Chapter 56
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: No Time to Die 2
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Nati flinched, but only for the briefest instant. He immediately thrust his arm toward the spot Ibi was pointing at.
A sharp whoosh of cutting wind swept over the darkness. It was impossible to discern exactly what had happened, but a scream rang out clearly. A bizarre shriek, like taut canvas ripping under something razor-sharp.
"You just..."
Nati locked eyes with Ibi. His words trailed off midway, but she could guess what he'd left unsaid.
Died. And came back to life. She'd been through it several times already tonight alone—it was hardly anything new.
But what threw her especially was how this time, she'd returned almost to the precise moment of death. She knew the interval between dying and waking was shortening with each loop. Now it felt nearly real-time.
So what happens if she dies again from here?
She clearly remembered that waking past midnight meant true death. And right now, midnight loomed close.
"Tch."
Nati clicked his tongue.
Ibi caught a flicker of anxiety crossing his face—an expression she'd never imagined seeing on him.
Suddenly, she recalled what he'd told her before they arrived: that he was seriously weakened.
But that passed in a flash. Nati quickly scanned the foot of the stairs, then dragged Ibi down to the lower corridor. With a swing of his fan.
A crackling sound rose, accompanied by the stench of something burning. Ibi spotted vivid red characters forming a circle about a meter across right at her feet.
"Don't take a single step outside that circle. You'll be safe inside. It won't take long—just wait quietly."
"Wait a sec..."
"No matter what happens, no matter what you hear, do not come out."
Ibi reached out after him, calling, but Nati leaped down the stairs without a reply.
Ominous noises soon echoed from below: crashing, shattering sounds and screams not his own. They faded after a time, leaving only a sinister silence.
Yet Nati didn't return. Ibi paced the cramped circle for a while, clenching and unclenching her fists. Then her strength abruptly gave out; she sank to the floor and buried her face in her knees.
He'll be fine. Everything will turn out okay. It's only been five minutes since he left.
Still, she couldn't shake the creeping dread. Her dulled sense of true death, blurred by repeated dying, was sharpening again. And this wasn't a place to calm the nerves.
It was right around here—the hospital room where they'd tricked her as a "friend" and locked her in. One of her childhood's worst memories; she'd desperately tried to forget it and nearly had, only to wind up back so ridiculously.
Whispers tickled her ears. She tried brushing them off as mind tricks, but they swelled, impossible to block. Childish one moment, adult the next.
Like dozens speaking from one mouth. Or one speaking from dozens.
"Pretty little thing."
"Come as a mermaid?"
"Look up. Show us your face."
"Why huddle there shaking alone? Stupid?"
Ibi pressed her face deeper. She recalled Nati's orders and plugged her ears. Useless. The voices bypassed them entirely.
Then, cutting through them all, a sob. She yanked her hands away instinctively. A familiar childish voice followed amid the weeping.
"Open it. Open, please. I'm scared. Why do this to me? I didn't do anything to you."
Desperate, pitiful begging—but the replies were sneers. "Idiot." "Moron." "You fell for that?" "Dumb bitch."
Then, at some point... silence. Sobs and mockery gone. Not fully, though—exhausted hiccups lingered. Then creeeak... the hospital door shifting.
Someone stepped out. Small, child-sized. It fixed on Ibi. Invisible, but palpable.
It spoke, voice still damp with tears.
"Why'd you come back here?"
"......"
"I decided to bury the me that stayed here."
"......"
"Never wanted to remember. Why dig up these rotten memories on purpose?"
"......"
"Gonna keep hiding like that? 'Cause that man said so? You trust him? After ditching you alone in the cold dark?"
It drew near. Slowly. Something icy touched the nape of Ibi's terror-shaking neck.
"Didn't want to grow up like this."
Ibi clenched her teeth. Adult? She'd never seen herself as one. Maybe never would. Still quaking alone like this.
The childish presence—past Ibi's echo—had faded. Something new took its place.
"Ibi?"
