Chapter 357
Chapter 357
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 357. Myeongil Apartment
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-Whirrr!
The sound echoed loudly, and Yoo Daon kept vomiting blood.
I hurriedly looked up at the tree, but no translucent window appeared.
If even the translucent window wouldn't pop up, then what the hell was making all this noise?
"...Inside."
Jang Chaeyeon, her eyes wide open, pointed inward.
"She's blocking the inside."
...
Blocking the inside.
-Whirrr!
The sound echoed again, and I finally understood what it meant.
Yoo Daon was blocking something from getting out right now.
That's why she hadn't pulled away from it.
"I can't do anything about that either."
The Director muttered as she watched the scene.
...
Whatever it was, we'd know once we saw it.
There was no option to leave Yoo Daon behind like this.
"Chaeyeon."
"Yeah."
"Please pull Daon away."
"...You sure that's okay?"
"We can't just stand here and watch."
We couldn't leave Yoo Daon indefinitely without knowing.
Immortality meant that pain would continue infinitely too.
"N-No...!"
Yoo Daon spat blood and struggled to open her mouth, but now wasn't the time to heed her opinion.
"Please."
...
At my words, Jang Chaeyeon silently raised her hand,
"Ugh...!"
and Yoo Daon was yanked by something at the same moment, flying off far away.
Only then could I properly see what Yoo Daon had been holding onto.
It was a massive hole in the tree.
And the helicopter noise we'd been hearing until just now,
-Whirrr!
had been coming from inside that tree hole.
Countless bees were buzzing and flying around.
A translucent window appeared.
[Name: Swarm of Bees]
[Age: X]
[Trait: Swarming]
[Talent: Egg Laying]
[Background: These eat through people's insides and lay eggs inside. The dead soon become their nests.]
[Weakness: Leave someone who can't be eaten no matter how hard they try, or confirm your capabilities and eliminate them. They're just tough, painful bugs at best.]
There was a hole gouged into Yoo Daon's solar plexus, but as she pulled back, it began closing up as if nothing had happened.
"Kehok! I said no...!"
Yoo Daon coughed and glared at me reproachfully,
"That doesn't mean I can't help you, Daon. Especially not you."
I replied calmly, and at the same moment, the bees flew toward us.
Yoo Daon alone probably hadn't figured out a proper way to block the bees.
We're not the most efficient team when we're on our own anyway.
But together, it's different.
"Daon! Like when we caught the adults!"
"...Got it!"
Yoo Daon stepped in front of me and extended both hands.
[Chronos's Field]
A transparent barrier spread out, and when the bees collided with it,
-Tadadak!
A massive roar echoed.
"Chaeyeon! Pile up the earth!"
"You mean dirt!"
Jang Chaeyeon scooped up the soil as she spoke.
-Kugung...!
An amount of earth fit for a construction site floated into the air,
"Back!"
I shouted, grabbed Yoo Daon's arm, and retreated.
[Chronos's Shield: 5 seconds remaining]
Unlike usual, the continuously deployed Chronos's Shield was draining time at an insane rate, but that wasn't the issue right now.
"Hup!"
As I retreated with Yoo Daon, the earth crashed down on the swarm of bees.
-Bang!
The impact shook the ground beneath our feet, but we had no time to stop.
"Run!"
No matter how much dirt we dumped, running away couldn't hurt.
We hurriedly threw ourselves backward, and somehow we all managed to escape.
"Hoo... hoo..."
"Hoo..."
...
We caught our breaths, each in our own way.
"What happened, Daon?"
Yoo Daon gave an awkward smile at my question.
"People were begging to be saved."
"You?"
"Chaeyeon."
Jang Chaeyeon's eyes widened, and as I scolded her like that, she looked down at the ground.
"No! I get where Chaeyeon's coming from too."
Yoo Daon chuckled softly at my words.
"But if I can do it, I should."
She looked at me.
"You did the same, Jaeheon. You said you do it because you can."
...
I cleared my throat at the strangely embarrassing feeling, and the Director whispered.
"I hate her."
"Quiet."
"Huh?"
"No, nothing."
I shot the Director a slight glare, and she shrugged.
"...Anyway!"
Was the mood off? Yoo Daon pointed to her solar plexus area and grinned playfully.
"Look! It's torn open—everything's showing!"
