Chapter 189
Chapter 189
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: 61. Life Force (5)
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He knew that Yeoreum's sympathy stemmed from something trivial.
He knew that Yeoreum's emotions were terribly narrow and simplistic.
He knew that Yeoreum wouldn't show this side of herself in other times or situations.
He was a human who lived for Yeoreum.
It might seem altruistic, but in truth, it was an attitude toward life born from extreme selfishness. After the seventh loop, with thousands of hidden loops beyond that ending in failure, the regressor had become a selfish human.
But right now, Yeoreum wanted pure altruism from him.
In the end, wasn't altruism just another selfish emotion?
Wasn't it an act done to help others while satisfying oneself?
But regardless of the true intentions hidden within.
The traces left in the world as a phenomenon were altruistic.
And Yeoreum wanted that from him.
"……."
In that moment, the regressor realized he needed to change his thinking.
"Got it."
When he spoke, Yeoreum looked up at him in surprise. Her gaze was anxious, as if confirming whether his words were true.
"I'll help."
"Really…?"
"Yeah."
Then Yeoreum bowed her head deeply. With a sigh, she murmured in a slightly brighter voice.
"Thank you……."
Just before turning away, Yoo Ji-tae decided to ask about the one thing he'd only speculated on.
"Did you get attached to that kid in the meantime or something?"
"No…… I just saw her briefly. What's there to get attached to?"
"Then why do you want me to save her?"
"She said she was born unlucky and life was hard. But someone desperately wants her to live. I think a kid like that should live……."
"Why."
"Why what."
He had expected an answer like sympathy born from specially relatable circumstances.
But the response contained a strangely unfamiliar word.
"She's fucking pitiful……."
BM silently positioned the purple maw toward his own heart. Even if he lost one heart, he wouldn't die. He'd just lose a great deal of his power. But that was fine. Where else would that power go? It would become one with the precious child inside her and stay together forever.
When the purple maw split wide open, dozens of spear-like teeth in four neat rows were revealed. Taebaek spread her arms wide. Vaguely, he recalled the old days when they called him 'Samchuun' and reached out to him. He embraced the child. In the next instant, the spear-like teeth tore into BM's flesh and burrowed in. A fishy pain exploded, but BM smiled as he held the child close to his chest. Then he looked down at her red hair. Like watching a child eagerly eating a meal. A warm father's smile graced his lips.
That was when the anomaly occurred.
Something flew in. Extremely fast. With an overwhelming aura. Startled, BM pulled the child into one arm and swung the other to block the attack.
Dark red mana splashed from his chest and wing bones. Soon, the forearm of the demon baron Ahilia appeared over BM's skin.
With the jet-black arm now twice as long and thick. BM pushed the opponent away.
In the moment of impact, he realized who it was. But the opponent, who seemed unyielding, obediently flew back.
A hazy impression. Hazy eyes. At the fingertips hung a savage weapon that didn't look like one.
The next instant. BM looked down at the child, realizing the weapon's form was unstable.
The child's nape. Her cervical vertebrae were severed.
His sense of reality.
Vanished.
Just like that.
In the next moment, a fierce aura erupted from BM's entire body.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Yoo Ji-tae――!!"
His roar made the inner chamber ring deafeningly.
But he forcibly suppressed the urge to charge because he belatedly remembered the child had absorbed the blood of the seven-headed troll.
The child would recover, and this wouldn't kill her.
"Did you doubt me, doubt this child?"
"……."
"Yoo Ji-tae. You damn demon-like bastard!"
He had visited often.
At first, it was unpleasant. At some point, it became worrying. Yoo Ji-tae knew chimeras extremely well. BM knew that his frequent visits to the underground labyrinth, which he hadn't shown much interest in before, were because it was a humanoid chimera.
He had been watching over him and Taebaek.
"Why aren't you answering! What the hell did you do―!"
The transcendent being before him was staring at him. Had he discovered something in those moments of surveillance? He hadn't thought the act of 'feeding' would go unnoticed.
But that alone didn't explain why he was rampaging like this.
Yoo Ji-tae, who had watched from the side, was always plotting something.
What had he seen?
What exactly?
BM denied his own thoughts.
No.
What plan? That guy's a madman.
You shouldn't try to understand a lunatic.
He hadn't seen anything.
He's doing this without knowing a damn thing.
BM's evaluation of Yoo Ji-tae plummeted in real time.
"……."
So when Yoo Ji-tae's mouth opened.
BM's keenly sharpened world slowed to a crawl.
He thought of dozens of possible things Yoo Ji-tae might say.
And prepared rebuttals for each.
Yoo Ji-tae was always curt and overbearing. His attitude of treating him like a child was now familiar.
Yeah.
Go ahead, say whatever you want, you lunatic.
You who only have power and use it to crush others.
The heart was made from different materials than what you specified, so it's wrong?
So this humanoid chimera I've made for 20 years is a failed one?
Spit out whatever nonsense to confuse me.
You're just insane. I won't waver.
I absolutely won't waver…….
But the words that followed shook BM's entire line of thinking.
"I'm sorry."
It felt like a hammer to the back of his head.
