Chapter 339
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 339
Chapter Title: 136. Candles (3)
The conflict didn't drag on for long.
The man with the deep voice set his gun down.
"You can ignore her."
He glanced at the woman staring at us, then turned away.
"She's not human. They're already dead. That's why we call them candles."
"Candles?"
I stared at the clearly living woman smiling at us.
The man nodded.
"Like candles, just waiting to burn out completely."
It didn't seem like he was referring only to that woman.
It was a term for all the motionless humans here, like monsters.
Just as the man said, the woman only watched us from beyond the structure that resembled a serpent's spine.
She neither spoke to us nor attacked.
"......"
This was my first time seeing a fanatic in the narrow sense.
It was only natural.
In China, we'd defended the major cities and strongholds where humans still remained.
The places we withdrew from or failed to hold became erosion zones.
My impressions were always grim, as usual.
I hated them.
Not to the point of wanting to shoot every one I saw, but I didn't want to place these frail, foolish humans who'd surrendered to humanity's enemies on the same level as myself.
That was my honest feeling.
If that woman made even the slightest move to harm us, I wouldn't hesitate.
I didn't see fanatics as human, so I skipped certain standards I'd apply to humans when dealing with them.
The fanatic who appeared out of nowhere simply stood there, as the man said, so we turned our attention back to the task at hand.
"Instructor. What do you think?"
Song Yujin asked, gazing at the rift below the mountain ridge and its surroundings.
"It's tough."
Not just difficult. Tough.
Among us hunters, saying something was tough implied it was something we shouldn't even say.
"To achieve our goal, we'd have to get right up to the rift. Judging by the grades and numbers of the monsters deployed around its perimeter, it's impossible."
There were only two solutions.
One was concentrated firepower capable of wiping them out from beyond the reflective barrier's range.
Artillery, air force, or warships limited to coastal areas.
They were reliable allies always nearby before the war, but hard to count on now.
The other was the boss of these young friends: Woo Minhee.
We needed Woo Minhee.
We needed an Awakener of her caliber to rip through the monsters ahead and carve a path.
But given her personality, she wouldn't come all this way to help me.
"......Thanks for guiding us here. It's been a while, but thanks to you, I could update my memory of the Paju Rift."
In short, mission failed.
"Let's withdraw."
Early withdrawal was a trait shared by both incompetent and competent leaders.
Artful withdrawal saved everything, while foolish withdrawal lost it bit by bit.
I wasn't one to give up easily.
That made this situation all the more hopeless.
I looked at Valentin.
"Valentin. I'm truly sorry, but against that level of forces, there's nothing we can do."
"I-is that so?"
Valentin still hadn't recovered from the shock.
The profuse sweat, trembling eyes, and ragged breathing were telltale signs of his immense stress.
"Let's head back. Our plan matters, but our lives matter more, right? If we die, it's over. Everything's over."
"That's not true."
A blade-like intent pierced through my mind.
Clear killing intent.
I glared at the fanatic spouting nonsense beside us, channeling that intent.
"Can I kill her?"
I asked the group.
The deep-voiced man answered quickly.
"Ignore her. Didn't I say she's a candle?"
Click.
I raised my pistol.
The motive was simple and intense.
We couldn't let the fanatic speak.
Couldn't let that filthy gray tongue spew repulsive ideology.
"Monsters won't react, but otherworldly species might swarm."
The man said, eyeing the pistol.
"......"
Sometimes I wondered in retrospect.
Should I have killed that woman back then, right there? I asked myself countless times.
"Wait a minute."
The one who stopped the killing was Valentin.
I was puzzled.
He'd always accepted and followed my decisions like an NPC, even making Song Yujin wary with my sharp killing intent.
Deep down, I'd seen him as lesser than us, someone below us.
That much was clear from feeling more bafflement than anger at his intervention.
"Couldn't we use her?"
Valentin said, looking at the woman.
"Use her how?"
"These people. They move around just fine even in places crawling with monsters like this."
It was a thought we could never have.
At school and on the battlefield, we were taught—and convinced ourselves—that fanatics weren't human, that they were something to be killed without fail.
In our eyes, fanatics weren't human.
But to Valentin, who'd lived a normal life, they still looked human.
Like beings capable of dialogue and coexistence.
I felt a fresh, novel shock and waited for his next move.
"Hey! Over there! Hello!"
Wiping sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, Valentin called out to the pale woman watching us blankly.
"This is awkward."
The thick-voiced man said.
Song Yujin's expression soured too.
The other silent man had donned a gas mask covering his entire face.
He said nothing, but clearly disliked the situation.
"......"
But we couldn't just stop him outright.
We had to consider Valentin's feelings, and after coming this far—even incurring a debt to Woo Minhee—retreating empty-handed wouldn't look good.
And truthfully, there was a sliver of hope.
"Yes. Um, could you take us down to that rift? It seems monsters don't attack your side. Yes. Could you hold this for five minutes or so down there and come back here? Oh, some sugar? We have food. Dried jerky too. And a handful of flour."
Valentin desperately tried to communicate with the silent woman using gestures.
I looked at her.
She appeared to be in her early to mid-twenties.
Her hair was a tangled mess, unwashed, and her health poor, making her look more like a withered cornstalk than a person. But cleaned up with decent nutrition, she'd be reasonably attractive.
Her height suggested around 165cm—not likely North Korean.
The woman parted her lips.
A faint sound emerged.
But it didn't reach us.
Even with my sharp hearing and trained ear, it barely registered—her voice must be extremely soft and faint.
Valentin relayed her intent.
"She says she'll do it."
"......Is that so?"
"Yes. Something about unity or whatever—she can go to that horrific floating lake without monsters attacking."
"......"
To be honest, I opposed it.
