Chapter 153
Chapter 153
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: Fate's Choice
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Lee Si-woo touched the button on his suit's watch, instantly equipping the suit.
Wearing a mask resembling a rat's face and a gray suit, Lee Si-woo felt his body become significantly lighter as his physical abilities increased by 1.3 times.
However, this wasn't some superhero show, and the white monster was not about to stand by and watch while Lee Si-woo suited up.
The moment it sensed Lee Si-woo summoning the strange suit, it attacked.
*Shwiiik!*
A white tongue tore through the air, aiming for the nape of Lee Si-woo's neck.
Lúctator, blocking its path, deflected the tongue by striking it from below with the back of his hand.
But perhaps because he was in the body of a young girl and not his own...
...Lúctator failed to properly absorb the impact and tumbled gracelessly across the floor.
"Khh... To think I can't even properly deflect an attack from a pathetic creature like this! What a complete disgrace I'm making of myself today!"
Thanks to Lúctator's support, Lee Si-woo finished equipping his suit, and a system message appeared before his eyes.
[Rat's special ability, 'Swiftness,' is activated.]
With his already enhanced physical abilities now boosted by Swiftness, Lee Si-woo's movements became too agile for the average person to follow with their eyes.
Lee Si-woo kicked off the corridor wall and surged toward the white monster crawling on the ceiling.
-Kyaaa!
Catching the white tongue shooting toward his eyes, Lee Si-woo used the strength of his gauntlets to slam the creature onto the floor.
*CRASH!*
Lee Si-woo's fist struck the face of the floored white monster like a thunderbolt.
With the sound of breaking bones, the white monster's face was mangled, but as if feeling no pain, it struck Lee Si-woo's head with its long arm.
*THWACK!*
Unable to withstand the violent impact on his mask, Lee Si-woo rolled sideways.
Feeling as if he'd been hit in the side of the head with a sledgehammer, Lee Si-woo shook his head violently to clear the dizziness.
As the white monster was about to pounce on Lee Si-woo, who was on one knee recovering from the shock, Lúctator shouted.
"Behind you! Watch your back!"
Alerted by Lúctator's voice, Lee Si-woo did a forward somersault, evading the white monster's attack.
"Hah!"
With a heavy grunt, Lúctator struck the back of the monster's neck with a full-force karate chop.
*CRACK!*
However, the white monster seemed unfazed. It turned around dismissively and drove its knee into Lúctator's abdomen.
"Keoheok...!"
The white monster glared at Lúctator, who was sent flying back with a groan, and opened its maw wide.
*Shwiit!*
Its white tongue shot out, aiming for Lúctator's heart.
Sensing that this attack would be fatal, Lúctator twisted his body diagonally in mid-air, barely dodging the strike.
And then, gunshots rang out.
*BANG! BANG! BANG!*
With the three shots, the white monster's head exploded.
The creature's body was unbelievably durable, but thankfully, not durable enough to survive three bullets to the back of the head while defenseless.
Lee Si-woo, thinking how fortunate it was that he had acquired two guns in the tutorial area, asked.
"Elder. Are you all right?"
Lúctator shouted as if to say this was no time to worry about him.
"Never mind me! The children! Save the children!"
Startled by Lúctator's roar, Lee Si-woo turned around.
He saw a swarm of white monsters, like a pack of spiders that had spotted prey, wrapping their tongues around the children and abducting them.
When Lee Si-woo aimed his gun, the creatures, as if recognizing the weapon's threat, scattered in all directions like mice seeing fire.
*'Damn it, Si-woo. Where is Si-woo?'*
Just as Lee Si-woo, on the verge of failing the secret chapter by losing the young Si-woo right under his nose, was about to chase after the monsters, a faint voice emerged from a pile of corpses strewn across the corridor.
"Help me..."
Lee Si-woo's eyes wavered as he saw the young Si-woo squirming and crawling out from amidst a pile of red blood and entrails.
*'This kid... did he hide among the corpses in the middle of all that? To survive?'*
To grasp in that brief moment that the white monsters weren't interested in adults or corpses and crawl underneath them?
It was a level of decisiveness unbelievable for a child who had just turned eleven.
In particular, the stomach to willingly crawl through that pool of blood and guts was something most adults wouldn't dare to imitate.
Lee Si-woo took a towel from his bag and wiped the young Si-woo's body and face as he spoke.
"Let's go together. I'll take you somewhere safe."
The young Si-woo's chapped lips twitched as he spoke.
"I can't go."
"You can't? Why?"
"I have to find Yun."
