Chapter 16

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Translator: MadScientist

Chapter: 16

Chapter Title: Renaissance Virus

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"Guh...!"

The guard's body began to swell. Seeing it start to revert to that grotesque form again, I urgently commanded Peanut.

"Stuff him in the frame!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Fortunately, there was one empty spot in the frames.

The spot where the woman had just emerged from [The Scream].

Peanut twisted the guard—who was gradually increasing in size—right into the painting.

That was his last words.

The moment I sealed him inside the painting, I immediately stripped away the anomaly I'd bestowed upon it.

The frame reverted to being an ordinary picture. The only difference now... was that it no longer depicted a screaming woman.

Instead, the rotting guard was the one screaming inside it. The sight of him writhing with maggots crawling all over his body was too nauseating, so I took the painting down.

Sounds of something collapsing started echoing from afar. It seemed the guards were toppling the stalls in their rush toward us.

But...

"Too late."

The moment I laid out all these artworks in front of me like this, the game was already over.

"Hoo, Rene."

I let out a soft sigh as I called for Rene.

Maybe because she's still a baby goddess, I'm already exhausted. Manipulating this many paintings on my own is physically impossible.

Last time, I got lucky and managed to resolve it within my limits.

But to trigger a disaster-level incident, I have to discard myself for a moment. Not human Baek Eunha, but overlay the anomaly 'Renaissance Virus' onto me temporarily.

I didn't want to push it this far. I wanted to find an escape route and resolve it that way.

Remaining faith: 15%.

Far too little to manifest my power.

"I believe in you."

As I spread my left hand, a thin plaster mask dropped into my palm.

It was a pure white mask, devoid of any decoration.

As I stared at it, information surfaced.

"So—"

I stared blankly at the mask, then pressed it to my face.

"I'm lending you my power for a bit."

The mask, without even eye holes, blackened my vision completely.

My memories cut off there.

Dozens of guards raced toward the only lit spot in the dark Underground Mall.

Display shelves toppled. 'Merchandise' spilled across the floor and was trampled mercilessly under the guards' feet.

But the guards had no time to care.

Capture the intruder.

Turn them into another rotten defender of the shop.

With only violent instincts left, the guards charged toward the sole light.

The moment they reached its source—

"I'm lending you my power for a bit."

A girl donned the mask.

And starlight enveloped the girl.

Blood spread across the blank white mask, forming a somehow eerie smile.

"Hnnngh...!"

The girl, who had bowed her head briefly, slowly lifted it.

She inhaled deeply as if the air were a drug, her body shuddering violently as she let out a tantalizing moan.

"Haah, so this is what power feels like?"

She cracked her neck.

Twisting it to the human limit, she turned to stare straight at a guard attempting a stealthy ambush from behind.

"Disgusting."

Boom—!

A monster burst from a painting and decapitated the guard. His body collapsed without a chance to react.

Replacing where his head had been was a pure white plaster bust.

"Disgusting."

Plaster began flowing through his rotting, festering veins. The grotesquely arched body slowly straightened.

On the day she received her second chance, the Renaissance Virus abandoned her obsessive pursuit of perfection.

Instead, she chose to live by the Goddess's side, protecting her as a human would.

"How dare you try to lay your filthy hands on Her Holiness...?"

The girl's voice trembled with rage. The guards faltered under the overwhelming pressure.

"She's not someone you can touch so carelessly."

She reached out to the plaster statues.

This felt entirely different from merely brainwashing and commanding them before.

If brainwashing was like puppeteering dolls, this was... freely molding the very existence of 'artworks' at will.

That was why it was true authority.

A power that lowly anomalies like herself couldn't even resist.

Feeling anew the mercy of Her who remained humble despite wielding such power, forgave her audacious challenge to that authority, and granted a second chance.

"Ahh, how merciful You are..."

Her voice, trembling with anger, filled once more with ecstasy.

Sensing something ominous, the guards began to back away stealthily.

Rene glared at them and altered the mask's expression.

Drawing her lips into a straight line, as if furious.

"You swarm like dogs when She shows mercy."

Thud—!

From the outskirts, nameless statues began awakening one by one.

"But the moment She reveals Her wrath, you tuck tail and flee?"

Artist unknown. Title unknown. Purpose of creation unknown. Forgotten works embraced new life, rising to carry out the Goddess's will.

In an instant, the guards' numerical advantage vanished.

Dozens of guards were swept away and crushed by even more marble statues.

The guards' high regeneration meant little.

Injuries from the statues left marble in their place.

Pure white marble burrowed into the endlessly swelling veins.

Bodies already starting to rot couldn't hold out long.

Once all their veins turned to marble, the rotting corpses—locked in endless regeneration—collapsed on themselves.

The last guard fell five minutes later.

Rene slowly turned to gaze at the floor covered in rotting flesh.

"Have you had your fill of destruction?"

She addressed the faceless men in suits.

"Are you the boss?"

"No."

Suits approached leisurely amid the wreckage. Rene's brows furrowed beneath the mask.

"We could call ourselves the boss's proxies."

"I want to meet the boss himself."

"He's busy. Too busy for a riot leader like you."

"Ha."

Rene's patience wasn't as good as Baek Eunha's.

Even playing with lesser anomalies had its limits. Unaware of her mood shift, the suits continued.

"We are the Underground Mall's legal team. Our role is to seek 'compensation' from those rare individuals with unusual abilities who cause damage..."

The blood-drawn face on the mask shifted.

Into a smile brighter than any other.

"Wh-what...?"

The boundary between reality and painting blurred.

"I can't hold back anymore."

An ecstatic voice echoed.

At that signal, the paintings—awaiting only the command—sprang to life all at once.

The ceiling vanished as a massive cypress tree erupted from the floor.

The legal team instinctively looked up, where countless stars swirled in a unique brushstroke style.

Melting clocks oozed across the wrecked mall floor.

Time, which had flowed steadily until then, warped. The legal team's movements slowed to a tenth of normal.

Men in black raincoats and bowler hats began falling from the sky like rain,

and the ambiguous sentence beneath the pipe painting—'This is not a pipe. But the sentence says this is not a pipe'—began clouding the legal team's cognition.

The 'Underground Mall' space was swallowed by the starry sky, time stretched like taffy.

Men rained endlessly from above, charging at the legal team.

The team that could have stopped it was already distracted by the anomalous sentence.

The disaster-level scenario had begun.