Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: The White Disaster
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*Shunk!*
The man gasped and doubled over, feeling the cold metal plunge into his heart.
With a trembling hand, the man grabbed the collar of the one who had driven the dagger into his chest.
“Why? Just… why?”
Only after the man collapsed with those final words did the other club members, realizing the assassination, swarm in like a hive that had lost its queen.
Just as the enraged club members, having lost their master, were about to reach the assassin, he pulled a syringe from his inventory and plunged it into his artery.
Then, as payment for stabbing the one he once—no, always—trusted in the back, the assassin answered his final question.
“For our future.”
The club members’ hands grabbed the assassin’s hair and violently tore at his collar.
And then, they saw it.
The assassin's skin, turning white as if all pigment had been bleached from it.
“No! Everyone, back away! It's a virus!”
“Dammit! It's too late! That's the Completion type!”
The Completion type.
Unlike the prototype, which couldn't infect those with mana, this was the name for the evolved White Calamity virus that could even infect users and knights.
The club members all screamed at the appearance of a virus that was, as its name suggested, not just a disaster but a full-blown calamity—one that had only appeared after Chapter 6's secret chapter opened.
“Injecting the Completion type into his own veins? That crazy son of a bitch…!”
“No! He's mutating! Take his head, now!”
“…It's too late.”
Following the despair-laced voice of a club member, the howl of a white monster echoed through the room.
And that was the end of the largest club in Chapter 6, the one that had taken the lead in maintaining the city's quarantine network.
The end of Lavender.
* * *
*BANG!*
A woman burst into the office as if to break down the door and spoke immediately.
“Armand. The quarantine network has been breached.”
At her words, the branch manager of Black Night's Chapter 6 division widened his eyes, tossed aside the documents he was reviewing, and asked.
“The quarantine network was breached? That can't be. I'm certain I provided the antidote.”
The woman shook her head.
“The antidote doesn't work. It's the Completion type.”
“The Completion type? The one Lee Si-woo developed? Impossible! I anticipated Lee Si-woo's betrayal when the secret chapter opened and had it all destroyed. Unless there was another reset, it would have taken him at least another month to redevelop that virus! So... how?”
While Dawn held information about the Red Butterfly, Black Night held information about Lee Si-woo and the secret chapter.
They hadn't been able to use that information because the secret chapter hadn't opened, but with their records of past history, they had foreseen Lee Si-woo's betrayal and had been able to prepare for it.
The woman sighed with a sorrowful expression.
“I don't know either. How something like this could have happened...”
The Black Night branch manager, Fernando, stood up, gathered important documents, placed them in his inventory, and said.
“What about Lavender? What are they doing?”
“…The virus originated from their clubhouse.”
At her words, Fernando’s movements came to a sudden halt, as if he had been paused.
He turned his head slowly, like an old robot, and asked.
“Are you saying the virus spread from... Lavender's clubhouse?”
“Yes. Fernando. It's over. This city is already... finished.”
“There has to be a way. Chapter 6 can't end like this. Just yesterday, I reported that we could hold out for at least another fifteen days. And now you're telling me Chapter 6 is finished today? Dammit! And that was a conservative estimate! This, this can't be happening.”
If things continued like this, Chapter 7 would be thrown into chaos.
Furthermore, not only this city but also Black Night's long-cherished project would be ruined.
The woman comforted the distraught Fernando.
“Fernando. Let's start with what we can do. What's the first thing we need to do right now?”
“The first thing... obviously, we need to evacuate the survivors to the shelter. That's the only way to hold out a little longer in this city, and it will give us time to report to Chapter 7 and get the situation under control.”
The woman approached Fernando.
The scent of her shampoo pleasantly tickled his nose.
In her familiar scent, Fernando felt his mind naturally calm and grow serene.
She gently stroked Fernando's back.
“Then let's get the shelter's security code first. We don't have time to waste. We need to activate the shelter as quickly as possible and decide who to let in. After that, we'll pick our most agile club member and send them to Chapter 7.”
“You're right. Just a moment.”
Fernando crouched in front of the safe in the corner of the office and entered the password.
After passing through the thorough double and triple security measures, Fernando opened the safe and took out the card engraved with the shelter's security code.
“Alright. Natasha. Let's go. Ah, and bring your club members, too. I'm not supposed to do this, but... given the circumstances, the higher-ups will understand if we let your people into the shelter. Well, even if they don't, I'm not so pathetic that I can't shoulder that much for you.”
Natasha, who had been gazing affectionately at Fernando with her leaf-green eyes, smiled.
Her smile was so dazzling that Fernando stared blankly.
Did their hearts connect in that moment?
Or did the urgency of the situation stir their already overflowing emotions?
Natasha suddenly pressed her lips against Fernando's.
Captivated by the soft presence of her lips on his, Fernando unconsciously closed his eyes, even though he knew this was not the time.
But the sweet feeling was brief.
As a pill passed from her deeply entwined tongue and down his throat, Fernando urgently pushed her away.
“Natasha! What did you just—!”
Natasha looked at Fernando with tear-filled eyes and said.
“I'm sorry.”
A sense of foreboding washed over Fernando at her apology, and he shoved his fingers down his throat.
But it was no use.
The pill that had gone down his throat had already dissolved into a liquid, coating his stomach.
“*Gah…*”
Choking, Fernando clutched his chest and fell to the floor.
Natasha gazed down sadly at his bloodshot eyes, filled with betrayal and rage, as she picked up the shelter's security card from the floor.
“But please, believe this. My feelings for you... there wasn't a single shred of falsehood in them.”
“*Cough…*”
After watching Fernando's final moments as he coughed up blood and his head slumped, Natasha wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
Soon, having barely composed herself, she clenched her fist, and the security card shattered into pieces.
