Chapter 267
Chapter 267
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 267
Chapter Title: Park Kwang-rim's Testimony
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Chapter 267
Chapter 267: Park Kwang-rim's Testimony
Kim Shin-hwa! Kim Shin-hwa! Please, just listen to me!
No! No! I'm not crazy! I haven't lost my mind yet!
I swear! I'm still sane! Sure, I feel like I'm about to snap any second, but I really haven't gone mad.
Yang Seo-ho is dead. For real.
So...
Ah, I don't even know where to start.
No, please listen!
Please, just hear me out!
In Gongju—I was waiting in Gongju for the friends you said you'd send, Kim Shin-hwa.
Yeah, the cultists.
That Blood Countess turned out to be more decent than I expected.
Within the realm of cultists, anyway. We could at least talk, so it wasn't bad. I'd worked with types like her before, so we hit it off quick.
Once we gathered in Gongju, we got right to work.
Yang Seo-ho's group—her escort team taking Dokgo Gyeom to Sejong City—hadn't left yet. Yeah, that was just yesterday.
Like you advised, Kim Shin-hwa, we gave up on trying anything directly against Yang Seo-ho's side.
I'd heard someone who tried something similar nearly died. That woman's insane.
So I approached the cultists instead.
They...
Yeah, just like you said. Not in Gongju, but around Nakhwa Rock in Buyeo.
We had no choice but to head there too.
The [Assault Team]—even though it was remnants of the Mansae Ilwon Church, it was a ragtag bunch of cultists from other sects who'd do anything for cash, so they didn't use any one church's name.
That's why they called themselves the [Assault Team].
Sounds like a game term, right? Anyone can see Yang Seo-ho's a monster. From a gamer's perspective, it fits.
We infiltrated that [Assault Team].
Its core was those former Masquerade guys—oh, you know them? Right. Leaders from each sect.
Luckily, Blood Countess had connections there, so slipping in wasn't hard.
The job itself was easy. They were thrilled, actually.
But they wanted me to find something totally random, not Yang Seo-ho's location.
Yeah, I've got that [Dowsing] ability, right? Give me a few conditions, and I can find anyone.
I didn't get it at first.
Why chase some nobody at a time like this? Who the hell are they in such a hurry for? That's what I thought.
But they offered solid rewards—enough to convince me, and considering their situation, it was probably every last dime they had.
So I started tracking them down.
People, people, people.
Yeah. People. I helped them find people.
People.
I've got [Dowsing], right? A few conditions... Ah, I said that already? Okay, got it.
Anyway, I pinpointed their location quick.
They were in the weirdest damn place.
Not east, south, west, north, left, or right.
They were below.
Below! Underground! Right under the earth.
That was Buyeo, right? Nakhwa Rock. There's a cave under it that goes deep underground.
What? You knew?
You mentioned it?
Really?
Ah, this is messing with my head. So confusing. Art—Atia Tra—Hff—Muah—no, I'm fine. What'd you say? Art? I said that? No, I didn't.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Whew—haa—.
Thanks. Calming down a bit.
Anyway.
They were underground. More precisely, trapped in some ancient ruins. Under Nakhwa Rock, there's this deep, dark... labyrinth of tangled ruins.
Looks like they found something down there.
Ah...
Now I remember.
Yeah.
I'd heard the rumors way back.
That they'd dug up something from ruins around here. And they were betting on its power to take on Yang Seo-ho.
Spot on.
That's what I said.
Ah, aaah—but what the hell did I do? I shouldn't have found it for them.
I went and screwed everything up.
Yeah. This [Assault Team] had excavated something from the ruins already, but not everything.
During the dig, some people got trapped with a key artifact.
What the [Assault Team] wanted wasn't those people—it was the artifact they had.
It took a while, but I found them somehow. Needed near-impossible earthworks, but hey, superhuman cultists, right?
In the end, they rescued all the trapped ones.
The survivors, those survivors...
The info they gave me said they were guys in their twenties.
I remember that clear as day.
Most were young folks, early twenties, born after the Great Collapse.
But the ones who crawled out looked like seventy-year-olds—skinny as rails, hair snow-white, skin covered in black blotches like some horrific plague.
And they were muttering this creepy shit: "Shykshak—Huir—Cha—K, Tra."
No, you heard that right.
I was right there, heard every word.
For real. That's exactly what they said.
"Shykshak—Huir—Cha—K, Tra." At first, I thought it was some weird dialect. Not Korean—Chinese dialect. I'm more fluent in Chinese than Korean, honestly.
