Chapter 12
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: In the Deep Shadows
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Actually, anomalous art itself isn't all that bad.
Art that comes alive by being infused with anomaly. That's all it was—no more, no less.
So why did anomalous artist groups always show up as the enemy?
The reason was simple.
"They're all out of their minds."
People who resort to anomalies just to create artwork? No way they're sane.
This is the industry where folks hear that creation is a chain of suffering and think, "Hey, if I inflict constant pain on myself, maybe I'll keep creating?"
Almost none of the anomalous artworks out there avoid causing permanent physical or mental damage to viewers.
That's why I never expected the artists to bring back agents in one piece.
"I mean, I wasn't expecting much anyway, but..."
The artist at the front, returning through the marble door with a burlap sack slung over his shoulder—something I'd never seen before—exceeded even my wildest imaginings.
"We brought them back as intact as possible, Goddess."
The artist boasted as he dumped out the sack. What spilled out in a heap were fragments of what had once been a person, shattered into tiny pieces.
The organs visible along the broken edges confirmed it: definitely human chunks.
And the blinking eyes suggested they were still alive.
"Uh... can it talk?"
"Probably. We made sure to preserve all bodily functions on purpose."
Next to the spilled sack on the floor lay iron bars and shards of broken plates, scattered haphazardly.
It wasn't hard to guess the man's fate.
Failed the circus act, I suppose.
Too bad.
I didn't feel sorry for him. They were the ones who struck first, using anomalies to attack the Management Bureau.
My eyes met those of the shattered human pieces. The fragments stared back at me, its relatively intact lip fragment twitching.
But no sound came out.
"Hmm, it can't talk."
"Ah, s-sorry! Must've dropped the vocal cord piece somewhere! If you want, I'll go find it!"
I waved him off as he bowed his head like he was about to smash it into the ground.
"It's fine. You didn't bring just this one, right?"
True to my words, a few more ragged figures stumbled in from beyond the door.
One had a clown mask and knives stuck all over his body. Blood kept bubbling up from inside, leaving him unable to speak properly.
Another had half his body torn apart by lions yet somehow clung to life. His vocal organs were gone, reduced to leaking air sounds.
None of the regular soldiers were in any state to speak clearly.
"Cough..."
In the end, only one among them could talk.
Their leader. Park Cheolmin.
I approached him as he was seized by the aluminum statue manipulated by Jang Bar and forced to his knees.
He was on his knees, while I just bent slightly at the waist. Yet our eye levels matched oddly well.
Not the time to point it out, though. I shelved the thought in a corner of my mind and greeted him.
"Fancy meeting you again like this."
"Yeah, hack... you bastard... what the hell did you do?!"
He screamed in futile rage, but there was no way he could overpower an anomalous artist's statue by force. His pointless struggle ended quickly.
"...You won't tell me anything."
"Whoa, you read my mind?"
"Hmph. You kept them alive for a reason."
He sneered up at me.
"Advent of Chaos agents are reborn through grueling training. No matter how much a bitch like you tortures us, all you'll get is mockery."
"Yeah... sure, if I were trying to pry info out with torture."
The villain leader's lips are sealed. I had no intention of clashing head-on with that cliché.
Sure, anomalous artists might be pros at torture too... but I didn't have time to waste on it with the Management Bureau's isolation team about to barge in.
"Rene, if you would."
Instead, I called for Rene.
Stardust gas scattered before Park Cheolmin's eyes.
He recognized the anomaly activation and held his breath in resistance... but he wasn't the type who could resist it that way.
If holding your breath could block an anomaly, it wouldn't have been rated catastrophic.
I grinned and stared straight into his eyes.
"If there's a next life, I recommend living a more honest one."
[Name: Park Cheolmin]
[Background: Agent of Advent of Chaos]
[Trait: Possesses strong mental fortitude that yields to nothing]
[Status: Formerly of the 5th Special Team, he is gradually becoming perfect. His ego that dared threaten the Goddess has no right to exist]
"Ah, uh..."
His tensed body went limp. He toppled forward from his knees, and his eyes turned to stardust.
No matter how strong his mind, it was powerless against Rene's erasure of the psyche itself.
And so, a soulless doll was born.
"Get up."
Park Cheolmin's body obeyed my command obediently.
"What are your orders?"
"...Exactly 7 days from now, secure the Singularity that will appear at the Anomaly Management Control Department Gangwon Province Branch Research Lab."
No emotion colored the voice that flowed out.
If it were the old me, I might've felt some guilt. Surprisingly, nothing stirred.
Because he's a bad guy? Or... because I'm drifting further from humanity? What happens when I fully shed it...?
"Argh...!"
