Chapter 43
Chapter 43
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: The Man Who Became Light (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Emotional turmoil seemed to take its toll on his ravaged body, and John_nenon called for a break.
The glasses-wearing man in the hazmat suit tended to him attentively.
Judging from how he was vomiting blood at frequent intervals and clutching the hazmat guy's arm with convulsing hands, John_nenon didn't have much time left.
While they administered a stabilizer and he caught his breath, the glasses man approached.
"I'm sorry. We dragged you all this way and wasted your precious time like this."
"What happened?"
The man hesitated for a moment.
Then, in a tone of resignation, he calmly recounted what had befallen John_nenon.
"......John_nenon tried introducing a new type of atomic battery."
"Atomic battery?"
"The latest model, called Neo Alpha. While traditional atomic batteries prioritized stability and lifespan, the Neo Alpha produces so much power it's no exaggeration to call it a miniature power plant. But."
The man's face twisted.
"It was incredibly unstable. Things went wrong during the power installation work. John_nenon ended up getting doused in a massive dose of radiation."
A single question nagged at me throughout the story.
Electricity is an essential resource for any semblance of human life. That's true.
But a power-plant level of output?
Did someone surviving the apocalypse really need that much electricity?
"Do you need that much power?"
I blurted it out once the man finished speaking.
He stared at me blankly, then answered with conviction.
"Yes. We do."
John_nenon rose from his seat and turned toward me.
He seemed ready.
I approached him.
Backlit by the medical equipment, his grotesquely disfigured face blended into the shadows, impossible to make out clearly. But his eyes gleamed like those of a wild beast piercing the darkness, fixed straight on me.
"I know you."
John_nenon said with effort.
He'd switched from polite speech to casual, but I didn't mind.
Right now, he wasn't speaking as John_nenon the forum user—he was speaking as Gu Ssanghyeo, the senior hunter older than me.
"I saw you once in Cheorwon. Yeah, it must've been right after I graduated from the specialist training academy and got deployed to the front lines for the first time."
Cheorwon.
Back when I'd returned to Korea and was grinding hard for cash.
I'd staked my life on a fight there just once.
"Saw you from afar. Fighting. Two monsters showed up at the same time. One was a Dancer, the other a Spider, I think."
"......"
He'd witnessed that scene.
Of all the rotten luck.
"First time seeing something like that. I'd watched videos, run simulator battles, but in person? They were... something humans, people, just couldn't handle. Know what I mean? Like, they didn't have souls. Not even the flicker you see in dogs or cats. Did those things have even as much soul as an earthworm impaled on a fishing hook?"
I figure they do.
Faint as a shadow compared to humans, sure.
"There were a few fresh Awakened recruits just deployed. But they couldn't lay a finger on them. Froze up in terror. And there..."
John_nenon reached out a hand.
As if trying to grasp a past that wouldn't return.
"The top dog from the academy. That was just you. The rest were nothing."
His eyes, gazing into the past, shook violently.
The constant tremors in his pupils and hands betrayed intense emotional upheaval.
Staring off into the distance, John_nenon tilted his head slightly aside.
The shadows from the backlighting lifted, faintly revealing his hideous, red-spotted face.
"Awakened."
John_nenon tried to chew his lower lip with gums missing teeth.
"I see them as monsters. The way they move is just like monsters, right?"
"......"
"Upward waves or downward waves or whatever bullshit theories they spout. To me, they're just monsters. Hell, maybe even human mutations."
He looked at me.
Shadows from the backlight swallowed his face again.
"I begged those green rookie Awakened kids to give me your callsign. I wanted to know who you were."
"......Is that so."
I replied only because I wanted this conversation over quickly.
I was getting tired.
My body ached, and I'd been through situations like this plenty of times.
"Back at that strategy meeting, I ignored you."
"What makes you think I'm anyone special? I deserved to be ignored. Anyway, I'd like to check the gear..."
"Even though you were my idol."
John_nenon cut me off and nodded.
"Yeah. You were my idol."
His eyes, shining purely in the darkness, grew bloodshot.
His faint voice grew hoarse.
"......"
In this uncomfortable silence, I had no idea what to say.
John_nenon spoke again.
"......I heard we almost closed a Rift in India."
His tone had changed.
Hunter Gu Ssanghyeo was gone; forum user John_nenon was back.
"India? Didn't they get wiped out?"
"They gathered the absolute best elites on a small island isolated by the sea and attempted to tackle low-level Rifts. After tons of trial and error, they figured out the true nature of Rifts... and how to close them."
Hard to believe, but John_nenon's tale bore an eerie resemblance to events unfolding in Korea.
Jeju Island and Lee Sanghun's face naturally flashed through my mind.
Along with what he'd told Kim Daram about being ready to stab me in the back.
"Where'd you hear that?"
Talk is cheap.
I needed proof.
John_nenon bowed his head, revealing his face.
A faint smile played on his lips.
"The sea of information left in this world isn't just Viva! Apocalypse!. There's plenty more out there."
John_nenon turned his body.
"There's something I want to show you."
The glasses man supported him.
Behind John_nenon's bedroom was another door, made of lead.
A Geiger counter beside it showed dangerously high readings.
John_nenon ignored it and opened the door.
Thud-
Beyond lay air hot enough to dispel the pervasive chill, countless blinking lights, and just as many wires and cables snaking everywhere.
I knew next to nothing about IT, but it looked like some kind of computer system.
Data storage, servers, that sort of thing.
John_nenon stooped and entered the room, beckoning me to follow.
"Come in, SKELTON."
Four or five years ago?
When I first read John_nenon's posts and became a fan.
The man who'd captivated me once had, unbeknownst to me, drawn me into the swamp he'd created.
"Come on."
Drawn by his call, I stooped and entered the room pulsing with countless lights.
