Chapter 274
Chapter 274
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 274. I've Been Waiting a Lifetime
-----------------------------------------------------------------
No preliminary scouting was done.
[Critical: 2 -> 1]
Engaging in pointless conversation or dragging things out would only disadvantage us.
The world turns black and white, time slowing to a crawl.
The Observer's forehead glows red, and as the trigger is pulled, the bullet fires in slow motion.
-Bang!
The muzzle spits fire, and the bullet embeds itself into its forehead as if being sucked in.
The Observer's head snaps back fully, and Song Arin clenches her fist tight.
"Good job! You should've just killed that thing without wasting words anyway!"
No sooner had Song Arin finished speaking than Jang Chaeyeon raises her hand, and the Observer's body lifts into the air before slamming into the ground.
-Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Observer is repeatedly smashed into the floor several times.
Jang Chaeyeon takes a deep breath and raises her hand again, sending her flying backward.
"Ka...!"
Jang Chaeyeon is sent hurtling far away before she can even scream.
The thing, with its head still tilted back, slowly lifts it up.
-Roll...
A flattened bullet drops to the floor, and it shakes its head.
"I see you knew. That made it easy to counter."
The Observer mutters.
"...You knew?"
It knew about Critical? That's how it countered? But I clearly saw with my own eyes that it got hit right in the forehead just now?
That means...
"You've already shot me. A very long time ago."
The Observer, or rather the Cube, nods.
"Looks like this method worked."
"..."
I keep my eyes fixed on it, tension unbroken.
How did it block Critical?
Aestheticism that didn't work at all, Butterfly's Dream with no apparent weakness. And now the Cube blocks it too.
Can this really even be called Critical anymore?
"No, there's something more important anyway. Let's make a deal—"
Then, as it starts to move and speak, the Observer freezes in place.
"What deal, you psycho?"
Song Arin mutters as she raises her hand, and the Observer suddenly begins punching its own face.
To me, it looks like a mannequin's fist slamming into Jang Chaeyeon's face—kind of eerie.
"Anyway!"
-Thwack!
"You're nothing without us!"
-Thwack!
"You can't get out!"
Every time Song Arin shouts with furrowed brows, the Observer keeps punching its own face, only stopping when blood starts spurting from its lips.
"...Not wrong."
As Song Arin lowers her hand with a huff, it wipes the blood from its mouth with the back of its hand and mutters. Meanwhile, Jang Chaeyeon staggers back toward us.
"You okay, Chaeyeon?"
"Yeah."
Jang Chaeyeon nods, frowning slightly as if just a bit dizzy.
Good thing she's not hurt.
If only Yoo Daon were here right now...
No, don't think about what-ifs. She's not, so that's that. Nothing we can do.
I reorganize my thoughts.
Wait a second, though...
Why couldn't it retrieve the body?
If it really wanted to, shouldn't it have been able to take the body?
Or is there some restriction preventing it from doing so?
"..."
There's just no information at all.
My understanding has increased, but I still don't know much about the Cube itself.
If we keep going like this, it'll just turn into a pointless war of attrition.
What contingency would Jang Chaeyeon— the one I'd spent so much time with—have prepared to break through the Cube incident?
My gaze shifts to Jang Chaeyeon, and she tilts her head at me before extending her hand again to block the Observer's attack.
-Thud!
With a sound of air warping, Jang Chaeyeon is pushed back, and so is the Observer.
"You won't listen, so I guess I'll have to reveal it myself."
The Observer mutters with an expressionless face as it raises its hand.
"Anyway, one human has to remain in this place."
"..."
What the hell is this now?
I glance at Jang Chaeyeon and Song Arin. Song Arin furrows her brow, then nods.
"It's the truth."
I give Song Arin a slight bow of thanks for reading it, then turn my eyes back to the Observer.
"Why?"
"...What does this place look like to you?"
The Observer turns the question on me instead.
"...What else? The world inside the Cube."
And Jang Chaeyeon blocked it.
"Right. You could see it that way. But you're wrong."
Wrong?
As we three look at it in confusion, it points to the floor with its index finger.
"The outside world has already perished."
"Chaeyeon blocked you. How could the outside world have fallen?"
"Question back: You think blocking me alone keeps the outside world safe?"
"..."
I can't confidently say no.
"So, due to the restrictions the Management Bureau placed, one human must remain here."
The Management Bureau again from this guy's mouth?
It's getting harder and harder to follow.
"It's hard to grasp right now."
It nods and continues.
"But what I'm saying is simple. Since multiple people have entered, one can stay behind."
"..."
The world has ended?
Recalling what happened in the past Wedge: This place is another timeline, or worldline.
Butterfly's Dream was the worldline where Yoo Daon got parasitized and became the adult form.
Not quite a Wedge, but Extremity was the worldline where Song Arin chose to become Extremity in the end.
And here, probably the worldline where just Jang Chaeyeon and I entered without Yoo Daon and failed to overcome it.
But the outside world ended?
No matter how long the Cube has been here, it couldn't have been decades. Time flows differently inside.
Even though I thought I'd spent a long time with Jang Chaeyeon here, in reality, not much time has passed.
If we're generous, maybe a few years at most. And in that time, the world ends?
It feels like I've uncovered some massive secret.
Ignoring my thoughts, it lifts its head.
"But I... no, this thing has no body right now, so it doesn't count as human."
"..."
No body, so not recognized as human.
"So give me the body back, and I'll let you out."
"Hey."
"Hold on."
