Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Apocalypse #1
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Only after the escape message popped up did I finally relax.
I still couldn't read the text below it, but this was enough, right?
The insane journey that I couldn't make heads or tails of was finally over.
I was exhausted to the extreme and in agony. Everything that happened in that hospital felt like a horrific trauma gnawing away at my mind.
I'd come here originally to escape the vampire, but I'd gotten dragged into something utterly ridiculous. Vampires, the Management Bureau, a freakish hospital? Surviving all that? If I'd just gotten hit by the triple whammy of bad luck, fine—but this was beyond the pale.
My delicate heart was shattered, and my pure soul stained pitch black.
And yet, the reason I could stand back up...
"...is because I survived."
The time I'd put one man into the black room as a security guard. And Dr. Kim Seonghan, who gave me all sorts of advice to keep me alive despite looking like that.
Thanks to all those sacrifices, I'd made it back alive.
So I had work to do.
Time to head to Daeseong Blessed Mother Hospital and deliver Dr. Kim Seonghan's ring. After that, well, I had the pay from my security gig, so I could scrape by in hiding somehow.
"That fucking vampire bitch."
Come to think of it, it felt like I'd been in that hospital forever... How much time had passed?
Lost in those thoughts, I pulled out my phone.
Strangely, some of my belongings had been returned to me.
Had they handed them over when they discharged me? How considerate.
"Huh? What?"
The time... huh?
Only three days since I arrived at the hospital?
"..."
It sure as hell hadn't felt that way.
No.
What about all the time I'd lived through?
I'd worked as a security guard and spent forever as a patient.
And yet only three days?
"What the hell."
Had it all been hallucinations or delusions?
No.
No way.
The suture scars etched into my body, the ring on my finger, and the "weird medicine" in my bag—they were all real. No illusions about it.
"The flow of time in that freakish space must've been warped too."
That had to be it.
Well, actually, it was good news.
If not much time had passed, that was a win.
Better than going missing for no reason.
But even so, nothing was resolved.
The moment I got out, I had to go back to fleeing from vampires.
Just crossed one mountain, and there's another. Right then, a fierce rage boiled up inside me. I had to kill that vampire bitch somehow. Even if I couldn't hold another holy ritual like last time, I had to do something.
If I couldn't kill that monster, I'd have to keep running for the rest of my life. And I might run into the Management Bureau again in the process.
Oh, and speaking of which, I'd lost all the crosses and stuff I'd prepared beforehand. I'd stashed them in the Cheongak Mary Hospital security room, and there was no way I could go back for them.
Better stock up again.
With that in mind, I searched for Daeseong Blessed Mother Hospital's location. Big hospital in Gangnam. I'd pass by my neighborhood on the way... Eh, I could grab some crosses there and head up.
For now, I boarded the bus.
I'd had a nightmare.
Nurses with their eyes and mouths sewn shut marched into my hospital room in a group, then tore off my limbs and ripped out my guts with their grotesque hands. An utterly horrific and repulsive dream.
I died somehow, but terrifyingly, the regression point was inside the hospital room, so there was nothing I could do.
Even in the dream, I wondered.
Where was my current regression point? And what if something went terribly wrong, locking my regression point to a moment where I'd die no matter what in just a little while? What would happen to me then?
"Hah!"
Drenched in cold sweat, I jolted awake to find we'd arrived at the terminal. I shoved the horrific thoughts aside and got off the bus.
My familiar neighborhood.
It'd be perfect if there were just no vampires around.
No desire whatsoever to head to my place or the subway station. I went straight to the Christian shop. I needed at least a cross to have any chance of fighting back. Vampires could show up anytime.
I stepped inside.
"Hm?"
There was an unfamiliar clerk at the counter.
Normally, it was a middle-aged guy with long hair swept back, but now a blonde foreign woman stood there.
Her blonde hair and blue eyes were striking. A Westerner working at a neighborhood Christian shop? Kinda unusual.
Our eyes met, and feeling awkward, I gave a quick nod and browsed the store. I just needed to buy a cross and go.
One, two, three.
No... three wasn't enough.
Needed a few more.
Different types.
Ones for my neck and arm.
Quick-draw ones.
Small ones I could throw or scatter anytime, and a big one for main weapon duty if needed. Maybe even get ones with silver? They'd pulled some out last time when I asked. I'd gotten paid, so I could afford it.
I knew this obsessive fixation on crosses wasn't normal, but I couldn't suppress the urge.
You never know.
This might be how I kill the vampire.
If I could just take her down, I could live the rest of my life with zero ties to this hidden world.
"Excuse me. Got any crosses with silver in them?"
She was foreign—would she even understand?
She stared at me blankly for a good ten seconds.
