Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Shutdown and Slumber
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"Gah! Hack! Grrk! Guh!"
At some point, the bastard's attack just cut off.
It thrashed around, coughing up more in a desperate frenzy, but nothing else came out of its mouth.
The light climbing up from the base of its spine had weakened too, fading to less than the glow of a firefly.
Pissed off by that, it pounded the floor with its hands in rage.
"Ah, fuck..."
A curse slipped out of my mouth.
My body wouldn't budge an inch.
I'd managed to neutralize everything it had spewed out, but now the backlash had left me unable to move.
The accumulated shock in my body had exceeded its limits.
I spotted it looking back at me, shaking its head, and shouted urgently.
"R3D3!!"
Fortunately, R3D3 caught on quick and rushed over, wrapping around my body.
R3D3 injected a muscle relaxant while taking control of my movements.
The other test subjects had regained their freedom, but I had no spare attention for them.
I was the one on the verge of death right now.
"Ughhh...!"
The bones, already weakened from the relentless impacts, cracked and splintered.
My rigid muscles were forced to move, sending waves of teeth-grinding pain.
It was so intense my vision went white.
Luckily, the thing had burned through its stamina too and approached at a leisurely pace instead of charging.
'Like this...!'
No way I could fiddle with the overload device calmly now.
Better to just smash the damn thing.
Maybe the geothermal generator, without its trigger, would shut down the overload on its own.
'Though the risk of it going berserk is sky-high...!'
The other test subjects shoved past it, rushing toward me.
Graaang!
Seeing that, it swung its arm mercilessly, turning them into bloody smears.
Like it was saying hands off my prey.
Funny thing was, the test subjects—which had seemed brainless until now—reacted to its threat and backed off.
Grrrn, grrrn!
Satisfied, it grinned at me.
'Ha, shit.'
Its face was almost perfectly human, which made it extra infuriating.
But as it started striding forward, I couldn't afford those feelings anymore.
It closed the distance, tanking R3D3's shots with its whole body.
"Faster!"
It was right on top of me.
I'd get grabbed like this.
I could clearly see my reflection expanding in its eyes.
Just as it loomed right in front of me, something happened behind it.
Gruk?
Boom! Boom! Bang!
A sudden, massive vibration echoed out.
The source closed in rapidly, crushing the corridor full of test subjects in one go and blocking the path between me and it.
"...Roze?"
I murmured the name in a daze.
"Go!"
"How'd you...?"
"Go first. No time, right? I'll handle this."
"...Ah!"
Snapping out of it, I tapped R3D3.
R3D3 supported my still-awkward movements and guided me toward the overload device.
The moment I turned my head, I heard the clamor of impacts and the thing's roar.
Roze was fighting in my place—against dozens of test subjects and their leader.
But I didn't look back.
'It's Roze, after all.'
No matter how many test subjects or what they were.
She was one of the officially strongest in the world.
"Time left?"
-2 minutes 7 seconds. Beep!
After passing one block and rounding the corner, I finally spotted the target.
The overload device was a massive machine occupying one entire wall of the room.
I hurried over and punched in the code.
It accepted without issue.
I'd worried since the ID card was useless, but good.
"Stop it. What's the shutdown command?"
-I will guide you.
R3D3 shone a light to indicate the buttons I needed to press.
But my hands were shaking.
I nearly botched it, so I gripped my right wrist with my left and pressed each key one by one.
"...Done!"
I'd completed the shutdown sequence for the overloading program.
Barely 20 seconds left.
I couldn't quite believe it and stood there staring at the screen in a stupor.
Then I snapped to and hurriedly connected comms.
"...Shia! Generator status?"
-It's cooling down! You did it!?
"...Ah, thank god."
-Good work. We'll handle the rest. Reinforcements are almost...
The heavy weight on my chest from moments ago was gone.
I slumped against the overload device and slid down to the floor.
Not a shred of strength left in my body.
"Haa..."
A sigh of relief escaped me.
"...Thank god."
I'd worried the researcher might've lied right up to the end.
I'd gotten caught by that monster in the middle and beaten to hell.
"Ah...!"
That's when it hit me.
What about Roze right now?
She was fighting that thing and the test subjects alone.
No way she'd gotten hurt.
I could still hear the battle noises in my ears.
But thinking calmly, even forcing the most negative scenario, I couldn't picture Roze losing.
So I made a bold call.
"...R3D3. I'm crashing for a bit. Cover me."
-Beep? Bzz?
I closed my eyes.
Just an hour. That's all I needed.
My eyelids, once shut, pressed down with a thousand pounds of weight.
And like that, I...
Plunged into deep sleep.
*
I was dreaming.
I knew it was a dream for a simple reason.
I'd been through this plenty of times.
Once, after learning about lucid dreaming, I'd tried everything to make it happen.
Failed.
Never actually achieved a true lucid dream, but I gained the ability to recognize dreams versus reality with high accuracy.
And now, in the dream, I was writing.
Memo pad open in front of me, hands hovering over the keyboard, repeating the motion.
