Chapter 518
Chapter 518
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 518
Chapter Title: Chapter 24. The Greatest Creditor (8)
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Kuuuuu—
The moment the rocket's flames ignited, every eye—enemy and ally alike—turned toward it.
Neither Dome's commander nor Raptor's lone vanguard officer scolded their soldiers for losing focus on this battlefield where a single instant could mean life or death.
It might have been envy for those leaving this barren wasteland behind for good.
Or perhaps confusion over how to find joy in the commander’s cryptic promise of victory.
Or maybe…
-Kwaaaaa!
…because of the familiar human shapes clinging to the spaceship’s surface.
*Why…*
*Why did I choose this suicidal act?*
Hurling myself onto a space launch vehicle hurtling toward 29,000 km/h.
What was I thinking, clinging bare-handed to a craft heading where no lifeform could survive?
*I really didn’t want it to come to this.*
I wanted to live. This time, more than ever, I’d sworn over and over to survive, even if it meant shoving someone else in front of me. I’d left Sector 47 behind, one corner of my mind constantly gauging my limits even as I threw myself into the enemy’s jaws. And when I hit that “no more” point, I’d turned back before the battle even ended.
-Bbangjeok!
If the beam from Dome’s formation hadn’t pierced Raptor’s main base instead of the spaceship, as we’d agreed beforehand—
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Chiiik—
[T-Target intact! Zeus, you missed!]
[Signal guidance point penetrated without error!]
[In the end, that fool Metaljo…!]
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If Director Young hadn’t blurted that out over the open channel in a surge of emotion the instant the attack meant for the spaceship missed—
Hwaaaaak!
If the shadow cast by that beam streaking between the spaceship and the building hadn’t stretched perilously across the vast wasteland, overlaying the silhouettes of two men facing off—
*No…*
If I hadn’t seen it.
Taaang!
If I hadn’t heard that single gunshot.
If I hadn’t seen someone—not Ian—staggering out from where that shot rang out!
Kududuk, kugik!
…I wouldn’t be digging my nails into this hunk of metal hurtling toward space right now. I’d have reached the rear lines where advanced medical teams waited. I’d have anxiously watched the clock, my remaining time barely matching the “server room mission completion and return time estimate” from Director Young’s pre-commander briefing. I’d have desperately prayed that the “Dome-trained space mission specialists” would bring the antidote for me, now utterly spent. I’d have chosen survival. I wanted to.
Teoreung!
So that’s why I was clinging desperately to the surface of a launched space vehicle instead of the safe rear lines.
Why my flesh cooked in the immense heat, my lungs shriveled, and the faint remnants of bodily sensation finally vanished.
Why I’d ended up in this bizarre state—like a lifeform reduced to thought alone—arriving somewhere cold and lonely beyond the blue sky.
“It’s… all… your fault… you bastard…”
It’s your fault I learned what I wasn’t supposed to, Ian.
Zeus’s attack heading for the nest instead of the spaceship meant Director Young had deceived me, planning to destroy it from the start.
Spitting curses the instant it missed meant you were the one handling that precise guidance signal.
It missing even after you reached the spaceship’s nose meant you’d deceived Director Young too.
Probably because someone prattled on that it was humanity’s last hope for survival, that we needed it to live.
Maybe because someone else carelessly worsened their mutation by saying, “Take the antidote in the server room and you’ll live!”—which implied no spaceship, no survival.
*So, I had no choice.*
A machine this precise could crash just from foreign matter clinging to it.
My remaining lifespan might burn out completely against the atmospheric escape heat.
Even if I survived, all I’d be in the vacuum of space at -270°C without air was a frozen body dangling from the spaceship.
I knew all that in my head, but I had to charge in anyway.
*The reason is… I…*
Huwaaaak!
My final thought froze the instant the searing air turned to cold vacuum.
At some point, the pressure dragging my body, the heat scorching me head to toe, and the noise vibrating through my ruptured eardrums—all vanished in a heartbeat.
An utter silence I’d never experienced since birth.
Whether I opened my sealed eyes or my charred eyelids sloughed off, I don’t know—but I finally witnessed that moment.
