Chapter 14
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 14Anomalies (5)
March 10th, night. Probably.
I see the hospital attempting to kick me out. The stairs I had been going down just fine suddenly became infinite. Seeing the ordinary hallway become a maze, it was a desperate check in its own way.
'I'm sorry, but I can see everything.'
Human eyes would have been helplessly swayed. However, the ability to detect all directions, which humans cannot see, easily found the paths the hospital hid. Since physical attacks are impossible, it cannot actively block me. Perhaps because of that, it even attempts things presumed to be hallucinations, but unfortunately for them, those hallucinations were at a level I was immune to. From the hospital's perspective, it must be incredibly frustrating.
'It must be getting a bit annoyed.'
I have business on the 8th floor. Despite the hospital's efforts, I successfully dodged the traps this way and that and reached the hospital director's office. On the director's desk, documents containing the personal information of doctors were piled up.
'What's this. It's more normal than it looks?'
Identification photos of extremely upright doctors are attached together. I skimmed through the documents one by one, then threw down the personal information of the last doctor as if tossing it.
'They're all dead people.'
The documents in question are not of affiliated doctors, but documents of dead doctors. With doctors who died recently and doctors who died in the past, there is no uniformity regarding the time of death. Right now, the doctor 'Lee Dong-hwa' who came up to the top of the documents is a person who died 5 years ago. The cause is an accidental death, but seeing that the details are omitted, it's expected not to be a simple accidental death.
'This is?'
While rummaging through the hospital director's desk drawers, I discovered a separately stored document. An old, crumpled, and yellowed personal document. At a guess, it's well over 50 years old.
Military doctor Choi Sung-min. Assigned to a temporary field hospital that was a renovated closed elementary school building. Treated patients brought in from the front lines, but due to poor surgical tools and environment, confirmed the deaths of all patients due to pathogens. After the armistice, he confined himself in Busan and lived without news for 3 years, then was identified as missing due to a report from a relative. Searched for 5 years, but eventually concluded as deceased. Afterwards, he transformed into an anomaly and is currently parasitic in Lee Dong-hwa's corpse.
It's this guy. The culprit who turned the hospital into an anomaly world and kidnaps people to carry out secret massacres. It was even possible for anomalies to live as parasites on corpses. It's truly a terrible disaster.
'Looking at it, he seems to be of human birth. I guess humans can become anomalies too.'
Though he can't be seen as human from the fact that he's still repeating massacres since the Korean War era. What's certain is that his birth, at least, started as a human.
'A typical mad doctor.'
A common type of doctor in fictional works. An owner of twisted common sense who claims hideous slaughter is a means of treatment. The type whose wrong beliefs become their identity, making them the most dangerous.
'Honestly, it would be impossible to have a conversation with a guy like this.'
I put the document back and left the hospital director's office. I was about to go down to the emergency exit when I suddenly felt a presence and checked the elevator.
'It's operating, isn't it?'
The elevator is moving. The elevator that departed from the 6th floor is currently stopped at the 4th floor.
'That's great. I should ride it down.'
I pressed the elevator button and waited. I don't know what they're doing on the 4th floor, but it hardly comes up. Are there many people getting off?
'But it's strange.'
Choi Sung-min. The anomaly probably playing Lee Dong-hwa right now. I understand that guy is the culprit. The cause of the missing people constantly occurring in the city, and the guy who has been hiding his true identity as an ordinary doctor until now. However, strangely enough, the energy of the Choi Sung-min anomaly is not that large.
'Rather, there's something bigger.'
A larger anomaly hiding the energy of the Choi Sung-min anomaly. That is what is lurking throughout this entire hospital right now.
'I don't know where on earth this anomaly is.'
If I find Choi Sung-min, won't I be able to find the guy behind him too? Then I have to go to the 4th floor.
'When is it coming up.'
The elevator has to come up for me to go to the 4th floor. Ah, it's coming up. From the 4th floor to the 5th floor. From the 5th floor to the 6th floor. The elevator that reached the 8th floor like that opened.
Ding!
A white powdered face is seen through the opening gap of the doors. The anomaly nurse, who had been smiling bizarrely, distorted its face hideously upon discovering me.
Fwoooosh!
Before it could attempt anything, I made the first move. The moment I sparked the flame, the nurse was reduced to a lump of charcoal in an instant without even time to scream.
It collapses as if slumping down. Crackle, crackle, even as sparks flew, I nonchalantly boarded and pressed the 4th-floor button. The elevator descends slowly.
'I've become unhesitating in killing others.'
It doesn't mean I've lost hesitation in killing people like a murderer. Because it's not human? If that's one of the reasons, it is one. But the big reason I especially lost hesitation.
