Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: The Body That Reached the Ideal
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“I shall bestow upon you all an equal teaching.”
A plaster statue resembling a Greek philosopher, the Philosophy Doctor, smiled mercifully.
As Iron Silence died, every light and CCTV camera in the area went out.
Only the uneasy green glow from the glow sticks illuminated the scene.
Park Cheol-woong and all the agents froze in place for a moment, their movements halting.
They instinctively knew that moving rashly and drawing the Doctor's gaze could mean instant death.
‘We have to blow up the Research Institute.’
Park Cheol-woong had braced himself for a day like this.
Working at the Research Institute and fighting anomalies day after day, death was hardly a stranger.
He had vowed to hold them back, even at the cost of his life.
Yet Park Cheol-woong hesitated.
‘Would my team members really think the same...?’
Park Cheol-woong was prepared.
But his team?
He couldn't be sure if they felt the same.
Some of them were still young, not even in their thirties yet.
Was blowing up the Research Institute and killing everyone really the best call?
What if they detonated it and the Philosophy Doctor survived?
Then he'd just be the one who got innocent team members killed.
“Why is no one speaking? Have you turned your backs on truth, staring only at shadows on the cave wall, and forgotten how to even talk?”
The Philosophy Doctor taunted them.
The team members shot glances at Park Cheol-woong.
When fighting anomalies, there often wasn't even time to speak.
Over years on the battlefield together, he and his team had reached the point where they could communicate with just looks.
Park Cheol-woong read their eyes.
‘...I see.’
The resolve in their gazes.
The vow to hold back the anomaly, even unto death.
He read their oath and conviction.
‘Fine team I've got here.’
Park Cheol-woong smiled bitterly in his heart.
In response to their looks, he conveyed his own will back to them.
They gave small nods.
With his mind made up, Park Cheol-woong opened his mouth.
“How the hell did you escape the Containment Cell!”
The Philosophy Doctor turned.
As the lifeless, dry plaster eyes fixed on him, Park Cheol-woong's body shrank back involuntarily.
At the same time, the team members caught his intent and launched the plan.
The goal was to alert others that the Philosophy Doctor had escaped and that the Research Institute needed to be blown up.
With Iron Silence dead, all communications were down.
While Park Cheol-woong held the Doctor's attention, one agent had no choice but to run and report directly.
The fastest agent started moving to make the report.
“How pitiable your arrogance, believing you could cage me. The body can be walled in, but the mind that follows the logos can never be confined.”
“That Containment Cell was designed like a maze. There's no way you could've escaped that fast.”
Park Cheol-woong kept drawing out the Doctor's words.
The Doctor was violent but capable of conversation.
Of course, those talks always ended in killing the other side, which was why he was called Korea's most dangerous anomaly.
He wouldn't die even to a nuke, and he slaughtered anyone in his sight indiscriminately.
“I figured out the maze's structure from the vibrations you made pacing outside the door. Seeing the essence without eyes—that is the sage's insight, which the ignorant can never achieve.”
The other team members positioned themselves between the Doctor and the fleeing agent, blocking his view.
Standing in the line of sight to shield him.
“Who dares ignore the voice of the sage proclaiming truth and take a step away!”
The Philosophy Doctor clapped.
Clap—.
With the sound, the surroundings shifted in an instant.
The dim Containment Cell corridor and ceiling vanished.
A blue sky stretched high overhead.
A flat circular stone floor spread wide, surrounded by tiered steps like spectator seats.
It resembled the Colosseum.
“A-An anomaly space? The report never mentioned this ability!”
“Ignoramus. To belittle this sacred place as a mere 'anomaly space'—truly lamentable. This is the Agora! A place for scholars pursuing truth!”
Park Cheol-woong and the entire team had been pulled into the anomaly space.
The plan to send one agent out to report the escape had failed.
First, they needed to escape the anomaly space.
“Allow me to explain the rules of debate.”
The Philosophy Doctor continued gravely.
“First, the debate ends when all opponents are convinced. Second, I alone am the affirmative side, and all of you are the negative. And finally, third—if someone dies, treat it as if they were convinced by the opponent.”
Park Cheol-woong's face twisted.