At the unexpected name that came from the young Si-woo's mouth, Lee Si-woo's eye twitched.
"Yun? You mean Ha-yun?"
"You... know Yun?"
Lee Si-woo let out a dry laugh.
From what he could deduce, this virtual world called Residuum was a world modeled after the past.
But why were his younger self and Ha-yun here?
And if what Jin and the Faceless said was true, his past life was that of an ancestral demon.
Yet, look at the young Si-woo before him.
This child was clearly him, but he was also unquestionably human.
What on earth was going on, and what exactly had happened in the past?
As questions piled upon questions, Lee Si-woo bit his lower lip and spoke.
"We're not acquaintances. I just happened to learn her face and name. More importantly... if you know where a girl named Yun might be, tell me. I'll help you look for her."
The young Si-woo looked up at Lee Si-woo with wary eyes.
It was a sharp gaze, as if weighing whether he could trust and rely on this adult.
A moment later, perhaps concluding he had no other choice, the young Si-woo spoke.
"...Follow me. She's probably in the prayer room."
***
Meanwhile, the other users who had entered Chapter 1 without any special insight were helpless against the sudden appearance of the white monsters.
"Here! Help me... Aaargh!"
A man whose chest was pierced by a white monster's tongue let out a long, drawn-out scream before his breath was cut short.
The monsters moved in organic swarms like spiders, freely scaling the building's railings and walls. Users, unable to find a way to counter their silent, rear-guard tongue attacks, were massacred.
And that wasn't all.
The monsters hunted everything in sight, as if trying to kill not only the users but all the town's residents.
That is, except for the young boys and girls under the age of fourteen.
"Everyone, to the church! We're going to the church!"
At Adrian's shout, the users ran after him as if possessed.
Adrian was the only high-level talent among the users and, at the same time, a gun owner.
This was thanks to his club, which had given him a firearm before he entered the chapter in case of an emergency.
And it wasn't an ordinary gun, but a Remington M870, one of the best-selling pump-action shotguns by Earth's standards.
"Survivors, stick with me and cover me!"
Adrian ducked to avoid a white tongue flying toward him, then rolled forward, clutching the reloaded Remington 870 to his chest.
After a few agile rolls, Adrian aimed the shotgun's muzzle at a white monster and pulled the trigger.
*BOOM!*
With a rough blast, the white monster's entire head was blown away.
After taking down one white monster, Adrian reloaded his shotgun and dashed toward the church.
A pristine white wooden building on the highest hill in the village.
Instead of a cross, a statue of the Faceless stood tall on the roof. Adrian muttered as he stared at the church.
"I'm not dying in a place like this. Absolutely not. Somehow, somehow... if I can just kill the boss..."
A few remaining survivors followed Adrian as he sprinted across the gray concrete road.
***
*BANG!*
The gun fired with a flash, but the white monster dodged the bullet, hopping about with a derisive laugh.
But Lee Si-woo, utilizing the superior mobility of the Rat Suit, chased after it at a ferocious speed.
"I am over here!"
Lúctator, who was nearby, blocked the white monster's escape route.
Despite not having a suit, Lúctator, based on the formidable physical abilities from his Extreme Body Talent, slammed a high kick into the white monster's solar plexus.
As the white monster staggered back with a satisfying thud, Lee Si-woo caught up from behind and pressed the muzzle of his gun against the back of its head.
*BANG! BANG!*
Having learned from experience that one shot wasn't enough, Lee Si-woo pulled the trigger twice. The white monster's head shattered, and it went limp, dead.
Confirming the white monster's death, Lúctator spoke.
"How many bullets do you have left?"
Lee Si-woo checked the magazine and answered in a low voice.
"Only five left now."
"At best, we can take down two more, then."
Lee Si-woo checked the protection time, which had been three hours but now had only five minutes remaining, and said.
"Still, it's a relief the monsters don't come to the prayer room often. That saved us."
"Hmph, that's because there's more prey elsewhere."
"I suppose so."
In the center of the makeshift prayer room in the orphanage's basement, where dozens of palm-sized Faceless statues were placed, the young Si-woo, who had been guarding Ha-yun, bowed deeply and spoke.
"Brother. And Sister. Thank you. Thanks to you, Yun was saved, and I was able to live."
Lee Si-woo looked down at the young Si-woo with a complicated expression and said.
"There's nothing to be thankful for. We were just struggling to survive ourselves and ended up saving you along the way."
"Still, if it weren't for you, Brother, Yun and I wouldn't have survived. So... please take this."
The young Si-woo fumbled in his pocket and pulled out something that looked like a black walkie-talkie.
