Chapter 205
Chapter 205
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Childhood
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Every time a sound resembling a cry echoes, my body flinches.
Pure terror gnaws at my mind.
Keeping my unseen right eye shut, I gaze at the branch chief.
My body sways for a moment, and Song Arin hurriedly grabs my arm.
"Ar-Are you okay?"
"No."
"Then what do we do!"
"We have to, even if I'm not."
When it's my job, I have to do it.
I press on with my thoughts inside my head.
Put it to sleep.
Sounds good in theory, but how?
I look at the branch chief.
Our eyes meet, and she nods.
"There is a way."
"What way is that?"
"Since we've come this far, I suppose I have to explain."
She lets out a deep sigh and walks toward the machine.
She taps at the keypad again, and the groan spills out once more.
-Ugh...
Then, a long test tube emerges.
She grips the test tube and looks at me.
"From here on, it's up to you and Song Arin to wrap this up."
"What do you mean by that?"
The branch chief gives me an apologetic smile at my words.
"I'm going to hold this and jump right in there."
She points at the monster's maw.
"...Have you lost your mind? You'll die."
"You're right. I'll die."
The branch chief replies matter-of-factly and looks at me.
"Did you think I was the type to demand my subordinates' lives while not being ready to throw away my own?"
"...No, but."
"If you're asking others to sacrifice, you have to put your own life on the line. No. I should have led with mine."
She mutters that it's a shame she hadn't done so sooner, then looks at me.
"Can't you just toss the vial in and get out?"
"No dice. It spits it right back out. Someone has to take responsibility and deliver it all the way inside."
Her gaze on me is unflinching.
"After that, Kim Jaeheon, you'll have to face that thing down. Hold out, then look to the sky."
"...How? And the sky?"
"Honestly, I don't know the details myself. Word is, the pain hits worse than death."
The branch chief grins.
"Because every time it failed, my job was always to grab one of these and charge in."
"...Can't you stay here, and let me be the one to jump?"
That feels more logical.
"Won't work."
The branch chief eyes me like an old friend and pats my arm.
"Regular folks melt the second they step inside."
"Melt?"
"Yep. We need someone who can stay cool until the drug kicks in before that happens."
"And that's you."
"Yep."
"So you'll melt alive?"
"Pretty much."
"..."
"Kim Jaeheon."
The branch chief meets my eyes.
"Don't ever forget how much sacrifice and blood built the ground we're standing on."
"..."
"Sure, some folks can go through life oblivious and grateful, or even ungrateful about it."
"...True enough."
"I've heard it said,"
The branch chief smiles.
"You're better off thanking the one who bandaged your gut than hating the one who stabbed you in the back."
"..."
"Advice from someone older—take it to heart."
- - -
The crying rings out again, and Song Arin hunches in on herself.
"Running out of time, looks like."
The branch chief mutters and grips both my shoulders.
Her face reflects in my one good left eye.
Eyes wide and red, she's staring right at me.
[Name: Lee Haneul]
[Age: - ]
[Specialty: Indestructible]
[Talent: Indestructible]
[Background: I believe in you.]
[Weakness: Not that I'm pressuring you or anything!]
"..."
I stare blankly at the translucent window, and she flashes a grin before turning away.
Then she launches herself forward.
-Boom!
The floor cracks as she kicks off the wall and soars upward.
- - -
"Argh, so damn loud."
Her voice drills into my ears amid the thunderous noise.
- - -
"Yeah. It's me this time too."
She speaks as if conversing with it, then adds,
"But I've brought someone reliable along this time."
With that, she leaps straight into its mouth.
-Clink!
A faint sound of shattering glass follows as she vanishes inside.
"..."
"..."
Silence falls completely.
Song Arin clutches my arm.
"...Sorry. Honest talk."
"I'm listening."
"I'm scared out of my mind right now."
"Surprisingly, same here."
I reply evenly and look up.
-Drip...
Something warm trickles from my right eye.
In the face of something beyond reason, we're nothing but bugs.
But what choice is there? If it needs sleep, then sleep it shall.
The world begins to warp.
My temples pound, Song Arin grinds her teeth, squeezes her eyes shut, and clings to me.
"Arin...?"
"Stay...still...!"
Song Arin mutters as she hugs me tighter, eyes clamped shut.
"...What the..."
The headache vanishes.
The sounds do too.
A sudden peace settles over me.
But not for someone else.
"Hn, ugh...!"
Song Arin groans, eyes pinched tight.
"Arin...!"
"I-I'm...fine..."
She raises her head to meet my gaze,
and gives a faint smile.
"...I want to help you, even like this."
"..."
In the soundless uproar, I'm the only one unscathed.
*
How much time passes.
"Hack...!"