The other team members looked soulless, as if hearing utter nonsense.
“What bullshit is this! First time I've seen an anomaly make up rules like that!”
Park Cheol-woong shouted in protest, but the Philosophy Doctor ignored him and continued leisurely.
“Anomaly space? This is debate. A sacred debate to determine who is right!”
The Philosophy Doctor's third rule for the anomaly space: if someone dies, treat it as if they were convinced by the opponent.
Park Cheol-woong realized it immediately.
Unlike ordinary anomaly rules with some escape clause, this one had none—he had no intention of letting them live.
“Now, let the debate begi— Hm? What are you?”
In the center of the Colosseum.
A girl appeared out of nowhere.
Everyone froze, staring at her as if time had stopped.
The Black Princess had arrived.
“Oh? It's that uncle from before. Hi, nice to see you again.”
The Princess looked at Park Cheol-woong and bowed slightly.
In the suffocating tension, he returned the greeting.
“N-Nice to see you too.”
No one dared interrupt this awkward encounter in the anomaly space.
Finally, the Philosophy Doctor broke the strange mood.
“I asked what you are! Ignorant fool. Don't you know that in debate, you must answer your opponent's question!”
The Philosophy Doctor charged at the Princess, swinging his fist.
It was too fast to follow with the eyes.
The punch tore through the air.
The Princess stepped back once, dodging perfectly.
Only the wind from the swing brushed her cheek.
“Hm. Looks decently tasty. Thanks for the meal.”
The moment the Princess opened her mouth.
The Philosophy Doctor leaped backward at tremendous speed.
With one bound, he reached the edge of the Colosseum.
“The food's running away?”
In the blink of an eye, the Princess closed in on the Doctor at the edge.
She kicked the panicked Doctor into the air.
Then jumped after him, slamming down with a heel strike that embedded him in the ground.
The impact shook the earth like an earthquake, scattering Colosseum debris.
Park Cheol-woong and the team ducked and shielded their faces.
“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!!!”
The Philosophy Doctor screamed in rage.
The full-on battle between the Black Princess and the Philosophy Doctor began.
A fight between entities far beyond human limits.
Park Cheol-woong watched, dumbfounded.
‘The Black Princess is winning...?’
It wasn't just winning.
She was overwhelming him completely.
Boom. BOOM—.
Fists and kicks flew in a brutal melee.
Each blow exploded like a bomb, the shockwaves shaking the surroundings.
“Mm. The meat's pretty tough.”
Despite the Black Princess's endless onslaught, the Philosophy Doctor remained unscratched.
“This body has reached the ideal form! It cannot be damaged by mere beasts!!!”
The Doctor's confident voice echoed.
Just endure, and her stamina would drop, opening a counter chance.
The moment he thought that.
The Black Princess opened her mouth.
Nom nom.
“Wh-What is—.”
The Philosophy Doctor's head caved in.
“Ptoo! Ugh, this is super gross.”
The Princess spat out the chunk of the Philosophy Doctor's head she'd bitten off.
His right eye and half his face, drenched in saliva, hit the ground.
The Doctor stared at his severed face.
“My body... broken? My body, which reached the ideal after long training?”
Thud.
He dropped to his knees.
“...I lose. I admit defeat.”
The first rule of the Philosophy Doctor's anomaly space: the debate ends when all opponents are convinced.
The anomaly space collapsed.
The surroundings returned to the familiar Containment Cell corridor.
“Heh. Hahaha! So I haven't reached the ideal yet. Good! I shall continue pursuing truth!”
The Philosophy Doctor laughed hollowly.
“Hurry and lock me back in your pathetic Containment Cell or whatever! I wish to meditate in isolation, cut off from the outside!”
With half his face caved in, he looked at Park Cheol-woong.
No more killing intent.
The battle was over.
Philosophy Doctor escape incident: total deaths, 1.
The crisis that demanded blowing up the Research Institute ended so anticlimactically, thanks to someone.
After the storm had passed,
“Hng. I'm hungry.”
All that remained was the Black Princess's trivial complaint.
“...Let's hit the canteen. I'll buy whatever you want.”
And so, Park Cheol-woong and the Princess headed to the canteen.