Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Replier V
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Shin Noah
8
After that, the school aberration subjugation operation proceeded smoothly.
Cheon Yo-hwa and I continued patrolling the school. And the moment we discovered any survivors, we transported them to the "safe zone."
The survivors shed tears of gratitude.
"Ghosts... aren't coming out?"
"I can use the bathroom freely!"
"Security guard oppa, thank you!"
"Eek, but there are corpses....... Well, whatever. I've seen plenty of corpses anyway, so it doesn't matter."
"Fuck, cup ramen is so damn good......."
Since the first through third floors had already been largely declared "safe zones," there was plenty of space for the students to stay.
The key issues were food and hygiene for hundreds of survivors...... But hygiene was fine since I'd packed plenty of medical supplies in my trunk bag.
In the end, food was the problem.
My trunk bag, acquired in the 115th turn, boasted a capacity rivaling a sub-space. However, that sub-space was just an ordinary study. Naturally, it didn't boast a romantic size like the "mysteriously larger-than-a-mansion library" that often appeared in fantasy novels.
Fortunately, the Korean Peninsula had once been one of the world's poorest countries and had experience escaping famine (though limited to only 50% of the region), so it had some know-how in quickly resolving food shortages.
"Let's use the cafeteria."
"Huh?"
Cheon Yo-hwa looked horrified. She had a heaven-sent talent for expressing "disgust" and "contempt" solely with her facial muscles.
"You don't mean the cafeteria on the first floor, right? That place is a bit....... I've only been there once, but there are really a ton of ghosts."
"Of course there are. Student, didn't you know? Ghosts are most commonly found in bathrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens."
"No, I don't know......."
The resident aberration entrenched in Baekhwa Girls' High School's cafeteria was the "Human Flesh Restaurant."
(1) The cafeteria serves meals every day.
(2) But human flesh was mixed into the meat used in the side dishes.
(3) Those who eat the human flesh become rapidly addicted, craving only human flesh more and more. They eventually turn into cannibals who can only eat human flesh, and if they go even a few days without it, they go insane.
Human flesh-related aberrations could often be found in the Void.
They appeared with high probability in Voids where people had been "massacred" en masse, and unsurprisingly, they showed up in this school aberration incident where hundreds had already been slaughtered.
The Void was an extreme environment harsher than Antarctica. When the dilemma "Will you starve to death tomorrow? Or go insane in a month or three?" arose, even seasoned Awakeners had no choice but to grit their teeth and commit cannibalism.
However... the situation was a bit different in the school aberration.
"Student. The school meals here weren't that great to begin with, right?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Dinner's decent, but breakfast and lunch are really tasteless. That's why dorm life was tough."
"Then what's there to worry about? The side dishes are served on separate stainless steel trays anyway, right? And the serving containers are all separate."
"Huh?"
"Just eat the veggie-only sides that look like nothing but weeds, and you're safe. From now on, breakfast and lunch will be the students' staples."
If eating human flesh drives you insane, just eat everything except the human flesh, right?
The "Human Flesh Restaurants" that appeared in ordinary Voids were hard to break through with such a trick.
The Korean Peninsula had always been harsh on vegans. Void restaurants that popped up there targeted meat lovers aggressively, like pork stir-fry joints, pork soup specialists, or tonkatsu places.
Unless it was something like aglio olio with no meat at all, or a burger where you could easily pick out the patty, separating the meat from typical Void restaurant menus was quite difficult.
But "schools" and "military bases" were different.
Unlike other places, these two institutions respected life so much that they were sincere about vegan options.
From my perspective, the Human Flesh Restaurant—no, Human Flesh Cafeteria—at Baekhwa Girls' High was nothing more than an excellent nutrient supplier, nothing less or more.
"I never knew you could use ghosts like this......."
Cheon Yo-hwa shuddered in dismay as she received her meal from the shadowy, slimy serving ghost ladies.
"Once you break free from prejudice, there are quite a few aberrations that can be surprisingly useful."
"Umm, is that so....... Eek! The stir-fried anchovies are delicious. They're so good it's making me anxious! Ugh, security guard ajusshi. This is really okay, right?"
I glanced at Cheon Yo-hwa's profile. The student council president was staring down at her tray with a complicated expression.
Suddenly, I recalled the moment I first met her. Back in the 5th turn, when I'd gone to recruit her and we talked at the school gate.