'Because they have no value in keeping alive.'
Because the anomalies here are bastards who deserve to die. Look at the atrocities they commit by kidnapping innocent people. Rather, I feel a sense of relief that I saved someone.
'Are there other anomalies like me?'
Anomalies that are favorable and don't kill people like me, I mean.
I turned my body and looked into the mirror on the wall. There is no head, and only a blue flame blazes brightly. Below the flame is a human body. The suit added to the bizarre atmosphere.
'Come to think of it, the suit got dirty.'
Of course it got dirty, since I've been wearing it continuously without even taking it off since I first got it. It has torn marks here and there, and it's stained and dirty. It's not to the point of a stench, but it does smell to some extent.
'I need to get a new suit.'
I like the design of the suit, so I want to get similar clothes. Where on earth should I get one. It's a new realization, but it's truly upsetting that getting a single piece of clothing is this difficult. It would be unparalleled if someone could get it for me instead.
Ding.
In the meantime, I arrived at the 4th floor. It was the moment I took my eyes off the mirror and turned back outward.
A hospital bed blocking the front of the elevator. Two nurses standing with the exact same face flinch, perhaps surprised.
"Ah!"
I took my eyes off the nurses and focused on the bed. It's a man who hasn't been dead for long. His chest was sliced open, and the bones and internal organs inside were hideously crushed, melted down, and discolored black.
I carefully examined the sliced shape. It's sliced and open right now, but if sutured again, it becomes the exact same surgical scar as the corpses in the basement.
'So they commit it here.'
They are killing people in an operating room that saves people. A hideous murder abandoning morality is right here. As expected, they are bastards who must not be kept alive.
Fwoooosh!
Like spontaneous combustion, the bodies of the two nurses burn up in an instant. In a single breath so they couldn't even scream. Flames rising not from the skin, but from inside the body. When they burned pitch-black with blue flames, they collapsed.
Swooooosh-
I sucked the flames back in. The nurses sucked into the flame on my head left behind a faint, disgusting chemical smell.
I examined the corpse. An expression distorted in pain. Tear stains still remaining damp. Perhaps he gritted his teeth, teeth marks are clear on his lips. Perhaps he tried to endure the pain, blood flowed faintly inside his tightly clenched fists.
'I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier.'
After conveying a small apology, I placed my palm on the man's forehead.
Fwoosh-
A weak and calm blue fire spreads over the corpse. The quietly burning corpse slowly turned into ashes. Leaving the burning hospital bed behind, I entered the operating room with Click-clack footsteps.
"Help us! Please help us!" "Help us! Please! Someone please help!"
Voices crying out anxiously for help. It's a different structure from the operating room I knew.
A round dome-shaped room and tiered observer seats. Anomaly doctors and anomaly nurses densely packing them. At the center, there are three people lying on beds and one anomaly doctor. Opposite the entrance, the fake doctor I encountered earlier was also captured.
"Help!"
The fake doctor shouts. His tear-soaked cry gives a strange resonance.
'As you wish.'
I convey this to all the anomalies here. Since God cannot take you away. I will deliver punishment in His stead.
Fwoooooosh-
The flame above my head explodes. The flame heating up the air bursts out like a part of an explosion and covered the operating room.
"Kyaaaaaak!" "Uwaaak! Kkeu-aaaaaaak!" "Kkeu-uh-uh… Uh-eok! Uwaaaaaa!"
Screams burning painfully without even being able to run away. Perhaps unable to grasp the situation, the anomaly at the center looks greatly panicked. It looks around restlessly, then thrusts the scalpel towards me.
"You bastard…! The foreign pathogen that's been interfering since earlier!"
Swish, swish! Even though it swung the short scalpel, it didn't feel much like a threat.
"Get out right now! This is a sacred operating room! If a pathogen like you comes, it will get contaminated!"
It treats me like a pathogen as it pleases and yells. Laughing at that desperate sight, I approached step by step.
"I said get out! I'm telling you to get out! Get out! Get ouuut! This is my operating room!"
Fwoooosh!
A blue pillar of fire soaring from beneath its feet.
"Kkeu-aaaaaaak!"
Choi Sung-min, who doesn't die easily, struggled even while burning.
Crash!
The hospital bed bumped into while struggling falls off the platform.
"Uwaak!" "Kkeo-eok!"
Thanks to that, the other beds that were pushed together also fell side by side. The two tied young men are crushed under the beds. On the other hand, the unbound woman snapped her eyes open from the shock of falling off the bed.
"Heo-eok!" "Ye-eun-ah! Ye-eun-ah!"