All his prepared thoughts and assumptions began crumbling.
The transcendent beyond his understanding was apologizing to him.
In this surreal situation, BM unwittingly let out a shrill voice.
"What……."
"If I'd known it would end like this, I wouldn't have resisted and would've helped you properly from the start."
What was this situation?
"I'm really bad at dealing with people."
As he began apologizing.
"Please forgive me."
BM felt the worst possible conclusion approaching.
BM's jaw dropped wide. Tearing his cheeks. The chimera's lower jaw emerged, infused with mana, leading into a massive roar.
"Cut the bullshit――!!"
The surging killing intent shook the inner chamber's playroom. The floor, ceiling, slide, everything crumpled or tore. But it had no effect on Yoo Ji-tae.
He strode forward. BM sensed him approaching and hugged the child deeper into his chest, curling his body. Futile as he knew it was.
Yoo Ji-tae, now right in front of him, spoke.
"You need to snap out of it now, Jeong Bong-man. You know it too……."
No. He didn't know.
"That thing. It's fake. You knew that too."
He didn't know. He'd never even thought of that.
"You know the kid started mimicking your smiles after seeing you smile."
The kid was originally a smiling being.
"You know after you told her you're her dad, she started treating you like one."
The kid already had a dad.
"The one who used to smile when hungry. She realized crying gets her more faster, so she started crying."
"To get what she wants better by approaching at the right times, she started keeping a moderate distance normally."
"Peeking every day to see where you go out."
"You know what that imaginary learning means."
"That a humanoid chimera's heart struggles to survive. You must have thought that too."
At Yoo Ji-tae's words, something in BM's mind collapsed.
He recalled the first time the unsmiling child smiled.
Realized the child who used to just cling now kept distance.
Remembered how every time she heard something from Hasaetbyeol, she created imaginary parents.
BM set down the child he was holding.
From where the purple heart mass had been removed, blood poured out like mad.
"That can't be……."
It was an empty murmur.
The doubts he'd heard every moment crawled up from the depths of BM's emotions.
He wanted to believe. That this child was Jeong Tae-baek.
He believed because he wanted to.
And because he believed, he saw things worth believing.
BM didn't want to admit that fact.
"I'm not just asking for empty forgiveness."
"……."
Speaking to BM's shattered mind, Yoo Ji-tae said.
"I'll take responsibility too. I promise. I'll help keep the child's body from dying. I'll help make a real heart. I'll make sure you meet the 'real' one again."
"……."
"So hand over the fake. It's suffocating."
He began approaching.
BM raised his head and looked at Yoo Ji-tae. Behind the sunglasses. The glowing green eyes of Abraksas met the hazy man's gaze.
A long silence followed.
The human voice carrying the world's greatest decision lacked strength.
"…I'll do it with my own hands."
The damaged cervical vertebrae regenerated with the seven-headed troll's blood. The child, who had lost consciousness, soon regained her senses.
Rubbing her nape as if complaining of pain, the child grimaced. In the next moment, she realized BM was beside her.
So she smiled at BM.
"Daddy, what happened?"
The child called to him.
"My neck suddenly hurts…… It hurt."
He stared blankly at the floor.
When he showed no interest, the child tilted her head briefly, then whined at him.
"Daddy…… It hurts…… It hurt…… My neck hurts……."
Still, BM only stared at the floor without moving. Taebaek soon began to wail loudly. But BM didn't react. He remained rigidly kneeling like a statue, gazing at the floor. Then the child abruptly stopped crying.
"Daddy…?"
Cautiously, she approached him.
"I'm hungry…… Can I keep eating what I was…?"
Still no response.
Cautiously, the child drew near and thrust out her chest.
Then her chest split wide, and the purple lump shot out. As always, countless teeth were revealed in the torn opening. It headed toward BM's bloodied chest.
In the next instant, BM thrust out his fist. Pkya-chang―! Like glass shattering. The teeth inside the purple maw broke apart and scattered everywhere.
The startled child, the chimera, froze stiff.
Soon, the purple flesh in her chest split.
From within, the chimera opened its eyes.
It realized this was no ordinary situation.
When the human who was the foundation of its life betrayed it. The chimera realized he was no longer a food-dispensing machine, but clearly an enemy.
That was when BM embraced the child.
The child extended her nails and clawed at BM's nape. Then bit into his shoulder with her teeth. So fiercely that her nails broke and lifted, and the teeth biting his clavicle snapped. Bleeding profusely. The child screamed at the top of her lungs. A curse-filled wail tearing her throat.
"Mom―! Mommyyyy―!! This guy's killing me! He's trying to kill me!!"
"Save me―! Save meeeee―!"
"Don't kill meeeeee―!"
The child cursed BM. Craved his death.
BM couldn't bear to hear more. He pressed the child's head into his shoulder.
If he kept listening, he felt he couldn't do what needed to be done.
The hideous life force in her heart, even if it was an imitation, an act,
A wrong birth,
This was a child I made.
For a moment, my child.
BM extended his arms, embraced the child, and shed silent tears.
For a long while.
And then, from behind, he pulled out the child's heart.