Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: -16
Chapter Title: The Perfect Fabrication
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"Hah... ack, hah..."
It felt like a massive hole had opened up in one part of my lungs.
Oxygen stabbed through my nose and throat straight into my lungs, but it didn't seem to be absorbed at all.
Or maybe my lungs just weren't moving in the first place.
My diaphragm spasmed, disrupting the contraction and expansion of my lungs.
So even my remaining right field of vision was shrouded in a dark haze from the oxygen deprivation.
That's the situation I was in right now.
Or more accurately, 'we' were.
Truth be told, I had no idea.
Embarrassing as it is to admit, I was in such a broken state that I couldn't even grasp something that simple.
What more is there to say? We lost.
And we lost utterly, miserably.
Every cell in my body was dying out, signaling its end, yet my brain was pumping out massive amounts of endorphins to cling to survival.
Even my brain was wrecked, so I had no way of knowing I was dying.
Endorphins are like drugs.
They suppress the pain and grant me one last mercy.
"Ha... ha."
I must have looked like I wanted to cry.
But what came out instead was a ragged laugh scraped together from the air in my lungs.
Was it a side effect of the endorphins, or just a hollow chuckle? I couldn't tell.
The beginning had been perfect, beyond perfect.
We faced the eye in the sky without any interference, and Mun Woo-seok's great legacy freed us from mutation.
The evil god's eye was enormous.
Of course, it looked gigantic even from the ground, so that was expected, and right up to my predictions.
I pulled out the Pabrurum and tore into that cornea-like membrane.
But finding a fatal tale in such a colossal being was incredibly difficult.
Time was on our side.
When I grew tired, Hyeok Tae-jun took up the Pabrurum, and when he tired, I stepped up.
The eye didn't counterattack at all, and we started to believe we'd already won.
"To think... it was all just playing with us."
Yeah, that eye had toyed with us.
Mun Woo-seok's device wasn't advanced enough to protect us at such close range.
When I thrust the blade in for the 105th time, we sensed a sudden mutation and fled through the 'space' right away.
And now we've reached this point.
It felt like my entire body's DNA was twisting, as if I'd been exposed to intense radiation.
Am I going to die like this?
So pointlessly?
But... dying doesn't seem so bad.
I can't forget the peace that settled over the Chief at the end.
If I just die like this...
"Jin-seong... Shin Jin-seong!"
"Huh?"
This was Hyeok Tae-jun's voice.
If Hyeok Tae-jun was still alive, then I couldn't die either.
I controlled my breathing.
Slowly inhaling, exhaling sharply, circulating oxygen through my body.
It hurt like hell, but I had to endure.
Soon, when the oxygen reached my optic nerve, I spotted Hyeok Tae-jun, who was just as battered as I was.
"Y-You're... okay?"
"Who cares about that! The monsters around us are all heading this way right now!"
Hyeok Tae-jun hauled me to my feet and bolted without hesitation.
Judging by his speed, which wasn't what it used to be, he wasn't in great shape either.
"Tae-jun, I'm... sorry."
"I never believed you in the first place, remember? How long are you gonna keep apologizing?"
Those words were purely to spare my feelings.
So all I could do was keep apologizing for my wrongs, things I could never be forgiven for.
"The world turned to shit because I stole your place. If I hadn't been there... that fucked-up thing in the sky wouldn't exist either."
I tried to go on about 'our failure,' but I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"Haha... you're totally losing it. Yeah... I guess you can't help it."
I couldn't even respond, just limped after Hyeok Tae-jun.
"Get your head straight. I don't know how long we can hold out, but we gotta live as long as we can."
I knew.
Hyeok Tae-jun couldn't be saved.
The death embedded deep in the center of his chest made revival impossible!
Still, all I could say was:
"Yeah..."
And when we took shelter under a building, Hyeok Tae-jun left me words that were cruel beyond measure.
"Jin-seong, let's live. Survive."
