyone believe that drug lord Javier Hidalgo would lay down his butcher's knife and become a Buddha?
No…
It would only add more footprints and disgusting spit to his tombstone.
A villain is a villain; once a villain, always a villain.
"Hehehe…"
"Is that so? So you don't want me as your father anymore? That's good, really good, truly good.
In that case, there's no need for this world to exist.
Manuela, you won't die, trust your father, I will let you continue to live, live with me, even if you don't want to forgive me, it doesn't matter at all!"
Facing his daughter Manuela's angry rebuke,
drug lord Idalgo, slowly raising his head, had already fallen into a kind of emotional frenzy, muttering strange words incessantly.
Undoubtedly… Idalgo didn't hear Manuela's other words; instead, his fragile heart was deeply hurt by the short phrase, "I don't acknowledge you as my father."
"Wait,"
"Manuela, don't go any closer, your father's emotional state isn't right."
At this moment,
Javier and Leon also noticed that drug lord Idalgo's mental state had entered a frenzy.
They quickly pulled Manuela back, while raising their pistols to remain vigilant and on guard, in case Idalgo, the father, did something irrational.
However,
everyone guessed wrong.
The current drug lord Idalgo was calmer than anyone else, because he only had one thing on his mind: revenge! Revenge on society, revenge on the world, revenge on everything!
"Click—!"
Just as everyone was busy being on guard,
the silent drug lord Idalgo suddenly made a move.
He pressed a button on the computer equipment beside him, and suddenly a hidden door quickly rose in the Laboratory behind him, a dark, black passage quickly appearing before everyone.
Before Javier and Leon could react, Idalgo instantly threw his golden cane at them, then quickly fled into the hidden passage without looking back.
"Damn it, he's trying to escape!"
"Bang—!"
Leon, realizing what was happening, shouted loudly,
and at the same time, immediately pulled the trigger of his pistol.
With a gunshot, the bullet quickly flew out, and smoke curled from the muzzle, but drug lord Idalgo was very fast; this shot only hit his arm.
Covering his injured, bleeding arm, drug lord Idalgo still quickly escaped into the hidden passage, and when Leon wanted to chase after him, he found that the door to the hidden passage had already begun to close downwards.
"…"
"Damn it, he got away!"
Looking at the completely closed hidden door, no matter how Leon pressed the previous computer equipment button, it was useless.
The heavy mechanical hidden door remained tightly shut, making Leon frustratedly kick the hidden door and curse to vent his gloomy mood.
No way,
besides recovering the T-Veronica Virus, their mission was also to capture drug lord Idalgo.
Now, the drug lord Idalgo, whom they had finally seen, had actually escaped right under his nose, how could Leon not be angry!
"Alright,"
"Leon, we're lucky enough to be alive.
While those drug dealers haven't escaped from the safe house, we should quickly leave the dam first.
As for drug lord Idalgo, let's take it one step at a time."
"Manuela, let's leave here first.
As for your father, Idalgo, we promise we will bring him to justice.
Don't be too sad, he is still your father after all."
Seeing that drug lord Idalgo had escaped and Leon was still sulking, Javier quickly spoke to stop him, telling them to leave the dam stronghold first.
Because the final stage was almost here.
drug lord Idalgo had not left; judging by the situation just now, the frenzied drug lord Idalgo had likely gone to fuse with the V-Complex and would soon come to retaliate against them.
Continuing to stay inside the dam would likely be a dead end, so it was better to leave quickly.
As for Manuela,
Javier also lied to deceive her, not wanting the girl to continue to be immersed in the hatred and disappointment from before.
He could understand Idalgo, the father.
If Javier also had a daughter, and she had a disease that could not be cured except by exchanging lives,
he would probably also go mad and kill to prolong her life, after all, people are selfish.
There are truly very few girls as pure and kind as Manuela.
However, perhaps it is precisely because there are such pure and kind girls like Manuela that the world appears so beautiful.
Good and evil, truly a very contradictory aspect of humanity.
Only by intertwining can such a beautiful world be born.
A single aspect cannot achieve such beauty; being too kind or too evil is not good; their coexistence is just right—
…
On the other side—
Inside the large breeding castle,
the escaped drug lord Idalgo arrived at this final place.
This was a mansion located behind the dam, and it was also drug lord Idalgo's private territory.
Around the breeding castle were various flashing televisions, with green screens showing today's Colombia government news.
It was still the regular wanted bounty program, with Idalgo's portrait displayed on the television screen, and the host actively introducing drug lord Idalgo's danger and the amount of the bounty to the enthusiastic citizens.
Idalgo, this drug lord, had long been a notorious and universally despised public enemy in Colombia.
This was also why Idalgo never repented, because it was simply useless and meaningless.
"Bang bang bang—!!!"
After shooting the annoying television news with the pistol in his hand, Idalgo, covering his injured, bleeding arm, walked to his cultivated pets.
"Hoo hoo hoo…"
A heavy panting sound came rushing towards him.
Looking up, a colossal carnivorous plant slowly opened its gaping maw, its surrounding vine tentacles writhing impatiently, as if awakened and attracted by the scent of Idalgo's injured arm's blood.
After all, their favorite food was fresh flesh and blood.
But because Idalgo was their owner, these plants, though very eager, were also full of hesitation.
It was unexpected that even though they were monsters, they surprisingly had the rationality of a master-servant relationship, which was simply unbelievable.
Thinking of this,
drug lord Idalgo grinned; it seemed there were still things in this world that wouldn't abandon him, and those were the monsters he had cultivated before him.
Idalgo dropped the snake-patterned pistol in his hand and slowly took out a syringe from his pocket, containing a green flowing liquid, which was precisely the T-Veronica Virus that the United States Government wanted.
And it was still a relatively high-purity kind.
This was something Idalgo had prepared for himself, just in case, but he didn't expect to use it so soon.
Biting open the needle with his teeth, drug lord Idalgo unhesitatingly plunged it fiercely into his injured arm.
Immediately,
drug lord Idalgo, disappointed with life, slowly spread his arms, signaling that the giant carnivorous plant before him could eat him.
And faced with the temptation of Idalgo's blood and the strong scent of the T-Veronica Virus, this giant carnivorous plant, which had little rationality left, finally swallowed Idalgo in one gulp—!
At this point,
the two completed their fusion,
and the true V-Complex was born…!