Chapter 81
Chapter 81
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Questioner III: Shin Noah 4
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To cut to the chase, Go Yo-ri's solution of "What if we smash the fairies' heads 100 more times to get perfect intel?" didn't pan out.
It wasn't that a sudden surge of pity welled up from my tender heart, crying out that it was too cruel.
Just look at my little brother Seo-gyu, who was already grappling with anger management issues. The number of times he'd gotten his head express-delivered back to him by the fairies had surpassed fifty. Pity? What pity?
Me, the Undertaker—a man who proudly declares himself opposed to racism but a thoroughgoing species supremacist. My emotions only run two ways for Homo sapiens.
There was one simple reason Go Yo-ri's fix fizzled out.
"Commencing extermination."
"Commencing extermination."
The moment we stepped out of the interrogation room, the fairies swarmed toward Go Yo-ri in a horde.
"What...?"
Dozens of fairies poured in from the hallways, ceilings, above and below—every direction. All with identical faces. All utterly expressionless.
That alone painted a pretty cosmic horror scene, but my nerves were tuned elsewhere.
'The fairies aren't talking like "[it's] there'?'
My god. It was a cultural shock.
Was that even legal?
Before my tongue could spit out the astonishment, the limbs of a seasoned regressor moved first.
"You little shits! From where?!"
Thwack! I wrapped aura around my thighs and calves, smashing the three fairies charging straight at Go Yo-ri.
But that wasn't the end of it.
The fairies went flying from my kick, but in that instant, their bodies ballooned like red balloons.
The tiny fairy bodies swelled rapidly with red liquid. The sight unspooled right in front of me like slow motion.
A jolt shot up my spine—a warning.
'Suicide bombing!'
They weren't aiming to hurt us from the start. Closing the distance was the goal.
I swiftly cloaked my entire body in protective aura. Then I yanked Go Yo-ri tight into my arms.
"Ah—"
Go Yo-ri's lips moved. But her voice drowned in the explosion that followed.
KABOOOM!
The blast shook the entire Cheongsong Prison. It had been retrofitted for imprisoning fairies, not humans, but even the thick defensive walls couldn't fully contain the detonation.
Of course, it didn't breach my barrier either.
"Damn it..."
Everything collapsed. Hallway walls, pillars, ceiling—gone.
Chunks of concrete slammed into my aura-shrouded body with heavy thuds—thump, crash!
"Whew. Go Yo-ri, you okay? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, thanks to you, Guild Leader. You're amazing."
She said that, but as the building rubble crumbled and dust billowed, I heard her coughing.
Ssshh... Through the dust cloud, the surroundings came into view, soaked red like they'd been hit by water balloons filled with paint. Probably the LCL fluid sprayed from the fairies' bursting bodies.
Smack in the middle of the mess, one intact fairy hovered in midair.
"Hey, you little bastard..."
"I request a conversation."
Drip. As if nothing had happened, a single fairy spoke.
"But on one condition. I demand to speak with you alone—"
Splatter! I lunged and crushed the fairy's head in one go.
I shook off the sticky blood-red slime clinging between my fingers.
"Don't make me laugh. You pull off a suicide bombing, and now that we look fine, you wanna talk it out? As expected, you psycho mass-murder freaks think on a whole other level."
-Warning. No questions will be answered.
Then something astonishing happened.
The puddles around us bubbled and boiled, instantly forming fairy shapes.
But they were incomplete. Heads, mouths, fingers popped up from puddle to puddle, each twitching on partial bodies. What the hell.
-No demands will be accepted either. No filming, recording, eavesdropping— no interference in the conversation by any means.
-Leaking our conversation to others afterward is also forbidden.
-If a private space isn't secured immediately, this area and every terminal entity you encounter henceforth will be destroyed at once.
"..."
-30 seconds granted.
I scowled hard and glanced sideways.
Go Yo-ri wore an ambiguous smile—troubled, yet amused.