I didn't want to hear the next words that would burden me with responsibility again.
"Use your knowledge to turn the world back."
But I heard them anyway, and Hyeok Tae-jun made them his last words.
Words carry power on their own, but when they're the final ones, they become an inescapable binding force.
The Chief knew that, so he didn't leave us any responsibility toward the sky.
But Hyeok Tae-jun left it to me without any malice.
"Fuck... now I can't give up."
Run.
I have to run.
Like a rat pup, I crawl through the sewers, past the stench of decay.
No human dignity left.
I can't consider myself human anymore.
I'm nothing but the beast that led this world to ruin.
There's one place even the heavens can't touch.
It's so deep and isolated that no human has ever entered it.
Not even that absolute tale called 'space' can reach it.
But I have to go there.
I must carry on the one will Hyeok Tae-jun entrusted to me.
The place I finally reached was a door awkwardly situated inside the sewer.
I'm just an ordinary human.
Can I make it past those stairs?
I memorize the floors.
Keep going down.
I handle the monsters I can, and leave the impossible ones to the angel.
And I reach my destination.
All I can say is I got lucky.
Except for two, they were things I could handle with my own power.
Especially the core I ripped from the device—Mun Woo-seok's core—did its job perfectly.
I traded both my ears for it, so I can't hear anything anymore, just this constant tinnitus ring—, but it doesn't matter.
There aren't even conversation partners left for me anyway.
The most useless part of the body.
Time to craft a tale.
I've never written anything in my life, let alone a novel, but time will sort that out.
It has to be as complete as possible.
But I can't create new characters.
I have to process the existing people and weave a story from them.
I booted up the laptop.
The pre-charged laptop connected to the internet without issue.
Of course, no Wi-Fi.
But it doesn't matter.
The place I'm entering is a tale, so it doesn't need trivial things like that anyway.
The browser window, sporting a lone dinosaur, bursts into vibrant green life the moment I search for 'Too Wiki.'
And without hesitation, I start searching.
First up: the person who influenced me the most.
Squad Leader, Park Se-jin.
I kept reading, nonstop, Park Se-jin's tale without a break.
No need to worry about the hunters coming for me, bloated with info.
I still have the angel and plenty of useless organs left.
After Park Se-jin, next is Kim Do-hyun.
After Kim Do-hyun, then Hyeok Tae-jun.
Like that, I read and memorized every tale of everyone I knew in this world.
Time flows endlessly.
I must have spent months in the internet.
Then the hunters will chase me for years.
I endure.
I endure and endure until I return to the original world.
And then I craft the tale.
A tale where I'm not the protagonist, but Hyeok Tae-jun is.
Time flows like the wind.
I flee from the hunters, then restart searches if I forget something.
And on the day all those memories are etched into my brain.
Three years and six months underground, but in real time, just a week.
I crammed every tale into my brain and returned to reality.
Now it's time to write.
But not a novel.
This is an absolute essay.
Something I've never experienced, but one many will in the future.
All the tales must interlock like the teeth of a single gear.
In other words, no fantasies allowed.
The most unrealistic thing permitted in this world: tales of terror.
I have to actively use the tales to create the most 'realistic' story possible.
"Yeah."
I just craft the story as my brain dictates.
Edits later.
Time is on my side.
Days pass relentlessly.
The stockpiled food slides into my stomach without any taste, and I shape the tale.
And when time passes and the tale is complete, I despair once more.
"Aaaargh! Why the hell not! It just won't work..."
I'm probably the last human left in this world.
That means one person's belief is enough for the tale to form.
But it doesn't.
That means either someone's still alive, or my belief is insufficient.
Time will sort both out.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ I realized.
Make the protagonist me.
Sorry, Hyeok Tae-jun, but no choice.
I restructured the tale again, giving all the happiness to Hyeok Tae-jun.
My role is just to advance the story.
I summoned the angel one last time, and now all preparations are complete.
Yeah, time to go.
Into the flawless history I created.