Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Questioner II
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Shin Noah
2
There’s a saying: internal and external troubles.
Usually, it refers to the ultimate agony of suffering from food poisoning while also stepping on Lego bricks, tormented from the inside out. But in truth, this idiom has a deeper meaning.
It’s the wisdom that internal worries can be easily resolved by pointing to an external enemy.
This truth, passed down from ancient times, was once again proven when I captured 101 Fairy Sages and uploaded the footage to SG Net.
-Anonymous: Undertaker, is he a god? Undertaker, is he a god? Undertaker, is he a god?
-Goryeo Jang: Seeing those fairy brats get wrecked feels so damn refreshing lololol
-Anonymous: Mommy, I wanna be an Undertaker when I grow up! Mommy, I wanna be an Undertaker when I grow up!
-Literary Girl: Why do we have to experience this insanely fun hidden cam footage only through video? Can’t you sell live tickets??
└Anonymous: I think I know the building. Recruiting for an on-site cheering raid party.
-[Highway] Historian: Truly karma. Proof that justice still lives and breathes in this world. People rampaging in the end times should watch this and reflect on themselves.
-dolLHoUse: Concerns.
-[Yuldo Nation] Sword Marquis: What splendid cinematography!
“Hmm.”
I nodded in satisfaction.
Just looking at the like count on the post, it was the most overwhelming number of my entire 89th turn life!
We Awakeners varied wildly in dispositions and personalities, but we all shared one thing: absolute hatred for fairies!
But it was too early to relax. No matter how thoroughly you crush the external enemy, internal problems don’t just vanish. It’s merely sleight of hand.
My internal trouble—the cancer itself—was wafting a sweet fragrance right beside me.
“Haaah…. To capture every Tutorial Fairy across the nation and corral them in one place. How did you come up with such an idea, Guild Leader? You’re amazing.”
Quick quiz.
Who was it that just flashed me a sweet smile and marveled like that?
Hint 1: She called me “Guild Leader,” a title surprisingly few use.
Hint 2: She has rare pink hair.
Hint 3: This is the 89th turn.
“As expected, you seem like a very unique person, Guild Leader. I’m so glad I decided to follow you when you invited me to join at Busan Station….”
Correct. Go Yo-ri!
Any normal human would scream “Kyaaah! Eiyaiya! Cthulhu busted!” and bolt the moment they heard the answer.
But I was far from normal, and at this point in the 89th turn, I had no clue it would end in total annihilation.
Naturally, I didn’t suspect Go Yo-ri was an Unggaleo (Pokémon)—a brainwashing beam monster in human skin.
“What’re you saying. Thanks to you joining, guild management has been a breeze for me. Sometimes it feels like the guild members like you more than me.”
“Ahaha. Come on, Guild Leader. It’s just because I don’t have to manage the guild or give orders.”
Thus, in the 89th turn, I heard the pink Irochi-guy Unggaleo’s smile and only thought, *What a pleasant voice.* What an idiot. Run.
“And honestly, this one was a bit lucky too.”
“Lucky, you say?”
“Yeah. I’ve got the patterns of surviving fairies on the Korean Peninsula all figured out, but they came along way too obediently.”
“……”
Go Yo-ri smiled brightly.
“It’s all in the stars. In the end, heaven decides human affairs, so flipped around, the fairies were just unlucky. You should be happy, Guild Leader.”
“Hmm. You’re right.”
No! Undertaker. No!
Run away. Run away right now!
…But no matter how much Interstellar I filmed alone, my voice couldn’t reach the 89th turn me.
The silver lining? Go Yo-ri’s brainwashing beam wasn’t particularly speciesist.
It worked not just on Homo sapiens but on fairies too. Thanks to that, the 101 fairies weren’t causing much chaos even in prison.
“Hoeek…. W-where is this?”
“Unfamiliar ceiling syndrome.”
The prison was Cheongsong Correctional Facility.
Since the apocalypse hit and even the walls crumbled, it had suffered constant population loss. Now it buzzed with new inmates for the first time in ages.
