The one-minute video hit harder than any words could.
In the ruins, over a thousand North American players watched the footage loop. No one could speak. The camp was so quiet a dropped pin would have been heard.
Flames of light had swallowed Leon, then remade him in a way none of them could understand into a holy, powerful new being.
[Sin Punishment Holy Spirit] [God Realm Troop Type] [Immortal and Undying]
Each phrase silently mocked every North American player there.
Jealousy.
Uncontrollable jealousy spread from the depths of their hearts, winding around their reason.
"Bullshit!"
Jackson kicked over an iron barrel beside him. The harsh crash shattered the silence.
"Are you all blind?!" he roared at the players stunned by the video. "That isn't Leon anymore! That's a puppet with no will, no thoughts of his own! A toy a god molded on a whim!"
His voice echoed over the ruins as he tried to regain his hold on the crowd.
"This is what happens when you throw in your lot with Yan Country's god! You give up your humanity and become a weapon that follows orders! Is that what you want?!"
The crowd stirred. Many instinctively avoided Jackson's gaze.
Of course they didn't want that.
But...
Those enormous Light Wings, that magnificent armor, immunity to ordinary attacks, the promise of endless rebirth...
It was all the sweetest poison, planting seeds of longing in the parched soil of their hearts.
"But we can barely stay alive as it is."
A weak voice came from the back of the crowd.
It was the one-armed warrior. He leaned against a broken wall, his face pale.
"Guild Leader Jackson, your dignity and freedom won't fill our stomachs, and they won't bring our dead brothers back."
He raised his remaining hand