25
Chapter 25
'Wait, how am I supposed to convince them? What should I even say?'
Despite the confident deep breath he took, Lee Yeon-woo struggled to find his voice. His lips remained tightly sealed as countless words swirled in his mind and vanished.
'Ask them to die? Tell them to sacrifice themselves for the world? Ask what the problem is since they can Respawn? I wouldn't do it either.'
He was never particularly good with words to begin with. He could handle casual greetings or professional conversations, but he lacked the eloquence to persuade someone. Even if he once had it, those skills had vanished during his years as a Civil Service Exam Student.
And now, in such a critical situation, he had to convince people to die.
In the end, the shortness of breath beat out his search for the right words. Lee Yeon-woo's lips parted, and a weak voice leaked out.
"Excuse me..."
It was a voice no one heard. The NPCs and Fugitives were too focused on their own tasks. Taking another breath, Lee Yeon-woo raised his voice.
"Excuse me! Hey!"
"...."
The Seizer reacted. Flickering to Lee Yeon-woo's side, the Seizer scanned him quickly.
Dirty clothes, shoes soaked in wastewater. Even a cast on his hand. A gaze that swept from head to toe in an instant.
"A civilian?"
As if he weren't even worth noticing, the Seizer dashed back toward the blue hole. Lee Yeon-woo didn't try to stop him. The Fugitives weren't the priority right now.
"Over there! NPCs! Please listen to me!"
NPC.
Everyone reacted to that word.
Realizing Lee Yeon-woo was a Company Employee, a Fugitive grew wary and gripped his gun and Controller tighter.
The NPCs turned to look at Lee Yeon-woo. The protruding eyes of the Broken Woman, the eyes of the Repeating Man who kept glancing elsewhere and back, and the eyes of the Falling Man.
Three sets of eyes that he had to convince to die.
Lee Yeon-woo squeezed his eyes shut. No words of persuasion came to mind. His mind went completely blank. So, he decided to be honest and just say whatever popped into his head.
A shout erupted.
"The Stuck Man committed suicide! Please, you all should die too!"
A brief silence. After a moment, the Broken Woman's mouth flew open. A young girl's voice shot out from the mouth torn like a demon's.
"I hate that!"
"Look, please listen. I heard you've been treated unfairly by the Company!"
"That's true."
The Repeating Man raised a hand and stroked his chin. The gesture repeated itself. He continued.
"They locked us in a shelter without a single blanket, gave us no food because we wouldn't die of starvation, and just ran experiments. No matter what we said, they didn't even pretend to listen, saying an Anomaly was speaking."
"Ah."
Lee Yeon-woo let out a short sigh.
'Those crazy Company bastards.'
Their treatment made it only natural to feel immediate hatred toward anything regarding the Company. The Stuck Man had been an outlier. He wondered if it was even possible to persuade them.
As if to drive the point home, the Broken Woman let out a laugh that sounded like a scream.
"Everyone just die! The Company should die even more! And you too!"
The Broken Woman swung her arm, which stretched out like a tentacle, and smacked a nearby floating car. Like a hit balloon, the car drifted away before stopping and floating upward.
"Die! Die!"
The Broken Woman huffed, striking cars and streetlights a few more times, but she didn't reach Lee Yeon-woo.
Lee Yeon-woo didn't move an inch from where he stood, chewing on his lip. Then, he opened his mouth again.
"Don't you want those conditions improved? If you sacrifice yourselves now to stop this anomaly, I'll report it to the Company and testify for you. I'll ask the higher-ups to improve your treatment—"
"Who do you think you are?"
The Falling Man asked shortly before disappearing beneath the ground.
Lee Yeon-woo lowered his head. He stared down at the ground where the man had vanished. He couldn't bring himself to answer that he was an Investigator. Even if an Investigator made a suggestion, would the Company even pretend to listen? He only mumbled the answer to himself, unable to believe it.
The Repeating Man spoke as he turned his body.
"It's not that I particularly want to kill anyone. But I don't want to die in pain either."
And then, he began running again.
"Once I get outside the error range, it'll shrink again. So just leave me alone. I'll handle it myself."
The Repeating Man ran until he reached the end, only to be looped back to the starting point, repeating the cycle. It was meaningless.
Then, the Falling Man spoke rapidly.
