Chapter 340
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 340
Chapter Title: 136. Candle (4)
"Understood."
Valentine removed his communicator.
I bowed my head in gratitude for his wise decision.
We exchanged a brief glance, reaffirming our trust in each other.
"So what do we do now? We need to retrieve the measuring device."
"Don't you have the data?"
"Yes. That's true."
"Let's abandon it."
I looked around.
I knew there was no immediate danger, but this was for show.
"You never know when something might happen here. If those massive creatures over there suddenly see us as enemies, our chances of survival would be extremely slim."
I wasn't lying.
It was time to head back.
"There was a time when people protested. The hospital staff had locked the doors to keep out the angry patients and their families, and through the glass beyond the closed door, you could see the kangaroo standing there all alone."
I was still listening to the fanatic's ramblings.
To grasp the unstable mindset of this zealot in real-time and prepare accordingly.
As we descended the slope, the fanatic vanished from sight beyond the ridge.
At the same time, the ominous silhouettes of the monsters and the rift gradually sank below the ridgeline ahead of us.
"People demanded they chase out that smelly, filthy beast no one knew why it was there. They asked if this was the hospital director's personal zoo. Standing amid the crowd, I saw the kangaroo's face beyond the people. The moment I looked at it, like magic, it turned its head toward me."
The fanatic kept spouting nonsense.
Was she still clinging to hope for proselytizing?
Even more strangely, the monsters weren't attacking despite all her chatter.
"It'll fade soon."
The soldier known as Shin Hyeongtaek said from behind.
"It's her final spasm. Like a candle burning fiercely right before it goes out, right?"
I wouldn't know.
I'd never served in an erosion zone, nor observed the ecology of those left inside.
He was much younger than me, but he might be right.
He'd probably traversed this massive, serpentine tunnel—like a fossilized snake—dozens of times, witnessing people vanish into the monsters.
I wanted to ask him personally someday, but that chance might never come.
Shin Hyeongtaek glanced worriedly at Valentine.
"But that candle is contagious. I'm concerned. What if that guy gets influenced by it?"
At that moment, the fanatic laughed.
I hated to admit it, but it was a clear, refreshing laugh without a single wrinkle of insincerity.
"The kangaroo laughed. No, it seemed like it was forcing a smile. It moved its barely functional dimple muscles to smile at the people raging at it."
Song Yujin, leading the way, pressed the switch on her communicator and turned it off.
She must have decided it wasn't worth listening to anymore.
Shin Hyeongtaek and Kim Jisoo, following behind, soon switched theirs off as well.
Before we knew it, we'd descended the steep slope.
In the distance, the winding end of the tunnel, like a serpent's tail, came into view.
Now it was safe to turn off the communicator.
But a sudden whim made me lift my head and stay my hand from the switch.
It was a silly impulse, but I wanted to hear the end.
I wanted to hear what this woman—who looked like us but had become something else—had to say to the end.
As Shin Hyeongtaek said, maybe I wanted to see the flicker of a flame before it died.
"That's when I started to see into people's hearts."
I looked around.
No one reacted.
I was the only one hearing this.
I'd heard of Awakeners who could read minds.
Not high-level ones.
They were extremely rare among low-level Awakeners.
But reading minds was like someone with 0.1 vision trying to read an eye chart without glasses.
Like a nearsighted person making out the largest numbers or symbols but not the tiny ones below.
There were so few of them, and their unverifiable ability was easy to fake, so mind-reading Awakeners soon fell off the research institutions' radar.
Sensing Awakeners who hated fieldwork probably lied about having mind-reading powers, contributing to the skepticism.
"Of course, I can see your hearts too."
The fanatic's words hadn't even finished.
A bizarre roar I'd never heard before echoed from beyond the ridgeline.
From the rift.
The moment I thought that, my mind went blank, as if bleached white.
"...Kugh!"
For an instant, the world flashed.
There was no light.