"Excuse me?"
Her gaze was getting intense.
"We have them."
"Give me one of those. And ring these up too."
"..."
I set down a bunch of crosses, and she kept staring.
Yeah, buying this many crosses was pretty suspicious. Even in the loop where the Management Bureau beat the crap out of me, the middle-aged clerk had given me that look.
"Buying this many crosses?"
"Yeah?"
"Vampires show up somewhere?"
No.
Why's her Korean so good?
And vampires?
"N-No. As if. Just buying them. Need some for interior decorating."
"Is that so?"
Mentioning vampires made me flinch. Probably just a joke since I was buying so many. But blonde... suspicious. That vampire from before was blonde too.
"..."
No resemblance. And no way a vampire's working a Christian shop. This was paranoia.
"Here's the silver cross."
"Yeah."
"You go to church or cathedral? Devout type?"
"Why's your Korean so good?"
"Could be. Surprised?"
"Well, yeah, it is. Church? Yeah, wanna go more regularly."
Ideally, join a big one for protection.
"Good if you do. Go diligently."
"Yeah."
Pretty outgoing for a foreigner.
I finished paying and left the shop. Weird lady, huh? Foreigner going to a Korean church?
Anyway, with crosses in my bag, I felt a bit safer. Wanted to stock garlic too, but bringing that to my benefactor's hospital? Nah.
Oh, but the bag felt heavy with that weird medicine inside.
Couldn't just toss this creepy stuff. No way I'd eat it. Whatever, I'd have to carry it... Hold on.
What if I fed it to a vampire?
Kinda curious.
If the chance came, maybe use it as a weapon. This inhuman flesh blob might shred a vampire. Stomping on a choking, medicine-gagging vampire, blue light glowing in my eyes, asking if she wants to spend more horrific time—that'd be badass.
After that, I took a taxi up to Seoul.
A bit past lunchtime.
Kim Geunhong, entering Seoul.
Daeseong Blessed Mother Hospital was in Gangnam, but I got out around Yeoksam-dong to find a place to eat. Walking to the destination would take about thirty minutes, so I figured I'd hunt for food along the way.
Weekday, past lunch hour—streets weren't crowded.
"This is the big city."
Towering skyscrapers lined the main boulevard, exuding overwhelming power. Modern fortresses built with massive capital.
One building probably cost a fortune.
But money didn't impress me much anymore. I'd just made a killing using regressor knowledge not long ago.
And this world's underbelly had monsters, Management Bureau, and such.
In a world like that, no need to get attached to buildings. Fine for normal folks with no ties to the shadows, but for someone like me, survival was priority one.
Maybe the groups building and trading these giants were the secret overlords pulling the Management Bureau's strings.
Gotta be careful.
This was Seoul.
With ten million people, prime spot for the Bureau to control. Blink and they'd have you.
Pretending to be a normal guy, I stuck to alleys looking for a restaurant.
But then.
"Hm?"
Saw a weird guy.
—Clack clack clack.
A man hurrying with a bizarre gait. His face looked off at a glance... What? Twisted? Not kidding—his face was actually distorted.
Like Photoshop blur smeared all over it.
Maybe I mis-saw, and he just had some physical issue.
But a thick unease settled in.
—Clack clack clack.
The man moved fast with that weird walk, and to prove my anxiety was just paranoid delusion, I secretly followed him.
No way.
Couldn't be.
No way I'd get tangled in more weird shit right after vampires, Bureau, and freak hospital.
Impossible.
—Clack clack clack.
He turned into a narrow alley. Behind a big building off the main road, but time and spot meant no one else around.
He stopped in front of the building wall and suspiciously scanned the surroundings.
—Screech! Screech!
Snapping his head right with full force, then twisting his upper body excessively to whip left with all his might.
Like some extreme performance art.
After that, he quickly backpedaled from the wall.
Then, with all his strength—
—Whoosh!
Kicked off the ground and hurled himself at the wall.
Should've crashed and tumbled. That's reality. Amid my growing dread, I hoped for that outcome.
—Swoosh!
But he slipped right into the wall...!
"Wh-What?!"
What?
What the hell?
"Phenomenon!"
Another anomaly!
A person passing through a wall? No, into it? Like the massive building's marble exterior was water!
Unless I was hallucinating, this was a clear anomaly.
"Fuck...!"
Why did I have to run into more bullshit!
Shouldn't have followed!
Wanted to believe it wasn't an anomaly, but now I'd seen too much. No telling what'd happen next. Time to run.
"..."
Before bolting, though, I crept up to the wall where he'd vanished.
Needed final confirmation.
That what I saw was illusion or imagination.
—Gulp.
Slowly.
I reached out and touched the wall.