—Cheon Yo-hwa-nim's ability is very powerful. I don't know if it's turning dead corpses into zombies or even living people into zombies.
—...Corpses?
At that time, Cheon Yo-hwa hadn't properly registered the word "corpse." Probably the same with "human flesh."
Brainwashing for survival.
If you think about what 17 castaways ate to survive for a full 4 years, it's a simple matter.
In fact, all the Baekhwa Girls' High Guild members were addicted to human flesh, going insane if they didn't consume it at least once every 4 days.
"...My idea isn't anything special. If a bit more time had passed, the students would have reached the same conclusion."
"Huh? Us?"
"Of course. And this solution isn't permanent either. Stock up while you can eat plenty. I'll set aside the longer-shelf-life foods as much as possible too."
"......?"
My prediction was spot on.
A week later, the cafeteria menus started changing little by little.
"Hmm? Ajusshi. Doesn't it feel like there are more meat side dishes...?"
"Yeah."
The aberrations were alive and moving.
In terms of the speed of life's evolution, aberrations were far more urgent and hasty than humans.
Unlike humans, who slowly evolved over thousands or tens of thousands of years, filtering mutations through time's net, an aberration's entire species could mutate in just a day.
The result.
"Eek! M-meat sides are two-thirds......"
Cheon Yo-hwa's stainless steel tray was luxurious.
Chicken drumsticks, beef soup, fish cakes, braised pork. The only non-meat items were vegetable curry, white rice, and salad.
In the old days, you could've snapped a photo and posted it online with the title [Is this real high school cafeteria level these days?] to earn praise and envy from the older generation.
"Ditch everything except the vegetable curry, rice, and salad."
"Yeees....... Hng, what a waste!"
Cheon Yo-hwa pouted as she dumped the sides into the scraps bin.
"Yesterday, some kid couldn't resist and took a bite of the cheese tonkatsu. I scolded her hard, but I get how she felt......."
"One bite should be fine. But if you keep going two, three bites because it seems okay, you're done for. At least curry's still coming out, so count your blessings. Soon, you won't be able to eat anything but rice."
"Uuuu. Worst nutrition ever. If only we had protein supplements......."
It was obvious the food situation would deteriorate rapidly.
But we hadn't been idle in the meantime.
We expanded the patrol teams and searched the entire Void, securing over 150 survivors.
We'd subjugated nearly all the school aberrations. The school building, bizarrely expanded to 13 floors, returned to its original 4 floors. The sports field and dorms were restored too.
...But we also found over 500 corpses.
Compared to previous turns where only 17 survived, the 117th turn route was markedly better.
Thanks to pinpointing the victims' locations this time, future turns would be even better.
But for now, let's focus on the 117th turn.
"Ajusshi— Are the funerals all done?"
Sports field.
Wooden desks and chairs were piled up like a campfire, burning fiercely. Since they weren't great firewood, the black smoke was toxic. But we'd contained the flames well, so it rose straight into the sky without spreading.
At least it was a decent rope to guide the souls heavenward.
"Yeah, just finished."
"Hehe. Our kids cried a lot again this time, huh?"
"Crying is a good thing. Just as laughter knows no borders, neither do tears."
Cheon Yo-hwa stood beside me with her hands behind her back. The sky over Baekhwa Girls' High, tainted by the Void, was always blood-red.
The blood-red spider lilies surrounding the academic buildings were the same. The only things free from the red were the birch trees, turned into white iron bars imprisoning the school.
No matter how many aberrations we subjugated, the spider lilies and birches remained.
"Yeah. Holding funerals like this seems to ease the kids' hearts a bit. You even collected all the ashes, right? Lately, I've seen them making pouches out of their best friends' ashes and wearing them around their necks."
"To hand over to their families?"
"Yup. Even if we can't deliver them, they serve as talismans."
"It's impressive you kids are looking after the feelings of the dead at your age."
"Ahaha....... Oh, here, have this!"
What Cheon Yo-hwa handed me was an onigiri. White rice stuffed with stir-fried anchovies and wrapped in seaweed.
Now, truly, the "non-meat sides" had become extremely scarce. So some students formed a cooking team and remade the cafeteria food into new dishes.
"Thanks."
Of course, this was a grand feast for me.
The anchovies would probably disappear tomorrow. And the day after, even the white rice would turn into bolognese pasta.
We'd set aside relatively long-shelf-life foods, but even that had clear limits. Maybe four days at most.