Dealing with all sorts of foreigners entering Korea through back channels, I hear Chinese dialects and languages from totally different countries all the time.
But I'd swear on my life, I'd never heard anything like it. This eerie, ominous tongue.
Sounds no human could make. Grotesque, foreboding pronunciation. Shykshak—Huir—Cha—K, Tra. Cha—Shyk—Tr—Kra—Tra.
Among the stuff they brought out, one thing stood out as extra weird. Everything was bizarre, but this...
The survivor clutching it went berserk when they tried to take it. Yeah, even when a Mansae Ilwon exec demanded it, he growled like a beast, spat thick drool—biting, clawing, fighting like mad.
Not just refusing to speak—he'd forgotten he was even human. They had to kill him.
The vibe was off. One guy dead, but the cultists seemed even more pumped.
One of them called that thing the [Soul Shackle].
Or maybe I misheard [Soul Contamination].
I was uneasy, so uneasy, but it felt like something irreversible was happening, and what could I do?
Blood Countess said, "This is weird. Something's wrong."
I felt it too. Tried calling you, Kim Shin-hwa. But no answer. We called over and over and over. No pickup.
Why was that?
If you'd answered then, maybe things could've been different.
A day passed, and now it's today.
No idea what power that [Soul Shackle] thing has, but once the real fight kicks off, me and Blood Countess can't do shit.
So we sold Yang Seo-ho's location intel and bailed.
Blood Countess suggested sticking around to watch, so we moved toward Chilgap Mountain. Not all the way there—just a spot with a good view.
What we saw was something you won't see twice.
Dozens of armed trucks and vehicles. Yang Seo-ho, that woman—did she borrow from the military or what? Helicopters by the dozen.
Just like you said before, Kim Shin-hwa—like she was daring them to come at her.
The assault kicked off soon.
Yang Seo-ho leaped from a truck, outrunning it—zipping everywhere, a total monster, smashing everything.
Not like a person—like a tank? Nah, bad analogy.
More like a giant blender.
That's when I got what Yang Seo-ho's gathered crew was for.
They were scooping up bodies from the spots she'd obliterated—or rescuing the lucky survivors.
Rescue. Yeah, I said rescue.
It wasn't violence. It was a natural disaster.
Storm, tsunami, earthquake—and Yang Seo-ho.
That's what you'd call it.
The cultists caught in her onslaught looked less like combat victims and more like refugees from some absurd catastrophe.
Yang Seo-ho's people's job was rescuing them.
The cultists started surrendering in a frenzy or just running.
That was just a bit ago.
But—but—but—
But—but—but—but—but—but—but—but—suddenly, one cultist stepped forward.
Yang Seo-ho didn't even glance his way.
Huge mistake. He was holding the [Soul Shackle]. I wouldn't have looked twice if he wasn't.
But it was definitely that [Soul Shackle], and he said, "Kh—Cha—Ukhta—Br—Toph—Sha—Suak." Yeah, "Kh—Cha—Ukhta—Br—Toph—Sha—Suak."
Right then, that cultist dropped like a puppet with cut strings.
No! No! No! Yang Seo-ho did nothing! And he just died!
Let me finish!
That's not even the bad part!
Then Yang Seo-ho died! No! For real!
No flying projectiles, no attack on her. No light, lightning, flames, nothing visual—not even surreal shit.
But Yang Seo-ho dropped dead!
Aaah—Kh—Ker—Be—Utushin—Hal—Phu, Khtun—
It's not over.
The corpses are rising.
The dead are getting up.
Those piled-up bodies down there—they're rising.
Even as I speak, corpses are stirring, heading toward the [Soul Shackle]—or maybe [Soul Contamination], whatever that relic is.
And people too! Not just corpses—living people!
They're rising, running that way!
Melding together, getting crushed, pulped, mashed into one mass! Humans turning to mush, slithering, pulsing, writhing!
Kim Shin-hwa, you hearing this?
What the hell is that monster? Aaah, Kim Shin-hwa! Do you know what that thing is? Why's it making that hideous "Tekeli-li!" screech?
Aaah—Kim Shin-hwa! Kim Shin-hwa! Look at the sky! Look up!
The stars—the stars are right!
What's happening? What's going on right now? What's happening to me, to this place?
Kim Shin-hwa, you there?
Can you tell me?
Why do I—
Why do I want to become one with them?
Aaah—what's—
What's—
What's happening to me—?