'Me'—I watched that me from a point in the air behind and above.
Then, dream-me leaned back in the chair and stretched.
'Fucking writer's block.'
A line I muttered often while writing.
Sometimes a glance away was enough to get back into it.
Other times, not even a full day got you anywhere.
And after agonizing over it, you'd hate it so much you'd delete it all, driving yourself half-mad.
That's exactly how the me in front of me looked.
'Ah, screw it. That's it for today.'
'Me' stood up from the chair.
And exited the room like an actor leaving the stage.
All that remained was the other me, the one dreaming.
I waited, wondering if something special would happen, but the room stayed silent for a long while, unchanged.
Bored at last, I turned my head to scan the room.
It was exactly as I remembered.
A cramped space, maybe four pyeong—a desk with a desktop computer and a bookshelf beside it. That was it.
The familiar sight after so long stirred memories.
'...?'
But something felt off.
My consciousness was unnaturally sharp, and more importantly, I had a 'body' that moved as I thought.
Not just moving—it could even touch the chair.
Pushing it with force, it slid naturally.
That's when I realized this wasn't just any dream.
Was this the lucid dream I'd craved back then?
Since I was here, I decided to check out the story dream-me had been writing.
The monitor's angle made it hard to read from afar anyway; I'd been curious.
'Huh?'
I read what dream-me had written and couldn't help but react in surprise before I knew it.
'This isn't... the story I was writing?'
Same world, familiar characters.
But the plot differed from what I'd written.
Some parts matched, some were subtly off, others completely different.
The Human Alliance, which should've crumbled into chaos by now, was still kicking.
Characters who should've died or turned were still playing their roles just fine.
'...What the hell?'
I scrolled down fast, eyes devouring the text.
Speed-reading like mad.
But the more I read, the clearer it became: this was the same yet different from my story.
Like someone had written the future of this slightly altered world.
Then I realized what this change connected to.
'Me...?'
I didn't exist in the story.
If such changes had happened, I should've been in it too. But I wasn't.
Why?
Why was that?
As I pondered, dream-me suddenly reentered the room.
'No!'
I felt like I was almost there.
My mind raced, but my body wouldn't move.
The instant dream-me stepped in, I reverted to the detached observer from before.
'Left the computer on without shutting down, huh.'
Still couldn't see me, apparently.
Dream-me tilted his head at the scrolled-up memo pad, shrugged, hit save.
Then powered off the computer.
As the shutdown progressed, my mind grew foggy.
*
My eyes snapped open.
Felt like I'd slept a full, refreshing stretch.
That's when I noticed I was using someone's thigh as a pillow.
"Awake?"
Hearing the voice, I knew whose thigh it was.
"...Roze?"
"Yeah."
"...Ah!"
I bolted up and looked around.
Familiar.
One of the researchers' quarters I'd scoped out earlier.
I'd been lying on the sofa, head in Roze's lap.
"You could've stayed longer..."
A wistful tone.
I checked Roze first.
No injuries, just as I'd figured before blacking out.
Good.
But once worry for her faded, others rushed in.
"How long was I out? The test subjects?"
"No rush. Sit and talk first."
Roze patted the spot next to her.
Dazed, I plopped down and checked the panel.
Four hours since I'd passed out.
'...That long? Slept like a rock.'
Excluding the day Terra got hit, I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept over an hour.
Four hours was quadruple my usual.
Even with my recovery, it was more than enough to be good as new.
"Outside? What's it like out there?"
"Reinforcements arrived. We're off the hook."
"Really? Thank god..."
Come to think of it, I'd heard Shia mention reinforcements right before I conked out.
'About time they got here.'
The troops deployed with me were emergency standby forces, rushed in before the situation was clear.
Like a vanguard.
These new reinforcements would be properly equipped and larger scale, enough to fully replace the garrison.
And we'd stopped the geothermal generator sabotage, so Utah City wouldn't collapse.
Realizing that, all tension melted away.
I sank fully into the sofa.
Comfy.
Turning my head in that position, my eyes met Roze's—she'd been staring.
"Hmm."
She grinned like something was hilarious.
I couldn't help but smile back, mood lifting.
How long did we just gaze at each other's faces without a word?
"Hard to believe it's been a whole month already. Right?"
"Yeah. Crazy."
Time felt both short and endless.
I'd survived a month apart from friends whose mere presence bolstered me. No idea how.
'...Wait.'
When did I become such a social butterfly to think like that?
The old me was pretty detached.
I'd see my one so-called best friend maybe once every few months and not find it weird.
Yet after just a month apart, seeing them brought this relief?
Guess I'd changed a lot.
"How about you? Tough?"
"...Nah."
Roze shook her head at my question.
"Not tough, exactly. Just... kinda lonely, I guess..."
"...Why? They not treating you right?"
"No, it's just..."
She trailed off, then clammed up.
Something hard to put into words, it seemed.
If it was straight-up hate, love, or bullying, she'd have spilled without hesitation.