Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Escape Route
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Moscow University Hospital's entity, the director, wore a blissful smile as he rubbed his cheek against "Peace to the Big Toe." His head—easily four times the size of mine—rubbing against that tiny nail polish bottle was downright ridiculous.
"You must really admire Dr. Janus."
It's not just admiration! It's outright worship! Every medical practitioner follows in his footsteps, and I'm no exception! The lifelong dream of us all is to witness anything connected to him, but to lay eyes on a medicine he created myself!
"I'm only familiar with him as a doctor treating a patient, so I don't know much about his achievements. Could you explain?"
The director gushed about Dr. Janus like a fanatic describing their favorite celebrity.
He's the god of contemporary medicine! Countless groundbreaking, creative techniques and medicines that shifted medical paradigms have emerged from his hands!
From what I heard, Dr. Janus truly was an extraordinary entity.
The dead can rise again in his presence—even bare bones!
Disease means nothing to him! He can cure anything!
Undergo surgery by him, and you can have the body you desire! Appearance, gender, function, ability—anything at all!
In short, he was the god of medicine and a transcendent creator of various pharmaceuticals.
'An entity capable of producing medicines treated as entities by others is naturally superior to the rest.'
I spoke to the director, who was still beside himself.
"If you want it, you can have it."
"I have another bottle at home anyway."
"But in exchange, I have one request."
Good thing this entity was reasonable.
"Please tell me how to escape this place."
With the director's farewell ringing in my ears, I exited Moscow University Hospital. Outside, only the streetlights glowed forlornly as before, but thanks to the map from the director, this place was no longer unknown territory.
[The way out isn't hard. Enter a specific location and pass its trial.]
[Then why haven't you left until now?]
[The hospital is here—how could I, the director, abandon it? Here's a map.]
'Pretty good drawing skills. He could've been an artist.'
The director's map was incredibly detailed, allowing swift progress. At this rate, I'd reach the exit within an hour, face the mysterious trial, and escape.
'Stay sharp.'
I kept the director's words in mind.
[Be careful. Outside the hospital lurk dull, brutish creatures that live by instinct alone. These low-intelligence brutes who can't even converse are extremely violent. I'm worried you might get hurt, patient.]
If the director said that, they were likely entities driven purely by violence and murderous intent, incapable of dialogue.
'Can't resolve things with talk against those types, so avoid detection.'
I hid in the shadows as much as possible. I went barefoot to muffle footsteps, skirted wide-open areas, hopped fences, and stuck to alleys.
'Straight shot: one hour. With caution: indefinite.'
Slow was fine. As long as they didn't spot me.
"Oh."
But you can't always dodge what you want to.
I locked eyes with a drooling dog staring at me. I usually like animals and would've petted its head, but not this one.
It was bigger than a two-story building.
And honestly, questionable if it even qualified as a dog.
Because its face was human.
"Hello?"
Still, with a human face, maybe words would work. I greeted it.
It opened its mouth.
To eat me.
The thing howled for food, madly working its jaws. The moment it spotted me, I praised myself for having slipped my shoes back on in advance.
'Fast one.'
If this were flat ground—or if its massive bulk couldn't navigate between buildings—I'd have been caught ages ago.
'Only a matter of time.'
It even chewed through buildings in pursuit.
How is that possible? Its mouth expanded in an instant to swallow a whole building, chewed it up, face restored to normal, and it spoke all the while.
'Entities gonna entity. Beyond human logic and knowledge.'
Alright, now what?
Time to choose.
'Keep running, run into another entity, and I'll be chased by two. So before that, use the golden ticket or find the human-faced dog's weakness.'
Save the golden ticket for the unknown final trial.
'But figuring out its weakness while being chased like this is tough.'
No memory of this entity, so uncover clues before it grabs me?
'Like how the director loved Dr. Janus's medicine—something that works on this one would be ideal.'
I fiddled with the tumbler that auto-refilled and maintained carbonation. If the human-faced dog hated fizzy drinks, great—but what are the odds?
'Then what's left is...'
The golden ticket.
Well, one other option.
"...But this isn't an entity."
Using artwork as a weapon saddened me as its creator, but desperate times.
I slammed to a halt and spun. The lunging human-faced dog bit the spot where I'd stood.
'Now.'
Kicked off the wall, leaped onto its back, pulled out the bead from my pocket.
'My creation.'
My artwork, born from the extremity of dreams.
