Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Hanseol Human Meat Factory #7
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Terror surges over me.
More than being trapped in this bizarre world.
More than getting caught by those horrific Butcher Monsters.
An even greater fear grips my heart like a vise.
I'm already walking slowly.
To check the identity of the corpses.
"Where are you going!"
As I start retracing my steps, a panicked Kim Seong-jin grabs me. I tell him curtly that I just need to check something real quick, then keep walking.
What was it?
Was that it?
I inspect the corpses hanging from the hooks.
Regardless of gender. Various ages. Lifelike real human bodies that couldn't possibly be fakes. The dead stare down at me with expressionless faces.
Pass.
Pass.
Not this one.
Not this guy either.
And then.
"Ah."
I...
Stop in front of my own corpse.
No matter how I look at it, it's a man who can only be me.
This is.
Me.
The corpse that's me gazes down at me with hollow eyes.
"...!"
An unbearable horror surges up, and I nearly scream. But I can't in front of Kim Seong-jin, so I force it down.
This is me?
How is my corpse here?
Then what am I...!
Am I a doppelganger?!
Is this corpse the doppelganger?
Or am I the doppelganger?!
In my panic, I mutter open the status window.
[Status Window]
Name: Grong
Title: One Who Activated the Reality Recognition Device
.
.
Loop: 2
Death Count: 18 (-1)
[Loop-by-Loop Death Counts]
[Collected Endings]
[Functions]
[Resolution List]
[Possessed Abilities]
[Point Shop]
[Mailbox]
[...]
There's nothing wrong with the status window. But that doesn't give me any reassurance. The status window itself is suspicious from the start.
Something is seriously off.
This corpse right in front of me—I feel an intense urge to destroy it. I want to grind it to dust as soon as possible. I just want to erase its very existence!
In my fear, I question this bizarre impulse that rises up.
Seeing another version of myself and instantly feeling murderous rage... This has to be a doppelganger, right? But if it really were, shouldn't a notification pop up?
What kind of ghost story is this?
And what does it have to do with this human meat factory!
"H-Hey?! What the hell!"
As I tremble in front of the corpse, Kim Seong-jin—who'd been keeping his distance—approaches. He checks out the corpse hanging in front of me.
He realizes it looks exactly like me and gapes in shock.
"W-What the hell is this corpse! Why does it look just like you! What are you! What's with this corpse! Who the fuck are you!"
Terror and madness fill Kim Seong-jin's eyes. He backs away trembling, pointing at me with his right hand. Some extreme anxiety kicking in—he shoves his left fingers in his mouth and starts gnawing on them.
"I don't know either. I have no idea why my corpse is hanging here. It might just be one of the weird anomalies happening in this space. Get a grip, Kim Seong-jin. You can't panic."
I explain as calmly as I can.
Even now, an unbelievably intense urge to destroy this corpse boils up inside me.
This really feels like a doppelganger phenomenon.
When a doppelganger and the original meet, they both get swept up in extreme murderous intent, desperate to kill the fake and prove they're the real one. The next moment, they dive into a slaughterfest, and only one survives.
Whichever dies is the doppelganger, and the survivor is the real deal. That's what a doppelganger is.
But.
If this were truly a doppelganger ghost story... a notification should appear. Something like [You've encountered the Doppelganger ghost story.] The fact that it hasn't means it's probably not that.
No...!
I've been through all sorts of shit so far, and there've been countless times when no notification popped up!
I'm telling Kim Seong-jin not to panic, but right now, I'm on the verge of losing it myself!
"A-Ah...! Hah! Hah!"
I stay still, and Kim Seong-jin breathes hard.
Then he shakes his head and approaches me again.
"T-The corpse! Right! You said it's an anomaly from this space!"
"That could be."
I want to believe that too.
"Then maybe this is it!"
"What?"
His eyes flash like he's figured something out.
Madness lurks in those gleaming eyes.
"The corpse! It's the corpse! If your own corpse appears as an anomaly, just destroy it! Then we'll disappear too!"
"What...? So you're saying if we destroy the corpse, we can escape?"
"Y-Yeah! That's it! That has to be it!"
Kim Seong-jin's theory goes like this.
Find and destroy your own corpse that spawned in this human meat factory, and you can go back.
It's nonsense.
Way too much of a leap.
Having to hunt down and erase your own corpse to escape? That's the kind of deranged theory only someone fully consumed by madness could come up with.
But if the corpses spawning really is an anomaly of this space itself... it might not hurt to test it once.
"Y-Your corpse is right here! Help me find mine! Quick, quick! We gotta find it!"
"Got it."
No better options right now anyway.
I search for his corpse with Kim Seong-jin.
But.
"N-No...! It's not here...! Not here!"
We check every corpse, but there's no sign of one that looks like Kim Seong-jin.
His isn't here.
Looks like the theory that your corpse spawns here is wrong.
"Yeah, that's it!"
Kim Seong-jin drops to his knees and clutches his face.
"I've been here too long! My corpse wouldn't still be around! It's already canned and shipped out!"
"...That could be."
Yeah.
Even if corpses really do spawn, he's been here way too long. That means his got processed already.
"My corpse is gone! Uh-heh-heh-heh-heh!"
Completely broken, Kim Seong-jin bursts into laughter.
I immediately cover his mouth.
"Calm down. We don't know if that theory's real. It's a huge leap to say we have to destroy the corpses in the first place."
