Chapter 13
Chapter 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: The Grandmother's Meadow
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I sat back in my chair, mulling over the game's storyline.
According to the prophecy, that little customer wouldn't show up until tomorrow anyway, so I could afford to take it easy for a bit.
At its core, Saving the World from Tales of Terror was structured around multiple chapters, with the first one centering on the clash between the Tale Management Bureau and the group responsible for spawning tales.
You know, the usual tired trope—prolonged exposure to tales leads to tale-ification and all that.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Boom!
"Damn it! Hurry—contact the response team, now!"
The deafening crashes of crumbling buildings and the frantic screams of people blended into utter chaos, yet the scene right in front of me was serene, like something straight out of a fairy tale.
This place had been packed with cars and single-family homes just moments ago. Now, endless expanses of green grass stretched out as far as the eye could see.
Aaaargh!
If it was going to be this peaceful, it would've been nice to hear birdsong instead of screams.
In the sheer absurdity of it all, nothing but ridiculous thoughts crossed my mind.
The people fleeing across the grass exploded without any warning whatsoever.
Quite literally, like something from above was smashing down on them—boom.
"Squad Leader! What do we do?"
Do-hyun and a few other investigation squad members were right beside me, with Choi Seong-min and his family trailing behind as we ran.
"Hey! Run that by me again—what the hell happened?"
"We were talking with Choi Seong-min when his mother—"
Boom!
"Damn it! Anyway, yes! That's Choi Seong-min's mother!"
Do-hyun, who never cursed under normal circumstances, spat one out as he jabbed a finger toward something hovering in the sky.
A woman floated above the open field where Choi Seong-min's house had once stood.
She gave off an otherworldly, mystical vibe, and dolls circled around her, holding hands like the rings of Saturn. They looked like they were putting on a show of peacefulness, which only made my blood boil.
"So that's it?"
Human tale-ification... I'd heard of it before, but the most recent confirmed case was from ten years ago.
"It also looks like Choi Seong-min's brother, Choi Seong-cheol, went through tale-ification first. And both cases seem tied to some group pulling the strings."
"What?"
Thud!!
"Ugh—first things first, let's survive and figure it out later. Response team on the line?"
Do-hyun shook his head.
Yeah, figures.
If we make it out of here, my top priority will be demanding upgrades to these emergency communicators.
Time to show them I didn't luck into squad leader for nothing.
Standard protocol when a tale isn't actively chasing is to just keep running in a straight line. But with squad members dropping one by one along the way, that clearly wasn't the right call here.
So, I needed to figure out what exactly was crushing these people. Telekinesis, maybe?
But that didn't quite fit—every time someone died, I heard something falling.
Kwaaang!
"Squad Leader! What now? We can't keep this up!"
"Just hold on—a little longer!"
What had changed the space itself?
If this was a spatial-type tale, we'd simply been pulled into its domain.
But this felt different somehow.
After encountering tales this often, you develop a sixth sense for the disorienting shift of spatial translocation.
I hadn't felt anything like that this time.
"Uwaaak!!"
"Help!"
Two more squad members who'd been following me bit the dust.
"Squad Leader!"
"Shit!"
Their calls for me mingled with the hopeless wails of the others, pounding in my skull.
I glanced back. Yu-na was already piggybacked on Seong-min, and he and his wife were already flagging hard.
Civilian stamina had its limits, it seemed.
I had to find a way out before they completely collapsed.
"Get down!"
Do-hyun shouted and shoved me hard out of the way.
Kwaang!
A massive explosion rocked the spot where I'd been standing.
A bit dazed, I stared at Do-hyun.
"If you listen closely, you can hear something slicing through the air!"
What?
I hadn't heard a thing. Wasn't his hearing just abnormally sharp?
"Thanks! If you hear it again, call it out right away—and keep running!"
The spot where buildings should have been was still just endless meadow.
"Ack!"
What the—?
My body suddenly bounced back as if I'd slammed into thin air.
Reaching out to the empty space, my hand met something rough and gritty, like concrete.
