Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: -4
Chapter Title: Fallen Utopia
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"What... did you just say?"
"Unlike me, you have all the answers to these questions, so I'll hand over the utopia I've created to you."
For a moment, I wondered if something was wrong with my ears and rubbed them.
But Moon Woo-seok proved I hadn't misheard by repeating himself.
"I created this place out of an impulsive desire to survive. When the incident broke out, I installed my device in this complex to stay alive."
Moon Woo-seok glanced at the device.
"Yes, I activated it. But I couldn't stop people from gathering here to survive. In fact, at first... I was even glad that I'd have enough fuel."
Moon Woo-seok's pleading cry made him look ashen, reminding me of Kwak Young-cheol, who had died not long ago.
"My thinking was far too soft. Jin-seong, do you know what it feels like to shove one person into this device every month? I... I just don't have the mental fortitude to keep doing that."
His vivid description conveyed the emotions he must have felt straight to me.
"But you could! You could take over my role, couldn't you? If you have the answers I lack..."
"You're mistaken about something, sunbae. That was just an answer. It doesn't extend to taking responsibility for this complex."
Moon Woo-seok didn't change his expression at all as he replied.
"Jin-seong. I'm sorry, but this is a notification. I'm handing everything over to you. Of course, you don't have the right to refuse."
I couldn't hold back the absurd laugh that bubbled up.
"Hah. I don't understand why you think I'd keep maintaining this complex. What if I just smash this device?"
"Haha... No, you won't do that. You won't break the device or neglect to add fuel. Could you really abandon two hundred residents?"
"How would you know that!"
"You've been with the Headquarters Chief this whole time, haven't you? Do you think a normal person could stick with him? His incomprehensible, twisted altruism isn't something just anyone can handle."
Moon Woo-seok seems to have a huge misunderstanding about me.
The reason I could travel with the Headquarters Chief wasn't because I had a similar personality to him—it was closer to blind desperation to save my own skin.
In other words, everything about my behavior so far has been a fiction created by the Headquarters Chief.
"You're right that I won't destroy the device. But I won't take responsibility either. I'll just abandon it and quietly leave with the Headquarters Chief."
"I've been searching forever for someone to succeed me! Junior, I'm so tired. So you—!"
At that moment, screams from dozens of voices pierced through the spatial confines of the basement.
The screams, which had felt like incomprehensible howls, revealed their true meaning only after I rushed out of the basement.
"Gaaah! I can't feel my legs!"
"M-monsters have come in!"
"Run!"
Dozens of irregular entities had penetrated deep into the complex, hunting people down—a scene straight out of hellish tales.
In the distance, I could see the Headquarters Chief fending off a few monsters and protecting people, but it looked like even he was overwhelmed.
I turned to look at Moon Woo-seok.
His expression was so bizarre it defied description.
His upper face—eyebrows and eyes—curved in waves like the emblem of despair, while his mouth curved delicately like a girl smiling happily on her birthday.
He muttered in a heavily trembling voice, "My responsibility has finally..."
But after those words, his expression twisted dramatically into pure agony.
"My responsibility... No, no... The people I have to protect!"
That voice, laced with anger and regret, felt similar to the one Squad Leader had let out when she lost her sight.
Before I could even try to stop him, he charged bare-handed toward the monsters.
"You fucking bastards! Get the hell out—all of you!"
Moon Woo-seok, roaring as he ran, looked every bit the madman, but his desperation evoked the image of a family father.
There was no way to know why Moon Woo-seok's device, which had been working fine, suddenly malfunctioned.
But since the sky's influence was absent and only monsters had invaded, it didn't seem completely broken.
The moment I saw the neighbor from next door with his limbs folded in half, I snapped to attention and ran toward the Headquarters Chief.
The Chief was facing off against monsters while shielding six civilians behind him.
I snatched an axe from the ground and cleaved a monster's head in two.
"Chief, what the hell happened?!"
"Oh! Jin-seong, you're alive! I don't know the details, but those damn monsters suddenly poured in through the front gate. Dozens of them!"
The monsters gave us no respite and kept coming.
At this rate, not only the other civilians but even me and the Chief would die.
Yet the Chief acted like his own life was worthless, worrying only about the others' deaths.
"Jin-seong, I'm fine—go protect that family over there! If you don't go right now! No, don't! Hurry up—what are you doing?! That woman will be left to raise the kid alone! Huh? Even the child—"
As I wondered whether this crisis had turned the Chief into this kind of person or if he'd always been like this, it hit me that I had a way to protect everyone.
"Angel."
"Ahh, new contractor." "I am the angel, the herald who grants human wishes. Declare your desire." A hazy mist descended.
And then, using the mist as a catalyst, a being radiating intense light descended upon the world.
"I want to... save the people here."
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
Why am I trying to make a deal with the angel?
As I told Moon Woo-seok earlier, I have no direct conviction to save people.
Then is this just me following the Chief's will?
Your wish is possible.
But at the price of power!
"I'll give my sense of taste."
I don't fear death, so losing my sense of taste is no big deal.
But is that true?
I'm feeling fear right now.
Through the angel's radiance, people's screams reached my ears.
Ah, now I get it.
I'm afraid of people dying.
This dystopia born from my incompetence makes everyone suffer feel like my responsibility, so I fear their deaths.
My desire to save them is the only atonement I can offer as the one who created this world.
The deal is sealed.
Your wish shall be granted!
⟨ Angel's Descent ⟩
The sky, always red, turned a clear blue reminiscent of past peace.
The sun shining fiercely through it inspired awe in everyone—even the monsters, it seemed, as they shed tears remembering their human days and self-destructed.
But miracles are fragments, the stingy creation of a miserly author who can't write a full novel, and the red mist soon reclaimed the world.
My laziness hadn't timed it right; only a few survivors remained.
The six people the Chief had protected, four or five who had hidden somewhere, and... the one girl Moon Woo-seok had saved.
Moon Woo-seok's condition was so wrecked that even I, a layman, could tell he was close to death.
He'd majored in biology once, so he probably knew his state better than anyone.
His foolish charge had saved the girl but couldn't save himself.
Gazing at the ruins of his utopia at its end, he opened his mouth.
"...Jin-seong. Come with me."
Moon Woo-seok ignored the survivors' wails and called me over.
I followed him as if entranced, and he headed back to the basement.
He stumbled down the stairs several times but kept forcing his legs to move without caring.
Once in the basement, even as blood dripped onto the floor, he stared blankly at the device before smashing it hard with a nearby wrench.
A loud impact rang out, and the device stopped working, spewing red smoke.
"Wh-what?"
Even in the bewildering situation, Moon Woo-seok showed no particular reaction.
"There's no utopia anymore... so no need for the device either."
"But there are still people left!"
"Ha... No idiot would stay in a fortress that's been breached once. And I... always hated this thing anyway."
Moon Woo-seok glanced at the device briefly before pulling out the central crystal.
"This is..."
"I'll give it to you. It's the core of the invention I made."
"The core of that device... But sunbae, why give it to me?"
"You're underestimating it... This will make... a lot possible."
Coughing up blood, Moon Woo-seok wiped his mouth roughly and continued.
"I... was good at judging people after all. You even made a deal with an angel... to save someone."
Normally I'd object right away, but now I couldn't muster a retort.
"With this, create your... cough... own utopia..."
Moon Woo-seok looked like he was struggling just to speak.
Leaning against the broken device as he sat on the floor, his end seemed too modest for a great researcher.
"You could... definitely make a utopia without sacrifices..."
Moon Woo-seok blinked without finishing his sentence.
But that blink sank into silence, forgetting to open again.
It was the death of a utopia's builder.