Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: -13
Chapter Title: One Month Later
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The air felt not just chilly, but painfully cold.
The metallic tang of blood that had been drifting from far away was now emanating sharply from my own hands, but Hyeok Tae-jun didn't seem to notice.
There were two main reasons he hadn't noticed. First, he hadn't trained to pick up on things like that. Second, he was still crying.
His sobs alone could draw every monster around, so I had to stop him somehow. But I couldn't control my own tears sliding down my cheeks from time to time, so I couldn't bring myself to say anything to him.
I was utterly unqualified.
"Jin-seong-ah..."
But it was Hyeok Tae-jun who broke through the sobs to speak.
"What."
"What are we gonna do now?"
"I told you. That thing up in the sky. We're gonna get rid of it."
"Yeah, but how? We can't even reach the sky, and even if we did, we'd just turn into monsters right away."
Before I knew it, Hyeok Tae-jun had stopped crying completely and wore an expression of seriousness I'd never seen from him before.
Thinking about it closely, it reminded me a bit of the fleeting look of sorrow he'd shown when he realized the true nature of the "girl."
"You do have a plan, right?"
"Of course I have a plan. Though..."
The Headquarters Chief—no, Seo Kyung-sik—was dead.
It plunged us all into grief and left us reminiscing endlessly about the past. But more than that, it threw a massive wrench into my immediate plans.
In our group, the symbol of raw power had been the Chief.
I really had to use the word "symbol."
His strength was that overwhelming, like a cheat code come to life.
If we could've recruited him as a companion in the game, he would've been an absolute must-have.
Anyway, the Chief was indispensable.
Honestly, in this world, Hyeok Tae-jun had zero combat prowess. Even in terms of knowledge, he fell far short of me or the Chief.
He'd always been more of a tag-along, so there was no point blaming him.
But blame or no blame, the problem was that I had to handle everything from here on out.
Knowledge? I could confidently say I had more than anyone in this world.
But power?
All I had was an axe and the angel.
I could handle a regular human with the axe myself, but what I was up against were monsters.
So in the end, I'd have to rely on my deal with the angel... but I had no idea how long I could hold out using that.
"...Hey, Jin-seong?"
"Oh, sorry. Just thinking for a sec."
Which meant the plan needed a complete overhaul.
"My original plan relied on the Chief being here. I was banking on his power to force our way through."
"Ah..."
"So a new route for just the two of us to pull this off... it'll take a fair bit of time. At least a month, minimum. Maybe even longer."
Blasting straight through was off the table now, so from here on, every Tale we needed for the plan had to be cleared by the book—the exhausting, time-consuming way.
"You get what I'm saying?"
Hyeok Tae-jun quietly wiped away fresh tears and nodded, accepting my words.
"Yeah... got it."
We kept walking.
But surprisingly, when we snapped out of it, we realized we still hadn't strayed far from the Chief's side.
It wasn't due to any Tale.
Hyeok Tae-jun realized it too and opened his tightly shut mouth.
"...Should we at least make a grave for the Chief?"
It was just that the Chief lying there so quietly in the distance was weighing on us.
I agreed with Hyeok Tae-jun and dug quickly, but with as much care as I could muster.
The grave we made in under thirty minutes wasn't exactly ideal for laying someone to rest, but it turned into a pretty decent burial mound all the same.
Another thirty minutes passed in silence, and we were able to send the Chief off properly.
Hyeok Tae-jun knelt before it, staring at the grave.
He seemed to think his own desire to destroy that thing in the sky was what led to all this.
"Tae-jun-ah."
"...Yeah?"
"Yoon Seo-yeon said she was watching us from the moment we met you."
"Oh... yeah, I heard roughly."
"So even if we hadn't gone through with our plan, Yoon Seo-yeon would've waited for her chance and sacrificed her own life to kill the Chief anyway."
"...Thanks."
That was the end of the conversation.
