Chapter 232
Chapter 232
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 232. That's Not Mom
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-Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots echoed through the silent chapel.
-Clack!
Ailin smoothly swapped out the spent magazine from her smoking rifle and emptied another one.
It was unavoidable.
"Keep moving!"
Park Ye-eun shouted in a shrill voice, and Ailin clicked her tongue.
She was right.
Even with a hole in its head and shattered leg bones that sent it tumbling, the old man kept crawling.
"I've never seen one this persistent...!"
Ailin muttered irritably as she reloaded with a fresh magazine.
I hurriedly checked above the old man's head.
[Name: Old Man 3]
[Age: X]
[Talents: X]
[Abilities: X]
[Background: He simply walks. Along the path he must take.]
[Weakness: What moves him is not himself. Something far greater. Simple force may not resolve it.]
Something far greater.
A surprisingly common story.
He was already the "church" itself.
Like the residents of Myeongil Apartment, he had long lost himself. Just like those residents fused with the apartment, he had become one with the church.
There was only one way to resolve this.
-Shrrrk!
As if realizing my thoughts, the manual flipped open urgently, displaying text.
[Office Manual]
[Church Exploration Internal Guide - Response Team Hwang Yu-hoon Latest Edition]
[Roles and Aftereffects When Roles Are Not Fulfilled]
1. The church is extremely strict about each assigned role.
2. If someone acts contrary to their role, it results in a penalty.
3. The exact mechanism is unknown, but "Gold" incurs a penalty if it leads or concludes, Frankincense if it leads or fails to conclude properly, and Myrrh if it leads or concludes.
Myrrh oddly has the least to do.
4. Penalties vary but commonly start with intense phantom pain in both palms. This vanishes immediately upon escaping the church.
Intense phantom pain in both palms.
No problem, then.
I reached for my shotgun but quickly drew my pistol instead.
I didn't need firepower right now.
What I needed was to break the mechanism—limited uses, but an ability to brute-force through without breaking.
Time to use Critical, acquired during the Extremist Leader incident.
If I had just one or two, I wouldn't dare use it so boldly, but things were different now.
Even using one, I'd have Criticals left for a joint skill with HR later, and two would handle anything.
"Hey, what are you...!"
As I drew my gun, Ailin stared at me with wide eyes.
The old man was already rolling toward the left door.
"Ailin."
...
She looked at me silently.
"Trust me?"
"What?"
"Do you trust me?"
...
Ailin glanced at me and nodded.
"Good."
[Critical: 3 -> 2]
The world turned black and white.
A red glow appeared near the old man's spine.
-Bang!
I pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The bullet sank into his spine as if drawn in.
"Gah!"
The old man collapsed with a dying scream.
...
...
I turned to the two behind me. They stared back, utterly baffled.
Park Ye-eun might be excused since I'd only seen her once at the orphanage amid the chaos, but Ailin had never witnessed Critical properly?
Before the thought finished,
"Graaah..."
Intense burning pain hit my palms, and I dropped the gun, clutching my hands.
This hurt more than expected.
Like someone had drilled holes in both palms and pressed red-hot irons into them.
No visible wounds, but the pain felt utterly real.
"You okay?!"
Ailin rushed over.
"I'm f-fine. Phantom pain, the manual—"
"I know."
Ailin replied calmly and nodded at Park Ye-eun.
"Cool pack. Now."
"Okay!"
At her words, Park Ye-eun hurriedly pulled a cool pack from her bag and handed it over. Ailin applied it to my palms.
The pain subsided dramatically.
"...Hoo."
As I exhaled deeply, Ailin stared at me intently.
"Why'd you shoot?"
"Flip it: What if it reached the left door?"
"...Wipeout."
"Exactly."
"...Even if I were Gold, I'd have made the same call if I saw a way."
Ailin murmured, stroking the cool pack on my hand with her finger.
"But."
She looked up at me.
"Second penalty isn't just phantom pain. Remember that."
"...Got it."
"After the second, never break role unless it's dire. Understand?"
"I'd like to."
But life doesn't flow that easily.
Seeming to catch the implication, Ailin sighed and turned to the mother-son pair.
-Shrrrk!
At the same time, the manual flipped open.
[PA - Suppressing Phantom Pain]
1. Management Bureau employees sometimes suffer phantom pain from the mind.
2. In such cases, focus your mind as much as possible—
"Next page."
No need for me to see this.
3. Afterward, if it hurts, you must report it—
"Next page, I said."
The manual paused, then
-Shrrk...
slowly turned to the page I wanted.
[Office Manual]
[Church Exploration Internal Guide - Response Team Hwang Yu-hoon Latest Edition]
[5. Chapel]
10. If there's a mother-son pair, first examine their clothing.
Clothing?
I looked up at the boy's clothes.
The boy wore winter padding, while the presumed mother wore a straw hat and swung her legs.
11. If the boy wears winter clothes, send him through the right door. If short sleeves and shorts, left door.
12. If the mother wears winter clothes, right door. If short sleeves and shorts, left.
13. If the mother wears neither short sleeves, shorts, nor winter clothes, never let her stand. That is not the mother.
...
14. Gold should tell the boy: 'Good job. Time to rest now.' He will go where he must. No variables here.
15. But if the mother must stay seated, a variable arises.
16. The mother will follow the boy, and you must stop her. Myrrh grabs her, Frankincense persuades.
17. Gold blocks the boy's ears and follows to the door, eyes on the floor. Never. Never. Never. Look beyond the door. No survivors have.
The tasks were clear.
I stood, and the two followed.
I positioned myself behind the boy.
"...Good job. Time to rest now."
The boy slowly stood,
and the woman followed. Or tried to.
...
Park Ye-eun squeezed her eyes shut and pinned the woman's shoulders. Ailin approached her side with practiced ease and spoke gently.
"You're the one who killed him."
At the same time, I covered the boy's ears and stepped forward.
Toward the right door.
Eyes on the floor.
Keeping my gaze down, cool air brushed my face.
Near the exit?
At that moment,
-Dong... Dong... Dong...
An unforgettable sound rang in my ears.
Sand-people surfaced in my mind.
Yoo Da-on's tearful face.
The clock.
I knew this sound.
*
Stairs.
The three said nothing.
Yoo Daon stared at the thing—utterly butchered, nothing else to call it—and thrust her hand in without hesitation.
Amid the rustling as she rummaged, she pulled it out.
When Yoo Daon shoved her arm into its mouth, what it said was enough to drive the three mad.
'I ate him. Already digesting in my gut.'
...
Yoo Daon wiped the sticky fluid on the floor and muttered.
"Liar after all. Nothing inside."
"Then the finger it chewed..."
"Not Jaeheon. Like I said, the smell wasn't his."
"Thicker than a finger too."
Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon answered Song Arin's question. Song Arin gaped at them in shock.
"How do you two even know that—"
"Aren't you the weird one for not knowing?"
"Right."
As they nodded at her, Song Arin was speechless.
Was I the weird one?
Of course, Song Arin already knew it wasn't a man—from the monster's emotions, more than the finger.
Rage.
Not satisfaction.
Rage is a potent emotion. Highly volatile.
Feeling such rage meant someone had pissed it off recently.
So she relaxed. He made it through somehow.
Though she'd joined the butchery out of her own anger too.
Yoo Daon wiped her hand on the floor and looked ahead.
"Jaeheon seems to have kept going, so..."
She smiled.
"Shall we?"