'Titled "Human."'
I activated it on the human-faced dog—the one I'd brought along with the others.
The bead's effect: force appreciation of my compressed work for one minute.
But defying my experiments, it shook its head vigorously and snapped out of it.
Spotted me again and resumed the chase.
'Powerful entities shake it off fast?'
Recalled using it on others.
'Blue Moon, the trader—both recovered in seconds. But they seemed to have fully appreciated it.'
Got it. Stronger entities appreciate faster?
'It's slowed down a bit.'
Risked it again, showed "Human" once more.
Took longer to recover this time, and speed dropped noticeably.
'Can shake it now.'
But I didn't want to.
"How did you like my artwork?"
"That scene you just saw."
"Tsk, let me show you again."
Easy to show "Human" to the slowed beast.
It shuddered violently, looked at me, then retched up the building.
The human-faced dog staggered off into the distance.
"Hmm."
Survived, but as an artist, it stung.
"Well enough."
Then I remembered: it was an entity.
"Entities wouldn't appreciate art anyway."
Like the dream extremity?
En route, the commotion with the human-faced dog drew others one by one.
"Do you know art by any chance?"
I asked the suspicious figure in the plague doctor mask. It only cackled eerily, no reply—so definitely non-communicative. Showed it "Human."
"You can talk?"
"Your thoughts on my work..."
Next: a massive flying lump covered in hundreds—maybe thousands—of eyes.
"Care to see this?"
Showed it "Human" too.
"Hm, shall I show it again?"
Post-appreciation silence prompted another showing—suddenly, countless eyes wept in unison.
Its wobbling flight away looked pitiful.
Next: a four-legged entity with an elongated snout. No communication, so "Human."
It glared wordlessly, heightened its guard, backed away slowly, then fled.
"What a shame."
Art sometimes transcends species. Just check YouTube—plenty of videos of classical music calming dogs, cats, even pigs and sheep, drawing crowds.
'I had a sliver of hope too.'
Though using it as a weapon due to their ignorance, I'd hoped one entity might appreciate my art.
"Expectations too high."
My artistic soul in tatters, I finally reached the destination.
'Here it is.'
Pushed open an ordinary door into the building. Bright and spacious inside, with a single full-length mirror.
'Suspicious mirror.'
One full-length mirror stood alone in the center of a room the size of a high school track field—armed with suspicion. Could be the trial, so I approached and peered in.
"Hello?"
Greeted my reflection.
My reflection replied.
"Ah, don't tell me..."
"Really want to confirm if you're me."
My reflection and I both pulled out "Human" and activated it simultaneously.
"Truly impressive."
This guy's me for sure.
"Never thought I'd chat with myself."
Not just outward mimicry—inner self perfectly matched.
"Still not ready!?"
Seong Yu-ra snapped at the agents. Over an hour gone, and the team to rescue Lee Seung-hoon still hadn't deployed.
"Sorry! We haven't prepared a way to neutralize the entity at the exit yet!"
"Vantablack would do it!"
"The Vantablack factory is still under repair, so we dispatched agents in a hurry!"
"How much longer!"
"Probably two hours..."
She swallowed her anger.
'If it's the Mirror of Murderous Intent, no choice.'
Entity name: Mirror of Murderous Intent.
Copies its reflection into another dimension beyond the mirror.
'That's fine, but the real issue: its copies aren't simple duplicates.'
The mirror-world being matches the original perfectly.
Body, thoughts, ideology, memories—all identical.
'But the copy quickly realizes it's a copy.'
From then on, it instinctively harbors intense murderous intent toward the original, hating and driven to kill it.
'The problem: the copy's attack method is self-harm.'
Self-harm on the copy damages the original. The original can't harm the copy.
'The mirror doesn't shatter, and once activated, even leaving the mirror doesn't dispel the copy.'
Only way left: both original and copy die. A dangerous entity true to its name.
'The sole counter: coat it with Vantablack.'
Covering with cloth or paint fails instantly. Only Vantablack works, taking about three minutes to vanish.
The coated mirror disrupts the other dimension's connection, opening a passage to this side—the defense system's final bastion and sole exit.
'Please, stay hidden.'
No matter his mental strength, the mirror copy is still a copy.
'Step in there, and you're dead for sure.'
"What's up?"
"Yeah? I was wondering if I might be the copy."
"How?"
"Gonna self-harm?"
My mirror self answered.
I nodded.
"Exactly."