This time, Ibi's eyes flew wide. Face still buried in her knees. But that voice sapped her strength utterly.
"Uh..."
"Why sit there? Come here, dear."
"Mom!"
Without thinking, she snapped her head up and lunged forward. Hands slapped the floor.
Icy horror wrapped her then. Mom was dead. A ghost maybe, but not here.
And above all... she wouldn't endanger Ibi.
Ibi stared at her hands. Cold despair slithered down her spine.
One hand pressed the floor outside the circle.
"...Ah."
Realization struck fast. Tremors seized her. She lifted her head slowly. Stared into the corridor's end-darkness.
"Finally came out?"
A woman, white as if dusted with powder head to toe, shoved her face inches away. She bared stark white teeth in a hair-raising grin.
"Aaack!"
Ibi screamed, recoiling—when brutal force yanked her ankles. She sprawled like a rolling log, dragged across the floor.
"N-No! Stop it!"
She thrashed, to no avail. Destination: the room at corridor's end. Her body sucked into the dark; door slammed. Her shriek cut unnaturally short.
The last death.
11:55 PM.
Ibi's eyes fluttered open, disoriented to where she was. Recent trauma blurred everything. Clear only: still in the hospital. And this section was new to her.
Beyond instant rewind to pre-death—had she jumped to a future post-death now?
The thought flickered, but checking time didn't occur. Body shaking, tears streaming. She stumbled down the empty stairs, sobbing.
"Nati! Nati! Where are you! You said you'd protect me! You promised! Save me! Please! Please..."
How long she wandered, unclear. Ahead, a man's shadow—she bolted without thought. Tall, gaunt silhouette. Had to be Nati.
She reached, seized his arm, relief surging—
When the real Nati's voice barked from behind.
"That's not me!"
Rough hands clamped her throat, hoisting her up.
Not Nati. Wearing his form... but not him.
Then she remembered: Geumsaani, the fraud who'd stolen Nati's guise, fooled her into opening Flower Mugwort Tea House's door. Pupils black as ink, just like then.
"No! Let her go!"
But Geumsaani choking Ibi ignored the shout. Grinning like at a prank, it plunged a hand into her pocket.
Out came her smartphone. Screen lit; it checked, wicked smile widening. Amid her fogging mind, Ibi thought: Yeah, real Nati wouldn't smirk so vilely...
"Finally."
Nati rushed up, too late. Geumsaani squeezed.
"I win."
Crack.
Ibi's neck broke; body slumped. Geumsaani dropped it like refuse, strode forward steps.
Before halted Nati, it tossed the pilfered phone. Screen cracked on impact. But the four digits read clear.
00:00.
"......"
"You failed again in the end. Frustrated? Frustrated!"
Geumsaani paced before stunned Nati, taunting. He hung his head, mute.
"All those ages, over a millennium—didn't you treat me worse than cattle? I served you utterly once! Now my vengeance chokes you?"
"......"
"I trusted you."
Geumsaani shoved face-close to Nati, spitting venom. Contempt, scorn, betrayal—all swirled there.
"Yet for one wench, you tossed everything we built? We could've conquered endlessly more! Hah, Nati? Your name? It's ours—all of us! You hog it to mock me? So you lost her. And now another!"
Silent till then, Nati spoke at last.
"Geumryeong."
Geumsaani's name. One yet all—but prime specimens had names. Nati knew this one long.
"You've pissed me off."
Voice even. But the fury beneath made Geumryeong recoil.
Then it noticed the anomaly. Ibi dead—no revival. So why no loop reset? Midnight passed.
Ibi's dropped phone shifted.
00:02.
00:01.
00:02.
00:00.
11:59.
00:00.
"Impossible..."
"Don't presume a worm like you knows me through and through."
Nati stepped forward, aura terrifying.
"Had no idea you longed so for our old days together."
Another step.
"Then I'll treat you just like back then."
Nati thrust his gripped fan. Veins corded his hand.
"You remember how I punish those who touch what's mine."