Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 146. Closing Down
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Observation. Specimen.
I sink into thought upon hearing something shatter.
Both Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon.
I didn't know about the specimen, but Observation felt familiar from the name alone.
In some other future, what kind of people were the three of them?
Jang Chaeyeon reaches out and clenches her fist.
*Craaack!*
A crack forms in the glass orb.
[Coordinate Rip: 2 uses]
*Thud!*
Another crack appears in the glass orb.
[Coordinate Rip: 1 use]
*Shatter!*
Finally, Jang Chaeyeon clenches her fist one last time,
and with the sound of something breaking, both she and I rise upward.
"Puha!"
*Cough...!*
With the sound of air surging up, our faces break the surface.
"Chaeyeon!"
"...Are we getting out?"
"Probably."
I extend my hand, and she grabs it.
"But we've cleared the hurdle for now."
She smiles at my words and grips my hand tightly.
Soon, we rise even higher.
As we ascend, I sink into thought.
What is this necklace?
Just something made to inflict pain?
That doesn't fit with what I've seen.
The replicated people, the horrific mass of flesh, and finally this necklace that only causes pain.
None of it lines up.
Even if the mass of flesh and the replicated people have some correlation, why does this necklace stimulate people's traumas?
A flashing light hits my eyes.-
My consciousness cuts off there.
*
...
My eyes snap open.
When I turn my head, Jang Chaeyeon is asleep next to me with her eyes closed, and Song Arin is nowhere to be seen.
"Arin! Arin...?"
As I'm about to call for Song Arin, I feel a strangeness around my neck and touch it.
I hurriedly place my hand on my neck, and with a metallic rattle—
My head doesn't hurt.
Is it okay?
I remove the necklace from around my neck and look at it.
Soon, a translucent window appears before my eyes again.
[Name: Proof of Love]
[Age: -]
[Specialty: Hypertrophy]
[Talent: Propagation]
[Background: No one is perfect. The necklace knows this all too well.]
[Weakness: Do not be too swayed by their whispers. If you are not wearing the necklace, make sure there are no people around. If there are many people around, wear the necklace. Only one person needs to be sacrificed.]
The specialty has changed.
It was definitely Whispers before.
Propagation. Propagation.
What does it propagate? And how can the 'company' use this necklace?
There was too much information that didn't fit together.
"You're awake?"
I lift my head at the voice from behind me.
"Arin."
Song Arin is walking toward me.
"Where were you?"
"I was clearing up the area since I didn't know when you'd wake up."
"Clearing up?"
"Yeah."
Song Arin mutters as she looks at me.
A calm expression.
"The others all escaped, right?"
"Probably."
She mutters and turns her gaze elsewhere.
"Arin."
"What."
"You okay?"
She meets my eyes as she looks away.
"...Yeah. I'm fine."
She smiles quietly.
A smile far too serene for the chaotic situation.
"I have a lot to say, but..."
"Not the time, right?"
"Yeah."
The floor is scorched and scraped everywhere, and the people who were there moments ago are gone.
"Chaeyeon..."
"She'll wake up soon."
Song Arin mutters as she looks at Jang Chaeyeon.
"Her mind seems to be coming back."
"Ugh..."
No sooner does Song Arin finish speaking than Jang Chaeyeon groans and sits up.
She looks around immediately,
"...Huh."
She meets my eyes and smiles softly.
"You're awake."
"You just took a bit longer to wake up, Chaeyeon."
"Sorry."
"I wasn't asking for an apology."
Jang Chaeyeon brushes herself off as she stands and looks at the necklace in my hand.
"You took it off."
"It came off easily."
...
Jang Chaeyeon nods and starts walking, and Song Arin and I follow behind her.
...
I glance sideways to check Song Arin's complexion.
She's walking as if nothing's wrong.
But somehow, her nonchalance makes her seem unsettling.
I clear my throat and look at Song Arin.
"Arin."
"Yeah."
"There's something bothering me."
...
She turns her gaze to me.
Should I bring up what happened earlier right here?
I recall Song Arin's face as she looked at me.
Emotions wear down over time.
I don't know what connection her emotions toward me have to the past, but there's no need to poke at sensitive spots right now.
Let's change the subject for now.
"Isn't the necklace weird?"
"Weird how?"
"It's not making any noise now, right?"
Song Arin tilts her head at my words.
"Maybe because you broke it?"
"But the necklace itself isn't damaged."
"Hmm..."
Song Arin rests her hand on her chin, lost in thought.
"It could be in a lull."
"A lull?"
"Well, it's true that people were being made through that necklace."
"How do you know that?"
"I checked it out before you woke up."
Song Arin raises her hand.
Something like pitch-black mud is stuck to it.
"I pulled that weird stuff out of the flesh mass and they were shaping people from it."
"...You touched that?"
"Yeah."
...
If my memory is right, Song Arin was retching like crazy the first time she saw that scene. How could she touch it?
"You're okay, right?"
"Huh? Yeah. Once I touched it, it wasn't that bad. Just smells a bit, and has some people's screams mixed in."
Watching Song Arin mutter so casually makes me uneasy, but that's not the issue right now.
There's something else to deal with first.
"Arin."
"Yeah."
"Any presence ahead?"
"Something like a person. One."
Song Arin mutters,
"Halt."
As soon as she finishes, Jang Chaeyeon reaches out to stop us and glares ahead.
...
A robot in a suit is sitting there.
"Oh dear, this venture failed too."