The school aberration's hourglass was quickly piling up a desert pyramid.
Cheon Yo-hwa looked up at the blood-red sky.
"Ajusshi. When the hell can we escape this hell......?"
"Tomorrow."
Cheon Yo-hwa's eyes turned toward me.
"Tell the other students to wait near the school gate so they can escape anytime. Yo-hwa, you're coming with me."
"......"
"By tomorrow, we'll carve out the heart of this Void."
9
We searched the upper parts of the school: dorms, academic buildings, old school building, sports field, auditorium—all of it.
Naturally, the aberrations were massacred.
Adding up all the aberrations subjugated by me and some of the returning students so far came to exactly 99.
A near-miraculous achievement, but the blood-red sky of the "school aberration" remained intact. It meant more aberrations were hiding somewhere.
And I had a good idea where that secret hideout was.
"Right underground."
Cheon Yo-hwa blinked.
"Underground? Our school doesn't have an underground, well....... There are some semi-basements used as tiny storage rooms here and there."
Indeed, no building had stairs leading from the first floor to a basement.
Right. Stairs.
As you all know by now, among the Void's means of transportation, stairs weren't the best.
"Yo-hwa. We're going down via elevator."
"Elevator? Where's an elevator....... Huh? You don't mean...?"
That very one.
Cheon Yo-hwa and I packed supplies and headed to the old school building. Though called old, it was still in good shape as a club building, so it wasn't rundown.
The old school building had a cafeteria elevator.
Dumbbell waiter, lift—lots of names, but the students just called it the cafeteria elevator, and everyone got it.
It wasn't made for people to enter, but still, wasn't it a fine "elevator"?
"You first."
"Nooo. I've always wondered what it'd be like to get in there while passing by, but I never thought I'd actually do it....... Eek! Ajusshi, no! It's cramped! Super cramped! Really cra— Huh? The space is... surprisingly opening up...?"
"Physical space means little in the Void."
Thud crash bang.
After squeezing into the elevator and turning on the flashlight, surprisingly, elevator buttons appeared.
[B001] [B005] [B009] [B013]
[B002] [B006] [B010] [B014]
[B003] [B007] [B011] [B015]
[B004] [B008] [B012] [B016]
Click-
One wall of the elevator, plastered with buttons.
When the flashlight shone there, Cheon Yo-hwa fidgeted behind me.
"B-Basement 16? We have uncharted places down to basement 16? Oh my god! No way. Ajusshi. This won't end in a day or two...?"
"Nah, don't worry. In cases like this, it's not about the numbers—grasp the form."
"Huh?"
"Look at the buttons. Four rows vertically, four horizontally. It's just a way to represent the number 4."
"Oh......"
"You press one. Anywhere's fine."
"Uh, umm. Okay. I'll try."
Cheon Yo-hwa extended her finger and firmly pressed the 12th floor.
Rumble! The elevator shook. Cheon Yo-hwa let out a small "Eek!" and grabbed my shoulder. Clunk, clatter......
That was the moment. Flicker flicker. The elevator buttons lit up red.
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
The red light leaking from the buttons dyed the entire elevator interior blood-red.
"......"
Cheon Yo-hwa swallowed.
Though just ordinary LED lights, the blood-red felt viscous like liquid, sticky. The red glow flowed from the buttons and clung to our bodies.
Clang!
The elevator jolted violently like an old ship docking at a pier.
Then, the doors slowly opened, revealing not the false 4th floor above ground, but "Basement 4," the true depths of the school aberration.
"Come out slowly. And for every step I take, you take exactly one step. No more, no less."
"O-Okay. This place is......"
Cheon Yo-hwa cautiously exited the elevator and looked around.
No need for long observation.
"Hospital......?"
Because the entire scenery was identically, endlessly repeating.
Pure white hospital corridor and ceiling. No patients or doctors in sight, just eerily clean hospital beds lined up along the corridor. IV lines draped like suspension bridges over each bed. The corridor stretched infinitely.
――I'd witnessed this exact scene before, if only for a fleeting moment, in the 89th turn.
"Avici."
Yes.
The 89th turn was the one where I witnessed Avici.
A chaotic mess of prison, school, hospital, swimming pool, movie theater, screen scenes endlessly jumbled in a mad spectacle. No, a mad scene.
'...So this was the main base after all.'
The main body of the outsider god Avici.
It had nested in the Avici Hell of Baekhwa Girls' High School's Basement 4.