Chapter 522
Chapter 522
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: The Greatest Creditor (12)
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Thud—
Tossed into the vast expanse of space, my body was hurtling toward the satellite swarm at accelerating speed. Having entered from the orbiting space station, Earth's gravity had me in its grip, pulling me in relentlessly. Even without some special doomsday device prepared by Gedroits, I was already a dead man walking.
No, the moment they jammed that antidote into me, any hope was gone.
‘The third variant strain—unique even among the third variants of the mad scientist Gedroits’s masterpiece mutant virus, which only manifests in those with exceptionally resilient mental traits—one that fully retained its original functions, boasting a body tougher and hardier than any in human history, capable of survival and adaptation even in the vacuum of space’
—was reverting back to the body of just plain old human Professor Park. Soon enough, the pressure difference would probably bloat me up like a balloon before freezing me into a corpse.
“Ahem. Ah, microphone test. Microphone test. One two, one two.”
And yet, even accounting for all that, it was still a profitable deal—that’s why I chose this moment. When I weighed the costs and benefits, the upfront investment was practically nothing.
I only needed two things. First, a wretched body that was already dying at the time, facing the obligation—torturous nightmare—of learning all of Earth’s history and knowledge alone for the next seventy years, even if it survived. Hell, better to die.
“Hello, friends. And loved ones.”
“I might look a bit unfamiliar, but it’s me, Professor Park.”
The second was just a few words to broadcast down to the surface.
In exchange, I’d gain ‘immortality’—a steal, really.
“Well, thanks to the ever-kind Gedroits, you all know the situation by now. As you can see, the metal chunks behind me are the satellite swarm he mentioned, and we’re plummeting toward Earth at insane speeds right now.”
“We’re all doomed.”
I paused for a moment. What were the people on the ground thinking? Were Dome’s soldiers still pulling half-dead survivors from the craters of the bombardment? Were citizens pedaling furiously to light up the blackout-stricken city? Were doctors performing surgery on patients, or dosing them with enough hallucinogens to last until it all ended?
“But what if I saved you all? What would you do for me?”
If saving them changed nothing. If the wasteland survivors, who’d walked the knife’s edge for so long, finally grew weary and stepped down from it. If my death ended up meaning nothing at all, what then?
The me captured on camera twisted, playful, brash, demanding an answer from myself. Behind the giggling face, my foot crumbled away from the ankle, drifting toward the corner of the screen.
‘Immortality’ was the plan born from the delusions of one facing such a death.
“Right? The world runs on give and take, even on the brink of destruction. A life debt? Yeah, I figure I deserve something for that.”
“You all need to lighten my load a bit.”
My fingers scattered, and with a rip, half my vision vanished.
“Starting with my family? Obviously, all my assets need to transfer to Miss Elicia Hyacinth. I’ve seen dead folks’ property ‘disappear’ into the chaos too many times. My stuff—the penthouse in the city’s tallest building, the no-limit black card, all that jazz—to keep your lives luxurious.”
I hoped a building big enough for a penthouse still stood. I hoped the economy had recovered enough to use cards instead of barter. I hoped order had returned enough that a dead man’s legacy wouldn’t be looted.
“Cynthia Barbatos, daughter of my late friend and now my adopted daughter, enters middle school next spring. She’s into politics, you get me? Parade at her entrance ceremony, fire some salutes. High school, college—full scholarships, obviously. If she wants, prep a spot up top for her. Supreme Commander Young, that’s on you.”
Education. A society teaching math and literature, not marksmanship and knots. Armies loading blanks, not live rounds. I wanted to see normal politics restored, not this necessity-driven dictatorship.
“And... ah! Metal Joe! Get that guy a statue! A thirty-meter one, like the Jesus statue in Rio!”
A world with the luxury to honor the dead.
“Our kid, due in nine months—feed them only organic!”
A future with fresh food, not bunker cans.
“Retire Elder Woojin!”
A place where the weary could rest.
Do it. Make it happen.
Fulfill it. Let it be so.
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.
Listing out my demands one by one, I looked like a gleeful child. These were all things I’d wanted to do if I’d lived. Right now, I was offloading every goal of my life onto the world’s survivors, using their life debts as collateral. How could I not be thrilled?
“And, uh, what else was there...”
Chattering away so excitedly, before I knew it, everything I’d wanted to achieve in life had crumbled away. The variant’s hardy flesh, my remaining lifespan—all shattered, trailing behind me like a tail.
“...Right. Last but not least, something I want.”
Warmth seeped into my freezing body. Not some miraculous recovery, but heat from getting too close to the satellite swarm.
“I want you to remember me.”
The final burden I passed to the world was myself.
“Don’t forget that my death in this moment is for you.”
“Just as I lived my whole life bearing the names of my father, mother, and fallen comrades, I want you to bear my name—the name of the one who gave everything for you—and live with it.”
“Just as their names bound me to this world, let my name bind your lives to this stormy world.”