"Ican't-die-anyway-since-there's-almost-no-physical-interaction—"
He plummeted through the ground. Lee Yeon-woo watched the spot for a moment before looking at the last remaining NPC.
The Broken Woman. She tapped the road with her pointed toes, then whipped her head away as if she couldn't stand to look at him.
'I'm really screwed.'
He hadn't persuaded a single person. If he could convince just one, the Risk Level would drop to 2, down to the level of the monsters he'd seen in the mist.
Just as he was rubbing his face in frustration.
The Seizer, who had been silently watching Lee Yeon-woo, stepped forward. If the errors were reduced, he could escape. His eyes gleamed as he spoke urgently.
"No. It's actually better for all of you if you die."
"I told you, I don't want it to hurt."
The Repeating Man answered dismissively, but his voice carried more goodwill than it had with Lee Yeon-woo. Not just him, but the other two also paid much more attention.
"I'm the one who got you out, so just listen."
The Seizer raised his gun and gestured broadly to the surroundings. A world so broken it was obvious regardless of the distance.
"This is a massive anomaly. There's no way the Company doesn't know. Not just my Dedicated Task Force, but squads specifically meant to catch you will be coming. Do you really want to go back to that horrible room?"
"I guess I don't."
The Repeating Man stopped running and listened intently. The Broken Woman also glanced at the Seizer.
Under their combined gaze, the Seizer mimicked shooting himself in the head with his toy gun.
"It's better to die and gain even a brief moment of freedom. Imagine if you Respawned in some remote wilderness? Now that would be great."
"Hmm."
The Repeating Man seemed intrigued, considering the idea. Seizing the moment, Lee Yeon-woo quickly added.
"That's not it. You're not dying just for a moment of freedom, but gaining freedom as a bonus for sacrificing yourselves for the world. I don't know how much weight my words carry, but I'll report to the top that you sacrificed yourselves to reduce the error."
Between the combined persuasion of the Fugitive and the Investigator, the Repeating Man let out a deep sigh.
"...So how am I supposed to die? You have to give me a weapon."
It worked. Lee Yeon-woo quickly scanned his surroundings. A weapon, something he could use as a weapon.
Right then, a knife floated up above a manhole. The knife the Stuck Man had used and dropped. Lee Yeon-woo kicked off a tree and flew toward the manhole, snatching the knife and hesitating for a moment.
'How do I get this to him?'
He didn't have the confidence to reach the Repeating Man safely. Not just Lee Yeon-woo, but everyone else remained silent. If movement were that easy, the Fugitives would have escaped long ago.
'I'll leave it to luck.'
Lee Yeon-woo took a deep breath and threw the knife with all his might.
Whoosh—
The knife left his hand and sliced through the air. Lee Yeon-woo's desperate eyes and the Seizer's urgent gaze followed its trajectory.
"Please, let there be no problems. Please."
The knife skimmed past a car flipping in midair, narrowly avoided a randomly appearing cola can, and wove through the tentacle-like branches of a shattered tree. Finally, it reached the Repeating Man's hand.
Clack!
The Repeating Man looked down at the knife and let out a heavy sigh.
"A knife of all things. This is going to hurt."
He shifted his gaze across Lee Yeon-woo, the Seizer, the Driver, and finally the Falling Man and the Broken Woman. He spoke.
"Company Employee. Keep your promise. Whether it works or not, tell them. Tell them to treat us like people."
"Yes. I will report it exactly as you've asked."
At that answer, the Repeating Man steeled his resolve. Determination filled his eyes. He gripped the knife tightly.
The Repeating Man stabbed his neck. The Repeating Man stabbed his neck. The Repeating Man stabbed his neck. The Repeating Man stabbed his neck. The Repeating Man stabbed his neck. The Repeating Man stabbed his neck. The Repeating Man stabbed his neck.
Thud— thud— thud— thud— thud—
The stabbing wouldn't end. He couldn't even scream. Screaming was an action not included in the repetition. He could only reveal the terrible pain he felt through his wildly dilated pupils.
"...."
Lee Yeon-woo met those eyes. Bloodshot whites and pupils shaking in a convulsive manner. Lee Yeon-woo nodded, promising to keep his word.
Thump—!
In the next instant, the Repeating Man vanished as if he had never existed.
Now, only two Error NPCs remained.
The error shrank. From the span of a street, it contracted to the size of a small empty lot or a cramped playground.
The intensity of the error also weakened.