After completely destroying the card, the city's last bastion of hope, she left the Black Night branch clubhouse.
As she did, the screams of people and the sound of gunfire violently assaulted her eardrums.
Natasha squeezed her eyes shut at the cries of the survivors, which sounded like the city's death throes.
*'This is the right thing to do, isn't it? We... we're doing the right thing, right? Answer me, Rio. Please... tell me we're not on the wrong path.'*
No matter how desperately she asked, she had no way of knowing that her boss and master, Rio, was already dead.
Of course, even if she had known, nothing would have changed.
They had already come too far for anyone to stop.
Without even a mask, she mounted the bike parked in front of the clubhouse.
*Vroom!*
She sped like a madwoman through the chaotic streets and soon arrived at a checkpoint on the city's outskirts, where she dismounted her bike.
Beyond the checkpoint entrance, which was so quiet it was eerie—perhaps because everyone had already heard the news and withdrawn.
A black-haired man stood there blankly.
Sunken cheeks and a body as thin as a scarecrow, as if he had suffered for a long time without eating.
But his eyes were as sharp as a well-honed blade. Natasha approached him.
“Have you been waiting long?”
The black-haired man, Si-woo, stared at her with vacant eyes and answered dismissively.
“No.”
“That's a relief.”
*Beep.*
She took a remote from her pocket and pressed a button. The checkpoint gate, once as solid as a fortress wall, began to open to the sides.
Si-woo stepped through the checkpoint and asked.
“Why are you helping me?”
Natasha shook her head with a bitter smile.
“I'm not helping you.”
She took a briefcase from her inventory and handed it to Si-woo, continuing.
“I'm doing it because it has to be done. Take this. It's the Completion type virus I secretly diverted before it was destroyed.”
Taking the briefcase, Si-woo tilted his head and asked again.
“It has to be done? Why?”
Having finished her task, she looked up at the sky with a blank expression and gave an unexpected answer.
“The sky is achingly blue.”
Si-woo followed her gaze to the sky and said in a blunt tone.
“I suppose it is.”
Natasha took a syringe from her inventory and injected it into her arm.
“I think I've lived here for too long. And meeting a good person for so long must have been a mistake, too. Is that why? Why does... this place feel so real to me?”
She gently closed her eyes.
She thought.
Her death, after betraying the one she loved and driving innocent people to their doom, deserved to be wretched.
Yes, unlike Fernando, dying not as a human, but as a monster.
To become a corpse that was not a corpse, to wander this world like a specter until the very end.
That was the only way she could truly atone to Fernando.
She said.
“I—no, we—are certain that we are doing the right thing. But, on the other hand, I sometimes think... if one commits a sin in the pursuit of what is right and just... is that... is that...”
In the end, she couldn't finish her sentence.
And when she snapped her eyes open, they were no longer the vibrant green of summer foliage but a pale, empty white.
As he walked past her—now a white corpse spewing howls instead of words—Si-woo muttered.
“Right and wrong... what's the point of chasing such things if you lose everything precious to you? I didn't know it either, but people weren't born to live righteously. No, humans are creatures who protect, pursue, and crave what is precious to them, to the point of being selfish.”
Natasha, now a white monster, ignored the Si-woo in front of her and left in search of prey elsewhere.
Si-woo glanced at her retreating back as she ran like a four-legged beast, then parted his dry lips.
“So, wait for me, Moomyeon. I'll... be there soon.”
Si-woo's empty voice sounded like a pronouncement of Chapter 6's end.
* * *
After hours of grueling investigation following Rio's death, Lee Si-woo finally headed to the hotel with Ha-yun.
He was on his way to attend the wedding, following Moomyeon's "request," which was more of a demand.
*'I don't know if this is the right thing to do.'*
Lee Si-woo sighed repeatedly, his face etched with exhaustion.
He still couldn't decide if it was right to attend a wedding with the same face as the Chapter 7 Si-woo and with the same lover.
Perhaps sensing his anxiety?
Ha-yun gently took Lee Si-woo's hand.
“Don't worry. Everything will be fine.”
“…I'm not worried. More importantly, are you feeling okay?”
Ha-yun had only woken up after arriving in the capital, following her abduction by the demon wearing Adrian's skin.
So, no matter how many potions she had drunk, her condition couldn't possibly be back to normal.
Ha-yun smiled brightly at Lee Si-woo's concerned words.
“How could I not be okay when you're by my side? I'm fine.”
“That's a relief.”
Recognizing the worry hidden beneath his seemingly stern exterior, Ha-yun linked her arm with his and said.
“Anyway, let's hurry. I'm really curious to see how weddings are done in this world.”
Lee Si-woo chuckled and was about to lead Ha-yun into the hotel when a voice—so familiar it was strange—called out to him.
“Wait, hold on a second.”
When Lee Si-woo turned around, he saw the Chapter 7 Si-woo, dressed in a handsome tuxedo, staring at him with the dazed expression of someone seeing their doppelgänger.
Seeing Lee Si-woo, who was a spitting image of himself aside from a colder demeanor, Si-woo was so dumbfounded he couldn't speak properly.
“Uh… I mean...”
Perhaps annoyed by how flustered the stammering Si-woo was?
Lee Si-woo's cold tone greeted Si-woo first.
“Nice to meet you. I'm your older brother.”
At those words, as absurd as a line from a certain sci-fi movie, Si-woo asked back in a dazed voice.
“What? What kind of nonsense is that... Ha, wait a minute. Then the woman next to you? Isn't that obviously Yun...”
Lee Si-woo cut him off cleanly.
“And this here is Ha-yun's older sister.”
At the utterly preposterous answer that was beyond baffling, Si-woo finally spat out the words he'd been holding back.
“…Are you insane?”