The weight I’d borne and lived with. The load that had pressed down on my chest since I was seventeen, tormented me, but propped me up so I wouldn’t collapse. I’d tie that life debt to you.
It wouldn’t be as painful for you as it was for me. I bore it alone, but you’d share it with everyone your eyes and ears touch.
Every survivor, everyone who’d go on standing on that ground, would owe me! My name would become your common bond, a friendly icebreaker even with strangers.
“Don’t feel burdened. That’s what a life debt is. A burden you carry your whole life, until the name fades from memory.”
“That’s how you live. Bearing my name. No exceptions for your kids. The seventy-year Earth recovery period Gedroits mentioned, humanity’s growth time starting from zero—all owed to me. At least until your grandkids’ grandkids are reciting my tale like gospel!”
“You can do it, right? I stop here, but you can go further, yeah?”
The screen warped from the electromagnet’s interference, so I let go of the camera. The me on camera, the desperate gaze toward those beyond, faded into the falling artificial stars.
“...Silly question. Of course you can. Obviously.”
Desperation turned to a hollow laugh, my usual cheeky grin.
“I’m the man shaped by watching you, enduring with you, surviving because of you—the reflection of you all.”
“If I could do it, there’s no way you can’t. Right?”
Thump. My body—head and arms only—hit the electromagnet. I didn’t know what percentage of the variant flesh remained, but it had kept me alive this far.
The demands were done. With my dying breaths rationed, I’d said all I needed.
Now, only proof remained. Proof of how extraordinary the one sacrificing before you is, what he can achieve, what burden he carried.
“...Earth’s largest meteor shower in history. Plenty to go around even if everyone wishes on one. Make a wish, friends. Beg to be saved.”
The remnants of my hands—one to the electromagnet pillar, the other to my heart.
“I’ll hear it.”
So, farewell. Friends. Loved ones.
“Last... spell.”
Psssh!
Ahh, Mother. Father, Ottoman, Aldrich.
I really... wanted to try this once.
The bony fingers pierced my chest effortlessly, reaching my heart.
The final act of a mage who’d chased the impossible his whole life spilled forth.
‘What would you dream of, facing your end?’
I pondered what the ‘mutant virus’—whose principles even its creator Gedroits couldn’t explain—used to form the flesh.
Bodies made from nearby corpses, from entire pyres, metallic weapon-shapes like swords, even mountain-sized giants.
Unbound by biological form. The material was whatever surrounded the origin point at the moment of change—anything became the stuff.
The form was determined by the memory the virus reached last. That alone decided if it became a pile of bones or a walking mountain.
The one manifested from a living body’s—the one that would hold my final imagination.
Realizing imagination—isn’t that the realm of magic?
Even its creator, far beyond this era, couldn’t quantify it with science. Until the surviving humanity explained it as science: this prowling virus shaping forms in our bodies, harmless, unleashing uncanny power on triggers, a possibility branched from our distant past, looping back after a long journey.
This moment—the miracle saving all humanity’s lives—would be recorded as ‘magic.’
[World, My World]
World, my world.
“By... long tradition.”
“Let there... be debt.”
Thus, with the name I bore, may it endure forever.
That was the end.
In a sensation like all memories being sucked out and compressed, the last thing I saw was the blue star beneath my feet.
My home, embroidered with twinkling electric lights blooming in the shroud of night.
Even at this height, my sky was still there.
A world of darkness, stitched with star-like people living on that land.
Painfully radiant, my world.
Forgive me, setting off alone.
****
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Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The regular sound of falling water.
Echoing in a vast space.
A familiar comfort somewhere.
“Hm?”
Just... white.
Whether I opened my eyes or came to, the moment I registered it, an endless white expanse stretched before me. White. Not black.
“...Kinda different from usual.”
My mind was foggy, like in a dream. I couldn’t recall what I’d been doing or how I’d ended up here.
[Hey.]
“...Hey.”
I remembered the worn gray sofa and the hefty figure lounging on it, scratching its belly.
“Move it, jerk. Let me sit.”
[Too cramped even for me alone.]
“Then get lost entirely.”
[Tch.]
With a wolfish snout clicking its tongue, Hyde—who’d been lying sideways—sat up.
Squelch—
“Aaah, that’s it. This feel, this dust, this moldy stench. Perfection.”
[Yeah, perfect. You ended it lightning-fast. Why’re you here already? I said come way later.]
“And why’re you still waiting? You should’ve been long gone by now.”
[Wasn’t waiting. Was just chilling, planning a leisurely exit, then you show up early.]
“Yeah, right.”
[Ptooey.]
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[So. Saw the end this time?]
“...Yeah, something like that.”
[If it’s that, say it is. What’s ‘something like’?]
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Click-click, snap!
Fwooo—
[Hand me one too.]
“You? You ever even smoked?”
[Sixty years longer than you. Even shelled out premium for dried mushroom tobacco in Corid Fortress City.]
“Ugh. Here, take the whole pack. Finish it yourself.”
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[Not that it’s super important, but...]
[...So. Are you... really satisfied now?]
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[Heh, funny kid.]
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