Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Strange Phenomenon (Interlude)
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Carrying the dead monster slung over my shoulder, I stepped outside.
'What the hell is this thing?'
Do normal monsters possess such absurd abilities?
I'd need to investigate further to figure out how this place ended up like this, but no matter how I thought about it, I couldn't accept that a mere beast could manipulate space and even control an A-Rank Hero's mind.
Moreover, when it had charged at me earlier, its body hadn't seemed weak at all.
It had simply been overwhelmed by my overwhelming strength and died on the spot.
"First things first, let's check in."
I pulled the walkie-talkie from my pocket right away, but for some reason, it wouldn't work properly.
'Did it get damaged from the impact when Isis attacked me earlier?'
Plus, I'd been moving around pretty roughly, so it wasn't surprising if it had broken.
"Headquarters, do you copy?"
- Ah, Do-yoon? Is that you?
"Yes, it's me. Mission accomplished."
At least the channel to Isis's team was working. Thank goodness.
- You lost contact right after entering the building, so we called for backup just in case... Glad you made it out safely.
They'd called for backup while I was inside?
I glanced around.
No one had arrived yet.
- Are you sure it's really resolved?
"Yeah. Want me to snap a pic of the monster's corpse and send it over?"
- No, that's fine. You're not the type to lie... Oh, could you tell us what happened to Isis?
"Well..."
I looked down at Isis, lying neatly on the ground right beside me.
There were no visible wounds on her, but after the way I'd smacked her earlier... Honestly, I had no idea how she was doing.
Her neck didn't seem broken, at least, but she'd passed out instantly, so it wasn't like I'd gone easy on her either...
"...She's out cold from a mental attack right now."
- Ah... Understood. Since you've confirmed the mission's complete, we'll dispatch an investigation team right away.
Hearing that, I lowered the walkie-talkie as I gazed at the collapsed abandoned building and the monster's shredded corpse.
They'd handle the cleanup, right...?
"What the hell is this...?"
"What happened here...?"
The dispatched investigation team stared in shock at the ruined abandoned building and the monster's corpse.
"It's a long story..."
I guess I couldn't avoid explaining.
I carefully recounted everything that had happened, step by step.
The moment Isis and I entered the building, we were pulled into some unidentified distorted space. Isis fell victim to a mental attack, but I didn't.
However, the enemy could manipulate not just space but minds as well, which fully corrupted Isis's psyche and made her attack me.
With no choice, I'd subdued her, then searched the building to rescue every hero and civilian inside, before beating the monster to death.
"Th-that... There's something I don't quite get. Didn't you say that monster controlled space, making it impossible to get out?"
"So I moved faster than it could manipulate."
"Pardon...?"
They looked even more confused by my explanation.
It sounded weird even to me.
If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would've asked what the hell that meant.
"Well... It worked, anyway."
"Uh... Um..."
They finally seemed to grasp it, stammering in response.
Sorry, but there's no better way to explain it.
And I couldn't exactly demonstrate it here.
"More importantly, is Isis okay? She came at me under mental control, so I had to subdue her... I'm a bit worried."
"Isis should be fine. She'll need a thorough check-up, but there are no obvious external injuries, and her life isn't in danger. As for the mental manipulation, we have specialists for that. They'll handle it. However..."
The investigator turned to watch as Isis was carried away.
"For Isis to fall to mental manipulation... It's hard to believe."
"Yeah, I guess so?"
"Yes... Especially with her powerful psychic abilities, mental fortitude is usually even stronger. Even among A-Rank psychics, she has the resilience to resist most attacks. How could..."
That meant the monster had at least S-Rank level psychic powers.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have been hit the instant we entered.
'That was way too close...'
I watched Isis being carted off, my expression complicated.
If it had been any other A-Rank Hero instead of me, they'd probably have gone missing too.
At minimum, an S-Rank would've had to step in to resolve it without falling to the mental attack.
'Where the hell did something like that come from...?'
It couldn't be tied to the original game's storyline, could it?
The thought made me uneasy.
For a moment, as I pondered that.
The investigators' gazes seemed even stranger now.
"...What is it?"
I looked up at him, wondering what was wrong.
"Th-this might be rude, but... I heard you're a physical-type Hero...?"
"Yeah, why?"
"How did you resist the mental manipulation that even got Isis...?"
"Hmm..."
Well, my mental strength is sky-high thanks to the Stat Cheat, so it probably just bounced off.
But I couldn't exactly say that outright.
What should I tell them?
"Luck...?"
"......"
"Or maybe grit? Who knows."
Their expressions grew even weirder.
They were trying not to be rude, but it felt like they were looking at me like I was the monster...
"Ahem... Anyway, thank you sincerely. Thanks to your efforts, we rescued the missing heroes and civilians safely."
"No problem. It was just my job."
Good... Seems like everything worked out somehow.
But there was one important thing left.
I turned to the investigator with a serious look.
"Investigate this place thoroughly. There are way too many weird things about it. Especially that monster."
It was suspicious no matter how you sliced it.
How could a monster with that kind of power exist here? And why was it living in this abandoned building of all places?
What had happened in this building in the past?
And finally, what the hell was that monster?
"...Yes, we will."
The investigator nodded gravely.
Yeah, they'd take it from here.
For now, I should head back and discuss this incident with the others.
The investigators watched Do-yoon's departing figure, then began their work. With help from heroes, they partially restored the collapsed building to start the examination.
As Do-yoon had advised, they focused most intensely on the monster.
Its corpse was shredded so badly that investigation hit some snags, but with a psychometry-type hero on hand, they managed to push through.
A few hours later.
"What is this space...?"
They discovered something strange.
Amid the building debris, they'd found a path leading underground.
"Hey, dig deeper!"
They uncovered a secret space hidden inside the abandoned building.
A research lab, now completely abandoned.
Traces of experiments remained, along with unidentified grotesque biological remains that hadn't decayed despite the passage of time.
And finally, signs of dimensional distortion.
"What the hell were they researching here...?"
"What about that monster from earlier? Is the analysis done?!"
"Y-yes! Checking right now!"
The team leader broke into a cold sweat as he watched the researcher hurry off.
'Has Earth been connected to another dimension since way back...?!'
A few months ago.
The gate incidents that had shaken the world might not have been mere bad luck after all. The anxiety began to creep in.
Maybe that monster was the result of experiments.
'No... It's too soon to say for sure...'
Nothing was confirmed yet.
A monster that powerful wouldn't have been left behind by its creators anyway.
It was probably a fluke.
But if, even indirectly, that monster had been born from this research...
'We need to prepare...'
South Korea itself might be in danger.
The man stared at the lab with a mix of complexity and fear.
Hoping it was all just his imagination.