Song Arin and I speak at the same time and glance at each other.
"If what you're saying is true, then there were no humans here at all before we arrived."
"Exactly."
Song Arin nails what I was getting at.
She's right.
If one human has to be here, then up until we came, there were zero humans.
"Isn't that one right there?"
It points at the body, and Song Arin and I look at Jang Chaeyeon's body.
Just lying carefully on the floor.
"That's just a body."
It can't speak, has no will—it's literally just Jang Chaeyeon's body, alive but nothing more.
"If consciousness and intellect define humanity, the Management Bureau would've swept away everything non-human long ago."
Spouting nonsense, it raises its hand.
"And you used that weird ability on me to keep me from touching it, seeing it, or interfering."
"..."
Me?
Not killing it outright, but setting up some arrangement like that?
The arrangement by Jang Chaeyeon and me.
I know Jang Chaeyeon's actions when she places her trust in someone.
No doubt.
If I tell her I can flip the heavens and to go ahead, she'll believe me and help.
So what would I have said to her?
No way to know.
Normally, anyway.
-Flutter!
The manual appears and opens above my hand before I know it.
[Office Manual]
[Containment Object - Observer - Security Team Kim Jaeheon's Record]
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. Return the body and wait. She agreed to wait until I came.
6. She will have forgotten. That's the promise.
Items four and below empty, the last two lines remaining.
"Fine. Come get it."
"...Is that really okay?"
"...What are you thinking this time..."
Jang Chaeyeon looks at me anxiously, and Song Arin shudders, shoulders trembling.
"Good."
Finally, a smile creeps onto the emotionless face,
And Jang Chaeyeon's body floats gently toward it.
"Chaeyeon."
"Yeah."
I speak to Jang Chaeyeon as I watch.
"If I told you to forget, would you forget?"
"When have I not?"
Jang Chaeyeon smiles at me.
Right.
Inside the Cube, she said exactly that to me.
'I'll forget.'
Jang Chaeyeon's body touches it,
"Finally..."
Joy fills the emotionless voice as the Observer fiddles with Jang Chaeyeon's body.
"Now... I can... get out..."
The Observer lifts its head.
Then, carefully places its head onto Jang Chaeyeon's body,
And the fingers of the previously motionless body begin to tremble.
"Finally... finally..."
It opens its eyes wide in delight and reaches out toward us.
-Thud!
A massive boom and shockwave rush at us, but Jang Chaeyeon, as if anticipating it, extends her hand and deflects it.
It curls its lips upward.
"Thanks. I owe you big."
"I knew that thing would pull a scam."
"You trusted it?"
"I didn't, but you still gave the body back."
Song Arin sighs.
Even so, her lack of tension shows she trusts me to some degree.
I nod at it.
"You don't owe us."
"Hmph, what're you..."
Before its words finish, the Observer suddenly grabs its own throat with its hand.
"Guhk, guhk...!"
It stares at us in disbelief, face contorted in pain.
"What...!"
The Observer's face turns red with agony, its forehead glowing red.
I look at it pityingly as it chokes itself.
Jang Chaeyeon is always like this.
She always repays trust.
What did I ask of her?
'I'll forget.'
What she said to me inside the Cube.
What did she forget?
The meaningless conversation? Our memories?
Now she's even forgotten what she was supposed to forget, but would it be different for another me and her?
If it were me, I'd have worried about her.
Because I'd die soon.
Accepting one's death doesn't make someone give up so easily.
They just try to save what's left.
The dying me wanted to save Jang Chaeyeon.
Jang Chaeyeon alone couldn't break the Cube.
And it was just proven that I alone can't destroy the Cube either.
"Kek...! Guhk...!"
It groans while choking itself, and at the same time, something starts emerging from its forehead amid the red light.
"Chaeyeon!"
"Yeah."
At my call, Jang Chaeyeon responds and extends her hand,
[Coordinate Rip: 2 -> 1]
The world turns into graph paper.
I focus on the Observer's forehead, and Jang Chaeyeon clenches her fist.
-Krunch!
A tremendous sound, and a crack forms on the Observer's forehead.
Once more.
[Coordinate Rip: 1 -> 0]
-Krrrrunch!
Another massive sound, and its forehead splits open,
"Kehok! Kehok!"
The Observer clutches its throat and gasps roughly.
A perfect cube-shaped object floats in the air.
The Cube.
[Critical: 1 -> 0]
The world slows and turns black and white.
Red light blooms from the Cube's center,
-Bang!
I pull the trigger.
The bullet is sucked into the red light, and simultaneously, the Cube glows and fires something.
A laser.
This is what pierced Yoo Daon's head when she tried to grab the Cube back then.
But it doesn't budge.
The laser aimed at my forehead veers off as if it's the most natural thing.
It whistles past my ear.
At the same time, the bullet hits the red light.
-Crack!
With a deafening sound, the Cube fractures.
"...I've seen it already."
I mutter, and Jang Chaeyeon, who had been shielding my forehead, nods.
Simultaneously, the Cube crumbles into powder,
"..."
Silence falls.
Two Jang Chaeyeons.
The Observer Jang Chaeyeon with a gruesome scar around her neck, and the one beside me.
"..."
After a brief silence, the Observer looks at me.
Her eyes full of longing, she opens her mouth.
"Such a long time... truly a long time..."
"..."
Her voice trembles as if choked with emotion, and in a hoarse tone, she continues.
"As you... asked..."
"..."
That request and unwavering faith alone.
"I forgot."
Tears streaming, she smiles.