"L-Leap?! In a fucked-up world like this, you gotta think fucked-up! I-I'm screwed! No corpse! I can't escape like this, kuhhh! I'm trapped here forever!"
If Kim Seong-jin's theory is right.
With his corpse gone, escape is impossible for him.
Forever.
"Please!"
"..."
"Please! Don't abandon me! Please! I wanna live! Find another way, please! Please! You're an agent! Please! Kuhhhh!"
Total despair.
He wails, having lost all hope for survival.
Should I ditch Kim Seong-jin?
Leave him and do what I need to?
More importantly, I have another mission.
Get back to the bathroom and write down what I've learned in the notebook. Kim Seong-jin can't write in it anymore for some reason, but I probably still can.
Wait.
Kim Seong-jin said he can't write in that supernatural notebook anymore. Maybe... you can only write in it as long as your corpse is still in this human meat factory?
I hadn't even thought of that.
Maybe his theory really is correct. If I destroy that corpse, I might get flagged as "erased from this space" and escape.
But how... Ah!
The grinder!
There's a grinder!
Toss the corpse in there, and it'll be pulverized to dust in seconds! That should count as destroying it!
Failing to get processed into canned meat but succeeding in the grinder?
That would explain my gut feeling earlier. The moment I saw my corpse, I was overwhelmed by the urge to destroy it. Maybe that's exactly the escape method?
I want to test it right now.
Hug my corpse and rush it to the grinder.
But if that lets me escape.
Kim Seong-jin gets left here alone.
"..."
No.
I can't do that.
I won't abandon Kim Seong-jin.
I'm gonna save this guy!
"Kim Seong-jin!"
"Huh...?"
I grab his shoulder.
"Get your head straight. The theory that tossing your own hanging corpse into the grinder might let you escape— I want to test it right now, but I won't."
"W-What...?"
"I can't escape and leave you here alone. I'm not ditching you. So calm down."
"K-Kuh! R-Really...?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks! Kuhh! Thank you, thank you!"
Kim Seong-jin sobs and thanks me. If I were one of those fake Management Bureau agents, I'd have ditched him in a heartbeat. But I'm Grong, a real agent from the real Management Bureau.
We don't abandon civilians caught in anomalies.
"We're finding another way together. Best bet right now is still hijacking the human meat supply truck. That's the plan."
"B-But that's dangerous...!"
"No choice. We do it. First, we hide. When their break ends and work starts, we slip out and stake it out. Gotta survive for that. Got it?"
"Y-Yeah...!"
No telling how it'll go.
Even if we pull off hijacking the human meat supply truck and make it back to reality.
Who knows what'll happen to Kim Seong-jin, who's already lost his corpse here.
And if my hanging corpse gets processed... no clue there either.
Still, we push on.
For that slim chance to save someone caught in an anomaly.
I kill time in the human meat storage with Kim Seong-jin.
Luckily, no Butcher Monster comes in while we're hiding.
And then.
—Vrrrrm!
I hear machinery powering up.
Specifically, the motors whirring to life as power surges.
"Break's over, looks like."
"Yeah."
Once work starts, the monsters will head back inside the factory.
We'll slip out then and wait for the maybe/maybe-not human meat supply truck. From here on, it's all improv. Somehow hijack that truck and ride it out.
—Thud thud thud.
Footsteps from outside.
The Butcher Monsters returning.
Will they... check the human meat storage? If they come in, we're screwed. I wait, keeping calm.
...
They don't.
They've all probably returned to the factory by now.
The moment Kim Seong-jin nods at me.
—Clank clank clank creak!
The rail with the hanging corpses starts moving!
"Damn it...!"
If this keeps up, the corpses will move to the next line and get processed. Including mine here.
Not the grinder—straight to the canning.
What happens then...?
Will it mess up my regression point or something?
I'm getting antsy.
But.
Gotta do what needs doing.
I'm an agent!
"Th-The corpses...!"
"Quiet. Machines are moving, so they've all gone back to work. Safe to head out now."
"O-Oh, okay."
I head straight for the door.
Peek outside carefully.
No patrolling monsters—confirmed.
We slip back out into the factory.
"Phew."
Pure gamble from here. Whether the monsters' truck shows up or not. Everything rides on that.
And how fast that rail moves too.
But I'm not thinking too pessimistic.
Would these things just watch their human meat run out? Suck their thumbs once it's all processed?
Doubt it.
The factory rail's already moving.
Truck should be coming soon.
Hiding and waiting like that.
"Huh...!"
There it is for real—truck approaching from afar!
"I-It’s real...! The human meat supply truck is here!"
Kim Seong-jin tears up. Just like we figured, there's a truck bringing in more human meat.
"We're hijacking that. No detailed plan. All improv. Play it smart, got it?"
"Play it smart...!"
Scared look on his face.
Needs some pep talk.
"A World Politics Board user can't handle this? You've dodged Management Bureau types plenty, right?"
"O-Of course! I can do it! A-And I can drive a truck too!"
"That's reassuring."
Truth is, I have a Class 2 license.
—Screech.
The truck pulls into the back entrance and stops.
A Butcher Monster hops out. Heads to the back and opens the cargo hold. Just as expected—probably full of corpses, and it starts unloading... right now!
—Dash!
On my signal, Kim Seong-jin and I bolt out. Running while muffling our footsteps makes us look kinda ridiculous, but we make it to the driver's side!
Up!
Up!
The moment I boost Kim Seong-jin up.
—Thud thud thud!
The Butcher Monster unloading the meat spots us and charges straight at us!
"Fuck!"