The separately tied man shouted. Ye-eun, who was looking around, discovered the man and reacted with a tear-soaked voice.
"O-oppa?" "Ye-eun-ah!"
Ye-eun, who ran over, hugged him tightly. And then she untied the ropes binding him.
"H-how is Oppa here?" "Untie me quickly."
The man is wary of me. Even though he cried out for help just a moment ago, his eyes are still full of distrust and fear.
"Jong-seo-ssi! Please untie us too!" "I-I can't breathe." "Wait! I'll be right there!"
Jong-seo, whose bounds were undone, moves to save the two young men crushed under the beds. It was the moment I was indifferently watching their actions.
"Heu-euk, kkeu-euk! Jong-seo… J-Jong-seo-yah!"
Choi Sung-min shouts. Jong-seo, who was pushing the bed away, looked back in violent surprise.
"D-Dong-hwa-yah." "Jong-seo-yah… Jong-seo-yah! I, I'm… hot! I'm so hot!" "F-fuck… Dong-hwa-yah… Lee Dong-hwa!"
Lee Dong-hwa? Lee Dong-hwa died 5 years ago. They seem to know each other, but I can't guess the situation that led to this.
However, that guy he knows as Lee Dong-hwa is not Lee Dong-hwa, but Choi Sung-min. A figure from the Korean War era, and the culprit of this situation who is currently an anomaly. As Jong-seo hesitated, his mind shaken, I stood as if blocking his front.
'Don't even think about helping.'
"Heo-eop!"
Jong-seo, falling flat on his back in sheer terror, looks up with terrified eyes. His breathing is bad, and his heart is beating as if it will pop out. His complexion turns pale as if falling into a panic.
"Jong… Jong-seo-yah…!"
Do not be swayed by a momentary sense of sympathy. When I gave a threat by increasing the flame on my head, Jong-seo also seemed to slowly come to his senses. Turning around with a grief-stricken expression, he tried to untie the young men from the beds.
"Jong-seo… Park Jong-seo! You fucking bastard! Heyyy! Park Jong-seoooo!"
Eventually revealing his true colors, Choi Sung-min flounders on the floor and pours out curses.
"I'll kill you! Are you even a friend? I… I! I'm your friend of several years! You fucking shitty bastard! You lump of pathogen bastard!"
Park Jong-seo's expression distorts in sorrow. Tears drip down, but he untied the young men from the beds. Steadfastly ignoring Choi Sung-min's voice.
"Do you know how many lives I saved for this country! I! Do you know how many pathogens I killed! And you're going to kill me like this? I'm a hero! I protected this world from pathogens!"
I cannot tolerate this act of playing Lee Dong-hwa any longer. I sucked in the flames.
Swoooooooooosh-
It's a much larger amount of flames and anomalies than other times. Just sucking it in takes my breath away, but it's not impossible.
"N-no! Do you know how I survived! How I stayed hidden without even the Bureau of Management finding out!"
The screams of other anomalies still alive are sucked in along with the flames. A feast of flames swirling like a storm concentrates above my head.
Choi Sung-min holds onto the platform and endures. Even while burning in the fire, his tenacious will was amazing, but he eventually reached his limit. The pulling force was stronger. Unable to withstand the pressure, Choi Sung-min's fingers broke.
Crack.
"This can't be! No! Noooooo!"
Swoosh.
Even the last Choi Sung-min anomaly is consumed. Silence arrived in an instant. The flame on my head fluctuated for a moment, spewed a small amount of pitch-black soot, and quickly regained stability.
"I-is it over?" "Heek! The b-blue flame!"
The young men's mutterings. Holding onto each other, Jong-seo and Ye-eun stare at me. Jong-seo's eyes look confused.
"Th-thank… Keu-eut…."
Even as he tries to convey his thanks, his eyes blur, perhaps out of sorrow. From his perspective, I must be a savior and simultaneously the enemy who killed his friend.
"……You said Dong-hwa died 5 years ago." "D-Dong-hwa Oppa did?" "He said so himself. If that wasn't bullshit, that monster probably wasn't Dong-hwa. There's no need to feel like this."
Perhaps making up his mind, he stands up. He approached me bravely, but.
"Heu-eut… Eugeuk……."
It seems it wasn't quite enough to stand facing me. He lost his courage and backed away terrified. Even if I'm a savior, I guess an unknown creature that isn't human is still scary? I watched Jong-seo quietly, then turned around.
"Thank you."
A creeping voice. I heard it, but I didn't bother looking back. I coldly left the operating room and checked outside the window.
'…It's not over yet.'
