Gatekeeper Mode
Gatekeeper Mode
Darkness pressed in.
A blackness thicker than Mirkella's shadows surged forward, driving the participants further inward.
A gut-deep feeling that you absolutely must not let it touch you.
It seemed to be the mechanism for shrinking the field.
"All units, move toward three o'clock!"
At Angelica's shout, we broke into a sprint.
I carried the MILF on my back, while her daughter Kim So-jin was transported by Mirkella's shadows.
And so, reaching a reasonably safe zone, we were finally able to catch our breath.
The only problem was that we weren't the only ones here.
"Uh... truce, for now?"
Judging by their appearance, the group of five were outsiders.
Perhaps that was why they readily proposed a non-aggression pact right off the bat.
But why bother?
This was a golden opportunity to eliminate some competition. Was there any need to cut them any slack?
Sure, we were worn out from the frantic sprint, but not to the point where dealing with them would pose any real difficulty.
Wiping them out while we had the chance was the smarter play.
"Mirmir. Angelica."
I singled out the two of them.
Without needing any further explanation, Mirkella and Angelica provided an appropriate response to the strangers.
"Aagh! W-wait! There's no need for us to do this! We'll have to deal with even worse monsters later, do we really have to do this to each other?!"
"Shut it."
No questions, no answers.
I cut off their pleas with a single stroke, and at the same moment, Mirkella's shadows rained down.
Shadows sprouting from all sides split the man who had spoken cleanly in half.
Angelica levitated the remaining four into the air and slammed them repeatedly into the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
With those heavy impacts, blood and chunks of flesh splattered across the ground.
A truly gruesome end, but I couldn't muster any particular sympathy.
They were all men, so why would I?
If there had been a decent-looking bitch among them, maybe, but there was no reason to show mercy to a bunch of dick-swinging bastards.
"Nothing special, those guys. Anyway, what now? We should decide on our next course of action."
"Course of action?"
"Well, do we march boldly into the center and flaunt our power, or do we skulk around the outskirts like this, targeting the rats looking for an easy opportunity?"
I mulled it over briefly and reached a conclusion.
"Let's go with the latter. No point in drawing attention unnecessarily, right?"
"Well, I agree with that opinion. Rather than pointlessly attracting eyes and wasting energy, it's much better to probe carefully like this, even if it's a bit more bothersome."
I glanced around to gauge the others' opinions. Mirkella and Kim Ha-yoon also shrugged, showing no particular disagreement.
The old man, too... gave a silent answer.
That was tacit agreement to follow our lead, right?
I chose to believe so.
Since he had something he wanted to achieve, he wasn't foolish enough to pull some reckless stunt.
'Right. The one who needs something more is always the one who has to cling.'
I set down Park Soo-jin, whom I'd been carrying, and spoke.
"Hey, Soo-jin. You can walk now, right?"
"...."
"Answer me."
"...Yes. I can."
Park Soo-jin seemed deeply displeased with the whole situation, looking profoundly depressed.
She straightened her half-peeled clothing and let out a sigh heavy enough to crack the ground.
"Haah... So, what exactly do you want from me?"
"What do you mean?"
"...What do you mean. There has to be a reason you kept my daughter and me alive."
Well.
Bringing you here in the first place was a pretty impulsive move, honestly.
"There isn't really any reason like that. It's just because you genuinely caught my eye."
"...You targeted us simply for impulsive pleasure?"
"I didn't even target you. It was a 'nice if I run into them, no big deal if I don't' kind of thing. The timing just worked out perfectly, so I Jo-woo'd you. Think of it as bad luck."
"....."
She looked rather dumbfounded.
Indeed, from my perspective, it was the luckiest break imaginable, but from theirs, it must have been a bolt from the blue—such misfortune that it was only natural.
After a moment of silence, she seemed to make up her mind. Her expression grave, she parted her dry lips.
"...Couldn't you let me go? It seems like you've accomplished your goal?"
"Wow, lady, you're really something else. Isn't it usually the other way around in that situation?"
"...I think it's a good thing for my daughter. You seem to have strong possessive tendencies, so I don't think she'll be subjected to any more awful treatment."
"I am indeed very possessive. But that doesn't mean I should let you go. Why would I bother?"
Even if her actual performance was lackluster, in terms of sheer fuckability, this MILF far surpassed her daughter.
Like I said before, the title of 'Pretty Married Woman' isn't something you can just pick up anywhere. I had no desire to let that slip away.
"...I don't want to betray my husband any more than this. So, please."