My consciousness had simply blurred.
It wasn't just me.
"Agh! Guhgh!"
"Ugh...! Urgh!!!!"
Vomiting sounds came from ahead and behind.
Our fellow Awakeners.
I saw Song Yujin clutching her throat with both hands, retching bile in agony.
Only Valentine and I were unscathed.
One hypothesis flashed through my mind.
Wave.
The rift itself's wave.
At that moment, the communicator crackled.
"You all have your minds closed tight like boxes, but those two had theirs wide open."
The fanatic.
"So I took a closer look."
I ignored her and approached Song Yujin to check her condition.
"You okay?"
"Ah, aah..."
Song Yujin's eyes were unfocused.
She'd taken a shock I could scarcely imagine.
Fortunately, her dilated pupils slowly refocused.
Supported by me, she shuddered and muttered.
"Fuck... I want to get out of here..."
A single tear traced down her wounded cheek.
Soon she recognized me and looked slightly surprised.
I pretended not to notice and checked on the others.
"You okay? You there?"
"We need to hurry."
Shin Hyeongtaek wiped the vomit from around his mouth and overtook me.
"The rift is roaring."
"The rift is roaring..?"
"It's a recently discovered phenomenon. Probably linked to the activity around Jeju Island, but no time to explain. Let's go! The monster surge will start soon."
I nodded and followed.
Something was moving in my field of vision.
A person—no, the fanatic.
Those slumped limply like monsters suddenly sprang to life, dashing toward the rift in their ragged clothes.
I had no intention of understanding or explaining this madness.
What stopped me was my friend, Valentine.
He'd halted, standing motionless.
"Mr. Valentine?"
Valentine was staring at his tablet.
"Mr. Valentine?!"
As I approached him, the communicator crackled again.
"That kangaroo thought of that place as home."
I switched it off.
"?"
No, it wouldn't turn off.
Did that massive wave earlier damage the device?
Ignoring her nonstop chatter, I headed for Valentine.
"The entire psychiatric hospital building felt like the pouch of the mother who birthed it. That's why, despite all the abuse, it forced a smile and could crawl back to its room—up on those two beer crates—once the sun set."
Click click click
I kept pressing the switch.
"Ah. Ah."
I tested the mic.
No issues.
Some minor glitch.
"But you know, if that kangaroo were given a real plain—not that cramped, wretched hospital full of nasty people, but a boundless plain where it could run free—what do you think it would do?"
Fortunately, I didn't have to hear the fanatic's answer.
I finally managed to turn off the communicator.
"Mr. Valentine."
Valentine was still focused on the tablet.
Even to my untrained eyes, the tablet linked to the fanatic's measuring gear was graphing something extraordinary in real-time.
Valentine looked up.
"Skeleton!"
I met his eyes.
For a moment, doubt gripped me.
Had this man always had eyes sparkling with such conviction?
"Skeleton, look at these readings!"
He showed me the tablet.
"What is it?"
"This is no ordinary matter."
"We need to go now."
"This is a monumental discovery. Bigger than anything the Necropolis developers know!"
"..."
I fell silent.
He wouldn't grasp the graphs' meaning.
He'd admitted it himself.
He didn't know or understand how Deadman Walking's data and graphs worked, or what they measured.
"Hahaha."
Yet here he was, acting in direct contradiction.
"I get it. I think I get it now!"
"What are you planning?"
"We have to go now."
With eyes still gleaming, Valentine turned away.
I grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to stop with some emotion behind it.
"Go where?"
"There!"
Despite the force, Valentine looked unfazed.
A chilling suspicion arose.
"..."
Has he lost his mind?
Did that rift's roar shatter his spirit?
It happens often enough.
Inexperienced folk going mad from high-level Awakener waves up close.
I knew it well, but I didn't want it happening to those around me—people I cared for.
"You'll die if you go."
I sighed deeply and bowed my head.