The anomaly's hospital remains exactly the same. This world hasn't collapsed yet. It's proof that the fundamental subject of the world still remains.
"B-but how do we get out?"
The people who followed me out ask vainly while looking at the still unchanged scenery outside the window. However, there is no answer. Because no one knows the method. The two young men looking out the window. Jong-seo and Ye-eun walking out tightly clinging to each other, as if they have no intention of separating.
I raised my head. The ceiling. No, wait, I stared at the hospital.
'Now I understand.'
The anomaly with this massive energy. Its true identity is neither a living creature nor an object, but a building. This hospital building itself was the anomaly.
'An anomalous phenomenon building. There were two anomalies from the start.'
The building anomaly and the Choi Sung-min anomaly. These two anomalies maintained cooperation and protected this place. Of course, the world just for the two of them was destroyed by me.
'Would it work if I burn the building down?'
I hadn't thought about trying to burn the building. Still, I won't know without trying.
'Let's send these people out first.'
I went through the trouble of saving them, I can't crush them to death in the building. When I approached Jong-seo and stood as if looking at him, he trembled his head and looked back.
"Uh… Huh? Wh-what?"
Are you still scared of me? Do you think I might suddenly change and kill you? To Jong-seo, who is much more suspicious than he looks, I pointed outside.
'Get out.'
Jong-seo, who didn't understand the intention at first, blinks his eyes.
'I said get out.'
As if to emphasize, I pointed outside once more.
"L-look outside?"
No, just get out. Jong-seo, not understanding the intention, reads my face and examines the outside. With the four people standing side by side looking out the window, I instead became frustrated.
'At this point, isn't the problem me, for not being able to convey the explanation?'
Around the time I was slowly doing some self-reflection.
"What's that?"
One of the young men points outside and wonders. Seeing that others can see it too, their reactions were strange.
"It looks like… a crack?" "A crack? Hey, Hyun-soo. If it's a crack, could it be…?" "It's the trace of an outside approach. But who?"
An outside approach? I also approached the window and checked outside. The crack I saw earlier definitely got much bigger. That's not all.
'The exact same cracks appeared all over the hospital.'
Not one, but several. Two inside the building, one outside, and one on the rooftop. Finally, the cracks shattered.
"It's people!"
Soldiers wearing black military uniforms pour out from the cracks. The soldiers, wearing futuristic equipment hard to see on South Korean soldiers, entered with systematic movements and lined up. They aim their firearms at the hospital.
"H-hey! Over here! Help us!"
Still, because they are fellow humans, the four people are just glad and wave their hands. Reactions saying they never expected a rescue team to come.
However. Through the crack, a massive speaker pushes its way in.
'A speaker?'
The speaker turns on.
Whiiiiiiiiine-
"Kyaat!" "Ugh, what are you doing hurting our ears?" "Ah shit, is it a high frequency?"
To the people, it's just a high frequency that slightly hurts their ears. But to me, it's a painful noise that makes me unable to control my body.
"Hey, hey. That flame head is……."
Unable to endure the sound, I fell flat on the floor on my own. I have no ears but my ears hurt, and I have no head but my head hurts. Getting goosebumps all over my body, I can't control my body as if I was electrocuted. The exact same phenomenon as the noise of scratching a chalkboard with fingernails is acting only on me.
'It's a device… targeted at me!'
Just as I can interfere with electronic devices. If they use special electromagnetic waves, they can interfere with me instead. From analyzing this structure and bringing a device to suppress me, it means their assessment of me is complete. If so, those people are!
'Bureau of Management!'
I was expecting them to chase me. That's why I infiltrated this city without leaving traces of myself. But to find me this easily, making my hiding pointless?
'How did they know I was trapped in the anomaly world!'
I can't just take a beating. The electromagnetic waves affect me, but complete suppression is impossible. I'm slowly getting used to these electromagnetic waves too. If I use my speed, it might be possible to slip outside through the crack and shake off the soldiers. The moment I was gradually getting up.
Crash!
"Kyaaaak!" "Uwaak!" "Get down! Guys! Stick to the window and get down!"
The windows shattered all at once, and soldiers rappelling down infiltrated. One soldier fired at me without hesitation.
Pew.
With a light firing sound, a small syringe flies in and lodges into my body. I recognized its true identity as soon as I saw it.
'Anesthetic?'
Could be a sleeping pill. Anyway, it's a blatant intention to capture me. The contents were injected, but there was no reaction in my body.
"Alpha. Alpha. Unidentified entity cannot be anesthetized. Changing to Plan B."
They surround me in the blink of an eye. Systematic and professional. They are very skilled against anomalies, not humans. I can tell what kind of training they received.