“Kidnapped? Are we kidnapped?”
“We, created for clichés, have become playthings of a cliché?”
“That’s cliché too.”
“Hoe…. If I’d been born 500 years earlier, I’d have conquered world literature, but I was born in the wrong era….”
“No Colas, potato chips, or cup ramen in the Middle Ages—what good is conquering then?”
“I can make every literature major born 500 years later regret not being born 500 years earlier.”
“Hiek, a terrifying genius…!”
Murmur murmur—
With 101 fairies gathered—left alone, they were noisy enough—it was like Noryangjin Market.
Time for the main show.
Go Yo-ri handed me a mic with a knowing smile, as if she’d prepared it in advance (chills). I stepped onto the stage.
“Aa—mic test. Mic test. Hello, fairies. Nice to meet you.”
“Hoeek. You’re…?”
“I’m your guide. You must be shocked to be kidnapped here so suddenly. But don’t worry. From now on, your instructor will guide you kindly from start to finish.”
The fairies sprawled in the auditorium blinked and whispered.
“Sounds like a routine I’ve heard before?”
“Somehow super familiar lines.”
“This rope is so tough, made of what…? Can’t untie it….”
“Busan Station Awakener!”
Beeeep! One fairy shrieked from the auditorium center.
“I’ve seen it in footage! That human cleared the nightmare dungeon Busan Station—No. 264’s assignment—in under 20 minutes! No doubt!”
“Hieeek?”
“20 minutes? The protagonist-type Awakener seniors warned about!”
Murmur murmur murmur!
The fairies erupted in noise instantly.
But a speaker who believes in their own righteousness isn’t swayed by mere audience commotion. Like Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial, I steadfastly continued my speech.
“Calm down and hear me out, fairies. When do you think evil arises in this world?”
“Hoe?”
“I believe evil stems from failing—or deliberately refusing—to consider the other’s position and feelings. Refusing to see or know. In that sense, Socrates’ old maxim that ignorance is the root of evil is truly correct.”
“…What bullshit is this human spouting?”
“No clue….”
“Ah, ah. Your instructor has prepared this to save you from evil’s abyss. You toy with humans because you’ve never been toys yourselves.”
Question marks popped up over the fairies’ tiny heads in unison.
My voice rang righteously through the now-quiet auditorium.
“Get the gist? Now kill each other.”
“……?”
It didn’t take long for the crooked question marks to straighten into exclamation points under a hammer blow.
Fairy-exclusive Tutorial Dungeon: start.
“Hieeeek! Save the fairy!”
“Gyaak! Rocks! Rocks rolling! Gyaaaak! Hieeeek!”
Malice-filled traps, limited supplies, stage designs to breed suspicion and dark whispers, and more.
As they say, all creation stems from imitation.
When building the Cheongsong Prison Dungeon, I drew full inspiration from the great predecessors in the field. Those seniors were now joyfully frolicking in the structure their junior designed.
“H-how can a human do this in human skin! Don’t you have a heart?!”
“Nope. Installed a fairy heart instead. Hoe— hoeeeng—”
“……”
“What? Staring at what, No. 76? When humans begged for their lives in Yeongwol, did you grant it?”
“Hiek! W-we were just following orders!”
“Is that so. Your instructor’s similar. I’m solely my own master, and right now I’m ordering myself. We’re in like boats, so I ask for your gracious understanding, fairies.”
“Crazy human…. Crazy human….”
The fairies trembled.
Oh, and by the way, Go Yo-ri was flawlessly recording the whole thing on her smartphone.
“Ah. Guild Leader, sorry, you’re not in frame. Could you step a bit further in?”
“Like this?”
“Yesss.”
As days turned to one, two, three in Cheongsong Prison, Go Yo-ri’s smile evolved from “bright” to “beam-.”
A master of mental manipulation, she was skilled at video editing too.
Director/Screenwriter: Undertaker. Cinematography/Editing: Go Yo-ri. Leads/Supports: Fairies.