Song Arin spews blood and staggers,
and sounds flood back into my ears.
"What...this noise...so...!"
Song Arin mutters, hands clamped over her ears,
"..."
Then goes still.
Clutching my splitting head, I look at Song Arin.
"Arin?"
"...Run."
Her gaze shifts to one spot.
"Flee the truth."
"Arin, what are you—"
A whisper reaches me.
The moon whispers to me.
Knowledge no one should know. The truth.
"Hack..."
Song Arin vomits blood from her mouth and drops to her knees.
She wipes the blood trickling from her lips and looks at me.
"Qui-quick..."
-Grip!
She seizes my leg.
Blood's already streaming from my nose too.
No.
From my eyes as well.
My brain feels overloaded.
Like every circuit in it has fried.
"..."
She swipes the blood from her mouth with her hand.
Her palm comes away drenched.
-Grip!
She grabs my leg,
then my thigh,
my waist,
and climbs me like she's crawling up.
"..."
Her hand reaches my neck.
"..."
Song Arin looks at me.
Her eyes are bloodshot, blood pouring from nose and mouth.
"...Hack...!"
She vomits blood,
and slowly topples me over.
Or rather, my legs give out too.
-Thud!
Song Arin straddles me.
Drops of her blood splatter my face.
"Go on like this, and you'll lose your mind."
She spits up a gush of blood, then regards me with eerie calm.
Both her hands close around my throat.
She's not wrong.
This way, madness is certain for me.
But what about Song Arin?
Won't she snap too?
No chance. If anything, she'd suffer worse.
"I-It's fine."
She looks at me.
"I'll... hack... hold strong."
"..."
"Rest easy."
Song Arin smiles.
"It's okay. I've been with the Management Bureau for years. Trust me—hand it over."
A translucent window pops up.
[Name: Song Arin]
[Age: 21]
[Specialty: Hypnosis]
[Talent: Control]
[Background: She made a vow. To gladly thrust her neck into hell's maw for his sake. But vows are just words. Soon she'll go mad and lose herself. Even so, through it all, her thoughts will stay fixed on him.]
[Weakness: Leave her as is. She'll soon lose her name, her very being devoured.]
Song Arin's face flickers over that other moment for an instant.
Act 1, in the woods—her face as she strangled me.
Back when she killed me, and Song Arin died.
"...!"
I wring out every ounce of strength, flip her down, and pin her.
"...You!"
She writhes and grunts, but I'm heavier—she can't budge me.
"...Arin."
I force down the singing in my head and meet her eyes.
"...Let...go...now."
"You have any idea how much I've endured at the Management Bureau?"
"Th-those...I went through...too...!"
I seize Song Arin's throat as she strains.
My thoughts won't connect right.
Flash of thought: just shoot her? But no, I don't want that.
"Hack, you...!"
Song Arin claws at my wrist and shakes her head.
Her purple hair fans out across the floor.
"Do...that...! And...! No...!"
"..."
I squeeze harder.
Song Arin keeps shaking her head.
"Hack...! You...alone...! Left...! Torment—"
Can't breathe? Tears bead at the corners of her eyes.
"Pl-please...!"
"..."
I keep throttling Song Arin.
Soon, she stops fighting back.
Quietly stroking the back of my hand, she gazes up at me through tears.
Then her hands fall limp.
"..."
I rise.
Now even my left eye is going dark.
But I can't collapse.
Everyone else is dead but me.
Jang Chaeyeon headed for the pit, Yoo Daon blocked the door, Song Arin guarded me.
Yoo Daon might've survived, but she can't come here. She wouldn't last anyway.
In the end, this burden falls to me alone.
In the time Song Arin bought me, amid the skull-crushing pain, I think.
I think.
That's my one and only act of defiance.
My ears drone endlessly with whispers of the world's truth—or its corruption—my body quit obeying ages ago, my mind already shredding apart.
Still, I refuse to stop thinking.
What is the moon? Why is it so close to humanity?
What even is this thing?
I lift my gaze to the writhing worm.
-Crackle!
My left eye hazes over.
The translucent windows are gone.
Moon and worm.
Pale shell, harboring tiny maggots within.
It's just like...
"...An egg."
Worms lay eggs.
The egg stays safe until the hatchling breaks free, devours its surroundings, grows into an adult.
The adult then goes forth to spawn anew.
"..."
I look up at the worm.
Can't kill it.
Its parents would come.
Can't wake it.
It'd burst out and start feeding.
So all we frail ones can do is one thing.
Delay the doom as long as possible. Carve a path for the future.
Hope that future us can solve what we can't, by offering our lives and power.
That is precisely.
"Putting it to sleep."
The moment I mutter it,
[Critical -> 0 - 1]
A crimson translucent window flares up,
and the sounds cease.