It wasn't just computer gear.
A blindingly bright light assaulted my eyes for a moment.
It came from the myriad monitors mounted on the walls.
I looked at them.
"......What is this?"
No mistaking it.
An internet forum.
One with posts updating in real time.
I glanced at another screen.
Another internet forum.
I checked yet another screen.
Internet forums everywhere.
What the hell was going on?
Another internet site in this world besides Viva! Apocalypse!?
I tore my eyes from the screens and looked at John_nenon.
The blinking lights from the monitors and comms gear dotted his deathly pale face like stars, appearing and vanishing.
John_nenon spread his bony arms wide.
"The community of the failed."
The face of the man who'd boldly introduced himself to everyone at that back-alley barbecue joint suddenly overlapped with the dying man's.
"Failnet!"
A look of relief washed over his face as he glanced slyly my way.
"I made it!"
Indeed.
Another bulletin board existed.
The one the Reporter guy often sourced info from—another internet forum surviving the apocalypse.
Unlike the closed satellite-based Viva! Apocalypse!, I'd heard Failnet let anyone connect from anywhere, anytime they had the means, posting thoughts and opinions just like old times.
"......When I got booted from the board, I had all sorts of thoughts. Throw a huge event to make a flashy comeback, or lurk as a silent reader and just watch. But neither felt right."
John_nenon stared with bloodshot eyes at the massive power unit emblazoned with a radiation symbol in the corner.
"So I thought, why not build a site to rival Viva! Apocalypse!? Like Melon Mask."
The glasses man at his side nodded vigorously and chimed in.
"Failnet is shining a light of hope for countless people mired in despair right this moment. It's saved lives and given hope to so many. With the government and agencies irresponsibly fleeing to Jeju, Failnet is the last internet refuge left in Korea."
Tears welled in the man's eyes.
"But the cost was Ssanghyeo hyung getting badly hurt...... Honestly, I think hyung's better than Melon Mask. Would that con artist go into a room spewing radiation to shut down the gear and protect people from it?"
John_nenon gestured to the man.
"Jeongmin. Enough. Give him the stuff."
Now alone in the light-filled room with him.
John_nenon gazed nostalgically around his creation.
"......This is what I wanted to show you."
He smiled, eyes on the countless monitors connecting people.
Sometimes trivial, flippant, petty—but proof people were still alive, scrolling by vividly and fast.
"Impressive."
An honest, unvarnished reaction.
I'd never imagined it.
That this somewhat frivolous, materialistic guy would create a whole world.
"And one more thing. This is actually the main point."
John_nenon lightly tapped his machines, chuckling happily.
"I'm about to get revenge on Viva! Apocalypse!."
"Revenge?"
"Yeah. On those ungrateful Korean board bastards who kicked me out."
"?!"
"They'll all be baffled, but I wanted you to know, SKELTON. About John_nenon's revenge, starting soon."
He didn't say what the revenge was.
One of John_nenon's followers brought me the gear.
It was perfect.
Before leaving, I looked back at him.
John_nenon stood immersed in a strange afterglow, arms spread wide, beholding the world he'd made.
Whether from the thick darkness or my blurring vision, he blended inseparably with the surrounding light.
*Every time I face a monster, I feel the stale hatred inside me ignite like dry coal.
"......"
The small-type monster before me now—a Dancer variant—is specialized for close-quarters combat.
A hunter-killer, you could say.
Despite its six-meter length, it moves with dance-like agility, darting unpredictably and shredding hunters in melee with its two spear-like arms.
Without gear, it's nearly unbeatable.
But with gear—and reflexes to match its chaotic movements—killing it isn't impossible.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
As the grayish foe filled my vision, shaking the earth, what I needed was resolve to die.
More precisely, the will to land one solid hit even in death.
Click.
Its spear arm rose skyward.
Aiming to impale me from above.
Like how I had to cremate my comrades on-site because we couldn't even send their bodies home.
But I won't go like that.
Feeling the eternal flame of hatred that would never extinguish, I pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The recoil hurled me back as a massive harpoon rocketed forward amid deafening blasts, piercing the monster's torso.
Direct hit.
Boom boom boom!
The explosives inside detonated in a chain, ripping it apart from within.
The monster split in two, dissolving into colorful ashes.
"......Hoo."
My turf was secure now.
The sniper mom and daughter waited outside the woods.
"Whoa, how'd you do that?! SKELTON the hunter? You're a hunter?!"
"Something like that."
"SKELTON!"
They were seriously impressed.
Especially Soo, who stared at me wide-eyed, unable to look away.
I ruffled her hair lightly and left.
"......Call me if something like this pops up again."
"Yeah!"
"Oh, and Rebecca."
"What?"
"Don't post about today on the board."
"Why?"
"Just don't. Before I cut your internet."
"......"
Dragging my exhausted body, I returned to the board.
So much to share.
About John_nenon, especially his revenge plans.
First, a heads-up to Defender.
Wonder what face that guy'll make knowing John_nenon's status.
Grinning sleepily amid the fatigue, I logged in.
"Huh?"
The scene that greeted me was like walking into the wrong house.
What the hell was this?
Why was the board like this?
Unknown invaders had taken it over.
I soon learned why.
The moment I read that, I smacked my forehead.
Who could've imagined such brilliant revenge?
I said with reverence,
"John_nenon."
He'd been my role model.
My role model saw me as his idol.
Now I saw him as my idol.
He deserved it—creating a world and linking it to another.
What do you call a relationship where idols idolize each other?
A chain of idols. I thought of the snake eating its tail, Ouroboros.
Symbol of eternity, but even in unity, there's head and tail.
The big one's the head, the small one's the tail.
I wanted to yield the glory of the head to John_nenon.
The man who'd become one with the light in the twilight haze.
I see his post.