Our combined efforts produced the heartwarming true-story docudrama weekend serial *[Tutorial Reverse World]*, which hit 100% viewership every time it uploaded to SG Net.
“You really are an intriguing person, Guild Leader.”
…Looking back now.
Even following the wisdom of internal-external troubles, drawing such uniform reactions from the madhouse that is SG Net was no easy feat.
Perhaps Go Yo-ri’s “edited” videos already contained perception manipulation. Enough that even Sim A-ryeon or the Sword Marquis would approve.
This was likely the point where Go Yo-ri started taking genuine interest—and obsession—in me.
3
Of course, my purpose in establishing the fairy prison wasn’t just to settle pent-up racial grudges. (That was only 50% of it.)
I looked down at fairies plummeting 60 meters underground, losing a tug-of-war in real time.
*Even after I’ve swept up every fairy left on the peninsula and turned them into a single mine. You still won’t show your face?*
Fairy Lord.
Yes. The presumed super-special strangeness that managed and ruled the “Tutorial Dungeons” and “fairies” appearing simultaneously worldwide, not just the peninsula…
By future Library Society classification, possibly the first Level 5, Alienation, Alien God-grade verdict. A great evil.
*I’ve poured this much into capturing fairies this turn. I need to gather max info on that bastard.*
Hieeeek—! Fairies screamed and collapsed.
Surprisingly, even now, I knew nothing substantial about the Fairy Lord’s identity.
Across the full span of the 89th turn, I’d never gleaned meaningful intel.
That very fact heightened my vigilance.
*No pushover.*
Unlike attention-hungry villains in other creations dying to hint at themselves, the fairies’ boss was a true black curtain.
All I had was the four syllables “Fairy Lord.”
“Hey. Massacre Demon.”
“Hoeek….”
I tapped a prone fairy’s forehead with my finger.
“Why not spill about your boss already? You think I’ll stop at rampaging just the peninsula? China, Japan, India… well, maybe not India. Anyway, I can wipe fairies from any decent neighborhood.”
“Hiek, c-can’t say….”
“Why? One mouth? Make it two or three, maybe we can talk rationally?”
“Hieeeek!”
Thud. Footsteps. I glanced back—Go Yo-ri stood with hands behind her.
“Interrogating, Guild Leader?”
“Yeah. Not a pretty sight, so no filming.”
“Not pretty? It’s lovely. You should treasure it so others can’t steal peeks.”
Go Yo-ri tilted her head.
“Hmm. Trouble because the fairies won’t talk? If I can help, I’d love to.”
“Hm? If you can help, sure, but these guys have mouths of steel. Just take the sentiment.”
“……”
Smile. Go Yo-ri beamed.
“No need to thank me. What were you asking?”
“Oh, just what the Fairy Lord’s real name is….”
—“The Fairy Lord is the Fairy Lord.”
Mutter.
I looked at the fairy. Our eyes met. After a month of stonewalling, its lips twitched.
“But humans misunderstand the true meaning of ‘lord.’”
“…Misunderstand? How?”
“The lord you think of is lord (君主)—the superior served and loyal to by inferiors. But our Fairy Lord is different. Our lord is lord (群主)—the master of the fairy ‘swarm.’”
The fairy smiled radiantly.
“We are one. One is us. Thus, we say ‘our Fairy Lord’ in the truest sense—defying it is betraying oneself. We—”
Boom!
The fairy’s lips quivered, then exploded from within. Its body ballooned like a balloon.
Flash. I instinctively raised my aura barrier between us and the fairy. Crimson liquid splattered *splat splat* against the glass-like shield.
Once the explosions died, nothing remained where the fairy sat but chunks of flesh.
“What the hell…?”
“Oh, probably a bomb implanted for secrecy.”
Go Yo-ri muttered beside me.
“Hmm. First time for this, but… you won’t be too troubled, right, Guild Leader?”
“What do you mean?”
“Still 100 fairies left.”
Go Yo-ri clasped her hands.
“You can question 100 more times.”
Infinite Regressor Spins Tales