Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Overlapping Hells
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Beep beep—
"Save me!"
"Mom! Where are you? Mom!"
"Ugh..."
Screeech— Bang!
"Urgh..."
It was like staring at a diagram of hellish transformations.
Most other tales resembled hellish realms too, but this one felt even more so.
A landscape as if the eight Cold Hells from Buddhist lore had been gathered and jumbled together now blanketed the city that had been peaceful just minutes before.
"My leg!"
On one side, a massive ice pillar towered up, freezing everything around it, while childlike statues laughed as they chased after people.
"..."
"Squad Leader, that thing over there."
"Looks like it."
I'd never seen the ice pillar before, but those child statues were from a tale the Response Team had reportedly handled just a few days ago.
I had no idea how it had reappeared, but right now, that wasn't the issue.
Thud crack! Thud crack!
Pffft—
A sinkhole tore open right in the middle of the road, and clowns in grotesque makeup burst out, blowing trumpets and beating drums.
Above them, other unidentified things flew about, and some that looked familiar from old reports roamed freely through the world.
It was an incomprehensible mess of brand-new horrors and ones the Bureau had already dealt with.
Yes, chaos in the purest sense.
The chaos of tales.
And the culprit behind it all—much as I hated to believe it...
Was probably Yoon Seo-yeon.
"Squad Leader. What do we do?"
In this inexplicable situation where dozens of tales overlapped, what could I even do?
If it were the previous squad leader, he'd try to protect the civilians here.
But because of that damn choice back then, our entire team died.
I couldn't follow the same path.
No matter how hard Do-hyun and I tried, we couldn't save that many people.
Ten at best, if we pushed ourselves.
Stashing a few civilians somewhere safe and twiddling our thumbs while waiting for the Response Team was just idiotic.
"Let's head to the Tale Management Bureau. There's something I need to check."
If my hunch was right, there had to be something in those documents.
"Yoon Seo-yeon..."
Do-hyun didn't press me with questions, but he seemed to grasp the situation from my demeanor.
Kaboom—!
I'd said that, but we couldn't drive there.
The roads were severed, and debris from buildings and people blocked the cars.
Running from here would take about thirty minutes.
"Ha."
Plowing through that mess to reach the Bureau? It was straight-up comedy.
But life was a comedy, after all.
"Let's go."
The injuries from that tale a few days ago hadn't fully healed, so my waist throbbed with every step.
Ignoring the screams as best I could, we dodged tales and ran for twenty minutes before ducking into a narrow alley. That's when I felt the space shift.
"Squad Leader!"
Suddenly, Do-hyun yanked me back.
Hide tight. Don't let even a hair show!
"Hng."
I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle even my breathing.
Damn it.
Of course they wouldn't let us through easily.
The shadow of a grotesquely deformed boy—its head twice the size of its body—passed by the end of the alley.
Sunlight shone down here, yet the brightness had dimmed to just ten percent, plunging everything into gloom.
Hmm... where are you?
This guy was from a report about a month ago.
Hide and Seek.
A spatial tale derived from that childhood game.
The chunks of flesh dripping red from its mouth set it apart from regular hide-and-seek, though.
"Aaaagh!"
Found you!
A civilian's scream—one untrained against tales—drew the horror's attention.
"No! No—!"
The massive hand snatched the person up and shoved them into its mouth.
Crunch—
Sorry, but I didn't have the power to help.
This needed the Response Team. What the hell were they doing?
Do-hyun glanced at me.
This was our chance, right?
I picked up a piece of wood and hurled it hard in the opposite direction from where we needed to go.
Huh? What's that noise?
Maybe toss another one.
Aha! There you are!
The monster bolted toward where the wood had landed.
It looked way more vicious than the report had suggested.
If that grabbed me, I'd lose an arm for sure.
I signaled Do-hyun, and he nodded.
The signal meant:
In that instant, Do-hyun charged forward.
'Run.'
Aha! There you are!
"No way that thing's half-head is still that fast!"
I figured it'd catch on to us running, but...
It was faster than I'd thought.
No helping it, then.
"Do-hyun, just use it!"
It was a one-shot item, ridiculously expensive—I'd brought it to threaten the Merchant with—but when else would I use it?
Tale Slayer MK-2.
No idea who named it, but the sense of humor was off the charts.
Still, the performance was legit.
Soon, flames erupted from the Tale Slayer MK-2, then began to die down.
Hiss—
When the sound finally stopped.
Whoosh— Boom!
A deafening explosion engulfed the tale.
...Hide... tight...
The hulking form collapsed after barely two steps, half its face blown away.
At the same time, the surroundings brightened again.
The tale's space had shattered.
Staying even more vigilant, we ran another ten minutes until the Bureau building came into view—or what was left of it, collapsed beyond recognition.
It was a decoy structure anyway, so that was fine.
"Please let the elevator be intact."
Everything had crumbled into floating chunks of gray concrete, yet the elevator stood freakishly unharmed.
And a red glow leaked from inside.
"Ah, damn it..."
⚠️ CRITICAL ALERT ⚠️ Elevator Stabilizer Failure
External shocks shouldn't cause this.
The elevator's stabilization device had failed.
It shouldn't break that easily from outside impacts.
In other words, someone had sabotaged it deliberately.
"So the Response Team hasn't arrived because the elevator's busted."
Even knowing about the stabilizer, wrecking it was no easy feat—it took someone familiar with the structure.
"You really did this..."
Denying it now would be foolish.
But this wasn't the time to dwell.
How could a building that looked barely five stories tall house a twenty-first floor?
This elevator was a modified tale—a sort of sub-space generator.
With the stabilizer busted, it had reverted to its original tale form.
And the only way in was through the elevator.
The Bureau manual covered elevator failures, of course.
I'd read it so many times, it sprang to mind unbidden.
⚙ MANUAL ENTRY 132 ⚙ 132. Handling Elevator Stabilizer Failure 132-1. Non-Urgent Cases: - If the stabilizer is failed but not urgent, wait for the maintenance team. 132-2. Immediate Use Required: - Press any floor. It will go to the guide floor regardless. - Warning: The guide floor is the raw, unmodified tale. No safety measures. - Upon arrival, follow Manual 133. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ What are you pondering so deeply?
"Whether I should go help those Bureau folks from earlier."
Why would you?
This chapter's meant to be cleared by three people normally.
Se-jin and Do-hyun from before, plus me, the player.
But with the player gone, those two have to handle the incident alone now.
"Doesn't seem easy."
What was the player's role originally?
Rescuing people until the Response Team arrived or Se-jin and Do-hyun found the clues.
Not directly tied to solving the case, but still crucial.
After a whole village got wiped out recently by a tale that never existed in the original game, if another catastrophic tale incident happens, what would the public think?
They'd rage at the Bureau's incompetence, bombarding us with complaints—and real bombs.
If that tanks the Bureau's influence, it's a bad end for sure.
From your expression, you're seriously considering it.
Sending off those Bureau guys earlier when we were already hurting for business...
I can't understand your choice.
"No helping it. We can collect on that later. If I don't go out, we'll lose customers for good."
Then go.
Those two can handle the resolution anyway. I just need to minimize civilian casualties.
Of course, with me stepping in, it'd lean more toward slaying tales than rescues, game-style.
"Alright, I'll head out then."
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