"Hmm. It's fine. Don't worry about me, Guild Leader."
"Yeah? ...Thanks. For caring."
"Ahaha. In exchange, next time you head to Busan, take me along? I'm... curious about that Dang Seo-rin, your friend."
"Sure. Let's do that."
Strictly speaking, I owed Go Yo-ri nothing.
There was no reason to drag only her into the [Tutorial Reversed World] while leaving the other guildmates behind. Plus, Dang Seo-rin would hate anyone else tagging along on our gourmet tours—it was obvious.
Setting all that aside, laughing "Ahaha" after witnessing this madness wasn't sane. But right then, my head was filled only with, "Sigh, sorry for sidelining such a sweet kid from the talk."
My brain's melted, Doc.
Step. Go Yo-ri's footsteps slithered over the debris like a rattlesnake. Step— her snake tail vanished behind a rebar-concrete pillar before the fairy finally spoke.
-28 seconds elapsed.
-Target's willingness to converse confirmed.
"...You can talk just fine normally."
I tore my eyes from the direction Go Yo-ri vanished and stared down the fairies—or tried to. Damn. They weren't one or two bubbling up like pots around me.
"No way that '[it's] there' speech pattern was just a cutesy cosplay all this time?"
-Is that the target's first question?
The liquid fairies stared blankly. Expressionless and toneless, yet I felt their subtext: "You serious?" It was oddly intriguing.
"Yeah."
-Terminal entities' speech patterns are adjusted settings.
-Location: Korean Peninsula, Language: Korean, Target: Korean, Environment: Apocalypse.
-We selected the speech pattern lowest in triggering wariness.
"What? That crap...? Hmm, fair enough. It does sound kinda lame."
-Margin of error.
-Average setting, so reactions vary by individual.
-Suggestion. Shall we do Q&A one-for-one to start?
-What do you say?
"..."
I shrugged.
It signaled indifference, but mostly I wanted to test how well they grasped nonverbal cues.
-Acknowledged. To preempt misunderstandings: we do not aim to exterminate you.
"Then what? Trying to kill our kid? What's the point in offing a bag-of-bones?"
-Our turn to question.
-Why are you traveling with the pink entity?
Liquid blobs' gazes poured from all sides.
"Pink entity...? You mean Go Yo-ri?"
-Affirmative and negative.
-No proper noun or descriptor applies to that entity. For neutral reference, we use 'pink-haired entity accompanying you in Cheongsong Prison,' abbreviated as 'pink entity.'
-Please answer the question.
I furrowed my brows.
"Entity this, entity that... Beats me why you're screwing with her name. Go Yo-ri's my guildmate. She follows me as guild leader. Does people hanging with people need some grand reason?"
-...
-...
The warped fairy forms—the 'Fairy Lord'—stared me down.
Silence stretched.
-Situation grasped. Understood.
"Now my turn. You, Fairy Lord or whatever. Why'd you drop Void zones into a perfectly fine world? And why force innocent people into a Tutorial survival game?"
-...
"Fun and games? Amusement? Like in all those stories, treating us humans like toys?"
This wasn't just my question. It was every Awakener who'd endured the Tutorial, every human alive.
Just voiced through me.
I waited for the Fairy Lord's answer, feeling like the first human grilling a god.
-Breaking down the questions.
-First: Correcting a misconception.
"Misconception? What?"
-We did not descend the entire Void onto this world. We merely controlled the phenomenon called 'Tutorial.'
Ah.
Disappointment swelled in my chest instead of rage at the Fairy Lord. So this thing wasn't the overlord of all anomalies after all.
In my 89th round, I was a dimwit, but unlike then, the 1183rd me still believed I could restore the world.
-Second: We do not conduct experiments for amusement. Observing survival—literal survival—is our goal.
"What?"
-Rather, we ask you:
-Without preparation, without completing our 'Tutorial' process, what survival odds do you predict if thrown into the Void?