Seeing the device, Lee Si-woo's eyes lit up as he asked.
"What is this?"
"It's a radio to call for support from the knights."
Lee Si-woo stared at the young Si-woo with a 'what in the world is this' expression.
How could an eleven-year-old kid have a knight's radio?
Where on earth did he get it?
*Tiring.*
A system message appeared before Lee Si-woo.
[Secret Chapter choices have been generated.]
[Easy]: Accept the radio and request support from the knights.
[Normal]: Refuse the radio and protect the young Si-woo until the end.
[Hard]: Kill Ha-yun.
[Fate]: Leave.
At that moment, static filled Lee Si-woo's vision.
*Chzzzzzt.*
His vision became a mess, like a dead TV screen.
A deafening noise, a headache that felt like it would split his skull.
Suddenly, a faint laugh echoed in Lee Si-woo's ears.
Then, the top three choices were underlined and vanished, leaving only the Fate choice shining alone.
[Easy]: Accept the radio and request support from the knights.
[Normal]: Refuse the radio and protect the young Si-woo until the end.
[Hard]: Kill Ha-yun.
[Fate]: Leave.
*'What?'*
[Choice selection complete. Secret Chapter 1 ending will now open.]
A scene like one from a drama unfolded before Lee Si-woo's eyes.
In the video, the young Si-woo, who was hugging Ha-yun in the prayer room, perked up his ears.
Something was slowly knocking on the prayer room door.
*Thump, thump, thump.*
As the unwanted guest knocked on the basement door with a steady rhythm, the young Ha-yun burrowed into Si-woo's arms, trembling.
-Si-woo... I'm scared.
Si-woo said in a trembling voice.
-Yun. Close your eyes and count to one hundred.
-Why?
-The director said that scary things hate the number one hundred, so if you count to one hundred, all the scary things will run away.
-...Really?
-Yeah, so keep counting. I'm... going to check if the door is locked properly. And don't forget. You have to keep your eyes closed and your ears covered. Okay?
Like an obedient child, Ha-yun nodded, closed her eyes, and covered her ears with both hands.
Leaving Ha-yun to slowly count to one hundred, Si-woo stared at the prayer room door with determined eyes.
The intruder was knocking so violently that the center of the iron door was beginning to dent.
The young Si-woo left Ha-yun with a lonely farewell.
-Yun. Even if I'm not here, you have to eat well and take your medicine properly.
Then, as if he had made up his mind, the young Si-woo flipped the prayer room's power switch.
In the pitch-black prayer room, Si-woo slowly advanced toward the door.
When Si-woo undid the lock and opened the door, the familiar white monster greeted him with a shriek filled with ecstasy.
Like a mouse darting out of a hole, Si-woo slid between the white monster's legs.
The white monster let out a bizarre, cawing sound and chased after Si-woo.
How long did he run?
Three minutes? Five?
Unable to escape the white monster, Si-woo was bound by its white tongue and dragged away somewhere.
*Chzzzzzt.*
The image of Si-woo being dragged away was the last thing seen before the screen filled with static and the scene changed.
In the new scene, the orphanage director was running around frantically, trying to save the children who had been abducted by the white monsters and taken to a laboratory.
-The church. Their nest is in the church... To blow it up, I have to go to the welfare center. There are explosives in the basement there...
*Shwiit!*
A white tongue flew from somewhere and pierced the head of the orphanage director as he was running toward the welfare center.
And that was the end of the video.
"You fool! Snap out of it! We're in trouble! We've suddenly been teleported to a strange place!"
Shaken back to his senses by Lúctator's voice, Lee Si-woo looked around.
They, who had been in the prayer room, were now back at the bus stop where the chapter had begun.
As if this were the starting point.
Lee Si-woo muttered as if possessed.
"...So I was captured. What happened after that? Did I die? No, that can't be right. Did I become a test subject?"
Lúctator shouted at Lee Si-woo, who was spouting nonsense.
"You idiot! Stop talking nonsense and let's go back! We left those young kids there! We have to go back quickly!"
At Lúctator's repeated shouts, Lee Si-woo's eyes shot open as if waking from a dream. He stared at the system message that had appeared and muttered.
[Secret Chapter 1 Complete.]
[Secret Chapter 1.5 will now open.]
[Objective: Destroy the Nest]
"No. The children won't be at the orphanage even if we go back. We've already seen the ending. So we... we have to go to the welfare center. The welfare center."
Lee Si-woo's eyes gleamed as he continued.
"That's the only way we can truly finish this chapter."