It was the robot we saw when we joined the company.
The robot's face is woebegone, but it looks so cartoonishly ridiculous that it evokes no emotion.
Jang Chaeyeon immediately raises her hand, and its body floats into the air. With the sound of metal crumpling, it screams.
"Oh dear! Spare me!"
"Why should we?"
At Jang Chaeyeon's words, it hurriedly continues.
"This time, we didn't kill that many people!"
"...That many?"
"Just one! It was structured so only one had to be sacrificed!"
"I'm crushing you."
"Spares me!"
"Wait."
I raise my hand to stop Jang Chaeyeon and look at it.
I have questions.
It looks at me, still making that miserable face.
"A-Are you sparing me?"
"Depends on how cooperative you are."
"Oh dear, thank you."
...
I secretly tap Jang Chaeyeon's arm from behind as she glares at me, and only then does she stay silent.
It nods its head vigorously several times.
"What do you want to know?"
"The necklace. What is it?"
"Oh dear, the necklace."
The robot begins to explain.
"A wish can become a greater cause."
"What?"
"This necklace makes people hypertrophic. Not just their bodies—everything."
...
"If flesh, mind, and even soul all become hypertrophic, what happens?"
"Who knows."
"They overflow."
It nods.
"If only flesh overflows, or only mind, or only soul, it becomes nothing."
...
"But if all of it overflows at once, and you can contain it in a leather sack..."
"You can make a new person?"
"It's different if you dig deep, but similar logic."
It nods.
...
A regressor wanted this?
Why?
"Of course, it comes with immense pain."
"Pain?"
"Expanding something is like force-feeding endlessly."
...
"Normally, you stop eating when full. But if you threaten to kill them unless they eat, they will."
"And that threat targets their weaknesses?"
"Depends on what the necklace chooses."
...
"Impressive, though."
"What?"
"Most—no, almost everyone can't endure it."
The robot looks at the necklace.
"When we found this, so many employees got shredded... Sigh. The chairman was furious."
I look at the necklace in my hand.
The robot looks at us expectantly.
"So, you're sparing me?"
"No."
I nod to Jang Chaeyeon, and she clenches her fist.
"Oh dear! I knew it!"
The robot's face turns red.
"But even without me, another executive will—!"
*Boom!*
Before it can finish, Jang Chaeyeon crushes it.
Blood spurts out.
Blood?
My gaze involuntarily turns to the robot.
Blood pooling on the floor.
"...No wonder."
Song Arin mutters as she approaches, squats, and examines it.
"That's why it kept feeling like it had a mind despite being a robot."
"This is human?"
"No. But made with human materials."
Song Arin mutters as she looks at the blood.
"Feels like a human brain with mechanical parts mixed in."
...
While I'm speechless staring at the robot,
a rolling sound comes from far away.
Probably the branch chief coming after ordering evacuation.
"...We'll hand over the necklace."
The uneasy feeling shows no sign of fading.
I slowly open the manual.
[Office Manual]
RC - Break Time
1. The manual is off for the day.
That's all it says, and nothing else is visible.
Why is the manual taking a break too?
...
I recall the scenes I saw.
Why were they my fears?
I just didn't know much.
My gaze slowly turns to the manual.
I think of the scenes I wasn't that afraid of because the manual wasn't functioning properly.
How can a person fear something they haven't experienced?
What if this was the past the manual feared?
...
I fiddle with the necklace and mutter while touching the manual's cover, just in case.
"Is this the future you saw?"
The scenes of countless mes dying.
Naturally, the manual doesn't respond.
*
What followed was strangely smooth.
The branch chief just nodded silently upon receiving the necklace.
"We'll use this on Kim Wanwoo now."
"Use?"
"Better not to know. I'll tell you after."
She smiled and closed the office door.
As soon as I returned to my seat, there was Yoo Daon, blankly fiddling with her computer with an expressionless face.
Yoo Daon moves her hands quickly, working.
"...Ah!"
The moment I open the door, color returns to her emotionless face, her eyes widen, and she runs to me.
"Jaeheon! You're back early?"
"It's not that early—I was on a one-day business trip."
"That's early!"
Yoo Daon smiles at me, then
"...Huh?"
She blinks at Song Arin behind me.
A flash of bewilderment crosses her face.
...
"Daon?"
"Ah, uh, yeah?"
"What's wrong?"
"No, it's just..."
Yoo Daon trails off as she looks at Song Arin.
"Arin seems... off."
"Off?"
"...No, whatever, not my business..."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing!"
She mutters and smiles at me again.
"While you were gone, um, not much happened, so nothing big to report!"
"Ah."
"Oh right! One thing!"
Yoo Daon nods.
"They said we need psychological evaluations?"
"Psych eval?"
"Yeah!"
Yoo Daon nods vigorously with a smile.
"For checking employees' mental health!"
"When?"
"Tomorrow! All other departments are done, just us left?"
Tomorrow?
*
Something's wrong.
Kim Jiu from the Mental Health Team couldn't believe the scene before her.
The black-haired woman staring blankly at her.
Yoo Daon from HR, was it?
No emotion in her eyes.
"You're really okay?"
"Yes."
The woman called Yoo Daon nods at Kim Jiu's words.
Kim Jiu mutters as she looks at the chart.
"...Such high trauma levels..."
"I'm fine, I said."
The black-haired woman smiles at her.
"You worry too much, doctor."
That smile holds not a shred of emotion,
...
making even her flinch in fear.