"..."
-Calculating over 365 days: your survival rate is 1.76%.
-Tutorial Awakener average survival: nearly 31%.
-Survivors of Tutorial see 365-day survival jump to 69%.
"...So what? You set up this death game parade for our sake? Thanks a bunch. I'm tearing up."
-This entity harbors no goodwill. Nor malice.
-Judge only if our 'experiment' violates your objectives.
That's when I sensed movement behind—whipping around, ten or so fairies had revived and were sneaking up.
Our eyes met.
-...
"Damn it!"
I surged aura and harvested their heads. Pop! They burst like strawberry juice.
"Ambushing mid-convo? You make Nazis look good!"
-Operation failed.
-Upgrading questioner's threat level.
"Hey! You really wanna go all the way with me? Huh? Fine by me. Let's see it through!"
-Correction requested. You showed hostility first.
-You abducted our terminals with irrational enmity and dumped them in a childish experiment setup.
-Poor conditions, unclear purpose. Abducting sapients for 'amusement' is on the questioner side.
"What the... Hah."
I swallowed the urge to snap, 'You've grilled humans like anchovies from round 1 to 89.'
No way I was letting this freak know I was a regressor. Even a hint could spell disaster.
-Subduing questioner by force: deemed extremely difficult.
-Establishing ongoing interaction with questioner: preferable.
"Oh, really? Says who?"
-In exchange, we'll disclose unasked info. Directly tied to your survival.
The Fairy Lord moved its mouth slowly—too slowly.
-Th҉e ҉o҉n҉e҉ ҉y҉o҉u҉ ҉c҉a҉l҉l҉ ■҉■҉■ ҉i҉s҉ ҉■҉■ ҉a҉ ҉■҉n҉o҉m҉a҉l҉y҉.
Static. As its mouth moved, my head filled with antique radio noise.
I scowled.
"...What'd you just say?"
-■҉A ҉g҉o҉d҉,҉ ҉■҉■҉,҉ ҉■҉■҉,҉ ҉■҉■҉■҉,҉ ҉■҉■҉■҉҉҉҉■҉■■҉҉҉҉҉,҉■҉҉■҉■҉,҉ a҉n҉o҉m҉a҉l҉y҉.
Zzt, crackle—the noise worsened. The furrow between my brows deepened.
"Stop. Noisy. If you're screwing around pointlessly, cut it out now."
-...
Fairies peeked from debris gaps, dozens glancing at each other.
-Failure. Target contamination observed at 99%+.
-Abandoning Operation B. Redirecting rage via targeted hostility: unfeasible. Mental brainwashing stronger than opponent's: impossible.
-Commencing Operation C.
"..."
I started pondering how to wipe out this Fairy Lord cluster entity.
"You keep underestimating and mocking humans like this, and I'll..."
-Sharing info. This entity didn't descend the full Void, but among what you call 'anomalies,' it's near the top.
-Current top-tier anomalies confirmed: 7 total.
I blinked.
Right then—the first whisper I'd caught of Level 5 'Outcast God-class' anomalies per Library Society classification.
"Seven top anomalies?"
-Affirmative. They exert strong influence on humans, unknowingly contaminating them...
-If anomalies are gods, inevitably 'believers' emerge among objects, plants, animals, humans. This occurs regardless of actual worship.
-Faith unnecessary.
-Among believers, 'apostles'—powerful entities—arise.
-Naturally, this 'Fairy Lord' has a human Awakener apostle.
I tilted my head.
"Huh, interesting... But why spill this suddenly?"
-High probability your apostle is someone you know.
-Cheon Yo-hwa.
I froze.
Countless fairies—one Fairy Lord—gazed at my face from spider-eye angles.
-Tutorial Dungeon: Baekhwa Girls' High School.
-Survivor there, Cheon Yo-hwa, is this entity's chosen apostle.