Chapter 289
Chapter 289
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Target is You
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The man's body twitched.
"J-J-Jaeheon...!"
Yoo Daon was holding onto his body, while Song Arin and Jang Chaeyeon stared at the man with dazed expressions.
"This... uh... isn't he brainwashed or something?"
"He has a mental barrier, doesn't he?"
"That's why it could be breached. Anyway... w-wait a sec..."
Song Arin's hand trembled as she placed her fingers on the man's temples.
"...No..."
"..."
"I can't hear anything..."
She muttered in a dazed voice and looked at the other three.
"I don't know. I really, really don't know what to do..."
It had been incomprehensible behavior from the start.
And it had happened so abruptly.
"I-I really... don't know..."
"..."
Song Arin's voice cracked with sobs, and Yoo Daon stared blankly at the man.
And only two people remained still.
"There must be a reason."
"Yeah."
It was Eirin and Jang Chaeyeon.
"He's not the type to attempt suicide for no reason."
"Right."
Jang Chaeyeon's voice was shaking, and Eirin was speaking with her eyes squeezed shut.
Neither of them seemed in their right mind.
As the four denied reality in their own ways,
"Ugh."
The man opened his eyes.
*
A lot of people would call me crazy for looking at this.
No, honestly, even I think it's not something a sane person would do.
I'd trusted a translucent window that pointed out a weakness and jammed a parasite into my body just because of that and one line from the manual.
I opened my eyes.
What I saw before me was like film from an old movie.
Like depicting the formation of a river, everything began to converge into one.
The stairs and what was behind the wall.
-Aaaah...!
It screamed, and finally, I faced the real 'Butterfly's Dream'.
Good. I need to tell my teammates about this right away.
I touched the back of my neck and realized I felt nothing.
As expected, it wasn't actually implanting a real parasite into my neck.
I snapped my eyes open.
Sure enough, the gray basement ceiling greeted me.
I shifted my gaze slightly, and there was a ripple.
A translucent window appeared.
[Name: Basement]
[Age: X]
[Talent: X]
[Specialty: X]
[Background: To understand the incomprehensible, you must become someone incomprehensible yourself.]
[Weakness: -]
Perfect.
I clenched my fist.
The gamble paid off.
No matter how it happened, the result was what mattered.
I need to tell the other team members right away—
"Grab him!"
"Gah!"
The moment I opened my eyes, someone slammed a fist into my solar plexus.
"No, who—who are you! Die!"
Before I could even check my aching solar plexus, someone grabbed my neck, another seized my legs, and someone pressed down on my solar plexus.
"Wai—"
"Spit it out!"
"Ugh, guh..."
Someone crushed my solar plexus.
It felt like a massive boulder pressing down.
"Pl-please... ugh... ugh...!"
As I choked without even being able to scream from the hand on my solar plexus,
"Hey, there's no scar!"
I heard what sounded like Yoo Daon's voice from the hand fiddling with my neck.
At the same time, someone released my neck, and only then could I breathe.
"Hah... haah... haah..."
*Click!*
Before I could catch my breath, a rifle barrel was shoved in my face, and Eirin asked me coldly.
"Name."
"K-Kim Jaeheon..."
"Age."
"Twenty... seven..."
"My name?"
"E-Eirin..."
"How did you learn my name?"
"Amusement park... incident..."
"Hobbies?"
"I never told you that..."
"...He seems real?"
The barrel pulled away from my face, and Eirin looked at the others.
"...Does that make sense?"
"It doesn't, but..."
"Should we strip him?"
Jang Chaeyeon raised her hand as if to tear open my collar, and I hurriedly opened my mouth.
"Wait! Wait! Give me a chance to explain! Please!"
I knew I'd messed up, but at this rate, I was going to die. Literally and figuratively.
The four eyed me suspiciously as they let me go, and only then could I explain.
What I'd seen with my own eyes, my deductions, and the results.
"Look, look."
I pointed to where the bucket had been, and their eyes turned there.
They stared blankly at the rippling wall before looking back at me.
"What is that?"
"It's the exit! Exiiit!"
"You deserve a beating."
Song Arin said coldly and began pressing on my solar plexus, while the others started tormenting me too.
Jang Chaeyeon stomping on my legs, Eirin jabbing my side, and Yoo Daon timidly poking my cheek.
Not sure if this counted as bullying, but in the end, I had no choice but to surrender.
"S-Sorry! My bad!"
"What for?"
Jang Chaeyeon asked coldly, looking at me.
"Not conferring before acting!"
"You knew that, so why'd you do it?"