Crash! Boom! Bang!
The floating cars and streetlights rained down like a storm. Having fallen from a height of a few steps, Lee Yeon-woo curled his body and looked up at the sky.
Fortunately, there was nothing left to fall on him. At most, he was hit on the head by a few plastic cups and cola cans bouncing around like rugby balls. Lee Yeon-woo let out a relieved laugh.
"Ha, ha."
Risk Level 2 was still threatening, but at most, it was on par with the mist monsters. It was much safer.
***
The situation wasn't over yet.
Of course, the two Fugitives had already fled. As soon as the error subsided, they threw themselves through the blue hole without looking back.
However, since two Error NPCs were still gathered, the error persisted.
Boing— boing— boing— thunk—
Lee Yeon-woo looked at the street, which looked as if a war had swept through it. Denting, shattered vehicles and streetlights.
Small objects scattered like trash, such as cola cans, bounced like rugby balls before embedding themselves in the ground or trees. If hit incorrectly, these errors could cause severe injuries or even kill multiple people.
This had to be resolved.
"...."
Lee Yeon-woo looked at the remaining Error NPCs.
The Falling Man, who continued to fall endlessly with a relaxed expression. And the Broken Woman, who, though he'd only seen her briefly, felt more like a young girl than an adult woman.
'I have to persuade the Broken Woman. Since the Falling Man has almost no interaction.'
Of all people, it was the most hostile NPC. Even the Seizer, who at least pretended to listen, was gone.
However, Lee Yeon-woo spoke to the Broken Woman in a casual tone.
"Want to go grab something to eat?"
"...Food?"
"If you don't like meals, bread is fine. Snacks too."
"...."
The Broken Woman looked at Lee Yeon-woo with her two eyes bulging like balloons. Lee Yeon-woo nodded.
'I don't actually have to kill her. I don't have to persuade her to die. I just need to get her outside the range of this error.'
The Broken Woman hesitated, then looked at the Falling Man. A brief exchange of glances. The Falling Man spoke rapidly.
"IdontneedtoeatanywaysinceIpass-through-and-cant-"
"...No. It's a lie."
The Broken Woman spoke to Lee Yeon-woo in a voice full of distrust—though since her appearance was a grotesque and exaggerated monster, it was hard to be sure if that was the emotion.
"Liar! You can't show me to other people!"
"That's not true."
Lee Yeon-woo smiled slightly and pulled out the Memory Eraser from his inner pocket. A Memory Eraser that hadn't broken despite the chaos.
"If worst comes to worst, I'll just give you a Memory Eraser. I can just get more supplies, so it's not a problem."
"...."
Did she decide to trust him? After hesitating, the Broken Woman silently approached Lee Yeon-woo. Lee Yeon-woo led the Broken Woman toward the other side of the street, walking toward a world without errors. The two of them vanished beyond the street.
Only the Falling Man remained alone on the road.
"Aw—. I want to try eating food too—"
How many times had the Falling Man plummeted through the ground?
Soon, the remaining error subsided. The bouncing objects settled onto the street, and the smaller fragments remained embedded everywhere like modern art.
And so, the error that had manifested in reality was fixed.
***
It was the moment he led the Broken Woman out of the error's range. From the sky where the error was being restored, a small object suddenly popped out and fell, hitting Lee Yeon-woo on the head.
"...What is this?"
As Lee Yeon-woo turned his head, a six-sided die that had fallen in front of him spun around on its own. While Lee Yeon-woo watched blankly, the dancing die stopped and showed one face on top.
Critical Success!
"What the hell."
At that moment, the die vanished from reality. Instead, it appeared in a corner of Lee Yeon-woo's mind.
Whether he closed his eyes or opened them, the die felt vivid. Lee Yeon-woo's expression twisted.
'What is this now?'
He looked up at the sky where the die had fallen, but there was only the usual sky.
The Broken Woman looked up at Lee Yeon-woo, who had stopped walking.
"...Why? Did you handle the error, so now you're going to kill me? As expected, the Company—"
"No, it's not that. Just a second, just a second."
He had no room to worry about the Broken Woman. The die felt present in his mind. Feeling it out, he saw that the six faces contained Critical Success, Critical Failure, Success, Failure, and two Blanks.
No matter how he thought about it, it was an Anomaly.
'It's all over! Why are you doing this to me! Why!'
Lee Yeon-woo clutched his head.