We shouldn't.
Hunters like me, especially those with China deployment experience, believed killing fanatics first and asking questions later was fine.
But calmly considered, she was just a tool at best.
"......Alright."
"Could I borrow a communicator? Oh, and you'd need to show me how to use it."
I handed over the communicator.
Valentin took it and approached the fanatic woman.
I studied his face.
Different from when he looked at me or Song Yujin's group.
The face of an earnest, enthusiastic, hardworking everyman giving his all.
It struck me anew—his past intrigued me.
I hadn't doubted much at first.
He'd said he ran a small business.
But his story shifted each time.
Sometimes a PC bang owner, other times a corporate engineer.
Even his real name was ambiguous.
He'd admitted the name he used in the swamp was fake.
I'd only just learned he was married.
I hadn't dug because I didn't care, but he was undeniably enigmatic.
Yet his diligence, kindness, and loyalty—pursuing the same goals as me—made his past irrelevant.
In this crumbling end times, that made him a comrade worth keeping. No need to pry.
"Yes. She's heading out now."
The fanatic moved.
Barefoot.
Her ragged clothes fluttered in the wind, exposing her unashamed rear—she'd surpassed ordinary human limits.
But her voice was sweet.
"Do you know?"
She spoke through the communicator.
A soft Seoul accent.
Not North Korean.
I saw Song Yujin and the others remove their communicators.
Result of old training and ingrained prejudice.
Don't engage fanatics in talk.
That included not listening to them.
"There was a kangaroo at the hospital where I was. Tall, standing on two legs and a tail, always blankly at the front like a statue. Seemed young. Two? Three? I don't really know its age."
I considered removing mine too.
Her pleasant voice, breath, slow tempo—all felt like proselytizing for the evil religion that invited humanity's doom.
"Whoa. A kangaroo? Why was it at a hospital?"
Valentin's voice stopped my hand.
"......"
I'll listen to the end.
I'm complicit in this mess too.
Not out of curiosity about fanatics—I have none.
What intrigued me was Valentin's inner thoughts. A man I considered friendly but not truly close.
In the ensuing silence, the fanatic—hidden by rocks—emerged, walking barefoot across the gray plain.
Monsters surrounded her.
Small type, snail variant.
One of the early orb-class insect-mimicking varieties.
It spewed human-melting slime but ignored her passing by.
"Don't know. Hospital director's orders, probably."
Even as she chattered through the communicator.
"See, Skelton? Monsters really aren't touching her."
Valentin approached me, excited, his voice feverish like his expression.
"......I see."
Under ominous gazes, the woman headed straight for the rift.
Teeming with monsters and otherworldly creatures, yet none paid her attention.
"Amazing."
Valentin exclaimed.
The nameless man countered.
"A burned-out candle."
He muttered, turning away.
"That's why they ignore her."
I exchanged glances with Song Yujin.
Her group subtly fell back, creating distance.
Meanwhile, the fanatic kept talking in her gentle voice.
"I always wondered about that kangaroo standing blankly at the hospital entrance, staring at the horizon. The questions changed over time. At first, why it came here. But as time passed, what it thought while living in that closed space."
I called Song Yujin over.
Bright and innocent as she was, her recent harsh lesson from Woo Minhee sharpened her instincts.
"Yes, sir?"
She approached quietly.
"You listening too?"
She nodded cautiously.
"That story she just spouted. Is it in the manual?"
Probably called a "parable."
Stories fanatics repeated parrot-like to spread their faith.
Fixed parables existed, and this kangaroo one was new to me.
I'd been off the front lines long, so it made sense.
Hence calling Song Yujin—she was active longer and knew fresher intel.
"Don't know it."
She crossed her arms, frowning slightly.
"There's a subway pigeon pattern, but hospital kangaroo? First time."
"Really?"
I asked to cut off the nonsense midway.
State the conclusion first as it builds, shutting her mouth—a bit rude, but effective.
I resorted to this because Valentin's face, listening intently, looked off.
He liked this first fanatic he met.
More than me, after years together.
Well, young and pretty if fixed up—easy to like.
The story continued amid disappointment.
"Past the lobby, down a short hall, there was the kangaroo's room. Surprisingly real. Ceiling high, needed two beer crates stacked to reach, but every evening, it'd climb them itself."
Song Yujin snorted.
Ridiculous enough.
I skipped commentary on the drivel.
My eyes stayed fixed on the fanatic.
She'd reached 100m from the rift.
Mid-sized ones guarded like the Four Heavenly Kings, hellish swarms of bug-mimicking horrors below—yet she walked barefoot, unhindered.
She even stepped on a worm-like otherworlder, but nothing happened.
The smoother her advance, the brighter Valentin's face.
"Whoa......!!"
Muffling his voice, he saw it as miraculous.
Fair enough—seeing that before monsters we'd been taught were incompatible shook anyone.
The fanatic passed monsters and horrors, reaching the rift's base: the mirror-like lake, still yet rippling occasionally—the root of all disasters.
"Candle. About to burn out."
The nameless man muttered.
I asked Song Yujin his name.
"Hyungtaek. Shin Hyungtaek. One year younger than me. Gas mask guy's Gam Jisoo."
As thoughts clashed, Valentin returned, serious-faced, to measure.
"Good. Stay there. Perfect."
I watched silently.
If it works, great.
Process matters, but results more—especially without backup.
I observed Valentin too, glaring at his tablet while eyeing monsters.
Soon, he nodded.
"Yes. Done. This is enough!"
Mission success?
But the fanatic at the rift base broke the silence.
"Now I know what that kangaroo was thinking, why it acted that way."
I told Valentin, tossing my communicator aside.
"Bullshit."
Emphasized again.
"Don't listen."