"Please, don't go."
I rarely begged.
Not since pleading with my monster-slain family, who no longer breathed, to live again.
Not once since.
Yet here I was, begging—me, who thought I'd let everything go.
A rough, calloused but warm hand grasped mine.
"I'm scared of dying too."
Valentine.
As I raised my head, I saw his face.
He was smiling.
His usual kind, good-natured smile.
Facing that smile forced me to revise my thoughts.
It was as hard to accept as admitting he'd gone mad.
"But since the war began, I've never once gone into battle without steeling myself for death."
He's sane.
Thinking he'd lost it was my misconception—perhaps even my wishful thinking.
"That woman alone isn't enough. There's something I want to calibrate. This is certain. It'll be a monumental discovery etched in human history."
"Didn't you say you knew nothing about those transmissions?"
"I did. But suddenly, I feel like I understand. The moment I experienced it! Something clicked in my head! That Deadman Walking—that worthless guy—must've had a similar revelation."
"..."
"This defies every law humanity knew. I can't explain it, but I have to see it. Feel it, touch it with my own eyes and hands!"
A shout rang out.
"Instructor Park Gyu!"
Song Yujin waved frantically from ahead.
Shin Hyeongtaek and the others had already pressed forward.
Looking at them, Valentine pleaded earnestly.
"Let me do this."
"...Mr. Valentine."
"I beg you."
Valentine bowed his head.
"I don't want to live forever as plus alpha, as support."
"..."
So that's what it meant.
The fanatic's story.
Of course, I didn't buy the fanatic's drivel.
I simply understood the heart of my colleague and friend, Valentine.
Valentine held out the tablet to me.
"We need to tweak the gear she has. There's vital data we must measure."
"...Alright."
Who wants to be a side character?
Who wants to be an extra?
Everyone has believed themselves the protagonist of their world at least once.
"Promise you'll come back."
"I can't promise that."
This guy too, probably.
"I'll tell you my true self—the one I've kept hidden away. It's so pathetic you might not even care, but I want to tell you anyway."
Valentine switched on his communicator and dashed forward.
I turned mine on and waited for his words.
"My real name is Kim Byungseon."
He advanced.
Leaving behind a friend who might never return.
I followed the living with quick steps.
"I made money in the webhard business. Went bust to torrents eventually, but I earned decently until the cops summoned me for distributing obscenity."
Rift Surge Beginning
Shockwaves boomed repeatedly from beyond the ridgeline.
The surge had begun.
A horde of monsters was emerging one after another from where we couldn't see.
"Pathetic life, right? I knew it."
"So I tried to do something. That's how I met John_nenon, created and maintained Failnet."
"...And still, I wasn't the protagonist. But now opportunity knocks!"
"Whoa! That woman's still alive! Whoa! Monsters pouring out like crazy! I got chills, but what makes me worse than her? I'm going in! Keep watching the tablet!"
*
It was a near-future event.
Slight changes were made to Necropolis's entrance prompt.
"Senior. That Byungseon guy in Necropolis—the one who came with you, right?"
I answered Woo Minhee over the radio.
"Yeah."
"Hmm."
"What?"
"Doesn't seem like you."
"How so?"
"Didn't he go there to carve your name?"
"Who knows."
"Life's unpredictable. Yujin said that guy burned up from the candle's spark."
A candle can pass its flame.
By sharing the spark to another candle's wick.
Chewing it over, it was true the fanatic woman had ignited a new candle named Valentine.
But a candle passes more than just a spark.
It offers a bit of warmth and light to banish the dark.
I see that light.
...
...
Necropolis and Viva! Apocalypse! are connected.
Two worlds that seemed destined to run parallel forever are now linked.
Still unstable, with mountains to climb, but those can be tackled slowly, one by one.
A routine formed.
"..."
Tap tap
Since Valentine vanished, I log into Necropolis daily to find his wife.
There are photos I must deliver.