"You shouldn't show that to just anyone."
Her solar plexus, which had been dripping blood moments ago, was now revealing smooth white skin as if nothing had happened. I suppressed a natural sigh and scolded her, and she smiled back at me.
"The first time we met, you took off your clothes and wrapped them around me, Jaeheon. Remember?"
"...Yeah."
It was during Butterfly's Dream. I remembered wrapping my clothes around Yoo Daon after hers tore completely.
Yoo Daon smiled softly at my answer, but before she could say anything, Jang Chaeyeon took off her coat and draped it over Yoo Daon's shoulders.
"Mine should work."
"...Isn't it a bit small...?"
"It's fine."
Yoo Daon muttered while looking at Jang Chaeyeon, who shook her head firmly as if that would never happen.
...
Yoo Daon quietly put on Jang Chaeyeon's coat and smiled.
"Chaeyeon's clothes make it okay!"
"Good."
I'd been about to offer mine. Helping each other out in tough times, huh.
So let's stop fighting already.
With that thought, I looked at the Director.
"I don't know where the others are either."
She shook her head at my gaze.
...
This isn't easy at all.
"...Um, Jaeheon."
Yoo Daon, who had been quiet, looked at me.
"For now, what's the situation? I thought this was a dream..."
"Well..."
How do I explain this?
I looked at the Director as if to say she should explain, but she just shook her head without a word.
She doesn't want to talk, huh?
In the end, explaining fell to me.
*
After hearing the full explanation, Yoo Daon tilted her head.
"So this is both a play and reality?"
"Yeah, seems like it."
"Hmm..."
Yoo Daon nodded.
"Then it makes sense now."
"Huh?"
"It just felt way too real."
Yoo Daon pinched her arm and muttered.
"The texture, the smells. Everything was so realistic that I wondered if it was really just a play."
"Me too."
Jang Chaeyeon nodded.
"All the containment objects here look exactly like the ones the Management Bureau is actually containing."
...
"No one in the Management Bureau knows every detail about all the containment objects, so how did they recreate them so realistically?"
"How do you know that, Chaeyeon?"
...
Jang Chaeyeon avoided my gaze, and after a brief silence, she spoke.
"I heard."
From the Observer, probably.
"I see."
So the play's setting is a Management Bureau that failed at containment?
Then what story would it depict from there?
"If I were that guy, I'd give the protagonist immense trials and show the process of overcoming them."
The Director muttered quietly beside me.
Trials and overcoming them.
The Director had said the protagonists were me and Song Arin.
I thought back to what I'd just gone through.
Pushing past screaming people with gritted teeth, saving suffering comrades.
If all that was the suffering I'd endured so far, what suffering was Song Arin going through?
"...We need to find Arin fast."
"Right. Arin might be alone and crying from loneliness!"
I doubted it, but she was probably having a really tough time.
The problem was how to find Song Arin...
"The protagonist always has incidents find them, so no need to worry too much."
The Director whispered to me.
"...Let's go for now. If it's Arin, she's probably caught up in some incident somewhere."
"Arin might be looking for you too, thinking the same thing, Jaeheon."
Song Arin would absolutely think that.
With that thought, I started walking.
I hoped at least Park Ye-eun was sticking with Song Arin—no worries then.
It was ruins.
Blood and corpses littered the surroundings.
Almost no intact bodies in sight.
"Where exactly are we headed?"
Yoo Daon looked at me curiously.
"Where Arin would likely be."
As a protagonist, Song Arin was probably at the center of some disaster.
Just like me.
Meaning high chance she'd be where lots of people had died.
...
How long did we walk like that?
We arrived at a place swarming with so many corpses we had to dodge them.
"...Here..."
Yoo Daon muttered, looking up at the building ahead.
...
[Myeongil Apartment] stood right in front of us.
"...Feels nostalgic."
The Director beside me cast her gaze downward, and I glanced at her for a moment.
...
She silently took position behind me without a word.
"High chance she's here. No, she is here."
The Director muttered.
"For you, the turning point in life was the Management Bureau. For me, it was Myeongil Apartment."
I stared at the apartment entrance, not a single light on.
What would the manual say to do in a situation like this? Hope no one gets hurt.
Even with that thought,
"Let's go."
I had no choice but to step forward.