It stretched sideways for about five meters, forming a solid wall.
A transparent wall by itself wasn't a huge deal.
The problem was why one had suddenly appeared now, when there hadn't been a single one before.
Ah, I got it!
With all these hints, missing it would make me unfit to lead.
"Do-hyun! This is an illusion!"
To be precise, everything except the people exploding was an illusion.
It was probably making everything non-human look completely different.
Case in point: that invisible wall I'd touched was just a normal one, hidden by the hallucination.
So why were people dying?
The moment I realized it was an illusion, the falling sounds plus the crushing deaths made it obvious.
Something was hurling objects nonstop.
Usually, it'd start with nearby stuff—which explained why we hadn't hit any walls until now.
Alright, so how do we break free of the illusion?
Truth was, we had no real options.
No matter how elite the Tale Management Bureau was, without gear, we were just civilians with some tale experience.
Should've grabbed equipment before coming!
Uwaaak!
Tch.
And with that, the last of the investigation squad was gone.
We weren't the department built for directly facing high-risk tales, so it wasn't surprising we couldn't hold out.
Somehow, though, Choi Seong-min's whole family was still kicking.
Or maybe it just wasn't killing them?
Too risky to test that theory right now.
"Squad Leader! This is bad."
"Huh?"
The entire area around us was boxed in by walls.
Thinking about it, that made perfect sense.
This had been a normal village to begin with, full of walls and buildings.
Which also meant we were trapped in a transparent maze now, one wrong step from death.
"Damn. Really craving a smoke."
But I'd decided to hold off until this mess was over.
Even if it was dragging on longer than expected.
This was all that shop's fault!
Anger surged out of nowhere.
Wasn't it because that horror shop peddled all those weird items that things ended up like this?
Wait... the shop?
"Hey! Those pills you traded for last time—the ones called Momentary Dream? You still have any?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, still got 'em."
"Their effect was sending cold symptoms into a dream or whatever, right?"
"Yes."
In other words, "cold-like" stuff. Meaning it could purge a ton of similar effects, even if they weren't technically a cold.
I had no idea if it'd dispel an illusion, but we were out of choices.
"Hand one over, quick."
"Wait—you're gonna take it? That could be dangerous."
"Then what? We try something."
I squeezed my eyes shut and dumped the pill into my mouth.
It gave me the creeps, like the thing was wriggling on its own.
About two minutes after swallowing, I felt a change in my body.
"Haha, this is pretty wild."
I still saw the endless meadow, but now a semi-transparent overlay of the ruined village sprawled across it.
The tale had lost all its mystical pretense, reduced to a grotesque mass of writhing flesh.
That's its real form?
"Everyone—follow me!"
I shouted to Do-hyun and the Choi family, forgetting all pretense.
At this point, even without our call, the response team would arrive soon.
All I had to do was keep us alive as long as possible.
Using my half-overlay vision, I dashed along the village alleys.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ We alternated between sprinting and catching our breath for what felt like ages, and before we knew it, the sun was dipping low.
I'd jimmied open the door to one of the empty houses—everyone else had already evacuated—and slipped inside.
Not just the Choi family; Do-hyun and I were beat too.
We'd spent most of the time prone, but that kid had held out way longer than expected. Gotta give her props.
The response team had arrived and was locked in a brutal fight with that tale. Missile blasts and bullets ripping through the air had swallowed the whole neighborhood.
Do-hyun whispered to me.
"Doesn't look like it'll be easy."
"Nope."
True to his words, it had been over five hours since those sounds started.
Seemed like raw physical force alone couldn't take it down. The Bureau knew that too—they were buying time, pinning its feet while they figured out a proper counter.
Part of me wondered if I should help, but what could I even do out there?
I was New Tale Investigation Squad, not Response Squad.
I glanced over. The whole family, Yu-na included, had nodded off.
Do-hyun looked wiped too.
"Yeah. A quick nap couldn't hurt."
And with that, I drifted off.
Unsure what the dawn might bring.