Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Engine and Finger
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I practically ran down the corridor with Jang Chaeyeon.
The groans occasionally heard from beyond the walls differed from yesterday, making me realize that something had progressed further. This only amplified my anxiety.
Every now and then in the corridors, some people blankly looked around or stared at the walls. There were even those showing physical changes, just like in the theater.
"Still seems okay for now."
Jang Chaeyeon nodded at my words and quickened her pace.
"We have to do this just the two of us."
I thought of the other two.
Song Arin, who had told me not to look for her, and Yoo Daon, who had been contaminated from the start.
...
I glanced at Jang Chaeyeon, but she hurried along beside me as if nothing was wrong.
"It's the engine room, right."
"Yeah."
No ship map, so how to find the engine room.
Fortunately, that worry was resolved sooner than expected.
As soon as we reached the lobby, a loud sound echoed.
-Uung... Woooung...
Was this the sound Song Arin mentioned.
A low trumpet-like hum. And people headed in a fixed direction with blank expressions, synchronized to the sound.
As if hypnotized, they walked with dazed looks. Among them were familiar faces, including the Management Bureau employee we had spoken with yesterday.
Sometimes uninfected people tried to pull others away from the side, but it was as if conversation was impossible—they ignored all calls and kept walking.
And amid them, a familiar face appeared.
It was Yoo Daon.
[Name: ? ? On]
[Age: 23]
[Trait: Immortality]
[Talent: Regeneration (Undefined)]
[Background: Currently, she has already lost herself and belongs to that sea.]
[Weakness: Physically killing her is impossible. Destroy her mind, or sever the link contaminating her mind.]
She merely stood blankly in the procession, shuffling her feet.
"Daon-ssi."
I called her name, but there was no response.
"Don't worry."
Jang Chaeyeon tugged my arm.
"We'll fix it once we solve this."
"How can you be so confident?"
"Experience and gut feeling."
Without a hint of hesitation, she answered and strode forward boldly.
We pushed through the people in the luxurious lobby, heading toward the extended path.
The back office continued with peeling paint and rusted iron plate floors, just like last time.
Some people shuffled slowly. Others walked with twisted bodies or things resembling barnacles.
We passed a person with tentacles sprouting from their face.
-Uung! Woooung!
The sound grew louder as we followed them.
Soon, iron stairs appeared, and intense heat wafted up.
Whether from the engine or something beyond imagination, I couldn't tell. We descended past the people.
-Thud, thud, thud...
Our footsteps rang oddly irritatingly on the stairs.
Soon, the engine room came into view.
"...Ugh..."
Jang Chaeyeon grimaced deeply, covering her nose with her sleeve. I had no choice but to do the same.
It was a horrific smell.
Like entering a warehouse of fish left to rot for days.
The stench made my head ache, but what drew my eyes more was right in front of me.
A massive mouth was attached to the center of the engine.
The engine was alive.
Not mechanically, but biologically.
A round mouth sat where the engine should have been.
The other components, if anything, were closer to organisms than machines.
There were places with gills, and things like boils emitting strange gases.
I stared at the enormous mouth ahead.
It wasn't a human mouth.
A dreadful smell wafted from the pitch-black interior, filled with densely packed sharp teeth.
"Aah..."
A voice came from behind.
Someone gazed at the mouth in ecstasy and immediately threw themselves toward it.
"Chaeyeon-ssi!"
Before my words finished, Jang Chaeyeon swung her hand, sending the person leaping into the mouth flying back instead.
I quickly scanned the monster with my eyes.
[Name: Mouth]
[Age: Created 3000 years ago]
[Trait: Reconstruction]
[Talent: Seizing Sanity]
[Background: This being, which has lived since humanity's full emergence, is one of the main reasons people fear the sea—and why humans still haven't fully conquered it.]
[Weakness: This is merely a part of that enormous entity. Find the main body, or feed it the wrong food.]
Wrong food? Part of a giant? Reconstruction?
I racked my brains furiously and looked at the landing.
People leaping into the mouth, reconstruction, seizing sanity.
Those words formed one idea in my mind.
No way—
-Splat!
The mouth chewed and spat something out.
Coated in mucus, it resembled fish eggs.
The thin membrane writhed, then a long blade tore through and emerged.
-Splatter!
What burst from the membrane was a monster in human form: half its face made of octopus tentacles, arms bearing sharp claws or blades.
Soon, information appeared above its head.
[Name: X]
[Age: Created moments ago]
[Trait: X]
[Talent: X]
[Background: Humans forged from the deep sea are inevitably horrific.]
[Weakness: Extremely high durability. Requires great force.]
As soon as I saw the monster grotesquely rise, I drew my gun and immediately embedded a bullet in its forehead.
-Bang!
The monster's head jerked back, but it swung its sharp arm at me unperturbed.
"Urk...!"
I rolled backward swiftly, pulling out the prepared butane canister and shaking it to pop the lid.
-Fwoosh!
"Kreeeek!"
Flames engulfed the monster. While it screamed, I quickly glanced at Jang Chaeyeon and shouted.
"Chaeyeon-ssi! Block the landing first!"