Deep night. Beneath my feet, the world I’d left receded.
Above my head stretched a darkness qualitatively different from night, endless.
No starry sky, no moonlit glow, no twinkling stars as I’d imagined—just empty void.
The moment that thick silence touched my skin, my half-frozen hand shattered as I thrust it forward.
*If I die like this…*
Pasak!
Shattered nails and fingers drifted past my eyes, slowly receding into space.
*All those people who died for this moment…!*
That thought summoned not noble will or grand purpose, but fear.
Everyone on the ground called me a hero, every soul in GG hailed me a saint—but what had driven me all along wasn’t anything so grand.
Fear. The shameful, intimate essence of myself I’d uncovered in the deepest recesses of my soul in 4World, where I never meant to look.
Now, closer than ever to death, that fear sharpened, forcing my body to move.
Above my head, a white shadow alien to this black cosmos fluttered faintly.
Like a conical pillar at the center of a bicycle wheel.
『---』
A soundless vibration passed, and from the point touching the spaceship, lights flickered on one by one, revealing new life in what had slumbered.
In the empty void of space, it spun alone like a top, its surface boldly emblazoned with [NEXT SPACE] in black letters.
With that final sight, cold darkness closed my eyes.
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Chalpak. Chalpak.
.
.
.
.
….Darkness. Still pitch-black, vision blurry.
*No. This is… a dream?*
The difference: unlike the space chill I’d felt even with senses gone, here was a soft, night-like warmth. Shallow water pooled on the ground.
The moment I realized it, a familiar space materialized. Neat bookshelves. Tidied knickknacks with glittering glass orbs hanging like a mobile from the ceiling. An old sofa.
And something crammed onto a sofa too small for its body.
*No way. Is that really you…?*
Afraid saying its name would shatter the dream, I couldn’t even utter it as I stepped closer.
Someone sprawled on the small sofa shifted.
Wolf-like muzzle. Sharp fangs. Beastly eyes gleaming fiercely.
*Hyde.*
The instant I said the name, I fought back surging emotions beyond my control. Instinct told me this fragile moment could break like thin ice.
But how I’d missed it.
The fear I’d hidden from loved ones to spare them worry.
The emotions concealed from dear ones to seem more steadfast.
Thoughts, agonies, joys, shames hoarded alone.
The void left by the one who’d shared my most essential feelings as naturally as breathing—how vast it felt.
When it vanished, as part of my mind, I’d thought even an afterlife wouldn’t reunite us. Yet here we were.
*…God’s more flexible than I thought.*
That inane reunion line stemmed from the thought. Whether hallucination from my freezing brain or dying neurons’ last synapse—what did it matter?
*This means I failed, in the end.*
Same outcome either way. My story ended. Saved two worlds, but luck ran out on the third.
Puluk!
I collapsed into the spot it cleared, and the old sofa puffed up dust just as I remembered. With the dust rose names of those left behind.
Dana, Cynthia, Bex, Ezel, Old Man Woojin, Jokasss and countless forum friends, Heung An Mandu whose fate was unknown, and countless more faces and names.
*Hyde. You know, right? No matter how they call me hero or indomitable human, I’m just Professor Park, trembling and running scared.*
*Metaljo nailed it with his insight. Called me Cherry, didn’t he? Dozens of new nicknames lately, but none fit better. Outwardly cool, bold, smart—inside, still that scared 17-year-old quivering Professor Park. Never took a single step forward.*
『….』
*Hey, you listening? Reunited here after so long, and you’re giving me the cold shoulder?*
『….— --, ----.』
Hyde turned its head slightly, mouth opening—but only flapping silently, no sound.
*What? Can’t hear a thing. Speak up, you rascal.*
Kicking its thick calf, I watched Hyde heave a deep sigh. Its passing breath felt startlingly cold.
『---. -- - ---- --- -- -------.』
*…Hyde?*
Suddenly, its claw jabbed my chest.
Kududuk!
Cold. So cold my lungs froze, bones cracked, body tore apart. The chill blurred something I desperately wanted to evade—
『--. Yeah, th-that’s—.』
Puk!