I hadn't explained the full plan yet, but both Hyeok Tae-jun and I needed time to pull ourselves together.
With Seo Kyung-sik—the Chief, our protector—gone, we were like newborns again, needing time to adjust to this new reality.
What do we do now?
"..."
What can we do?
There was only one thing I had to do.
Now, as the new protector, I had to keep my promise.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A month had passed since the day the Chief died.
Of course, with most clocks stopped, I couldn't swear it was exactly one month, but it was about that long.
"Hey! Shin Jin-seong! You coming or what?"
No need to spell it out.
That month was more than enough time to elevate my relationship with Hyeok Tae-jun to something you could call friendship.
"I'm coming! You're moving way too damn fast!"
And though I hate to admit it personally, Hyeok Tae-jun really was the protagonist.
The guy had gotten tougher physically than me in just that one month.
So much for my vow to be the ideal protector—it got crushed like a lump of clay.
"Let's swing by the house first."
"Okay!"
"This should cover our food for at least a year—no more scavenging needed."
"We hauled every last bit of the city's stockpiles."
A month. Not exactly short by any measure.
Listing everything that happened during it would take circling the globe, so I'll stick to the important stuff.
"Want some coffee?"
"Huh, we still have coffee left?"
"Enough for two or three cups."
"Then hit me."
To explain our current peace, I should start with how we found our base.
Our goal was, naturally, to reach that thing in the sky.
The will to do it had weakened a bit after Seo Kyung-sik's death and the passage of time, but conversely, his death made it a goal we had to achieve.
But to reach that goal, we had to survive first.
Recalling the safety we'd had in Moon Woo-seok's complex, we claimed a house as our base.
It was the highest spot in the neighborhood and plenty big for two people, so we moved in.
"Here's your coffee."
"Thanks."
And this might just be a placebo, but planting Moon Woo-seok's core smack in the middle of the house seems to keep the monsters away.
Like they approach but then naturally veer off.
Anyway, that's the biggest reason for our current peace.
Next up: the few things we've accomplished thanks to that peace.
The Chief's death was way harder than we'd imagined.
We dove into a Tale to gather supplies for heading skyward, but it didn't go as planned, and we nearly died.
Imagine hundreds of twisted animals surrounding us to devour us—that's the level of threat.
"But why drink coffee if you can't even taste it?"
"Still chases away the fatigue, though?"
"Well, yeah. Walking around fine with your left eye gone, guess it doesn't matter much."
Right. I traded my left eye to the angel.
It was our only way out, an unavoidable sacrifice.
The catharsis of every nearby animal's head exploding at once was worth the eye, no question.
Depth perception's a bit off and my field of view's narrower, but no big issues otherwise.
We got what we needed, anyway.
It's stored deep in the house now.
Next thing worth mentioning...
"Hey."
"Hm? Calling me?"
You can tell just by looking at Hyeok Tae-jun.
Remember how I said his stamina had surpassed mine?
Truth is, there's a slight exaggeration there.
It wasn't just better than mine—he could rip through a decent Tale with a single blade now.
His bulging arm muscles said it all.
If Hyeok Tae-jun had gone to the Bureau instead of me, they'd have turned him into a living weapon.
"No screams at all lately, huh?"
"Seems that way."
"Ha... are we really the only ones left?"
"Well, Earth's not just Seoul. Plenty of people probably hiding out everywhere."
"Hope so..."
That's about it for noteworthy stuff.
Some might scoff, "That's all you did in a month?!" But weaving through monsters to scavenge food and supplies left no choice.
"So, we heading out tomorrow?"
"...Yeah. Too much time's passed already."
Just one thing left now.
The device to let us endure right before the eye in the sky.
Moon Woo-seok's core alone won't cut it.
So we need to grab the Tale that reinforces this core.
We've put it off while building up our foundations, but it's time.
"What was the Tale we need again?"
"Paradoxical Time."