"I figured you'd stop me...!"
Obviously, Yoo Daon would volunteer first to implant the parasite, and even if I stopped her, the others would step up.
I didn't think that was right. I'd thought it through and acted because of it, but handing it off to someone else when it wasn't just risking life but could lead to something even worse than death.
"If you'd conferred with us, someone else would've done it."
"That's exactly why I didn't!"
The four flinched at my words.
Did they understand what I meant?
I hurriedly stood up as their grip loosened.
"A-anyway, got it. Let's go already."
Honestly, like seventy... no, eighty percent... of the blame was on me.
Felt like a bullet in the back of my head, but what could I do.
I looked at the rippling wall and slowly reached out.
My hand passed into the wall, and the mirage-like ripple vanished.
"See? It's a path."
"Yeah, sure. Walk."
"Yep."
With Song Arin's barbed words, I had no choice but to step inside.
This time, it wasn't like the basement stairs.
It was a massive cavern.
In the darkness where the ceiling was barely visible,
-Aaaah...
The sound grew louder.
Thank goodness what I'd seen wasn't a lie, and I hadn't actually jammed a bug into my neck like some lunatic.
If the scenery I'd seen was real...
"Hold on. Everyone, quiet."
At my words, the four silenced their footsteps.
This was enemy territory, after all.
"This way."
If Ahn Sanghyeon had come, there'd be massive skid marks, but there were none, so he hadn't been here.
Then where did he go.
Made me uneasy for no reason.
I shook off the creeping anxiety and moved slowly and quietly inside.
Soon, a massive mountain appeared before us.
"...What is that?"
Song Arin muttered, and when Yoo Daon covered her mouth, she made a sorry face with a muffled "Mm!"
But it was understandable.
Anyone would marvel at seeing something beyond human comprehension.
It wasn't that the thing itself was huge.
It was what lay beneath it that was the problem.
"...Corpses..."
Eirin muttered.
Just as she said.
Countless corpses littered the ground.
Anyone could tell a massive slaughter had taken place.
And atop them stood a single figure.
Was it a person, or a doll?
It felt like someone had placed a 'perfect human' there.
A flawless, perfect person.
A androgynous face you couldn't tell was male or female.
If that was all, you'd think it was some new human project or whatever.
"..."
But wings protruded from its back.
Butterfly wings, just like.
I exchanged glances with Yoo Daon.
It was an adult form.
But different from the ones we knew.
Not that small.
And more monstrous.
The monster I'd just seen was this thing.
As I stared at it, a translucent window appeared.
[Name: Butterfly's Mother]
[Age: Created 20 years ago]
[Talent: Parasitism]
[Specialty: Parasitism]
[Background: For a long time, it has waited. For new prey to appear.]
[Weakness: Waiting is meaningless. The materials are infinite.]
As I pondered while reading the translucent window,
-...Aaaah...
It opened its mouth.
A horrific roar unlike its appearance echoed again,
-And crunch!
At the same time, the countless corpses below exploded.
-Boom! Boom! Boom!
Red blood clouds scattered like fireworks,
-Kyaaak!
Screams accompanied monsters crawling out.
"...This place..."
Song Arin pulled her mouth free from Yoo Daon's hand and looked at me in horror.
I nodded at her.
It was just as she thought.
This was a hatchery.
-Crunch...!
Blood clouds rose again as countless larvae wriggled out.
"Ugh..."
Eirin frowned at the sight, and Jang Chaeyeon looked away.
It was a scene too gruesome to watch. Horrific in every way.
"How do we... kill that thing?"
"..."
It really didn't give any weakness, huh.
"There has to be a way."
The problem was, after the Observer incident, I had zero Criticals left.
I'd have to earn a Critical somehow.
"..."
I ignored Yoo Daon pointing at herself and stared at it.
It probably wanted Yoo Daon. Was taking her really the right move?
Should I send her back now—
-Swish...
Countless larvae and monsters gathered beneath it, and it looked down at them all calmly.
Then, it pointed to its eyes.
Eyes?
My info?
Was I that much of a threat?
"A sudden thought."
Song Arin grabbed my sleeve as she watched.
"What if."
"..."
The monsters moved forward.
It held out a scrap of cloth.
"..."
I'd gone on so many dispatches that most of my clothes were torn and ragged. Unlike Yoo Daon, I hadn't gotten any special treatment.
The monsters slowly approached, sniffing the cloth, then slammed their heads into it.
"It's not black hair it wants..."
"..."
Song Arin continued cautiously.
"What if it's you?"
And at that moment, the heads of countless monsters snapped toward us.