Jang Chaeyeon hurriedly extended her hand and clenched her fist. The landing bent backward, rising like a cage to trap the people.
Watching the thrashing monster wreathed in fire, I half-confirmed my inference.
People losing their sanity and writhing. And the humanoid monster just spat out.
If my reasoning was correct, what the mouth spat was originally human. I couldn't let more people enter the mouth.
-Swoosh!
The flame-wrapped monster swung its arm. I dodged back swiftly, but a long gash remained on my left arm.
"Kuh...!"
Blood spurted, sharp pain lancing through my arm.
-Thud!
The monster's body flew back and crashed. Jang Chaeyeon rushed to my side and checked me.
"You okay?!"
"I'm fine."
My left arm wasn't one I used much anyway.
Before we could fully check each other, the round mouth gaped, baring sharp teeth and shooting mucus.
Jang Chaeyeon swiftly spread her hand to block the mucus.
I glanced sideways at the window.
[Critical: 0]
"Chaeyeon-ssi."
"Yeah."
Back-to-back with Jang Chaeyeon, who stared at the mouth, I whispered.
"I have no way to take down that mouth in one shot right now."
"...So even your occasional miracles won't work?"
Critical must seem mystical to her.
"Yes."
"Then I'll handle both."
"No."
Left hand gripping the butane, right hand the pistol, I faced forward.
Fires were banned in the engine room, but setting fire to something that wasn't an engine anymore shouldn't matter.
It rose and approached us.
"I'll hold off that monster, so Chaeyeon-ssi, rip the mouth first."
"Got it. I'll tear the mouth quick and come back."
Just buy time.
I aimed at the approaching monster's leg and fired.
-Bang! Bang!
Bullets hit the leg, but the monster didn't even flinch and swung its arm as it closed in.
-Swoosh!
I barely dodged the incoming arm and embedded a bullet in its torso.
Not for effective hits, but to slow it maximally.
Until Jang Chaeyeon tore the mouth, I had to draw its attention.
-Click!
Confirming the mag empty, I popped the lid on the well-shaken butane and shoved it into the monster's body. Flames erupted immediately, igniting it.
Meanwhile, I swiftly reloaded.
-Clack!
Sharp pain throbbed in my left arm, but I ignored it, backed away, and fired three shots from my right-hand pistol at its forehead.
Three bullets burrowed precisely into the forehead.
But the monster merely twitched again, advancing unperturbed.
-Screech!
At that moment, a tearing sound rang out, and the monster's head was slammed into the floor.
-Boom!
"Kieek!"
"Done."
Jang Chaeyeon stood beside me, nose bleeding.
"Already?"
"I'm... strong."
"Good. Then..."
"Show me."
Jang Chaeyeon closed her eyes as I looked at the monster.
[Coordinate Rip: 3 uses remaining]
Graph paper unfolded before my eyes, my gaze on its waist.
No need for words.
Jang Chaeyeon stood beside me, clenching then ripping her hands open wide.
"G...k...!"
I could see the air compressing. The moment I thought space was warping from her power—
-Slash!
The monster's waist split in two, green fluid splattering.
"Hah... hah..."
Jang Chaeyeon breathed raggedly, face pale.
Drops of her nosebleed fell to the floor.
"You okay?"
"...Used too much strength."
She staggered as if her head hurt, barely steadying herself.
"I'm fine. Just need a bit of rest... it'll get better."
She stopped to catch her breath. I tore cloth to wrap the gash on my left arm.
This'll scar.
"...Is it over?"
"I hope so..."
I looked up at the landing.
Countless people stared at us with emotionless eyes.
Not at us, but behind us.
We both turned to follow their gazes.
-Splash... splash...
The sound of waves crashing.
Beyond the bisected mouth, the sea was literally visible.
"...What the..."
It felt like peering at a beach through a window.
And then, the song.
-Kreeek! Kreeyik!
The difference: not the sweet melody from my dream, but a horrific eardrum-shattering screech.
"Kyaaak...!"
"Urk...!"
Jang Chaeyeon clutched her ears. I did the same, staring at the beach.
-Splash!
The tide surged in.
Seawater engulfed us again.
The moment we submerged, the screeches morphed into the sweet song from my dream.
I knew it was the same horrific sound, yet my body—my soul—was drawn to it.
Yes. Just once more. Just one more time.
As I thought that and approached the window, a manual unfurled in the water before me.
[Office Manual]
[Break your finger right now!]
My finger? Why?
As that doubt lingered—
-Snap!
My left pinky bent in a grotesque direction.
"...!"
Agonizing pain from the broken bone surged through my body.
My mind cleared from the pain. I quickly turned to the source.
Jang Chaeyeon stared at me, hand extended.
Her left pinky was also bent grotesquely.
She gazed at me with eyes of strong will. I nodded back.
Soon, her form vanished from my sight.
I'll die as a human even in death.
Gills sprouted, lungs vanished.
I was merely a single fish.
Something called to me from the depths below.
I bit my tongue again.
Failed to control the force—blood gushed out—but it steadied my mind.
With now-familiar fins, I descended.
Because there was something I had to discover.