Bang!
A muzzle spewing fire. The flying bullet strikes my chest. It bounced off, but a bone-crushing pain struck my chest. This is a rubber bullet.
"Physical strike on unidentified entity is effective! All personnel, commence engagement!"
Rat-tat-tat-tat-
Rubber bullets fired indiscriminately. Having never been hit like this before, I couldn't even think of a countermeasure and was helpless.
'Damn bastards…!'
It's a good thing I don't have a head. If I just guard my chest area, I can roughly defend many parts. But it hurts. I've never been hurt this much.
In the midst of this, they aren't just shooting blindly either. Anticipating the gap to reload ammunition, the line shooting and the line reloading are fixed. Thanks to that, rubber bullets hammered me without a moment's rest.
"Alpha. Alpha. Currently unable to neutralize unidentified entity. Requesting generation of electromagnetic waves."
Whiiiiiiiiine-
As the electromagnetic waves are heard again, my body tries to slump down again. As soon as my guard drops, rubber bullets pour down again.
'These bastards, I've been letting it slide!'
I greatly increased the flame on my head with the intention of blowing it up. I resolved not to harm at least humans, but these guys have crossed the line I set far too much. Now there has to be a counterattack.
"Everyone fall back! It's the flame!" "Everyone evacuate! Put on heat resistance!"
They didn't just evacuate. As soon as they backed away, they swung the silver shields attached to their backs to cover their fronts. Shockingly, that was the material of a heat-resistant suit.
'Scary bastards.'
They know everything. My method of expression, method of attack, and even my vulnerabilities.
They are entities more dangerous and scary than anomalies. Are you saying those things are really not anomalies? However, the gap created while they deployed the heat-resistant shields was an opportunity for me.
Bang!
"Kkeo-eok!"
Moving at a formidable speed, I pushed the soldier in front of me with all my might. The soldier, sent flying just like that, crashed into the wall. The siege network collapsed.
"Maintain formation! Formation!" "Fire! Fire!"
The muzzles spew fire. However, they made a mistake. Giving me time to get used to the pain.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-
Lights flashing in the dark hallway.
Bang! Crash!
People flying away or helplessly crashing into the walls and floor every time I swing my hands.
"Kkeu-aaaaaaak!"
Even screams shouted in terror.
The smell of gunpowder drifts out, and the formation is disrupted. Even the ironclad-like defensive line of the soldiers was ultimately helpless before an anomaly. If complete suppression is impossible, the one standing until the very end is me.
"Alpha! Alpha! Failed to neutralize unidentified entity! Neutralization faileeeed!"
The last remaining soldier. Perhaps his leg was broken, crawling backward while slumped down, his muzzle was aimed at me. But only the empty sound of the hammer clicking echoes Click, click. He used all his rubber bullets.
"Uwaaaak! D-don't come closer! Don't come closer! Please don't come closeeeer!"
No matter how trained and excellent their suppression abilities are. They are ultimately human too. If their comrades are taken down in an instant, and conversely they themselves are neutralized and thrown before an anomaly like me, anyone becomes weak.
Bang!
When I grabbed his head and slammed it into the wall, even the struggling last soldier fell quiet.
"Heu-i-ik!"
When I finished and turned around, Jong-seo's group, who had been hiding face down under the window, got scared. Seeing the gazes perfectly wary of me, I realized it once again.
'I have a life where I can never mingle with humans.'
In the end, since I'm not human, I can't blend in with them. I resigned myself and jumped out the broken window.
A height that would kill or break a person's legs is merely a light height for me. As I leaped like flying and jumped down a far distance, the waiting soldiers aimed their muzzles.
"All personnel fire……!"
Fwoooosh!
I set up pillars of fire in succession straight ahead to block their vision. Then I swiftly ran and passed through the crack the soldiers had passed through in reverse.
"2nd defensive line breached! Capture failed!"
The welcoming night air. I was incredibly glad there was no dark energy unique to the anomaly world, but right now there is no time to enjoy the gladness.
Soldiers already setting up camp and waiting in the hospital yard.
"Unidentified entity escaped the crack! Escaped the crack!" "Entity is escaping!"
I don't know if there are dozens of people. Many vehicles and military buses. And even unidentifiable mechanical devices. A large server set up in the yard and computers connected to it. And the office staff operating them. Everything is thoroughly prepared.
"Its physical abilities are higher than the reported information! Prep the helicopter!"
I leaped over the heads of the soldiers trying to block me, then landed outside the main gate.
I must produce the fastest speed I can. I ran away at a speed unrecognizable by humans.