"That's funny, lady. Where is this beloved husband of yours? Is he over there in the spectator seats cheering you on or something?"
"...."
Through the silence and her darkening expression, I understood.
This woman no longer had a husband.
No, to be more accurate, it would be better to say she 'lost' him.
"Your husband is cheering from heaven. Does that really count as betrayal? The living have to keep living. Don't you think?"
"...I'm going to save him. I'll save him no matter what, so it's not a problem."
As expected.
Park Soo-jin, her face hardening, declared it so firmly.
Honestly, it was utterly ridiculous.
The dead do not return.
Isn't that a self-evident law?
Well, Mirkella did once perform the miracle of turning a zombie back into a human, but that was strictly limited to those whose bodies were intact.
According to her testimony, the blessing didn't work if there were missing parts. It was by no means all-powerful.
Therefore, the Gladiator's power must also have some kind of flaw.
"The Gladiator. Is that woman really that amazing? To the point of bringing back the dead?"
This question wasn't aimed at Park Soo-jin.
It was directed at the old man, who stood with his back turned, keeping watch on the surroundings.
"It is possible. However, it would be more accurate to say she creates a new person rather than revives one."
Not quite grasping it, I signaled with my eyes to Kim Ha-yoon beside me.
It meant, roughly, "interpret for me."
At this, Kim Ha-yoon sighed and said,
"So, you should think of it as not reviving the real person from the corpse, but creating a person who looks identical."
"Ah... Okay. Got it. But if that's the case, what about memories? Can those be reproduced identically too?"
"I don't know. But if she can create a person, wouldn't something like implanting memories be trivially easy?"
Oho. So that meant she simply wanted to create a doll of her choosing.
What this woman wanted was to take a body with her 'husband's face,' stuff it with her 'husband's memories,' and craft a partner solely for herself.
A truly pitiful and heartbreaking display of pure love.
But would that really hold any meaning?
Just as water already spilled cannot be gathered up again, even if you take a body identical to the deceased and cram the same memories into it, could that person ever truly replace the original?
I don't think so.
In the end, a fake is a fake.
A being projected and created based on one's own viewpoint can never even serve as a proper substitute.
She would end up disappointed on her own, grow weary, and fall away.
It was a painfully predictable future.
And so, I let out a light, hollow laugh.
"Then no matter how desperately you struggle to get what you want, in the end, it still won't be your husband. Is there any meaning in that?"
"...Shut up. I can save him. He can come back."
A chilling gaze laced with killing intent.
Obsession, stubbornness, lingering attachment, anger... her eyes were brimming with murky, viscous emotions.
But rather than threatening, it came across as laughable and pitiable.
It felt like watching an injured puppy growl, maybe?
Yes, the Park Soo-jin before me was a woman poisoned.
Poisoned by the venomous drug called the past.
"Of course you'd think that. Yeah, absolutely. But I guarantee you, lady, you'll definitely regret it later."
"....."
Park Soo-jin said nothing more.
Either she'd vaguely sensed I wouldn't grant her request to let her go, or she simply found talking to me so loathsome she wanted to die. She retreated back into silence mode.
I snorted dismissively and walked over to Mirkella.
"How's she doing? When's she likely to wake up?"
"How should I know... Seriously, couldn't you have held back a little? Her eyes rolled completely back. I was wondering if she was actually okay."
"She'll be fine. It was the same earlier, right? I pounded her, and she woke up right as rain."
Seriously, she was pathetic in so many ways.
I thought her threshold might have risen a bit after experiencing it once, but sure enough, this time she lost consciousness the moment I came inside her, no different from before.
So-jin, So-jin... aren't you a little too fragile?
'Still, she might be easier to talk to than her mother.'
Daughter or not, she didn't seem to share the exact same goal as her parent.
Wasn't she just going along with it because she had no choice, wanting to protect her only remaining family?
I ventured a cautious guess.
"You there, more importantly, we should start moving again soon. That black mist—its range is gradually expanding."
"Okay. At this rate, it looks like it'll be over quickly. Let's push on a little longer."
Just then, Angelica, who had been warily eyeing the deep darkness spreading along the perimeter, suggested we hurry our steps.
Indeed, as she said, the boundary was slowly closing in.
Also, the holographic display floating high in the sky showed the number, which had been at 352, had already dropped into the 200s.
It seemed the system shrank the available safe space as the number of participants decreased.
"Let's circle the outskirts slowly. We'll sweep up every bastard we run into along the way."
In a survival game like this, playing gatekeeper at the edge of the death zone was always the tastiest strategy.