With Hyde’s faintly audible voice, its claw pierced straight through me.
*No. This…*
『No ‘no’ about it. Working fine, see?』
*Hyde, you know. You of all know. I, I—*
『…Yeah. I know. Better than anyone.』
Puuk!
The claw plunged deeper. My chest convulsed in agony like electrocution, the world freezing in burst cold. Hyde’s voice whispered closer.
『Almost there, right? You know it too. Not over yet. You still feel pain. Still alive. So you can do more, yeah?』
Through the cold, a hazy artifact flickered. White background. [NEXT SPACE]—shadow of endless cold, painful reality.
『So much I wanna hear. But no half-assed endings like this.』
Chwaak!
『Get lost, Dad. Go get a proper ending, not this bland normal one.』
The instant Hyde’s claw withdrew from my chest, reality poured out instead of blood.
Me, frozen to the spaceship surface, arm outstretched. Next Space spinning above. Spaceship docking successfully.
*--, ---! ---…. ---!*
Now my words went unheard. No sound in space.
Hyde smirked at the sight, returning to the sofa, lying back.
『Remember. To you, that guy in your heart’s a 17-year-old Cherry-boy. But to everyone else you’ve met, he’s hero, warrior, saint, hope.』
『Me? No need to say. My dad. My idol. My hero.』
Jjeojeok—
Chaenggrang!
Finally, the frozen surface shattered with the world, Hyde vanishing completely.
In 4World’s last moment, balancing the one unclaimed cup playfully on its finger.
『Come back properly next time. We’ll share a drink then.』
A dull thud and its raspy cackle lingered like an echo.
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-Pajik!
….Twitch.
-Pajik!
Twitch, twitch.
-Pajiiik!
“Huh-eu-euk!”
[You’re awake! Awake! Knew you wouldn’t die in a place like this—you’re not that weak! Couldn’t be! Haha! Hahahahaha!]
As consciousness returned and I gasped in ragged agony, a slightly slurred, manic voice scraped my mind.
[Aah, really. At this point, it can’t be coincidence! Your chest has a Gedroits Company high-capacity battery linked to our strongest frequency comms! Even isolated in space and Next Space, we can talk! You being here, meeting at the last second—none of it my doing!]
*…Space. Next Space. Gedroits.*
Slowly, painfully slowly, thought returned. Mind fogged like mist, deep thinking impossible—but one thing clear.
*I’m still alive.*
Pajik! Pajik!
Sharp pain in my chest explained it. Battery forcibly discharged by external intervention. Scorched surroundings, but succeeded in shocking my heart just enough. The stabbing pain from that dream or illusion—that was it.
[Won’t let you die. No way in hell! You’re my greatest asset—no, humanity’s future’s! Can’t die in this cold space!]
I turned my eyes toward the one who revived my dying self.
He was close. Practically plastered to the nearest window from my frozen perch on the spaceship.
His body covered in electrocution bruises tracing veins, tongue lolling slack with drool dripping, eyes darting wildly in different directions, limbs jerking spasmodically.
[Looking this way. Yes, focus like that… Mutation virus was developed to adapt humans to extremes, but as a human-body virus, it thrives near body temp. Near absolute zero in space? Hard to activate…]
[Sorry for the mess. See, bullet in my forehead? Most involuntary muscles shot. Honestly, glad you’re not inside—might stink! Haha, hahahaha! Hahahahaha!]
Gedroits shook his creaking body grotesquely beyond the window, laughing like a madman.
[Aaah, scientist who’ll right the old world and leader to guide the new one—meeting in this broken, ugly state. Bone-chilling? Ironic?]
Grinning uncontrollably, eyes and tongue astray, he pressed hands and face flush to the window, as if desperate to cross over.
[I’ve wanted to meet and talk with you for so, so long. Professor Park, my completer.]
Grotesque ruin aside, his eyes gleamed sharp enough to pierce the vast cosmos.
While Gedroits lost himself in his long-cherished tale—
….Dduduk!
I felt my right ring finger twitch—just a bit.
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