I shook off the irrelevant thoughts and focused on the interrogation.
Dwelling on it wouldn't change much anyway.
Probably.
"Ahem, does that 'Singularity' refer to me?"
"Yes."
"...You knew of my existence 7 days ago?"
I didn't exist back then.
I only came to my senses a few days ago.
Was I passed out in the atelier for days?
No way. In a place crawling with anomalies, if I'd been out for days, I would've woken up in heaven, not the lab.
Anomalies aren't kind enough to ignore a fainted ordinary girl.
"Jang Bar, any chance info leaked from Pietà?"
"...None worth considering. Fewer than ten in Pietà even know about the god-creation project."
"No chance of betrayal?"
"No. I can't imagine those who value art above their lives turning traitor."
"Hmm..."
I turned back to Park Cheolmin.
If not leaked from Pietà... they must've uncovered it themselves.
"Where'd you get your info on me?"
"I don't know the details. I only follow the Scriptwriter's orders."
"...Damn."
The Scriptwriter—even I, who'd played the original game, didn't know their identity.
"This just got annoying."
The head of Advent of Chaos. The sole being who could converse with whatever entity craves drowning the world in chaos.
The Scriptwriter coordinates plans from the info that entity provides. Think of them as Advent of Chaos's final boss.
Unfortunately, their identity is a secret.
Up to the moment I possessed the body, the in-game story hadn't revealed the Scriptwriter or what lay beyond.
"Sigh..."
This couldn't be the Scriptwriter acting alone.
No one can read the future solo.
Which means... that transcendent being beyond them is watching me.
Chills ran down my arms. I rubbed them and asked,
"Have you ever met the Scriptwriter in person?"
"Of course."
"Oh?"
This was a golden opportunity.
A chance to peek behind the veil shrouding the enemy.
"Tell me everything you know."
"Understood."
At that moment, Park Cheolmin's head began to swell.
"The Scriptwriter's real name is..."
Bang!
Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere with the sound of a balloon popping.
That was the end of elite agent Park Cheolmin.
"Ugh...!"
Human bits splattered across me.
But I had no time to care.
The Management Bureau's Mobile Special Task Force was approaching from down the hall.
"Sorry, Goddess. We must withdraw now."
The anomalous artists opened the marble door.
Meeting the Bureau now meant certain clash.
Their clean retreat suited me fine.
No good being seen with a pack of crazy anomalous artist terrorists.
Besides... we probably wouldn't meet again.
Pietà was a massive community. Ten people couldn't dictate its direction. Probably?
"Go carefully. And keep quiet about me."
With that, I sent the artists off.
Exactly 30 seconds later.
"Eunha! You okay!?"
Han Yura burst in desperately. Amid the corridor's chaos stood a single girl, bold as ever.
"Hehe, of course."
Right in the midst of the grotesquely slain Advent of Chaos agents.
In a navy dress stained with blood.
Hands clasped behind her back, beaming.
Beyond the marble door lay a pitch-black void, empty of all presence.
In the gap between spaces, one artist gazed at Jang Bar and asked cautiously,
"...What do we do now?"
"Keep everything that happened today secret. It's the Goddess's request."
Jang Bar halted, declaring so.
"If remaining with the Bureau is her will, we can't defy it."
We will create a god.
One of the ten artists privy to that arrogant project, Jang Bar had no intention of forcing the Goddess away.
If she'd been caged as a lab rat, maybe. But the situation suggested she'd chosen to stay.
"Never speak of today."
Thus, he'd honor her request without question.
But... her request had one flaw.
"However."
Before opening the door to leave, he paused with hands behind his back, then turned decisively.
"Revealing that our long-prepared Goddess creation project has succeeded... that should be fine."
She was still a young goddess.
The Bureau was safe, but who knew what forces lurked outside targeting her.
With Advent of Chaos already watching, they couldn't lose the new god born of artists' fervor without a fight.
"I'll convene the Elder Council upon return."
Pietà spanned over 10,000 members—a vast, freewheeling community. Ordinary members couldn't sway it.
But Jang Bar was the exception.
Pietà's tenth elder.
Liaison to the Goddess creation project.
He held just enough sway to guide this chaotic community.
"Our Goddess has finally descended upon this land."
And the path he'd propose... no Pietà member could refuse.
When it came to art, anomalous artists turned more fanatical than any being on earth.
"Thus, we must worship her and protect her."
Of course, not everyone would believe him at first.
So he'd take time. Steadily devour this massive, unruly community bit by bit.
Until one day, all followed her.
Creeeak—
His hand, filled with resolve, opened the exit.
Unbeknownst to Baek Eunha herself, a new religious order emerged from the deep shadows.